A Matter of What is Real

How real is anything? Those of us who have studied in the teachings of the East have often come across the phrase, “nothing is real”, or “it’s all an illusion”. Those of us who have hit our heads on an open cupboard door or barked our shins may be inclined to dispute this. Getting our hearts broken leaves us in no doubt that the pain of our loss was quite real.

This brings us to the consideration of real in the absolute sense and real in the relative sense. Some things are more real than others; perhaps that is a better way to put it. The relative aspect of life is always passing, always in a state of transformation into something else. The pain of the injured head; the barked shin, the broken heart all recede over time. In terms of real in the relative sense it is more real at one point than at another. In an absolute sense it is always as real as it always is. Relative real exists in the realm of time which marks the degrees of its passage into something else. Absolute real does not exist in the realm of time though it may affect conditions in the realm of time.

If one were to possess a clear objective capacity it would be apparent that the way most of us see things most of the time is upside down. We see things wrong because our judgments are based on subjective reasoning. We take the report of the senses and determine the meaning according to our understanding. A child and an adult perceive the same thing differently. And every individual has a different experience of most things based on their conditioning; what they have been conditioned to believe. Perceptions of the body in the world of the senses have the nature of a dream. Life is dreaming. It could more truthfully be said that we wake up when we die. Our understanding of death is based on more conditioning which is based on conjecture. Most people don’t have a clue about much of anything. Many people are less interested in what is real than in what they are after. It is an obvious fact that religion and philosophy are continually subverted for the purpose of justifying what we want.

This is a peculiar thing. Is it better to have ones perceptions of meaning adjusted to support the exercise of ones appetites and desires or is it better to adjust oneself to what is essentially true? In the latter case; how would you go about that if you didn’t know what was true? What makes it the more difficult is that what is true stands in contradiction to almost everything that is declared and accepted to be true by the temporal realm. Of course, those who speak for the temporal realm in matters of ethical behavior and the definition of what is right and wrong all say the right things; it’s just that they don’t practice them in fact- that’s your job. It doesn’t sound fair does it? Well, it’s not fair.

Consider the war on individuals who take ‘controlled’ substances and then consider that those who provide those substances- if you follow the trail back to the bulk providers- are connected to and often members of the very government that proscribes their use. At the same time the most destructive substances are legal; that would be alcohol and tobacco. More people die from these products in one year than die from all the illegal products in a century.

Consider the organized church that prohibits sex unless it is practiced according to their tenants, yet fields an army of pedophile priests. The examples of governmental and religious hypocrisy are legion. I could not hope to address all the inconsistencies in this small venue. So it appears that both government and religion are the enemy of truth. It becomes more interesting to note that the heroes of humanity in terms of their efforts to bring fairness and understanding into the arena of life are often slain by government and the same is true of those who have worked to the same ends in the area of religion and philosophy.

At this time, the degree of hypocrisy and venal activity on the part of the church and state has hit a level of absurdity that surpasses anything previous. Within our hearts and minds each of us knows what is right because we have an intelligence that informs us of it. We know when we have spoken and acted against the common good, even in the smallest detail, because we feel it. As one ignores these messages ones offenses become more consistent and potentially greater. A sociopath does not feel anything and there are far more of them today than there were. Still, after all, it’s all well and good to talk of living the truth but hardly anyone does; get real. Interesting that phrase, “get real”.

It stands to reason that one must remain silent about a good many things. There is a phrase in the Bible that states, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Anyone, who cares to, can look over their life and see the compromises they have made to carry on here. We collectively accept the need for this. Since we are all liars and all compromised; then how can we say something is real when we are not? We declare to be real that which serves our purposes.

It’s pretty obvious that few of us tolerate the presence of people who tell us the truth. I am excepting the self-righteous and pedantic who go on ad infinitum about Byzantine, Confucian hair-splitting of dogmatic verities. But no one wants to be bored to death either.

One who seeks to discover and experience the truth is put in the position of being seen as Frankenstein’s monster. We must become the most veiled of undercover operatives; except in those instances where we are required to be an example of the power that everyone else rejects simultaneous with the lip service being paid.

Do you really want to know the truth? The cost of the truth is the destruction of every lie you have accepted, as well as the destruction of everything constructed upon your false assumptions. The Bible and allegorical tales of many cultures tell us of the degree of our willingness to embrace that which is beyond the ongoing machinery of the dream world in which we live. We live ‘in’ it but we are not ‘of’ it. All our pain is based in this conundrum. Our inherent immortality wars against our embrace of temporary deaths. The truth in us is at war with the lie that surrounds us and is at war with the compromises we make.

Truth tellers are marginalized to the lunatic fringe. Truth tellers are jailed, beaten, slandered and killed. But you can’t kill the truth, or the one who bears it. It only seems so and many truth tellers willingly accept this appearance of demise which is in fact a promotion. But what if ...what if??? Uh huh.

Those who believe in God have a fundamental disposition to. Those who believe in God see the evidence of God everywhere they look. Those who do not believe in God see the evidence of God’s absence everywhere they look. Those who embrace the letter of the law but reject the spirit of the law are always at work to exercise the principle of anthropomorphism upon the personality of God. Those who embrace the spirit of the law realize that God is something more than what can be comprehended. In their yearning for this which is greater than themselves they are grown into something greater than themselves.

I’ve mentioned frequently that these times are perilous and uncertain. We see trends and events that are alarming. These are but the tip of the iceberg. I am at pains in this regard because a time will come when the confusion will become very great indeed. It is imperative that every soul, for whom the truth is the most important thing, be capable of reminding themselves that appearances are just that and not to give them a power greater than their awareness of the source of all power that lies behind all apparent phenomena. Safe harbor isn’t a location; it is a state of being.

Visible sings: ♫ Something Good (is Coming Soon) ♫
'Something Good (is Coming Soon)' is track no. 10 of 10 on Visible's 2002 album
'911 was an Inside Job'
Lyrics (pops up)