What is reality? You think what you live in is real?

Answer 1

I have spent a long time looking into this question. Can I suggest that you get hold of a copy of In Search of the Miraculous by P D Ouspensky. He was a pupil of G I Gurdjieff and a teacher in the Fourth Way tradition. It is best to start with this book because it introduces the basic principles behind the Fourth Way teaching, to start just anywhere might not make a lot of sense.. All I will say
is that it is a teaching that will show you how to see reality/truth if that is what you wish, but be careful what you wish for!

It is like the Buddhist teaching that we live in a world of illusion -samsara, this means that we are all 'asleep' and attached to and identified with our thoughts and feelings as if they were real Meditation is one way of calming the mind and 'seeing reality'.

'The fundamental delusion of reality is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.
Yasutani

The nature of the mind of beings is like a pearl that falls into the water. The water is muddy so the pearl becomes hidden. When the water is pure, the pearl is revealed.
The Nirvana Sutra

What we call "world" is only an opinion. Take away your opinions, then what? What is left? That's the point. Take away your opinion -your condition, situation- then your mind is clear like space. Clear like space means clear like a mirror. A mirror reflects everything: the sky is blue, tree is green, sugar is sweet. Just be one with truth-that's Zen style. If your mind is clear like space, then you see clearly, hear clearly, smell clearly- everything is clear. That is dharma. That is truth.
Seung Sahn

Answer 2

Reality is defined differently in philosophy. While some people claim that reality is ''outside'' others believe that reality is created when ''your mind'' conceives it. As a person with a BA in Philosophy I can assure you that there can be no proof at all to prove that ''reality as we perceive it'', is existing outside of our minds, i mean, there is no single proof to eliminate the possibility that we are in something like Matrix ---but also -and more importantly- if you perceive things, if you ''feel'' your existence, love, hate, hunger etc. noone can tell you that it isn't real either. I mean, how can you define my personal experiences as unreal EVEN IF I am in Matrix. Therefore the most consistent thought about reality is that one must be sceptic about everything it sees since perceptions can deceive you but also one can be sure that everything you ''experience'' must be real since you cannot say ''non-existent'' for something you somehow perceived. Sounds paradoxal but if you think about it for some time, it gets clear as a mathematical formula, I think :))

Answer 3

We build our reality based on the interaction between our "self" and the feedback we receive from the outside world. We all have different internal filtering systems (due to genetics and early development) which process this information and then creates a new reality which becomes the new self in the ongoing dialogue which transforms our reality. It is as real as our dreams...

Answer 4

I live in a 'Truman Show' kinda TV reality. I've sussed you all out and now I want out to live my life as normal. Please let me out but I have a few thing to say about my existance.
1. Why didn't you just tell me the Island I live on was the whole universe? From a child's age I wouldn't of known any different, you didn't even need to tell me the other places in the world, planes and boats even existed!
2. You employed a hottie to be my Mrs, why not hire somebody believable? This was an obvious giveaway
3. What really happened to my father in that sea storm? And can he be brought back like Harold Bishop in neighbours?

Answer 5

Jesus said (to him), “I am the way, the truth (or reality), and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6 NKJV).

Since meeting Him personally I know He's real, He's proved it enough times in my life. My Damascus Road episode happened while I was a Marxist who used to give Christians a hard time. God appeared to me one night in my London squat, with no one else around, and I never got back to the annual party conference I'd been attending that week.

Answer 6

This reality we perceive is just a illusion all we are is electromagnetism a vibration what we perceive here on this slow dense plane is only scratching the surface of what we really are. There are other reality's which are lighter and vibrate many times faster where there is no time or space.

Answer 7

My house isn't real. I thought it was, then I went to lean against the wall the other day and feel straight out onto the pavement. I have since gone round everything that I thought was real and given it a little prod. My pet octopus, Crystal, thankfully is real. Her cage on the other hand isn't, but she hasn't realised yet so stays put. My fridge isn't and neither is my telly, which may well explain Channel 5. Hope that helps

Answer 8

The definition of reality has some highly demanding conditions to meet. It must include
that which can be perceived,
that which can be communicated and to make sense of this we we must understand surrounding concepts. Therefore, we first consider what existence is.Existence must be made up of substance and configurations. One cannot exist without the other.

Answer 9

We can only assume that what we live in is real. As far as I know everything I hear, see, touch, taste and smell could just be something dreamed up by my own brain. Maybe you don't even exist and I just imagined you. Hence why am I talking to someone who doesn't exist in the first place?

Answer 10

Nope, when I look in the mirror I wonder if that is reality and I am the reflection but then I remember who cares and maybe they would care in the mirror and then my head explodes and then I need a little sit down