* When reading this book for the first time, it is best to read from the beginning without skipping forward. Otherwise, the intended meaning of some words might not be obvious.
Discussion
Those who take upon themselves certain meditative puzzles, such as “Where is here?” “What is reality?” or The Heart of Perfect Wisdom typically do so because they seek answers to troubling questions, such as “What is this world?” “From where did it come?” or “Why is it so painful and difficult?” For the most part, those who today take up puzzles of this sort expect that the answer will not come from the world outside them but will instead come from within themselves. They believe that if they take up the right problem, and if they work diligently to understand and resolve that problem, then in time the answer will simply become quite clear to them one way or another.
At some point along the way, perhaps at a time when effort and hope are both exhausted, the world of ordinary things dissolves before your gaze. If your attention does not waver in this moment, then what remains within awareness is for a few seconds a perfectly calm and clear intuition of reality, something completely beyond name and form, something so simple and obvious that it can never be mistaken for an illusion or a passing fantasy.
This is not a matter of calculating or reasoning out a pointed answer to a pointed question. It is about giving the puzzle all the attention and energy that it needs. Then, when the stage is fully set, it is about letting go of unreality all at once so that nothing in particular remains.
Solving these puzzles always means
letting go of unreality in order to see
precisely what remains.
In the moment you let go, the puzzle makes perfect sense and the answer is perfectly obvious; illusion dissolves, but reality remains exactly as it has always been and will always be.
Reality never changes. Being, which is the same as reality, never changes. Awareness, that you faithfully devoted to the puzzle, never changes in spite of all the distracting, ever-changing experiences within your awareness. In this moment nothing at all distracts you from realty.
If on this quiet occasion you understand this, then you truly know what reality is, which is no different from being and no different from your awareness even right now as you are reading these words. This is what is meant by intuition of reality: perfect self-knowledge of being; perfect self-awareness of reality.
Where Is Here [What is reality?] is only a word-puzzle, but the solution can be deeply satisfying. Even just thinking about this puzzle can bring a measure of peacefulness to a sea of restless confusion and unhappiness.
Six other story-puzzles also illustrate or refer to intuition of reality and being:
Being Dreams Forgetting [What are ideas?]
Seeing a Tree [What is perception?]
The Seer and the Seen [What is illusion?]
The Five Paths [What is artifice?]
Ocean of Light [What is death?]
Memory of Being Born [What is memory?]
Eleven story-puzzles offer guidance on the art of solving difficult problems:
Ancient Chinese Puzzle [You already know the answer.]
The Flowering of a Wonderful Law [No one can do this for you.]
We Always Do the Best We Can [Do not worry about past or future.]
The Magician’s Trick [Know the universe for what it is.]
Questions Children Ask [Do your own thinking.]
Ontological Monadology [Be flexible and question your answers.]
The Robin [Do not be distracted by mere words.]
Self-Sacrifice [Look behind the curtain.]
The Rain [Allow the universe to unfold as it will.]
The Mystery of the Ordinary [Examine every belief.]
Intuition of Reality [Set judgement aside.]
The word-topics are useful and meaningful tools, more for defining the puzzle than for solving it. Look to where the words are pointing and not to the words themselves. The definitions, suggestions, questions, arguments, and ideas are the fabric of the puzzle. But really, you cannot find a satisfying answer without intuition, and intuition is beyond words.