We see, and we believe, isn’t that right? Look, there’s a chair. Yep, right over there, that’s a chair. We can sit in it too. But is that enough to say that it is real?
Real or not, it would be extremely unwise to ignore the possibility that chairs and other perceived objects exist. An oncoming train will quickly dispatch both you and your quantum theory if you choose to stand in its way, expecting its atomic particles to suddenly behave as waves. Better to believe that a train is a real train.
But there is a greater reality than what our senses can experience, and failing to adhere to it causes problems that nag and never quit. This greater reality is the spectrum of the soul. Yet, our tendency is to overlook it.
The material world cannot be denied. As we are to live on earth, the material world is where that living must be. But here’s the rub: To abide in material consciousness, as society has trained us to do, is to fear an end to what it can offer, and end it will.
Moreover, this state of mind kindles material desires, which flare into attachments, which spur the creation of possessive habits, which encourage more of the same. Hence, the snare of suffering’s web that we stumble into. What a choice to make! But who of us, more or less, has not made it?
One of the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita is that none of us shrinks, but rather expands, in ousting these inclinations. Ingrained as they may seem to be in our egoic perceptions, they are merely expressions of energy which, when directed inward instead of outward, diminish our suffering and add to our joy. The self is not lost, it is lifted.
Likewise, it should motivate us that life on earth is but a series of lessons that lead us higher to the promise of infinitely more. We cannot die except to the millions of wishes that stand in our way. It is hardly sane to hold fast to their fleeting amusements, to endure with disappointment their limitations. And yet that is what we incline to do, ready to excuse with reason the reason why.
Wrestling with our restless thoughts goes on. But as every saint and avatar has assured us, a willingness to engage more deeply, to seek and follow the guidance of God’s inner call, guarantees a life of no regrets.
For each of us, regardless of where we are stuck, the direction is one, the destination is one. Let us at least understand where we are headed: out of our heads, into the wilds of the soul’s inner world, into the kingdom of Oneness. The sooner we turn our focus to that awareness, the sooner it graces us with its blessings. Like all who wander delusion’s desert in search of the Promised Land, we are destined to find our way out, arriving at last at the realization of Self. We are headed Home, the sooner the better.