Knowing actual fact is a key to liberation

Have you ever tried to confirm what actual fact is?

It can be done like this:

Look to the right.

Look to the left.

When looking left, there is no right. All there is, is the way it is on the left now, and that is the actual fact. The way it was a moment ago is now gone. In this way, there is no fixed entity that exists. There being no fixed entity means you are already liberated.

It may not feel like you are already liberated. The reason for this is because cognition leads people to believe in the existence of things that do not exist in fact.

Take sadness, for example. If a feeling of sadness arises, there is a recognition of sadness. The recognition creates a sense that sadness exists as something with substance. When you think that sadness exists as something with substance, you may then want to try to get rid of it. But in fact, there is nothing to get rid of.

If you try just being sad when sad, then before you even know it, it will have become a different feeling. Please give it a try.

By Kenichi Matsumoto

Translated by Madoka Chase Onizuka

(Originally in Japanese)