The World’s Not What but the Way We See

There are two possible approaches to reality – looking outwards and looking inwards. Outwards, sense perceptions are the only access to reality, which appears as ‘ten thousand things’. We call this stuff, which seems to be outside consciousness, ‘matter’. If sense perceptions form our primary view, we will believe that matter is reality’s fundamental nature, which will inform our sense of our self. Our knowledge of reality is always tainted by the limitations of the medium through which we look. If we look deeply inwards, we first encounter sense perceptions, but eventually arrive at being, the only unmediated experience of reality not subject to the limitations of the finite mind. Now, imagine starting there. Reality still appears as ten thousand things, but we know, feel and understand that they are all the appearance of one thing, and we are that. The world is not what we see but the way we see.

There are two possible approaches to reality – looking outwards and looking inwards. Outwards, sense perceptions are the only access to reality, which appears as ‘ten thousand things’. We call this stuff, which seems to be outside consciousness, ‘matter’. If sense perceptions form our primary view, we will believe that matter is reality’s fundamental nature, which will inform our sense of our self. Our knowledge of reality is always tainted by the limitations of the medium through which we look. If we look deeply inwards, we first encounter sense perceptions, but eventually arrive at being, the only unmediated experience of reality not subject to the limitations of the finite mind. Now, imagine starting there. Reality still appears as ten thousand things, but we know, feel and understand that they are all the appearance of one thing, and we are that. The world is not what we see but the way we see.