Difference between revisions of "The Buddhas Conception of Reality as Illusion"

Latest revision as of 16:17, 12 May 2012

The Buddha's Conception of Reality as Illusion

This page will be a departure from proper Wiki style and references. I create this page as Ted Vollers, an individual, rather than as an anonymous editor. There are simply no suitable references to this subject to use as source information and to provide references to as authoritative. There are too many references yet none that are authoritative in a real sense. The Buddha, sometimes referred to as Siddhartha Gautama, prince of Kapil or Kapilavastu, is known about only through sources from the oral tradition. There is no certainty in regards to his life and identity as there is no certainty regarding his date of birth or death, his actual place of birth and anything that he did in fact say or espouse as none of this is available in a written record earlier than 400 to 450 years after his death. Thus any source of information is generations removed from those who were contemporary with the Buddha and present to hear his teachings. There is a vast literature by his followers of various schools of Buddhism. This is well referenced on the Internet in much more extensive and authoritative form than can be provided here with the available resources. There are world wide available scholars, not in agreement, as to the details of his life in this world class religion. What is agreed is that the Buddha, meaning the enlightened one or awakened one, is known as the Supreme Buddha of our age.

The term Buddha as the enlightened one refers to a possessor of knowledge about the nature of things, the true nature of our reality. When it comes to a statement by the Buddha about our reality as Illusion, we again come into the realm of conflicting doctrines and schools and uncertainty as to what precisely might have been said and what was the meaning behind those words. I should have never stated that the Buddha ever said that our world was Illusion as that cannot be backed up by facts in terms of his ever stating this, with no written and continuous record, nor is there even a clear statement in present records. Because it is clear to me that our ordinary view of the world as an objective reality is illusion and that there are in fact references to illusion within Buddhism in the present day and indications that the Buddha subscribed in some way to this thought, I came to attribute this thought to the Buddha in the same way that I personally understand it as being self evident. While I believe that this is true of the Buddha's understanding, there is no way to show that this attribution to the Buddha is either so nor to show that it is clearly true of any branch of Buddhist thought as the world religion that it is. No one however has so far rejected or disagreed with this statement as it is so much like what is attributed to the Buddha.

Our Perception of Reality as Illusion

Some Buddhist schools of thought consider our perceived reality as literally a fantasy and unreal and not significantly different from a dream. Other schools take this concept as that our perceptions and ordinary understandings of reality mislead us to misunderstand our selves to be separate from the basic nature upon which our perceptions are based which is the universal mind or consciousness. Painting with such a broad brush, my statements are open to question. My personal perceptions in the past having included essentially all non ordinary perceptions of reality other than a near death experience, added to the anomalies common to quantum mechanics, I am fully prepared to state that our conception of this being an objective, physical reality is false, no matter what the consensus of scientific thinking might be. It is not unreal in the sense of fantasy, unreal and like our dreams, but never the less, very much illusory. While science can predict much of what will happen dependent upon circumstances, it cannot explain consciousness and the nature of our minds.

What Tom Campbell's Model Offers Instead of Illusion

The parallel between what I will still persist in calling the Buddha's concept of Illusion and what Tom Campbell offers as an explanation of the nature of our reality is that this is a Virtual Reality. As a Virtual Reality, our perceptions of this as a deterministic physical reality is indeed an illusion. This is our present reality, to be taken seriously, but not to be deceived as to its true nature. I see this as an exact parallel to the understanding of the Buddha, irregardless of the uncertainties regarding that understanding, but stated in terms that can be more readily explained and understood. That is in terms of science and mathematics as presented in Tom Campbell's model of our Reality, both as to this VR and as the totality of Consciousness Space. This model is presented here on this Wiki at this link. The MBT Model Link Page Our perceptions of existing within a deterministic, physical reality is the result of the provision of a stream of digital information to us, designed to and providing the basis for our subjective perception of this VR in all of its forms as both our conventional senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch or physical perceptions but also of our conscious stream of thoughts. Not that these thoughts are not our own as we exist as an Individuated Unit Of Consciousness or IUOC, but that they must be selected for our perception out of the total unconscious stream of our thoughts as our perceptions are limited in terms of speed here in the VR of PMR compared to the speed of the actual stream of our thoughts as an IUOC. We simply cannot think that fast in this VR as we can as our minds as IUOCs.

This Virtual Reality experience is specifically designed to appear fully objective and physical. This is not however a perfect and never failing presentation on this basis. There are flaws or glitches that are permitted as in the effort not expended to make everything perfect. We are intended to perceive it as an objective physical reality and to interact with it fully on that basis. Learning the true nature of this reality as a VR is of value and is not forbidden. Demonstrating this directly and very publicly is however forbidden and will be thwarted.

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