In the direct spiritual path, a ‘pointer’ is something that points to the truth, but is not in itself the truth. It’s only a vehicle used to propel you towards the truth, then to be discarded, like a stick used to stir dying embers into flames can then be thrown into the fire.
2)---Show me your original face before you were born!
There are pointers everywhere, of course – in nature, in all of the arts, in love at first sight – in those moments when our breath is taken away by some unexpected and extraordinary beauty.
3)---Show me your original face before you were born!
In the seeker’s world, it is often the written or spoken word that acts as a pointer, such as ‘Who am I?’ or ‘Show me your original face before you were born!’ or a poem by Rumi. Chanting a sacred mantra or singing a devotional song can often evoke peace, happiness, and love.
4)---Show me your original face before you were born!
But without drifting too far off course, who or what is reading, hearing, or speaking the words in the first place?
5)---Show me your original face before you were born!
Does it matter what the pointers point to when it is that which is aware of the pointing that is the point? HA! The pointer really only points to the fact that there is an aware knowing presence that knows the pointing. Can you actually find a personal ‘you’ who is doing the pointing? No. The pointer points to itself. Dissolves into itself.
6)---Show me your original face before you were born!
Pointers can become a distraction. This one worked . . . for a while. That one worked . . . for a while. But the one who knows the pointers, the pointing, is not ‘for a while.’ The one who knows – anything – is always here, unchanged by, untouched by, and embracing all that comes . . . and goes. And you, I, we, are that.