What is Reality? What if it was possible to definitively know what reality is? Well, it is! But the answer is so radical and mind-warping that most people would rather deny it. "You can live in your o

Most people do not stop to introspect about what reality really is. Usually, we use the word “reality” to mean what seems to be, or facts filtered through a biased lens. But, it seems there should be one reality. It should not be dependent on people’s perception of what reality is. Reality is not based on thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. These three elements disrupt that perceiving of reality. So, what is reality then?

In order to perceive reality in its true form, we should not add the filter of our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. Reality is simply what it is—nothing more, nothing less. It is said by science that reality is what is most fundamental, and that can be expressed through mathematics. The construction of the entirety of mathematics can be done with an empty set (The New Scientist). This nothingness, or blank sheet of existence, is reality. The state of consciousness without thought, feeling, or sensation is our original state. As long as we are injecting thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations into what we perceive, we are experiencing reality through a filter. For an example, you see a chair. If you see the chair without any thought, feeling, and physical sensation interrupting or changing how you perceive it, the chair will simply be. Without thinking that a chair is a chair (or other thoughts), or feeling something for the chair, or having a physical response to the chair, it is experienced as intended. In fact, all existence is one—the separation is made in our minds.

Because we have given names to everything we interact with, because we have classified each living and non-living being we have encountered in its minutest detail, because we have delineated specifics and aspects of each thing we study, we have created a mass concept about the separation of things. Reality is simply one existence, and that can be proven by physics, which states that no empty space is possible (The Daily Galaxy). Everything is connected, whether we like it or not. The chair that I am sitting on right now to type this essay is connected to rocks on Mars. Existence is a crowded place, but only if we conceptualize it as containing an innumerable array of entities.

Reality is whole, but it is also a place of contradictions. Though the universe is set to balance itself, it is also heading towards a state of chaos and disorder, expressed in the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Though locally we can balance ecosystems and such, on the whole, our existence is gradually becoming more and more chaotic (Philosophy Stack Exchange). However, there are theories that the universe is cyclical, and a new universe would spring up after entropy would have increased to its maximum (Princeton University). This may be only speculation, though. Even if the universe remained in disorder in the far future, we would all be a part of it. Looking back at the beginning, everything in its existence now was formed from the Big Bang—and as the famous phrase says, we are all stardust (physics.org). Each being that comprises reality carries on from the material from the Big Bang, all the way to the future maximum entropy. In essence, we are the Big Bang, and so is future existence.

From a chair to the whole universe, reality is the same. Without the injection of thoughts, feeling, and physical sensations, all reality is one. We can perceive reality in its true form by not using these injections. Can you imagine a world where people gave up their identifications? In my opinion, all the follies of human beings would be extinguished, and Earth would restore its balance, despite that in all probability, we are headed for universal disorder.

References

“Reality: The definition.” New Scientist, www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528840-500-reality-the-definition/.

“”No Empty Space in the Universe” –Dark Matter Discovered to Fill Intergalactic Space.” The Daily Galaxy –Great Discoveries Channel, www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/no-empty-space-in-the-universe-dark-matter-discovered-to-fill-intergalactic-space-.html.

“Are the laws of order and chaos in our universe unequal? How did that ratio come to be set? Can we scientifically measure that ratio/Constant?” Existence – Are the laws of order and chaos in our universe unequal? How did that ratio come to be set? Can we scientifically measure that ratio/Constant? – Philosophy Stack Exchange, philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/16483/are-the-laws-of-order-and-chaos-in-our-universe-unequal-how-did-that-ratio-come.

“Endless Universe – Ask the Authors.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/endlessuniverse/askauthors.html.

Are we really all made of stardust?| Explore, www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=52.