Illusion to Reality

Ideas run our lives. Without ideas there is nothing to say about ourselves. If we were to keep ourselves open to awareness of the stuffs running in the mind we will be able to observe the many ideas that make up the meaning of life. That which can be observed as a conditioned state arising within the mind is what we call as “I”. In reality if we are able to step back and watch the drama of those conditionings playing up in the mind we do not see ourselves there. We see only a continuum play of ideas arising one after another, dependent on each other. When we don’t identify with it and instead stay with awareness, observing from the space of impartiality and detachment, the pattern of the conditioning shifts, changing the course which it would usually take when we identify with it.

We are hard wired by our mental conditioning, by the ideas that we take on as gospel truth. We seldom question what comes into our mind. And the mind is like a sponge, absorbing practically anything that comes its way. And that is what advertising is all about – repetitive exposure makes the mind buys into what it is shown. Consider what happens when we are not aware of what comes into our space, like a house with no doors, windows or walls to protect, subjected to everything that comes from all directions. The mind can be represented by this analogy, where there are no doors, windows or walls to keep the mind out from what comes its way. Imagine the countless ideas in the form of information, views, opinions, and judgments infiltrating the mind everyday, not to mention each and every moment.

Thus to maintain mental hygiene is utmost important if we are to choose to live a life that is free from unnecessary influences. And the way to begin is to be aware of what comes into our space. And that takes a little inquisitiveness to observe what the mind is absorbing from one moment to the next. Observe how the mind chooses what it wants to experience, mainly from the hearing and seeing doorways. And observe too, how the mind defines things as good and bad to feed its old conditioning, hence strengthening its egoic position or pattern.

Once we are able to be mindful of our mental processes, we will have the ability to choose what is beneficial to our wellbeing. In the beginning we may observe that what comes into our space has much influence on our habitual patterns. But when we are able to step back and observe the mind a little longer we are able to differentiate what is appropriate and inappropriate to our well being through the natural process of wisdom unfolding in the mind. The mind process is a learned mechanism. When we work along with wisdom long enough, the mind will work according to the wisdom system effortlessly in the future. But for that to happen we have to first train the mind to acknowledge the essentiality of awareness as that is where our choices are.

If we wish to change ourselves we need to start from awareness or mindfulness – not forgetting to be in the present moment. Awareness is the key to any transformative work. The mind is our life and yet we pay minimal attention to it. Our emotions, ideas and thoughts are the causes of our happiness and sorrow, all deriving from the mind and yet we look away from ourselves to seek happiness from the outside. When we bring our attention towards the workings of our mind, we see a world more real manifesting in our experiences, the projector of the screen which we refer as our life. All our source of joy, grief, sadness or happiness is from the projector, not the screen. In the projector is found the source of ideas that make you who you are. To resolve the effect we have to move ourselves to the cause and see the beginning of our issues.

How we relate to the world is the way our relationship is with ourselves. Our reaction with the world is exactly mirroring the way we react with ourselves. Our perception of how the world is treating us is merely our imagination. In reality we can’t change the world as the world we perceive is our own, thus making our relationship intimate – ourselves. All our emotions are found right here within ourselves – the world or the stuffs in the mind are merely a show, expressing who we are, by the way we respond to each experience. Happiness no longer needs to be sought when we finally understand that what we have been trying to seek is found in the way we relate to ourselves. In short, our way of relating to ourselves is either from the space of ignorance or wisdom.

We seek for happiness outside simply because the way we relate to ourselves does not generate the happiness we wish to have. We are rarely at peace with ourselves because the ideas that we have taken into our system are in contradiction with the natural flow of our beingness, of nature. Like a boat moving upstream against the flow of the river, we are in constant conflict and battle with ourselves to come into a balanced state of living. We seldom question why we are in an unsettling state. We ignore what we have thrown into our system which causes this upheaval.

There are calls of yearning from our inner soul but the plea is ignored because of the power we have given away to the norm of our society. We sell our soul just to conform to what society require from us. Taking a step back and question the meaning of life is not something we are trained to do. We probably may not even know there exists such possibility.

And that is how it begins – a child is being forced to conform to certain situation, irrelevant to the cry of reluctancy or to the desire to be understood –  just for the sake of feeding someone’s need. Overtime, the child lived for others rather than for themselves. Aren’t we, to a great extant, a byproduct of someone else’s need? Their needs can be found in our attitude, character, personality or even career. Due to long term programming, we become lifeless to our life – we live unconsciously in an unhappy state that is not in sync with our beingness – our primordial state and inclination when we begin this very life. Everyone thinks that their need is also another’s need. And we are all enforcing each other with our ideas – a byproduct of our unquestioned life – forcing what we believe is true unto others.

Seldom do we pause and inquire whether what others do unto us previously is encouraging or impeding our naturalness to be wise. As human we are given the ability to discern but rarely do we utilize this ability and thus subject others to walk the same fate as us, imposing unconscious guilt upon them. Our unquestioned mind leads us to think we are right.  Are we ignorant or innocent in this sense? Are we subjugated to what society wants from us or do we have a life that is far more than just conformity and routines?

And as we mature into self-discernment, we start inquiring from within what kind of relationship we are having with ourselves that allow others to dictate our needs. We no longer point fingers at anyone but instead come into taking responsibility of our own actions – the very relationship that we have allowed to eat into our core system which has made us feel ideally useless and ignorant – ignorant to the fact that we do have a choice of living differently, not by rebelling or reforming anything on the outside but through introspective journey of questioning old ideas and beliefs that are no longer beneficial to our well being.

It is about a journey of self-discovery where peace abiding is our naturalness, where we can never be controlled by another; except our allowing others to do so. We can never be in bondage unless we allow ourselves to be so. It is about the way we give our power away, the way we do not take a responsive act to the pattern the mind is taking.

Thus to wake up to the reality of our lives, we have to start wherever we are, the journey of awakening to what is within each and everyone of us – questioning honestly what is it that our soul is desiring and yet not allowing it to be surfaced in our space. And to come clean without pointing any finger at anyone except to see the ideas that we have trapped ourselves in is the first and an important step to freeing ourselves from the bondage of misperception.

It is a mandatory journey for all of us to come into our trueness but the time for us to initiate this journey is up to us. The earlier the journey is taken, the possibility of entering into a life where we are true to ourselves is ever possible. For we are the director of our lives.