The Subtle Mirage of New Experiences

The cosmos, in all its agitation, seems chaotic and random. We witness stars, solar systems, and countless worlds we may never visit, yet we are drawn to learn more about them. We imagine what it might feel like to step into their otherworldly ambiance, to explore the textures and scents of their crumbling, poisonous rocks.

With every sniff and a new finding, a happiness erupts and satiates you. Now you’re even more excited to know more! The moment you’ve done something, you’ve created your next engineering marvel, and the thing starts walking on its two feet, it’s such a great feeling. The new experience enlightens the joy of feeling enabled.

And then a moment later, you’re struck by a great grief of, now what? A few days later – a few weeks later, you seek more of it, get more of it, and a few months later, you get more, and over and over again, you get more of it!

But wait… where did that feeling go? Why doesn’t it feel so exciting and empowering anymore? Why has that exciting experience I felt in my body numbed down?

Years down the line, you’re drowning in nostalgia, hoping to experience everything as new again. A century has passed, and you’re here again, reborn to experience it as new again.

Experiences of the gross and subtle, where nothing new happens…

For the first time, you fall for someone, feeling an ache in your chest that only an embrace can soothe. For the first time, you taste black coffee, its bitterness unlocking an unexpected euphoria. You achieve something meaningful, basking in a sense of fulfillment. Yet, none of this is truly new. The same cycles play out, as they have since the earliest forms of life. You’ve been doing many of the same things as an animal that you’re doing today as a human being.

Creation is shaped by three fundamental qualities: the gross (physical), the subtle (mental), and the causal—the fundamental force that drives the other two. The gross and the subtle are cyclical by nature, arising from an underlying agitation. The Brahman slowly becomes aware through millions of years of evolution, and that awareness reaches its potential when it reaches the human body. Fundamentally, the entire evolution process is a derivative of that agitation (caused by the gross and the subtle quality of creation).

The causal is truly new…

The causal phenomenon is ultimate and singular in the entirety of our creation (cosmos or godhead). Causation serves as the scaffolding for both, the subtle and gross phenomenon.

How so? It is when a branch of the infinite causal phenomenon becomes cyclical (when any phenomenon in the universe becomes cyclical, be it the rotation of a planet around the sun, or the day-night cycle) it appears as a physical thing, or a subtle thing (like a concept). Due to their cyclical nature, they appear independent of the singular causal phenomenon.

Because we’re so engrossed in seeing the ripples, we miss the pond, which is life, the ultimate nature of the godhead. You may have a BIG purpose in life, but the purpose of the life that you are, is one (which is causal, and which will anyway serve itself). If you don’t let it serve its purpose, life will beat you down quite bad. But if you let it, the journey is magical.

The greatest and the most profound question of a spiritual seeker is, why am I here? And the answer to that question is, you’re not. You’re not here, you never were, and you will never be. You’re confusing yourself — “the pond” — for the ripples. The realization of this fact is a causal phenomenon, which is unique on its own and always new for every single cosmic being.

Experience seeking is likely the greatest roadblock in every spiritual seeker’s journey toward self discovery. You’re not an experiencing individual. You ARE the experience, and that is enough and complete on its own.