The Epidermis of Reality
by Robert Meagher on 12/04/13
I am truly blessed to live a joyfully full life. The wonderful souls I have the honor to walk
this journey with are life-giving and a true gift from Source—whether through
my therapy, counselling, or coaching practice; through the many study and
discussion groups I am grateful to facilitate; through public speaking; through
chaplaincy/ministerial visitations; through daily contemplative sharing across
many social media outlets; and through OM websites.
A common theme is rising to the surface in many of the
holy encounters I share with souls: the questioning of reality itself, the part
we play in that reality, and the limits we place on our reality. All this thinking about reality got me thinking
about my reality, how I see the world around me and what may exist beyond my
bodily vision.
I want to invite you, right now—while you are reading
this passage—to hold out one of your arms, and with the opposite hand give your
forearm a gentle squeeze. You may notice
that your forearm is pliable. It moves and gives way to the pressure you place
upon your body as you gently squeeze it. You may be able to feel the muscles
and tendons inside your arm. Science
also informs us there are bones, tendons and other biological matter within our
body, not to mention organs and extraordinarily complex networks for fibres and
transmitters that allow our bodies to, hopefully, function synergisticly.
Covering this masterful piece of art—our body—is an
epidermis. This epidermis is what
science calls ‘skin’. Actually, the
epidermis is made up of many layers of skin, to create this coating that covers
our entire body. Granted, there are
openings in the body. Examples include our eyes, ears, nose and mouth (there
are others you can probably think of). Occasionally,
through these openings, body fluid is expelled.
For example, if we accidentally cut ourselves, bodily fluid is expelled
from the body. But for the most part,
this epidermis we call skin encases us in what we call a body. This epidermis holds everything
together. We can poke at our bodies; we
can bend ourselves into contortions; we can even break an internal component of
our body; but the epidermis holds everything together—in its rightful place.
Another interesting thought came to me about the
body. I thought of my heart, my physical
heart. I am told is resides in my chest
cavity. I am told its only function is
to pump and regulate the flow of blood throughout my body. As far as I am aware, the heart, or any other
internal part of my body, is not aware of its existence outside of the physical
body. That is, it is only aware of its
existence within the context of where it is inside a physical space. It has no awareness of an existence outside
of itself.
As I began to look at this concept of a body and its
epidermis that holds everything together, I began to contemplate how arrogant I
have been to think this concept of an epidermis over my body is the only
example of this exquisite relationship in my life—in my reality. I began to
ponder the possibilities of applying the physicality of my body—the epidermis
holding my body together—to the world around me and my reality. “What if…?”, I asked myself. “What if, there is another layer of this
exquisite relationship in life?”. I
asked myself, “What if all that I see with my body’s eyes, all the people, all
the things, all the interactions, everything, is merely another epidermis, the
epidermis of my reality?!”
This epidermis of reality is merely another layer that
holds everything together in an exquisite relationship. Just as I can with my
physical body: I can ‘poke’ at my reality, as in have an experience in life; I
can bend my reality into contortions, as in do something really different with
my life; or I can even break an aspect of my reality, as in experience a crisis
in my life that shocks me and forces me to see my life differently. But there is something that holds everything,
every blessed element of it, together.
There are very few who ever move beyond their
ego-centric, arrogant sense of self to become aware that everything that is
their reality is merely a covering—an epidermis—over their physical sight. Even fewer have the awakening experience of
actually peeking through that epidermis to realize our reality is merely a
veil, a sheath, a thin curtain, that stands between us and true peace, joy, and
love.
Ask yourself this… “What holds my reality together? Everything around me, the people, the places,
the things I see, the interactions I experience on a daily basis? What keeps all of this is its rightful
place? What holds all this together?”
I have found my answer.
My wish for you is you find yours.