Um one is reality and a bit of context with that is I don’t feel like things are very real that it just I haven’t got that really present things are real experience and I have had an experience once where suddenly it was like oh my goodness this is really happening
And that went but I haven’t forgotten it and there was a help I had a helpful understanding through Francis um last month where he talked about the reality two realities there can’t be two separate realities
For one thing to be able to know another thing they have to be part of the same reality and I seem to think I’m a separate reality but if I’m in contact with all of this it
Must mean we are this is one reality so that’s my first question and the second word which is related is humility because I really feel like this sense of being real things being real is related to humility so those are the two words and I wonder if you could help me
Well Anna you you as a person have emerged from the universe your body has been born from from the earth so whatever you as a person essentially are must be the same as the universe from which you have emerged for
The same reason that whatever a wave essentially is must be the same as what the ocean essentially is because it’s an emergence of that ocean so yes you you the the reality of yourself and the reality of the world must be the same reality so the the question then is what is that
The the reality the reality is that which truly is so an illusion is is not something that does not exist it is something that does exist but is not what it appears to be so for instance a square circle
Not only does a square circle not exist we cannot even have an illusion of a square circle can anybody here imagine a square circle could we ever represent a square circle or even imagine it it’s not possible so a square circle doesn’t even appear as an illusion
Let alone existing however a landscape in a movie does exist as something is obviously there we can’t say it’s nothing it’s obviously something but what is there is obviously not a landscape so the landscape that appears in the movie is an illusion but all Illusions have a reality to them
There must be something about the landscape in the movie that is real and in order to find out what is real we need to somehow penetrate through the illusion and touch its reality when we go up to the landscape in the movie We Touch its reality and we find a screen relatively
Speaking so relatively speaking the screen is the reality of the illusory landscape so we do exactly the same with this experience that this experience that we are having is undoubtedly real that there is something all experienced Is real there’s no such thing as an unreal experience
So but the question is what is real about our current experience that the experience of the world it’s it could be an illusion which doesn’t mean to say that it’s not real doesn’t mean say that it doesn’t exist it just means that it’s may not be what it appears to be now
The way the world appears to be is directly correlated with our sense perceptions our minds have the capacity of seeing hearing touching tasting and smelling and surprise surprise reality appears to us in the form of sights sounds tastes textures and smells in other words there is a direct correlation between the perceiving apparatus
Our mind and the appearance of the world the world appears in accordance with the limitations of the apparatus through which it is perceived or in white snow appears orange when you perceive it through orange tinted glasses reality appears to us in the form of sight sounds tastes textures and
Smells when we perceive it through the faculties of seeing hearing touching tasting and smelling so that do them do the sight sounds taste Etc that we see out there do they have their own Standalone reality or do our minds confer upon them their appearance for instance What would
What would the the thing in itself be if we were to remove everything from it that our minds project onto it if you were to remove sights sounds tastes textures smells and Concepts if you were to remove perception and thought perceiving and thinking what would be left of reality
Well they wouldn’t there wouldn’t be divisions between one thing there wouldn’t be any divisions because the divisions are created by the activity of thinking hearings touching tasting and smelling it would be it would be yes there’d be no divisions
And and there’d be no form because the forms that we perceive are all forms that we see here touch taste and smell so what would remain would be undoubtedly present but it would be without any Division and it would be without any form so it it would be
And it would be one because there’s nothing in it to divide it and it would be formless that’s being God’s being but that being and I’m putting on top the understanding here but that being has to be known
In order for us to say that it is being the being and knowing yes so go to that being in yourself because you cannot directly investigate the being that lies behind appearances in the world because your only knowledge of the world your knowledge of what is mediated through sense perception
But you can directly investigate your own being yes you you the awareness of being doesn’t go through perception it’s a diary it’s the direct experience of being so and that’s the experience the awareness of being this experience that shines in each of us is the knowledge I am
So the experience I am is the one experience that each of us has that is not mediated through thought or perception now what is it that enables you to say for certain I am
You know that I am in fact when we say I am what we’re really saying it’s a shorthand way of saying I know that I am the reason we can assert I am is because we know that I am we’re not imagining it
We know for absolute certainty about this the knowledge I am is that has a degree of certainty to it Beyond any other certainty that we have it is the most certain secure knowledge
So the reason we know I am the reason we kind of say I am is because we know I am now when you say I am you say I know the time it is the I that I am
The same eye that knows that I am or is your being known by something other than itself are there two eyes in you one eye that is and another eye that knows that you are gradually saying that it’s self-knowing yes you know when we say I know that I am it is
It’s the same eye there’s only one I in you one only there’s only one self in you your being knows itself it is self-aware then just making a little leap if I took away all those aspects of form and there’s then no divisions
Then there’s no divisions between this self-knowing and any other self-knowing which sounds like a strange thing to say that it’s all self-knowing but that’s why well I didn’t refer to this this morning because it’s much easier to consider the possibility that the Ultimate Reality of the universe is being rather than consciousness
That’s easier it’s easier yeah that’s why I didn’t that’s why that’s why the meditation this morning was as it was but I would go a step further on another occasion and suggested the Ultimate Reality of the universe is not just being but that it is aware being or consciousness
And the what let me just say one other thing and that what we perceive as the world is the activity of reality that’s that’s called reality Consciousness that Consciousness as it were moves within itself vibrates within itself and that movement or vibration of Consciousness
That activity of consciousness appears when viewed through our sense faculties as the physical world just like the activity of your own and we have a model for this this is the the beauty of it that nature has given us a hint when you fall asleep at night the activity of your own mind
Appears as a physical world from the perspective of a separate subject of experience in that world now just go up one level and consider that what appears to us as a physical world is the activity of a universal mind or consciousness
Whose nature is consciousness not matter but it only appears as physical matter when perceived through the sense perceptions of a separate subject of experience within that world and there’s a beautiful line in wordsworth’s Prelude he said um
Therefore am I still a lover of The Meadows and the woods and hills of all the mighty uh uh of all the of all that we perceive from this green earth of all the mighty world of I and ear both
What we half create and half perceive well pleased and it goes on but the the the the relevant lines he’s describing his his love of nature of all the mighty world of iron ear that is everything that we perceive with the eyes the ears and so on of all the mighty world of
Eye and Ear both what they half create half perceive this stunning realization that what the world that the mighty world of all that we perceive of this green earth of all the all the mighty world of iron ear that the world that we perceive is half created by us
Half perceived by us what he’s saying is that the the reality of the world precedes the finite mind and is independent of it I’m not suggesting the world is just a projection of the finite mind that’s a slippery slope to solipsism I’m not
Suggesting that there is much more to reality than the sum total of each of our finite Minds reality precedes our finite mind or our perception its perception by our finite mind so I find that Minds perceive reality half created and half perceive it they create its appearance
But they perceive the mind creates its appearance but perceives its reality our sense faculties seeing hearing touching tasting and smelling create the way the world appears the way reality appears to us but we perceive what the reality of the world we don’t create it it’s already there
So what Wordsworth saying is the world as we experience it is half created by the senses the senses lend the world its appearance and half-perceived we perceive its reality so what what he’s saying to put it into more contemporary scientific language is that
The world as we experience is very close possibly I don’t go too far in this direction because I’m not a scientist but it’s close to to quantum physics the world as we perceive it results from an interaction of infinite consciousness and a finite mind a finite mind
Being a localization of infinite Consciousness and it is the interaction between these two that gives us the the world as we experience the world takes its reality from infinite Consciousness it is the activity of infinite Consciousness but it takes its appearance from being perceived by a finite mind
Such as the interaction of these two that creates the appearance of the world what I see happening is there’s a still a separating out of this one yeah seeing reality yeah that the separating out only only comes after the fact when we conceptualize individually existing selves and things
There’s a have any of you read Ian mcgilchrist’s new book the matter with things he says something beautiful and he says um relationship precedes relata by which he means relationship precedes things it’s it’s a stunning understanding what it means we normally think that there are things
Come first and then there are relationships between things he’s suggesting no it’s the other way around there is relationship between the whole infinite Consciousness and the part the finite mind and it is the interaction of these two that create the
Appearance of things so things come as a result of the relationship between these this interaction rather than the relationship being created by the things and what you’re saying in your metaphor is that it’s some thing moving within itself yes that appears as if there is a difference between the whole and the parts
But actually the parts are just a movement of the huddle yeah so that there is the whole and it’s not just a static hole reality is not just a dead inert being or Consciousness it it moves it it’s moved but the whole cannot see itself
The whole can only be seen from a perspective let me try to demonstrate first of all why the whole cannot see itself imagine imagine this glass and each of us sees this glass from a single point of view and therefore we see a single glass now
Imagine that you were to take a snapshot of your view of this glass now and then you were to change seats go and sit on the other side of the room take another snapshot of the glass and superimpose
Like an old-fashioned slide superimpose the two images one on top of the other you’d now have two glasses looking roughly the same but it would be begin to be blurred now imagine you did that four times and eight times and 16 times and 32 times you superimposed all the slides on
Top of each other it began to look like a Cubist painting the Integrity of the glass would begin to disintegrate they’d be all angles and you wouldn’t now keep on doing that keep on doing it over and
Over again 32 times 64 times 128 200 400 go on and on and on taking a view of the glass from all different points in space what your image would get darker and darker and darker yes now imagine you were to take an image of the glass from every possible location in space
What would you see nothing it would be utter Darkness that’s why the hole cannot perceive reality it cannot perceive the world directly there’s no form from the point of view the whole Consciousness has no knowledge of the world directly it cannot perceive itself directly
It just knows its own being but that being doesn’t appear in any form in order for its movement to be perceived or known it must be perceived or known from a localized perspective that’s what each of our minds are a localized point of view within consciousness
From which it is able to perceive its own movement its own activity as an apparently physical world so the activity of Consciousness is there prior to the finite mind but the finite mind lends the world its appearance hence the world that we experience is an interaction between
These two segments of reality it’s the same reality infinite Consciousness and the finite mind but they have to seem to separate in order to bring something into existence humidity is the inevitable consequence of understanding what I have just tried to explain
Thank you very much that’s lovely it’s a it’s a very difficult thing to try to articulate I’m sorry if I’ve done my best to make that clear yeah it’s um it’s difficult to make it clear and relatable to and and
What I notice is that um to begin with what I’m suggesting compared to conventional wisdom it’s so far out it’s so weird it’s so unbelievable that that you know most people would consider it complete although that’s actually not the case now things are things
Are changing many physicists would now take what I’ve just said seriously but that’s only very recent but what’s interesting about this that when you begin to think about this to begin with it’s so far removed from the way we normally think but the more you think about it
The more you admit yourself allow yourself to consider this possibility and you begin to look at the world with this point of view it begins to confirm itself it gets more and more and more plausible it suddenly begun begins to be more obvious
And it’s not a it’s not a it’s not a kind of final understanding that one arrives at my my mind is is continually going deeper and deeper it’s becoming clearer and clearer in my mind the more I explore this the more clear and obvious it seems to be it’s like it’s emerging
What’s it merging from it’s emerging from the conventional materialistic Paradigm that we’ve all imbibed so deeply that we consider it to be so so obvious that I’m a mind in here and it’s matter out there that this this and this way of thinking this Paradigm
Survives the recognition of our true nature the recognition of our true nature is not enough to understand what we’re talking about there it’s something that takes place afterwards it’s something that in in my experience it just as the mind
Sinks deeper and deeper into this understanding it just begins to emerge and get clearer and clearer and then one a mind that is considered these things over many years becomes very sensitive and fertile and then you hear something relationship precedes relata and something Clicks in your mind and your your mind takes
A Quantum Leap yes that’s it that’s all I needed to hear and then the picture it is clear and then and then you’re you’re on to the next stage of your journey then and then you you go more deeper into it and then you hear something and suddenly there is
This moment of understanding and the moment of understanding is always accompanied by Joy
