Spiritual Reality Is Reality

Despite all adult peekaboo games to the contrary...

“Mysticism is the art of union with Reality.”— Evelyn Underhill

“Life itself is not a game. It never was, nor ever can be, a simulation. In fact, all games and simulations of the world are merely imaginative ways to deepen our relationship with spiritual reality and the crux of spirituality we call Love.” — Zeus Yiamouyiannis

Here is a question: Who is ultimately more immature and “childish” from the standpoint of spiritual reality, a child who sees angels and has imaginary friends, or adults who pretend that they alone are the center of the world? When I cast it in those stark terms, the answer would appear rather obvious. What we call childish, is actually MORE mature from a spiritual standpoint, because it shows both 1) humility (“I need something greater or more than me”), and 2) sensibility (“I reach this “greater” through relationship”).

Much recent adult sophistication and talk has been wasted on the notion of human life and society being a game or simulation. It is a profoundly stupid proposition, because, even if our lives were indeed simulations, this confirmation would not help us one bit to lead better, deeper lives, except to encourage us to dispose of the simulation and learn to become creative. “Simulated or not simulated” derives from a sterile question, meant to entertain the mind, rather than inform the soul. Typical asking goes nowhere and is therefore not serious, nor profound… nor does it have a real purpose beyond simply taking up our attention, space, and time.

By contrast, it is clear that the way we conduct our lives on planet Earth is indeed akin to an adult game of peekaboo, except we are hiding from ourselves as well as other people as well as the very real suffering we cause others with our entitled, idle boredom and self-glorification. Massive death, the tens of thousand of REAL women and children being slaughtered in Gaza, for instance, unfortunately become mere numbers, one and zeroes on a computer screen, as casualties roll in and our own helplessness sets in. Why is it that we can sit in front of our screens, simulating our own inability to help the suffering, yet so readily perk up to watch another football game over an American Thanksgiving holiday.

Do we simply not notice the irony that we, the comfortable, are giving thanks to ourselves and our cushy lives here, the bounty of food amid a tacit idea of an human-projected “God”, who overtly rewards the “haves” and only covertly comforts the dying and suffering? Is this not clearly a game or simulation meant to put us to sleep? Some call this the workings of Satan, the Deceiver, but that is a little too epic for a game that is much simpler— the game of temptation into a gilded fantasy offered by the world, in which truth is “whatever you individually make it” versus that realm offered by the spirit, in which Truth always exceeds my grasp and calls me forward in to the deep unknown where the simulation ceases and creative Reality emerges. We go from being programmed NPCs (non-player characters), to a “player character,” to creator of the game, to liver of life, beyond the game altogether.

Become like children

Children play dress-up in their parents clothes (or mimic adult life with computer games like The Sims) and can eerily and quickly learn all the affectations and pretensions of adult “life”, including the pretenses that our work is truly world changing when it is mostly just a humdrum and simplistic vanity meant to pay the bills, a place-marker while we seek more pleasurable and novel avenues of human experience.

Not very deep is it?

What is Reality truly? Not small “reality” with a small “r”, but the binding greater reality with a big “R”. How can we distinguish the two? It actually is fairly simple. Just ask children, who are in contact with Reality before adults drum it out of them. In a grim and desperate vision, formal education and cultural indoctrination teaches these children that they are the center of the universe, each a kind of god, and that everything will bow to them if they but pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and outcompete the other gods/people.

What a grim adult vision! When things don’t go well, or when we are victimized, in this mindset, we have only ourselves to blame and no power or comfort to turn to.

Dead. End.

Children, as proof of aliveness, look toward a larger spirit for meaning and comfort, not themselves. They recognize they are insufficient and dependent on something greater:

And (Jesus) said: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,” (Matthew 18:3-5, ESV)

Even the Brave browser’s artificial intelligence can figure this one out. Why can’t we human adults do so? Maybe, it’s because we are so entranced with our games and simulations (i.e. adult deceptions):

Becoming Like Children: A Path to Entering the Kingdom of Heaven

According to Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 18:3-5, becoming like children is a necessary condition for entering the kingdom of heaven. This phrase is often misunderstood as advocating for immaturity or childish behavior. However, Jesus’ intention is more nuanced.

Humility and Simplicity

When Jesus says “become like little children,” He’s highlighting the importance of humility and simplicity. Children, by nature, are more open-minded, trusting, and receptive to truth. They don’t question authority or doubt the words of those they trust. In this sense, Jesus is encouraging adults to adopt a similar mindset, characterized by:

• Humility: Letting go of pride and ego, and being willing to learn and submit to [higher, spiritual] authority.

• Simplicity: Approaching life with a sense of wonder, curiosity, and openness, rather than complexity and skepticism.

A Model for Greatness

In Matthew 18:4, Jesus declares that “whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” This statement redefines greatness, emphasizing that true greatness comes not from power, wealth, or status, but from humility and childlike simplicity.

Welcoming and Embracing

Jesus also connects becoming like children with welcoming and embracing others in His name (Matthew 18:5). This implies that as we adopt a childlike attitude, we become more receptive to the needs and perspectives of others, and more willing to serve and love them as Jesus does.

Conclusion

In summary, Jesus’ instruction to “become like little children” is not about remaining immature, but about embracing humility, simplicity, and a receptive heart. By adopting these qualities, we can enter the kingdom of heaven and experience true greatness, as defined by Jesus

It should be so clear by now, where our adult game-deceptions have led us. Let’s see if we can give a short list of our mutually assured “adult” destruction: Environmental degradation, concentration of wealth, war and killing for profit (war industry), making people addicted and sick for profit (food, drug, and medical industry), fear, suspicion, luridness, brainlessness, and violence as drivers of social media engagement, endless personal consumption without a concern for others, and the list goes on. Quite the revolting “game” we have quipped up here.

Actuality versus Reality

The profound Christian philosopher and pastor, Oswald Chambers, put the distinction like this: Actuality is what obtains in the world according to our own impulses, bereft of a wiser, larger guiding force. Reality is what obtains when we open our hearts spiritually, and become transformed beyond our petty selves according to a larger love that both overpowers and tenderly holds our personal anxieties and gratifications. Indeed, when put in these terms, it is clear who is being immature, who is playing a peekaboo game with truth and who is not. Spiritual adulthood is very different. It is spiritually “adult” to acknowledge we did not and do not create, sustain, nor save ourselves. We are created. Practically every child knows this, and practically every adult has forgotten this:

“We cannot save ourselves, or sanctify ourselves, or give ourselves the Holy Spirit; only God can do that. (p. 1466)… The Holy Spirit is the One Who brings the appearance and the reality into one in us (p. 1470).— Oswald Chambers in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers

If this is the case, then how do we work ourselves back to the beginner’s mind to the innocence and power of childlike character? Spiritual mystics have an answer to that. I will concentrate upon the Christian mystics, but all major religion’s mystic tradition have some variation of this process.

The way forward: Re-establishing the child in the soul of the adult

Bad spiritual habits. We adults have collected a bevy of them. Under the guise of pragmatism, necessity, and survival, we have made counter-spiritual practices the norm and the enemy of the Real. This has had the effect of reducing spirituality to religious ritual, making compassion seem “weak” and predatory behavior “strong”, establishing “net worth” in terms of money in one’s possession rather than virtue in one’s character, making a “bucket list” of peak experiences the point of life on earth, rather than service to others. In this latter age, Martha Stewart lifestyle-“living” has won out over profound spiritual life. We have largely substituted pleasurable shallowness for deeper life engagement.

In short, we adults have become moral and spiritual couch potatoes. Like the proverbial real coach potato, we have to wipe the fried potato chip flakes from our lips, turn off the TV (cultural programming and addictive use of social media), get outdoors and into nature, exercise, and develop fitness, so that our bodies can first accept the energy of the spirit and then the instruction and guidance of the spirit.

Mystics break this rehabilitative fitness into certain stages:

Purification/Purgation: This involves developing healthy habits, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by purging ourselves of figurative and literal “junk food” in these arenas. I use the acronym FRESH to summarize the physical and spiritual necessities of healthy Food, Rest, Exercise, Spirit, and Hydration. Mentally, engage ideas and welcome other points of views with an eye toward connection. Practice mindfulness over mindlessness. Think critically and creatively. Likewise, refuse to pollute your emotional body with the political, social, and cultural hype and hysteria that the sky is falling if Trump is elected, if gender-free bathrooms aren’t a thing, and other largely phantasmic anxieties. Replace these self-destructive conceits with service to others.

Mortification: This involves allowing the grasping, self-serving ego to die, or more accurately, allowing the ego’s grip and leadership over your life to die. A robust and strong ego is fine as long as it does not lead your life. The ego and the small “s” self that it tries to prop up as its own god cannot help but fail, because it is unable to create and execute upon ultimate meaning. If I live for myself, when my brain and body die, when this physical life ends, I am annihilated. I prove I am a nihilist. If instead I allow the leadership of this shallow nihilism to die, I am freed to devote myself to a larger consciousness and love that holds and keeps me at heart in a way that lasts eternally independently of my own actual death. One great benefit from this move is an abiding sense of Peace in realizing I am not estranged and on my own, nor do I extinguish when my body dies.

Regeneration/Rebirth: Once I die to my small “s” self and its petty anxieties, impulses, and purposes, I am opened to being born into a large “S” Self, which commits to the heavenly purposes over the worldly. Freed from neurotic attachment to social approval, status, and rank accomplishment, I am made new to commit to labors of love in career, in romantic and family relationships, in redefined and reawakened spiritual practice, and revivified daily habits which emphasize a positive and grateful orientation toward the gift of life. This latter commitment lends itself toward redeeming the world in its own essence. It forbids imposing any human image on others, no matter how idealistically inspired they may be, including closeted authoritarian utopian “for your own good” mandates! Let people be people and make their own choices, secure in the eternal and ever-renewing nature of the spirit.

Illumination: As I go through the rebirth process I truly see as a child again that “God is Love”, not some disapproving patriarch in the sky. That severe image was simply a perpetrated deception by small-hearted, small-minded men and women. This graven image was and is an oppressive simulation meant to concentrate wealth and power into few hands through the use of judgement, control, and force. No True and Real God of Love would ever use deceptive or forceful mechanisms. Firmness, difficulty, suffering, opening, humbling, yes… but deception… never! A God of Love knows that consequences themselves prove the fruit of behavior and of heart’s disposition. This God does not need to pile on or underscore the point, but rather stands present and intimately holds the human being. Humans tend to learn both through pain (the “path of the moon”) and joy (the “path of the sun”). And that learning is good. No compassionate God would deny us our ability to suffer, which is a major avenue of compassion for others and our own spiritual development.

Divinization/Deification: In short, this stage means “union with God” and in Evelyn Underhill’s terms, “union with Reality”. At core, because we are children of a Godhead, an ineffable “uncreated Creator” who is eternal, incorruptible, unchangeable, loving, infinite, we now experience, through the Holy Spirit, a merging with the qualities, image, and essence of God, EXCEPT with one HUGE difference. We are no longer “innocent” (in terms of ignorance of “knowledge of good and evil”) but deeply knowing our own natures and the nature of God, and “innocent” in another, very mature way— We know longer recognize the power of the world over our spirits in any quarter. We could die tomorrow and be happy, because we realize that, as the sage remark goes:

“Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.”— Eckhart Tolle.

Death (the spirit leaving the body) is the opposite of birth (the spirit entering the body), and my Life transcends and exists well beyond this life.

All blessings,

Zeus