The Exit Ramp from the “Double World”

We spend most of our lives living in two places.

There is the world of what is actually happening—the coolness of the air, the weight of your body in this chair, the hum of a distant motor. And then there is the world of what we think about what is happening—the replay of a conversation from this morning, the “what-ifs” of tomorrow, the constant inner narrator judging every moment.

We are exhausted because we are maintaining a “Double World.” We try to inhabit reality while simultaneously building a complex mental model of it. We think we are experiencing life, but most of the time, we are only experiencing our commentary about life. In a sense, this is an illusion. And honestly, we seem to live in this imagined world more than in reality itself.

But there is a way out.

It is not found through more thinking, more analysis, more therapy, or more planning. It is found by returning to the singularity of direct experience.

Zen calls this jissō (実相）—true reality. It is not a philosophy to debate. It is something to verify for yourself.

If you stop right now and look only at what is visible, you may notice something surprising: the “Double World” disappears. The past is not here. The future is not here. There is only the content of this moment, exactly as it is.

The Reality Lab: A Sensory Audit

To find reality, you don’t need a map. You need your senses.

Do not just read these words—verify them through direct experience.

VisionFace forward and slowly turn your head to the left. Notice that what exists is only what is being seen now. You cannot see your own back. You cannot see yesterday. In this visual field, there is no past or future—only what is visible, exactly as it is.

Hearing: Bring your attention to the sounds present right now. Each sound appears, lingers briefly, and disappears into the present. Nothing else is heard.

TouchTouch something near you. The sensation appears exactly as it is. Touch something else. Again, the sensation arises and vanishes. It exists only in the moment of contact.

Taste and Smell: When you drink or smell something, the taste or fragrance appears exactly as it is. No interpretation is required for the experience to be real.

The Final Sense: Thoughts and Emotions

We often assume thoughts exist outside the sensory world. But in this practice, the mind is simply another sense organ.

A thought is just a “mental sound” or “mental image.”It appears. It stays briefly. It disappears.

Notice this clearly: when a new thought arises, the previous one is gone. You cannot think of two things at the same time.

Emotions are the same. Only the present emotion exists.

We get caught only when we weave these momentary appearances into a continuous story. In reality, they are like wind—arising and dissolving, again and again.

There Is No Other “Now”

When you verify this directly, you will see something simple and profound:

What exists now is only– the content of the five senses– and the content of consciousness (thoughts and emotions).

There is only this moment. The parallel “other now” is a story we tell — it is not real.

The “Double World” is something we continuously produce. Much of human life unfolds inside this imagined space. Let us first carefully examine whether this is true. And when we stop producing it, we return — quietly, without effort — right where we already are.

This is jissō (実相). This is true reality. Nothing extra is needed.

Words and Photo by K E I K O