MUSIC: “Sea of Life” by Alexander Bell

This is my favourite question, because what is real is so beautiful beyond all words that merely contemplating it fills you with light.

Yet many people are riddled with doubt about this subject, like a strong wooden beam can be riddled with woodworm, resulting in a weakened structure. But doubts can disappear in the blink of an eye, as they are illuminated by Truth, and what was once weak can very easily become strong again. 

All doubt comes from the mind, in the form of thoughts. We experience something profound, but then we begin to think about it, question it’s meaning and doubt it validity. This is how the mind undermines Truth. Such thoughts literally cast shadows upon a beautiful landscape of light – which is Reality – and then we focus our attention upon these shadows and they seem to become more solid, more real. But this is just an illusion.

So if thoughts, doubts, or anything created by the mind are illusory, then what is real? What exists when there is no thought?

This is the ‘acid test’ because if you are thinking about it, then it is not real. Thoughts exists within the illusory realm, they are threads in the fabric of illusion, so if you are in thought you cannot be in touch with what is real. It is impossible. 

But the mind is very uncomfortable with this fact, because it is used to knowing and understanding everything through the medium of thought. Thus a conceptual map of ‘reality’ is created within the mind and referenced religiously as we try to create a feeling of security in what is a very transient and unpredictable world. And the security we create for ourselves is false, based on illusion, therefore we build houses for ourselves on the sand, rather than on the rock, which is truth – immovable, unshakable, completely dependable. 

So what is Truth? In a word, Love. 
Yet what this word means to you is not Truth. It is the experience that we must adhere to as Truth. We can only know what is real by experiencing it, therefore thinking about Love is another sphere of illusion, albeit with a nice word attached to it. 

Love must be experienced, and when it is experienced, it does not have the name ‘Love’, because it is being fully experienced. The mind does not need to be active and give labels to things when Love is our experience, because we are no longer in the realm of thought – we are in the realm of feeling.

For many people, the idea of leaving the realm of thought creates a sense of unease and anxiety. The conceptual map of reality that we carry in our mind feels so safe and familiar, creating the ‘known’ world. This is why many people are afraid of the dark, because the ‘known’ world is no longer there and we are left with something else: our imagination. It is the same with swimming in the depths of the ocean. We cannot see what is beneath us, and we start to imagine what may be there!

Do you trust your imagination? When all the lights are out, and perhaps you have to go outside in the dark, what does your imagination tell you? For many people, it is threat. ‘There are unseen threats out there’, says our mind, and we begin to imagine what they may be, usually creating a sense of fear as we imagine all the things that we would not like to encounter! Why does our imagination do this?

Primarily, it is because over the years we have filled our minds with all sorts of negative imagery, through films, television programmes, news stories that we read, watch or hear about. Our mind has gotten used to the idea that we are at risk, that there is danger waiting round the corner. It becomes an accepted fact that there is danger ‘out there’. So we believe that if we can just control as many things in our life as possible – lock our doors, don’t go out after dark, don’t talk to strangers – then the chances of something unwelcome happening to us are greatly reduced.

But what is the motivating force behind such actions? It is clearly fear, and any action that comes out of fear cannot bring us true peace. And surely true peace is what we would all like to experience… Therefore we must build our houses on the rock, on Truth, which is free of all fear, untouchable and unshakeable.

If our actions come from fear, then they will only lead to more fear. If we lock ourselves up indoors, behind fences and gates then we will not feel free. We will feel like a prisoner, and it will be our own fear holding us prisoner. This is what fear does. It can never bring us freedom. Do you want to be a slave to your fear any longer? Do you want to find out that in fact there is no reason to be afraid? Because it is only your mind that gives you reasons to be afraid, and it feeds on negative information, consuming it hungrily from media news sources. 

What if I told you there was no reason to be afraid? Would you believe it? In response to the thought of having no reason to be afraid, the heart leaps with joy and shouts from deep within you, “yes, yes, listen to this.. I know this is true. Please set me free!…” because it is the heart which suffers most in enslavement to fear. It is held tight, in contraction, never allowed to fully expand, never allowed room to breathe. Do you know what this feels like? 

Set your heart free – let it expand, let it breathe, let it open and bloom and share its beauty and magnificence with you and the world! This is what you were designed for, this is your destiny. Why remain in the dark, when you can enjoy the light of your own Heart, safe in the knowledge that there is no cause for fear. You create your own reality. You can create a fearful reality, or you can create a beautiful reality, full of happiness and Love. 

Some people may say: “yes, but there might something bad around the next corner in Life. How can I be happy when something bad might happen to me?”

I repeat, you create your own reality! Happiness creates a beautiful reality, which in truth has already been created for us, and we need only align ourselves with it’s delightful perfection. For happiness to be absent means that we have lost touch with what is real, and we have given our mind to the illusion, with our doubts, worries, deep thoughts. But they are not needed, because when we bring our attention out of thought and we become aware of something pure, something radiant and beautiful – this is Reality.

www.AlexanderBell.org