The Reality Within Us

By Rahasya Poe

Once there was a disciple who spent many long hours meditating and many long years learning all there was to be learned from his master and teacher. Yet after so much time he still noticed a vast difference between his master and himself, and so one day he went to his master and asked, “Master, after so many years of work on myself I see there still is a difference between us. What is it?” The master gently replied, “There is only one difference–you see yourself in the world, and I see the world in myself.”

Could it be that recognition of this difference is our final step toward awakening to a new reality that is not new at all but the only reality that ever has been or ever will be? For the next few minutes, put your beliefs aside because most beliefs are limiting at best. Then put away any preconceived notions you have about what reality is, abandon the bias you have (and we all have) of reality based on our senses, and come with me to look at our lives in a new way.

Now suppose that the story you just read is not an allegory or parable but is referring to an actual literal truth, which is, “Could the outer reality in which we see ourselves actually exist in our collective conscious awareness?” Now before your mind starts doing what it does best, which is question, separate, and categorize, let’s look at a little hard science. Many billions of dollars have been spent on questions such as this and some researchers have concluded there seems to be no actual space or distance between any two particles in the universe. This is what’s referred to as “nonlocality,” based upon the fact that even at an atomic level it seems that particles are in instantaneous communication with each other across vast distances.

So if there’s no such thing as definable space, which also means there is no such thing as linear time, it starts to become easier to see how the world could actually exist in our awareness. If there is no such thing as “out there,” reality has to be somewhere because our awareness is self-evident. Now I’m not completely unaware that many of you “out there” are questioning this, but for a moment clear your mind and open up to the possibility that this recognition is the next step in human conscious evolution.

If this is the case, it would explain many of the problems we see in ourselves and in our world and why they look so similar. For instance, we can easily see the conflict on the world scene by turning on the news channel. And by the way, this isn’t news; this conflict has been going on for thousands of years. It’s just that now we have bigger bombs, we feel more justified in our actions as time goes on, and we have global communication to keep us informed only of the negative side. But isn’t it true that the same conflict goes on between brother and sister, husband and wife, and to some extent, in most of our relationships?

So what to do? More knowledge? I think not–look at what we’ve done with the knowledge we do have. It’s been said, “To God, knowledge is but dust in the eyes of a child.” Maybe more embargoes, pressure from the World Trade Organization, airdrop food and pamphlets exposing our “truths that will set them free,” bigger bombs, a stronger and more aggressive preemptive strike policy? Could it be that no matter what we do “out there” we are just stirring the waters, making it impossible to have a clear reflection of our true nature? Could it be that the only thing we can do to effect real change is to deal with the only real reality, which is all inside our own awareness?

So why don’t we do this? We have many reasons–among them long-held belief systems that are firmly anchored in old world views, some of which were written by people who thought the world was flat, and the view that everything exists outside ourselves and we have no responsibility for what “they” do because they are obviously “not us.” But what we forget is that if we were born in a different land in a different society, “we” would be “them” and fighting with ourselves, which in this world view is exactly what we are doing, fighting with ourselves.

It seems to me that we are talking about being responsible for our thoughts. The Upanishads say, “Sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a destiny.” We think of destiny as something that has to be, but if it starts with a thought we can change our so-called destiny. Is our destiny to continue what we are doing? I’m not sure if more than a handful of people on the planet would think we need to keep doing what we are doing the way we are doing it. We need to get wise . . . quick. We have created a world that is going the wrong direction, and most of our world problems are unsolvable by any religion, science, or idea that we know of. A lot of our frustration comes when we realize there’s nothing we can do that seems to help. So maybe it’s not “doing” that will help. Maybe it’s “being.”

Could it be that we hold the answers within our awareness where reality is taking place? Could it be that even now there are among us individuals who are waking up to a new awareness that will help bring the world into balance? Could it be that there are humans being born into our reality who hold the keys to being cocreators–the Indigo children, for instance? If you look and listen closely you can see and feel a new wave of consciousness rising. It’s not loud and noisy like the old world view; it’s soft and exists without conflict. It comes gently with the rising sun, erasing our history, bringing light in a way that rids us of the need of our candlelight vision of the past, bringing warmth to the cold attitudes that have been frozen in our beings for all too long.

The great Sufi poet, Rumi, once said, “The universe and the light of the stars come through me.” And then there is Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

We could recite volumes by the world’s greatest thinkers that support what we have been pondering, but it all comes down to you personally, because if the world is within you, then it’s up to you what comes next. And again, I know some of you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, and I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.