What is Reality? Existential Vs Perceived. Equating them is Bliss.The purpose of the Homo Sapien.
Wikipedia defines reality as: “Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, reality is the totality of a system, known and unknown.”
In a nutshell, one can say reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be..
But many of us wonder where the problem lies…isn’t it enough that things are as they are?
No, because we are sometimes deceived by our own perception if it is based on false beliefs.
We need to tell the difference between solid surface and marsh that only looks so. We need to know whether something is a bear or only a child with a bearskin rug over its head. We human beings are the only creatures bestowed with the power to understand and decipher the reality.
The problem ‘what is reality?’ arises from an awareness of ourselves as living in a world and responding to the objects and stimuli around us.
Another philosophical question arises whether reality is mental or is it physical? Well, we can confirm our reality with other people, we know that everything is not just in our minds. People who are blind or deaf still have similar realities to people who can see and hear.
Popular Thoughts- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave describes a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from things passing in front of a fire behind them, and they begin to give names to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, for he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
Interpreting it according to the contemporary world, the shadows are false beliefs given to us by society and culture. Those who are freed from prison or false beliefs become resolved individuals. As more and more individuals become resolved by questioning what they believe and believing only in what they know, they can help the rest of mankind awaken to the existential reality.
Red Pill or Blue Pill?
As said above, we are estranged from the dimension of Reality because of the false ideas and incomplete knowledge prevalent in society and culture.
There’s perceived reality and it is what one makes it” and then there’s existential reality “the reality that is not of one’s making.”
Blue Pill or Red Pill — The Matrix (2/9) Movie CLIP (1999) HD Video
Taking a blue pill will have one remain in his beliefs, in his ignorance comfortably without working to validate the same. This happens when an individual has a hard time unlearning and he resorts to amending, tweaking and modifying the false beliefs to suit his convenience.
Taking the red pill means challenging many of the firmly held false beliefs about thand e world unlearning can be uncomfortable.
The red pill represents living with validated beliefs and humane behaviour, which allows us to align our perception with the actual reality of existence. On the other hand, the blue pill represents conforming to prevalent beliefs and continuing to do inhumane behavior out of ignorance.
As described by Morpheus: “You take the blue pill…the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo chooses the red pill and joins the rebellion.
Where Perception and Reality Meet- The Philosophy
Philosophical Realism is the belief that some aspects of reality are ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, perceptions, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc.
People ask, “to what degree is our understanding of reality shaped by our consciousness?”
To understand this, we need to understand what the human creature is. Every human being is the union of a material physical body and the transcendental conscious soul.
The soul is the atom of life and the human brain, due to its fully developed frontal cortex, is able to fully communicate with the soul. The soul is blessed with the power of imagination. Once the soul adopts the human body, it uses this power to create a perception and interact with the phenomenal world. The only limitation of that imagination is that it can only go as far as the knowledge in the culture or society is given to human beings via books, movies, folklore or any other media.
This power of creating a perception allows the human being to create a perceived reality. Once this perceived reality is expanded to align with the actual reality of existence which is always fixed, we call it enlightenment.
This is because reality is beyond the limit of the imagination that human beings can think of. Reality is always there and is fixed and bound by existence. It is the coexistence of energy and matter. The movement in the matter validates the presence of energy.
To sum up, Reality is what is there in existence, it was there before human beings existed. Human beings are bestowed with the power to understand the existential reality as it is.
Popular Belief: Reality is all in the mind.
Supported by:
Existential Reality Check: Reality appears to exist in the mind because human beings use the mind to create a perception. Without this conscious perception, it is not possible to connect with the external phenomenal reality. It is an error to think that reality exists alone in the mind in the absence of an objective world.
The perception can be used by human beings to connect themselves with the actual reality that is ever present in this existence. The study of this existential reality is available in a series of books that are available free of cost.
I am in the process of translating this latest finding about the actual nature of reality in philosophy of coexistence discovered and propounded by Shri AA Nagrajji. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and having a call if you have questions, ideas, suggestions on the reality of nature and human life.
