Saturday, February 23, 2008

Thoughts on the meaning of reality

“Reality is all-encompassing: the absolute nature is one. Although we may feel separate from the original uncreated reality - whether we call it 'God,' 'peak experience,' or 'enlightened mind' - through awareness we can contact this essential part of ourselves”. (Tarthang Tulku*)

When you are in the presence of a truly “awake” person, and you are also in a state of mindful “awakeness” then your mind will resonate with theirs to the point that you will feel “one” with them. Musicians understand this concept in music – when a group of musicians are playing as one, they lose sense of themselves and the notes they are playing, and they “become” the music. When you have a friend with whom you truly feel as “one with”, you might not have had contact with them for some time, maybe even years, but when you do finally get together the lapse of time evaporates and you are immediately “in tune” with each other.

I am beginning to understand that I have to be “at one with” myself if I wish to transcend the daily drudge into a place of spiritual peace or serenity. It is interesting that a favorite prayer in the world of those in addiction recovery, begins, “God, grant me the serenity…..” This assumes, again, that we have to look outside of ourselves for our serenity; we are told that we have the right to pursue happiness, as if that is outside of ourselves as well.

In my humble opinion this view of reality has been a curse upon our society, the reason why we lack so much peace of mind and why we are the biggest consumers of anti-depressant medication in the world. Please don’t misunderstand me there are many whose lives would be destroyed without medications so thank goodness for them, but the TV ads. push pills upon us as the “cure” for any feeling that we might have.

If we do not allow ourselves to be at peace with our feelings and accept them because they are just there, how can we ever transcend the daily drudge? Only through awareness of everything within us, and the understanding that we are connected to everything outside of us, can we actually be “real”.


*Tarthang Tulku (b. 1934) is a Tibetan teacher (lama) in the Nyingma tradition who lives in America, where he works to preserve the art and culture of Tibet. The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as the "school of the ancient translations" or the "old school", because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century.

2 comments:

John B. Burroughs said...

Another excellent blog! It's hard to ever be at peace with others when we aren't at peace with ourselves. I think both walk hand in hand. Thanks for another thought-provoking read!

CaringInfo said...

Reality alone exists - and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One Mind, which is our mind without the 'our'. Is it so hard to accept? Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live? - Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei