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Altarlight, this musing question is a from my friend, Rick. You've
spoken along these lines before. Perhaps you'd do so once again
and shine a light into the perceptual world.
"My musing for today is about perception---to what extent and in
what
manner is it real, or unreal? "Let's assume the content is unreal. So if I perceive a truck rushing
at me
at 75 mph I may assume the truck is not some independently existing object
"out there", because that can never be verified. But even if there is
no truck,
no road, no world out there at all---its all just mindstuff---the
perception I am
having of the truck is real. There is no doubt I am having the
perception;
therefore, for me, it exists.
"Even if the perception is only in my mind, then in my mind it can
be said to exist----otherwise my mind would be blank, instead of imagining a truck speeding at me. It's like a dream---we know the events in a dream aren't real, or the persons---but the mental activity the dream represents is real, or there would have been no dream. I'm thinking of this in the context of the way I so often dismiss the world as unreal. If by this I mean it has no ontological status outside of my mind, that's one thing, and I am comfortable affirming that. Nothing does. But experientially there is a world. Can anyone deny he or she is having an experience of living in a world? And if we say the experience isn't real either, then we deny the reality of all mentation---for whether daydream or nightmare or "real" perception it is all mental activity---and then what are we left with? "Anyway, what I was thinking was it may be misleading to cavalierly dismiss our experience of living in this world because it is not
objectively real,
until we have fully considered what it means subjectively. That's why I find it fascinating when Al comments on the purpose of the dream, because when he does so he is really considering the reality of perception. We have to acknowledge, whether it is technically real or not, that we experience this life as real, and hence it is worth giving it some consideration until such time as we accept being only what we are. Rick"
The inner light can answer any of this world's queries and resolve any of its problems. Beyond all of these concerns, the inner light will show you who you are and your relationship to all...and bring you an understanding of love and peace that transcends ordinary human thought processes. Discover what it truly means to "love one another" and to "see peace." Yahoo! Groups Links
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