Santa doesn’t exist, he’s never been present in space or time, but we live in a world where he might as well exist. That’s why I say that he’s real. Real things have lasting consequences. This goes for Buddha and Jesus too.
By Johnathon Lee
I used to believe in Santa Claus.
I remember being enthralled by the story—a plump, jolly wizard flying around once a year, breaking into people’s houses to leave presents under a tree. I’d go to bed excited on Christmas Eve, wanting to stay awake. Maybe, just maybe, he’d let me ride in his sleigh, soaring high above the city to rain down joy and cheer. I’d fall asleep thinking of reindeer and a cozy snowy village.
My faith was rewarded when I woke up and darted downstairs. The milk glass was empty, and the cookie had a bite taken out of it. Beneath the tree, a few presents with one of them from Santa.
This went on for years. Then, for some reason, I started asking questions. How does one dude travel the world in a night? How do elves make video games without getting sued by Nintendo? How do reindeer fly? The answers didn’t satisfy me anymore; they just led to more questions. I eventually asked my parents if Santa was real, and they decided that it was time to share the bad news:
No, honey. He isn’t real.
It was a disappointment, but not unexpected. I felt a bit betrayed, but then I realized that my parents were the ones who got me those presents. We were lower-middle class (which I didn’t know at the time), so it was beautiful that they were willing to do that for me. A parent pinching pennies for their kid is more magical than an omniscient elf.
But my parents were wrong… Santa is real. He doesn’t exist, but he is real. Let me explain.
Imagine a world where Santa was real. What would that world be like? Well, I would’ve woken up on Christmas to an empty glass of milk, half-eaten cookies, and presents with his name on them. Now, picture a world where he wasn’t real. In that case, I’d wake up to presents without his name on them.
There would be no milk and cookies. No Santa decorations. No one dressing in polar drag and bellowing, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” in the malls. No kids excited about the esoteric magic of goodness.
The world isn’t like that.
Santa doesn’t exist, he’s never been present in space or time, but we live in a world where he might as well exist. That’s why I say that he’s real. Real things have lasting consequences. This goes for Buddha and Jesus too.
They probably didn’t exist as scriptures portray them. The magic and miracles probably didn’t happen. Buddha probably wasn’t a prince and Jesus probably wasn’t a virgin birth. A cynic could even say that they didn’t exist all, that they were totally made up. In any case, they’re real because they’ve had real effects on the world to the point that they might as well have existed.
The same goes for God, the soul, and 10,000 other things.
This isn’t gonna jive with devout skeptics, but radical skepticism prevents us from meeting reality on its own terms. It blinds us to the way things are and plunges us into a belief system that’s just as idealistic as ones we’re criticizing.
If I say, “God isn’t real,” then I’m going to miss seeing all of the ways that a belief in God affects people. I’m just gonna write them off and get kicked out of their chat room. Then, without any differing opinions to open things up, what kind of beliefs might they come up with in the echo chamber?
Beliefs exist, or really, believing exists. A popular belief will make the world in its own image. It’ll act as truth and re-orientate our daily lives until it might as well be true. This is very, very, very important on both a personal and global level. It means that if you act as-if we’re all equal, for instance, then we will all be equal. If you act as-if we’re a doomed species, then we will be a doomed species.
We’re not divided because a genuine division exists. We believe that we’re divided, so we act divided and inherit the effects of those actions. If we stopped acting like we’re divided then we wouldn’t be.
Just like Santa, division is real but it doesn’t exist. Just like the soul, the ego is real but doesn’t exist.
The only difference between a sage and you is that a sage doesn’t believe in ego because they don’t believe in division. A good sage won’t say the ego is unreal altogether since that’s dualistic. They’ll compare it to a dream or an illusion, and dreams do exist and affect us.
“I’m not real,” isn’t a healthy belief, and any teacher who preaches it is mistaken. Even if the ego doesn’t exist, it is most certainty real. We are real.
Life is real.
The amazing thing is that we don’t have to disbelieve in division and ego outright. Just stop acting and thinking like they exist. You’ll quickly see the effects of that and that’ll convince that they don’t exist. We don’t have to believe in interbeing or Buddha-nature for them to be real. If we live as if they are, then they might as well exist.
“Now, now,” you might say, “that sounds like a fake it til you make thing. It’s like fool’s gold or counterfeit bills.”
That’s one way to look at it, sure. But imagine a world where the market was flooded with high quality counterfeits and the genuine currency was slowly destroyed. What happens? The counterfeits become genuine, and we just trade with them instead.
Or it’s like alchemy. If someone could turn lead into gold, would it be real gold? It would have a different history than gold but the same molecular structure. This is like that. This is like midnight Mass and Christmas morning. It’s like soul mates and tomorrows.
As Buddha said, “All things preceded from mind. We become what we think.”
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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You have turned on one of the lights I’ve been looking for. Thank you.