Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life

by Kapil Gupta

Q: Who am I? A: That which remains when you remove all the things that you are not. Q: What things am I not? A: All that you believe yourself to be.

Q: Why do I get angry when I am insulted? A: Because you entertain the verity of the insult.

A: Very well. If someone were to call you a bird that was too stupid to flap its wings, would this make you angry? Q: No. A: Why not? Q: Because it isn’t at all true. A: Yet when you are called stupid, it makes you angry. Because something within you entertains the possibility that you might, in fact, be. Then something else within you grows irritated by the idea that you might be. This internal conflict manifests itself as anger.

A: Wrong does not exist. Hope leads only to disappointment.

Q: I see your point. If the discomfort doesn’t arrive from the difficult person, then please help me understand where it arises from. A: The discomfort that arises from being in the presence of a difficult person arises from your insistence that they not be difficult.

Q: So, I need only to understand that the discomfort arises from my insistence that they not be difficult. Is this correct? A: Yes.

Q: What you are saying, then, is to forget about god. A: What I am saying is to rely upon yourself for all the needs that arise within you.

A: I am saying that life has no meaning.

Q: So I may sit on a rock for all my life. Or I may become a tremendous success. Both are irrelevant? A: From the standpoint of meaning, yes.

A: We are all here for but a short time. Then we die. If something is guaranteed to end in death, how can there be any meaning in it? Q: How do you view life? A: I view life as something to be devoted. Q: Would you please explain? A: If a human life is devoted to something, one tends to lose oneself in it. As one loses oneself in it, the more blissful one becomes.

Q: What is the best way to raise a child? A: To become firmly established in the knowledge that he does not belong to you.

Q: How is it that attachment has produced all of these problems between me and my children? A: Attachment gives birth to hope and need. If you are attached to them, you will need them to do certain things, achieve certain things, be a certain way, and behave toward you in a certain way. When they do not, it will cause you pain. When you experience pain, you will behave toward them in a way that pain compels you to behave. And they will behave toward you in a way that their need for freedom compels them to behave. And this will continue for the rest of your lives.

A: What are you seeking? Q: Peace. A: Living in attachment, there can be no lasting peace. Q: What about love? A: No human being knows love. He knows only attachment in the name of love.

Q: Is it my responsibility to give them freedom? A: It isn’t a question of responsibility. It is a question of living in accordance with nature. Q: Yet you do not believe in responsibilities? A: No. Q: Why, if I may ask? A: Responsibility is a societal creation. No one is truly responsible for another. You do not owe your children anything. They do not owe you anything. If you wish to do, then do. If they wish to do, they may also do. That which comes from the heart is natural and satisfying. That which comes from the idea of responsibility is forced, artificial, and often produces resentment and the expectation for reciprocation.

A: I don’t view things in terms of right and wrong. Q: Why not? A: Because right and wrong are societo-religious creations. They have no basis in reality.

A: A part of you relishes getting angry. For when you do, you are able to exercise your right to become angry. You enjoy this right. For you feel that you have been wronged, and thus your anger is justified. You do not wish to pass up on exercising this right. But another part of you feels remorse for having been angry. And this remorse is to some degree, disingenuous. The remorse makes you feel better and morally correct. For if you had felt good about getting angry, you would have a difficult time accepting yourself.

Q: And if I truly did wish to never become angry, what would I need to understand? A: That anger is not as reactionary as you think it to be. It is a weapon that you enjoy using in order to protect your ego and to bolster it.

Q: But what of the things I think are important to teach? A: You may say them sparingly. And evaluate the responses as you say them. Refine your approach in accordance with the responses that you quietly observe.

A: I try to find the rock bottom Truth in the situation. And devote myself to extracting all need.

A: Do not look at this from the standpoint of blame. For this will lead to further problems. The most fruitful realizations are quiet ones.

A: Understand that you are the architect of this relationship. And, in many ways, the architect of your son’s fate. Become the person he would seek to embrace. Provide a place of peace that he is looking for in the wrong places. As he recognizes that you have transformed from a place of need, into a source of quiet comfort, he will come. And he will listen.

Q: What is the problem with being a pleasure addict? A: If you remove the word ‘pleasure’ from your question, does the question change for you? Q: Yes. But I don’t know how to ask it. A: All addiction creates bondage.

Q: But the opposite of pleasure is pain. And why would anyone want pain? A: It is the search for pleasure that produces pain.

Q: What would be the nature of a person’s life if he did not seek pleasure? A: He would live a life of equanimity. He would be content and complete in each moment. Though he may involve himself in lofty pursuits, his contentedness and completeness would go with him. He would have abandoned the ceaseless chase. And when a man no longer feels the need to chase, life begins to chase him.

Q: What’s the problem with being reactive if it’s the truth? A: The Truth is constant. Reactivity fades.

A: In order to overcome the guilt, you will have to resolve within yourself the need that this guilt serves within you.

A: Each has his own reasons for doing so. If one wishes to give, whatever his reason may be, he may give. If one wishes not to give, whatever his reason may be, he may choose not to give. It is his choice. He is not good for having done so. He is not bad for not having done so. Each man acts according to his own personal motivations. And whatever his motivations are is a matter for him to resolve within himself. The government that forces him to give is a criminal enterprise. The people who shame him into giving are outside their right do so. If a man chooses to give, he may give. But whether he chooses to give or not, he surely does not “owe.”

Q: But if there is no give and take will there not be conflict? A: It is compromise that produces conflict.

Q: But if I don’t compromise on what I want, and the other person doesn’t compromise on what they want, will this not produce conflict? A: Each person must examine the source of the want. The why’s and wherefores of the want. In doing so one is able to separate the wants that are reactive and baseless from the wants that are genuine and innocent. It is often the case, that as the reactive wants are removed, the sincere wants are shared between the two individuals.

Q: What about love? A: This is too big a word for human beings to understand. Like is more useful and powerful than love. Q: In what way? A: One can hide behind love. One cannot hide behind like.

A: A relationship of peace is a relationship that is more parallel than perpendicular. It is two individuals that move side by side. Rather than two individuals that intersect. A maintenance of individuality and freedom results in the prevalence of peace.

Q: Do you believe in god? A: I don’t believe in anything.

Q: But mindfulness originated in Buddhism, didn’t it? A: The Buddha was not mindful. He was mindless. Q: Mindless? A: Yes. He arrived at the state of No-Mind. He arrived at the state of No-Self. This is ultimate liberation. If Buddha had practiced mindfulness, there would be no Buddha.

A: Whether it be meditativeness or meditation, it must be an effect rather than a goal. That which one pursues as a goal never arrives. Any prescription that one pursues, he

becomes imprisoned to.

A: Man is lazy and undisciplined for the things that do not move him. He is motivated and voracious for the things that inspire him. Q: So discipline doesn’t matter? A: Discipline is an attempt to force oneself to do that which he fundamentally does not wish to do.

A: It is far more fruitful to evaluate the desires for achievement, than it is to force discipline. If one’s desire for achievement is pure, he will be sufficiently motivated to do all that needs to be done in order to achieve. If it is not, he will play clever and ineffective games such as discipline.

A: Understanding that happiness is a fleeting emotion. One cannot build a home in it. In understanding this, one naturally begins to seek an alternative.

A: If one dabbles, he suffers endlessly and fails. If he devotes the whole of his life to something, he is due for an ultimate boon, and is engaged during the Journey. Q: What are some things that one could devote a life to? A: Devote means to surrender. Devote means to allocate in its entirety. One man might devote his life to conquering anger. Another might devote it to becoming totally free. Another might devote it to a sport. Another might devote it to conquering the mind. Another might devote it to god.

A: Anger is born of unfulfilled desire. It is born of unfulfilled expectation.

A: Fear is the natural consequence of man not knowing himself.

A: If a man achieved a rock bottom steady state with himself. If he had a relationship with, or an understanding of, himself that was unshakeable. He would become immune to fear.

Q: How can we achieve world peace? A: By transforming yourself.

Q: What is freedom? A: Freedom from the self. Q: What is the self? A: Bondage. Q: In what way? A: Where there is a self, there is an attachment to the self. Where there is an attachment to the self, there is an attachment to all people and things related to the self. Where there is an attachment to people and things, there is endless suffering.

Q: If I have no self, how will I function? A: Perfectly. Q: Why? A: Because where there is no self, there is no interference. Where there is no self, there is no confusion. Where there is no self, there is no complications, upheavals, conflicts, or turmoils. There is nothing. And where there is nothing, one is available to everything.

A: To guide people along the true path without them feeling your hand, is true guidance. To speak to them in such a way that they do not feel instructed, is true speech. To keep them in your orbit so that you may watch over them, without them feeling the slightest loss of freedom, is true caring. To invest in them the Truths that will keep them safe and successful in their journey of life, while surrendering the need to take ownership of these ideas so that they may take ownership of them, is wisdom and dispassion. These, and other secrets like it, is what the Master devotes his life to. It is this that he lives for.