Stephen is a web developer, Bahá'í, and interfaith activist in St. Paul, Minnesota. He likes to write about religion, social justice, sustainability, science, programming, &c.

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poetry, prose, and other strings of words · 1993 - 2003

The Really Real

1996?

I do not question that my reality is really real, but, I do question our assumptions about reality. What, in truth, is reality? Who is to say that there is a differentiation between what is "normally" considered real and what is considered imagination? What occurs in my dreams is clearly not a part of the physical, empirical reality which I can see and touch and feel like the keyboard upon which I type.

However, we cannot afford to limit reality to this definition. Why? that is an intuitive response, but what do we really lose from categorizing reality in such a way? I think that, based upon the observations of past society and today's, that doing so creates a lack of fullness and richness with life. In theistic terms, limiting reality in this manner is equivalent to the outright denial of any higher power (i.e. God, Allah, Goddess, the god within).

It seems that eudaimonia cannot be reached in this way for a thinking person. Just look at the examples put forth by Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, and others — the despondence of life… which is created by this lack of belief. So, regarding reality as being greater than our standardized world around us, we are left with determining not what is reality but what is not.

One of the biggest questions in this regard involves the dream. Is the dream part of reality? From the sense I get when I am aware of my dream state and the feeling of the dream after its occurrence, it is clear to me which is the dream and which is the regular, physical world. Should we consider it real though? It must be remembered that, like all animals, there are certain things we cannot perceive outright. These things are considered to be a part of the spiritual reality.

It seems that we may have the ability to understand, eventually, all that is purely in the material plane, though it is truly impossible to know when and if we have done so. That is our level of comprehension as human beings in this physical realm. Perhaps physical extends to everything that we can understand, so that, if one were granted the God-like ability to Know the Ultimate Reality, everything would be considered a part of the material plane. This goes back to the concept of unity.

In the past, it has proven useful to think in terms of dualisms. Therefore, it would be convenient to think of the material as a part of Reality, a part which we are able to understand with near entirety. The one missing piece would be then be considered a part of the other, the spiritual side of Reality. This missing piece has many names; some call it a Motivating Force, others Chi, energy, Karma, Logos, or the Holy Spirit. Call it whichever you like.

These two divisions are strictly that: parts of reality, not the whole and not separate. They describe two ends of a infinite line. Reality is One; it is one plane, one "dimension," separable only as artificial constructs or models which facilitate human understanding. It is very important for us to remember this fact if we wish to continue moving ahead in this realm…