The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 1, Part 4

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Can I ask you now to go back to the ‘how’ of enlightenment? Oops! I mean, can you tell us more about how to set the stage for enlightenment?

It’s a dangerous thing, this use of words, Scott-tzu! But may I suggest that we are among friends and needn’t tiptoe about trying to stay spiritually correct.

I said that first, you need to understand that there is no you. This is the cognitive side of stage-setting, but it is important to remember that the conceptual cannot know the non-conceptual, and everything that you really need to know is non-conceptual. But we must begin with the tools that we have. And we discover that there is a kind of give and take between conceptual understanding and non-conceptual understanding. It’s only when you grasp at the former that it hinders the latter.

As for practical, active stage-setting, I would recommend that you employ the ultra-sharp sword of not-knowing. Not-knowing is both a practice and an existential experience. By this I mean it is something you do and it is something you are. It is a means toward enlightenment but is itself an expression of enlightenment. As both means and end it is really no method at all.

The active side of not-knowing is the conscious elimination of every bit of false-knowing we find within our minds. False-knowing is belief that we know something when we do not. All knowing is, in fact, a form of belief. How ever sure and verifiable any ‘fact’ may be, it ultimately rests upon belief, a belief in reason, at the very least. Reason is a wonderful tool, but like every tool it can be misused. Its greatest misuse is when it believes it is not a frog in a well.

So, as we sweep this wonderful blade of not-knowing through our conscious selves we discover all manner of slimy beliefs. If you have a thorough saturation in New Age thinking then you are probably filled with all manner of pseudo-metaphysical hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo. Re-incarnation, supreme enlightened masters, buddha-, true-, and original-nature . . . Cut it all away! All these beliefs fill the void that you so much desire that the Tao should fill! You cannot be filled unless you are empty. You cannot be open to the Unknown when your door is blockaded.

But can anyone tell me what is the greatest and most pernicious belief of all?

Belief in God?

Good answer. But not quite right unless you are a megalomaniac. Or perhaps, you are right after all when we realize that our belief in the independent, separate existence of ourselves is an act of self-deification. Belief in self-as-entity is the single most soul filling obstacle to enlightenment. For as we have seen, enlightenment is the realization that there is no self.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.