...sign of our times...
Upon being handed a journal as a gift, a nine year-old asks his mom what it was. The mom says that it was a notebook to record his thoughts and feelings, every day. The kid replies, "You mean, it is a blog...on paper." Reader's Digest, Oct 2008 issueWorld un/reality and our life purpose
A huge philosophical school of thought prevalent in India and in different parts of the world posits that the universe (as we live in and know it to be) and its constituents are unreal, part of a grand illusion (except the existence of the One). Because of obvious pitfalls (such as self-contradiction), its proponents, using a logical nicety, hasten to add that while everything else is false, somehow only our world-experience is “transactionally real” (translation mine).
Consider for example: A person who is told that he lost his job, only to be told a few hours later that that information was misdirected; so he did not lose his job but someone else did. Does it matter to the first person whether the information was directed or misdirected, truth or not? No, the experience he felt (of loss, despair, insecurity) is all too real, for that duration.
Another one: From the world of dreams, we know that a dream is not “real” but the feeling it leaves us with (say, a nightmare) is absolutely so.
Another one: How about that horror-movie you saw? Did you feel the chills going home that night or did you have trouble falling asleep that night? A movie, in this case, felt surreal! Or how about that “virtual-reality” game you played? Did that feel real to you?
So, which of the above were real or not? Can you differentiate?
Now consider some of the information coming from channels such as THEO, Abraham-Hicks (discussed elsewhere on this site which btw fascinates me), who say that the main lesson we are here to learn in this lifetime is to (drum roll, please):
Master our emotions
“Re-discover” ourselves
Experience the joy of self-discovery
Assuming these to be true, then it is the feeling that matters (emotions, joy, sadness, etc. – some readers may stand apart by saying that emotions are really the response to stimuli while feelings such as joy are spontaneous – for now, let us take them as one). Once a wise one told me, “Dear One, Enlightenment is a feeling, not a thought!” That shut me up – i.e., my logical side dying to make a point!
So, if our earth lesson is to master our feelings, an “unreal” dream or a celluloid rendition leaves us with the same feeling as a similar “real-world” experience, which leads me to write, The reality is the “feeling”, immaterial of the agent that caused it. Everything that produces a “feeling” response in you is REAL, which will cover everything you and I call “Life.”
Wait, doesn’t this viewpoint make the question itself moot?