The Veil of Separation
This is a Buddhist, Zen, and Sufi description of what keeps us feeling separate from the world. Somehow, this veil has come over our consciousness and is causing us to feel separate.
We feel that we’re the thing that’s behind the veil—and life, people, objects are outside of this veil.
From one point of view the veil does exist. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it come over my eyes, and I’ve seen it lift from my eyes.
On the other hand, it’s not “real”. It’s just imagination.
The veil is fear. Fear of looking at things. It’s you hiding behind fear.
The problem with this veil is—it’s just like a veil. It makes everything darker. Just like wearing a veil, it’s harder to see through it. So you’re not seeing the world exactly as it is. Over time this becomes a cyclical problem. You don’t really see how things are. You don’t have full awareness as you’re going through life, and so you create a whole lot more problems than you really need to.
You’re not seeing well. It’s dark and shadowy.
There’s a veil over our ears, too. We don’t hear well.
We’re bombarded with so much sound and noise all the time that we shut down and don’t really hear things that are happening around us. And so we’re living in this zombie bubble. We’re living in a bubble of unrelatedness where we feel like, “I’m this contracted little me that needs to get what I want,” or “that isn’t good enough,” or “that’s better than everybody else.”
All the insanity of what we tend to call human nature comes from this veil.
But that’s not really human nature.
It’s not human nature to be living behind this veil.
It’s human nature to be living free—free of it—with full vision and full hearing.
So how do we get rid of this veil?
I think. I’m not sure. But it seems to me that acknowledging that it’s there would be the very first step.
There’s a thing in Buddhism called beginner’s mind. I think beginner’s mind happens when you see another person that’s awake and acknowledge that they’re awake.
Because when you’ve done that, now you go, “Oh, look.” This is a possibility.
We’re human beings. We mimic. We see, we mimic the people around us. You see someone that’s awake and you know it. Now, all of a sudden, a different possibility has happened to you. Now the veil has thinned—just by seeing this.
My teacher Osho said many times that there are enlightened people all over the place, and most people who become enlightened don’t go become a guru. They just live their lives.
Sometimes they’re a little outspoken or a little annoying or something like that. So you can find them. They’re everywhere.
And so, back then, I started—I decided—that everyone that I met, I would just assume that they’re enlightened… until they prove to me that they’re not.
At that moment I started living in an awakened world.
And we can go way beyond that step. Why limit it to people?
I mean, dogs? Come on. Obviously they are bright beings. Cats? How can we see them as not enlightened? And trees, and plants, and flowers growing?
These things speak very, very slowly, but they’re speaking to us all the time from this place of not separation. Trees don’t feel separate. Weeds don’t feel separate. They are perfectly happy to go anywhere.
So once you change—just change—that one belief from “enlightenment is very, very rare” to “it is everywhere; you’re surrounded by it”… Then all of a sudden, you’re living in an awake world.
The weeds in the sidewalk can be talking to you as you walk along, looking, going, “Look! Look at me! I busted through here.”
Dust. The dust in your house—where does that come from? Enlightened little particles of stars, and dust from the roads, and stuff that’s on your feet walking into your house constantly.
You’re surrounded. Surrounded. Surrounded. Surrounded.
See how changing one unexamined belief can literally change the way we relate to everything around us? In an instant.
Step into that as your full self.
And that’s when the veil drops.