the only reason we had problems with this is that in our culture we believe that reality
means physical things now yeah if we think that reality means physical things then the
Caribbean Beach that we dream of is not real because it's not a physical thing
but that's that statement is only true in relation to our belief that only physical things are real
but if we don't start from that premise try to imagine something that is not real everything
is real doesn't mean that everything is real in the way that it appears to be
it doesn't mean that the world is necessarily A multiplicity and diversity of objects made out of
stuff outside Consciousness namely matter yes okay the world may not be that but whatever
the world is it is real there is something there when we when we touch it there is something here
and whatever that something is must be real it couldn't even be experienced if it was not real
the question is not whether the world is real or not it is absolutely real the war
in Ukraine is real ever the the Caribbean Beach we dream of is real the suffering we
feel is real the question is not whether it is real or not the question is what is its reality
what does that question mean it means
not how does it appear to be it means what is it really in spite of the way it appears
the Caribbean Beach that we dream of at night is obviously not a Caribbean Beach made out of
sea and sun and wind and and sand but there is something that is real about the experience what
is it it is our own mind there is something real about that and then if we go further if we our
own mind is obviously something that is real the images that appear they are they're not nothing
if we touch them to try to when I say touch I mean metaphorically so if we try to touch the
stuff out of which our mind is made what do we find consciousness and then can we go further
back is consciousness itself an appearance of something that is that lies behind it can you go
further back in your experience than Consciousness no we can't Consciousness is as far back as we can
go hence we say Consciousness is the reality of which everything else is the appearance
so there's a there's a big misunderstanding and it's it gets contained in some of the traditional
advice texts this conflation of the idea that the world is an illusion and therefore it is not real
there's a difference they mean two completely different things
it's true to say that the world is an illusion as we normally think of it
but that doesn't imply that it's unreal people normally think that if something's an illusion
it's therefore unreal and there's been so I grappled with this for 20 years when I first
came across this formulation I heard so often in the classical inviter teaches the world
um is an illusion it's unreal and I just could not persuade myself much I knew what was being said
was true at some level but could I honestly say of my experience that the world is unreal no I can't
can I honestly look at what's happening in Ukraine and just say it's unreal no way
it's real yes it's not what it appeared it took me 20 years to realize that this distinction between
the statement that the world isn't a youth is an illusion and that the world is unreal yes
the world is an illusion that is it is not what it appears to be all Illusions have a reality to them
and that reality is absolutely real moreover there is nothing to an illusion other than its reality
the landscape we see in a movie is an illusion but it has a reality to it relatively speaking the
screen the landscape is not made out of grass and rocks and trees and Sky when we touch it we don't
find grass and rocks but we don't find nothing we find it's reality the screen moreover all there
is to the landscape is the screen the screen is not buried behind the landscape the landscape is
not veiling the screen it is our belief that the landscape is a landscape that makes the screen
seem to be unseen but as soon as we touch the reality of the landscape and realize oh it is
a screen and then we look at the landscape again and we realize all there is to the landscape is
the screen the landscape doesn't fail the screen it shines with the screen as the screen so this
world as a multiplicity and diversity of objects made out of matter is an illusion but if we touch
the world if we touch the stuff that the world is made of if we go to its reality we recognize its
reality infinite being and then we come back to the world and we realize that all there is to the
world is its reality all there is to the world is infinite being at that point we realized that what
we what previously seemed to Veil reality namely the world now shines with it as it because if the
world veiled its reality the world would have to be something other than its reality and what
what could it be other than reality no it is not the world that veils its reality is it
it's our belief that the world is a multiplicity and diversity of objects made out of matter that
seems to bail its reality as soon as that belief is removed the world that once seemed to conceal
its reality now shines with it the reality is not buried in some realm behind the world that it is
shining as the world everything we experience in the world is God's being shining everything
as the Sufi say wherever you look there is only the face of God God I'm I'm I've distilled my 20
years into five minutes you don't need 20 years I just didn't have this this clear simple approach I
had to find it and and I'm I'm glad I did because having to find it took me on a great journey
and that Journey was invaluable it's what I needed I don't regret it but it's not necessary to take
20 years give yourself 10 minutes listen to this recording again give yourself 10
minutes it's all you need it's not necessary to take 20 years that was in the past where
when the the non-dual understanding was still shrouded in the packaging that it derived from
Eastern cultures India China Tibet Japan and so it was somehow impenetrable to us exotic strange
at something that we felt we could never for ourselves but but recently relatively recently
uh the the understanding has been divested of the packaging that it acquired from the Eastern
cultures and it has been made clear simple um there was a very significant event in the
middle of the 20th century it wasn't an event it was a the appearance of three Indian sages
Maharaja they were the first people that began to speak about this understanding
in terms that that were free of their cultural conditioning and
I didn't realize this to begin with but most of their students were westerners
or at least many of them many of their people of their own culture
were too attached to the to the to the Indian packaging they had their plenty of
Indian students but there they were the first people whose teachings really appealed to to
the west of mine although they were still for many people there's so much misunderstanding around
not quite so well known although he was one of the Giants of the 20th century but there's
still so much although they simplified the teaching and book Clarity to it there was a
whole other step that was necessary to bring Clarity to their teachings to interpret them
and make them clear and simple I grappled with their teachings for for 20 or 30 years before
before the the Simplicity and the clarity the directness of it became clear and so what I'm
doing here is really trying to distill the essence not only of those teachings
but of of the great tradition so no 20 years it's not necessary anymore