Creating our own reality

[hera]

This is something that has been going round in my head for a while and i'm perplexed and would appreciate others views.

There are billions of us here on planet earth walking around with differing beliefs, disagreeing with each other about who is right, fighting wars over it and, of course, we won't know til we get to the other side who is right.

However, just suppose for a moment that we are all right.  That each of our belief systems, created by various gurus etc is creating it's own reality and that when we get to the other side we will find what we are taught to believe by our own explorations is exactly what we were told would be waiting for us.

Christians finding Jesus waiting with open arms or non Christians in no man's land or even hell because they weren't believers.
Moslems (men) in a place full of virgins waiting to attend to their every whim.
Buddhists in a place of wonderful peace while they review the last life's actions before coming back again to further their evolution.

The list is endless of course so I won't list them all here, but you get the picture?  Is it possible that we are actually creating what will be waiting for us when we move on by our thoughts and expectations while we are here.

I have read a lot recently about the power of thought and that their potency is as powerful as actual physical actions, so couldn't it be feasible that we are making things happen by our expectations and imagination of what will be our life will be after planet Earth?

Until now my life's journey of spiritual searching has taken me through several religions, most of which I have found wanting because of their various dogmas which haven't felt right to me and for the last few years buddhism has felt right, possibly still does, but this new question about each of us having our own different version of heaven  or hell waiting for us, created by us, is intriguing me.

I'd be glad to have your thoughts on this, and please feel free to shoot me down in flames if you think it's rubbish because I would be quite happy to not have this idea, i'd be much more comfortable having total belief in fate and karma.


Thanks, Hera

[gruntal]

Reality is a tricky subject in as much as it involves at one level our awareness of it but at another level it exists outside of ourselves. So if a tree falls in the forest it makes a thud that is independent of rather we even noticed. On the other hand reality and our own private opinion of it are a state of duality. Actually there is no separation. Indeed even time itself is an illusion. We exist as the finished product at the same time we are crawling on hands and knees as a neophyte.

So everything we do or are is interconnected to everything else. To observe is to participate. The object seen is as much effected as the one who sees it. But again awareness comes in degrees.

I think any religion, any dogma, any fraternity, anything even hinting at spirituality must accede to it's own obsolescence. Not because of failure but because the very act of knowing it makes it a static thing. How do you know what it ever changing? The minute you have it nailed down it pops up somewhere else in some other form you don't recognize. The only constant is it always figuratively goes up to higher vibrations.

Spiritual people are always restless and questioning ...

[aceofcups]

Hi Hera..   my two cents -- in the esoteric understanding of things - different core universal Spiritual beliefs - which were turned into religions - were the creation by different highly evolved being or groups of beings at different times and places on the planet for certain groups of people.  And later expanded throughout history.

And then, as it is usually the way, they became greatly modified by it's priestly caste's and followers.   Some creating an elaborate exoteric system with costumes and rituals and many dogma's.  Some keeping their connection with the universal energy which was their source, some less so.  Even within every religion you still find some who are really connected to the Source,, some or the majority at times become so attached only to outer trapping.  

So with all things manifested they are "relativly true", but very True for those who are connected to them and to those particular forms and beliefs. 

I think we are finding more people ( or hope we do) who attach less to ritual religions and their dogma and more to these Universal Core Beliefs which stand behind them all.

In the Absolute all is perfect in it's own way.. at the same same time relatively true for consciousness aligned with other states of relative levels of awareness.   It's a paradox.   The personality of the emotional and mental body and ego likes to judge one against the other and compete.  The Highest in a way accepts all as it is,, including its relative ways and forms because it is ultimately All One.

peace
ace

[donq]

Hi Hera,

Good questions, nay, brave questions, I have to say.

I think George (Gruntal) and Charlie (Ace) already gave very good answers about "relatively true". I personally do like what Gruntal said about "To observe is to participate. The object seen is as much effected as the one who sees it."

We, the observers, are walking on the boat that is moving over the sea waves that are moving on the earth that is moving around the sun that is moving in The Milky Way (the galaxy that contains our Solar System) that is moving on and on...(there are billions of billions galaxies out there).

Everything moves, we move, then, how the hex do we do, to observe?
Sadly, scientists pinned a (flying) butterfly down, just to observe/study it!

Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian-British philosopher seemed to have a better idea:

"What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle."

Okay, I've diverted. Sorry.

Maybe there are the right answers for the questions you asked. But I think that has nothing to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. Instead, a religious/holy war happened. Not only the differences in religion are the problems, but also within the same religion. For example, (as I'm familiar with Buddhism), there are very different views in Buddhism about the next lives. Is it literally true or just metaphorically true (our consciousness could be reborn every other moment within a day)? But as soon as this kind of debate begins, then, it would never stop. Buddha himself also warned about this kind of questions. Those who believe still believe it. Those who don't, don't. Sometimes, those who didn't, do. Again, sometimes, those who did, don't.

I used to be an angry young man (in the sense of a heavy truth lover). Well, I've become a not dare to angry old man for a long time. Let me quote my quote here?  It's maybe true that eating rice is suitable for some people (Asian/Eastern like me) but that doesn't mean eating rice is better than eating bread. Eating bread is, and always, suitable for some people (like European/Western). Then, what's there to debate?       

   

[hera]

Thank you all for your thoughts on this, much appreciated.

I read something today which further stretched my search for understanding of this, as follows:-

"You need to be brave to go into a sensory deprivation tank, it's a place where you're denied access to both sight and sound.
Scientists have discovered our brains begin to create a new reality, a world in our heads, when we're isolated in such a way.
It suggest that we're all living in our imaginations and that the world is a construct which, through thought alone, we can change."

It left me wondering again whether we are indeed creating our own reality and will find what we expect to find when we leave our bodies.

Gosh, don't you just wish you knew the answers to this

[aceofcups]

I just wanted to add Hera.. I do think we are creating our own reality.    But within the framework of natural and higher laws.  Learning those laws and how they worked and work in our past, present and future is the real struggle once we realize we are creating our character and existence at every Moment on multidimensional states  of consciousness.  But the learning to unravel and understand how it works also makes up the Beauty of our Path and journey of Awakening.

peace
ace

[gruntal]

Taken to it's ultimate conclusion what would happen if you had a way to leave the sensory deprivation tank or was removed from it? Would you voluntarily wake up? Would reality be as pleasant then fantasy? If not then why bother?

That reminds me of the bugaboo of if people always seek the highest good because it feels right then why don't we all eat ourselves to death or do recreational drugs or rob banks ( if we can get away with it ) and become rich. Contrary to that is people do voluntarily commit themselves to addiction therapy. Or do volunteer work. It is not always because it is an alternate to jail of a fine. Apparently there are different level of pleasure.

It is amazing when you think about it how much we walk away from even if we could get away with it.

To me the only thrill greater then inheriting a million bucks is doing a business venture then produces the same results. Then and only then can you be wealthy but also boast how you played the system and beat the odds and won. Or was wise enough to be at the right time and place to score. But to do that means you have to know reality and your place in it. Anything else is just luck - and who wants to base their life and existence on a spinning roulette wheel? Or prostrating yourself in front of your deity of choice begging for favors ?

[donq]

Hi Hera,

I read twice what you said ("It left me wondering again whether we are indeed creating our own reality and will find what we expect to find when we leave our bodies.")
You key word seemed to be "and".

Let me divide it into two parts.

First part, are we indeed creating our our reality? I already posted the following story here a few times. Have to apologize our friends who already read it. It's a classic and real story about how our mind (believe/expectancy) create our world (even life and death):

Many doctors know the story of ''Mr. Wright,'' who was found to have cancer and in 1957 was given only days to live. Hospitalized in Long Beach, Calif., with tumors the size of oranges, he heard that scientists had discovered a horse serum, Krebiozen, that appeared to be effective against cancer. He begged to receive it.

His physician, Dr. Philip West, finally agreed and gave Mr. Wright an injection on a Friday afternoon. The following Monday, the astonished doctor found his patient out of his ''death bed,'' joking with the nurses. The tumors, the doctor wrote later, ''had melted like snowballs on a hot stove.''

Two months later, Mr. Wright read medical reports that the horse serum was a quack remedy. He suffered an immediate relapse. ''Don't believe what you read in the papers,'' the doctor told Mr. Wright. Then he injected him with what he said was ''a new super-refined double strength'' version of the drug. Actually, it was water, but again, the tumor masses melted.

Mr. Wright was ''the picture of health'' for another two months -- until he read a definitive report stating that Krebiozen was worthless. He died two days later.

Doctors who know this story dismiss it as one of those strange tales that medicine cannot explain. The idea that a patient's beliefs can make a fatal disease go away is too bizarre.
But now scientists, as they learn that the placebo effect is even more powerful than anyone had been able to demonstrate, are also beginning to discover the biological mechanisms that cause it to achieve results that border on the miraculous. Using new techniques of brain imagery, they are uncovering a host of biological mechanisms that can turn a thought, belief or desire into an agent of change in cells, tissues and organs. They are learning that much of human perception is based not on information flowing into the brain from the outside world but what the brain, based on previous experience, expects to happen next.

(Though I read this story from some medical/psychology books but the quote above was from The New York Times 1998).

Okay, let say that we really our own reality, the second part (which is your "and") would be would/could we find what we expect to find when we leave our bodies?

Well, it would be a very long long and never ending story, wouldn't it?

[mushin]

Hi Mushin here would another example of this be, when a tree falls in a forest and one hand clapping what we expect to happen thru conditioning just re-enforces the illusion, but rebirth out of the illusion when we are no longer effected by the conditioning of the illusion would be a realization that everything we lived by and believed in was only a temporary state of mind which we no longer have any attachment to. which would mean the only thing that survives the illusion is the experiences you take with you from your last rebirth. Still learning so I could be barking up the wrong tree.   

[hera]

To all of you who have replied to this please accept my apologies for not responding, I had not received any notifications and just popped in after receiving February's Latest Posts email, had a quick browse and found your posts.

It's quite late and i'm very tired but will get back asap.

Namaste

Hera

[sentience]

There are some really good and interesting responses here.  I'm an author.  So when I want to see where certain views of reality can go, I write a story around it.  My protagonist has to work it through.  And of course in some ways I am always the protagonist, even if the protagonist is male.  I'm female.  It gives me ways to explore all kinds of thoughts.  We could be doing the same thing in terms of our lives after we leave here.