You Are That: The Soul Knows What the Senses Cannot
The most precious truths in life are often invisible. From raindrops to quantum fields, from grief to divine knowing, this reflection bridges the seen and unseen in search of the eternal "That."
Have you ever felt the raindrops at the precise moment you step outside? For some reason, on cloudy days, it feels as though they wait for us. Funny how that is.
When I lived in Portland, Oregon, the clouds, alongside their loyal legion of droplets, seemed to find us often. I became attuned to their supple mist. I looked forward to those cold, crisp mornings. Autumn would bring a satisfying crunch to each step. Every fallen leaf radiated a hue so unique, it felt impossible to capture with words.
The most precious things in life often can’t be described, measured, or even perceived by our senses.
It’s the spark I felt when I first saw my wife.
It’s the moment I first held my daughter, this gift that gave my heartbeats meaning.
It’s the feeling I carried when I said goodbye to my mother in the hospital, only to walk outside and see a husband rushing to get his pregnant wife to the delivery room.
Deep down, I’m still that 7-year-old boy who once looked at the stars and asked himself:
What is all of this?
These feelings…
They’re beyond touch.
Beyond sight.
Beyond certainty.
Every second, trillions of cells within us divide, repair, and harmonize in ways we never consciously feel.
At the smallest scales, particles flicker in and out of quantum fields—a waltz both random and synchronized. A mystery science can model but not fully explain.
Dark matter is unseen and untouchable. Yet it still cradles galaxies, stars, and cells alike.
Even bees, nature’s subtle marvels, can see colors our dreams can’t dream.
This unseen world calls to mind a story from the Upanishads.
A father turns to his son and says:
“Break open this seed.”
The boy does—and finds nothing inside.
The father explains:
“My child, from this nothingness comes the vast banyan tree.
You do not see the essence, but it is there. It is that which causes the tree to be.”
He then shares the great truth:
Tat Tvam Asi — You are That.
You are not just this body, this moment, this fleeting thought. You are the same unseen essence that holds galaxies in orbit, that brings color to a bee’s eye, and that animates life from the formless heart of a seed.
All stories and scriptures are filtered through thought and woven into our understanding.
Some of the stories from the East have gifted me a different kind of knowing.
A knowing that has begun to take shape in me. A knowing that I exist only because the ultimate Knower exists.
It’s ushering in a quiet shift.
One where the tides of life, sometimes high, sometimes low—feel insignificant next to the truth that, like the unseen salt dissolved in the ocean, I, too, am part of the infinite current of all things.
Some truths are too subtle to be touched by the senses.
The soul knows.
With love,
Anand