Experience is the Real Deal!

"Experience for me is the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me."

-- Carl Rogerss

There's an acronym in business circles -- OPM. It stands for "other peoples money." It's suppose to be a smart way to grow your business. The problem is, as we've seen in the recent economic crisis, it doesn't always work. OPM is just a three letter abbreviation of a four letter word -- debt.

The same is true with OPE -- other peoples experience -- it doesn't work! You can be indebted to others for sharing their wisdom, but you can only really grow through your own experience.

Ideas, even your own ideas, as Carl points out, are once removed from experience. Ideas are cognitive. Experience is a whole mind, whole body phenomena.

What does this mean on a daily basis? Don't trust anybody! At least don't confuse their words with your truth. Great ideas, good intentions, and high falutin' theories are all well and good, but they are merely starting points, they are never the ultimate authority.

Legend has it that on his death bed, Gautama the Buddha's final words were: "Work out your own salvation, with diligence." Or, you know, the Hindi equivalent of that sentiment. He didn't expect his followers to take his word as gospel. He didn't want anyone to rely on anything other than their own experience.

And that's what I'm encouraging you to do -- don't place any opinions, holy books, expert commentary, or pithy sayings above your own experience. Test every hypothesis, every supposed-truth in the cauldron of life experience. Only if it survives the flames can you count it as real. And even then it is probably still evolving, or at least your understanding of it is.

It's enjoyable to read about life. It is challenging to write about life. But the only thing that's real is living life -- fully, consciously, openly every moment, every day. Do that, and experience will be the only teacher you'll ever need.