Locked in the dogma

[Angrboda]

Many mystical traditions "claim" that the truth can only be known through experience. (meditation, yoga, whatever) None has ever been able to demonstrate that what they have found is truth. The way they have defined it, it can't be demonstrated. So do we take such assertions on faith? Or do we acknowledge that while yes, there may be aspects of living that can only be understood nonverbally, the mind has a great capacity to fool itself, and desperately seeking after these experiences is simply priming the mind to tell itself lies?

To explore a new realm is fascinating and delightful. However, before you explore that realm, take a care to be sure that it actually exists. If you convince yourself that it exists, when it does not, and let your mind's powers of imagination convince you you are exploring that world when you are just being fooled by a mind eager to satisfy itself, you have not enhanced your world, you have taken away from its overall quality by squandering your resources in pointless head games and believing things that aren't true.


The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this.

— Tao Te Ching, Ch. 12