The Real vs. The Unreal: Understanding the Nature of the Mind

All reality, which includes the entire physical world, is an Unreal projection of the mind. Our human survival mechanism, known as the ego, is also Unreal. Even the worlds beyond the physical plane of reality, the astral plane, the causal plane, and whatever other dualities exist are all Unreal.

To desire anything of the Unreal is to reject The Real, which is The Self alone--the Nothingness that we call God. It is referred to as the Nothingness because beyond all these dualities is what Krishna refers to, in the Bhagavad Gita, as the Unmanifest form of himself. It is nothing--eternal silence; and yet, it is what has formed all of these objects of the Universe.

Now the nature of the mind is to want things. The mind wants everything such as food, clothes, money, sex, etc. What the mind is doing is searching for The Real; it is searching for The Self because The Self is pure bliss, the ultimate and complete happiness. However, for a being who is attached to the mind-body complex, The Self is not perceived in everyday reality. Because of this, the mind mistakes the Unreal for The Real and sends one's awareness on a "wild goose chase" after an infinite number of desires--all of which ultimately lead to dissatisfaction.

This does not mean that the mind cannot get what it wants. But what it does mean is that any desire that is fulfilled, such as eating or buying something, must be done consciously. To fulfill a desire consciously is to see the desire as something that the mind wants, and to be indifferent about the fulfillment of the desire. Paradoxically, you can have anything you want as long as you don't want it. Once one understands that the desires of the mind are Unreal, and that The Self is the only Real thing ANYWHERE, the mind's power over one's awareness begins to weaken at an increasing rate.

All "you" have to do is bow; surrender to the unfolding of the Universe. This is not "your life". You were never born and will never die; you are The Self, how could you? God is living what we call "our lives". We are just one big thing watching from an infinite number of perspectives.

By renouncing all thinking, planning, selfish tendencies/actions, personality, hatred, greed, shame, fear, desires, and any other aspect of a self/person, one gives to God what already belongs to IT. If we give God ourselves, we become God, because there is no "we" left; only The Self is left, which is Nothing.

Love to all, peace to all.
Sat Nam

-Acintya Bhakti