An Adequate Veil

What is real? I ask that question all the time. I ask myself constantly, others, too. When people say something is unreal, I respond with my question. What is real?

A friend recently said that if you ask the wrong questions, you are likely to never get a good answer. So perhaps this question is faulty and that's why there's no satisfying answer when I ask it, from within or without. Was it really bizarre to see five VWs in a row on 8th Street yesterday just as I was thinking of my ancestors, asphyxiated in VWs during WWII? Or did it just seem bizarre?

Who cares? My experience of it heightened an already slightly altered consciousness from events earlier in the day. Was it a sign? Was some being, such as my aunt Edie, speaking to me from beyond the veil? In the case of the VWs, instead of wondering if it was real, I could have asked Is it a sign?

I asked the Sufi acupuncturist what is real yesterday. He says truth can never be expressed with ideas or words. Stories are veils that cover the pure truth. All that happens is a story we create about the world, including what we believe to be real and unreal. He says a better question would be Is it an adequate veil?

I'm really thinking about that. I like it. Is the veil adequate? Is its shape close to the inexpressible essence? When I experience something like I did yesterday with the parade of VWs, are my stories about that adequate veils for the underlying energy?

Being a mystic is complicated! Good lord. Happy Friday and Shalom.