Saturday 5 November 2016

The Open Mystery (Confessions Of A Spiritual Skeptic)


Seventeen years ago I had no interest in anything remotely spiritual - I'd never read a book on the subject and was casually skeptical. Then after trying meditation for relaxation purposes I had a spontaneous shift in perception (or opening) where time and separation seemed to recede and I saw that (and this is what I crudely scribbled down soon after the 'experience') "no thing exists… only everything exists". 

Now it wasn't important (or even relevant) to me to define what this 'everything' was/is. But over the years I became interested in similar stories of shifts in perception, awakenings etc. and of course came across the notion that ultimate reality is awareness. Right away, for me, this didn't feel quite right. It seemed too limiting to formulate ________ in this way even though I couldn't articulate why. 

Reality being ALL means that it is (obviously) also awareness - and since our 'experience' of Reality is dependent on awareness, for all intents and purposes the two are inseparable. But are they synonymous? Perhaps, but I don't know. When we define something or think that we've got a handle on it, we limit it in some way - I prefer to leave the question somewhat open… 

And the fact remains that we can wake up from the dominance of the 'me network' and acknowledge and live from a vastness and mystery that is wondrous and nourishing without the need to define it or commit to a metaphysical context.