A key element in the search for the Ultimate Truth is a good understanding of what needs to be known. Unfortunately, we are cast into this reality without that clear understanding. The predicament created by this gap in our most basic understanding eventually leads us all to the two most fundamental of questions: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is going on around me?’. From these two fundamental questions, all further human inquiry ensues.
The human being is a complex blend of a physical body and a spirit in the form of conscious awareness. The carefully crafted body/spirit blend is so seamlessly perfect that it is hard to discern the two distinct entities even for those who inhabit the blend. As a result, there is much confusion at even this most basic level of what we are. Humanity is also blessed with a naturally curious mind, and this great puzzle of this body/spirit blend and how it relates to the bigger reality around it is a primary target of that curiosity.
This naturally curious human mind in its waking state is in a constant state of activity. There is a flutter of thoughts passing through the mind as it tries to make sense of all the sensory input it is receiving and just thinking about various things that have caught its interest. Frequently, this flutter appears to be random and chaotic with some people consciously trying to slow the pace down and improve their ability to better focus the mind and concentrate. While it appears the mind is capriciously going from thought to thought in a haphazard manner, the mind is actually in this constant state of activity for a very particular reason.
An old analogy relates the wandering mind to the wandering of a bee from flower to flower. The bee spends a little time on this flower before moving on to some other flower where it will spend some amount of time, maybe more, maybe less before moving onto yet another flower. The bee’s behavior on the surface appears to be random and chaotic until one considers what motivates the bee. The bee is looking for sweet nectar. It finds this nectar in a flower and stays there on that flower until the nectar is consumed, and it then moves onto another nectar bearing flower. If the bee were to find a flower with an inexhaustible source of nectar, it would just stay put on that flower consuming the unlimited nectar.
The mind is like the bee except instead of nectar the mind is looking for sufficient happiness to be content. It entertains thoughts or sensory inputs for a while until all the happiness from that thought or experience has been consumed. The mind comes pre-programed to seek out sources of happiness, but the mind’s thirst for happiness is infinite while all the pleasures this world has to offer are finite. Many things in this physical world can sway the mind for a time, but ultimately the mind’s desire feels unfulfilled with these finite pleasures. The only thing that can truly satisfy the mind’s insatiable desire is the infinite happiness that comes from knowing the ultimate truth. Thus the mind wanders in search of this very special happiness that can only found in the knowledge of the Ultimate Truth.
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