[PDF]Journey to Happiness and Truth

Journey to Happiness and Truth

: How To Find Bliss Without Ignorance


by

Lise Mesluk
and

Ray Mesluk



Copyright 2017 Lise and Ray Mesluk


Notice:

This book contains content which
some readers may find offensive.
Reader discretion is advised.



Table of Contents


Preface.5

Chapter 1. Childhood days, or born to be told.19

Chapter 2. Teenage years, or off to search.61

Chapter 3. Adult years, or becoming intellectual and level-headed

. 101

Chapter 4. Middle age, wanting nothing.155

Chapter 5. Retirement, trying to lift yourself out of nothing.203

Chapter 6. Old age, every moment counts.253

Chapter 7. The Body fades, filling the last moments.271

Appendix 1 Some Suggested Reading.303













Preface

This book may look like it is the story of someone’s life but it
is not.

It is, however, the story of a life-long search for some deeper
meaning in the universe.

Some people might say that it is a search for god, the cosmic
mind, the unity behind the diversity of the universe, the creation
point, spiritual reality, mystical union, nirvana or an attempt to
unveil the illusion of the cosmos. But we do not like to use any of
those terms. In fact, we find most of those words meaningless or
nonsensical. That is, we find them to be concepts that have never
been adequately defined but just accepted by us all and passed on
from generation to generation. Each generation just accepts their
inheritance and never questions it.

And in our search, because we were open-minded and flexible,
looking only for truth and not unfounded theories, we found that
often we had to reject former beliefs and take on new ones, tem¬
porarily.

Most people do not like to search (it requires too much mental
effort) and prefer to just be “told” what to believe in. They do not
want the adventurous (and therefore stressful) life of the explorer


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Journey to Happiness and Truth


looking for new things or the scientist investigating the unknown.
They want rather the security that comes with blind belief in the
ideas that you learned as a child (your religious DNA) must be
true. So such people get away from those who come armed with
constant questions. Perhaps they even find it odd that anyone
would even think of questioning what “everybody knows” or
what everybody learned at the feet of their parents and school
teachers.

But we had doubts about the contradictions and inconsisten¬
cies in what we had been taught by priests. Plus, over the years
none of our doubts could never be resolved. Instead the number
of doubts just increased. This naturally pushed us out into a
search for alternative explanations about the nature of reality.

And, strangely, that search for knowledge seemed to naturally
involve my passing through various stages of understanding.

Furthermore, those stages seem to be similar to what the aver¬
age person passes through as they grow up: childhood, teenage
years, adulthood, middle ages and old age. This is why the book
looks like an autobiography.

But here the “growing up” is not anyone growing up in any
social-physical sense. Rather it is about growing up into a fuller
understanding of truth. Thus it seems to us that we pass from a
childhood of fairy tale wonder and superstitious beliefs about the
universe and on to a teenage revolt against conventional religious
ideas, the way a teenager might revolt against his parents, which
takes us into exploring alternative theories such as new age spiri¬
tuality. But teenage revolt soon falls away once any person settles
down into adult life. The adult, who must raise a family of their
own, secure a home and be steady in providing income to those
who depend on them, must have a practical, logical, planning-
based, budgeting and intellectual approach to life. They must
look after concrete realities like obtaining food. They have little


6



Preface


time to think about the non-concrete, non-physical abstractions
like “spirituality.”

In a similar way our search which had gone from the myths of
childhood to a rebellious interest in the spirit world, returned
back to something like the mundane interests of the adult. That is,
we went searching into the logical, intellectual, dry, unemotional
Vedanta philosophy.

And just as adults have to be sensible (to do what is best for
their family) so they soon give that up in their middle-ages when
they no longer have to worry as much about finances and family
since their children having usually left home and are leading their
own life now - studying at university or raising a family of their
own. The middle-aged adult lives a new life that is settled and
comfortable. They feel peaceful without children around but also,
for the same reason, empty.

Some adults then start to wonder how they are going to fill up
the new empty time. They think of going back to work again or
going back to school for another degree. Some puzzle over
whether they have any legitimate reasons to go on making as
much money as one once did (except force of habit). Their for¬
mer job seems empty and pointless.

So, in a similar way, just as we had left spiritualism for
Vedanta so we evolved away from intellectual Vedanta and on to
the nothingness or putting-out-of-all-desires (nirvana) of Bud¬
dhism.

Obviously then the “life” stages referred to in the chapters of
this book are not our own in the sense of describing what we did
during the teenage years or during the mid-life years, and so on.
They are rather stages that we went through during our quest to
find out if there was any “god” or “ultimate” principle or
“essence” to the universe. We just refer to those stages of our
journey as if they were the typical life stages of a normal person


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Journey to Happiness and Truth


since both of these experiences seem to share many common fea¬
tures.

Yet the book is not just a diary of “a journey” in search of cos¬
mic meaning. Nor is it just the daily journal of the interesting
times of some explorer. It is perhaps more like the experiment
recording book of a scientist in that it records my observations
about the features and failings of each of the religions that I have
been involved with.

Thus this book can be used to remind anyone, who might be
attracted to religions, to keep an open mind about the theories the
various cults advance. It can be used as an antidote to fatally
“falling for” some preacher’s or swami’s theories about the nature
of life and the universe.

In a more general sense this book can also be used by anyone
to keep themselves from falling into despair, when they find that
some long cherished belief system is built only on a foundation
of imagination. It can remind them that there is always something
else to explore - as long as you take whatever you discover as
just exploration and not some sort of ultimate truth. Otherwise
you open yourself to the same sort of disappointment all over
again.

We have never yet come across any human-made cult or sys¬
tem, whether occult or religious or pop philosophy, that comes
even close to having anything like the final truth about reality and
the universe (though they all claim that not only do they have the
real truth, but they are the “only” ones who have it).

And that is not because we made only a cursory or superficial
exploration of some religion or philosophy. We always went in
full throttle. We got involved and lived the philosophies we ex¬
plored. That is the best way to find out their flaws.

Bertrand Russell once said that he developed a contempt for
math only because he had become so immersed in the subject.


8



Preface


Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes. And it is the
same with religion. You never recognize the flaws in any reli¬
gious dogma until you really get involved in the meaning of its
teachings.

Yet we saw that the majority of adherents to some belief sys¬
tem are not zealots. They are not really active in their religion,
except when some authority pumps them full of venom to go af¬
ter members of another cult. And then they are really more like
zombies than active devotees. Followers not leaders. Believers in
what others tell them not people who want to use their minds and
really get to understand their religion.

Thus many religious followers are usually content to give only
lip service to their beliefs for one hour a week, on Sunday or
Thursday night. They go to meetings to show off. We knew that
for most of them the meeting or “service” was just a time for
parading their new dress or hat or reestablishing their rank and
placement in the “community.” And, unfortunately, for a few, the
cult meetings were just a chance to publicize their business or
find themselves a mate for the night.

A tiny fraction thought of the meetings as a chance to learn
more about their faith. In fact at some meetings we were criti¬
cized for asking questions and wanting to discuss our doubts
about some of the dogmas.

Luckily, however, there were always a minority of the cult
members who looked upon the meetings as a chance to serve oth¬
ers in the group. That was often where we fit ourselves in. Full
throttle.

And in return for all our service we often found ourselves sub¬
ject to much criticism from others. One we always remember is
the remark, “looks like you’re trying to build up good karma for
yourself.” As if, instead of trying to live the teachings and help


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Journey to Happiness and Truth


others, we were trying to build up “cosmic brownie points” or
“classroom gold stars” for our performance.

But this constant service did bring us into close proximity with
those “higher up” in the hierarchies of authorities. That was
where we learned that many authorities are often more concerned
about making money than about getting to the root of their doc¬
trines and dogmas.

Plus we practiced at home on our own. We meditated daily for
hours. Sometimes we meditated for the whole day. And in be¬
tween, we read - scriptures and commentaries. Living the teach¬
ings might have been just a hobby for others but it certainly
wasn’t for us. But, unlike most, our practice and study went far
beyond what the authorities told us to take as the dogma. We ex¬
amined the teachings, thought about them, questioned them,
judged them, criticized them - and so found flaws in them.

It is easy to slough off religion when it is really not a part of
your life anyway. But it is much more painful when it has become
your “whole” life. Your one and only reason for existing. Your
whole network of friends. Your philosophy of life. Your personal
identity.

Thus it was a stressful time of crisis when, because of the
depth of our study and after years of service to, participation in
and involvement with some faith or cult we gave it all up.

It was, however, very useful (to our sanity) to always remind
ourselves that the system we had just left has its flaws. That is
why we left it.

But, more importantly, it was only the realization that there are
still other belief systems to explore that kept us going.

When we gave up Rosicrucianism, Martinism and Theosophy,
for example, we immediately dove into Vedanta - since these for¬
mer groups had borrowed much of the Yoga and Vedanta ideas


10



Preface


anyway. And when we gave up Vedanta and Yoga we went into
Buddhism, since all 3 of those systems had borrowed extensively
from each other over the centuries. In fact it is almost impossible
to tell today who originated what features of these systems.

But, unlike others, we cannot recommend any of the above
systems as having great insight into reality. We studied them and
then moved on.

The search for truth in the universe is a never-ending quest. It
is a great error to think that you don’t need to keep looking - to
think that your cult system or religion has the final theory.

There is always something new to explore. Perhaps the idea of
constant change in your religious theories, of constant searching,
exploring and investigating is the best religion of them all.

This idea is certainly what keeps us going. Keeps us from de¬
pression. Keeps us sane.

In that sense we felt like the great explorers of history. The
Europeans may have started to prosper after the rise of the mer¬
chant classes and trade during the renaissance. But that would not
have taken them far toward becoming, as they are now, the domi¬
nant forces in the world.

What really made Europe, and then America, into great world
powers was the rise of 2 other movements: exploration and sci¬
ence.

The world explorers, the adventurers discovered new lands
and seas, and the universe explorers, the scientists and inventors,
discovered new ways to unravel the mysteries of nature. They all
epitomize the spirit and virtue of an endless search for knowl¬
edge.

Many people think of Scientists as technical wizards but they
are actually just explorers, like those who discovered the new
world. They are people who investigate new things, new ideas


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Journey to Happiness and Truth


but in an organized way - the scientific method of looking at
things without prejudice or preformed judgments.

So the main message of this book could just be that the best
activity in life, the way to keep alive, happy, and hopeful is to not
fall for any religious system, but to just enjoy being an explorer
and scientist - never giving up the search for some ultimate truth
in the universe.

The only word of caution is that we always had to be careful
that we are actually searching or exploring or investigating and
not just running about aimlessly.

Sometimes when we were reading the books of some philo¬
sophical system or practicing their methods (whether meditation,
mindfulness, prayer, chanting, silently reciting mantras, visualiza¬
tion, or psychic projection) we felt that we were just running all
over the place, from one religion to another, from one practice to
another, not knowing when to stop, where to stop, or even how to
stop.

Nor was it enough to have moments when we were in the
quiet, in peace and tranquility, since, even then, you had to won¬
der about whether you were doing the practice correctly. Or
whether it was even possible with such methods to find the ulti¬
mate truth behind the universe. Sometimes, even in the quiet of a
dark room, it was not peaceful but frightening. A time for peace
turned into a time for panic and doubt.

At other times the mind would not let go of worries, anxieties
and fears. It harassed you continually. Made you run.
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