Chemical Taste or Fresh Water?

Consider the modern marketplace, where after fruits are harvested, they are processed, and shipped to our local stores… their flavors diluted by the demands of mass production. Most people consume these fruits without question, growing accustomed to their blandness and uniformity. They become the benchmark, the standard by which a person may judge all fruits, and they come to believe that this is the true taste of nature's bounty.

But then, one day, they chance upon a farm-fresh piece of fruit, untouched by the industrial machinery that governs the global diet. Our person in question takes a bite, and suddenly, it's as if they’ve seen color for the first time. The taste is vibrant, alive, and profoundly different from what they’ve grown accustomed to. It's as though they're tasting fruit for the first time.

In this moment, they confront a fundamental truth: they have become conditioned to accept mediocrity as the norm. They've settled for the sterile, the processed, believing it to be the pinnacle of what life has to offer. When faced with the authentic, they might not even recognize it, clinging to their acquired taste for the mundane.

This phenomenon extends far beyond the realm of fruit. It's akin to the tap water that flows from our faucets, tainted with chemicals and impurities. We drink it unquestioningly, the acrid taste becoming the backdrop of our lives. But when we taste the pure spring water, cool and untarnished, it's as if we're drinking from the very source of life itself.

Yet, some might recoil from the thought of pure spring water, yearning for the familiar chemical taste. It's a curious symptom—a preference for the artificial, the manufactured, over the authentic and pristine.

We see a similar pattern in the world of spirituality. Society inundates us with superficialities, distractions, and prepackaged belief systems. We grow accustomed to the spiritual equivalent of bland, processed fruit and chemically tainted water. Some people are certainly convinced that this is the totality of existence… or that “this” is how a good moral [religious person] behaves.

But when we embark on a journey of authentic connection with the divine, we discover a taste of something deeper, something profoundly real. It's a connection untainted by dogma, unburdened by externalities, and it resonates at the core of our being.

Some may hesitate, preferring the familiar trappings of organized religion or shallow rituals, even if they lack the depth of true spiritual connection. They cling to what they've known, afraid to venture into the unknown depths of their own souls.

**I am not against rituals. Rituals carry mystical knowledge through generations and are of great value when performed with a deeper understanding of their underlying significance. The value of rituals is their effect on consciousness alignment- not in the act itself.**

In the end, what many people have grown accustomed to may not be the truest, the purest, or the most profound. We must be willing to venture beyond the superficial and the easily familiar, to embrace the authentic. It is the direct mystical experience that truly nourishes the soul. Just as a single bite of farm-fresh fruit can change our perception of taste, a genuine mystical encounter with the divine can transform our entire spiritual journey. In our search for authenticity, may we not be fooled by the artificial, but instead, seek the pure spring waters of spiritual depth.