This piece was posted to perpetual-lab.blogspot.com on November 21, 2006, and never before published on rochereau.uk
I proposed these three words the other day as minimal advice for the seeker who wants to travel light, and not be weighed down by the world’s scriptures and commentaries derived therefrom. I’ve been drafting a number of false starts since then, digressing into the issue, “What is reality?” Now this is a sure-fire way to use up lots of ink, paper and keystrokes, as I soon discovered.
Who “in their right mind”—that is a normal person, rather than a philosopher—would want to discuss reality? Only those with an agenda, and the agendas boil down to one thing: “my reality is the true reality, yours, or someone else’s, is mistaken”. No! Someone else’s reality is not my concern, unless I can see that they are about to harm themselves through delusion; and even then I may not be able to help. If I could help, I suspect that my compassionate concern would be more helpful than my logic.
I accept that someone’s personal vision of reality is not mine to mess with. In this conviction, I distance myself from the professional perspective of politicians, evangelists, teachers, marketers, salesmen, PR consultants, lawyers, and authors of books “that will change your life”. Rather like the gardener who digs the ground, plants seeds and uses Nature to harvest the produce, these people prepare my mind, plant their seeds of suggestion, and use Nature to reap a harvest from my desires. This is what I call unreality, whose expression may be seen in any newspaper.
To distinguish the real, I need to make effort. I’ll start by sweeping up the propaganda showered upon me, like handbills scattered from an overhead ’plane, littering up the streets and countryside. Some of it is sweet seduction. Some of it I may actually need, for the world has its own ways, and we have to render unto Caesar what’s due to Caesar; the whisperers in our ear also provide certain services we could not do without.
It’s because we can’t banish the unreal from our lives that we need to make effort, today more than ever in history, to distinguish what’s real. Unreality clutters our path and makes it slippery, like autumn leaves. They are so beautiful that Michael Peverett in his blog asks what has motivated Nature to make it so. The unreality thrust upon us is often pretty, but we need to clear a path so as to walk safely.
The only realities of any value to me are:
(1) The common external reality of this shared world. I insist on viewing it through my own spectacles and not anyone else’s
(2) Inner reality. The saints and prophets and scriptures may inspire me (don’t count on it!) but there is only one inner reality. Not theirs but mine.
My inner reality is the only way I can be in touch with spirit. Its doorway is stillness, which requires that:
(a) I’m not being nagged by my unsatisfied needs
(b) I ignore the seductions of those who would sow their promises, worldly or spiritual, in my impressionable mind.
15 comments
Davo
“the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Dunno who came up with that quote… but seems appropriate, somehow.
Hayden
recently have been studying/meditating on the nature of risk. doing this as preparation for an academic paper I have to write for an anthropology class on disease. What nags at me is the need to listen, not pronounce. What a doctor thinks may be a significant risk pales beside other more urgent priorities I may be facing. your essay on reality seems much related: it is not the Dr’s reality that guides the patient, but the patient’s. The Dr. may guide the perceptions, but shouldn’t be surprised if ‘Drs rules’ do not dominate another’s reality and are not followed.
CE
We share the same vision. But maybe we need inspiration.
Anonymous
The rulers of our society wants everyone to see reality through thier eyes because they have an agenda…buy buy buy or you won’t be happy is the message. Good point about reality and agenda.
Greensmile
Fairness before freedom.
Anando Rocks
“The unreality thrust upon us is often pretty, but we need to clear a path so as to walk safely.” That’s the challenge. Freedom from conditioning.
20box
Be yourself…..
Davo
Decipher between “conditionings”.
Vincent
You mean how do we know which is our real self and which is conditioning? Ah, that’s a good one! Er…. dunno.
CE
We are the conditioning. There is no real self or Self or SELF. There is only all this. Some people call it the Universe, the Cosmos, the Intelligence, the Spirit, the Nameless, God.
Space Bar:
Vincent, I wonder if http://allspirit.co.uk will interest you? there are some interesting discussions that take place there…
Vincent
Space Bar, I just rediscovered your blog which inexplicably I had not bookmarked till now. And have like a dog on a lamp-post made my mark occasionally on it. But I’ll follow up your suggestion, thanks!
Space Bar
and I’ve bookmarked yours!
a wayfarer’s notes 
Isn’t “our” reality something we choose, or at least choose how to interpret? Aren’t we all the center of our universe, seeing it, as you say, through our own spectacles, influenced by our own perceptions, our own preconceived beliefs, our own desires, our own experiences? We can be and are influenced by other realities around us and often it feels like our choices about how we react to these alternate realities are narrow. It does take work to act rather than merely react. It requires us to slow down, to identify our feelings, to think about why we feel the way we do, to ask ourselves why we believe what we do, where those beliefs originated, and then to act on our ideas of what all this means to us. I believe that stillness you mention as a door to your inner reality is also a door into the unknown, that which we long to know. It’s the door to oneness, that sense of being separate and unified at once, of being balanced.
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Hi Pauline, you weren’t anonymous to me when I got your question on my phone, but it didn’t show the comment itself.
first of all, I love what you’ve said, and think it’s far more valuable than what I wrote above 9 years ago when I somehow felt reborn at the age of 64.
I’ll read it again and put it somewhere for reference.
But meanwhile, you asked how to avoid commenting as anonymous. You’ll be commenting from phone, laptop etc. You can provide your URL or icon, and if you don’t have a Gravatar, set one up.
But I’m not an expert.
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” It does take work to act rather than merely react.” Now I see you are right. I used to have a terrible temper, but now that I reflect, I never expressed it except to someone I loved or cared deeply about. Mother, wife sometimes teenage child.
It’s an extraordinary thing, but I’ve conquered it—this year—without a shadow of doubt. Love conquers everything.
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