In this post I would like to talk about a recent realization that has framed all the pieces of my personal inner journey together. More an eureka moment than an ah-ah moment that left me speechless: the reality we are so used to label as physical and objective is a dream, dreamed by the infinite Mind of Consciousness to become increasingly more aware of its own nature.
"Who in the world am I?
Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
- From Alice in Wonderland -
The main focus of my blog has been the debunking of the materialistic vision of reality (quantum physics included), a perspective highly myopic, inaccurate and source of most of the human's suffering. Since the beginning my hope was to report my personal realizations in order to show you a different way to how think, approach and especially live reality trying to emphasize the important practical implications of what at first might sound a philosophical investigation or a non-sense talking.
Reality is not what has been told us to be. Reality is not what you or me think to be. Reality is not what science is discovering to be. To understand what reality is, a deeper investigation is necessary, beyond mind, beliefs, perceptions and measurements. Reality is the place where everything happens, the place where we move, act, play and live. The quality of those actions is strictly dependent upon our understanding of the context where those actions take place. It should be therefore everyone's interest to understand reality in a much more deeper way.
The last 6 years of my life have been totally centered in understanding more about myself and the reality I have been living into. For some reasons the desire to solve some of the most intriguing and mysterious questions about the Universe became an impellent task in which I have invested all myself and most of my usual daily activities were put on pause. I simply had to know what was going on here and an intense inner feeling had pushed me to dig deeper and deeper into the fascinating nature of reality.
As a student of biology my previous model of reality was quite clear and solid: reality was an outstanding physical structure, made out of different physical parts perfectly working together each with its own features and religiously following specific physical's laws. According to this model, each part within the big structure was objectively and physically standing out there as an independent object, made out of a specific material (wood, water, metal, energy, plastic etc) that could be studied and measured as a single unity or in relationship with its surrounding.
In this context, here I was: a tiny human being made out of flesh and bones, an incredible byproduct of the Darwinian evolution that was born thanks to sophisticated biological processes and that miraculously found itself on the surface of this amazing planet called Earth somewhere in the Universe. I, together with other millions of beings, had to make my way through life, trying to learn as much as possible in order to survive, get to know my environment, build up a social life, find a purpose in life and enjoy this trip the best I could until death had put an end to this journey.
For decades materialism has been my scheme of reference, the way I was looking and living reality. A reality that mysteriously came to be out of a Big Bang and that through millions of years of evolution led us here today. A process considered to be physical and mechanical, composed of a set of random genetic mutations that accurately gave rise to this incredible spectrum of living beings. No real intelligence is thought to be present behind the formation of the Universe and the word "creation" is banned. This process, instead, is the result of highly sophisticate atomic interactions, genetic mutations, quantum fields, expansion and contraction of black holes and who knows what else.
Materialism, in its scientific and religious terms, pictures a reality with physical and objective boundaries and limitations, in which each being has to learn as soon as possible how to physically, mentally and socially survive within it. Materialism implies a reality where rationality is considered to be the main tool to use to function into the world. A reality in which each human being has little impact and responsibility to what is happening around him/her. A reality where accidents and problems happen by chance. A reality where God is dead, never existed or simply believed to exist. A reality that has to be explored and lived from the outside and never from the inside.
This is the reality I was exposed to since I was a child in school, family and within society, a model that has left me many emotional and mental scars I had to heal myself along the journey. However, for some reason, in more recent years I have also been lucky enough to be exposed to a different understanding of reality. An understanding that had immediately found fertile ground within me after being exposed for many years to the cold scientific and rational approach and to the absolute dogmatism of religion. A path that was guiding me within, transcending the usage of mind and perceptions.
Spirituality has shown me a new way to look and live reality. It has promised me that by understanding my true nature I would have answered those questions about the Universe I was so interested into because my true nature could not be different from the one the whole Universe was made out of. And all my efforts and challenges have been paid off beyond any expectations revealing a reality that had nothing to do with the one I was learning in books or thinking about.
Reality is neither material nor physical, it is not driven by any physical, biological or evolutionary laws and it cannot be studied by any mental or rational approaches. The true nature of reality can only be grasped directly, by looking within (see my previous post "Neti-Neti: Who Am I?", "Looking Within You", "No-Self:The First Step Towards You", "Who Is Behind The Scene").
The very nature of the reality we are living into is the one of a dream, dreamed by you, Consciousness, in order to become increasingly more aware of your infinite nature. Your own existence as a human is not, in ultimate analysis, the consequence of a biological process but the intelligent plan of an universal Mind that needed to identify and fall into the illusion of being someone in order to explore itself ("The Illusion Explained", "Science Is Working For God").
To step from the widespread paradigm of reality to what I have just said, a big shift in perspective is necessary. Personally it was a rather slow process made out of many little ah-ah moments that eventually led me to perceive and feel life in a total different way. But it does not have to be that way. All depends how much brainwashing you have received during your life and how much investigation you have done along the way (see my posts Self-Observation - Part 1", "Self- Observation - Part 2", "Self-Observation - The Ultimate Guide", ""The Vipassana Meditation Technique").
All I am going to claim in this post is meant to be literal and it comes from my own personal journey. No logic can describe what follows, so leave mind aside. Mind is what is needed to create the illusion and to ground us in something that needs to appear solid otherwise we would simply could not operate in reality. This journey is about breaking the illusion and grasping things that mind does not want to hear, things that will leave you only the sufficient grounding to operate in reality but that will set you in a completely different level of awareness. To help me conveying this breath-taking realization I will make use of the perfect example, that is, our night dream.
Night dreams are known to be extremely useful to understand the human unconscious and many notorious historical figures, such as Freud, Jung, Lowen and Reich have used them to enter into the psyche of humans to help them figuring out their trauma and suffering. However, night dreams have also the power to help us realizing what is happening here, in the "physical" world.
When you go sleeping, your physical body and the physical world disappear and you find yourself into a new landscape. To experience this world, you need to identify yourself with a point of view, a reference, a guidance to go around and explore it. Without this identification step you would not be able to experience anything within the dream. The dream might be still running in your mind, but it would not be possible reporting anything once awake without a grounding point within the dream. Therefore, within the dream you take the shape and appearance of someone, likely someone that looks like you in the so called physical world.
The power of dreaming relies in the fact that you cannot in any way realize that you are dreaming: the dreamer is totally fooled and deceived to be someone in the dream, your dreamed avatar. Only by being fooled the dream can reveal its healing process by making you more conscious (once awake) of aspects of life that otherwise would not be allowed to emerge by our mind.
From the point of view of the dreamed avatar, the reality it finds itself looks extremely convincing. No matter how many crazy monsters and ghosts unfold, it takes any appearance extremely seriously and threatening and it would rather run away than contemplating whether those appearances are real or the product of a dreaming mind. Moreover, within the dream, the dreamed world seems to be made out of many other physical beings and objects, all recognizable as individual entities made out of specific and distinct substances. Those objects can be physically measured and quantified based on whatever science is existing in the dream.
There is no way that the character within the dream can realize to be in a dreamed world. There is no reason for him/her to stop for a moment and start thinking whether its existence is the one of a dream and realizing that there is no physicality in his/her body and in anything that is surrounding him/her. The dream is so intelligently created by the human's mind that the world in which the avatar finds itself looks perfectly solid, physical, well-grounded, objective, composed of many conscious and non-conscious beings with different features and qualities.
The avatar would never accept that its own birth is dreamed, that its parents, family and enemies are dreamed, that its suffering is dreamed, that the mountains it goes hiking and the ocean it goes swimming are dreamed. The avatar's mind would never accept that there is no real substance in the sandwich is eating (see my post "Ceci n'est pas un sandwich") and in any object is possessing (see my posts "Objectivity Is Your Own Creation - Part 1", " Objectivity Is Your Own Creation - Part 2", "Objectivity Is Your Own Creation - Part 3"). It would rather start blaming and mocking whoever propose such a non-sense idea. "My problems are real!" it would say. "This land is mine!", it would claim.
There are only two ways for the avatar to realize that the real substance of what is believed to be a physical world and of its own existence is the one of a dream and nothing physical: questioning its own beliefs about the world and itself or the awakening of the dreamer.
The avatar within the dream cannot awake since it is not the dreamer. Only the dreamer can awake. What the avatar can do, although, is to question and start a serious investigation about its own existence and about the reality it finds into. This questioning will gradually destroy all its certainties about its world and about itself. Since the whole dreamed Universe is exclusively made out of the dreamer's mind, the only substance present within the dream is indeed the dreamer's mind. What else is thought to constitute the dreamed world is only a conceptual superimposition and a set of beliefs of the avatar.
Only when the avatar removes all beliefs and concepts about itself and the world and start contacting the real and only substance of which is actually made out of, it sets itself free. The dreamer's mind pervades every single corner of the dreamed world, nothing is left outside. Every single being, no matter how tiny is, is made out of that substance. This substance cannot be found outside in the external world: only concepts and beliefs will be found there. The avatar needs to look within, it needs to question the nature of its own perceptions and mind. It needs to realize that its body and mind are simply appearances in the human's mind as anything else in existence.
If it goes deep enough it will realize that all is one. That the entire world is made out of mind stuff and no objective and physical trees, rocks, mountains, oceans and beings are existing as independent entities. Everything is literally Nothing, that is, no-things are present and no objective and physical substance is constituting the world but the dreamer's mind. No real differences and no real distinctions exist unless the one the avatar creates in its own mind.
The dreamed world is real, it does exist but not in the way the avatar thought to exist. When it is said that the world is an illusion, it refers to the common idea that the world is physical and objective standing out there rather than a creation of an intelligent mind.
I am sure that so far everything I have said it relates to you since everyone is familiar with night dreams. However, what I have said above applies precisely also to this "physical" world. What you currently think to be, what you call "being a human", is the avatar through which the real you, Consciousness, can experience itself. The human body and the mind are respectively the vehicle and the tool used by our true nature to fool itself in believing to be a real physical entity living in an objective and physical world that can be studied and measured by science. Mind has the important role in grounding Consciousness in believing to be in a solid and physical ground on which to walk.
You are not the human avatar. You are the ultimate dreamer, that is, Consciousness, an infinite intelligent Mind that needs a point of view to ground itself to live and experience the world is dreaming about. What science calls Universe is in reality an appearance within Consciousness's mind, a dreamed and imagined world exactly as happens in the night dream.
As in the night dream, there are only two ways you can get out of the illusion of being a physical body that was physically born and that one day will physically die: question your own reality and your own existence or waiting to die. Needless to say I would highly suggest the first option since the quality of the human avatar life will exponentially improve.
As in a night dream, the human avatar cannot awake since it is not the dreamer but it can work from within the dream to erode little by little all the illusions he/she has accepted to believe until contacting the real substance of the Universe, that is, Consciousness, the real you. By stop looking outside, by stop using concepts and mind to label appearances that have no independent existence unless the one you decide to create, you can break through.
The answer is within. There is nothing else than Consciousness in reality. Consciousness is reality, "something" that is not-a-thing but a mystery for the human mind to which it needs only to surrender. There is no way mind and science can explain Consciousness. Mind is a servant and should leave the master alone.
Consciousness is not a by-product of a physical brain, as science claims, but That which is creating and dreaming it. In your dreams, you dreamed avatar does have a brain but you will never say that it is the dreamed brain that is generating the dream, no? Nevertheless, the brain is an important component within the dream, as sort of modulator for Consciousness to experience reality in a certain way. If you drink too much or take psychedelic substances, the way how Consciousness experience reality/dream will be different because the modulator has been affected but Consciousness itself would not be affected. The brain does correlates with the reality Consciousness is experiencing but it is not generating it, simply modulating it.
Why Consciousness is dreaming at all? Which is the purpose of creating an entire Universe in which unconscious humans are suffering not knowing to be an avatar? Of course these are mind questions trying to find a "why" in everything in existence but I believe it is a legitimate question that I have tried to answer.
As the night dream is useful for us, human's avatar, to understand our own nature, this dreamed up Universe is useful for Consciousness to experience and get to know itself. Without the identification process, Consciousness could not know anything about itself. It would simply be. Its existence would not be affected in any way but its level of awareness about itself would remain pretty low.
We, as human avatars, are guidance for Consciousness to become more aware and conscious about our infinite potential and intelligence as Consciousness. Every day, each of us, is informing our true nature about its own dream by believing to be someone else than Consciousness and experiencing the dreamed reality from a distinct point of view. Evolution is, in my opinion, not a biological process composed of random genetic mutations but an intelligent plan through which Consciousness could identify itself in a more complex being to become more conscious about its infinite potential.
As I said in my previous post "An Opportunity For Evolution?", this plan was risky. Consciousness could get forgetful about its being infinite and immortal and start believing to be the finite and mortal entity it has identify with leading the avatar to immense misery and suffering. More the avatar thinks to be a real being, higher the chance it will go through mental and emotional suffering (see my post "First Glimpses Towards My True Nature"). The infinite mind of Consciousness gets so contracted and limited in the form of the humans mind that trauma and suffering are inevitable.
The awakening journey is a path of expansion. A path that has to remove all the illusory mental boundaries we have imposed to a reality that has none to finally give space to our true nature waiting patiently to awake. Within this process, suffering is the number one force that pushes and challenges the human's avatar to break through its illusory suffering and it represents a good parameter of happiness: more we suffer, further we are from our true nature (see my post "How To Be Happiness").
My personal experience taught me that suffering is the most precious and precise guidance we have at disposal for our personal evolution as avatars because it shows us without pity what we need to face to break our own limitations. Moreover, it represents the most efficient guidance to awake Consciousness, the "place" where real peace and love reside, our self. It takes courage to embrace and face suffering but, trust me, the reward will be immense.
To conclude, reality is the intelligent creation of a Mind that cannot be explained by the human's avatar mind. It is an ambitious plan in which things happen following an intelligent design where nothing is left casual. Trust reality in all its aspects, especially the most challenging ones because beyond them a real treasure is hidden and waiting to be discovered.
Both science and religion has failed and will be failing in giving satisfactory answers about the origin of the word, the former because of its attachment to concepts and the latter because of its attachments to beliefs (see my post "Spirituality, Science and Religion"). Consciousness is revealed any time in any place under our nose but we need to learn to look at reality with different eyes in order to find It or we will spend our life being waves in search for water (see my post "Like Water").