Virtual-itis Five

MC: I see you have returned. Do you mind if I ask you a question for a change? 

V. Please do. 

MC.  Why do you come to me when I am asleep? And how do you know when to return?

V. Sleep creates a different attitude in you. Your dreams make you more open to Mystery than your distracted, daylight mind. In your dreams you are even capable of wonder. Also, you don't suppress memories. Do you remember when I compared your mind to a cargo crate filled with a lot of stuff? When you sleep, the sides of the crate are down. While the sides hold things in, they also keep things out.  When your defenses are down, more can get in. So I am able to plant a little bit of truth in you. You will not let that happen when you are awake.  That, by the way is the answer to your second question too, the question about time.   You asked how I know when to return, remember? It depends on how long it takes for the truth to take root in you.  Whether in a few days, or a few weeks, I return when the truth has taken root, because that is the right time. 

MC.  But how do you know when the truth has taken root?  That is what I want to know. 

V. Ah, you are beginning to wonder.  You are using your mind to ponder and marvel about what you do not understand. 

MC. Don’t take that superior attitude. And don’t patronize me!  I just want an answer to my question.   

V. Of course you do. But you want an answer you are going to understand, one that fits within the walls of the "cargo crate", an answer that is a bit of data you can store away in your memory bank, one more piece of information that gives you more control. What you do not want is an answer that will wake you up, or make you see you are sleep-walking in your daily life. You do not yet see is that truth is alive. It is not dead data.  Truth can only take root in you and grow because it is alive, and your mind is able to grasp it and grow, because your mind is alive, too. Your mind comes alive by letting the living truth in. You come alive by living the Truth you receive. You become the Truth you live. That is why you must let Mystery be the measure of you. On the other hand, if you reduce truth to store-able ideas, you deprive yourself of the life it offers. That is what happens when your mind reduces itself to a cargo crate, a memory bank, or storage space. 

MC. I sense you are telling me something important. It seems real and beautiful. I want to believe it. It excites me.  It seems true, but at the same time it seems too good to be true. I do not understand it.  How can what you say be true?  It is too, I don’t know, too poetic, to make sense.

V. Do not reduce the truth to what you can comprehend.  The truth is greater than that.  Sure, some of it is understandable to us,  or accessible to us; it is intelligible and reasonable.  That truth is a priceless treasure.  But an ever greater treasure is the truth that is inaccessible to us, the truth beyond our comprehension,  the truth above all that is,  the foundation of all,  and source of all.  That truth is Mystery.  We live in its light, but can never absorb all of its light.

MC. But why? Why  can't we see it all?  We discover more and more facts all the time.  It seems reasonable to assume one day we will know everything.

V. If mankind survives long enough, it is possible, in theory, for us to discover all the truth that is commensurate with human nature. But we will never penetrate the truth that is beyond our nature. There is no way for us to see into its inner workings.

MC. Huh? You're losing me.What is the difference between these two kinds of truth? 

V. We're just repeating ourselves now, like a record that gets stuck and goes over the same phrases over and over. I'll come back when you might be able to absorb more.

MC.   No, answer me now! What gives you the right to come and go as you please! 

V. The only way to get beyond an impasse is to love the truth we cannot yet see, love Truth in all its Mystery. You still want to be in control of it instead of submitting yourself to it. Truth is the measure of your mind,  you are not the measure of it. Absolute Truth is beyond your or any mind's measuring because it is Mystery. 

MC. Go! Leave. All this talk about Mystery is just mystification.