Beyond Phenomena
“What we call reality in actuality is our perception of it.” ~ American singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher
We naturally tend to take for granted that what we perceive is reality. Belief in our senses is instead a fantastic cage we build for ourselves, and so bound our comprehension. To get out of the cage requires the key to the nature of reality.
“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” ~ Greek philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis
The Nature of Reality
“I think, therefore I am.” ~ René Descartes
Though we know thought to be abstract, matterist science insists that the brain conjures the mind. At issue here is the heart of all philosophical thought and scientific endeavor: the nature of Nature and, by extension, the essence of reality.
3 possibilities exist: dualism, matterism, and energyism. Our everyday experience is dualism, with a distinct body and mind encountering an outside world.
“The world is seen only due to duality. If there is no duality, there is no world.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
If, instead, reality is a unity, the proximate illusion of duality flows from a singular source. The wellspring of existence may either be from matter (matterism) or otherwise involve a unified field of Ĉonsciousness (energyism) which creates a mirage of materiality.
Matterism and energyism are diametric concepts. If Nature emanates from a unicity, it must exclusively be either material or ethereal.
“Reality is not only stranger than we can conceive, but stranger than we can conceive.” ~ British scientist J.B.S. Haldane
