The Illusions of Life
I know what you are thinking, “life isn’t an illusion”. I have had that very same thought too many times before but I can also remember as a young child almost going into a daze of some sort, you know, where you stare off into the wild blue yonder and just ponder (hey that rhymed-I’m a poet and didn’t even know it). No, but seriously I would get this notion that I wasn’t real, that life wasn’t real that there was something more…I know this might seem strange but I would actually ask what life would be if I died right now and I never was scared, anxious, or intimidated by that thought…I think it was because even though I couldn’t explain it, I felt that this life we are living isn’t the REAL life that we TRULY are.
I know that we can look in the mirror and see ourselves, we can go outside and smell the fresh air, or taste grandma’s butter biscuits and it all seems so real-RIGHT? Well, our physical self is an idea that our minds stubbornly hold onto when really we are TRULY bundles of energy that will never die. And the five senses that attempt to confirm to ourselves that our body is real, is but a thought-yeah there’s one to ponder.
What Religions Say
The Early Christians say “the body was spirit made flesh, the fleshly part being and illusion. To touch warm skin was to touch temptation. The Hopi Indians, the entire universe is a flow of energy and spirit, and therefore the body is a transient event in that flow; to touch warm skin was like touching a puff of wind. Buddhists combine the notions of transience and illusion; to them the body is like a ghostly river, and being attached to it is the source of all suffering. To touch warm skin is to sink deeper into illusion. (expert from “Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul” by Deepak Chopra)
Reality or what seems to be reality is different at different times in our lives…let me divulge. Have you ever had a dream, that seemed so real that you woke up only to find yourself actually crying or feeling a pain like you were in your dream. I know I’m not the only one…that it takes a minute to wake up and realize that wasn’t real because you were just asleep. Well, when we are awake this is like a dream too, it feels real because this is the level of consciousness we are experiencing now, but there is more to life than just this “awake” dream state we are in.
Whats It All Mean?
I think if we all slowed down long enough and really looked at the world around us it wouldn’t be too hard to see…well, maybe I’m wrong maybe most wouldn’t see so let me explain.
The other day a friend of mine, Michael Catlow was sharing one of the most horrific and yet inspiring stories I’ve heard all my life. Michael had been apart of the recovery of Haiti-on a trip with his girlfriend-they just picked up and went to go help out in any way they could. That’s inspiring in an of itself right there. But Michael was sharing with me a story of a doctor who was from Haiti and before the tragedy had stepped out of the building that would soon crumble. In the first 30 seconds of the earthquake he lost his mother, father, siblings, his wife, his children, all his belonging were gone and not to mention both his office/business and his home. So he was left with only the shirt on his back.
I had tears in my eyes, I can’t even fathom a tragedy so harsh, one that would wound a person’s heart so deep. This doctor is now volunteering at a clinic in Haiti to keep his sanity I’m sure, to give back as much as he possibly can so that he can see positive change in his country when his personal “country” has been taken away for life. A few minutes later I came to know of a man in the US that is suicidal…he’s been devastated emotionally the past year or so when he’s lost his job, can’t find another one, he’s behind on his house payments and will loose a roof over his head in 2 weeks, he’s behind on child support and the list just goes on and on.
So I have to step back and ask myself the question, why has one man in Haiti who in my opinion has experienced the worst tragedy anyone could possibly go through and another man in the US want to take his own life because of money issues. The answer is people get so hung up on the Illusions of Life-they are so concerned with what appears to be reality, they don’t realize their own Divinity, they don’t realize that we aren’t the things or even the people around us.
Hard to Let Go of the Illusion
I don’t know either of these men at all and I don’t know their faith or even if they have faith. On the surface of the two stories though, the Haitian man must know there is more to life…that although the pain of his human life is deeper than anyone could possibly imagine, he feels there is reason to keep on living. The American looks around himself and allows materialistic items and his relationships to define him-therefore he has no reason to live if all those things aren’t in order. Now is it making sense?
When we look at ourselves under a microscope all we are are dancing atoms-AKA ENERGY. Energy that appears to be in a fleshy existence that allows us, unlike a rock, tree, car, house, etc to have a higher conscious level where we have 5 senses to experience what those materialistic things will never experience. We are Spirit having a Human Experience. We will feel pain and excitement of our human life but always have Spirit to ground us and help us evolve to our highest self-which is our true self.
True Reality
I know it’s easier said than realized but we really aren’t the car we drive, we aren’t the money we do or do not make, we aren’t the house we live in, we aren’t the friends we have, we aren’t the family we love, we aren’t the schools we’ve been to, we aren’t the job we lost, we aren’t any of that…we are so much more.
The TRUE reality of life is that it really never begins nor ends…energy can’t die altogether it just moves to another direction. Energy is ever present and so are our Spirits…allowing us to have a human experience and learn from that life will only increase our awareness of our TRUE selves-SPIRIT.
“We aren’t the world around us but rather the world inside us. ” Me
