Recently I have started to dive into the teachings and philosophies of Buddhism (“Well, it looks like he’s going off the deep end after all”… just stay with me here). And a very interesting concept that I have been contemplating with this is that I am reality. Similar to the idea that I do not exist, this concept is that each and every one of us creates, and therefore are, our own realities.
In my opinion, the concept is interesting enough on its own, but then I took it one step further. Mashing this idea with my opinions on the subjective and objective world, which I later found out is defined as the critical realist approach, I wanted to see how these concepts could fit together. Whether they clashed or if they could work together as one finished puzzle.
So, as most people do who waste their time thinking about this stuff, I went on a walk and thought. And below is what I came up with:
We have the objective world full of wavelengths, mass, different forces, and energy (I’m sure there are some others that a physicist could list off but that’s all I got for now). These parts of our universe are very set in stone. They can be understood as the factors that determine the laws of our universe. And to my understanding, these are the only real things that exist within this universe. Now I would like for you to take a second to download what this means. This statement implies that there are no colors, no shapes, no noises, no thoughts, and no you or I.
Your reaction to that statement probably went something like this, “Um… yeah. Is he high?”. And at first glance, I certainly don’t blame you. Even for myself, this belief feels a bit paradoxical and impossible. Yet, I reassure you, there is a steady logic that arrives at this conclusion.
To begin this argument, I would like to point out the nonexistence of color. A wavelength of 700nm is very real, but it creating the color red is just due to the cones in our eyes being wired the way they are. For instance, when we lack the red receiving cone, as many color-blind people do, we cannot see red when a wavelength of 700nm is in our line of sight. Rather than transmitting the commonly seen color red, our eyes fail us and output nothing for us to recognize.
This breaking down can be done with anything outside of the objective universe we live within. “Shapes” are only formed when the nerves in your somatic sensory system have registered contact. “Sound” is only created once your own eardrums start rattling and then you associate each noise with its origin. And thoughts are only the passive flow of consciousness as the rationalized portion of the brain makes the real decisions (this idea is written about in a creative writing piece of mine called, “The weight of thoughts”).
This reconstruction, or rather destruction, of our primary senses and forms of identity leaves us with an unnerving truth: If everything that makes us us is not in this universe, but instead in our own universe, then we ourselves are only within our own.
Now you may be thinking something like this, “But it’s real! You just don’t notice, but of course these things are still happening”. To answer this concern, I encourage you to think a little deeper. If there is nothing to transfer wavelengths into something that can be defined as a color, does the color actually exist at that moment in reality? Is sandpaper rough when there is nothing rubbing against it? And if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer is no. Without an interpreter, the things defined by that interpreter will not exist.
Our humans are very real. The mass of atoms that make up our body, the gravity that pulls on this mass, the interatomic forces that repel or combine with other atoms, and the wavelengths that are constantly going through us are all very existent in the universe. But as for our perceptions, projections, and thoughts? Well, these are entirely built within our subjective, or personal, universe. And it is this universe that we call reality.
So, a possible question you may have is how can something objectively exist in this universe if it is not in reality? And my answer, reiterating from a new angle, is because there is no reality. “Reality” is just you. You are reality. It’s not around you. It’s not being perceived by you. It is simply you.
You are your reality, and I am mine. So, in other words, we are all our own gods of our little unique universes. And it is these little universes that I call subjective reality. This subjective reality is entirely created by yourself and is the only form of experience you have even had.
Continuing to play with this idea, you may notice that by being your own god would imply that you have complete control of reality. And so, if this were true then you should be able to experience anything you would like. Therefore, since we can’t, Jake is full of shit and this post is dumb.
Okay, this is a bit complicated, and I will probably not do the answer justice, but I suggest, if you haven’t already, to read my previous post Do we have free will? In that post I make the claim that we are ruled by ourselves, rather than us ruling ourselves. Therefore, unless we broke from our egos, our self-narratives, we will be trapped to perceive the world that our human makes for us. And how do you change that fact? Well, have you heard of enlightenment?
Another question you may have is why would our realities be so similar if they are in fact completely subjective? Well, although they are all subjective and personal, these unique realities are based on the same objective reality. And this may be a stretch, but don’t forget that human DNA is 99.9% similar to one another. Therefore, as different as you and I are, even being completely unrelated, we are still 99.9% the same generically. So as you can imagine, the realities our humans make are bound to be almost identical.
A final question that needs to be mentioned is how things can surprise us. If you determine your reality, then how are you ever surprised or experience something new that you did not expect? To answer this final question, I will put it bluntly: You still experience new and unexpected things because the you that you are thinking of right now is only a conscious illusion. The real you, the brain with its input and output, is registering everything it creates as you are consciously playing catch up.
In summary, you are reality. You are your reality. And I am mine. Our realities are external from the objective world and act as an illusion as we interpret and perceive the universe. Shifting and bending objective parts of this world, we make them fit in reality and understanding. Finally, it’s only once the ego has been erased that we can take control of what is already ours.
** Now that I have made my case, I would like to mention that I believe this may be false. By the time I finished this post, my views have gone even deeper into these Buddhist philosophies. Regardless, I encourage you to still consider this post to be a temporary truth, for it is needed as a stepping stone to continue closer to a possibly true interpretation of life. The more accurate post is hyperlinked here**