Reality Is Subjective
Posted on Tuesday 27 August 2013 and filed under Genevieve Tan Shu Thung , Spirituality and Mental Science , . You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry from your site
"Why do you seek to find which location or country is the most spiritual place in the world when the true spiritual abode is within you; one which is all pervasive and not just confined to a particular point on the globe?"
- Master Genevieve Tan Shu Thung (Mahabalipuram, INDIA - August 2012)
- Master Genevieve Tan Shu Thung (Mahabalipuram, INDIA - August 2012)
Q&A Session with the Master (Glasgow group): “Reality is subjective”
Bengaluru, INDIA – August 27,
2013
Disciple (Sister Margaret):
Mother, is God real?
Master:
Why is that Mother? I don’t understand.
Master:
That is because God is as real as you think you are. If you think you
exist, then God exists. If you one day cease to exist, so does God because the very
concept of God symbolises a higher power. God exists in the mind of man as a
separate being or source. However, God lies within. God is the very essence of
all things made and all things unmade. There is no separation. God was never born
and so God can never die. God was, is and will always be. There is only a “God”
and “devotee” when duality still blinds man. That is why the Buddhist sutras
always emphasise on how the universe as we know it, is in fact ‘kong’ – empty.
Disciple (Brother Frank):
Empty? How can the world be empty when Earth itself is populated by
billions of human beings and more billions of animals? And we are seated
here, talking to you Mother. How then can the world be empty?
Master:
‘Kong’ in Chinese according to the spiritual interpretation does not
literally mean “empty” as how we define it in the English language. The Heart
Sutra clearly states that the man who dwells deeply in the ultimate wisdom of
perfection will come to an ultimate realisation that all the five elements are in
fact, nothing. They do not exist. The elements you perceive to be real are only
real to your senses. Beyond the senses, there is nothing. Only Spirit.
Disciple (Sister Georgina):
So we exist only when the five senses allow us to sense that we exist?
Master:
This does not apply only to a limited number of five senses. As long as
you are still bound by your senses, you exist. Beyond the senses, there is only
Spirit. An all-pervasive field of divinity. This is otherwise known as the Atma.
Disciple (Sister Georgina):
In that case, we do not really exist at all. Then why all these drama
in life? Why do we experience different things and feel different feelings? We
can feel happiness and sadness, and some of us suffer while some of us enjoy
life. If God is an ocean of nothingness and God is the all-pervasive being that
He is, then why all these activities of differences take place within this
field of divinity?
Master:
Good question. Although it is difficult to paint a picture of what
divinity really is using any language, I would like to invite you to imagine
the physical ocean. Let us for now just imagine the ocean and all the life
forms that are in it. We will now focus only on those life forms that cannot
live outside the ocean and discard those that can. These life forms need the
ocean to survive just like every single form there is in this world. There is
nothing that is void of divinity. Each and every object and every life form you
come across is a part of Spirit. Yet, what is the ocean without these life
forms? Unless there are two, one cannot know the other. The life forms must first
assume an identity to exist before they can also give rise to the existence of
the ocean. Yet, although the life forms and the ocean seem to be ‘separated’
from each other, are they really separate? After all, these life forms cannot
live without the ocean. The ocean is all they know. They were born, bred and in
the end, will eventually die there. Although each species goes around doing
their thing as instinct prompts them to in the ocean, do they actually realise that
they are part of it? That’s similar to the limited ego-self in action. This is
how separation begins. One busies him or herself with whatever that is prompted
from within, not knowing that whatever it is, they would not have existed
without Spirit in the first place. Identity exists in duality. Identity ceases
when there is only One.
The ocean example I have just spoken of is not exactly a full
representation of what I am trying to say here, but I was painting a picture of
the ever-existing life cycle with its relationship to what we call God.
Disciple (Brother Hari):
So basically, we are supposed to identify that connecting link with
each other. Am I right Mother?
Master:
I just said that identity ceases when there is only One. What is there
to identify then dear Hari?
Disciple (Brother Hari):
I could not exactly put my understanding into words.
Master:
Yes, that is the limitation of man-made languages.
Disciple (Sister Connie):
Yet we sort of get the idea.
Master:
Yes. That is the language that man did not make. It is the language of
Spirit – the heart. In fact, it is not even a language to begin with. Language
exists only when communication is required. But what is communication when
there is only One?
Disciple (Brother Hari):
The closest I can get to is that we need to feel the connection as one
massive field of energy.
Master:
Speaking from only One, there is also no room for feeling. Feelings
exist also in duality. Just be.
Disciple (Sister Emma):
The state of being.
Master:
If you must call it a “state” in this world of duality that we
seemingly exist in.
***Disciples laughing ***
Disciple (Sister Juanita):
If there is anything I know, it is that whatever we use to describe it,
it just wouldn’t do. Because we are beyond description and feelings. We just
are? So trying to use fancy words just wouldn’t represent the true nature of
Spirit. Because Spirit just is?
Master:
Now we’re talking.
***Disciples laughing***
Disciple (Brother Om):
Okay Mother, I have another question that is bothering my mind.
Master:
Then tell me and we’ll see if I can ‘un-bother’ it. If I cannot, then
maybe you’ll need to book an appointment with your psychologist?
***Disciples bursting into loud laughter***
Disciple (Sister Gemma):
Mother, I’m sure we would all agree that you are our psychologist.
Otherwise, all 27 of us wouldn’t have taken the trouble to come all the way from England to
see you in India.
Master:
Then I must be one extremely expensive psychologist to visit. I didn't know I had a 'rate' on me.
***Laughter***
Disciple (Brother Om):
I was going to ask about curses. In our Indian culture, we believe in
curses. Families could get cursed by the evil eye from others. Or people can
curse us to suffer from certain consequences. My question is, are curses real?
Master:
Again my dear child, curses are as real as man believes himself to be.
Disciples (Brother Om):
Just like God?
Master:
I have repeatedly said in almost every meeting with all disciples - Ekatma
Sarva Bhutantaratma. There is only ONE Atma that dwells in every being. If
curses exist, they too are part of Spirit. Where purity exists, impurity must
exist too. Where good dwells, so must evil. These are all fluctuating states of
the dual world that you are dreaming of.
Disciple (Brother Om):
So, if we are awakened, or we have experienced the ultimate reality if
I may say that, is it correct to say that we can no longer be affected by the
curse that others have placed on us or our families?
Master:
With good and evil being part of the all-pervasive You, how can ‘You’
be affected? It all becomes a screen play – a show. This is what we call leela.
Disciple (Sister Lalitha):
But Mother, in this show we still live. Or do we die when we become
awakened?
Master:
You can neither be born nor can you die. Only the physical body, still entrapped
in this dual world, can.
Disciple (Brother Om):
An awakened man doesn’t die as we have seen many Self-realised souls over
the past many centuries. In India, we have so many of them. But even after such
awakening Mother, we still have bodies. Wouldn’t we be affected still? Even if
the curse doesn’t affect us personally let’s say, but it may affect our
families. And seeing our families suffer, wouldn’t we feel some feelings of
uneasiness?
***Master turns to brother Om and
speaks in Telugu***
Master:
(Telugu: Do not speak
as though such spiritual personalities belong only to India. They belong to no
one and yet belong to all. So when you said “we have so many of them in India”,
it was not very apt. To have said “there are so many of them in India” would
have been better. And
don’t worry, your family is not affected by black magic. It’s only in your
mind! Don’t blame everything on black magic. Sometimes, these cases are real,
but most of the time, man just blames black magic because it is easier. You are attracting all these misfortunes in your life from all the negative thoughts instead of them being a result of other people's jealousy!)
***Master resumes in English***
You are now contradicting yourself. If you have awakened, you will
realise that all feelings only exist in duality. But being just ‘You’, You just
are. Nothing matters.
Master:
You are now contradicting yourself. If you have awakened, you will
realise that all feelings only exist in duality. But being just ‘You’, You just
are. Nothing matters.
Disciple (Sister Rose):
Wouldn't that make us cold-blooded or something?
Master:
Again, qualities exist only in duality. Of course, while the ego-self
still plays its role, you seem to exist as a separate human being. But with
Jnana (spiritual wisdom), you know everything that you perceive arises only
from the interpretation of the senses. But in reality, everything is nothing,
and nothing is everything.
Disciple (Sister Rani):
So, we feel the pain because somehow our ego-self still lures us to
believe that we are still entrapped in a human body, but we know that the pain
isn’t real because it’s just a drama?
Master:
It is because you would not associate yourselves with it. You are the
producer, director, actor and audience. Let’s take a simpler example. One day,
you decide to use your left hand to stab your right hand. Can your right hand
blame your left hand for having done so? No doubt you feel the pain. But
knowing that it was Your own decision, and the left hand only carried out the
order from the higher chain of command, can your right hand blame your left
hand? No! Would your right hand say that the left hand had deliberately injured
it? No.
Disciple (Brother Om):
So indirectly, any curse is also the result of our own decisions?
Master:
Your own higher leela (drama). Remember. You may be the actor in this
divine show, but you are also the producer, director and audience! When you finally
realise this, all curses just cease to exist. There is no such thing. The actor
becomes too deeply involved in the role that he has been given and drowns in
the script of the divine show. However, he forgets that he is also the main
reason the show exists in the first place. Without him, there would have been
no show.
Transcribed by Sister Padma & Brother Hari
Source: Sandhya
Maarga Organisation
Copyright © 2013 Sandhya Maarga Holistic Living Resources
Holistic Living Annex (August 2013)
Copyright © 2013 Sandhya Maarga Holistic Living Resources
Holistic Living Annex (August 2013)
7 Responses for “ Reality Is Subjective”
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Inspirational Gallery
was the interview with Mother this short? i expected it to be longer. where can i get the whole transcript brother yash?
Awww... Thanks brother Hari for transcribing Mataji's discourse. Didn't expect it to be out so fast. But this is only an excerpt Mandy, just like all of other Mother's discourses published on the site. Maybe we'll get the full transcript few days later in our mail. Our meeting with Mother was too long and the Q&A lasted almost an hour. It would be impossible to publish everything I think. Cheers.
You're welcome sister Gemma. Sister Mandy, we'll be putting up the whole transcript on the portal next Monday. You can download it from there. We only selected this portion for publication as it was too long. We still need time to edit the rest. Aum Shakthi.
Nicely explained. Loved the ocean example.
Cool post about black magic. I was wondering about the same thing few weeks ago. Although I know that everything is from our minds, I couldn't understand how a man who has faith in God could also be free from such bad things. Now I know that it is only we who bind ourselves to such consequences.
Very thought-provoking. Made me wonder if I exist now.
This article prompted me to see things differently. Are we really just beings floating about in some extra-terresterial space without knowing we are just pawns of a bigger game in this matrix?