Get Real Asked what is the major lesson of the spiritual teachings, I’d have to say that it is impermanence. As Ramana Maharshi points out, all forms (whether material or immaterial) arise then dissipate; they are impermanent. The actuality in which they originate and subside is infinite and eternal, and is itself without form. Thus, this ground of being is the only element which is not impermanent. Ultimately, as Ramana says, this Being-ness is the only lasting reality. In Buddhism, it is emphasized that “all things change.” That formless reality, which is not one of the nameable things, and which is not limited by time or space, is the Unchanging. The spiritual teachings urge us to focus attention on what is permanent and ever present (which Ramana would call real), rather than on the ephemeral, the fleeting forms (which Ramana calls unreal). The ultimate reality is said to be the source of all that is; and, as such, is what all the relative things hold in common. What the enlightened masters perceive is sameness, the essence which links “the ten thousand things” in unity, Oneness. The sage perceives this indivisible essence as one’s true nature. It was “your face before you were born”; your form appeared in this empty presence, and will disappear into it—the ground of being remaining entirely unaffected. From the standpoint of the Ultimate, each “individual life” is meaningless.
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