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Copy-pasted from Getting back to Deep Okayness (vs Out-There-ism) (2026-02-14)
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A mentor told me about this a few days ago
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First thorn = ignorance, e.g. the belief that I’m in a Buddhist Nihilism Phase
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Second thorn = knowledge, e.g. the realisation that actually no, it’s not true that things are meaningless because they can’t save me, it’s true that I don’t need saving/improving, so everything else is like, a bonus that I get to interact with
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And then, you drop them both!!! You don’t cherish both thorns, think about them, hold them in place.
- “Once you have realized the ultimate truth, you no longer need the concepts, words, or teachings that got you there.
- “Cherishing the knowledge (becoming arrogant about being “wise”) is just as much a binding attachment as ignorance itself.”
- In the teachings of sages like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, the point is that Truth isn’t a “thing” you find or a new piece of information you acquire. Instead, Truth is what is already there, but it’s currently covered up by both your mistakes (ignorance) and your concepts about reality (knowledge).
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- “The Truth is the reality that exists before you even start thinking or labeling yourself.”
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So, I experienced this state, ultimate reality. And then I went back to my conditioning, because of course, it’d be mad if I didn’t. There’s a Shamil Chandaria graph of the path where the x axis is waking up and the y axis is cleaning up your conditioning. I “woke up” somewhat but my pile of conditioning (Technical debt) remained, by bad habits remain. So, including Out-There-ism and intellectualisation, this also included: