What is Real?

We often hear ourselves and others ask the question: “Really? Is that true?” It seems that we all have an interest in knowing what is really true, what is real.

Our personal view of life promotes the idea that “reality” is relative and reflects one’s experience. Some­thing you have experienced that seems real for you is not necessarily true for someone else. This creates many versions of what individuals think is reality, often stated as “This is true” and “This is not true.”

While everyone has emotions and opinions, these per­sonal reactions are not always expressions of what is real. Often there is an underlying doubt and anxiety about what is real.

In the Spiritual View experience is not reality. It is a temporary perception. What is considered real and true must meet certain criteria.

What is real must be:

• unchanging, constant, immutable 
• self-evident, self-validating, obvious 
• always beneficial, good, liberating, healing, harmoni­ous
• eternal, no beginning, no ending
• good for everyone, not a few

This criteria is never found in our personal experience, which is ever-changing, not always what it appears to be, and not always good.

In the Personal View we think what is real is based only on our experience.

It seems as though our human experience is what is real, yet, at the same time we know it is just temporary, having  a  beginning  and  an  end.

It  is  interesting  that with  this  prevalent belief that human experience  is what is real, there is also doubt about it. There is an underlying uncertainty about our temporary existence on  earth  which  motivates  us  to prove to ourselves and others that our personal experiences are real. We become self-protective, defensive, competitive, striving, and manipulative.

This is the life of experience, known as the “human condition,” which focuses mainly on oneself and others whom we need to confirm our experience.

This limited view in life is troublesome as it is based on what temporarily appears to be, and is a misunderstand­ing of what is real and reliable, and yet we are compelled to defend it.

To discover what is real requires looking beyond the appearance of what we experience. Then we can come to know reality as spiritual qualities which moment to moment can be expressed in our experience, yet do not come from our experience. Wouldn’t we all welcome into our experience the spiritual qualities of love, peace,  joy, harmony, clarity, freedom, understanding, compassion, assurance, beauty, integrity, intelligence, forthrightness, prosperity, gratitude, receptivity, responsiveness, and usefulness?

These qualities are real in that they meet the criteria of being unchanging, self-evident, eternal and beneficial. The good thing is that these spiritual qualities improve our temporary experiences when we become interested in them.

If we become grateful and peaceful when we go to the park, the prom, or the grocery store, these temporary experiences improve. We all have the poten­tial to become aware of and express spiritual qualities in our lives.

As we see the benefit it brings to our experience, the Spiritual  View  becomes  our  default  perspective  and conflicts melt away.

Many stories, movies, myths, books, songs, plays, shows, express the journey we are actually on, from self-centeredness to spiritual awareness. This is evidence of the universal quest to know what is real: to move from ignorance to understanding, darkness to light, from a narrow focus to the broadest view. This quest is where we find the joy of life.