Ultimate reality

Ultimate reality

At the core of the human mind, it is possible to discover an experience of transcendent truth that exhilaratingly transforms your understanding of what your life means, giving you a sense of connection with the ultimate – a union of the self with the infinite and eternal, a taking into yourself all that is good and pure and lovely. This strikes you as the ultimate revelation of what life itself means, what your own life is for, and it connects you with the depths and heights of what it means to exist. As if this was not enough, this extraordinary revelation of truth presents itself as a personal expression of love, directly to you. You are aware that it is a universal love, but you are also aware that you are included in it, that this love has specifically reached out to embrace you.

This experience is a discovery of what is there to be discovered. It is not manufactured, manipulated, constructed by the human mind. It is. It exists. While I suppose it must be theoretically possible for a person to discover this experience and then reject it, I expect that, in practice, everyone who finds it, embraces it. Having been embraced by this experience, they joyfully accept it and embrace the experience back. It becomes the greatest treasure of your life.

It’s difficult to find any sort of analogy that does it any sort of justice. But suppose, in the external reality of the physical universe, you discovered “another country” – say, a hidden valley, that has been there all along, but somehow unknown to you. Then one day, perhaps, you stumble by accident into it. Perhaps others had heard stories of it and had not dismissed them as fables, but had been diligently searching for it. However it happens, you find yourself in the secret valley. And, in physical terms for our analogy, imagine it to be filled with the most exquisite fragrance, from flowers of unspeakable beauty, that fill the heart with such deep contentment, while at the same time the freshness of the breeze sweeps all cobwebs from your mind, leaving you vibrantly alive but also poised in utter tranquillity. If we found such a valley, would we not make it the centre of our lives, returning to it as often as we can, and valuing it more than everything else?

An alternative illustration would be as though you discover a door to a secret garden. It’s always been there, always been open to the touch, and when you enter it for the first time you can’t believe that you have passed it so many times without wondering what was behind it. But once you do, you become devoted to the garden and live for your opportunities to enter it. Importantly, the first time you enter, you have it all to yourself and are enchanted to have such wonders all to yourself. You wander through it in awe, until the truth you are experiencing whispers to you, “I love you”. After that, as you explore, you discover another person who also loves to come to the garden – and then another and another. But instead of feeling deflated that the garden is no longer “your special place”, exclusively giving you truth and love – because you’re so special, instead, as the truth and love seeps into all the nooks and crannies of your heart, it becomes part of the delight to discover that another kindred spirit has also found the garden, and loves it as much as you do. And the spirit of love you’ve found there encourages you to love each other, so that this love becomes another feature of what you love so much about this place.

Such is the discovery of “the other country” within the inner reality of your own heart and mind. Some people only enter it by strange accidents and so cannot remember how to get back into it when the mind has ejected them from it as the noise of everyday life interrupts them and drowns out the experience, such that it becomes a glittering vision, treasured beyond all memories, but one that is like a distant dream, far removed from the reality of their daily lives. But for those who have been searching, or who, stumbling in, recognise that this is to be kept hold of forever, they visit regularly, such that they become so familiar with it that they just have to close their eyes and they are there. For such people, the whole of life is infused with the reality that they have discovered. The truth that is theirs becomes an inner spring of refreshment, and at the heart of the truth is a deep, personal love. A love given to you, for you, and given for you to share with others. It is just how things are. It is ultimate realty. It is there. To be discovered.