Look within your center right now, this moment, for that aspect of you that is forever unchanging and ever present. It is right now this very moment the most impressive attention filling thing going on in your awareness and it is so attractive you are completely addicted to it. You are this thing at your core, but like the dog "Dug" in the movie "Up!" who's entire attention is instantly distracted by a squirrel, our entire attention is continually distracted by the changeable and we completely ignore the perennial.

There is really only one message at the core of Freemasonry. Few Masons recognize it, and fewer come to know it. This message is ineffable (can not be spoken of), immutable (can never be changed), and eternal (it continues without beginning or end). This message is impossible to understand, and extremely rare to hear it spoken of by someone that knows it. And yet sages throughout history have told us that it is the most important thing to learn in life. It has to do with the core of life itself. It has to do with the recognition of our eternal nature in a way that goes beyond "belief".

The form of Michael that appears before you is an apparition. It looks and sounds like a Michael with hopes and fears and emotions and a somewhat poorly trained psychology, but Michael has left the building. There is only the continual expression of the divine presence arising from an initiatory state, expressing as Michael. Michael is not teaching you this core secret of Masonry, nor in the truest sense is there a you to be learning it. That which eternally IS is speaking to that same thing that appears as a "you".

There are methods to intuit this thing that you have read about in these Trestleboard articles, but the most direct method is supremely simple. It is the simplest thing in the world, and yet you may find it to be very difficult. There is something occurring right now in your immediate experience that you are ignoring, and it is known by turning your attention PRIOR to...everything. You think, but can not Know. Look prior to thought, and there will be Knowing. The eternal, infinite, Is-ness has always been and can only ever be the immediate Presence that Is.

There is nothing more that need be said. This is the core Truth. Yet I will use endless words to bring you to this Realization for yourself. Look: penetratingly, honestly, with integrity at your prior condition. Do it RIGHT NOW. Do not delay. There is no future time for this realization to occur. The Is-ness at the root, at the core of awareness, is before, prior to, even Brahman or God. It is the originating Is-ness that you may later call by those terms, but to experience it, you must move PRIOR to all concepts.

This is the Great Architect. This is that from which all the observable space arises. By moving prior to all conditioning, all thought, all identification, you will realize the eternal bliss of that which IS right now, in this very moment.

Michael McKeown