IS

IS :noun (What we call Reality…. Authenticity)
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We at our core are the substance IS. Any separations or categorizations are artificial.

The choice is to live either in artificial mode, or to live in authentic mode.

IS, is the whole (authentic), and any attempt to consider one part as something separate, is a form of untruth (artificial).

In the moments that we are experiencing ourselves as part of IS, we are living authentically…. we are living in DAO: as an integrated part of the whole.

But because we think, and move, and seem to exist separately from our background of IS, and we form opinions about what is “me” and what is “not me”. These are artificial boundaries.

We have to artificially create a separation between “me” and “not me” in order to live in this world, and this is our fundamental conundrum. But the good news is that we are built to “live in the separated world, while experiencing being absorbed in IS”, which equals living authentically.

(Is one of the reasons that we don’t simply live immersed in IS, because we try to not have other parts of IS cause us pain?… I think perhaps that is why we create these artificial partitions… to protect ourselves)

In the end, there is what IS, and then there is the artificial approximations which we overlay on IS.

Because each particulate “I” (that is you and I) THINKS, each of us build our understanding of the world using our approximations, and apply our thinking approximations to IS.

Our mistake is, that WE come to think that our thought approximations actually ARE “IS“, while at the same time, sensing from our core IS, that we are lying to ourselves (being artificial).

EVERY thinking particulate (you and me) is doing the same thing.

Every thinking particulate (you and me) lives the same mistake.

Every thinking particulate (you and me) can return to authenticity at any given moment.

The continuous things that we are aware of: that our approximations are not IS
itself, lock us up into UNTRUE, which is the opposite of IS: “does not exist”, “not true”.

As far as I can tell, the DNA package we call ME is made to live its life in the thing we call reality, but because we use thoughts and words to define this reality, our approximations create a construct. Not in the sense that the Post-Modernists see it (that there is no objective reality), but simply in our relationship to IS itself.

So here is the fundamental Mao Dun (conundrum).

We are all IS, but we cannot navigate our way through this physical life without building this approximation we pretend to be IS.

This is my best approximation to date: that the parable of Prodigal Son is this fact set.

At our root, we experience IS, we ARE IS.
But we must build our world of approximations, and substitute IS with approximations,…… so we know at our root that what we are doing is PHONEY (inauthentic… artificial).

Is this what Jesus was talking about? The artificial is our manmade construct, but the Kingdom of Heaven is the authentic. If we do not live our lives experiencing the authentic, we fall further and further into the separation and darkness of approximations and the artificial. So, if that were the case, then Jesus came to teach us the proper way of living and experiencing….. something we all can experience if we choose to live authentically, and living authentically means living moment by moment immersed in IS, while at the same time, using our approximations to navigate our physical life.

I am JUST THINKING that the experiencing of the Spring of Living Water (correct living and usage of our resources), is letting IS rise to our moment by moment particulated world in its true, uninhibited to the best of our ability, and the incorrect way of living is: confusing approximations with IS.

Dharma is IS , Reality is IS.

Our best understanding is a mere approximation.
If we live in awareness of this fact, we flow in Dao.

This is why science is such a good fit. Science is “the best approximation we have to date of the actual Reality “IS”.
This is also perhaps why any religious thought that says “This is 100% absolute truth”, cannot fill the void inside of us: because our very being says that it is an artificial truth at best.

Yes, it is possible to live life authentically. We are at our base, authentic, but it feels very unsafe, so we choose to build an artificial shell around ourselves… and some of us just can’t live that way, so we Return Home, and live in a correct relationship with Reality.

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No wonder we all have a vague disturbing sense that we are phoneys… that we are imposters.
Actually, we are not, but as soon as we make statements like “what I am saying is 100% true”, we know that in fact, we are lying.
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Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is a behavioural health phenomenon that describes feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, or depression in high-achieving individuals. People with imposter syndrome may have repeated thoughts that they are not good enough or incompetent, despite evidence to the contrary.

Other terms for imposter syndrome include: imposter phenomenon, fraud syndrome, and perceived fraudulence.

Psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes first described imposter syndrome in 1978 in a study that focused on high-achieving women. The term has since expanded to include other marginalized groups.

Some experts recognize five main subtypes of imposter syndrome: the perfectionist, the superhero, the expert, the natural genius, and the soloist.

Imposter syndrome can cause: Burnout, Lower job performance, and Less satisfaction with your job.