THE DREAM OF MATERIALISM

 
The condition of the world, the strife and uncertainty that is everywhere, the general dissatisfaction with and rebellion against any and every situation shows that the ideal of material perfection is an empty dream and proves the existence of an eternal Reality beyond materiality; for if this Reality did not exist, the increased material well-being of millions of people which science has brought about would have produced contentment and satisfaction, and the tremendous imagination science has projected into the general consciousness would have let loose happiness.

Man thinks that there was never so much achievement and promise of greater achievement as now; but the fact is there was never such wide-spread distrust and dissatisfaction and misery. The promises of science have been proved empty, and its vision false.

Reality alone is real; the only true thing that can be said is, Reality exists and all that is not the Real has no existence except as illusion. In their heart of hearts people know this and, although for a time, they get beguiled by the false promises of illusion and think of them as real, nothing else than the Real can satisfy them, and they become fed up with the misery that the almost limitless play of false imagination gradually brings about. This is the condition of the general people now.

Even I am fed up and miserable. Why should I be so, when I am free? Because as the Buddha said, "I am eternally free and eternally bound." I am bound because of people's bondage, and fed up and miserable because of their fed-upness and misery.

The greatest scientists themselves are becoming dismayed at the areas of knowledge still beyond them and appalled at what their discoveries may unleash. It will not be long now before they admit complete bafflement and affirm the existence of this eternal Reality which men call God, and which is unapproachable through the intellect.

The ordinary man, although he is completely fed up with being cheated of the prize that materialism promises and appears to deny the existence of God and to have lost faith in everything but the immediate advantages, never really loses his inborn belief in God and faith in the Reality which is beyond the illusion of the moment. His apparent doubt and loss of faith is because of a desperation of mind only, it does not touch his heart.

Look at Peter. He denied Christ. Desperation made his mind deny, but in his heart he knew that Christ was what He was. The ordinary man never loses faith. He is as one who climbs up a mountain a certain distance and, experiencing cold and difficulty of breathing, returns to the foot of the mountain.

But the scientific mind goes on up the mountain until its heart freezes and dies. But this mind is becoming so staggered by the vastness still beyond it that it will be forced to admit the hopelessness of its quest and turn to God, the Reality.