To the ego, a human life is experienced as a series of problems and dissatisfactions. It gets to enjoy some temporary pleasures, some distractions, but it is darkened by the knowledge of suffering and the certainty of eventual death.
And yet, according to the wisdom handed down by the ancients, there is a state of being to which we can awaken that is not only free of the delusions conjured by the ego-mind but is Divine Reality Itself. But again, this divine condition cannot be entered by the ego-mind. This is a paradox, seemingly built into human consciousness, a teaching long communicated by those who have realized the Truth, that the mental ego is the co-creator of this unfortunate and benighted realm.
Since ancient times we have known that a Great Way of Liberation is available to us. Our most ancient records speak of it. It is our birthright and our True Nature but it cannot be realized by the ego-mind.
This should not be controversial, it should not be treated as a myth. Everyone should know this. Every child should be taught this, but instead of a dawning joy and sacredness, darkness and profanity hold sway over the human condition.
As the eons progress everything changes but the Truth of the Great Way remains the same. This is its Divine Nature. People evolve, peoples evolve. And while the timeless Divine Reality inherently transcends all that, it can also come to us in the form of Grace in the midst of our worldly circumstances. By its very nature it makes itself available to consciousness. This is a wonderful thing.
But the realization of the Great Way comes with requirements. If you wish to realize the Great Way you must undergo the transformation that makes you available to it.
Not everyone is called to this. If you are (perhaps you will have noticed this) the Way that unfolds does not unfold in alignment with your ego’s preferences. While the Divine Reality has been called a ‘trackless land’ we each appear to be rolling along a karmic track. This is part of the Mystery of it. The terrain is trackless but this does not mean that we are without a clue. Help is always being given if we know how to recognize it; but do we know how to recognize it?
If help is mistaken for hindrance and dross is mistaken for gold we will take mirages for reality, and we will forever be chasing rainbows in the dark. Indeed this seems to be the ego’s lot, to blunder from one delusion to the next. The clock is ticking, there is nothing new under the sun, and even on the yellow brick road of unlimited devotion rust never sleeps.
So how did the ancient realizers ‘reach the farther shore with every step’? What was their secret?
No secret, they knew how to enter the Way. And just as the Way was available to them, so it is available to us.
Functioning spontaneously and mysteriously, forming an evolving pattern of connections between apparently separate states or ‘persons’, there is a Divine Grace, a self-generated, self-authenticating, divinely given ‘transmission’ that draws us into oneness with the Heart of Existence.
How do we become sensitive to that? How do we cultivate that? How do we engage that? It has been said that if we accept and fulfil its ‘requirements’ then the end of our effort shall be the attainment of non-attainment, a so-called ‘unborn’ condition, a state of ‘always already not-attaining’. This, as has been pointed out, is our actual True Nature, or what the Buddha called enlightenment. Rumi called this ‘the Friend’. It is the transmission of the Heart. It is the gift of Grace. It is what we have been waiting for. The gift which must be given in return for enlightenment is ‘you’, our habitual self-involvement. The Transmission activates the heart of the apparent individual and Love establishes itself as the centre of our being. This is the Great Way of Heart Realization through self-surrender. This is how the Transmission Works.