As they are

"We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are."— Anaïs Nin

According to the Buddha, this body of ours, the one we take for granted to be who we are, is a body of being, which in Sanskrit is, satkaya. This is the corporeal body. But it is not who we really are—far from it. While we cling to it, being deeply and profoundly engaged with it, we've set ourselves up, unknowingly, to view things according to the needs of the body of being, the satkaya.

As we flow into the satkaya, as a sattva or being, it alone catches our attention as we enter into bondage. In this respect, we have lost sight of our primordial spiritual nature which is naturally liberated. Now entrained to the satkaya, we are forced to look through the sense organs of the satkaya which are very limited. And because our body of being is often sad, uncomfortable, or suffering, it casts a shadow over things. The world, for us, becomes more than often, gloomy.

If I were to suddenly put you, the reader, into the body of someone who is awakened, to see things as they really are, you would be amazed. First, you wouldn't want to go back to your former existence. So what would it be like? First, there would be the strange sense that you are not really in this body, although it follows your orders, so to speak. Next, everything you set your gaze upon—even ordinary thoughts—begin to wax blissful; so blissful, in fact, that you are almost overwhelmed. When pain arises in the satkaya—it is met with bliss which, I hasten to add, is the real meaning of compassion.

Now, what you don't realize, even though you are in the body of one who is awakened, is that you are seeing things through a spiritual body (manomayakaya) which lets things be as they are. This body, which is not the satkaya, beholds even the satkaya as it really is when it is devoid of interference.

Admittedly, this illustration is out of reach for us. But it is not out of reach to see the tremendous benefit of being gentle beings, who don't hurl themselves into the satkaya with the desire of a drunken sailor looking for a good time! In fact, it is almost a ratio to consider that the more we madly cling to the satkaya, thirsting to enjoy the fruits of the flesh, the more we alter the truth of existence. This is the way, in other words, we lose paradise and much worse, any remembrance of it.

If we really wish, in our heart of hearts, to behold this vast universe as it is, from our spiritual bodies, we have to stop subsisting on the carnal body. We have to fast from it, in other words, which begins the slow process of the retraction of our wayward spirit (sattva); at least withdrawing it to a level where we begin to see the higher life (svarga).