What is Reality and What is the Truth? - 8th December 2016

Very important, very important question was: what is reality, what is the truth? It is very good to contemplate this. And one way to look at it also, if it is not directly clear that this is reality or the truth, then we can start by looking at what do we mean by false. So that is, someone was saying that we come to satsang to be free from the false, to drop the illusion, drop the false. So you can at least identify all that is false or all that is unreal.

Now this definition of reality is very important for us to know. What is it that we mean by reality? So, is that which is apparent, apparently appearing now, do we call that reality? Or is there something which is unchanging? What is the value? What is it that you are looking for? So we must come to a definition that satisfies us because reality is of value, truth is of value. Here in satsang, a prerequisite is a constant; it must be unchanging reality, you see. So if this appeals to us, then it makes it very simple. Then the realm of the changing doesn't seem to have so much power over us.

Why does it appear here? I'll tell you why. Because for many years it was this sense of trying to get something in this realm, trying to get something in this realm. But it was seen that everything in this realm is constantly changing. Everything is constantly changing; nothing stays constant. We try to make it constant, we try to make it stick, but it doesn't happen that way, you see. We've seen this in our relationships, in our material possessions, in the state of our body. All these aspects we have seen, that this is constantly changing. And when we attach to that which is constantly changing, it is bound to lead to suffering.

Even if the world is not constantly changing, our mind is constantly changing. You want something really badly and suppose we get it, then after a while our mind changes about that and says, 'I wish this was like this' or 'I wish this was another way.' So even if we find some little bit of constancy in the world, this mind doesn't stay constant. Because many of our desires that we had in the past have actually been fulfilled also, you see? Many have been fulfilled, but did they lead to a constant fulfillment? No, because your mind also changed about it, you see. So our belief system is constantly changing.

So can we really find something which is unchanging? And that must be the unchanging sense of content. The end of suffering can come when we recognize this unchanging that is living experience. Even the Buddha said the world is suffering, means that this realm is this changing realm which is a constant source of suffering for everyone. If we attach to this, then we see that it is a setup for failure. Nothing can be really held on to. The instrument through which we experience the world itself will not last forever, so how can it be? Presumably, perceived through this instrument, how can we presume that that will last?