A simple intellectual method of discerning between what is real and what is not real is to start with a metaphysical-intuitive concept of reality, or realness, which is grounded in the direct experience of seers. Let us begin with that principle as our axiom: The Real cannot not be.
That which is truly real cannot not be, even for an instant; otherwise, it makes it dependent on something else, time for example. That which is at one time and not at another time cannot be real but is only a superposition on a real substratum.
Then, what is the substance of the phenomenal world, the underlying real component, which should always be there?
It is quite simple: what is universally true of anything? That everything that is or we can speak of or conceive of is an experience. There is nothing that is not an experience, and this is an undeniable truth.
Additionally, it is unthinkable to imagine an experience without having in it a sense of subjectivity, the sense of “I-ness.” I-ness and the stream of experience are inseparable, and it is impossible to think of one without the other.
So, from a very simple and intuitive standpoint: that which we cannot conceive of not being is the experiencing I-ness, and thus it must be the ultimate substance of reality. The individual forms that this stream takes, this or that person or embodiment, are all transient accidents superimposed on this formless streaming I-ness. Since these forms can be at one time and not at another, then they cannot be real, for according to our principle “the Real cannot not be.”
