Dear Spiritual Companions,

I was talking with a friend yesterday and we were talking about what is real.  One can get very philosophical about this or even religious, but that is the trap of the ego and I don’t want to get caught up in that today.  Instead, I want to ponder What is Real?  To ponder, of course is to sit with or live with an idea or thought or life event.  It doesn’t entail seeking an answer, although one may come.  It doesn’t mean we have to fix anything or anyone.  It doesn’t even mean we have to have someone agree with us.  To me reality lives in what simply is.  It is our opportunity to get off the  merry go round of being busy or productive.  We don’t have to please anyone or prove our worth, even to our-self.  We have a God given right to be here and enjoy the ride called life.  We are actors on the stage of existence and we can take in the drama, tragedy, comedy or even folly unfolding in our life.

My major understanding of reality is that what I think is real often is just the door to meaning.  I can always tell when I am caught up in too much reality.  I am upset.  I don’t like what is happening.  What someone has said or not said or what someone has done or not done has far too much power in how I feel.  This has even more impact on me when I am the one who has said something I wish I hadn’t or had, done something I wish I hadn’t or had.  I am stuck on what I think is real rather than the meaning of a life event.  e. e. cummings wrote something that has stuck with me for a long time – “Nothing matters but the circus!”  On the surface that statement makes no sense.  No it doesn’t unless you ponder it.  Like a Zen koan there really is no answer found in trying to understand what it means.  It is simply living with cummings line that reveals a deeper meaning.  Like the circus of life nothing matters but the meaning it offers.  In that gift we will find what is real – Love.

Many people have tried to define Love, but it is like trying to define God.  Once you do you have lost God.  Love is the doorway to the Mystery of God found in not trying to wrap everything neatly in a box.  How things happen, how we were born, who we meet, the events of every day, what we see or read that fits so perfectly with out inner life is simly Amazing.  I have discovered how letting life be Amazing is so much better than figuring out how it became amazing.  The time I spend trying to understand life causes me to miss the moment of amazement.  The most fantastic part of this might be found in coming to experience how our various attempts at figuring out life is the doorway to letting life be what it is.  We come to see how all the effort to find out what is real is not helpful and thereby helpful because we don’t have to do it any more – Amazing! 

This is a lot to ponder so rather than continuing to write I invite you to discover, through these words or pondering them, your reality.

Peace