From Surface to the One Reality

 Pleasure and pain are only aspects of the mind.  Our essential nature is happiness, but we have forgotten the Self and imagine that the body or the mind is the Self.

Maharshi

Surface Reality

Back to the basis of this entire blog, of the nature of suffering and awakening. Our problem is not the fact that there are so many things out there that seem to  bring pain nor is the solution  finding those things out there that we erronously believe will bring pleasure to the body or the mind. The problem is we do not know  who we are.  We falsely identify with body and mind. We are stuck on the surface of our existence and see reality as that which is going on on that surface. We see ourselves as seperate little bodies that are vulnerable, needing protection from all other seperate bodies around us. We believe our minds that are constantly frantic with fearful thought after thought leading to emotion after emotion, behaviour after behaviour. We believe this to be who we are.  And it isn't.

The Only Reality

What moves this surface entity that we call 'me'  is something eternal, never changing and it exists below the surface we have come to believe is reality. It is a spacious, formless,  never ending,  thoughtless realm that animates and moves these little 'mes' we think we are.  The Source of all exists at this deeper level, is this deeper level and it is where we belong...We know that even on the surface level by that constant feeling that something is missing, something is 'wrong'.  Yet because we are so focused on our superficial lives as body and mind we seek to fill that emptiness with more superficial things.  We do not go deeper to know Self.

 As long as we do not know our essential nature we do not know that we are peace! We do not know that what we are looking for is not 'out there' but 'in here.' We won't find the peace we are looking for.

Self realization is the answer to all of our so called problems. In the deeper realm the mind does not make distinction of "This is pleasurable", "This is painful" . Things just are.

Hmmm!

All is well in my world.