I tried explaining spirituality to a friend over Discord, and as the words came out of my mouth, in my attempt to translate an impression which retains a deep truth I resonate with, it felt like I was explaining mumbo-jumbo.

It is far easier to talk about it - the spirit, consciousness, and other realms of Being which exist beyond the visible, material realm - with someone who also intuitively grasps the spiritual, while you'll be met with consternation, and even ridicule, from a person who strictly views life in terms of the material. The spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, has been able to distil into plain words what the spiritual really is, which figures like Buddha, Jesus Christ, and others would tell through indirect parables.

Essentially, the question is this: why are you you? I'm not talking about your body, your mind/personality, your accumulated memories, or even your genetics - I'm talking about why you exist - having awareness in this specific person, at this specific moment in time (as opposed to say, someone else). Perhaps this question has arisen at some points in your life, or perhaps not at all. A dualistic-materialistic perspective would point out the odds of you existing as you are now, as opposed to not existing, would be one in a trillion, and that your brain somehow magically generates your consciousness (awareness) - which all gets shut down into a void, an eternal nothingness, when your mind/body is finally terminated.

What is the real you? I'll borrow a metaphor from Michael Singer in his book The Untethered Soul, where you happen to step inside a movie theatre. You're watching a movie and you naturally get drawn into the events - what's happening with the visuals, and synchronized sound. You might still have your thoughts and reactions, while you're immersed with what's playing on screen.

Now, imagine if this was an advanced movie theatre, upgraded so you can feel all the sensations a character has. You'll be more immersed inside the story, but you'll still have an independent self-concept, your thoughts and emotions being your own (you can laugh at how naive the character is for not picking up on the red flags of a shady character, for example).

But what if the movie theatre had become so radically advanced, that when the movie begins, your own thoughts, emotions are overwritten with that of the character's? When James Bond plays, it's like a salvia trip where you forget that you are someone who has a life outside of the theatre, and for the duration of the movie, you have James Bond's thoughts, emotional reactions as he navigates another mission for Her Majesty's Secret Service.

When the movie's over, Bond's thoughts vanish, and you're back to your usual self, as if you've woken up from a vivid dream and it's only become clear in retrospect that Bond's spy adventures were just temporary content which has overtaken your awareness.

So what makes your "actual" life any different?

This is essentially the truth: you have always been the pure awareness, the one who experiences living through that interactive neuro-simulation. In the realm of pure awareness, there has never been any separation or duality - only an all-encompassing singularity, a serene peace which allows things like sensations, thoughts and even an egoic sense of self (a protective mechanism) to emerge. Even right now, as you're reading these words on the screen, you have thoughts and feelings arising in response. But your real self isn't what arises, it’s what’s noticing them. It has always been here, unchanged, even as the “movie” of your life is playing on.

When I say duality, it's not just a concept. Imagine feeling cut off from first place in a competition by a technicality, or the agonizing separation of being away from a loved one's presence. When you lose a child or family member. When that ache in your body balloons into a nauseating, relentlessly sharp pain, or when you're fed up with an intolerable life situation. This is where your ego is challenged on a fundamental level. In those moments, the sense of "me" versus "the world" becomes excruciating. The pain feels so intensely personal, as if it’s happening to a separate self who is subject to being broken and shattered irrevocably.

Yet even in those lowest moments, the pure awareness who you are remains untouched — it simply allows the grief, the rage, the helplessness, and the physical agony to arise and be fully felt. It is when you forget that you are Being itself, and get hung-up with the temporary content of what your awareness happens to contain, that suffering arises and opens the door to things like resentment, hatred, repressed emotions and complexes.

"If your hardships do not make you grow, and do not put you in a state of energetic euphoria, but rather depress and embitter you, know that you have no spiritual vocation." - Emil Cioran

The genuine recognition of your real self beyond the temporary mind and body often reveals something even vaster: a sense that truth, beauty, and love are not merely fleeting experiences, but somehow ever-present at the root of all existence — that nothing good ever dies.