In today’s modern world we are constantly bombarded by information, we are constantly bombarded by media, we are constantly bombarded with things that pull us away from any kind of truth; we have distractions everywhere we turn. People have created worlds that you can dive into that are virtual, and you can live your life in virtual worlds that have nothing to do with you, and nothing to do with reality. They have to do with the creation of someone’s mind and your willingness to give up your life to live in this virtual world. There’s an epidemic among young people with video games and the amount of time they spend with them, to the point where their life becomes these video games.
How do we turn back to understanding who we are, and how do we realize all of these distractions that we pay so much attention to, pull us away from the task of getting to know who we are? If we are constantly involved in trying to figure out the nature of these distractions we don’t have any time left to figure out who we are. We become lost in the irrelevant.
I remember one time someone asked my teacher, “Can you tell us about Atlantis?”
And his response was, “You don’t know who you are and you ask about Atlantis. What difference does Atlantis make to you? Find out who you are and then the truth will come to you.”
In reality the only truth is in knowing who we are. The only truth is in entering the realm of reality to know what our existence is and through that know our Rabb, our Lord, and the truth of Him, but we are caught up in all of the distractions of existence. We’re caught up in what’s going to happen next year, and what’s going to happen in two years, and what’s going to happen in two hundred years. We aren’t present in the now; we aren’t at this moment. And if we are not at this moment, then we are incapable of entering reality, because reality doesn’t exist in the future, it exists now. Reality doesn’t exist in the past, it exists now. And it is within that now that the truth is available to us.
There was once a man who had finally gotten to the point where he had gotten engaged to his beloved, and they met for their engagement, and he pulled out a long letter he had written, and in that letter he was complaining about all the torture that he had gone through when he was away from her, and how that torture still exists with him, and how he’s overwrought over the nature of his relationship with her. And she looks at him, and she says, “What kind of lover are you? You read me a letter about your torture at my engagement? What’s wrong with you?”
He says, “Well things aren’t the way I expected them to be.”
And she says, “What do you mean they aren’t that way you expected them to be? What are you in love with, your expectations or me? What is it that you’re searching for, that you’re going after, your expectations or me? Are you trying to stabilize your emotions, or is your love for me?”
It seems that the gold is not the aim of what you want, you want the container to be right also, and you have to look for the gold, you have to look for the truth, you have to look for the reality, and if you get what you want then be satisfied with it. Give up all of the past longing and disappointments, and give up all the anxiety that you have as to these things. All of them keep you from touching the truth. All of your anxieties are veils…
