To kick off our search for O.F.I.R. (Our Fierce Illumination of Reality), first, a brief enquiry into who/what and why we are, is a good place to begin — in other words what does it mean to be human? There are people as well as some spiritual belief systems that suggest what we experience in our day to day world is nothing more than an illusion. Real or not, I think we can all agree that our existence on this earth feels real in every way — our 5 senses tell us that. I refuse to deny my human existence within this perceived 4-dimensional physical reality as something illusory. In other words, even if everything that I experience is an illusion, because it feels real, I treat it as such. At this point we are only dealing with assumptions and conjectures, so in order not to get bogged down on this one question, I have come up with a compromise that leaves the door open to both possibilities while going deeper. I see our existence as a hybrid of the 2, naming this 4D space/time, a “realillusion”. By relating to this unknown in this way, accepting my humanness as “real” with all its inherent traits, virtues and shortcomings, I no longer feel the need to answer the question of, real or not. The who/what and why are questions that in the grand scheme will only become known by understanding the ultimate Nature of Reality – understand this, then all doors open, allowing us access to answer any and every question relating to our humanness. I begin with a priori: “Our physical reality is a subset of a greater set” followed by the axiom: “a subset can never identify the set, only vice versa”. I do not believe that life as we know it is the Set, rather, it is the subset of something broader, greater or higher. In following the axiom above, how can we then possibly identify the Set? Our physical rational minds cannot, but our Spiritual or higher Selves can – we just need to access it. Our higher Selves is the set. This idea is evident in the words of the French Idealist philosopher, PierreTeilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” - the human experience is the subset of our spirit being. So, somewhere within our humanness lies the secret that connects us to our higher Selves and to O.F.I.R. How do we (re)connect? Through MEMORY, a process I call the “Alchemy of Remembering” This is not engaging our everyday memory, rather it is engaging in an alchemical process to access our higher memory bank (similar to what some claim the Akashic Records to be?). Only through this Remembering will we be able to come to understand who we truly are (the “who/what and why we are” question). In distancing ourselves more and more from Nature and our true Selves, so we become increasingly distant from our spirit selves. By remembering and reconnecting with our spirit Selves, we will have found the key to at least parts of the Nature of Reality (maybe there are still higher sets or a Super Set?), if not all of it. In this way, it is not our human side that is enquiring into the Nature of Reality, but our Spirit side or Higher Selves. I do not believe that any one human being can remember enough to lift the veil in its entirety, rather, it must be a combined effort of many beings. Most of us from time to time get glimpses or have vague recollections of the Nature of Reality, but no one being (maybe the Buddha or Jesus Christ?) is able to see the whole picture. Since all is connected, originating from the same mother set,and if each of us has a piece of the picture, then surely we already have the answers embedded within us? If each of us were to bring his/her recollected piece or pieces of the great puzzle to the table, then a clearer if not a clear picture of the Nature of Reality will present itself. Meditation, ceremony, rituals and more are some of the spiritual alchemical processes people use in order to remember or gain a glimpse into the beyond. In my quest to find O.F.I.R. I have set one criterion: to listen to everything and everyone, no matter how absurd it may seem at first glance — nothing is out of bounds. Through my explorations of the Nature of Reality, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: there exists “NO (verbal) LANGUAGE” (NL) that can adequately describe the Nature of Reality. To articulate any memories of Reality, will take a new approach, maybe even a new form of communication. The distinguished physicist and fierce challenger of scientific orthodoxy, David Bohm, argued that language was far too noun/object based, making us see a world as static objects, rather than dynamic processes (Indigenous people not only know this, they live and communicate through a rich verb-based existence – its embedded in their language). Bohm went on to develop a language he called Rheomode, a verb-based language – in other words, an experiential based language. The Nature of Reality to me is not a “something”, it is an action or energy that moves and morphs through flow and flux. In the spirit of Bohm’s ideas and the commonly used phrase of the Indigenous people, “coming to know,” I believe that the Nature of Reality can only be understood experientially or by “coming to know”. Personally, I most often use metaphors when dialoguing about all things metaphysical. Metaphors paint pictures and tell stories, sometimes elaborately, bringing an experience into better focus. I welcome input, ideas and/or questions. Please share any recollections that you may have of what the Nature of Reality looks like to you, so that we can gather all the pieces into one comprehensive picture. Over the next few posts, I too will be sharing some of mine. I WELCOME INPUT! Leave a comment or share a post!