Nothing Is Real

Things are not as they appear to be,

nor are they otherwise.

-    Lankavatara Sutra

Within our minds we like to believe that we know things definitely; that we have captured “reality” within our thoughts, concepts and beliefs.  Actually nothing could be further from the truth and nothing could be more futile.  We seek to know and understand a “reality” which can only ever be a construct within our minds.  The fact that a cultural majority favors one fabrication over others is notwithstanding.  Our real problem is that we seek know things outside of ourselves without truly knowing who we are. 

Now if you are new to this line of inquiry, I apologize.  You might be saying, “Hey, I am so-and-so and I live such-a-place and I’m married to so-and-so and I do such-and-such for a living.  Or it could be some variation on these; perhaps you are unmarried and unemployed.  All of these are just definitions of ourselves within socio-cultural categories.  As much as we believe in them and are emotionally attached to them, they are not actually real.  In fact they are extremely ephemeral.  It just takes one good crisis in life to upset the whole house of cards. 

Who are we ultimately?  Who is the real you; the real me?  To truly answer this question we have to go out of our minds.  The fact is that many of us are trying to do this all of the time.  We know that we are missing something, that something is fundamentally amiss.  We use illegal drugs and alcohol, prescription drugs, sex, gambling, shopping, video games, television, online social networking, etc. both to search for that something and to distract ourselves from the vaguely insistent anxiety that lurks just below the surface of our awareness. 

Even religion can be a distraction.  As long as we believe that “God” is an imaginary being “out there” we are looking in the wrong direction.  “The entrance door to the sanctuary,” wrote Islamic poet Rumi, “lies within you.”  Of course, he was hardly original in this statement.  Mystical poets and seers throughout the ages have been trying to tell us the same thing.  The ground of being is not to be found in things but within ourselves; within our essential being.  God is within us.  S/He is who we are.

This perspective runs throughout the Upanishads which are the source of the Yoga Vedanta philosophy.  The Kena Upanishad states this quite clearly:

"That which makes the tongue speak but cannot be
Spoken by the tongue, know that as the Self.
This Self is not someone other than you.

 "That which makes the mind think but cannot be
Thought by the mind, that is the Self indeed.
This Self is not someone other than you.

 "That which makes the eye see but cannot be
Seen by the eye, that is the Self indeed.
This Self is not someone other than you.

 "That which makes the ear hear but cannot be
Heard by the ear, that is the Self indeed.
This Self is not someone other than you.

"That which makes you draw breath but cannot be
Drawn by your breath, that is the Self indeed.
This self is not someone other than you."

(Easwaren, 1987)

In other words, the essential being is not an object which can be known through the five senses, nor through the mind.  It is the “knower” who experiences through the mind and the senses.  The term “The Self” can also be translated as God.  The Self is not at all our ego personality.  The ego is an aspect of the mind and the senses.  It is basically a self-referential thought construct.  Remember, the real Self can never be an object of thought.  In order to experience it we have go out of our minds.

Meditation is a means of going beyond mind without going completely crazy.  Or maybe it is more of a safe way to go completely crazy.  When we are able to relax deeply while retaining our awareness we can go deeper into the mystery of consciousness; a mystery that can be labeled to a certain extent but never fully defined.  Science has become interested in consciousness in our time but struggles because it is not within its scope.  While science searches for truths in the physical world, spirituality searches for truths of consciousness.  Each has its place.  Science is a wonderful methodology for investigating the physical world; meditation is a time honored methodology for investigating the inner.  The Self, though, is neither inner nor outer, it is both and neither. 

This Self is not someone other than you.