When humans first started to think about the world, their ideas were basic. As they grew, they began to sense that there was something more powerful behind it all. This sense of something greater is what we call "faith," and the way it's expressed is "religion." People then created gods and came up with fancy theories to explain what they sensed in their minds.
Eventually, people's thoughts on the subject became divided into two categories: those of the priests and those of the philosophers. The priests were happy to believe that their particular god or gods created everything and came up with elaborate stories to illustrate this idea. Philosophers, on the other hand, rejected the priests' theory and tried to explain things with their own theories.
Over time, the priests created "Theology," which is a philosophical system that attempts to explain why and how a personal god did certain things. Meanwhile, "Metaphysics" was created to address the human need to understand the reality of things, both seen and unseen. Metaphysics sought to find "the thing in itself," while theology was satisfied with assuming the existence of a deity and trying to reason out its attributes and nature.
Later, physical scientists created theories to explain everything on a purely physical or material basis. Theologians, metaphysicians, and physical scientists have all vigorously debated each other through time.
The yogis saw theology, metaphysics, and science as simply different ways of looking at the same thing. Each of these thinkers believed that there must be something underlying life and the universe, but they had different ideas about what that "something" was. Some thought it was an extra-universal thing, while others believed it was the "reality" of life and the universe itself. Theologians called it God, metaphysicians called it Mind or Reality, scientists called it Matter or Force, and philosophers called it Substance or Life. But regardless of the name, they all meant the same thing: the ultimate reality behind everything we see and experience.
William Walker Atkinson, writing under the pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka, conveyed the profound idea that,
”All existence, conscious or unconscious, is an emanation of one Being."
The yogis call it Spirit or the Absolute. And why do they use this name? Because it represents the opposite thing of relative.
The Absolute is “things as they are.”
And the relative is “things as they seem.”
Imagine your consciousness is like a telescope. It helps you see things, just like a telescope helps you see faraway objects. Now, picture the ocean, a massive and never-ending body of water. That's like the big picture of everything, the Absolute. But when you look through the telescope of your consciousness, you can only see a small part of the ocean. It's like looking at a tiny spot and thinking it's the whole thing. Our minds are limited, so we can't see the entire absolute truth.
If we work on expanding our consciousness, our telescope gets bigger and wider. With a bigger telescope, we can see more clearly and understand things better. We can start seeing a broader view of life, beyond just the little part we're used to. Solving life’s puzzles or facing challenges becomes easier because we can see the bigger picture. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote,
“The more you know, the less you fear.”
That's why it's so important to try and understand life as it really is, without any fancy stories or illusions. We want to see things as they truly are, not just how they appear.
Keep expanding your consciousness. Engage in regular meditation to cultivate present-moment awareness and quiet the mind. Actively pursue knowledge, explore new experiences, and challenge existing beliefs to broaden your perspective and expand your understanding. Practice kindness with every human you meet, regardless of how they look or how they think. Do the best you can in everything you do. See the world with a wider lens, and you’ll experience life with more clarity.
