13 On the Levels of Reality I
Beloveds,
Love.
Most people are trapped in the perception of the purely material realm
of existence.
They also experience the intellectual realms of dreams and imagination,
but believe them to be unreal, whereas they believe the material to be
real.
They experience the realms of emotion only rarely, for fleeting instants,
and fail to understand what they are experiencing at all; thinking this
experience to be tied to the physical, or the mental, or to be a part
of their "selves" in a way the material or intellectual universe
is not. In other words, this realm is usually only experienced in total
confusion.
Most people fail to experience the spiritual realms with any awareness
at all.
The first step to understanding how to correctly observe the various
realms of reality is therefore to know that there is no difference between
the reality of the material realms, and the reality of the intellectual
realms, both of which most normal people will be capable of regularly
experiencing.
You must understand there to be no difference in the reality of your dreams
and imagination, and the reality of the physical world.
They are simply operating on different levels.
You could say that the material world is just as false, just as illusory
as the intellectual world.
Or otherwise you could say that the world of dreams and imagination is
just as real as the material world.
It doesn't matter which point of view you take to begin with, only that
for most people it is very difficult to truly comprehend the idea of the
material world being an illusion, as most people misunderstand the concept
of the word "illusion" in the first place.
If you have any doubt, you might find it easier to simply consider that
your dreams are just as real as your waking life, that your daydreams
just as real as your physical activities.
Once you take that attitude, you will take where you go and what you do
in daydreams far more seriously.
This is the first step in correcting your perception of the various realms.
This is also vital to the attainment of the Mahamudra.
Love
Swami
