In like manner, we know our whole existence. We know fire is hot. We know dogs bark. We also know that the stars are hot, and the North Pole is cold. We have no direct knowledge of this as we have in the case of wet water and hot fire. We don't even know if it is true or not. We trust someone else when they tell us it is so.
The mind doesn't care whether something is true or not, or from whence it gets its information. It is mindless and cares nothing about the source of any knowledge. The mind can accept the reality that we are worthless as readily as it can accept the reality that water is wet. To the mind, all is reality, since the mind cannot differentiate between reality and the substitutions for reality.
When we name something we effectively shut ourselves off from the reality of what we have named. We learn the name for every object, feeling and event with which we come into contact at a very early age. We ask. "what is that?", and when we are told, we believe that that is what it IS. We confuse the reality of the thing with the name for it. We cannot drink a glass of water. We can only drink the reality that we have named "water". "Water" is a sound- a word. One can not drink "water'. We can only drink what "water" symbolizes, which remains unnamed.
Names of things are symbols standing in place of that "thing". Names can only approximate the meaning, point the way, so to speak. Truth is what IS. Since names are not what IS, they are not "truth". Words, whether spoken or written, are symbols for what the person MEANS. They are never the meaning itself. A statue of the Virgin Mary is understood to stand FOR her, and not to BE her.
Our mind is like a chest of drawers. Someone uses a word, we find the drawer for that word, open it up, look inside to see what is there, shut the drawer and know all about the subject. We believe that what is in the drawer is real, and our subsequent actions will be to that effect.
For instance, when we say, "book", this brings to our minds a picture of that "book", and each of us will have a different picture. Each of us has a different picture of "war", "marriage", "friend", and "environmental protection".
This "book" could also be called "black marks on crushed, mashed and chemically treated wood", bringing to mind an entirely different picture. Which is the reality? Book? Or black marks on wood? How do we name reality?
This world in which we live, the "real" world of pain, danger, cats, dogs and money, has its source in our thoughts. We call it the real world, but it is no more real than a movie is real. We don't see the real world, we see what we have substituted for it. This substitution interferes with our ability to see reality. The only way we can see reality is to rid ourselves of what we have put in place of it, and before we can rid ourselves of what we have placed in front of reality, we must see it- the substitution, the illusion, for what it is. We must see the reality of the illusion. The physical world is the substitution for reality, it is the illusion, so let's find out what we know of the physical world. For instance, how do we see?
Supposedly, lightwaves reflect off an object, enter the eye through the pupil and hit the rods and cones which form a portion of the retina- the rear of the eye. These rods and cones then vibrate at the same frequency as the lightwaves, creating a minute electrical signal which is passed to the next nerve cell in line. This signal causes the nerve cell to go through an electro-chemical reaction which produces another electrical signal which is picked up by the next cell, and it then goes through an electro-chemical reaction, producing yet another signal, which causes another cell to react, and so forth up the optic nerve until a signal, not the original, reaches the visual cortex, and we "see".
Balderdash!
That doesn't explain how we see. It doesn't explain anything! It doesn't even mean anything. All explanations of our existence are like that. They don't explain anything. They are just explanations, nothing more. To say that "gravity bends light", for instance, doesn't mean that that is what it DOES. Gravity is a concept for a phenomenon, as is light. No one knows what gravity is, or light, so how can anything be explained by putting these two words together in a sentence? We don't know any more than before we "explained" it.
Light bulbs light, plants grow, water runs downhill and no one can explain how or why. No one can explain any phenomenon, whether it's in science, religion, economics, politics, art or psychology. All explanations are just so much temporary structuring that cannot withstand the next generation's probing.
Numbers were not discovered. They were not "out there" waiting for someone to find them. They were invented- made up. They are not real. They exist only in the imagination. The game of Monopoly was not discovered. It was not "out there" waiting for someone to find it. It was invented- made up.
Mathematics is the result of an agreement among mathematicians, and Monopoly is an agreement among Monopoly players. There is no mathematics, there is no Monopoly outside of the made up ones.
Mathematics, quantum physics, medicine, music, art, literature, chemistry, sociology, psychology- all made up games for humans to play with. They look real because we can see their results. We can also see the results of playing Monopoly, but we keep in mind that the money and the hotels are not real.
We believe history "happened", but what we call history is an arbitrary choice of events picked to represent history, as a beauty contest winner is a purely arbitrary choice picked to represent beauty. History is an indication of the interests of a culture and nothing more.
"America" is a hazy grouping of people, laws, geographical area, history, ideals and politics. There is no one thing that can be called "America". There is no one thing that can be called American. Or man. Or woman. Or human. All of these are figments of our collective imagination.
The whole physical world is an illusion. It exists only in our minds - just like our dreams at night do. The tree that is outside is not really there, just like the one in our dream isn't really there. This is the nut that is so hard to crack. Not many people can get past this. This illusion is created by our beliefs and emotions in conjunction with our senses. If you think about it, the tree that you "see" is an electro-chemical reaction taking place. You are not "seeing" a tree, you are interpreting a signal. Imagine that you are in a solid steel container with no windows. The only information you can get about "out there" is from sensors on the skin of the container, which send electrical signals to dials, lights and horns which you interpret according to what you believe they are reporting. This is our condition.
How is it that we come to believe that all these things really exist as solid substances when all we have to do to see their vacuity is to look? When we were small children we learned about the world from those around us. No one told us that these "others" learned about the world in the very same way. We got into the habit of believing that others knew things that we didn't.
Children declare something to be true because "my Daddy says so". When they start school, the phrase becomes, "Teacher says" We know things because "teacher says". As we mature this phrase becomes "they say", or "scientists claim". We spend a very large portion of our waking lives filling up the cup of our minds with information from schools, the streets, TV, newspapers. and God knows where else. We really believe that if we read it or hear it, that it must be true.
Believing in the world that we are told exists prevents us from living in the world in ways that could be called magical or miraculous, but are really quite normal. There is never any real cause for us to ever feel anger, or fear, or loneliness. Whenever we feel one of these emotions it is because we are misunderstanding something. No one can tell us what we are misunderstanding, but if we become skeptical of all that we know and re-learn with knowledge that comes from US- from our experiences, we will fill ourselves with real knowledge- true knowledge- wisdom. Then we will know what we are misunderstanding, and there will be no more misunderstanding.
A person who jumps from an airplane has a knowledge of jumping from airplanes that a lifetime of study cannot approach. This type of knowledge, this wisdom- is solid. It doesn't change with the times or the opinions of authorities or peers. It cannot be taught, and it cannot be "learned". The experience and the knowledge goes together. This type of knowledge, this wisdom, is knowledge about life, about what IS.
The other knowledge, worldly knowledge- the kind we get from books and schools is always about something we didn't know before. This is because what we are really learning when we study Math, or Biology or Languages are RULES OF A GAME.
Next Month, Part 5 "Real" Reality!