The Actual and the real from Steven Kaufman's blog

Reality is real

but the real

is not the Actual.

 

The Actual

is what is there

where the real

only appears to be.

 

A reflection is real

but still is not

what is actually there

where it appears to be.

 

And so it is

with all of reality

with all that we call real.

 

Caught up in the forms

that we call reality

we lose sight of the Actuality,

and so lose sight

of what is actually there

where the reflection we call reality

only appears to be.

 

And in losing sight

of what is actually there

where the reflection we call reality

only appears to be

we lose sight of ourselves.

 

And in losing sight of ourselves

we see only the forms,

see only the realities,

which then leads us

to the mistaken conclusion

that we too are a form,

that we too are a reality.

 

And so we become lost in a reflection

that only arises

within our now hidden Self.

 

And so we think that we are real.

But we are far more than real,

for we are the Actual

within which the real arises

like a reflection

on the surface of a pond.

 

So what is this Actuality

within which reality arises

like a reflection

on the surface of a pond?

 

It is not other than the Formlessness

which apprehends as reality

the forms that arise within Itself,

and which forms it mistakes for Itself

when it has lost sight

of it formless Self,

when it has lost sight

of its formless Being.

 

But that which is lost

can be found,

and that which is hidden

can  be revealed

once it is understood that

the forms that compose reality

are less fundamental

than the formless Actuality

upon which reality rests

and by which reality is apprehended

and known as real.

 

Know yourself as a reality,

know yourself as some form,

and you lose sight

of the formless Actuality

that you always are

always have been

and always will be.

 

For when you think that

what is only a reflection

is what is actually there

then the mirror

within which the reflection arises

becomes hidden

while still in plain sight.

 

But know yourself as the Actuality

and you do not lose sight of reality,

as a reflection does not disappear

once one recognizes

the presence

of the mirror

within which it arises.

 

Know yourself as the Actuality

and you only lose sight

of the related illusions

that reality is what you are,

and that reality is what is actually there

where it appears to be.

 

Because once you know yourself

as the formless Actuality

and not as some reality

you then know your Self

to be what is actually there

wherever the reflection

that we call reality

only appears to be.

 

Reality is real

but the real

is not the Actual.

 

The Actual is what you are.

The real is only

what you appear to be.

 

The real is only a reflection

that arises within the Actual

causing the Actual to appear

as if it were only real.

 

This is the essence of maya,

the essence of the illusion

by which Beingness,

by which the Actual,

hides Itself from Itself

while remaining always

in plain sight of Itself,

obscured only by that which

the Actual Itself

apprehends as real,

but obscured only

when the Actual mistakes

what it apprehends as real

for itself.