AFTERWORD

Motives are always open to question, and should perhaps be left open to question. The ultimate test of any claim made by others must be our own personal experience, despite the fact that our judgement of this experience can also be unreliable. There is no other foundation for discovering the truth.

Thus interpretation of personal experience can be faulty – most times it is – nonetheless the memory of the original experience can, with a little care, be retained and tested again and again by means of other interpretations. It is the experience that counts, not our opinions of it. Personal experience shapes us and prepares us for other experiences. If we open to experience, retaining the clearest possible imprint of it uncontaminated by opinion, then it becomes possible to learn directly from experience by permitting successive experiences to inform us to the fullest extent.

The hardest part of opening to experience lies in the act of opening itself. This is because it involves a process of purification. You can start this process of purification where and when you like, though it is best done simply by deciding explicitly to undertake the process. Bear in mind a few pointers: spare yourself for the truth, be minimal in your approach, of least expectation, using the least effort. What is required of you is openness, vulnerability in the real sense – not submission, but permission.

This last point is important, the true secret of the process. You need not seek truth: it awaits always your invitation. That is what purification is: being able to grant permission to truth.

11 May 2005