Why the Search for Unity and Your Enlightened Nature Should Be Your Highest Priority in Life (4 of 7)

The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Part 4 of 7

Most of us live in a prison we don’t know we’re in.

A prison built by our senses. By our thoughts. By everything we’ve been told about who we are and what is real. We see the world through a dirty window — and believe what we see is the truth.

But it isn’t.

Science confirms what the mystics have always known: We perceive perhaps one percent of reality. The rest remains hidden behind layer upon layer of filters we don’t even know exist.

This article is about why the search to see clearly — to discover who you really are, free from all the distortions — should be the most important thing you do in your life.

We live in a world drowning in distractions. Social media. News feeds. Expectations from all directions. Emails that never end. Messages buzzing in our pockets. A constant stream of information demanding our attention, every single minute of the day.

In the midst of all this chaos, we chase things we believe will make us happy. Prestige. Success. Recognition. The next promotion. The next house. The next vacation. The next car. The next Instagram post meant to show the world we have a perfect life.

But then something strange happens.

We get what we wished for. The promotion comes. The house is bought. The vacation is completed. And still we feel empty. Still there’s an unrest lurking just beneath the surface. A feeling that something is missing. That life should be something more than this. That there must be a deeper meaning than just chasing the next goal, the next experience, the next validation.

Perhaps you recognize yourself in this?

I know this feeling well. As a civil engineer and businessman, I spent years chasing success in the outer world. I believed that if I just reached the next goal, I would finally feel satisfied. But it never happened. The unrest remained, no matter what I achieved.

It was only after my life-threatening burnout in 2003 that I began to understand why. I had been searching for meaning in the wrong place. The deep meaning we seek is not found in the external world. It’s not found in more things, more status, or more money. It lies in an inner journey. A journey toward what we call spiritual enlightenment — toward awakening to who we truly are.

But why should this search be your highest priority in life? Why should you spend time and energy on something that to many sounds abstract and intangible?

Every single day we are bombarded with an endless stream of information and stimuli. Our brains process millions of sensory impressions every second. In this chaos, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters — of what lies behind all the impressions, behind all the noise, behind all the distractions.

Spiritual enlightenment is about awakening to your own existence’s true nature. It is a state of deep insight and harmony with all that is — a state where time and space no longer bind you, where fear and worry lose their grip, where you experience a peace that goes deeper than any words can describe.

This is not an escape from reality. On the contrary, it is a liberation from the illusion we live in. A search for clarity, peace, and understanding, anchored in the recognition that the reality we experience every day is often far from the deeper truth.

In my experience with many students and clients over more than twenty years, I have seen time and again how this recognition transforms people’s lives. Not through magic or mysticism, but through a systematic process of seeing past the illusions and discovering what has always been there — your true nature.

This article builds on the three previous articles in the series: “The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Your First Birth – The Original Pure Mind”, “The Prerequisite for Your Second Birth – Healing “The Dark Night of the Soul” Through a Shaman Death”, and “The Journey Back to Unity and Our Enlightened Nature!”. If you haven’t read these, I recommend that you do — but this article can also be read on its own.

We Are Nearly Blind: Healing Our Own Distorted Reality

Here comes a truth that may be uncomfortable to hear: Our perception of reality is largely completely wrong.

Let that sentence sink in for a moment.

This is not mysticism or new age talk. It is something that Western medicine, neuroscience, and physics can easily prove. It is science — and it has profound consequences for how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Think about it: From the moment you were born, you have relied on your senses to understand the world around you. Sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These five senses have been your windows to reality. You have taken for granted that what you see, hear, and feel is how the world actually is.

But here is what science tells us: Our senses capture only a fraction of what is actually happening out there. And even this small fraction is processed, filtered, and distorted by your brain before you experience it.

Let me give you some concrete examples that might make this clearer.

The Illusion of Sight

When you see something — let’s say a tree outside your window — what actually happens? Light waves reflect from the tree and hit your eye. These light waves are only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. You don’t see radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, or gamma rays. All of this exists around you all the time, but you don’t see it.

The light waves you can actually perceive hit the retina in your eye. There they are converted into electrical impulses that are sent through the optic nerve to the brain. Your brain then takes these electrical signals and constructs an image — an image of a tree.

But here’s the important part: This image exists only inside your head. What you “see” is not the tree as it actually is out there in the world. It is the brain’s interpretation of some electrical impulses. It is a construction. A model. A representation.

And this construction is far from perfect. The brain fills in gaps in the visual information. It corrects distortions. It adds colors based on context. It creates continuity where there are actually breaks. All of this happens automatically, without you being aware of it.

Sound Is Also a Construction

The same thing happens with sound. When someone speaks to you, their vocal cords create vibrations in the air. These vibrations — sound waves — travel through the air and hit your eardrum. The eardrum vibrates. This vibration is transferred to three small bones in the middle ear, then to the cochlea in the inner ear, where it is converted into electrical signals sent to the brain.

The brain then interprets these signals and creates what you experience as sound — a voice, music, birdsong, traffic.

But again: The sound you hear exists only inside your head. Out there in the world, there are only vibrations in air. “Sound” as you experience it is the brain’s construction.

And just like with sight, this construction is limited. Humans can only hear sound waves in a certain frequency range. Dogs hear sounds we cannot perceive. Bats navigate using ultrasound that is completely invisible to us. Whales communicate with infrasound waves that pass right through us without us having any idea.

The Sensory Barrier

Do you see what’s happening here?

Between you and the world’s true nature stands a significant barrier. You don’t see or hear the world as it actually is. You experience the world as it appears after it has been filtered through multiple layers of processing.

You don’t live in the world. You live in a model of the world that your brain has constructed based on limited sensory data.

This raises a question worth pausing for: How much of reality do you actually experience?

The answer is sobering: Very little.

Scientists estimate that we perceive perhaps one percent of what is actually happening around us — and that’s a generous estimate. Some believe it’s far less. The sensory world you perceive every day is more like a virtual reality. It is constructed inside your head and adapted to the brain’s limitations and needs.

As a civil engineer, I found this fascinating when I first learned about it. Our brain is like an advanced computer that processes data and creates a simulation of reality. But the simulation is not reality itself — it’s just a subjective map, not the territory.

This insight is the foundation of the spiritual journey. It’s about penetrating these illusions. Experiencing reality as it actually is, not as your brain has constructed it.

Deeper Layers of Distortion: The Filter of Psychology

But it doesn’t stop with the senses.

Beyond the physical filters, there are deeper layers that distort reality even more. And this is perhaps even more important to understand.

Your psychology — your ego, your belief patterns, your prejudices, your opinions, your past experiences and traumas — functions as an additional veil. This veil shapes how you interpret everything you experience.

Think of it as a pair of glasses you never take off. These glasses color everything you see. They magnify some things and minimize others. They distort shapes and distances. But you’ve worn them for so long that you don’t even know they’re there. You think what you see through the glasses is how the world actually looks.

Every single thing you experience is filtered through your intellect and your ego. Through the karmic memory you carry with you — all the experiences, decisions, interpretations, and emotional charges from your entire life (and perhaps even further back, as I’ve written more about in the article “Learn How to Love Your Karma!”). All of this evaluates and categorizes your experiences automatically, without you being aware of it.

Let me give you a concrete example that most people can relate to.

Imagine walking into a room where a group of people you don’t know are sitting. Before you’ve taken three steps into the room, your brain has already begun categorizing: “This person looks friendly.” “He seems arrogant.” “She reminds me of someone I didn’t like.” “Those two look like they’re talking about me.”

These assessments happen automatically and lightning-fast, based on past experiences, prejudices, and patterns your brain has learned. Before you actually start talking to any of these people, you’ve already formed opinions about them — opinions that often say more about you than about them.

The same happens with everything you experience. When you see something beautiful, your brain immediately categorizes it: “This is beautiful.” But what makes it beautiful? Is it something inherent in what you’re seeing, or is it something you’re projecting onto it based on past experiences and cultural conditioning?

When you see something you experience as unpleasant or threatening, the same thing happens: “This is dangerous.” “I don’t like this.” “I can’t trust this person.” But again — how much of this is actual reality, and how much is your own filters and projections?

By the time the pure sensory information reaches your consciousness, it has been dissected, analyzed, compared with millions of past experiences, and reconstructed. It is far from its original form. You don’t see the world — you see your own subjective interpretation of the world, colored by everything you’ve experienced and everything you’ve been told.

This psychological filtering creates a heavily distorted version of reality. It is influenced by what we can call biases — conscious or unconscious preconceived attitudes that affect how we perceive, interpret, and react to everything we encounter.

And here’s the important thing: Most people go through their entire lives without ever realizing that these filters exist. They believe the world is as they experience it. They confuse the map with the territory.

The path to spiritual enlightenment is about recognizing these layers. And striving to see past them. It is an invitation to experience the world without judgment, without misinterpretation, without distortions. To see things as they are, not as we think they are.

Does that sound impossible?

It’s not. But it requires that you’re willing to look at reality with new eyes. To question what you’ve taken for granted. To realize that much of what you believe is “reality” is actually a construction — a virtual reality inside your own head.

Most People Live in a Distorted Virtual Reality

Let me be direct: Most people spend their entire lives inside their own heads.

They interact with a virtual reality constructed by their senses and all the psychological filters we just discussed. This version of reality is far removed from existence’s true nature. It is a heavily edited, filtered, and distorted interpretation.

Think of it this way: Every single day you wake up in your own private reality. A reality that no one else can enter. A reality shaped by your unique experiences, your traumas, your joys, your fears, your hopes, your disappointments. Everything you experience is filtered through this unique lens.

When you talk with another person, you don’t meet them as they really are. You meet your interpretation of them — filtered through all your preconceived opinions and past experiences. And they meet you the same way. Two people in conversation are really two private realities trying to communicate through layer upon layer of filters and distortions.

Is it any wonder that misunderstandings arise? Is it any wonder that we feel lonely even when surrounded by people? Is it any wonder that true, deep connection often feels so difficult to achieve?

Let me give you an image that might make this clearer.

Think of it as looking at the world through a dirty window. A window where the glass is covered with old fingerprints, dust, dirt, and stains that have accumulated over years and decades. Some of the stains are from things you’ve experienced. Others are from things you’ve been told. Some are from traumas you don’t even consciously remember. Others are from the culture you grew up in, from the expectations society has placed on you.

Through this dirty window, you can see the outlines of what’s outside. You can glimpse shapes and colors. But you don’t see it clearly. You don’t see it as it actually is. And the worst part is that you’ve been looking at the world through this window for so long that you don’t even know the window is there. You think what you see is reality.

The path to spiritual enlightenment is about cleaning this window. Step by step. Layer by layer. Removing the stains, dust, and dirt — all the old patterns, prejudices, traumas, and conditioning — until you can finally see the world as it truly is, without filters and distortions.

At the beginning of my own journey, I began to experience moments where parts of this window suddenly became clear. It’s difficult to describe in words, but it’s like seeing the world for the first time. Colors become clearer. Details you never noticed emerge. A sense of connection with everything around you that you didn’t know was possible.

And the good news? This is not reserved for a select few. It is available to everyone who is willing to do the work.

What Is Truth? The Ultimate Truth vs. What We Perceive

Let’s pause for a moment and ask a fundamental question: What is truth, really?

This is a question philosophers have asked for thousands of years. And it is a question with profound practical consequences for how we live our lives.

The ultimate truth is the raw, unmediated reality that exists beyond all the distortions from our senses and our minds. It simply is. Unchanged. Unfiltered. Pure. Before the brain begins to categorize, interpret, and modify. Before the ego adds its assessments and opinions.

But what we perceive daily? That is far from this truth.

Let me use an analogy that might make this clearer.

Think of a guitar string. When someone strikes the string, it vibrates at a certain frequency. This vibration is the original event — the “true” sound, if you will. But by the time this sound reaches your mind, it has been changed multiple times.

First, the vibration travels through the air as sound waves. The air’s density, temperature, and humidity affect the waves. Then the waves hit your ear, where they pass through the complex mechanics we described earlier. Finally, the brain interprets the electrical signals and creates what you experience as a guitar sound.

What you ultimately hear is far from the original vibration in the string.

But it doesn’t stop there. In addition to the physical processing, your brain adds yet another layer: interpretation and assessment. “This is a beautiful sound.” “This reminds me of a song I heard when I was young.” “This guitarist is skilled.” “This music makes me sad.”

All these additional layers of interpretation and emotional response move you even further from the original vibration — from the ultimate truth of what actually happened when the string was struck.

This is how it is with everything you experience. Everything you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch has been processed and changed by your senses and brain. What you perceive is not reality — it is a distant reflection of it. An echo of an echo of an echo.

The path to spiritual enlightenment is about moving past these distortions. Seeking a direct experience of the ultimate truth. Not an interpreted, filtered, assessed version — but reality as it is, before the mind begins to manipulate it.

This requires that we expand our consciousness and strengthen our ability to perceive the world without interference from sensory filters and psychological conditioning.

It may sound abstract. But the results are very concrete. People who have experienced this — even in brief glimpses — describe it as life-changing. A sense of deep peace. An experience of unity with all that is. An understanding that goes beyond words and concepts.

Human Consciousness: Your Unused Superpower

You have an ability that can perceive far beyond what your senses can capture.

This ability is called consciousness.

Consciousness is a mystery even to modern science. We know it exists — you’re experiencing it right now, in this moment. But we don’t fully understand what it is or how it arises. What we do know is that it is fundamentally different from everything else we know.

Unlike your physical body, which ages and weakens over time, your consciousness remains unchanged in its essence. Your body has changed dramatically since you were a child. Your cells have been replaced many times. But something in you — the one who observes, the one who experiences, the one who is aware that you exist — has remained the same.

Your consciousness is timeless. Boundless. And with proper cultivation, it can penetrate all the layers of distortion to perceive truth directly.

The problem? For most of us, access to this consciousness remains undeveloped. Like a muscle we never use. It’s there, it functions at a basic level, but we haven’t learned to use it fully. We only use a fraction of its potential.

It’s like having a powerful computer but only using it to write emails. The machinery is there, the capacity is there, but we’re not utilizing it.

In my experience over more than twenty years of spiritual practice and teaching, I have seen that access to this consciousness can be developed systematically. It can be trained, strengthened, and expanded — just like a muscle. And when it expands, something remarkable happens: The sensory and psychological filters begin to lose their grip. You begin to perceive more of reality directly.

A genuine spiritual development path offers methods to strengthen and expand the access to this consciousness. So that we can experience reality as it truly is, not just as our brains construct it.

One of the keys to achieving spiritual enlightenment lies precisely here: Expanding consciousness beyond the boundaries of mind and body. Those who have achieved this — those who have truly understood reality’s nature — have transcended the ordinary limitations. They see the world as it is, without the distortions from the ego or sensory processing.

This expanded consciousness gives them access to the ultimate truth. A state of clarity and understanding that remains inaccessible to those still caught in sensory and psychological filters.

And the beautiful thing is that this possibility lies within you right now. It’s just waiting to be developed.

Saints and the Halo: More Than Just a Symbol

Throughout history, saints and enlightened beings have been depicted with halos — luminous rings around their heads. You’ve seen it countless times: in church art, icons, religious paintings from all eras and cultures.

Most people think of the halo as a purely religious symbol. A way to show that this person was holy or special. But when we look closer at this symbol, we find that it functions as a metaphor for something deeper: An expanded consciousness.

In spiritual traditions around the world — from Christianity to Buddhism, from Hinduism to shamanic cultures — the halo represents the radiant energy of someone who has transcended the ordinary limitations of how we perceive the world. Someone who is able to see reality as it truly is.

What’s interesting is that many who have had mystical experiences or deep meditative states actually describe seeing light around people or things. This is not just symbolism — it is an actual perceptual experience that arises when consciousness expands beyond its normal boundaries.

The consciousness of an enlightened being extends beyond the body’s physical boundaries. This enables them to perceive the ultimate truth that lies behind the illusions of the physical world. They don’t just see with their eyes — they see with an expanded consciousness that can perceive aspects of reality that ordinary senses cannot capture.

For those who have reached spiritual enlightenment, the halo is therefore more than a pretty symbol in a painting. It is a reflection of their ability to see the world without the ego’s distortions, without the limitations of the senses, without the mind’s constant categorization and assessment.

Saints and enlightened beings throughout history have had a heightened consciousness that enabled them to experience the raw truth of existence. In this state, they perceive something most of us can only glimpse: the interconnection of all things. The underlying unity of all that is. Reality’s true nature beneath all the illusions.

This expanded consciousness is the very hallmark of spiritual enlightenment. It is the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey. And it is what motivates me to write these articles and teach this — because I know that this possibility lies within all of us, waiting to be discovered.

Experiencing Your Complete Nature: From Grain of Sand to Sahara

Now we come to what for me is the most compelling reason why the search for spiritual enlightenment should be your highest priority:

You have the opportunity to experience your complete nature. Timeless. Spaceless. One with all that exists.

Let me explain this with an image that has helped many of my students understand what this really means.

Your material existence — limited by time and space, caught in your distorted version of reality — can be seen as a single tiny grain of sand in an enormous Sahara desert. A minuscule part of your true nature.

(I have written more extensively about this in the article “The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Your First Birth – The Original Pure Mind” )

Think about it for a moment. You — the person you think you are, with your name, your history, your experiences, your worries, your dreams — are just a grain of sand. Just a tiny part of something much, much larger.

Most people go through their entire lives believing that this one grain of sand is all there is. That this is all of reality. That this is all life has to offer. They worry about the grain of sand. They defend the grain of sand. They try to make the grain of sand bigger, better, more successful, more recognized. They compare their grain of sand with others’ grains of sand. They become jealous, afraid, frustrated — all centered around this one little grain of sand.

They have no idea that they are surrounded by an infinite desert of possibilities. That they are part of something boundless.

They are wrong. And it is a mistake that costs them dearly — in the form of suffering, unrest, fear, and a constant feeling that something is missing.

My experience — and the experience of countless people throughout history, from mystics and saints to ordinary people who have had moments of revelation — shows that the day you touch your full existence, your Sahara, the experience of life changes completely.

When I myself first got a glimpse of this after my burnout in 2003, it was like waking from a long dream. Suddenly I saw that all the worries, all the fear, all the chasing after recognition and success — all of this was about the grain of sand. It was important within the grain of sand’s world. But in the big picture, it was so insignificant.

When you realize that what your ego has told you is reality is really just a tiny grain of sand that has been the soul’s straitjacket your entire life — then you experience a liberation that cannot be described in words.

I have tried many times to put words to this experience, and it’s difficult. It’s like trying to describe the color red to someone who has never seen. But let me try to give you a hint.

Suffering, fear, frustration, meaninglessness, and hopelessness? It disappears like morning dew in the sun. Not because life’s problems disappear — they may still be there. But because you see them from an entirely new perspective. You see that they are grain-of-sand problems. They are important within the grain of sand’s world, but they don’t define who you are. They are not all of reality.

You gain new perspectives on what is truly important in life. Things that previously stressed you suddenly seem much less important. Things you ignored — like connection, presence, love, nature, the simplicity of existence — take on new meaning.

You become able to relate to the hamster wheel in an entirely different way. You can still participate in the world, work, have ambitions, solve problems. But you are no longer caught in the wheel. You know there is more. You have seen the desert. And that changes everything.

Playing with your grain of sand

This makes it possible to play with your grain of sand. To play with your Karma. And to engage with life in a completely different way.

When you know you are the desert — not just the grain — everything changes.

You stop clutching so desperately at outcomes. You stop being paralyzed by fear of losing what you have. You begin to move through life with a lightness that seemed impossible before.

This doesn’t mean you stop caring. Quite the opposite. You care more deeply. But you care from a place of freedom, not desperation. From wholeness, not lack.

Imagine playing a game where you know — truly know — that you cannot lose anything essential. Where every challenge becomes an adventure rather than a threat. Where setbacks become teachers rather than catastrophes.

This is what the mystics mean when they speak of liberation.

Not escape from life. But full, fearless engagement with it.

You still feel joy and sorrow. You still face difficulties. You still have a human life with all its messiness and complexity. But underneath it all, there is an unshakeable ground. A knowing that what you truly are cannot be touched by any circumstance.

From this place, life becomes play.

Sacred play. Meaningful play. But play nonetheless.

Illness doesn’t disappear by itself. Practical challenges don’t disappear. Life still has its ups and downs. But the suffering and pain connected to all of this can cease — or at least be dramatically reduced. Because you no longer completely identify with the grain of sand. You know you are something more.

In such a state, you gain access to a source of knowledge and wisdom that is impossible to describe in words. This knowledge lies in the consciousness you were born with — the consciousness that existed before your ego was formed, before you learned to see the world through all the filters. It has knowledge of everything consciousness has experienced since the universe was conceived more than 14 billion years ago. And it is available to you.

Does it sound incredible?

That’s what makes it so worth seeking. Not because you should blindly believe what I say. But because you can experience it yourself. This is not belief — it is experience. And the experience is available to everyone who is willing to make the journey.

Can I Become Enlightened?

Perhaps you’re thinking now: “This sounds great, but is it for me? Isn’t spiritual enlightenment reserved for some specially chosen few — monks on mountaintops, mystics in monasteries, people who have devoted their entire lives to spiritual practice?”

The answer is a clear and unequivocal: No.

Spiritual enlightenment is not reserved for an elite. It is available to everyone who is willing to do the work. Everyone who is willing to develop their consciousness. Everyone who is willing to see past the illusions and discover their true nature.

This was something I myself doubted at the beginning of my journey. As a engineer, I was skeptical of everything that couldn’t be measured and weighed. Spirituality seemed like something for other people — not for an analytical, rational person like me.

But experience taught me something else. After my burnout in 2003, when conventional medicine couldn’t help me, I was desperate enough to explore other paths. And what I found surprised me.

Spiritual development is not mystical or irrational. It is a systematic process. It can be learned, trained, and practiced. The results can be observed and measured — perhaps not always with traditional scientific instruments, but definitely in how your life changes, how you feel, how you relate to the world around you.

Through more than twenty years of experience and thousands of students, I have seen time and again that ordinary people — with ordinary jobs, families, challenges, and dreams — can achieve deep spiritual insights and transformations. It doesn’t require that you withdraw from the world. It doesn’t require that you give up everything you have. It only requires that you’re willing to look at reality with new eyes and do the necessary work.

Ultimately, spiritual enlightenment is about reclaiming your consciousness and using it to perceive the world as it truly is. In a world drowning in distractions, suffering, limitations, and illusions, this is more important than ever.

It allows you to break free from the limitations of the senses and ego. See past the illusions. Experience the ultimate truth. And live a life filled with clarity, meaning, and deep fulfillment.

The path to spiritual enlightenment should be your highest priority in life because it gives you the opportunity to see past the illusions of the physical world. To experience the ultimate truth. To live as your true self, not as the limited grain of sand you thought you were.

By expanding your consciousness and breaking through the layers that distort reality, you can live a life of clarity, peace, and deeper understanding. The path can be challenging. It requires a suitable teacher or guide — someone who has walked the path before you and can guide you through the pitfalls. But it is the most rewarding journey you can embark upon.

It leads to the recognition of existence’s true nature. And to lasting spiritual fulfillment.

This is not a destination you reach and then are finished. It is a continuous unfolding, an ever-deeper awakening, a journey that continues to reveal new layers of truth and beauty. But the first step — recognizing that the reality you’ve believed in is an illusion, and that something far greater awaits — that step you can take right now.

In the next article in this series, we will look more closely at the concrete paths you can follow to complete liberation and spiritual enlightenment. We will explore various traditions and methods, and examine what works in the modern world for busy people who want to make this journey without withdrawing from life.