Heaven on Earth

Many truth seekers like to use Indian words. The vast majority of these words hold no meaning to me. Commonly used words such as Sat Chit Ananda, Shiva, Shakti, and Mea Cupla Sommati, are a few examples. I've been hearing these words (and many more) for 5+ years and yet they still hold zero meaning to me.

I think some people believe we need to learn these words to understand the truth. In my opinion, unless you are from India, they usually add an extra layer of complexity.

Why? Because understanding is everything and I understand English much better than Sanskrit!! We don't need to make the truth complicated. I always prefer simple over complicated.

Rant aside, the Sanskrit words Leila and Maya are exceptions because they do help me understand the truth.

Leila represents the totality of the human phenomenal experience. In other words, Leila is the world that we see, touch, taste and smell along with our accompanying thoughts and feelings. Leila is the play. Leila is the movie. We do not have such a word in English.

Maya is belief that the world exists independently from Consciousness. Therefore, Maya represents the illusion...the belief that the world is real and has it's own independent existence. As Wang Po poetically said 1,200 years ago, "People ignore the reality of the illusionary world" In other words, we mistakenly believe the world made of matter to be real, and completely ignore its reality, Consciousness, the substance of everything.

Understanding the true nature of reality helps us understand why so many people can't find happiness in the world.

People search the Matrix seeking peace, happiness and fulfillment. However, because the Matrix is an illusion, we are never satisfied. We mistakenly believe that the love we feel for an object or person comes from the object itself. What we really love is always the source. What we really love is the reality of everything. If we are lucky we understand this and stop chasing things to make us feel whole.

With the proper understanding, we eventually realize that what we love isn't really chocolate or the person. What we really love is the reality of both. In other words, what we really love is always God, because only God is real. This is not belief. This is a deep understanding of what's real and what's not.

The matrix is fun. And it is often fun believing that it is real (like a really good thriller movie). But if we wish to be completely liberated from fears and desires, we need to deeply understand that the world is not real in the sense that it doesn't really exist.

Our degree of certainly goes hand in hand with happiness. At least this is true for me. I can't speak for everyone. Although there is obviously a lot of suffering in the world, my friends appear to be happy. But only they can answer this for themselves.

Is the world an illusion? The answer really depends on what I am believing to be real in this moment. The good news is that we always get an opportunity to choose in the now.

A quick examination of my experience and I can immediately see that I am completely ensconced in Awareness like the fish in the ocean. The fish doesn't understand the wetness of water because everything is water. The fish doesn't exist outside water and the world doesn't exist without Consciousness.

In this metaphor, we can temporarily take the fish out of the water. However, we can never separate Awareness from the objects of our perception. It is impossible. Reality can never be removed from anything that appears. The world and the other objects of our perception never obtain their own independent existence. Believing that it does is Maya.

A more accurate metaphor would be the image of a mountain on a TV screen. The mountain does not exist without without the screen. In reality, there is no mountain. In reality, there is no world. There is just the conscious experience of a world...and its beautiful!! It is this understanding that 'Heaven on Earth' makes sense. The earth is not separate from heaven. The reality of the earth is heaven. It is God's play.

Of course, everyone is free to believe whatever they want. I prefer the truth.