Looking through the Veil: My Introduction to Maya

For so long, I’ve often questioned the troubles in society. Why do we suffer? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do children die well before their time? Why is there war in countries that facilitate so many innocent civilian death casualties? Why do some suffer from debilitating diseases without any provocation? And this is at an extreme end. What about the smaller things we face? Breakups, disappointment, unemployment…so many things to fear, so many things we suffer from. Ultimately, why do these things we face daily cause so much suffering?

Have you ever cut the news on expecting to see something good in the world? Me neither. Isn’t that sad? I remember growing up (before I really started my studies), I used to question everything and be down about anything. I remember walking around with a chip on my shoulder. While most would think I was mad at the world, I was really just sad and disappointed at the state of it. I respected my religious background, but something in me just couldn’t find peace. So, around the 20 teens, I thought I had found exactly what I was missing – the answer, the truth, the reason…my first Rebirth.

It wasn’t long after I began to crack the books on eastern philosophies that I had discovered the Indian concept of Maya. Without going too deep here on that concept and belief, I do want to explain why I considered this one of my very first rebirthing occasions. Maya, described often as the “grand illusion,” is the concept that the world around us and everything we experience are not real, but illusionary. So, in that moment, I carried around with me the idea that everything that I had encountered was fake. With that understanding, the evils and suffering of the world could be rationalized. And isn’t that we think we want and what we think we need? We desire to have an answer and an explanation. Human beings need answers to provide cognitive closures. According to the National Institutes of Health, this drive extends from our human curiosity, our need for survival, and most importantly here, our need for control and understanding. And while we may not agree with it, at least it is something we can hold on to.

So, life moved on, but that happiness I had discovered was short-lived. Life continued to do what it always does – make existence difficult for humans. Then my little brother passed. Then my mother got really sick with the c-word. Then my father got sick with multiple ailments. The business I had been working with and for had failed. My job was low paying and was leading nowhere. I lived at home with my parents at 28 years old sleeping on the family room floor. My bank account was empty, and all my bills were due. Sadness, self-loathing, depression, and fear were at an all-time high and as present as they had always been.

So, what happened to the fakeness of the world? How come this pain still hurts despite it being fake? If the world is so fake, how come I cannot overcome these feelings? There had to be more to it. Settling for “this is just how it is” wasn’t enough.

So, there’s the story. But this was only beginning, well, it’s the middle. I had to keep living. I had to keep learning, and I had to keep growing. That’s the first micro-lesson, keep living and keep experiencing. But in doing so, life brought me back around to the core, but I had to dig and look deeper.

What Changed?

Life was leading me back to reflection. While there are many times in life when we think we have the answers, but then we realize that we are only scratching the surface. What we really need to learn is much deeper than the top layer of the onion. Surface level knowledge is good for the body, but deep understanding is better for the soul. What I was missing in my study was that the Maya I am speaking of here doesn’t mean that the things that are literally around us are unreal. This was my first mistake and it’s okay to make little mistakes along the way because they often lead to the higher learning. Therefore, what the message of the Maya was teaching is that how we perceive the world is unreal. The Maya I mean to refer to here exists to separate us. It intends for us to disguise ourselves from ourselves (a bit trippy, I know). Essentially, Maya makes us believe that we are separated from not only who we are, but from others, from the things that surround us, and more pointedly, it separates us from interconnectivity that we share with everything. Connection with each other (no matter how you slice it) is a truth that holds supreme across all boundaries and all cultures. Separation is the illusion that Maya orchestrates.

Translating the Maya

Most of us live in the seduction of a Maya-type concept every day. It makes what should only feel short-lived feel like an eternity. We feel we cannot spark our internal feelings on our own because we need something else outside of us, beyond us, from some sort of external stimulus. And then that external force becomes our only identity. It makes our human thoughts and experiences the only form of truth. It causes us to believe we are never enough, so we venerate and encourage comparisons with others when we know we are not in competition. Only a great deceiver can cause distrust to our own inner wisdom.

Seeing through the Veil

While I was busy blaming the world for being fake and unauthentic through a misunderstanding, I was soon corrected replacing that inaccuracy with a new realization. And this new realization also reverberates across cultures. The Maya as it was meant to be understood wasn’t a flaw of my human experience, it was just an invitation to the path of seeing more clearly.

Rejecting the world is not how we see through these illusions. We see through illusions living in a more awoken state of mind. For example, when life makes us feel that the worst-case scenario is the only option available, peaking through the veil lets us know that fear is guiding you not your mindful intention. Learn to question your feelings to separate old habits from true clarity. That’s a Kind Rebirth. Moments of clarity are small and initially rare. The fact that you can stop, reflect and change direction is the kind of rebirth that helps choose self-compassion over judgment, a new kind of freedom, and increased moments of spiritual connections.

The Path of Kind Rebirth through the Veiled Illusion

Now, I have begun a new journey. Understanding the shift didn’t fix all those troubles in the world (and they still hurt every single day), but knowing the difference gave me a frame of reference. That’s how the rebirth works. It’s meant to gather you, let you live, and then shake and reshape your perspective. The unnoticed side of Maya brings some benefit, however. While it’s misleading, it’s an encouragement to see through the mirage to better understand the fundamental nature of existence at best, at it its least, it will allow you to identify some good in the things that are often dismal and depressing. You can see things for how they really exist and to take your ego out of the equation and bring you back to who you were before the illusions touched down and settled in. Like a Kind Rebirth, you are not becoming someone else, you are bringing out the awakened you.

Maya does not disappear, even to the newly awakened you, but it does lose some of its power. Your power to recognize the illusions replaces the control it used to have and your walk through life is made with new eyes that regain the sight to see the world as it is and not the world that your past scars have led you to believe in. It’s not a new self; it’s a fresh start. It’s not a better self; it’s better self-awareness. Say hi to your true self and your Kind Rebirth.

Returning to What has Always Been

Life has a funny way of unfolding. We begin as children with fresh eyes seeing purity in all things. But as we grow older, we pick up the negative habits and traits of the world around us. Subsequently, we begin to accept it as truth disregarding our older selves. But life also has a quiet way of reminding you of your true purpose and how to locate happiness amidst the turmoil of the world. But it’s up to us to focus our energy on finding paths that help us see through the misconceptions that are staged all around us. Don’t the let the illusionary life of Maya construct and interpret your life before you have a chance to realize and experience for yourself. And even then, be aware of our attachment to our own views of it. It’ll make life a little easier to bear.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth