You Don't Know What Real Looks Like

[Staples]

Had a mini insight tonight. I was reading notes of the book "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch, when I had a strange feeling. As I read the words, "Physical reality is an illusion", something clicked in me. Even though I'd heard these words tens of times before I never really got traction on they meant until now.

I thought to myself; if this is an illusion, it's a damn good one considering I've been goofed by it for most of my life. Then something else came to me; if this room is an illusion, what looks real? Then I realized I have NO IDEA what a real thing looks like! Then I began to notice how I experience my visual field, I couldn't really find where my experience of sight was coming from. I simply "see" an image infront of me, and it felt like there is no direct channel from the physical world to my consciousness. I have eyes and of course I'm seeing "though" them, but what point on my eye goes to my consciousness? Is my sight located in the direct center of the pupil, or a nanometer to it's left?

I then tried the same experiment with my finger by trying to determine where I felt the sensation of it pressing against a wall. Obviously I felt in on the tip of my finger, but I couldn't really determine how far away from me it was, it was impossible to draw a line between the touch of my finger and "me". I knew exactly where it was but also had no way of pinning it down. It felt infinitely far away and infinitely close to me and every distance in between, but it still felt the same as it normally would on any other day without this insight.

Apparently lots of these little insights and self inquiry lead towards enlightenment. All I feel like I got out of the experience was a fascinated, "huh, interesting" and nothing more. Let's see where this rabbit hole goes! Anyone else had weird moments like this?

[cetus]

@Staples That's good stuff! After reading that I'm sitting here by an open door listening to a bird chirping in a nearby tree. But than I think, the bird's chirp I know only from sound that effects my ears as electrical impulse is sent to my brain/mind. The only way I know the outside world is indirectly. So where is the bird really located? And in relationship to what?

Here's another good one.you look into a telescope at an object 250,000 light years away. Your literally looking back into time 250,000years. Some of what you are seeing, doesn't even exist any more. But you can see it in front of you. What does that tell you about light energy and consciousness?

[Leo Gura]

@Staples Right, because the true Self is omnipresent. There is no gap between Nothingness and perception. They are infinitely close. Which is why it's so challenging to discriminate the Nothingness from perception.

[JustinS]

@Staples You might enjoy this book by Rupert Spira.

[LRyan]

6 hours ago, Spacious said:

Yeah, many! There are times when stepping out of the conceptual mind resting into awareness, it is impossible to distinguish where consciousness  begins and ends. Then it feels as though it has a fixed location again and back 'I' step into dualism. Keep making strides!

There is no distance. Or I should say the only distance is a thought.... whatever the distance of a thought measures... 0

[Ether]

Thats all imagination, what we are perceving is real, not imagined

[cetus]

26 minutes ago, Ether said:

Thats all imagination, what we are perceving is real, not imagined

Haha, I know how you feel. I'm going to need more proof that reality doesn't exist before I step in front of a moving bus. I knew someone years ago who put reality to the test while doing lsd. It was quite horrific!

[FirstglimpseOMG]

@cetus56 interesting thoughts. We are here to experience life. If our confusion about this life results in a premature, massive trauma to our bodies.. we've missed the point I think. I would imagine that your health in a video game only becomes trivial because you have an instant reset.

I also imagine that while alive within this world, the deepest despair or existential crises provide the most meaningful chance for self-reflection and growth. 

I'd say that shortening life needlessly is a tragedy, but apparently there are no mistakes in life. Figuring it out as I go lol.

[Staples]

@Maxx The more I think about this the more "flat" my visual field appears. It just began to seem less real but at the same time it was the only visual field I had so it was the most real to me at the same time. 

Here's a weird experience I just had: at what point does my sight converge on? Does it move when I close one eye? When I close one eye, where does the content from that eye go? Why does it seem like when one eye is closed my visual field is still FULL, but I perceive a smaller amount of space?

Enlightenment work confuses the hell out of me 

[Staples]

@JustinS Will definitely check it out. Thanks for the recomendation. 

[tyy]

2 hours ago, Staples said:

@Maxx The more I think about this the more "flat" my visual field appears. It just began to seem less real but at the same time it was the only visual field I had so it was the most real to me at the same time. 

Here's a weird experience I just had: at what point does my sight converge on? Does it move when I close one eye? When I close one eye, where does the content from that eye go? Why does it seem like when one eye is closed my visual field is still FULL, but I perceive a smaller amount of space?

Enlightenment work confuses the hell out of me 

I'm interested to hear insights regarding this as well, closing an eye etc. Also, how about when you focus on an object and somehow (I don't know what the eyes are actually doing) you distort the vision and see two or three of them?

[cetus]

5 minutes ago, tyy said:

(I don't know what the eyes are actually doing) you distort the vision and see two or three of them?

This is a little off the subject but that reminded me of a scene in the movie "Tombstone"

 

[Shin]

3 hours ago, Staples said:

@Maxx The more I think about this the more "flat" my visual field appears. It just began to seem less real but at the same time it was the only visual field I had so it was the most real to me at the same time. 

Here's a weird experience I just had: at what point does my sight converge on? Does it move when I close one eye? When I close one eye, where does the content from that eye go? Why does it seem like when one eye is closed my visual field is still FULL, but I perceive a smaller amount of space?

Enlightenment work confuses the hell out of me 

When you can see the true essence of an object, its is-ness (by refusing to label it), walk around it while focusing only on the object.

The experience is so weird that I don't even know how to explain it.

Try with a tree

Edited April 13, 2017 by Shin