Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
A Philosophical Argument for Determining the Subject of Your Thoughts
Why Reality isn't Real and How to Change That
I have found myself in the midst of a dream, and so engrossed in the certainty thereof, that
even the seed of the concept of the existence of another world as real or more real finds no soil
within me to take root. And then to awaken and find, whether such awakening is
accompanied by disappointment or relief, that it was all just a dream!
Most all of us have had the carpet of reality pulled out from beneath our feet in this manner,
when the certainty of the reality of that dream that we had just occupied is replaced by a new
certainty - that the world to which we have just awakened is the real. In fleeing from the
disorientation that accompanies this transition, we deliberately convince ourselves that the
reality of that dream that our awareness had just been so absorbed in was not reality after all.
We tell ourselves that the reality that we have just left behind was but a dream, and therefore
a fantasy, and so somehow unreal - while we may have taken our experience within the dream
as real, we were mistaken. Having arrived at this determination and feeling thereby placated,
we then straighten our collars, clear our throats, and step forward fully persuaded that we are
now facing the real.
But this transition between realities ought instead to give us pause to contemplate: what is
real? We can consider a thing real, but can we consider "real" a thing? Reality is, first and
foremost, a concept, an idea. As such, the concept of reality is little more than a conjectural
hypothesis. To say a thing is real is an interpretation we make, a conclusion we come to, a
judgment rendered. These all describe actions that take place within ourselves. This simple
fact implies that "real" is less a thing in itself, and more a thing within us, at least to the degree
that any of us deal with that which we see as real.
Belief is an important aspect in making a thing real to us. To believe something means we
take it to be real. “All things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
"Being real" denotes a sense of substantiality, of something existing as being present, in stark
contrast to the emptiness of absence. The substantiality of a thing is a reflection of the belief
we have invested in it. In the absence of this investment, we cannot take that something
seriously because to us it lacks substance: it is then ephemeral, a wish, a fantasy. While we
cannot believe in a fantasy, (for we see a fantasy as a figment of the mind, and as such, lacking
in substance), we can believe in reality. But do we believe because it is real, or is it real
because we believe?
Insofar as reality appears to us as real, seems entirely dependent upon our capacity to
believe it to be real. In the absence of our believing something to be real it simply is not real
to us, it is not reality. As we possess the capacity to choose whether to believe or to disbelieve,
"real" is not a thing in itself, rather, it is a quality we deliberately impose upon our
experiences, regardless of the state of consciousness we find ourselves in during the
experiencing. That is, the reality each of us believes to be confronting us is a subjective
experience we are having. This means that anything we call real is a reflection of ourselves
moreso than it is a reflection of that which we would proclaim real.
We imbue reality upon that which we perceive by our consideration of those perceptions as
reflecting reality, and our belief that that consideration is correct. Whether in the world of
waking or the worlds of dream we find excuse to believe that what we are experiencing is real.
This tendency to call something “real” is our own selective projection of interpretation onto
the elements of our perceptions. We see as real what we have chosen to see as real. The birth
of reality takes place within us, within our imaginations. The active matrix that is our
imagination choreographs and imparts order to what we experience as reality from the chaotic
inputs that comprise our sensory perceptions. This being the case, in an intelligible sense, all
existing things of which we are aware are imaginary, for it is in our imaginations that we
experience our reality. Through our imaginations, we experience what we take to be reality in
the theatres of our minds, and then we interpret that vision of reality as something that exists
outside of ourselves. But is that interpretation correct? To presume reality upon the thing
existing outside of the one who is considering it real is simply that, presumptuous, for it is unarguable that no thing can be said to be real in the absence of an awareness of that thing. Therefore, to conclude that there is a reality that exists outside of ourselves, that is as real as or more real than ourselves, is to be blind to our own magical natures. If such a reality exists, how can we validate its existence outside of our own consideration of it? Moreover, if we cannot, where is its objectivity? We must conclude that that objectivity exists only within our subjective
perceptions of it; and this being the case, there is no objectivity. Thus, while most of us seem
inclined to take the world of appearances that our senses present to us to be the real world, we
ought instead to strive to come to terms with the reality that is ourselves.
"Ourselves" are creatures of imagination. Our "reality" is imagined. By imaginary and
imagined, I do not mean to imply "illusory." By means of illustration, you are imagining the
words on this page as you read them, yet you would not equate those words or this page with
being illusory. In this context, "the imagination" is the part of your awareness that constructs
the reality we perceive and imposes meaning upon that construction. A sound enters our ears
and we hear it, yet we do not hear the sound with our ears but through them. Similarly light
enters our eyes and we see it, yet we do not see with our eyes, but apparently through them.
We can say the same for any of the sensory impressions that we experience. The experience of
those impressions occurs within our imaginations, in the theatre of our minds, and not within
our sensory organs. In a dream, do the sounds you hear or the things you see depend upon
what impinges upon your ears or eyes? No! These things are products of your imagination,
and it is this same imagination that grants life to the world of your waking experience.
Our imaginations construct and give form to that which we come to consider as reality. Our minds reconstruct our energetic perceptions into the form of sensory experiences in which terms we relate to those energetic perceptions. Our experience of that reality occurs within us. What is "out there" is an interpretation being given birth to "in here." While that reality may seem to extend outside and beyond ourselves, to come to such a conclusion as to its nature represents a misperception in perspective; for
that reality exists for us only in our experience of it, and that experience occurs within our
imaginations, that is, within us. Though we may presume that we are experiencing something
"out there," the experiencing is occurring "in here." Any conclusions we come to as to a reality
existing beyond ourselves is nothing more than an interpretation we are making of what we
find within ourselves.
The workings of our imagination foist upon our perceptions the patterns and templates from
which we construct that which becomes our experience of those perceptions. Both our
apprehension of those perceptions and the perceptions themselves are colored by the
interpretative biases under which our awareness operates: our likes, our dislikes, our
predispositions and our prejudices, the view of the world that we were taught to hold to and
the habitual patterns under which we operate. These perceptual biases function as filters that
not only determine what we see and how we see it, but also what we do not see. It is because of
the fact that our perceptions are so filtered, that what we see in looking at something depends
not so much on what is there, as it does upon the assumptions and expectations we bring with
us in looking at it.
What we see depends very much upon what we are looking to see. What we take to be reality
is a subjective experience built upon the workings of our perceptual systems, a projection of
our interpretation systems onto the experience of our perceptions. Our seeing something as
reality is nothing more than our making a subjective interpretation. Let us look to the
example of the words upon this screen. If I were to ask you something like, "Where precisely
do you see those words?", you would answer me something along the lines of "I see them on
the screen of a computer monitor sitting about half of a meter in front of my eyes." What you
would be telling me with such an answer would be your interpretation of your experience, but
the simple truth is that the experience of your seeing those words and that monitor is
happening within the theatre of your own mind. Your experience of what you see as "out
there" is happening "in here."
That you see those things as "something out there" is an interpretation you are making based
upon what you are seeing right now in your own mind. Though you interpret it as being
without, its truth is that it is occurring within. What you see as the world around you is, in
fact, a projection of your interpretation system, and as such, your own reflection. As
Descartes says, "I think, therefore I am."
Our existence as a creature of awareness is all we can presume to know as real, for despite the
apparent reality that we project upon our experiences as creatures of awareness, the truth is
that in the absence of an awareness of reality, nothing can be said to be real. We are forced to
conclude that the seeming substance of what we see as an outside reality is a matter of
conjecture, for our experience of it as reality is simply a product of the interpretative processes
of our awareness. Our experience of reality begins and ends in our own awareness of that experience. All phenomena of which we are aware take place and find meaning within our own minds, and that includes the experience that we take to be ourselves.
Buddhism teaches us, and the modern cognitive scientist would agree, that all of our
experiences, whether dreamed or waking, are by nature subjective. This conclusion is a hard
one with which to make an argument. A thing experienced is no guarantee of the thing in
question. A desert mirage may offer the promise of a drink to be had and yet the truth of that
promise is only sand. But mirages aside, the descriptive systems (filters) we rely upon to
make interpretation of the worlds of our perception are subjective in nature. That is, our
experiences seem to us subjectively real. The waking world and the world(s) of dream seem to
us as real as real can be from our subjective points of view.
That our experiences are only subjectively real means that, for most of us, perception has become a simple reflexive action that occurs without true mindfulness. What is meant by that is, for the most part, the attention we give to our perceptions is unaccompanied by an awareness of having utilized subjective filters through which those perceptions are apprehended. When our experience of "reality" is unaccompanied by the awareness of having utilized these subjective filters in that reality's apprehension, we grant to our experience the appearance of an existence apart from our consideration of it; that is, we assume that what we experience to be "out there" is something that exists in and of itself regardless of our consideration of it. The result is that
we take the experience of our perceptions to be "substantially real". This means that when we
are unaware of the basis under which we apprehend that which comes to be our experience,
our interpretations of those experiences come with the presumption that they are reflections
of an outside real world and not reflections of our own imaginations. In other words, when we
do not know that we are dreaming, we assume that we are confronted by reality. This same
line of reasoning applies to the consideration of our waking state, in which our imaginations
are "dreaming" the reality that confronts us within the theatres of our minds, and then
interprets that play which becomes our "real world" as something existing outside of
ourselves. It is inconceivable that we could be aware of any thing outside of our own
awareness of that thing. Let me repeat that. It is inconceivable that we could be aware of any
thing outside of our own awareness of that thing. No thing has existence for man except
through the awareness he has of it. Therefore, all existing things can only be said with
certainty to exist within your awareness of them. The real world you believe to be
surrounding you is imagined, and in that imagination, you are seeing the projection of your
own reflection. Therefore, if you want to see something else, be something else!
Tim James
