The Myth of the Separate Self and the True Spiritual Realm Meaning

We often find ourselves trapped in the language of seeking, as if the truth were a destination located somewhere else. We talk about finding the spiritual realm meaning as if we were explorers searching for a hidden continent, but who is it that is doing the looking? If we pause for a moment, right after a question is asked and before the mind rushes in with an answer, there is a vividness of being that requires no effort. You know you exist. You don't need a thought to prove it. In that gap, before the "yes" or "no" arises, there is a presence that is absolutely clear and self-evident. This is not something we need to achieve or attain; it is the ground upon which every experience appears. We are like a house with many rooms, each with a different colored window. Through one window the light looks green, through another red, and through another blue. The rooms are our body-minds, our unique characters, and our personal histories. We look at the different colors and think, "I am green" or "I am red," believing ourselves to be separate entities. But the light itself is one. It is an uninterrupted flow that doesn't become green just because it passes through a green pane of glass. The light remains what it is. Our separate self is merely the colored glass, the habitual psychic reactions and physical attributes that appear to the aware presence. But the presence itself has no qualities, no color, and no division. It is the empty mirror that reflects everything without being changed by the image. Many of us turn to practices like yoga or meditation, hoping they will lead us somewhere better. We might feel that these methods help us manage the disturbances of the body-mind, and indeed, they may bring comfort or a sense of relief in the moment. However, we must be frank: all practices are dualistic. They imply a "you" who is doing something to reach a "there." But if the absolute is truly absolute, it must be incondizionato—unconditioned. If there were something you could do to produce this freedom, it wouldn't be freedom at all. It would be just another result, a temporary state caused by an action. Anything that has a beginning and an end, anything that depends on conditions, is not the totality. Why would a fish swim across the world to find the ocean when it is already immersed in it? The real spiritual realm meaning is not found by moving away from the world of taxes, traffic jams, and mundane chores into a "special" spiritual space. When we say we are happy to be "here" in a group or a silent retreat, we often unknowingly create a wall between the sacred and the profane. We imply that the truth is here, while the "real world" is out there. But there is no "out there." The absolute doesn't stop at the door of the meditation hall. The same light that shines in moments of deep silence is the same light that illuminates a busy street or a difficult conversation. To believe we must go somewhere else to find what we are is a form of self-delusion.