“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time and dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.” ~Pascal

Bodhisattva Bob O’Hearn (theconsciousprocess.wordpress.com) and I have been having a most productive discussion recently concerning the illusional nature of reality and I thought it might be helpful to define some terminology. (Accepting for the purposes of discussion the inherent limitations of words and the obvious contradiction of using words to describe what is beyond thought)

Reality: “(Something) that exists independently of ideas concerning it.”
I use the word “something” here because any specific “things” must be described by the ideas of our experience concerning it. A better word might be “nothing”. William Carlos Williams famously summarized his poetic method in the phrase “No ideas but in things” It could be added that concerning reality, there are “no things but in ideas”

Illusion: “A perception that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality.”
All perceptions are illusions, in that they are a product of the mind and are therefore always an abstraction of reality. This is the “normal” state of human consciousness. We come by our illusions honestly as they are clearly a product of the evolution of our species and these illusions have obvious practical purposes for survival in the material world. They are illusions never the less.

Delusion: “A belief held in the face of evidence to the contrary, that is resistant to all reason.”
This is the “hardening” of illusion that metastasizes into a set of rigid beliefs concerning the nature of reality. When these delusions come into conflict with reality, or another set of delusions, the result is what Reverend Gautama termed “dukkha”, which is commonly translated as “suffering“, “anxiety”, “stress”, or “unsatisfactoriness”. These delusions are projected both inwardly and outwardly and are the root cause of mankind’s long history of violence, exploitation, oppression and destruction to our selves, our fellow man, other life forms, and now, the entire ecosystem of the planet.

Subjective Reality: “Dependent on the mind or on an individual’s perception for its existence.” (see Illusion)

Objective Reality: “All experiences are subjective. Objectivity is a special case of rigorous inter-subjective agreement.”
This allows us to point to something – generally through language – that is more than ‘merely’ subjective. It is the only way to escape mere opinion. (Karl Popper) In short, Objective Reality is “Something” we can all agree on to make our common material existence in this physical universe more livable.

Ultimate Reality: “What is actually the case prior to our experience.”
The human mind has no direct access to this, as it would require being able to step outside of our (normal) human modes of experience to the way things are in themselves. (I will leave the “I am” state of consciousness prior to subjective experience and objective agreement for another discussion.)

Correctly understanding that both subjective and objective reality is an illusion created by the human mind does not in any way diminish our material existence or disconnect us from the physical universe; in fact, it awakens us to the truth of our inextricable connection. In order to discover what we really are, it is first important to recognize what we are not.

Let the discovery continue my friends!

Gardening is true spiritual practice and the garden is my Sunday Sanctuary. This morning I woke up early to pull weeds in the patch of garden I had softened with water last night. I do not pretend to enjoy pulling weeds, but I peacefully accepted the task, surrendering wholly into the activity, paying deliberate attention to each moment in the warm morning sun. We burn self consciousness in this fire of concentrated and focused attention.

After realization of the illusion we can either struggle to climb out and drown from exhaustion, or deny the truth and willfully forget, sinking back into the abyss. Or we can let go and simply accept that we are here, drifting on this endless sea with no shoreline and nothing to cling to. When at last we relax, we discover to our delight that we quite naturally rise and float peacefully upon the surface.

For thousands of years the mandala has represented the great circle that is the entirety of existence. In religious art, the mandala has been depicted in many different ways. The celestial rose in Dante’s Paradise, the golden lotus of Mahavaiocana, the great sun Buddha and the giant rose windows in Europe’s great cathedrals.

Of course, all of these mandala symbols were created long before science recognized that our own galaxy is itself one vast mandala in a circular universe spinning with billions of galaxies.

We are living in a great radiating circle and this radiance is also in a cycle, and this cycling is the dance that is in us, around us, and is us. We are the dance.

Agave Mandala ~ Art from Jeff’s Digital Dao

On the surface of a sphere any point may be regarded as the center. We exist in a curved universe, on one point of a spinning galaxy, all driven by one vast and incalculable energy. This one energy pulses in a perpetual vibration of on and off. As this energy vibrates it spins, much like we spin when we dance.

As an aperture through which this one energy manifests itself, all temporal organic life in the universe is likewise vibrating and spinning in a perpetual cycle of growth, creation and expansion; decay, destruction and contraction. As this process is simply an expression of a single energy, it cannot go toward or away from itself or move in opposition to anything else.

As an inextricable part of this organic process, we are subject to all aspects of this eternal dance of energy. From a limited point in time and space it may appear that the dance is moving toward some future, more advanced or degraded position. This appearance is merely an optical illusion of consciousness, a phantom by-product of memory and the ability to engage in abstract thought. Nothing more.

Zen presents a challenge to awaken from this illusion. Having awoken, all notions of past and future, success and failure, better or worse, self and other, naturally disappear, as a mirage simply fades away when the aperture through which it is viewed changes position.

Leaving nothing but the circle dance.

The Geometry of Nature ~ Art from Jeff’s Zen Garden