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by Thaddeus Golas, 1972
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CHAPTER NINEWhat Is Real?The concept that we live in a universe of
equal beings can make sense of all religions, and can contain all
metaphysical attitudes. It is the easiest raft to discard when we reach the
other shore that is no shore. It can tell us how to live on this plane, it
can integrate our scientific knowledge, it can show how our physical
existence is the expression of spiritual laws. It gives us an absolutely
confident understanding of what is true and what is real. Equal and unique live beings are all that is fully true and real in
the universe. We are the universe. We experience the deepest sense of reality only at the highest
expansion in perfect love. On lower vibration levels, we see other beings
relating to each other in a way that is not entirely true or real. For a down-to-earth example, let us consider that the people in an
audience are real, but "audience" is a name for something that will
disappear when the people go home. In this sense, the audience is an
illusion: a temporary, partial and limited reality—it has no independent,
causative existence. We can construct a statistical probability about how the audience
will behave, but each member is free to come and go at will, just as the
atoms forming our bodies come and go. It is in this meaning that we can say
that the physical universe, including our bodies, is an illusion. We are real: the beings participating in the universe—us, the
particles in the atoms, the energy and space beings, all are real, all are
equal, all are of one kind. But the relationships, groupings and massings are illusory as we see
them from any given vibration level. Thus, as the audience is formed of
people, illusions are formed out of real beings. Indeed, there is no other
way to form an illusion except by using what is real, there is no other
material around. However, rather than speak of the world as illusory, which can be
interpreted as a license to steal and be otherwise unloving, and can only be
annoying when you feel stuck where you are, it is better to call it a
secondary reality. The world is real enough when we are vibrating within a
particular range, but only while we are doing so. Facts are limited truths: the way relationships between others look
to us when we have limited our own awareness and love, or when they have
limited theirs. But facts have roots in the truth: we may have only a limited
view of the beings involved in what we see as matter, but those beings are
real, they are self-determined and are acting in harmony. However, we don't need facts to be wise and loving. Different sets of
facts are real at different vibration levels. The truth is the same for
everyone, the facts are always a little different for everyone. Facts are certainly fascinating, like gossip: who's doing what to
whom, what's doing what to what. Of the gathering of facts there is no end.
Sometimes we feel that if we had enough of them, we could get at the truth.
Sometimes we madly try to deny them even though we are attached to a
vibration level from which they will not disappear. Illusions, facts, are reliable to the extent that they have truth in
them, but they are also somewhat delusory. Delusions are denials of the truth. If we use the physical plane to
deny higher reality, we are deluded. But if we deny the reality that is in
the material world, we are deluded also. We cannot rise above the physical
plane by denying its reality: we must love it and affirm the reality of the
live beings who form it. Some of us grow discouraged with spiritual efforts because
enlightening experiences don't always help us handle the facts of physical
existence any better. We may even mess up more: an LSD trip may show us how
vaporous the world is, and then we get annoyed because hard, mass-level
reality is still there when we come down. Enlightening experiences can help in dealing with facts by showing
you that you are a completely flexible whatever-it-is, capable of existing on
many different vibration levels, both within and above the physical plane. Once you know that the facts will be different on every level, you
are less likely to fight the facts of any particular plane. As your awareness
opens up, you will be able to choose the level you want, and you will have
more enjoyable facts to deal with. There is no being in the universe more powerful than you, but there
are also none less powerful than you. This should be the starting point of
all your behavior towards other people. I often say to myself: Let my
intentions not attempt to contradict the necessary laws of our relations as
equal beings. (A long sentence, but I do say it.) Since every being is self-determined, you cannot change anyone else's
vibration level against his will, nor are you obliged to. You cannot in
reality hurt or help others without their agreement to play the game, nor can
anyone hurt or help you without your agreement. Indeed, your perception of others is colored by your own limited
vibrations until you reach the higher levels, so you have no way of knowing
exactly what it is you are trying to change. On the other hand, you do
control your own vibration level absolutely, and that's all the freedom you
need to govern your own relationships and experiences. You are free to be anywhere you want to be in the world that is real
to you now. And beyond that, you are capable of being in any time, on any
vibration level, in any system, with whomever you like. Regardless of how trapped you feel, how weighed down by one day after
another, your fundamental freedom is not affected. If you look at your environment now, you may see a great deal of
"reality" that makes you feel secure even when it hurts or tires
you out. It's all right to hold onto that while you think this over. Nothing
is going to happen unexpectedly just as a result of reading about how free you
are. In any case, you're never alone—there are many beings aware of you at
all times, loving you, ready to make you feel it whenever you are ready to
open up to it, taking care to see that you don't get in too deep, encouraging
you to love yourself. The world you see is in truth a reality of convenience—in a sense,
the universe will compassionately arrange itself into anything you need it to
be to work out your preferences. You have an infinite choice of worlds to
live in. You are also free to live according to many different cosmic plans.
The fact that you can choose doesn't make any one of them less valid. You may
live in a universe in which there is a God at the top, with a hierarchy down
to souls in outer darkness. Or a materialistic world in which you experience
no life after death, just a complete wipe-out of the past. You may have a
heaven and hell. Whatever your choice, whatever vibrations feel right to you, you will
tune in and stabilize with others believing the same thing. On the space
level, like usually attracts like. You can tune your vibrations to Christ consciousness or Buddha
consciousness and experience supernal compassion. You can tune yourself to
black magic and live in a world of weird shapes and violent forces. You can
tune in on Mickey Mouse or Mr. Natural in the cosmic comic book. You can
become one with the Divine Mother and dwell in incredible sensuous luxury. You may have all these experiences and more when you meditate or take
psychedelics. You may not remember this book then, but you will be able to
remember two words: No resistance. These two words apply even more
importantly on those levels than on this one, if anything. Remember them
especially when you are dying. Since we aren't going anywhere, with stability, any faster than our
love will take us, and we have to love it where we are first, there is
something to be said for not getting too ambitious about the infinite
possibilities. But it's nice to know that
there is more to it than what you see in front of you now, and that you can
experience your present reality on much deeper levels of pleasure and ease. [ Contents | Next Chapter ] home | the leisure party | top of page URL:
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