The Sharp Edge of What-Is

Wild nature shows us what is real, if we are willing to see it.

Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

There is more to the world than meets the eye. Perception is reality, certain people will tell you, but they’re only trying to sell you something — a fixed worldview, a well-crafted lie, or a bill of goods. Truth is, nothing is more difficult to grasp than the reality of the world.

Reality eludes us as we go about our day-to-day affairs. We rise from our beds in the morning to eat, work, play, laugh, cry and interact with others, but generally muddle through the day as if sleepwalking. We live mostly in our dreams and only on rare occasion catch a glimpse of What-Is.

How can we know reality apart from our ideas about it? This is something philosophers have been pondering for thousands of years. Giving full weight to the power direct encounter, a Sufi mystic named Simab once said:

You cannot understand unless you have experienced.

But experience is only meaningful when we are open to the lessons it teaches. A person can sail around the world for years and be no wiser than he or she was when stepping off the wharf. There are those who crowd their lives with experiences yet remain on their deathbeds as clueless about What-Is as those who never tried anything new. A mind open to possibilities is…