Living With The Deeper Reality

The Seeker asked: “How can I know if what you tell me is true?” To this, the Ancient One (for only a person of very aged pedigree can impress upon the novice such imposing ripostes) replied: “I tell you, seeker, that unless it exists, you cannot know the Truth. For if there is no objective Truth, then why go on deluding yourself through an entire lifetime? Would it not be better instead to try to enjoy the brief period left to your pointless existence? However, what if a deeper reality does exist? To be real, the Truth must stand alone; everything contradicting it has to be counterfeit.” 

But does a deeper reality of truth exist? In some cases, such as in mathematics, it seems like it definitely does. Two plus two add up to four, period. Whether minds, consciousnesses or people exist or not, whether the world or the universe exists or not, whether a creator or the entire cosmos exists or not, it seems extremely unlikely — if not totally implausible — that two of something and two more of the same would not total up to four of them. In terms of mathematical truth, as understood within the context of logical thought of deduction and induction, this suggests that such truths are pre-existent and thus discovered from within the realm of pure form. There’s no getting away.

But now consider faith. The statement most followers of some religions would accept as truth is: “There is only one deity, and that God is an indivisible unity.” Other followers of other religions — not to mention atheists and agnostics — however, would say the statement is false. The truth is that it’s either true or false and a correct answer probably exists in some realm of pure form. But we can only know for sure which viewpoint is counterfeit if we were privy to all knowledge.

So the Seeker thought for a while and rephrased his question: “How can I know if what you tell me is counterfeit?” To this the Ancient One (with the same credentials) replied: “When you can justify your curiosity with your own answers to questions that have no solutions in the realm of pure form, you become your own fount of pre-existing knowledge and then are no longer deluding yourself or enjoying the brief period left to your pointless existence. But the problem is, such kind of knowledge puts a great burden of counterfeit. Will you consider yourself to be a valuable person thereafter and be able to live, like I do, with that deeper reality?”

Mukul Sharma