Absolute sobriety
We're all addicts - not to substances, but to beliefs. Each morning we wake up and take our usual dose: beliefs about who we are, where we're going, what we need to achieve. The spiritual search often just adds stronger drugs to the mix: enlightenment, awakening, transformation. We're chasing the ultimate high of some imagined perfect state.
But what if freedom isn't about finding the right beliefs? What if it's about becoming completely sober - free from all beliefs, even the spiritual ones? Yes, all of them. Even that cherished notion that something profound awaits around the corner.
Spiritual beliefs seem impossible to release. They feel fundamental, as if they're pointing to something real. Yet here lies the paradox - these very beliefs about freedom are what keep us bound. The concept of awakening blocks the simple recognition of what's here. The dream of future liberation blinds us to present freedom.
What happens when all beliefs dissolve? Nothing spectacular. No fireworks, no profound states. Just this ordinary moment, completely naked of concepts. And surprisingly, this simplicity holds more life than all our beliefs about life combined.
Most of us readily question surface-level beliefs, but spiritual ones feel different, essential. The idea of being on a path to something better, of eventual arrival at some amazing state - these notions seem too vital to abandon. Yet they're just more smoke in the room, obscuring what's already here.
Seeing how beliefs operate dissolves them naturally. Every concept, especially spiritual ones, automatically creates a gap between you and what's here. Each idea about awakening adds another veil over the obvious.
Right here, before any thought about what to find, before any concept of spiritual truth, before even the impulse to look - reality shines clearly. This immediate simplicity was never hidden. It was just obscured by our addiction to believing there must be something more.
Even the fear of losing our beliefs is just another belief. The mind imagines a barren wasteland of meaninglessness without its familiar concepts. But when beliefs naturally fall away, what's revealed isn't empty or meaningless - it's vibrantly alive, more real than any belief about reality. Without the filter of concepts, life shows itself in startling clarity.
Take a moment to taste this sobriety. Before spiritual concepts arise, before expectations form, notice what's already here. This immediate simplicity, completely free from beliefs, has been here all along - obvious, alive, and waiting to be recognized.
