Is Reality What We Think It Is?

A mystic and a materialist will both stub their toes if they kick a rock. But the mystic believes that the rock is a projection of a deeper reality, whilst a materialist believes that the rock is all there is–reality doesn’t go deeper than things.

To a materialist, clouds and mountains are no more than things, their beauty being beside the point. A newborn baby is a thing, too, its humanity being equally beside the point. In a world of things, there is no room for a loving intelligence known as God who presides over creation and gives it meaning.

Yet on the path to joy you discover that meaning is the very basis of life. A baby is a thing only in the most superficial sense. In reality a baby is a field of infinite potential expressing the highest intelligence in Nature. I don’t think of this as a mystical belief, but as a truth that lies deeper than the surface picture; where life looks like a stream of random physical events.

Meaning is born deep within. Spiritual optimism is also an inner experience. It is based on the love, beauty, creativity, and truth that a person discovers at the level of the soul.

When you explore yourself on the inner plane, you are working with intuition. It’s a common misconception that intuition is at odds with science. In truth, science and spirituality both depend upon intuition, for the greatest scientific discoveries are made through creative leaps, rather than by following a linear trail of established facts.

Adapted from Why Is God Laughing? The Path to Joy and Spiritual Optimism, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Past Member .

10:09PM PST on Mar 1, 2012

Mary,

You just did it again.

send a green star

Mary B.

9:01PM PST on Mar 1, 2012

No Wes, you totally didn't get it. What I'm doing is explaining what a belief is.Period. You're making the judgements, and as long as you want to do that, I have no interest in talking to you because you're not here to share any insight or to learn from others.I've read your comments here and on other posts and you disrupt more than add value.I have no need for conflict. If that makes me wiser than you and others,then so I am. I'm also a lot more responsible,naturally happy, capable of a wide range of emotions, and healthier than many others.I don't apologize for it. The beliefs that you fallow appearently lead to a need to fight intellectually. That's what feeds you, but it repulses me, and since you are NOT understanding what I'm saying, and really, I can tell when I've been understood, there is no reason to speak further.

Dot A.

8:40AM PST on Mar 1, 2012

:) funny~

the other 'three' fingers

the thumb seems to be the independent digit - our individual power *

:)

8:33AM PST on Mar 1, 2012

one finger points out

the other four point back at the pointer

to ponder - perhaps

8:12PM PST on Feb 29, 2012

I understood you the first time.
My point is that, you're doing exactly what everyone else is doing by making these posts.

Saying we are 'very insecure about the truth' while suggesting you are in fact much wiser than us.

You're looking for validity thru agreement.

7:26PM PST on Feb 29, 2012

No Wes, that's not what I'm saying. That is how you're interpreting it.
I am putting in very simple terms that everything based on thought is a belief because it IS thought based. A thought structure. Beliefs are powerful. People will die for them, and force others into bondage over them.Science is also structured thought beliefs.Something being a belief doesn't make anything accurate or innacurate, it just provides an avenue of experience.If you want to get all worked up over things you believe religious dogma have caused, or the fact that Dr. Chopra makes money writting and selling books about his personal meta-physical understandings, that's an experience. And yes, I am well aware that some people go ballistic over the idea that their truth is 'relative' and not Absolute.To me, that means they are very insecure about the 'truth' of their thoughts so they feel the need to gain validation thru agreement, or are always challengeing others, and always repeating their own viewpoints, as if nobody heard them the first time. Do you understand what I have said?

10:40PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Mary,
Is somebody's experience overlapping your experience?
Are you saying that expressing our opinions is impinging on your belief system?
That people discussing their points of view is.... bad?
In poor taste? Not very intelligent? Not spiritual enough?

Some people might feel a little insulted by your comment.

8:47PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Every thing is a belief system. Reality is the beliefs you're experienceing right now.Perception of what you're experienceing is your emotional reaction to what you believe.
Why do people feel the need to bicker about this? And insult others beliefs? Each belief system will produce a different experience. So what?

4:47PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

each
one
a
piece
of
the
whole
truth

2:40PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

"If you indulge in doubt and argument, then reality is not what you think it is."

This ^ is YOU, arguing.

"However, you do have the ability to re form YOUR reality to the dismal."

Or, perhaps, the truth will set you free.

"We are so fortunate that, most often, the pessimist doesn't even believe in his/her self."

You call it pessimism to not blindly follow unproven theories. If there were no critical thinkers,
we'd still be living in the stone age. All of science is based on critical thinking.

Question Everything.