Oftentimes this tendency with non-dualist belief does indeed lead to a rejection or minimization of the intensity of experience. And yet, it does seem paradoxical that things seem simultaneously illusory and yet so real; pain especially is something undeniable... And yet there have been monks who burned themselves alive without moving an inch. The layers cascade and cascade ever downwards: Love lights the way <3
❤️❤️ Thanks for the rich share brother Trev ... Yes, I can understand why pointers like "illusion" and "unreal" are so prevalent in the non-dual community... It can be helpful to negate everyday experience for a while to begin discovering context: The being-ness / awareness / God-Light that it's all made of. And as you do this things can start to seem quite illusory, translucent, wavy, dream-like... And it can be tempting to then write the world off as a mere parlor trick or apparition. Then you have a child or drink ayahuasca or something like that and your heart gets cracked open on a new depth and you freshly realize the absolute intimacy, viscerality, and intensity of the world, and it feels 'off' to reduce it to "illusion."
I repeatedly return to "Both, neither, and far beyond either." Is the world real or unreal? Both, neither, and far beyond either. Words like "real" and "illusion" seem to gradually lose their meaning as you start to see each moment as nothing other than God presencing with God in whatever way God is presently expressing God... This goes way beyond real or unreal... It's Absolute Supreme Divinity *literally and viscerally being* with itself, *melting into* itself, *making love* with itself, in each moment. And not just for you. For everyone. At all times and places. God making Love with God from infinite angles simultaneously. God *being* infinite living, shape-shifting, intermelding, vibratory art-works simultaneously. *Being* the weeping widow, *being* the monk who masters physical pain, *being* the soldier shoving a bayonet through the heart of an innocent child, *being* the Buddha realizing God under that bodhi tree. It's so far beyond *anything* conceivable. And yet it's so simple. It's right here. It’s you taking a sip of cool water as the violet sun sets over a meadow of blossoming flowers. This is it. We are it. The One Dance. The One Exquisitely Many-Layered Poem. The Great Perfection.
It surely is an illusion, but the illusion does 'exist'; the 'illusion' is existent (making it 'real' thereby); also persistent (in the words of Einstein), at least while the 'mind' is. And the 'mind' is, as long as the 'body' is (gross or subtle).
Love this :)
Oftentimes this tendency with non-dualist belief does indeed lead to a rejection or minimization of the intensity of experience. And yet, it does seem paradoxical that things seem simultaneously illusory and yet so real; pain especially is something undeniable... And yet there have been monks who burned themselves alive without moving an inch. The layers cascade and cascade ever downwards: Love lights the way <3
❤️❤️ Thanks for the rich share brother Trev ... Yes, I can understand why pointers like "illusion" and "unreal" are so prevalent in the non-dual community... It can be helpful to negate everyday experience for a while to begin discovering context: The being-ness / awareness / God-Light that it's all made of. And as you do this things can start to seem quite illusory, translucent, wavy, dream-like... And it can be tempting to then write the world off as a mere parlor trick or apparition. Then you have a child or drink ayahuasca or something like that and your heart gets cracked open on a new depth and you freshly realize the absolute intimacy, viscerality, and intensity of the world, and it feels 'off' to reduce it to "illusion."
I repeatedly return to "Both, neither, and far beyond either." Is the world real or unreal? Both, neither, and far beyond either. Words like "real" and "illusion" seem to gradually lose their meaning as you start to see each moment as nothing other than God presencing with God in whatever way God is presently expressing God... This goes way beyond real or unreal... It's Absolute Supreme Divinity *literally and viscerally being* with itself, *melting into* itself, *making love* with itself, in each moment. And not just for you. For everyone. At all times and places. God making Love with God from infinite angles simultaneously. God *being* infinite living, shape-shifting, intermelding, vibratory art-works simultaneously. *Being* the weeping widow, *being* the monk who masters physical pain, *being* the soldier shoving a bayonet through the heart of an innocent child, *being* the Buddha realizing God under that bodhi tree. It's so far beyond *anything* conceivable. And yet it's so simple. It's right here. It’s you taking a sip of cool water as the violet sun sets over a meadow of blossoming flowers. This is it. We are it. The One Dance. The One Exquisitely Many-Layered Poem. The Great Perfection.
<3
It surely is an illusion, but the illusion does 'exist'; the 'illusion' is existent (making it 'real' thereby); also persistent (in the words of Einstein), at least while the 'mind' is. And the 'mind' is, as long as the 'body' is (gross or subtle).
Thanks for sharing, brother <3 Is it 'real' or 'illusion'? Both, neither, far beyond either