Ultimate Reality is not far removed from everyday reality. In fact, Ultimate Reality permeates everyday reality. For the last few weeks, I have been talking about Ultimate Reality, and some of it might have seemed abstract or heady or intellectual.
When I write about Ultimate Reality, I am choosing my terms carefully. For some, the term “God” assumes a personal, supernatural being. For others, the term “Universe” assumes an impersonal, natural force. I would rather not assume anything about Ultimate Reality.
Ultimacy is “the most fundamentally real, valuable or fulfilling among all that there is or could be.” Reality is “the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within the universe, as opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual.”
Ultimate Reality cannot be contained within a particular place, time or worldview. Rather, philosophies and theologies are like languages, different ways of describing the same, actual Ultimate Reality, which may not be personal or supernatural.
If a philosophy or theology fails to describe Ultimate Reality outside of one place, time or worldview, then it is describing something else, something less. Perhaps that image of God is too small, too tribal. Perhaps, that image of the Universe is too abstract, too intangible.
Realization or Speculation?
Although I ground my writing in objective evidence and subjective experience, readers sometimes ask if I am philosophizing or speculating. Some of that is unavoidable, I suppose. But, those who think they have encountered Ultimate Reality are changed by the experience.
Ultimate Reality is not far removed from everyday reality, and encounters with Ultimate Reality are not limited to saints and sages. In fact, many people have these encounters, commonly known as mystical or peak experiences.
These experiences can be prompted by art or nature, brain stimulations or plant journeys, meditation or prayer and seizures or strokes.
Oneness is not an abstract, intellectual concept. It is a meaningful, practical realization that everyone is related, and everything is connnected. It is the transcendence of self. The major traditions describe “dying to self” in their own languages and terms.
If you think that this is “woo woo” stuff, then set aside the Eastern religions and the mystics, and focus on the quantum physicists. Derrick Day, my fellow Patheos blogger, recently wrote a post describing the intersection of quantum physics and spirituality.
One reader reports, “Reaching unity/interconnectedness changes everything about how you view the world and interact with the world.” Certainly, my understanding of interconnectedness turned me inside out, changing my politics and my religion, even my personality.
Chop Wood, Carry Water
A well-known Zen saying says, “Before Enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” That is, the goal of enlightenment or liberation or realization is not to become a hermit or to escape worldly concerns or to indulge in navel-gazing.
Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher explains in After the Ecstacy, the Laundry that part of the enlightenment process is to bring the boundless presence of Ultimate Reality that we experience beyond space and time into our everyday reality within space and time.
As I said in The Way, “I hope that you see how the Eastern religions, the mystics, and the scientists suggest that everyone is related, and everything is connected. When you get that point, and when it changes you and your spiritual practice, then your belief system is secondary.”
Ultimate Reality is not far removed from everyday reality. Oneness is not an abstract, intellectual concept. Ultimate Reality permeates everyday reality. Those of us who realize our interconnectedness can be transformed by that realization.
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