Reality is the unsuitable word we use to describe what we perceive through our senses. It is unsuitable because deep down, we know there is nothing real about it, at least so long as we consider the real to be true.
When we look at a tree, we see an image of a tree. Light bounces around, reaches our eye and travels along our optic nerves to the visual cortex where a picture is magically created. It is that picture that we call reality. As far as we are concerned, the picture is the tree. When we think of a tree, we remember the pictures of trees we have amassed in our memory for an entire life time. We don’t, or I should say we can’t think of an actual tree because we can’t know a tree. The only way we know a tree is through our five senses. What is true for the tree is true for everything we have ever experienced since our birth.
Our entire life is a series of images in our mind.
Life is a show, a spectacle, just like our dreams. We assume the spectacle is caused by something, but in truth, we don’t know. Reality could be nothing more than a dream. We live oblivious of that inconvenient truth for the sake of our sanity and we call the dreamer crazy. What lies beyond the illusion is the Truth some call God, the Absolute or the Universe.
Enlightenment, the ultimate purpose of religion and spirituality, is seeing the illusion. The keyword here is “seeing”. It cannot be confused with arriving at the conclusion through logic like I just did in the above section. Neither is it believing in blind faith because we were told to by a priest. It requires seeing the illusion as a personal experience.
Once you see that the world is in your head, the physicalist worldview of today’s society seems a fragile paradigm. If all you can possibly know is in your mind, then inventing a world outside seems like a stretch. What if there was nothing but your mind? It would mean you are everything and everything is you. You are united with the Divine.
We live like characters in a film not realizing this is only a story. This film was designed for us, so we should enjoy it and from this point of view, life is real. But Enlightenment gives us another point of view, that of the Absolute. From this vantage point, we see the camera, the set and the Light. We see the illusion.
If reality is in your mind, then so is your suffering. Freedom from suffering is the key to happiness. Happiness is your default state. You were born without thoughts, then you discovered the world and started worrying. It became a habit and here you are: a yarn of suffering. Enlightenment will remind you that you are and always were happy.
Where there is no suffering, there is no fear. Enlightenment has the power to free you from your fear of loss, of pain and of death. Most people who are afraid to die have never lived in the first place. We find a million reasons to not do what we want to do, to push it for later. We wait for retirement to learn to play the piano and when the time comes we say it’s too late. Our reasons not to do what we desire are rooted in fear. Free yourself from it and be happy!
Meditation will bring you deeper and deeper to your inner core. Down there, somewhere, you will find your own reflection. You will see what you are made of. You will discover who you really are. Know thyself.
There is a preliminary personal research necessary for any spiritual achievement. It include working on what Carl Jung called psychological individuation. If you don’t do some personal work, your neurosis will get in the way of your practice. Developing your critical thinking skills will also take you a long way. You must be able to critically ascertain the various teachings and experiences you will be presented with. You must build the mental fortitude to question everything and distinguish between worldviews you developed and those you’ve been given. Get into the habit of assigning a specific name to a specific thing. Vagueness is intellectual laziness. Force yourself to push your mind to its limit. Feel the point where it is starting to break. The day you can see the horizon of your mental certitudes at any time, will be the day your spiritual journey really starts. The only thing that stands between you and Enlightenment is the mind.
You can undertake the mental work explained above on your own. It will take a life time. In parallel, you can start the real spiritual work which is done in meditation. It will take another lifetime. Once you feel ready for the Journey, I invite you to start at the Meditation section of this site. You’ll find meditation exercises as well as food for thoughts.
See you there!