1.7 Is there a framework which provides us with the terms of reference adequate to the task of describing the direct experience of reality?

There is only one reality. We each experience fragments of the one reality within the constructs of our personalities. In our late-twentieth century Western culture, we have lost sight of our cultural model of the one reality, of which our day-to-day experiences form a small but vital part.

There are many models of reality available to us today: Indian, Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism, Indian Hinduism, Chinese Taoism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and the old Western Mystery models of the Druids and the pre-Christian Pagans. Each model is an attempt to describe the path leading to an understanding of reality in terms appropriate to a particular culture at a particular time and place.

No one model of reality gives exclusive access to the truth. Each model reflects particular historical and cultural requirements. In the West, over the past two thousand years, our culture has been shaped by the ethical framework of Christianity. Now, for great numbers of people, the old models of reality have lost their relevance.

Yet the need to understand the fulness of reality and one’s place in it remains strong. So some turn back to the old Western models and others lean hungrily towards the venerable Eastern models. Few seem to find satisfaction; the great majority just live their lives from day to day in quiet desperation with no great sense of meaning or purpose. In fact the predominant world view is the woefully inadequate mechanistic model given by our science.

The scientific model of reality denies our natural desire for wholeness. Only a committed minority find satisfaction and fulfilment in the available religious models. The simple fact is that we have no culturally relevant framework within which an ordinary intelligent person can find guidance and assistance on the path to wholeness.

This book is an attempt to provide this guidance in terms accessible to such a person. For one who follows the path taught in this book, it is possible to express the resultant experiences within the terms of any religious or spiritual model of reality. All are valid in different ways; any claims to sole access to the truth are a form of religious or spiritual egotism.

However, for the majority, the atheists, agnostics, cynics and the spiritually desperate and starving, there is at present no generally accessible and relevant model. This book points towards a beginning, no more and no less; it offers guidance on the path to wholeness and fulfilment, without requiring commitment to a particular belief structure or way of living. The starting-point is now, and all the material required is to hand in your own life.

The test of the validity of this teaching is whether you experience the growth of consciousness of reality through practice. Whether or not you believe in the teaching is irrelevant. This book offers you knowledge based on experience.