Lesson 12: What Is Reality?

The video below is by Leo Gura of Actualized.org. It may be the best explanation of reality I have ever heard. The video is a little over a hour long. I highly suggest watching the entire video. I have also summarized all the main points below the video.

What is reality?

The deepest question you can ask.  You can answer this question, but it is so radical you can’t answer it using words.

You intuitively know there is something deeper than what you have been told.  You know there is something there but don’t know where to go with it.

I am going to tell you what it is.

The answer is extremely threatening to your life.  Are you sure you want to know?

Here we go.

Reality is infinite consciousness and infinite imagination.

What is consciousness? Isn’t there a physical reality?

When you were born, you had no idea what you were born into.  You were blank. You knew no people places things.  You knew nothing of time and space: birth and death. 

These are the most advanced things human beings can understand.

The mistake you made when you were born is you assumed physical objects independent of consciousness.  You assumed cars, rocks, trees, and you assumed it was real.

There was a big bang, stars formed, planets formed, man evolved, parents born, you were born.

That is not possible.  Objects are not possible.

Only consciousness is possible. 

What is consciousness?  Consciousness is what you are seeing all around you right now. This present moment is consciousness.  You are in reality right now.  You are not just; in reality, you are reality.

Reality is consciousness.  Everything around you Is being imagined by consciousness.  Physical objects around you are not real.  They are being imagined by consciousness.  Everything you have ever experience is being held in your consciousness. Including you, your physical body.  Look at your hand.  This hand is not a physical hand; it is consciousness.  Your hand is made of consciousness.  Cells and atoms, time, and space are not possible outside of consciousness.  There is no physical reality or universe.  The big bang never happened.  You are not sitting on the planet earth.  Billions of years have not passed.  There is no space and time.  You are not a biological living creature.  You were never born.  You do not have parents a childhood.  You did not grow up.  You did not open whatever device you are using to read this.

Reality is infinite imagination.  You are imagining everything, including yourself.  All your memories, parents, science, religion, money,  emotions, pain, suffering, human history, the 21^st century, you imagine it all right now. If you do not imagine it, it is not real it does not exist.  You are not a biological creature born to a mother and father, resulting from millions of years of evolution.  It is a backstory you have imagined.

You are infinite imagination, also known as God. Not the Christian God.  Not the Muslim God.  Not a bearded man who created the universe.

You are God.  You have been in this moment for all eternity, and you are imagining it right now. You are imagining it is real.  Whatever you imagine becomes real for you so that you mistake it for reality.  You are God dreaming this world lost in your dream until you wake up.

You do not want to accept this.  You have a million excuses to see why what I am saying doesn’t make sense and is false, and I am crazy. Deep down, you know I am telling the truth.  Deep down, you know all your stores and justifications are just something you are imagining. Your denial is something you are imagining.

You are the creator of the entire universe.  You have infinite creative power, but you are not conscious of how you are doing it.

Consciousness is an empty substance that conceives things like a movie projector that projects things on a wall.  Consciousness is the pure white light that IS IILLUNMINTAG FROM THE PROJECTOR.  The light is formless.  It can’t be grasped in any way.  It is pure consciousness.

Consciousness has no form or shape until it is shined through an object, making distinctions and contrasts in colors and intensity.

The movie projector analogy is good.  A director can set a movie can be set in any time and place he wants.  Right now, you think you are in the 21^st century.  The projector doesn’t know what the scene is. 

You think you are in the 21 century. You are not.   You imagine all centuries, all timelines, all beings, all lifetimes simultaneous.  One of which is the one you are presently conscious of.

The difference between the projector and reality is white light is shined from the projector.  Consciousness comes from nothing. 

Consciousness is misunderstood—especially scientists.

Consciousness is not grounded in a substrate.  It is the substrate for everything else.  It is not happening in the brain, through neurons or molecules.  It is not happening in time or space.  Time and space are imagined by consciousness.  Your memories are imagined by consciousness.  Everyo9ne is imagined.  My body is imagined just like yours.  What you are reading this on is imaginary.

Consciousness is nothing.  You can’t grab it in any way.  It is not localized.  It is not in time and space.  It is pure infinite, eternal consciousness.  It is what is conscious of you. 

It is nothing, but it can create differences within itself.  How can it do that?

Consciousness is unlimited.  People don’t appreciate it.  It has no limits.  It can do anything.  It has no laws because laws are what is imagined.    We assume we can’t fly or jump to the moon.  We assume this is a limitation of consciousness, and the universe is limited.  But it isn’t.  You are imagining this universe and all its limitations.  Pure infinite imagination has no limits prior to imagination.

This is the case because of non-duality and oneness.  You can’t draw a boundary between any two objects in the universe.  All objects are imaginary. When everything becomes one, there is nothing to tell it how to be, so it must be unlimited.  Everything outside of reality is inside reality.  If you can imagine something outside of everything, you haven’t imagined everything that is.

Infinity is not a measure of size.  Infinity is not physical.  Reality must be totally infinite because it is one.  It is an all-powerful, infinite intelligence. It can manifest anything it wants.

If you say that is impossible, remember impossible is something being imagined.  You had to imagine it first before it exists as a possibility.  You are imagining the difference between possible and impossible.  You are imagining the difference between real and imaginary.

You also imagine how.  How is this possible?  This seems crazy.

“How” is something you are imagining, prior to imagining how there is no “how.” This means everything is possible without a how. Unbelievable as that may sound, but it is true and amazing.

Reality is no how, no where, no when, no what.  How, when, where, and what are imaginary.  So they must be imagined first to exist.  Consciousness imagines differences.  Everything, in reality, is a difference.

The fundamental building block of reality is not molecules, atoms or quarks, or strings.  Reality is not a computer simulation which seems to be a popular opinion.  Reality is made out of differences.  Reality is not energy. It is not information. It is not bits.  It is a difference.

A molecule is a difference. A cat is a difference.  A tree is a difference.  A string is a difference.  A 0 and 1 are different.  The only reason you can tell a hand from another is it is different.  If they were the same, there is no difference—this way past science.  Science is imaginary.  Religion is imaginary.  Everything is imaginary.

Don’t think of imagination as thoughts in the mind.  That is a very limited version.

I am imagining my hand, and so are you.

If I am imagining my hand, can I not imagine and make it turn into something else. 

There is a lot you are not conscious of.  You are capable of many orders and states of consciousness than you are conscious of right now.  In this consciousness, you can’t understand how your hand can be imaginary. But when you become more conscious magnitudes of conscious a million times more conscious than you are now, you will realize your hand is imaginary.  No different than the thought of a unicorn in your mind or the thought of parents, birth, death. All physical reality is imaginary.  There are layers.  You can’t just think about what you want.  Jump off a cliff and fly because it is all just imaginary.

Don’t be stupid. 

This is extremely sophisticated.  Imagination is creating all physical reality. This is not a simple mechanism. It is extremely complicated and nuanced.  There are many layers of self-deception in your mind that you are imagining right now. You can’t understand what I am seeing.  It can take decades of work.

We think of reality as being separate, but there is no boundary between you and reality.

You see yourself as the body, but all of reality is intertwined.

You have imagined yourself into existence.  So you have to keep imagining it, or you will no longer exist.

Imagine a slope—the slope of reality.  When born, you start at the bottom of the slope.  There is no reality when born.  You are born as nothing into nothing.  Quickly to survive, you learn about yourself, parents, school, pain, suffering.  You think you are exploring the physical world. You are inventing the entire universe, starting with your mental and physical self.  You invented science, biology, physics.  You have explanations for what reality is woven together into a tapestry.  You need to pull the tapestry apart.  But as you pull on one end, the other tightens.  You have to pull from all sides simultaneously.

You must be open-minded, or you will never understand.

Through childhood and teenage years, you are going up the slope like a reverse snowball going up the slope and getting bigger and bigger and growing your sense of self and reality.  You are imagining this entire process. It is all a work of gods imagination, but you don’t know that. You think you are in a physical world with a physical self.  But you suspect something weird is going ton because reality still seems mysterious. The explanations of science and religion give don’t make sense.  You are noticing glitches in your tapestry, how you see the world because it is all imaginary.

You suspect it, but you don’t know just how deep it goes yet.  The problem is you have built up so much stuff to lose, a career, a religion, a money situation, a relationship, family children.  You have an entire worldview.  To question that is very difficult.  You are attached to that, so you don’t care about reality.  You care about the survival of the reality you have created.

Now the ball is rolling back down the hill, and you start to question your existence.  It is slippery and dangerous.  That is why few question reality.  They accept what science and religion tell them. They think they have it all figured out.  They never think to question metaphysics and what they think reality is.

As you do that, you slide down the slope, and you accelerate, and you get scared.  As you start to entertain the things I’m saying, Your birth is imaginary, and your parents are imaginary.  This is not a philosophical exercise. This is not entertainment.  Now you start to see your entire reality is connected to your existence, and you start to unravel.  Emotions kick in. Warning signs are telling you not to listen to this anymore.  Distract yourself The fear is what lets you know what I am saying is true.  You can’t deny that fear of losing your reality of self-annihilation. Everything has always been imagination. It is too radical to accept.  If you were to be fully conscious, you would have a mental collapse. You would not be able to distinguish real from reality.  You would not know your hand is real. You would not distinguish yourself from your mother. 

This is where it gets real.  Most stop the inquiry before they get this far.  They want to know what reality is.  A few of us want to go all the way ad we do.  When we question reality deep enough, we learn we are inventing ourselves. You have been right here for all eternity imaging stuff.

You did not imagine your birth as a toddler back then.  You are imagining it right now only in your imagination.  None of it ever happened except in your imagination. 

Is that crazy? You say I know it happened.  My birth and parents are real. 

But see, you are imagining that too.  You are imagining your memories and your parents are not imaginary, but they are real.

All of your denials are imaginary.  That is the power of infinite imagination.

So if I have infinite imagination, why can’t I just imagine a new world right now.  I can’t do that.  That is because you are so busy imagining this physical world.

To do that, you have to stop imagining this one and stop imagining that you were human. You would be dead.  You have labeled that death.

Your imagination is interfering with your imagination.  That is the problem.  There are deeper and deeper levels of imagination.  Right now, you can imagine a unicorn.  That I a shallow surface level of imagination.  There are deeper levels of imagination at the subconscious level.  Which are operating right now, which is creating the physical room you are in.  You can’t stop imagining. Where would you be?  You would be dead.  Your ideas and expectations create conflicts between them.

Infinite imagination means you can imagine anything, and it is real for you once you imagine it.

If you imagine you are on a planet in another time.  You will be locked into that if you imagine that what you are imagining is not imaginary but real, which is what you are doing right now. Don’t underestimate the power of imagination.  It is total.  You are not conscious of the deeper levels.

You can become conscious of them.  This is not word games or semantics.  Realize everything is imaginary.  If you were to understand everything, you would have a psychotic breakdown suddenly.  You stop being able to distinguish reality from imagination.  This scares people.  When you can no longer trust your memories and parents as real, this is when you encounter the dark night of the soul. You realize your whole life was fiction, a misunderstanding, and you have been misinterpreting your very own life.

You have existed as consciousness forever for eternity- not ten, one hundred, one million years, a trillion years.  You have been imagining life, after life, after life, without beginning, and without end.  That is infinite consciousness.  There cannot be anything outside of consciousness.

But should there not be something beyond conscious.  If you think this way, you are not conscious of what consciousness is.  There is nothing outside of consciousness.  Anything that can be has to be conceived of consciousness.  Anything you can imagine outside consciousness is within consciousness, but you have to be conscious of that.  Nothing in your life has ever been outside of consciousness.  Anything you imagine outside of consciousness is actually inside your consciousness right now. 

Nonexistence is occurring within consciousness. Nonexistence does not exist. It is something you are imagining in consciousness right now.  Consciousness is eternal.  It cannot die. It was never born, and it can’t go anywhere.  Why can’t it go anywhere?  Because places and awareness is something conscious is imagining all locations space and time.  It has nowhere to go making it eternal. 

You cant destroy consciousness because it is already nothing.  Destruction is something consciousness imagines.  All forms  can be destroyed, but formless cannot be destroyed, which is what consciousness is.  It is formless.

Inside and outside are something consciousness conceives,  something you imagine. There is no inside or outside if you imagine it.  Consciousness is primary, and consciousness is fundamental. Consciousness is what imagines everything, which explains why you are at the center of reality.

Have you noticed? Isn’t it weird that you are at the center of whereeve4r you are?  Why does the universe revolve around you?  It is not like you are a biological creature, and this Is your visual field generated by your brain. You are imagining all that.

The real reason you are at the center of the universe is that you are God, imagining everything around you.

So what if you walk off a cliff and die.  That is not imaginary that is going to kill you.  How can you say death is imaginary.  That is you imagining death right now.  If you jump off a cliff, you are going to go splat and die.  But that is imagination within the imagination. 

You see the cliff you are standing on.  The cliff is imaginary.  Your body and feet are imaginary.  Your sense of self is imaginary. That which was born is imaginary.  You falling towards the rock is imaginary.  When you hit the rocks and crack your head open, all the pain and suffering is imaginary.  Then lights out death will be imaginary, just like in a dream.  You do it in your dream every night.

Sleeping is imaginary.  You have never slept a day in your life. You are doing everything right now. This is so radical you can’t accept it.  Your current state of consciousness is deceiving you

There is nothing in reality. All are states of consciousness.  You are in a limited state of consciousness.  There are more advanced elevated states of consciousness in which you have never been in.  Or maybe you have had a mystical experience and been in another conscious state.

There is no brain in infinite consciousness.  There is no brain. Consciousness has no brain. How is that possible.  Again possible and impossible is something you are imagining.  Consciousness imagines the brain, not the other way around.

You have to question your entire worldview.  You would have a mental breakdown if you did it too fast.

This is too radical. It would stop you dead in your tracks if you fully understood it right now.

You are God.  There is nothing but God.

Everything is imagination.  There is nothing but imagination.

God is infinite consciousness, infinitely powerful unlimited, and infinitely good. And infinitely loving.

These are the highest teachings it explains everything.

Your job is to make it actual,  not a belief, not an ideology.  Become conscious of it.  You can because you are God. If you can’t do it, who can?

How does God realize he is God?  There must be some epiphany for God.  Oh yeah.  I’m God; I’m all-powerful. I’m infinite. 

Truth is difficult.  Most don’t pursue or teach truth.  They engage in fiction, lies, and deception because the truth Is radicle.  It may seem nihilistic, but it only seems that way to your ego.   The most remarkable thing you will discover in this journey is when you slide off the slope to the bottom.  You will discover you go into a freefall expecting to hit the ground, but you will fall forever.

To fall forever in an infinite space with no bottom or top or end or beginning is to be stationary. It is to be eternal.  This is the discovery of nirvana or paradise.  You discover all problems are imaging. When you fall off the slope and surrender your entire life and realize everything is imagined, you discover problems, death, pain, suffering, and emotions are all imaginary.  When you realize this, you enter paradise.  This is not a physical place.  Paradise is the present moment but recognizing it to be eternal, infinite good with no opposite.  Why isn’t it evil or bad?  When there is no death, pain, suffering, and fear, you know you are conscious you imagine all those,  what can hurt you?  What can make you upset?  You are in infinite peace, and you realize immortality.  You literally become immortal.  Got is eternal and immortal.  In this, you discover infinite love and infinite goodness. You become omnipotent and conscious of how you have been designed the entire universe and realize the beauty and the goodness behind your own creation.

You have infinite love for yourself and all creation.  That is what reality is.