Logic Can Only Take You So Far

The Upanishads contain timeless wisdom from ancient India, and a person I trust greatly highly recommended that I pay close attention to the Introduction of a specific translation published by Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes. There, it was suggested, I would find the closest thing to a treasure map for a wonderful life on Earth.

The 28 pages of this Introduction are already a concise guide to an extremely complicated subject, so I won't attempt to summarize the whole document. Instead, I want to focus on one essential endeavor: knowing the true nature of your Self.

To begin with, you are not the voice in your head, the personality that others call by your name, or even the identity you think of as yourself.

You are something deeper, more vital and so much greater than you have likely imagined.

"This Self cannot be attained by instruction, nor by intellect, not yet by much learning," says one Upanishad.

"Since the Self transcends logic... the Self must be learned from someone who knows it by direct experience."

To say this another way, to connect with your Self, you must experience pure consciousness.

Meditate, quiet your thoughts on a regular basis, be still.

Why is this necessary? "Logic involves fragmentation, a feature of the intellect, which discriminates." You will only glimpse a tiny fragment of your Self.

"The Upanishads state that the purpose of life... is to realize the wholeness of life first discovered in the Self and eventually perceived as the common constituent of every particle of creation."

A close friend of mine just returned from a safari in Africa. She said that her photographs can't even begin to capture the incredible experience of being deep in nature, far from cities and surrounded by animals that she had never before experienced in the wild.

I imagine that the same is true of your Self.

Words and logic can't begin to capture who or what we actually are. The only way to grasp this truth is to leave them behind each day, for a period of time.

In this manner, we can be active participants in daily life without being blinded by daily life.

You may already know this to be true. If you meditate regularly or climb mountains or spend time alone on the water or in the woods... it is likely you have already grasped what I've shared today.

If not, it may be time to start moving past words and mere logic.

**

Please continue to forward this newsletter to everyone you know who wishes to connect with their true self. They can sign up here .

**

I am the founder of Bend Reality and Meditate for Peace.

You can find more of my work at Kasanoff.com .