As a butterfly I was happy .....
What is Seen May Not Be Reality
By Jaime Licauco | news.inq7.net
Article received from: Light Eye
There are two ways of looking at things.
One way is to look at things purely from our external senses, i.e. what we can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. This is the way of western orthodox physical sciences.
Another way is to see things from our minds eye, or from our inner sight or from a soul level. This is the way of the mystic, the psychic and the clairvoyant.
Reality therefore can be looked at from an ordinary standpoint and from a clairvoyant standpoint, terms used by neuroscientist Dr. Lawrence Le Shan in his books, A Separate Reality and the The Medium, The Mystic and the Physicist.
Looking at things from a purely sensory and external point of view has worked well for humankind. The scientific method has given us much progress and a certain degree of control over nature. Yet theres the nagging question that there are more to things than what we can see with our limited five senses.
Entering the world of clairvoyant reality is like Alice entering Wonderland. Everything is not what it seems to be. And who is to tell what is correct and what is not?
Only in part
Unfortunately, we cannot really be certain of things, can we? We always see things only in part and rarely wholly. And to make a final judgment or conclusion based on inadequate perception is bound to lead to error.
This realization or line of thinking reminds me of two quotations. One is from the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who said, There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what is not so, and the other is to refuse to believe what is so.
The second quotation comes from the Chinese Taoist philosopher Chuang Tse or Chuangchu. He said, One night I dreamt I was a butterfly. As a butterfly I was happy flying from flower to flower. I was sure I was a butterfly. But when I woke up, I realized that I was not a butterfly but Chuang Tse, the philosopher, dreaming he was a butterfly. But wait, I began to think, What if I were really a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tse?
What is reality? Is there such a thing as objective reality? Buddhists say theres no such thing, that everything is really maya or illusion.
We can never really know the true nature of reality. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said the same thing. We can only know what is in our mind, the phenomena, but never what is outside of it, the noumena.
And Plato, much earlier in the history of philosophy, said something similar. We can never have perfect knowledge of things outside our minds. We can only have imperfect pictures of them. Objective reality is unknowable, according to him. What we see are only shadows of reality, not reality itself.
And so forth and so on, ad nauseam.
No end
I have no intention of adding to the debate. There can never be any end to it. The only thing I want to point out is there is another way of looking at things around us that will add greater meaning to our lives.
For example, understanding the hidden laws of nature enables us to see why things happen the way they do. Knowing about the akashic record makes us realize that everything we experience gets recorded in time and space and can eventually be accessed by someone with clairvoyant vision.
Perhaps this is what Christ meant when he said what is hidden will be revealed. There are no secrets in the universe. To one with clairvoyant vision, everything is crystal clear, even our thoughts and deepest secrets.
It is gratifying to note that more and more scientists are beginning to appreciate the hidden dimensions or levels in physical reality and the role that consciousness plays in our perception of that reality.
Quantum physicists, for example, have discovered that our thoughts really affect matter. This becomes very clear and demonstrable on the quantum level, that is, on the sub-atomic levels of matter.
At that level, the classical laws of Newtonian physics no longer apply. What apply are the laws of consciousness or human thoughts. The Buddhists are right when they tell us this world is largely our own mental creation. What is out there is maya or illusion.
Note: I will be in Cagayan de Oro City July 22-23 to conduct my two-day seminar on Inner Mind Development. Call 0917-7120253.
Article from: http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/
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