What is real ?
What is reality ?
Why do you think that is so ?
How do you suppose it all came about ?
What I believe that most folks claim is real, is that which they can sense with their 5 objective senses, the touch, taste, smell, hear and see, of the outer material realm of their physically manifested experience.
For those objective oriented “rationalists”, that is the only logical answer to the question of relative importance in regards to reality, everything else is lesser, and if of the mind, subjective and seldom to be trusted where anything of importance is concerned.
They then tend to think that the mind is but some thinking activity generated in their brain and that intuition, imagination, the conscience and dreams, are then all “manufactured” by brain electro-chemical activity.
Most of our world society, especially in the “west”, seems to think like that, with of course some exceptions such as the more “spiritual” amongst us.
Where does that leave the “religionists” one might ask then ? I would suggest that the bulk of them are objective in their primary consideration and that their religion is very secondary to that. Thus that which matters religiously most to them is what might take place in the hereafter and what they call their “faith” suffices to insure them of the best outcome. Few of them believe enough though to “test” that faith by putting their very life on the line for it. (excluding of course the Japanese Kamikazes and the Muslim Martyrs).
Science then becomes the most impressive discipline for the objective rationalist, even for those religious, even though some might claim otherwise.
Under science then is the very beginning of human life seen as evolutionary and argued against by many religionists who believe in a God “created” beginning. I sometimes wonder why it even matters to folks how we began … if one seeks a particular beginning to believe in so as to validate all other subsequent experience, then it stands to reason that they will support one or another view of our beginnings, especially, as in the case of the religionists, if they think it determines the outcome of their ending.
Of course these are really just “generalizations” and the truth of the matter is that people range widely in their belief systems, and even that thinking being subjective to at least momentary changes when special conditions are experienced.
Personally, I was more into the scientific mode of thinking for most of my life and being then what is called an agnostic in regards to religion (spirituality was just a part of religion to my mind then). Via such thinking then, the ego self was #1 when the chips were down, survival and the well being of that self were primary. But being a “family man” with wife and children, it was suspected deep down inside that there may well become a time when “they” became “primary” …
Eventually in my life though, I became depressed about the world condition and the lack of truth being expressed in it, especially by most of the folks that held supposedly important posts of leadership and authority. I eventually decided that if that was as good as the world had to offer, then I wanted no more part of it. I even became somewhat suicidal about it all. I had no concerns about an afterlife and little desire for more of the present life, yet I held onto some small amount of hope for a number of years.
Then I began to think about things that I had never considered before, things such as the subjective aspects of thought and the mind and if there could possibly be a relationship that I could buy into related to a spiritual realm outside of religion. The more I looked, the more I found !
I now believe that the Spiritual Realm, whatever that amounts to, is the a priori, the very essence of the source of all of that experienced a posteriori here in the physical realm we commonly experience. That everything is interconnected with spiritual intelligence and that the “higher” reality, if I had to choose one, would be that of the Spiritual, and I now fully expect to give up this life just for that when the time comes, no fear involved.
Thus as religions have said, reality is what we make it to be. We are made in the “image of” GOD (whatever that is) and are thus mini-creators in our own right … and co-creators with the society we associate with, cumulatively, as we think, so it is or will be.
I now know that what we call “facts” and the “truth” are but relatively so as concoctions we as humans have “made-up” as we went, in order to have something in common to “agree” upon for the sake of relatedness in our communications.
Such things as the measurements of time and space are but things that we have decided long ago as a basis of our understanding and are in the greater picture of GOD’s eternity no more real or valid than anything else. They are all “arbitrary” when you get right down to it, as is what “we think” of our reality.
IMnsHO. (In My not so Humble Opinion)
I would hope that the above might inspire some “deeper” thinking and related comments by others … have at it.
(reprinted from: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977757072 )
No comments:
Post a Comment