Continued from Verse Seventeen
18. To those who have not realized (the Self) as well as to those who have, the world is real. But to those who have not realized, Truth is adapted to the measure of the world, whereas to those that have, Truth shines as the Formless Perfection, and as the Substratum of the world. This is all the difference between them.
Commentary: The phenomenon called the world might be said to appear to both the realized and the non-realized. But the realized view it as nothing other than a modification of the Self, which alone is considered the real truth. The only actual truth is known to be formless and beyond the mind. The world is real only as the Self, but the Self is beyond the egoic thought that says “I am, and therefore the world is.”
So the world is real only as the Self, but the Self does not think the thought that acknowledges the existence of the world.
For the realized ones, then, what appears to be thinking, feeling, perceiving and acting are nothing but the Self that does not admit any of those activities. In other words, thinking is not thinking, feeling is not feeling, perceiving is not perceiving, and acting is not acting. These are not real in themselves; they are all only the Self. They are not what they seem to be. They are semblances.
Whereas for the so-called ones who have not realized, the world is taken to be independently real, and there is thought to be actual truth in it.
“This is all the difference between them” — but what a difference!
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