The For Reals

At work, if I think I can trust you, I give the “for reals.”  There’s the corporate handbook and then there’s the for reals.  You want both in order to play in the Maya - the grand illusion of life.

If you have a Guru - or 1008 - in my lucky circumstance (I must really be hard to teach - honestly one does not need 1008 Gurus unless one is as stubborn as an ox.)  Now I was born in the Year of the Ox...

digression. 

A Guru is there to seriously mess with your idea of the “for reals.”  Maya - we say this world is a projection or illusion of consciousness.  The liberated ones see this and play in the Maya - making it a Leela or divine play.  

Easier said than done. 

But - we try.  One of the most profound aspects of spiritual practice is the sharpening of the discernment between “for reals” and “smoke in mirrors.”

In one’s self.  Don’t bother with others’ stuff:

Because that will just get you absolutely nowhere.   We mind our own business.

The practices of meditation are truly about pushing through the smoke in mirrors into the for reals in one’s self.  In one’s own mind. We are the Masters of Reality when we cut through the morass of the mind.

It’s a grand practice to truly be in the world but not of the world.

One of my own funny “smoke in mirrors” is the fact that I find driving a car to be mostly a waste of time and resources.  I have always thought this.  But the big world makes us believe we need a car to get from Point A to B.  (We can walk, ride a bike, take public transportation, so no need for the vehicle). I admit I purchased a certain vehicle to make this driving thing more tolerable.  But I would mostly like to keep it parked in the garage and not drive.  If I had my druthers.

But I need to get from multiple Points of A to Points of B - so we surrender to the car thing.  While also limiting the need for the car by - I don’t know - not leaving the house for days.

And this is the for reals. 

But a better story than my own surrender to the “reality” of needing automobiles is from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:

IF ALL IS REALLY UNREAL!

RAMA and Lakshmana wanted to go to Ceylon.

But the ocean was before them. Lakshmana was angry. Taking his bow and arrow, he said: “I shall kill Varuna. This ocean prevents our going to Ceylon.”

Rama explained the matter to him, saying:

“Lakshmana, all that you are seeing is unreal, like a dream. The ocean is unreal. Your anger is also unreal. It is equally unreal to think of destroying one unreal thing by means of another.”

I have found that there’s something so terribly unreal about most emotions, thoughts and feelings.  Not that they are not important nor wonderful.  But to buy into any of them as a way of defining one’s self or another is incredibly limiting.  The mark of maturity is the ability to channel emotions, thoughts and feelings so they are not destructive.  

We don’t need to destroy the ocean to get from Point A to Point B. 

May we simply sit with fluctuations instead of burning down the oceans to get to a destination that already exists within. 

May we all live and love in the for reals. 

Jai Devī, 

Sumukhi