The chapter titled “The Unveiling of Reality” from the Wisdom of the Overself offers insights into the ‘Real World.’ The ‘Real World’ is not the world of common perception. Examination finds the everyday world a world of change and restlessness. Ancient teachings of both the East and West confirm a constant reality, an ultimate reality, one which may be approached by study, reason, and mystic practice. On Page 344 The Wisdom points out that Hegel saw and Goethe grasped the elusiveness of Reality. It says “… this elusiveness is due more to our ignorance of what to search for than to our inability to attain it. The metaphysics of truth fills this lack and the philosophic insight sees clearly where unillumined thinking fails to see it at all.”
Page 342 asks the question, “What is Reality?” and discusses two marks of reality:
…It (Reality) cannot be something which is here today and gone tomorrow. It must be something which over-passes the periphery of time. The first mark of reality is that it has always been in existence. Something of this universe, whether it be visible or invisible, whether it be so-called matter or so-called spirit, must have had an everlasting existence. For if the contrary were the case, if nothing whatsoever had even once been the condition of universal history, then the universe could never have arisen for out of nothing only nothing can emerge. Even the most primitive intelligence demands some reason to account for things. Therefore the original ‘something’ must have always existed and must still exist. This we may call the ultimate reality. It is the never-ending origin of the All. It is Mind.
There is no thought of anything without a corresponding negation of that thought, without an opposing contrast. Hence no idea is ever alone but a second one is always alongside it. It can never exist by itself. It may be said that the second mark of reality is that it should be able to exist by and in itself. It should be in no need of anything beyond itself upon which it must depend. Its strength should lie in its self-sufficiency. What it is in itself and not as it reacts differently on different observers, is the Real. This lifts it quite out of the space-time world of relativities. Neither the three transient states of consciousness nor the numerous transient ideas generated by mind can therefore be the Real. They are always dependent and never self-sustained. We must seek deeper for their unknown everlasting ground. Because we have found both the wakeful and dream worlds to be nothing but the movement of thought-forms and because the enduring unchanging element not only of those worlds but also of our own self, has been found to be the element of undifferentiated Mind, then this alone constitutes their reality. (p. 343-344).
The chapter continues to explore these ideas in depth. The following is a quote to take into meditation:
“There is a world of real being which humanity has yet to find and to love: This is the unwritten task set us by life; this is the meaning of earthly existence for all.” (pg 349)
When the student sincerely approaches mind and invites deep reflection on the subject of Reality, he will find he has engaged in the most worthwhile study he could possibly pursue.