"I don't want to delude you here.  The birth of the seer is just as revolutionary as any of the earlier steps.  It spells the end of the ego, and the end of all outward identification.  Imagine that your life is a moving picture projected upon a white screen.  As long as you are dominated by ego, you focus on the moving images and take them to be real.  When the seeker arrives on the scene, you begin to sense their unreality.  But with the birth of the seer, you turn and face the light.  Now self-image is seen for what it is, a flimsy projection made real by the ego's desparate need to place importance on the time-bound mind and body.

 

"The seer sees through this motivation and no longer buys into it.  Instad of seeing yourself as flesh and bones that house a spirit -- a ghost inside a machine -- you realize that everything is spirit.  The body is spirit coalesced into a form that the senses can feel, see, and smell; the mind is spirit in a form that can be heard and understood.  Spirit itself, in pure form, is neither of these and can be perceived only by refined intuition.  You have heard the phrase 'Those who know It speak of It not; those who speak of It know It not.'  Such is the mystery of spirit."

 

"But aren't you speaking of It right now?"  asked Galahad, looking confused.

 

"Not in the way you may think.  When I speak of a rock, you can see and touch it.  When I speak of spirit, I am pointing toward an invisible world.  Arrows of light fly to us from that world to ignite our souls, but we cannot send arrows of thought back."

 

"That sounds very mysterious," muttered Percival.

 

"A rose would be mysterious if you could only think about it and never experience one.  Spirit is a direct experience, but it transcends this world.  It is pure silence teeming with infinite potential.  When you gain knowledge of anything else, you gain knowledge of some thing; when you gain knowledge of spirit, you become knowingness itself.  All questions cease because you find yourself in the womb of reality, where everything simply is.  When the eye of the seer falls on something, it is simply accepted for what it is, not judged.  There is no ego need to take or possess or destroy.  In the absence of fear, no such motivations arise, for needing to possess is born of lack.  When you have no lack to fill, then just being here in this world in your body is the highest spiritual goal you could possibly attain."

 

Percival and Galahad were much struck by this part of Merlin's discourse.  They had followed the early steps with attention, but the ego, the achiever, and the giver were all familiar already.  When the wizard spoke of the seeker, the two knights saw themselves as they were at that moment.  The seer, however, filled them with awe, as if they were explorers arriving on a mountaintop and surveying a vast new horizon long hoped for but not yet experienced.

 

"I long to be this seer you speak of," Galahad said fervently.

 

Merlin nodded.  "Which means you are ready.  To the wizard there are only three kinds of people: those who have not yet experienced pure Being, those who have tasted it, and those who have fully explored it.  You have tasted and now want to explore.  For you this world will begin to disappear as a solid thing and recede into the overwhelming light of Being.  In a faraway land called India they say that ordinary life becomes pale before God, like a candle that seemed bright in a dark room but turns invisible when put out into the noonday sun."  He turned to Percival, "And I include you in this stage too, however you imagine I  judged you."

 

Percival turned scarlet, then stammered, "What will this new life be like?"

 

"As always, it will feel like a new birth.  The seer differs from the seeker in no longer having to pick and choose.  The seeker is still involved in an illusion as he goes around saying, 'This is where God is, this is where God isn't.'  The seer, on the other hand, sees God in life itself.  The long inner war is over at last, and rest comes to the warrior.  In place of struggle, you experience all your desires naturally and effortlessly coming true.  There ar no outward signs to mark who are the seers among us, but inwardly they feel open and content, they allow others to be who they will be, which is the highest form of love, they put up no obstruction to other people and events, and they have surrendered any small sense of 'I.'"