We cannot say that reality is dual or nondual, because only human beings think that way. We need to have a mind that separates things, that knows separation, in order for us to know nonseparation. But when our mind is beyond that dichotomy, reality is simply reality. The experience becomes simply the perception of appearance as it is—the luminosity of particulars arising in a heightened sense of uniqueness. The relationship of subject and object is neither two interacting nor one becoming manifest. It is both and neither, a wonder and a mystery of reality viewed through the dynamism of Total Being.

Essential substance is so beautiful and magnificent that no imagination can conceive of its beauty, and no poetry can convey its magnificence. The way it moves us and teaches us is beyond the wildest dreams and imaginations of humanity. Its potentialities are staggering, its creativity is boundless, its depth is endless, and its intelligence is limitless. It is a wonder—a wonder beyond all miracles. It is our true nature, our most intimate identity. 

When we begin to experience consciousness directly, a whole new world opens up. Rather than the normal sense that we are seeing the world as an external object, we begin to perceive the universe from within. The inner journey becomes a journey of discovery that opens us to magnificent, exhilarating inner experiences and perceptions, but also brings our knowledge of the world and of existence into a sharp, clear focus. Inner explorers travel to a world much more exciting and thrilling, much more beautiful and meaningful, much more satisfying and fulfilling, much more amazing and magnificent than any outer explorer will ever behold. Many religious perspectives tend to turn the inner journey into a heavy sanctity, a dull morality, a perverse holiness. Given this tendency, it is no wonder that so many people are no longer interested in religion. But when we explore the soul, rather than leaving it in a static relationship with an external divinity, we penetrate to the ground of the self, to the conscious field of the soul, and begin to know consciousness directly. Then the inner reality becomes a delight and a wonder, and we approach more and more closely a lived understanding of the relationship of our soul to what has been thought of as the divine; thus we approach an appreciation of the source of all discovery and creativity. 

However, our organic intelligence can illuminate our inquiry only when two things happen. First, we must have the direct data of our observation, arising from our global awareness of what is going on here and now. And second, we need to use our ordinary knowledge appropriately to inform us of what we have observed in the past. As we have seen, there is a place for ordinary knowledge, as long as we know how to use it intelligently. But ordinary knowledge by itself won’t work without the raw data of direct observation. And these two together will do nothing for our inquiry if we don’t have the dynamic openness. All of these elements need to operate as one in a field of openness that emerges as a dynamic questioning that invites experience to open up, unfold, and flower. Then our inquiry is full of wonder, a thrilling and satisfying adventure, taking us to places maybe no one has gone before.

As I see it, we do not engage the inner work in order to be enlightened and live a happy life. That is not the meaning of realization. Realization means finding out what is really here now. When you find out what is really here, it becomes obvious what to do and how to live. And then, if you do it, if you are courageous enough, lionhearted enough, to venture into the unknown, which means nothing but letting go of what you know, then you realize that the world you live in is a world of mystery, a world of wonder, a world of beauty. The world is magic. If we allow ourselves to see the world without our ton of cabbage, what we see is full of wonder and mystery all the time. It’s beautiful, colorful, magical, transforming each moment. When you see reality as it is, your mind dissolves. Instantly. Your mind cannot know what reality is. Are there human beings here? Are there individuals here? That is what we believe. That is one of the ways of seeing reality. But is that the only way of seeing and experiencing what is here? Am I really an individual, a man of such and such an age, who was born to my father and mother, had my brother and sisters, went to school, had my problems? And here I am now sitting talking to you. That is the common way of seeing it, from the perspective of what our mothers taught us. But as I see it, the person who was born many years ago is forever gone. And the person who lived yesterday is also gone. And the person who said the last sentence is now gone. I am not saying these things because I am somebody who lost his ego. This is a fact for everybody all the time. All of reality is mysterious and new from moment to moment.

Learning about Being—studying it, exploring it, realizing it, or connecting with it—is not a matter of trying to get rid of problems or trying to get somewhere because you desperately need to. Rather, if we recognize that the universe is truly a wonder to explore, this exploration can become the most enjoyable activity possible. It is enjoyable and fulfilling because we are doing nothing but perceiving, experiencing, and learning about what we are, and about reality and the truth of the universe. Seeing how things really are is seeing the beauty and magnificence of existence. 

AHA: Right. What we see around us we do not really know directly, right now, in terms of immediacy. We need to see that fact in a very deep and fundamental way. You need to see that when you look at the table you do not know what you are looking at. What you know is a word, the concept of a table. You do not know what you are looking at. And the moment you really see through the word, you see that the reality that you are seeing around you is a mystery; that we live in complete, pure mystery; that the world around us that is old, drab, and normal is actually a wonder, a mystery. It is a mystery that defies our minds, that defies our best efforts. But we kill that mystery, we separate ourselves from it by putting up a barrier of words and concepts. Then the best thing we can do is know it through words and concepts, through the old. But if you confront your assumptions, you see that in reality, you do not really know. When you say, “I know this table is made out of wood,” what are you saying? What is wood to you? What do you know? Do you really know wood the way wood knows itself? It is something you have seen, you have touched, you have read things about, you have used. But you still do not know what wood is. Wood, ultimately, is a word, and there is a mystery underlying that word, but the mystery is eluding you through the word wood. But you see the words, our mind, is actually what we perceive. We not only perceive through the mind, we perceive only our mind. When I look around, I see the table, I see people, but what I’m seeing is my mind. The table is not separate from my mind, from the word table in my mind. The person is not separate from the concept of person in my mind. It is the same thing. It is my mind that I see around me. And if I want to penetrate beyond my mind and see what is there, it is a mystery. It is unknowable, completely, one hundred percent unknowable.  

The perception that Being constitutes the totality of everything is what is generally called a mystical experience. Before this, you may have spiritual experiences, but when you experience the oneness and the unity of existence, you are on the level of the mystical. In the dimension of Living Daylight, you experience that everything is made out of love. When you look around you, everything might appear, for example, to be made out of a pink and sweet diamond-like taffy substance, and be pervaded with a wonder, a beauty, and a sweetness. So the experience of boundlessness that arises as we move into the formless dimensions becomes the deepest level of truth that we perceive. On the level of the Supreme (the dimension of Pure Presence or Pure Being), for example, you realize that everything is a translucent Beingness. You see that it is not as though translucent Beingness is in everything or that everything exists in it, but that everything is the translucence. It is inside things, outside things, and in between them. There is no place that is not translucent Beingness. On this level of the Supreme, there is no separation between what we call appearance and reality, the form and the meaning. They are all one thing; there is a unity.