|
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein
The Sanskrit word, maya, often is used to describe the illusion of the world. In fact, maya refers more to the mind's propensity to divide the world into apparent dualism. This is caused by, and is further reinforced by our use of language and our dependence upon symbolic thought. We cannot see a table without thinking of the word "table." We depend so much on verbalized thought and symbolic thinking that we have come to mistake the symbols for the thing itself. Everything is an object, a separateness, and we have come to believe entirely in our own separateness from the whole.
Professor Einstein also said,
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
We absolutely need an ego, a sense of self, to live and work in this world; however, identified solely as the ego mind, we never will be able to see ourselves as at-one-with. We never will have the capacity to feel ourselves as the expressions of nature that we are, as the oneness with nature that we are. For this we must have the experience of being something-other-than this ego mind. For this we have the experience of meditation.
Today, when my thoughts and my feelings are telling me things about myself or the world that make me feel separate and alone, I will remind myself of this other thing I feel when I am in meditation. I will remind myself that there is another, deeper experience of self always available to me.
Angel, Waverly Cemetery, Sydney, Australia
All material copyright Jeff Kober
| 
