However, when we realize the reality and see that it is actually the ground without which the appearance could not exist, then the world of appearance transforms. It becomes more harmonious. It becomes the world of appearance rather than the world of suffering, success and failure. It becomes a world which is an expression of love and compassion and goodness and value. The appearance then is an expression of the beauty of reality.

There appear to be two realities or two truths. It seems that reality is not just one thing, but two things. The first is appearance, or what we call conventional truth. The second is fundamental truth. The appearance of reality is what you perceive all the time, what you see and experience. Everything that appears to your senses is the conventional truth. That’s why we call it appearance – it appears to your consciousness. The more basic reason it is called appearance is that in relation to the ultimate or fundamental truth – which is the reality itself – it is clear that conventional truth is only the way things appear. It is not really how things are. We need to understand as deeply as possible that the appearance of things – of everyone and everything, of the whole universe – is not reality.

The qualities of Essence are the first words. The aspects are the first concepts; they are universal concepts, the archetypal states of being. They are more connected to the fundamental reality than the world of appearance, but they are part of the world of appearance; Essence appears to us. Or, more accurately, experiences of Essence are glimpses of fundamental reality, viewed from the world of appearance.

The thing that made the shuttle explode is making you talk to me right now. There's only one cause, what is sometimes called the Prime Mover. From within the perspective of manifestation, where we take appearance to be the ultimate reality, there seem to be causes and effects. The space shuttle exploded because there was a mechanical malfunction. That is true. But the malfunction was not a result of what happened at the docking station. The malfunction was produced instantaneously at that very moment. And the explosion was not a result of the malfunction, but was produced instantaneously at that very moment. The explosion is like anything else: moving your arm, saying a word, snow falling, catching a flight, seeing God, taking a shit, a war happening, a murder, a marriage, an orgasm.

From within the manifestation it appears as if there is free will. If you look from the source, no free will exists. So it all depends from where you look. Whatever you see is produced by the flow. It does not get you off the hook, though. As long as you experience yourself as a separate self it is best to take responsibility. If you do not take responsibility the flow will manifest in darker and more difficult patterns. However, if you take responsibility in a real way, not by feeling guilty but by being responsible in your dealings with the world, the more that responsibility will manifest the flow in a lighter and more illuminating way. Authentic responsibility is our way of experiencing the illumination of the flow that culminates in its revelation of the true nature of the pattern, as the creative outflow of the Logos, the Patterns.

To live in the world and to know yourself, you have to take both worlds into consideration: reality and the appearance of reality. When you believe only in the apparent world, you create all kinds of ideas about how things should happen. Sickness comes and you push it away; health comes and you hold on to it. Misery comes, you try to push it away; happiness comes and you try to hold on to it, and you increase your suffering even more. When you realize how things actually are, you know that things simply change; appearance changes, but it is not actually death, and rebirth, sickness, health. Never has it been different, never since the dawn of consciousness has anything actually changed. We see something coming out of something we call it birth. We see something that used to move, stops moving, we call it death. We have created these words to describe certain changes of appearance.