Reality.

What is real?

At first, the question seems simple. Reality is that which is genuine, actual, and not imagined. Yet the human experience shows us that what we call “reality” is constantly changing.

Things that once seemed impossible become ordinary. Technologies, nations, systems, and ways of life that could hardly have been imagined centuries ago are now part of everyday experience. This raises an important question:

Is reality only what we can currently see, touch, measure, and experience—or is there a greater Reality beyond the limits of the senses?

The Limits of Sensory Reality

Human beings are deeply connected to the earth through the body.

We see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, and through these senses we determine much of what we consider to be real. Because of this, anything outside the range of the senses is often treated as uncertain, imaginary, or unreal.

The body becomes our instrument of validation.

If we can see it, we accept it. If we can touch it, we trust it. If we can measure it, we call it real.

But the history of human experience suggests that the limits of our present understanding are not necessarily the limits of Reality itself.

New realities continually enter human awareness. What was once unseen becomes seen. What was once unimaginable becomes commonplace.

Reality, as experienced by humanity, has never been completely rigid. It is fluid. It moves almost like the wind—arriving, departing, and changing the landscape of human understanding.

Body and Breath

Within the human person are two important realms.

There is the Sensory State, which resides within the body, and there is an Imaginary or Spiritual State, which resides within the Breath.

The body connects us to the finite world. The Breath points beyond it.

When these two dimensions meet, human beings experience what we call Reality.

But problems arise when one part dominates the other.

If the body becomes the sole authority over what is real, then Reality becomes limited to what serves the body: comfort, pleasure, survival, possession, power, and security.

The human person begins to live as though the body is the highest authority. And when that happens, the temporary begins to replace the eternal.

The Endless Search for Something New

Human history shows a repeated pattern.

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. One culture replaces another. One system of thought gives way to the next. New discoveries replace old assumptions. New pleasures replace old pleasures. New possessions replace old possessions.

Yet the fundamental human condition often remains unchanged.

The body is still searching. The senses are still demanding. And humanity continues looking for something new to satisfy the same old desires.

When Reality becomes centered entirely upon the body, life can become an endless search for temporary satisfaction.

Life is short. Take what you can. Experience what you can. Possess what you can. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

The body slowly becomes the god that must be served.

When the Body Becomes the Center

A body-dominated consciousness creates a particular view of existence.

If the body is all that is real, then self becomes the center of life. If this physical life is all that exists, then every gift, ability, and resource becomes something to be used primarily for personal survival or satisfaction.

History gives us examples of where this can lead.

Human beings are capable of extraordinary creativity, invention, beauty, and discovery. But they are also capable of conquest, destruction, and the annihilation of entire cultures.

The same human capacities that can build can also destroy.

When bodily desire, fear, and self-interest become the final measure of Reality, there is no lasting foundation beyond them.

Reality becomes temporary because the body itself is temporary.

The Forgotten Breath

Yet there is something the body cannot do alone.

The body cannot live without Breath.

Breath is essential to physical life, but it can also point toward something deeper.

The Breath represents that dimension of human existence that is not satisfied simply by serving the body.

When consciousness becomes dominated entirely by physical concerns, the Breath becomes suppressed. The spiritual dimension of life becomes secondary. The eternal is pushed aside by the immediate. The invisible is dismissed because the visible demands all of our attention.

This imbalance affects the soul.

The Soul and Vitality

The soul does not receive its vitality from the endless satisfaction of bodily desire. Its vitality comes from the Breath.

When the body dominates consciousness, the soul loses balance. It becomes tired. It becomes restless. It loses the vitality that comes from being connected to something greater than temporary physical existence.

True vitality reminds the soul that Reality may extend beyond the boundaries of the body.

It points toward a state that is not defined entirely by fear, scarcity, mortality, or physical limitation.

It becomes a witness that there is something more.

The Search for Ultimate Reality

Perhaps humanity's changing realities reveal something important.

Perhaps each temporary reality points toward the need for something permanent.

Human beings continue searching because temporary realities never completely satisfy.

One reality replaces another. One kingdom replaces another. One discovery leads to another. One desire produces another desire.

This continual movement suggests a deeper question:

Is there a Reality that does not change?

A Reality that is not dependent upon culture? Not dependent upon technology? Not dependent upon the body? Not dependent upon human perception?

A Reality that contains all truth rather than merely one temporary version of it?

That is what I call Ultimate Reality.

Ultimate Reality and God

Ultimate Reality is not found simply by extending the desires of the body.

It is discovered when the human person recognizes the relationship between body, Breath, spirit, and soul.

The Breath points beyond the finite. It reminds us that life itself cannot be understood only in terms of maintaining the body.

There is a spiritual vitality that reaches beyond physical existence.

In a Breath- or Spirit-dominated consciousness, the boundaries created by bodily perception no longer define the limits of Reality.

There is another domain. A domain of eternal truth. A Reality that does not depend upon changing human circumstances. A Reality that does not rise and fall like kingdoms. A Reality that does not become obsolete.

That Reality is God.

The Kingdom of God

Jesus spoke repeatedly of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom represents a Reality that does not depend upon the temporary systems of this world.

It is not simply another human kingdom waiting to replace the one before it. It belongs to the eternal.

It represents a Reality in which truth is not created by human desire but discovered in relationship with God.

The temporary realities of the body come and go. The Ultimate Reality remains.

This is the Kingdom of God. This is the Ultimate Reality.

Cornerstone Reflection

“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”1 Peter 2:6

A cornerstone gives orientation to everything built upon it.

In the same way, the search for Reality requires a foundation.

If our foundation is only the body, then our understanding of reality will continually change with our desires, fears, technologies, cultures, and circumstances.

But if the foundation is eternal, then the temporary can be understood in relation to something greater.

At Cornerstone 1131, that search begins with a simple question:

What if the visible world is real—but it is not the whole of Reality?