Few years ago in Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls. Why? Because it is cruel and gazing out of the bowl, the fish would have a distorted view of reality, the city council argued. Distorted view of reality?
This is where it starts. A view of a fish is curved (fisheye effect) and how come the fish’s view is distorted? By looking through another curved glass? How do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality? Is there a possibility of an existence of another reality? Curious already? Don’t worry. I will be clarifying how our mind is powerful enough to create different realities that varies from person to person and how it is possible.
Obviously, the goldfish view is unlikely from the human vision. But still it is reality. Ages ago philosophers such as Ptolemy discovered that our earth is the center of the universe. That the rest of stars and planets rotates around earth in epicycle paths, like wheels over wheels. Weird isn’t it? Centuries after this discovery, a scientist named Nicholas Copernicus found this theory wrong.
He stated that Earth is not the center of the universe and that earth and other planets were involved in rotating around the sun, and such systems existed in billions throughout the universe. So his theory was considered as the truth and Ptolemaic theory was partially rejected, eventually. Since different theories occurred for the last 20 centuries, some successfully labelled as the truth and some disapproved the other, how are we supposed to know which one is the truth?
He stated that Earth is not the center of the universe and that earth and other planets were involved in rotating around the sun, and such systems existed in billions throughout the universe. So his theory was considered as the truth and Ptolemaic theory was partially rejected, eventually. Since different theories occurred for the last 20 centuries, some successfully labelled as the truth and some disapproved the other, how are we supposed to know which one is the truth?
Ptolemy and Copernicus saw the world differently. Which comes to a conclusion that they had different forms of reality about the world. Since the Copernicus theory is considered the most accurate one, why cannot we argue that the earth is still the center of the universe? The exact opposite of the theory. Why do we consider that the earth is rotating around the sun? It is because of relativity. We compare things. That’s how our mind work. We postulate that the sun is still and other celestial objects rotates around it.
What if we think that the earth is motionless and everything in our solar system is revolving around us? Could it be possible? This is how relativity works. Confusing right? Although in Buddhist texts, it is mentioned that the place where Siddhartha was enlightened, is the center of the universe. Isn’t there a slight possibility that this place where the awakened one, the one who acquired the universal knowledge, is the center of universe? That this place is the concentration of the universal understanding? I guess you have been a bit confused. Why? Think for a minute. We sometimes use our empirical knowledge as well as our theoretical knowledge to solve something that we don’t understand. But our knowledge is different from each other.
Let’s get to our body. Our main five sensors generates signals from the input of our surrounding and sends it to our big brain. Thereafter our brain processes the data and gives us an output of the reality we see. Too deep? Think of something like this. A person’s vision is generated of the intake of the light that goes through our pupil and then the optic nerve and then to the brain.
In the retina, an optic nerve is attached which consists of a blind spot. If our vision is clear as a 500 megapixel camera (approximately the normal eyesight of a human), it clearly means that the light of our vision has entered a very narrow area of about 1 degree of visual angle. This is the area that contains with visual cells that gives a good resolution. But when the light hits the blind spot, nothing happens but leaves badly pixilated picture with a hole in it. But our brain is so immensely powerful, it process the data, combines the input of both eyes, and fills the holes assuming the graphical properties based on the surrounding.
Furthermore, our big brain collects the data from a 2D aspect and converts it to a 3D movie. Just like watching a 3D movie from the 3D glasses. If you still don’t understand, this the simplest way of clarifying. ”Our mind builds a mental picture”. Why does some people cannot see specific colors and the others can? Because of the lack of color sensitive cells in our eye. Then, are we not seeing the true reality because we lack something in our brain? Isn’t our brain not working properly? To be clear that an average human’s brain only works 10%. What happened to the 90%? Are we missing something?
I guess most of you have watched the sci-fi movie, The Matrix. In a digital reality created by crazy machines which all the humans are attached to its digital network, everyone seems to believe that they all are in the usual sense of reality. BUT THEY ARE NOT! Likewise, our perception of reality is just a simulation of our minds. Otherwise if we see things the same, we all will be running towards the same skirt
Take an empty book. The pages are obviously blank. But the book has the potential of varies ways of words, sentences, pictures, stories that can be placed upon the pages. It’s a possibility. Reality can be created the way we perceive and comprehend the outer world. Although our sensors are limited, we only can see or listen in a specific range. Then what about the rest? Reality is something more than we see. The true reality.
The Buddha said “the Mind is everything”. Now can you see dots connecting? Centuries after the Buddha, the father of Quantum Physics (A very deep science that is more accurate than any other) Max Planck said “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter”. Isn’t this the advanced version of the above quote of Buddha?
Reality is just a simulation of our mind. Reality depends on our main 5 sensors. To understand the true reality, we must see the world differently. We must unleash the potential of our mind.
Reality is just a simulation of our mind. Reality depends on our main 5 sensors. To understand the true reality, we must see the world differently. We must unleash the potential of our mind.