Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life by Kapil Gupta cover

Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life by Kapil Gupta

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The mind is drowning in desire and we fear anything that threatens how we feel. So we grasp for hacks, fixes and gurus. Yet, there are no prescriptions in life. There are no quick self-fixes. There is no self. The only path is knowing yourself and see the truth at every step.


Who am I?

Q: Who am I?

A: That which remains when you remove all the things that you are not.

Q: What things am I not?

A: All that you believe yourself to be.

Advice has no effect upon human beings.

You are curious for answers, rather than hungry for realizations.

An intellectual question seeks an intellectual answer. This will do nothing for you.

If you examine it sincerely, it will take you somewhere. If you use it as a crutch or a prescription, it will take you nowhere.

Why do I get angry when I am insulted?

Q: Why do I get angry when I am insulted?

A: Because you entertain the verity of the insult.

How do I deal with a difficult person?

Wrong does not exist. Hope leads only to disappointment.

The discomfort that arises from being in the presence of a difficult person arises from your insistence that they not be difficult.

Is there a god?

If there is a god, you will depend upon him. If there isn’t, you will attempt to create a surrogate. Neither will benefit you.

Dependency will rob you of your freedom.

What is the meaning of life?

We are all here for but a short time. Then we die. If something is guaranteed to end in death, how can there be any meaning in it?

If a human life is devoted to something, one tends to lose oneself in it. As one loses oneself in it, the more blissful one becomes.

How do I deal with anger?

Wrong and right are not sufficiently powerful motivations.

I don’t view things in terms of right and wrong. Because right and wrong are societo-religious creations. They have no basis in reality.

You will not cure something that you do not have a problem with.

What is the secret to getting people to listen to you?

Imitate no man.

I try to find the rock bottom Truth in the situation. And devote myself to extracting all need.

The most fruitful realizations are quiet ones.

Become the person he would seek to embrace. Provide a place of peace that he is looking for in the wrong places. As he recognizes that you have transformed from a place of need, into a source of quiet comfort, he will come. And he will listen.

From where does addiction arise?

Q: From where does addiction arise? A: The mind.

The mind peddles in desire. It has an unending appetite for desire. It is a wanting machine. It cannot get enough of that which it enjoys. This is the seed of addiction.

A human seeks nothing other than pleasure. In the smallest thing. And the largest thing. All addictions stem from this one characteristic of mind.

It is the search for pleasure that produces pain.

Q: What would be the nature of a person’s life if he did not seek pleasure?

A: He would live a life of equanimity. He would be content and complete in each moment. Though he may involve himself in lofty pursuits, his contentedness and completeness would go with him. He would have abandoned the ceaseless chase. And when a man no longer feels the need to chase, life begins to chase him.

Nothing really happens to us. We seek it out.

How do I have beautiful relationships in my life?

In order to have peace in a relationship, there must be freedom.

Each person must examine the source of the want. The why’s and wherefores of the want. In doing so one is able to separate the wants that are reactive and baseless from the wants that are genuine and innocent. It is often the case, that as the reactive wants are removed, the sincere wants are shared between the two individuals.

Compromise muddies the water. It is a cheap and fruitless bartering between the reactive wants of each individual. It perpetuates itself. And moves inevitably toward conflict.

Q: What else leads to a peaceful relationship? A: The abandonment of need.

Two individuals who need each other will only have conflict. They can never have a relationship.

Q: So if there’s no need, what binds them together? A: The enjoyment of each other’s company.

A relationship of peace is a relationship that is more parallel than perpendicular. It is two individuals that move side by side. Rather than two individuals that intersect. A maintenance of individuality and freedom results in the prevalence of peace.

Should I not subscribe to religion?

I have no interest in doctrine. I do not follow rules. I have no need for groups.

The completeness of devotion matters. The object of devotion matters not.

Spirituality is a concoction of prescriptions and half-truths.

Why does mindfulness not work?

Mindfulness does not bring one to the present.

It is an attempt to force oneself into the present.

One may force himself into the present for a fraction of a second, but he will not force himself to live there permanently.

If you try to force the mind, it retaliates. You can attempt to force your attention upon the present moment, but the mind will fight you every step of the way. Eventually, your willpower will wane. And the mind will win. That which does not happen naturally, is neither effective or sustainable.

The Buddha was not mindful. He was mindless. He arrived at the state of No-Mind. He arrived at the state of No-Self. This is ultimate liberation. If Buddha had practiced mindfulness, there would be no Buddha.

How do I practice meditation?

Q: What do you think is more powerful? A: Meditativeness.

Q: What’s that? A: To be lost in what you are doing.

Q: Isn’t that mindfulness? A: Mindfulness is forced awareness. To be lost in what you are doing is to lose the self. Instead of trying to improve the self.

Meditation is an independent activity. Meditativeness is to make your entire life a meditative experience

Whether it be meditativeness or meditation, it must be an effect rather than a goal. That which one pursues as a goal never arrives. Any prescription that one pursues, he becomes imprisoned to.

How do I become more disciplined?

A: By understanding why you are not.

Man is lazy and undisciplined for the things that do not move him. He is motivated and voracious for the things that inspire him.

Discipline is an attempt to force oneself to do that which he fundamentally does not wish to do.

It is far more fruitful to evaluate the desires for achievement, than it is to force discipline. If one’s desire for achievement is pure, he will be sufficiently motivated to do all that needs to be done in order to achieve. If it is not, he will play clever and ineffective games such as discipline.

Forcing oneself is short-lived. As all things that are insincere are short-lived. If one is honest and sincere about his motivations, he will move with himself, instead of against himself.

How do I become happy?

Are you seeking a sustained feeling of happiness? This does not exist. Because happiness is a myth.

The idea of happiness is born as a reaction to misery. If a human being did not have misery, he would not seek happiness.

Q: What would it benefit a person to seek? A: Freedom from misery. Freedom from the need for happiness.

I have already achieved everything. What do I do for the remainder of my life?

Regardless of what personality the mind has manufactured for us. Regardless of who we believe ourselves to be. We are first and foremost a piece of life. And this life seeks to live. It seeks to bloom. The way in which man has attempted to make it bloom has not worked. It is for this reason that despite all the things that you have attained, this sense of aimlessness resides within you.

Q: What is it that allows life to bloom within us?

A: A Journey toward the Ultimate. If a man is not on a journey toward a thing, that upon reaching it, will satisfy him forever, he will grasp at straws trying to occupy his mind. He will wander here and there looking for a respite from his mind.

The single most important characteristic of a Journey toward the Ultimate is that upon reaching it, one becomes satisfied for the rest of his life. For he becomes life itself. He arrives at a place in which there is no longer any need to strive, practice, search, or crave. The end of emotional turmoil, the end of conflict, the end of sorrow, the end of anxiety. He has arrived. And now he can live as only a free man can.

How is life to be lived?

If a man tries to “live” a life, he suffers at every turn. If he devotes his life, the game changes.

Devote means to surrender. Devote means to allocate in its entirety.

One man might devote his life to conquering anger. Another might devote it to becoming totally free. Another might devote it to a sport. Another might devote it to conquering the mind.

The object of devotion is largely irrelevant. So long as it provides man with the intoxication of losing himself.

How do I become a legend?

Practice leads to meager and incremental improvement. It is essentially repetition. It becomes work. Over time, it saps one’s inspiration. It maintains more than it transforms. One must train in order to become who one seeks to be.

Q: What does Siddha training entail?

A: It begins with a vision. A precise determination of who one seeks to become.

I cannot tell you the method. For there is no method. Each human being is his own unique universe. But the approach and the philosophy centers around discovering the Truth about what gets one to his vision. Rather than myths such as “hard work,” “pain vs gain,” and “striving.”

If you do not know the Truth, you must take the long and arduous road. But the Truth always takes a fraction of the time and provides a far greater this reason that there is parity in all domains.

The one who resorts to competing is the one who has not become a Master. Because he and his competitors are of similar skill, they must fight for scraps. Siddha Training prepares one for a life that is beyond competition. So much so that every match is won before it begins.

How do I ensure a great performance?

Performance is a side effect.

Performance is traditionally pursued as a goal. As a result, it is viewed from the standpoint of activities, rituals, behaviors, and do’s and don’ts. This is not where consistent, world class performance comes from. For performance cannot be viewed as a goal. One must not be interested in how to “improve” performance. One must be genuinely interested in where it lives, how it moves, and what causes it to emerge. This allows one to become dominant in his field. It allows him to own his performance. It allows him to become a Master.

One must understand the conditions that allow performance to emerge.

Why does one have great success, while another struggles?

One enjoys success. While the other enjoys struggle.

That the successful identify themselves as successes. While those who struggle identify themselves as unfortunate failures. The successful view themselves as conquerors. While those who struggle view themselves as victims of circumstance.

Q: Why would an individual view himself as a victim more could he lose?

A: The luxury of self-pity. The sympathies of victimhood. Such things are not easily sacrificed.

What is the mind?

Q: What precisely is the mind? A: A creator.

Q: What has it created? A: It has created everything. But its ultimate creation is You.

The person that you call “yourself” is a manufactured entity. It is the lens through which you mind’s magnum opus. The mind was meant to be a slave. But in creating you, it has become your Master.

If one seeks to become the master of the mind, one must begin by exploring intensely the details of the mind’s creation. That is, this “you” that it has created. Explore it as an innocent observer. Explore it as the one who is not the “you.”

This will allow the one who is sincere in his exploration to see the true nature of himself. This will allow him to see that he is not the person he has believed himself to be. This is the beginning of true freedom. This is the beginning of making the mind a slave. And a glorious tool created for the benefit of man.

What is anger?

Q: What is anger? A: An energy.

Q: Why does it arise? A: Anger is born of unfulfilled desire. It is born of unfulfilled expectation.

Q: Where there is no desire or expectation, there can be no anger? A: That is correct.

What is fear?

Q: What is fear? A: An energy.

Q: From where does it arise? A: Fear is the natural consequence of man not knowing himself.

The fundamental basis of all fear is fear of oneself.

Q: Why does man fear himself?

A: Man seeks pleasure for himself. He seeks stability for himself. He seeks egoic satisfaction. He seeks many things in order to make himself feel a certain way. Any situation that threatens how he feels about himself will bring fear.

Q: What is the way out of fear?

A: If a man achieved a rock bottom steady state with himself. If he had a relationship with, or an understanding of, himself that was unshakeable. He would become immune to fear.

What is right and wrong?

Q: What is right and wrong? A: A societal fabrication.

The reason that they harm people is because their ignorance blinds them to the consequences of their actions.

How can world peace be achieved?

Man does not seek world peace. He seeks self-peace.

What is time?

Time is thought.

When he has discovered the cocoon of the present moment, thinking ceases. When he arrives at a state of No-Mind, time comes to an end.

What is the flow state?

Q: What is the flow state? Or the zone? A: A state in which the mind has disappeared.

The state of No-Mind is a state of No-Self. When on arrives at this state, his talents become free from all interference. They become uninhibited. He begins to commune with the gods.

Q: Can the state of No-Mind be sustained?

A: One can live the whole of his life within it. It is way to accessing the whole of one’s genius. It is the way to unending peace. It is the holy grail of human existence.

What is freedom?

Q: What is freedom? A: Freedom from the self.

Where there is a self, there is an attachment to the self. Where there is an attachment to the self, there is an attachment to all people and things related to the self. Where there is an attachment to people and things, there is endless suffering.

How does one live as a god?

Q: How do I arrive in the cocoon of the moment? A: By deciding to leave the world behind.

You live inside your mind. The mind is the world. It is a place of endless torment. It is a place which requires you to put out fires that never end. It is a place of recurring bouts of conflict. It is a place of striving, hoping, expectations, desires, disappointments, and sorrows. This is the natural consequence of living in the mind. And, by extension, living within the world.

One may have the mind or he may have the moment. He cannot have both.

The presence of misery gave birth to the idea of happiness. No human being seeks happiness. What he seeks is an escape from misery.

It means simply that one must see the world for what it is. And if one sees it for what it is, he or she has a true chance of living a life free of constant assault.

It is an honest, genuine, and sincere journey in which the Truth is constantly seen at every step. more deeply he begins to experience it, it becomes home. And the turmoil that was once his life begins to completely fall away. Once he has reached this stage, he becomes the Creator of his life. By a simple wave of his hand, he controls all things. And becomes a god.

What is the only way to truly, truly live?

By living without a self.

Q: How is such a thing possible? A: By understanding that there is no self within you.

The thing that you feel is the mind’s greatest illusion. It does not exist.

Q: Then how shall I come to living without a self? A: Investigation. Desperation. And understanding.

There is no self to be improved.

Where there is no self, there is no interference. Where there is no self, there is no confusion. Where there is no self, there is no complications, upheavals, conflicts, or turmoils. There is nothing. And where there is nothing, one is available to everything.