The Nature of Reality

Reality is.

Understanding that reality is, stems from knowing what reality is. Reality is much more than merely the semantics involved in defining it. Conscious awareness (through experience and intellectual cognition) is the fundamental basis for acquiring the wisdom essential to understanding reality’s true identity.

Specifically, reality is the ultimate, real, self-contained, and absolute realm of itself, by itself, for itself, from itself, and intrinsically within itself. Since reality exclusively deals with that which is real, the only thing not contained in its realm is nonexistence. Therefore, reality is everything real, the nature of everything real, and all aspects of everything real in actual existence.

It is easy to see the difficulty in comprehending the specific identity of something broader than that to which it belongs, as reality is to existence. It is therefore obvious to me that sensory perception alone is insufficient to fully understand the nature of reality. The proper distinctions must be made between aspects of particulars and aspects of meaning. Such distinctions can only be made from the

coordinated efforts of observation and analysis, i.e., between the physical sciences and philosophy.

I have often heard it said that no one can know with absolute certainty what reality really is.disagree. Learning the fundamental nature of reality is a thought process that begins with acquiring the objective recognition of its identity. This objectivity is the essential premise to developing the conviction of knowing that things are only what they are (in and of themselves) regardless of perception. It must also be understood that perception (as an activity) is as much a part of reality as what is being observed, only that it may or may not be a complete and accurate representation of the actual objects or events about which it communicates via the mind and the senses (chapter 19). Assuch, active-minded awareness is the true teacher of experience, for the process of cognition is essential to learning. Experience alone will only stimulate the senses of the complacent observer, thus

limiting the value of the experience to the immediate moment. One should instead learn to distinguish the relative similarities and differences between the nature of events and the structure of conditions thereby gaining the valuable lessons in life while reaffirming the natural law of cause and effect.

There is no such thing as an occurrence without a source of explanation (i.e., an effect without cause), only the occasional appearance of a phenomenon which either presents itself as something is actually not, or as something consisting of causation elements outside the realm of knowledge andcomprehension of the observer. Some examples would include the sunset, wherein as the sun appear to be at the edge of the horizon, the arrival of its image through the vast distance of space is actually placed beyond the line of sight because of the refraction of its light through the atmosphere, and together with the fact that it takes eleven minutes for the light to reach us from the sun, its actual relative position moves below the horizon more than eleven minutes before we see it set. Similarly the stars in the sky are observed from earth as they were thousands of years in the past; some galaxies are seen millions and even billions of years in the past, leaving the possibility of observing the distant objects in space that actually no longer exist. “Magicians” and “psychics” perform tricks that deceived the audience with clever devices, background checks and prearranged meetings to access personal information, and slight-of-hand techniques, all of which give the appearance of a “magical”, “mystical,” or “paranormal” effect from a hidden actual cause. The erratic behavior of subatomic particles that appear to break some of the known laws of physics, wherein their extreme sensitivity perhaps causes their essential patterns of activity to be altered by the instrumentation and apparatus which observes and measures the effects of their motion during experimentation. (Consider Einstein’s proverbial black box, wherein upon it being opened the tiny particles of energy behave differently than they do when isolated in the box unobserved.) The discernible markings on a fast-spinning wheel or say the blades of a fan running at a high speed can, from time to time, appear to be slowly turning backwards due to the visual effect caused by the observer’s inability to continually track the circular motion at the same rate as the rotating disc. Three-dimensional images from two-dimensional holograms, an effect produced by the distinctive separation of refracting colors of light. Hearing the sound of distant fireworks a few seconds after seeing the flash from the explosion because the sound reaches the ear long after the light reaches the eye. “Psychics” on rare occasions accurately predicting future events made thus from the conditions set forth by either chance or the influenced actions of the believers. The appearances of ghosts as actual bodies of energy from spirit or perhaps as aberration from activities of a vivid or fearful imagination. Actions appearing without cause by forces unknown to the observer experiencing them. Past-life regressions as the result of the transference of spiritualenergy from one soul to another, or perhaps as mere imagery from the subconscious recall of certain experiences suppressed by conscious denial. Senseless, random acts of vandalism and violence for no apparent reason, which in different cases with different variables lend different explanations, as of which are essentially the result of an unstable and irrational psyche of the perpetrators. Situation such as these present forms of deceptive sensory data which do not directly reveal actuality. Andeven though to some people certain conditions and events appear to be of an unknown source and cause, they do not indicate reality as unstable, but merely as things either visually inaccurate or which conceptually extend beyond the current reach of the observer’s ability to discover certain actualities. Aberrations do not exist but for in the form of abstractions that contradict natural law. Delusions are initiated from a false premise. To say, “A thing that is not real . . . ,” is a false premise, becau there is no thing that is not real. Thus, if the “supernatural” were real, it would not be supernatural nor would magic be magic, hallucinations, contradiction, nonexistence, nothing nothing.

Abstractions do not exist in and of themselves; instead, they rely on conscious being to actual them into reality and remain in existence, from which they become just as real as their source origin and are absolutely essential to understanding reality. Thoughts are the abstractions originat from the mind’s intellect, and emotions are the abstractions originating from thought. Unrecord thoughts not acted upon will simply cease to exist. Falsely premised thoughts delude one’s percept of reality with inaccurate conclusions and conceptual contradictions. (Contradictions can only e as a thought in the mind, not as a fact in reality.) In order to see things as they really are, one m base one’s thoughts on the premise that the truth is absolute.

So what is reality? Is it enough to say that it is that which is real? Perhaps that is too obvious perhaps it is the obvious which makes it possible to understand. The obvious is often overlooked and hidden and lost behind the layers of complicated chaos and confusion. Humanity itself is a partial reality capable of understanding its own nature. It would therefore seem plausible that humanity can also understand the realm in which it exists. The progressive advancements in science, mathematics,medicine, and technology are the results of a growing intellectual ability with unlimited potential (Save for the natural boundaries set forth by the laws of reality.) Such virtue and greatness, when with metaphysical wisdom, will inevitably yield the certainty of a complete awareness of self and truth.

The integration of identity and meaning brings about the defining nature of something. The identity of reality is truth. The meaning of reality is the identity, condition, and inherent purpose of all things and events real, actual, and true. The nature of reality is absoluteness.

Beyond all of this and within it there is simplicity, and a single profound word to describe and explain it all. It is a word referring to beauty, ugliness, grace, and lethargy. Its identity is both irrespective of and inclusive with perception, perspective, introspection, interpretation, analysis, hypothesis, emphasis, and elimination. It can visually and audibly both deceive and enlighten. It originates, propagates, imitates, directs, indicates, conceals, reveals, creates, and destroys. It is all about plants, insects, reptiles, animals, birds, fishes, microscopic organisms, and all other forms of life and everything they do.It’s a word representing what makes all human knowledge possible. It is the provider of all t all, yet in itself it knows nothing. It knows not right from wrong, good from evil, truth from falsehood or sin from virtue, yet it makes possible the aspects and attributes of action responsible for th characteristics and conditions of all circumstances and the nature of their consequences.It’s about people and all that they think, don’t think, feel, don’t feel, do, and don’t do. determines the particulars and indicates the nature in every situation of human participation. It’s bot the triumphant and disastrous. It allows for both political freedom and tyranny. It plays the full arra of experience, from joy to sorrow, exaltation to suffering, happiness to misery. It makes possible the civilized trade of goods and services in a free marketplace, as well as the slavery of the oppressed forced into poverty by a few dictators.

It makes possible the existence of this earth and all things on it. It breathes life into the living and death into the dying. It lays the ground work for symmetry, random occurrence, harmony, and chaos. It allows for the precise combination of elements in the formation of the solar system to evolve intelligent life. It is responsible for the existence of all the stars, galaxies, matter, mass, and energy the universe.

It radiates the sun’s heat and energy, releasing it from its nuclear collisions in the form of lig which remains as constant and unchangeable as its speed. The integrity of its laws is as absolute as truth and identity. In spite of it being spurned, spit at, laughed upon, misinterpreted, or ever completely denied, it can never be defied or destroyed.

It is the beginning, middle, and end of all things non-eternal. It is eternal. It is both the source a substance, and cause and effect of all that is real and actual. It is the factual basis of all the aspects every circumstance in existence.

It presents itself to human consciousness and makes conscious awareness possible as well. It is the nature of what everyone does both individually and as groups of individuals acting either togetheror against each other. It provides the checks and balances for the integrity of all human relationships. It represents the past, the present, and the future. Hence, it is both the potential and the actualized, attempted and the accomplished, the unknown and the discovered, the mysterious and the obvious, simple and the complex, the theory and the practice, the process and the conclusion, the question and the answer.

It establishes the foundation of nature’s inherent qualities as well as its opposing characteristics.It is both the positive and the negative, the safe and the dangerous, the up and the down, the in and the in and the out, the high and the low, the quiet and the loud, the single and the plural, the solid and the space, the liquid and the gas, the black and the white, the color and the gray, the rough and the smooth, the round and the square, the top and the bottom, the easy and the difficult, the winner and the loser, the giver and the taker, the owner and the client, the victim and the thief, the law and the whim, the producer and the looter, the innocent and the guilty, the strong and the weak, the good and the bad, the leader and the follower, the brave and the fearful, the young and the old, the slow and the fast, the action and the purpose, the journey and the goal, the related and the random, the form and the object, the container and the contained, the molecule and the mass, the atom and the universe, the energy and the matter, the nature and the identity, etc.

There is no limit to its domain except for the limit it places on itself by the nature of its own existence. It embodies both all that which occupies space and the space in which all that is occupied. It makes possible for the laws of nature by virtue of its own laws as inevitably immutable, such as the constant realm in the time-space continuum of relative bodies in motion and the dimensions the occupy.

It is a profound word that by its own definition is so concretely specific in its identity, and so vastly broad in the depth of its meaning and nature that for all it represents is infinitely more than just a word. Perhaps Aristotle identified it best in his expression, “A is A.” The best way I know to conclude this lengthy introduction to the most significant and meaningful word of all is with the following poem:

IS

All that is, is meant to be, determined by

REALITY

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