True Reality

[floriferous]

In my contemplations this came to me. Perhaps it will resonate. Perhaps not.

'True reality is that before thought arises.'

A thought is and can only ever be a minds interpretation of experience. If I look at the true knowns of my experience I know that whatever 'I am' is having an experience right now. What that experience is exactly is a little unknown. My mind is doing its best job to speculate on this experience.

For that reason alone my experience of this so called reality can only ever be a version of reality as long as mind is present to qualify it.

True reality is a thought away.

True reality requires no thoughts, ideas or concepts to be the way it is. It just is. As soon as a thought arises then that's not it. It becomes a version of reality. It may be beautiful and wonderful but it is still just a speculation on truth.

If I take my immediate experience right now... Thought has organized and labeled my visual field. It has divided up true reality into bite sized pieces for its own convenience. Here is a wall, a chair, my body, a computer (here is space and time) etc...Thought has done the same with sounds and sensations. Labeling everything.

Before thought arises True Reality might say experience is, single, whole, unitary, indivisible.

That's the elusive Oneness right there. Staring you in the face all along - just the absence of a thought away from you.

I find it curious that Wholeness seems to be all that we ever are and yet the mind divides experience up into 'me' and 'everything else' then we spend the next 80 years on this planet trying to reclaim some sense of wholeness.

And we look for it in things. If I just get this car, this house, this relationship, manifest this or that, have this spiritual experience...then this unending sense of lack will abate. I might have some semblance of wholeness.

It's already present in this moment. We are just misperceiving true reality. In so doing we are creating our own suffering.

I dont think truth can be found looking through the lens of the mind. You will only ever see an exquisite interpretation of reality.

[Nameless]

Well said and food for thought.

[floriferous]

I think this short passage from Scott Morgan sums us up very succinctly...

It all starts out pretty simply.

A harmless thought floating through awareness minding it's own business. Something simpIe like, I love chocolate.

But thoughts and feelings are sticky. They have velcro tails that attach themselves to similar thoughts. A string of like minded thoughts stick together to become something called an idea.

A bunch of similar ideas come together and form a concept, a larger framework made up of sticky thoughts bundled into ideas.

Soon a few concepts form a more solid framework called a point of view. A way of seeing the world.

And finally, a whole truckload of points of view glue together to create a much less flexible invention called a "me". Our identity formed out of thoughts, ideas, and concepts. All of these collected through experience passed on by parents, friends, society, lifetimes.

We view the world through this matrix of ideas and concepts made out of these non-existent thoughts. Now there is nothing wrong with that. It is the natural order of Consciousness creating a notion of a separate self so that Infinite Awareness experiencing itself as separate can know itself fully.

But this "me" is based on mere thoughts, creating the illusion or appearance of separation and duality. At a certain point, the fundamental concepts underpinning separation have had their time. Awareness seeks to know itself as Fullness again.

And since you are reading this, right here, in this luminous Now, Oneness must be knocking on your door.

https://www.thissimplegrace.com/

[Nameless]

Scott Morgan must be a genius or at least in the moment he said that he certainly was. Thank you for sharing it. If it weren't so long I'd put it as my quote.

This also helped clarify something I have thought on many times.

We here and elsewhere talk about learning to connect with our higher selves and the oneness and all that jazz. We hint at and sometimes outright say we must learn to walk in two worlds, the fully conscious aware world AND this deceptively simple 3D physical world.

My thought is this - we already know that other place. the one we don't know is here (3D physical). What if we are only here to submerge ourselves so completely in this one lifetime here that we totally forget all the other stuff. Complete 3D physical Earth reality existence with no hint whatsoever of the planes from which we all pretty much believe we came.

Just a thought, not saying I'm right but do wonder if perhaps I am onto something. Total submersion to the point we don't know of any other existence (consciousness) till the game is over.

[floriferous]

This also helped clarify something I have thought on many times.

We here and elsewhere talk about learning to connect with our higher selves and the oneness and all that jazz. We hint at and sometimes outright say we must learn to walk in two worlds, the fully conscious aware world AND this deceptively simple 3D physical world.

My thought is this - we already know that other place. the one we don't know is here (3D physical). What if we are only here to submerge ourselves so completely in this one lifetime here that we totally forget all the other stuff. Complete 3D physical Earth reality existence with no hint whatsoever of the planes from which we all pretty much believe we came.

Just a thought, not saying I'm right but do wonder if perhaps I am onto something. Total submersion to the point we don't know of any other existence (consciousness) till the game is over.

Yes I think we have forgotten. I mentioned in another thread that because we have become distracted by the shiny objects of experience that true nature sits in the background being ignored.

I would say that it is this 3D world that is infinitely more complicated though because of the nature of mind to divide experience up into the many objects. If true reality is before thought then it is incredibly simple in nature. As soon as the mind divides experience up into 'me' and 'not' we introduce resistance into experience which makes it so complicated because we push back against what we misperceive as 'not me'. If you're just One then there is nothing to resist because everything is you. Why resist yourself? But as soon as you perceive yourself as separate it becomes a game of resistance to the now and seeking a future moment we believe will be better by resisting some objects and striving to obtain others.

As long as we are constantly resisting our experience then we are playing into the notion of a separate self. There is nothing inherently wrong with this but if you are seeking peace and contentment then it goes against the grain.

Notice the ways in which you resist the moment through the course of your day. You will see it is one of your most dominant activities.

[floriferous]

Reframing thoughts can click in new ways, so...

In this moment you are witnessing the field of experience and this experience is made up of thinking, sensing, and perceiving. No objects. Just a simple flow of experiencing.

When mind arises it claims personal ownership of a small fraction of this experience and labels it me and labels everything else not me. In so doing it creates a subject/object relationship where there isn't one. The whole field of experience was only always ever you.

So instead of one seamless experience that you, the presence of awareness is witnessing, what we now have is awareness seemingly contracting down into a narrow focus and thinking itself to be a limited physical subject surrounded by a world of external objects.

And then we go - off into the world trying to find our self like a fish in the ocean in search of water.

Every appearance is an appearance of yourself. There is nothing new to find. It doesn't require any doing or going anywhere or finding anything.  It only requires you to see through the misperception by exploring your direct experience right now. As you do so, the walls of misperception slowly start to crumble. And in so doing happiness starts to arise. A happiness without cause. That's the best kind.

And that's all we ever truly desired in the first place.

[LightBeam]

And in so doing happiness starts to arise. A happiness without cause. That's the best kind.

And that's all we ever truly desired in the first place.

Very true, floriferous! I have been experiencing the happiness without a reason for many years now. Initially I thought that my brain must be producing excessive amounts of dopamine naturally (I have never used drugs or alcohol to enhance mood), but then I realized that this happiness is a result of my understanding of the multiverse and the purpose of existence, the nature of the soul and the oneness. That knowing gives me comfort and peace. To me there is no failure of any kind the way characters perceive it. I "see" and "sense" at every waking moment the entire multiverse's living pulse, magnificence and power, and I see myself as a part of every point of consciousness there is. Of course as a character, I go through momentums of pain, disappointment, as this is natural while limited, but I bounce back very quickly and my default mode remains as incredible happiness and joy. I wish everyone can reach this realization.

[floriferous]

To me there is no failure of any kind the way characters perceive it. I "see" and "sense" at every waking moment the entire multiverse's living pulse, magnificence and power, and I see myself as a part of every point of consciousness there is. Of course as a character, I go through momentums of pain, disappointment, as this is natural while limited, but I bounce back very quickly and my default mode remains as incredible happiness and joy. I wish everyone can reach this realization.

That's a good read.

Yes agreed. With that absence of a sense of failure our resistance to what is drops away. The need to go towards experience switches to allowing experience to come to you.

I like your line about the 'living pulse'. That felt sense of awareness that is often in the background of experience can start to make its way to the foreground of experience so much so it becomes the dominant experience in a world of objects.

I think the human experiences you mention like pain or disappointment help cement the true reality by providing a contrasting backdrop. The subtlety of being can be overlooked without the presence of contrasting values.