Reality check

Essentially, reality is indeed the finest, the most verifiable master—because it shows the status quo without correcting it.

The problem lies in the perception of each human being, which colours their awareness of what they are seeing. This depends on two factors. One is how vast their experience and knowledge are; the other is the height of maturity they have reached. Think of a mountain path: the lower you are in the valley, the narrower your horizon. The higher you climb, the broader your perception and understanding become.

From the spiritual point of view, when you are still down in the valley, the mountains around you define, but at the same time embrace you. Your world is limited and therefore feels surer. The higher you climb, the wider the horizon becomes, and the more your choices multiply. You even perceive things in the distance that aren't clear enough to fully understand, yet nonetheless you know that something is there.

But even at great heights, the problem of subjective interpretation remains. The trap and challenge are always stalking us.

Two characteristics of human nature are the most misleading: emotions and rationalisation.

Emotions, whether positive or negative, let us fly into fantasies. Rationalisation, on the contrary, limits any new or unknown aspect when the logic of its existence is obscure. Therefore, we should avoid statements about reality from either of these perspectives.

Ancient spiritual teachers have always referred to the spiritual quality necessary to interpret reality: a kind of super mind, though some call it soul - but they shouldn't, because many interpret the soul as the emotional mysticism they may experience, which again is fantasy, emotional fantasy, not spirituality.

In our time, this ancient understanding has been nearly destroyed by two opposing forces. On one side, the so-called "new masters", pompous figures who have transformed profound spiritual traditions into commercial fantasies. Buddhism reduced to spa ambiance, meditation sold as stress relief, ancient wisdom repackaged as self-help theater. They call it "new age spirituality", but it is nothing more than emotional escapism dressed in borrowed robes.

On the other side stand the rigid structures of institutional religions, imprisoned in their own dogmas and limitations, offering rules and rituals while the living essence of spirituality withers within their walls. 

And yet, we must understand: these structures exist for reasons. You can't offer free choices when the soul is still an infant. Therefore the rules serve as necessary counterweight to the silliness of new age fantasy. And they provide what souls still early on the mountain path genuinely need, a defined framework, clear boundaries, a secure valley in which to begin the journey. This is not meant as judgment but as a reality: not everyone stands at the same height, and what confines one person guides another.

Ancient teachers, East and West, pointed beyond both rigidity and fantasy to something else entirely. There is a faculty, neither emotion nor reason, that encompasses and transcends both. It is the capacity for direct perception, unclouded by fantasy or limitation.

I made a list, that of course is not complete at all, it is my list of masters from the past that at the moment I could recall. 

-Nagarjuna (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) taught of prajna, the transcendent wisdom beyond conceptual thought, no emotions included; 

-Plotinus (c. 204/205 – 270 CE) knew it as nous, direct intuitive knowledge; 

-Saint Augustine (354 – 430) spoke of divine illumination;

-Dogen (1200 – 1253) emphasized direct perception in shikantaza. 

-Rumi (1207 – 1273) sang of the eye of the heart that sees what ordinary sight cannot;

-Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274) distinguished intellectus from mere reasoning; 

-Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1327/1328) called it the Seelengrund, the ground of the soul; 

-Saint Ignatius [of Loyola] (c. October 23, 1491 – July 31, 1556) called it spiritual discernment;

-Teresa of Ávila (1515 – October 1582) described it as the innermost dwelling place of the soul;

-Sri Aurobindo (1872 – 1950) named it supramental consciousness; 

-Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) bridged East and West in describing pure consciousness. 

[My Asperger is now longing for entirety, a complete list of all thinkers of humanity who spent their reasonings reflecting about this topic... But it is a huge thing, that I can't think of approaching, not even with the aid of AI!]

This list is not complete, yes, but it gives a direction. It points out an aspect that must be taken in consideration: that capacity within human consciousness to perceive reality as it truly is, unclouded by fantasy or limitation. This is the path we should be looking for.