See, any exploration in contemplation(funny I say this because contemplation is in fact that exploration), has to go beyond the content of one’s experience to the origin of experience itself. You don’t just drink water, you go to the source of the water. That exploration is, in fact, the true unveiling of one’s self. Or in other words, a discovery of Mystery. In that exploration, one may find something so darn obvious that it evades our own seeing! It’s the understanding that there’s no ordinary vs extraordinary, no spiritual and non-spiritual, no here and there, no this and that, no myself and others(ultimately, of course). Contemplative explorations lead to the fundamental foundational knowing in which all categories of this vs that sit. Only then can one see that distinctions are orchestrated by the self-referential mind. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We just have to not be lost in its utility. And this is part of what makes a contemplative practice, a searching for the Unspeakable, truly rewarding.

We can’t doubt, for instance, that there’s a world. We experience a world. We sometimes call it reality. We trust its existence because it feels solid, feels reliable, feels independent of oneself. For instance, we don’t doubt that everyone else experiences what we experience.

But we gotta pause for a bit. We have to go deeper. So let’s explore!

Everything you have ever called the world arrives as experience. Is it not true? Color, sound, sensation, thought. You do not step outside this stream to verify it. You remain within it. Or so it seems. Would you also agree that what we sometimes call reality is already filtered and shaped by memory and then conditioned by language? We see this in simple ways. For instance, two people walk into the same room, one of them feels a type of tension. The other feels warmth or doesn’t even sense anything. Yet, the room has not changed. The world each one meets is different. Not slightly different! No, no! Fundamentally different. So does the room change? Or is it the attendance of our perception that gives the room its characteristics?

The truth is, every moment we live in is filtered through a lens we did not consciously design. Your upbringing, my fears, your desires, my language, your expectations... even the mood we wake up with every morning. It somehow adjusts the world we meet. You see what I mean? If you are tired, the world seems dull. If you are in love, the world glows up. You see possibilities! If you are afraid, the world tightens and looks dangerous. In all of these, it feels like the world itself has changed. What are we doing? Oh, it is this: we inadvertently take what arises within and project it outward. Then we call it reality.

So could it be said then that our experience, more closely seen, is not even something we are observing but something we participate in. This may feel unsettling at first, but let’s go yet another layer deeper. At this point, you may begin to agree with me that reality is not fixed. And so, if it’s not fixed, what can we truly rely on?

Honestly, my friend, could you entertain the fact that the world we live in is not what is present but how we hold it. Pure and simple. Oh, man! This begins to open a door that many traditions have pointed toward, often painted in strange language. Prayers! Miracles! In fact, what we call psychic phenomena sits right at the edge of this understanding/misunderstanding. Telepathy. Intuition. Precognition. Most people either dismiss these or treat them as rare powers. What we label as psychic may not be supernatural or extraordinary. It may be sensitivity or some form of variance. The problem is not that these things are impossible. The problem is that our model of reality is too rigid to include them. We assume solidity. Separation. Fixed edges. But if we could entertain for a second, the fact that reality is fluid and participatory, then the extraordinary is just ordinary. Life, all of it, the esoteric, the seeming ordinary, the metaphysical…all of it simply ordinary.

Consider the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, often marked in headers as the Feeding of the 5000 in many Bibles. The narrative is usually framed as a miracle. The feeding of 5000(3000 in some translations) is framed as something that breaks the rules of reality. But what if the assumption is wrong? What if it did not break reality, but revealed something about it. Look at the situation again. There was scarcity, a crowd, limited resources, a shared belief(of Jesus’ disciples) that there is not enough. That belief then shaped perception, tightening the field, narrowing down what was possible. People(well, Philip here) held back, guarding his own truth that saw lack everywhere.

Now imagine a different perceptual angle, one that was a deep deep recognition of sufficiency. If one person stands in that, fully, it begins to affect others. The emotional field shifting, allowing the lack or the sense of lack to loosen and then people begin to see differently. And act differently. They share, revealing what they had hidden. They participate in abundance. Suddenly, what seemed impossible becomes visible because perception changed, and behavior followed. Experience reorganized itself ordinarily to create what others in the sidelines would say is extraordinary.

This is a way to view the story. In fact, it deepens the story and its lessons, instead of making it this magical, miraculous occurence. And the hints of these things are everywhere. A leader walks into a room with calm presence, and tension drops. A parent reassures a child when they are exhibiting fear and the fear dissolves. A shift in interpretation changes an entire relationship. Nothing material has changed, yet everything feels different. These are the little aspects of experience. So what is more powerful? The external arrangement, or the perception that organizes it?

Now, none of this is about controlling reality or abracadabra-ing things into reality or validating a law-of-attraction fantasy. I am saying, in short, we are not separate from anything. Not even the appearance of anything. We are part and whole of the field in which everything ‘shows’ up.

The practice here, and the orientation this should pull us to is awareness. In awareness, we see thoughts as thoughts, not facts. We see feelings as movements, not definitions. We see the world as appearing, not as something fully pinned down. We begin to notice more. Feel more. Respond less from habit. We begin to see that we are creating the miracle of life each moment and the miracle of life is creating us each moment. We are less likely to be locked into a single version of what is happening. Awe then begins to deepen as the extraordinary becomes ordinary and that ordinariness is no longer reduced. Soon, it becomes so freaking obvious that every conversation is energy in motion, every moment is a field of perception unfolding, even the sense of self loses its solidity, as it is seen that the focal point which was before seen as “me, going through life, as person” is truly an unfolding of the Universe(seen and unseen) itself. Unmoving, yet allowing all movement. Empty, yet full of everything.

The rather interesting thing is seeing that the question, “What is reality?” may be a foolish question. Not because it is unanswerable, but because it has no static finality. It is unfolding like a flower that’s in slow bloom. And you are not separate from that unfolding. You and I, and all creation are that unfolding. Oh, my! Does that seeing, not make one’s inquiry soften, where we no longer need to solve reality. Instead we meet it! We meet it in all its messiness! In its rawest, crudest, rudest, meanest form. Oh! Man! That’s what Grace is!

Question for you: “What have you assumed to be impossible because you believed reality was fixed?”

Contemplative Currents is a free (bi-weekly) newsletter that aims to shed light into our daily experiences as opportunities for contemplation of this glorious Mystery. If you’d like to support my work, please consider subscribing and/or sharing this free Substack. If you’re looking to monetarily support, buying my book, This Glorious Dance: Thoughts & Contemplations About Who We Are, is enough. I’m grateful for your support in whatever capacity.

Thanks for reading Contemplative Currents! You know subscribing is totally free! That way you support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com