You know what reality is: you see it, you smell it, you experience it. It's pretty straight forward. It is what it is.
Ah, but that is not the case. The reason is because what you experience, what you see, what you smell is filtered first by your ego-mind before it goes to your brain. Your ego-mind sorts, identifies, judges, etc. before the experience goes to the brain for reaction. So since your ego-mind has been conditioned by your life experiences to see things a certain way or react to things a certain way, that is how you will see or react to something. That is what forms your mind's—and thus your—take on reality.
Since your ego-mind is the home of all your feelings, emotions, perspective, judgment, etc., it means that everything you experience is never experienced by you neutrally. Your senses are neutral—they just transmit without any judgment—but your ego-mind is anything but neutral.
In order to experience things as they really are, one must be able to experience them neutrally, without any judgment, emotion, or perspective. And that requires freeing yourself from the control of your ego-mind and rediscovering, reconnecting with your true self, the person you were when you were born—which can be thought of as your heart, your Buddha nature, the divinity within you, or the child of the Universe within you. (See my posts, "True Self" and "Buddhism and the Divine.")
Why is it important to see things as they really are rather than through the filter of your ego-mind? When you act or react to something, you usually think you are doing something that is in your best interest. But if you can't see things as they really are, there is no way of knowing what's really in your best interest. Our mind often, if not almost always, urges us to do things that are definitely not in our best interest and cause us suffering. Our ego--mind thinks, from its perspective, that it is helping us, but that's the problem: it's perspective is warped.
So if you want to live in reality and end your suffering, you need to free yourself from the control of your mind. But how to do that? Your ego-mind is deeply rooted within you; it's all you've known of yourself and the world for your entire life. This whole blog is basically about this topic, which is an indication of just how difficult it is to accomplish. For starters, you might read the posts, "How to free yourself from the control of your ego-mind," and "Freeing yourself from suffering."
Regardless how challenging, keep at it. There is nothing more important to your future than being able to live in reality and be at peace and happy.
Ah, but that is not the case. The reason is because what you experience, what you see, what you smell is filtered first by your ego-mind before it goes to your brain. Your ego-mind sorts, identifies, judges, etc. before the experience goes to the brain for reaction. So since your ego-mind has been conditioned by your life experiences to see things a certain way or react to things a certain way, that is how you will see or react to something. That is what forms your mind's—and thus your—take on reality.
Since your ego-mind is the home of all your feelings, emotions, perspective, judgment, etc., it means that everything you experience is never experienced by you neutrally. Your senses are neutral—they just transmit without any judgment—but your ego-mind is anything but neutral.
In order to experience things as they really are, one must be able to experience them neutrally, without any judgment, emotion, or perspective. And that requires freeing yourself from the control of your ego-mind and rediscovering, reconnecting with your true self, the person you were when you were born—which can be thought of as your heart, your Buddha nature, the divinity within you, or the child of the Universe within you. (See my posts, "True Self" and "Buddhism and the Divine.")
Why is it important to see things as they really are rather than through the filter of your ego-mind? When you act or react to something, you usually think you are doing something that is in your best interest. But if you can't see things as they really are, there is no way of knowing what's really in your best interest. Our mind often, if not almost always, urges us to do things that are definitely not in our best interest and cause us suffering. Our ego--mind thinks, from its perspective, that it is helping us, but that's the problem: it's perspective is warped.
So if you want to live in reality and end your suffering, you need to free yourself from the control of your mind. But how to do that? Your ego-mind is deeply rooted within you; it's all you've known of yourself and the world for your entire life. This whole blog is basically about this topic, which is an indication of just how difficult it is to accomplish. For starters, you might read the posts, "How to free yourself from the control of your ego-mind," and "Freeing yourself from suffering."
Regardless how challenging, keep at it. There is nothing more important to your future than being able to live in reality and be at peace and happy.
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