Eighth Teaching – The Real and the Unreal

Commentary: One of the major areas causing ignorance and confusion, as to the essential nature of Brahman and Creation, is oral language. Proper understanding requires that a Rishi carefully and accurately define the meaning of his or her words. For words predate name and form and so determine perception, reason, inference, and intuition.

Today’s teaching will explain the correct meaning and proper usage of essential metaphysical terms, i.e., the real, the not real, and the actual. We will also distinguish between perceptions and misperceptions.

[setting] Father, Radha, and Krishna are sitting under near the ancient fig tree for the morning lesson. Krishna asks,

Krishna: Father, when I read the Upanishads, I am confused by three words: real, not real, and illusion. Will you educate me so to remove my confusion, Father.

Father: Let me begin with the word ‘real.’ If you recall from your grammar studies with Mother, the root ‘real’ is commonly used in two ways. The lesser usage is employed to differentiate something genuine, such as pure gold, from mixtures of gold with silver or copper so to create less valuable alloys. In other words, what is a pure substance or uncomplicated idea can be said to be real, as distinguished from something which is not genuine, gold tainted with a lesser substance, or iron covered with gold leaf. Relative to the pure material, the lesser ones are fakes if sold as pure gold.

People use the word ‘real’ for pure gold and not for an alloy of gold and silver because societies teach the young that gold is more precious than silver and so more desirable to possess. Therefor, a necklace of pure gold is more precious than a necklace of alloy, hence, the pure gold necklace is ‘real’ and the alloy is not.

The higher usage for the root ‘real’ is as shorthand for the words ‘reality’ and ‘realization.’ Of these two, as far as metaphysics is concerned, we need concentrate upon the latter word. Realization is the term we employ so to describe our understanding, our perception, our imagination, and our emotional response to an event which we have noticed, awake or dreaming. Subsequently, ‘reality’ comprises the totality of our ‘realization,’ our current mental model, we have constructed to explain our personal existence. As our ‘reality’ is generated by the imago-reality operators of our mind-brain, everyone experiences a slightly different ‘reality.’

Many persons make the mistake of equating the word ‘reality’ with the word ‘actuality.’ By the terms ‘actual’ and ‘actuality,’ I am referring to the native, substantive composition and structure of all parts of our universe perceived without any additions, subtractions, colorations, biases, or substitutions. In other words, the universe, as seen from the perspective of Brahman itself, or as the image seen from the point of view of pure Observing, one of the Six Divine Qualia, or the ‘5Q + 1,’ as Ishvara, Krishna, pure Buddhahood, or Cosmic Mind.

For those who are not fully enlightened, the goal of study of the Upanishads and all Scripture is to remove the perceptual, reasoning, and inferential errors from our personal ‘Reality’ so to bring such into resonance with ‘Actuality.’ When this is accomplished, a stream-enterer becomes an enlightened and liberated being.

I am not fond of the term ‘Maya of Brahman,’ as commonly used, as it carries an air of being purposeful. Rather, I see our innate inability to experience ‘actuality,’as part of biological evolution, as it is not needed to live a mundane life. Therefore, refining our realities is a conscious choice, a choice in which we negate our human ignorance, or remove our misunderstanding of the totality around us, so to see and experience the actuality of Creation and Brahman.

So Krishna, when you read the phrase ‘the real’ it means no more than the clarity of your ‘realization’ of Brahman and the Worlds. The phrase ‘the unreal’ means no more than what you do not as yet realize relative to the perspective of ‘actuality.’ The phrase ‘the unreal’ should not be used to describe our misperceptions of Actuality, dear boy. Saying this, I acknowledge that some teachers use the term ‘the unreal’ to refer to all incorrect views as to Actuality, and ‘the real’ to refer to correct views as to Actuality. So pay attention.