What is reality?

A distinction between subjective and objective reality

6 min reading time | published on: 19.08.2024

A brief excursion into quantum research shows that the question “What is reality?” has long been addressed by external science and inevitably leads to philosophy and comprehensive considerations about reality. Is our reality measurable, calculable and comprehensible in this way, as proclaimed by external science? Are the scientist, the observed and the observation really separate from one another? Is objective research possible?

A foray into quantum physics

Quantum research is challenging our worldview. The world around us: it seems reliable, solid and unambiguous. A chair is a chair – regardless of whether we sit on it or throw it out the window. The blue cup on the breakfast table is there even when we are not looking. The key is hanging on the hook and is not in the kitchen and the living room at the same time. There seems to be a cause for every effect and, even if the causes are too complex to be analyzed precisely, theoretically we could find them. Are these all self-evident? No, they are not.

Chair, cup, key: they all consist of trillions of atoms, which are made up of electrons and nuclear building blocks, bound together by force particles. And this is where our visible and assumed reality is seriously called into question, because, for example, electrons can be in several places at the same time. They sometimes behave like a particle, sometimes like a wave, and when something decays is unpredictable and happens seemingly randomly. Particles can be connected in a ghostly way, even if they are light years apart. And the most important insight of all: the observer influences what is observed!*

How can our solid everyday world be based on this moving micro-world that functions according to mysterious laws? Are we perhaps blind to deeper laws and cling to what is visible, measurable and reliable? What do we really know about the nature of things? Quantum theory now provides the basis for modern technological achievements and, although it does not correspond to our comprehensible perception (“The key is hanging in the hallway”), it forms the foundation for explaining phenomena and the development of highly specialized technology.

Our very “own” truth

Insights and revelations appear naturally in contemplation. Wisdom and clarity are natural byproducts of contemplation and willingness to not follow the mind. (Gangaji)

For an inner researcher, interest in reality is probably less related to the “essence of things” than to the questions: Who am I really? In what reality do I live? What are the limits of this reality? And what is THE reality?

“My reality” is the lens through which I look, are the interpretations with which I categorize experiences and perceptions, are beliefs that are true for me, and are also the feelings that arise from all these thoughts. In inner science, the research method of an inner, spiritual person on his path, the realization comes at some point that the greatest blindness of the researcher is that he does not really know his “own world”. We are identified with an ego-mind, i.e. a self-contained world that believes it sees reality. And the first essential step in approaching reality could be to admit this limitation.

Wir stellen fest, dass wir uns für Wahrheit interessieren, weil wir ahnen, dass wir in Unwahrheit leben – nicht in der Realität, sondern in unserem Traum, in unseren Überzeugungen und Vorurteilen, in wiederkehrenden Gefühls- und Gedankenmustern, in einer Wahrnehmung von Getrenntheit, die Mangel – und Angstzustände hervorruft. Das Interesse für die innere Wissenschaft entsteht aus unserem eigenen Leidensbewusstsein. Wir leiden unter der Begrenztheit unserer Perspektive und beginnen uns für innere Wahrheit und das wahre Selbst zu interessieren. Dies wird zu einem Bedürfnis aus der Tiefe unseres Herzens und ist kein reiner Willensakt und nicht nur eine Angelegenheit unseres Verstandes.

We realize that we are interested in truth because we suspect that we are living in untruth – not in reality, but in our dream, in our beliefs and prejudices, in recurring patterns of feeling and thought, in a perception of separateness that creates states of lack and anxiety. The interest in inner science arises from our own awareness of suffering. We suffer from the limitations of our perspective and begin to take an interest in inner truth and the true self. This becomes a need from the depths of our heart and is not a mere act of will and not just a matter of our mind.

Acquiring Discernment

Because this world that our minds create at every moment represents reality for most people, and we only have a vague suspicion that this could be a limited view, we need to know our subjective view of things in order to get closer to reality. What are our unconscious identifications and beliefs that we believe in without really knowing? It is false knowledge that limits us the most, whereby “false” is not to be understood in a moral sense, but simply describes the fact that we think we know what we do not really know. This admission is a big step for many people, because it triggers inner insecurity; the ground on which I thought I was standing securely begins to shake; the chair, the cup, the key – they are no longer what they were to me. I myself am not who I thought I was. This gap that arises in our natural perception of ourselves and the world can trigger the desire for religion in its true sense: a return to reality, to the source, to ourselves. And for this return to the source we need discernment.

We find that we are interested in truth because we suspect that we live in untruth – not in reality, but in our dreams, in our beliefs and prejudices, in recurring patterns of feelings and thoughts.

The interest in truth

“I encourage you to focus your contemplation on what truth is, what freedom is, who you really are. Deepen your contemplation more and more. Insights and revelations appear naturally in contemplation. Wisdom and clarity are natural byproducts of contemplation and the willingness not to follow the mind.” (Gangaji)**

All inner teachings of the spiritual traditions say that an objective reality exists and can be recognized by a person. The concept of “self-realization” indicates that in the penetration of our subjective reality, in the letting go and dying of untruth and false knowledge, what remains is what is real, the self. It is difficult for us Western people to recognize that this level of knowledge and realization cannot be reached through our minds. It is our thinking mind that separates us from reality, and we find it difficult to imagine that there is a deep intelligence within us that can come into contact with a reality that has always been and is and will be. The inner researcher who is interested in reality can only find it by embarking on a path that questions what he has previously believed in; by being willing to empty himself again and again of archived knowledge and – innocently like a child – listening to what the great spiritual masters teach; by facing his own limitations and having the humility to fundamentally question his subjective world.

References in the text:

*freely quoted from: GEOplus “What is still real? Quantum research questions our worldview“ by Klaus Bachmann

** from “You are THAT”, Gangaji, published by Lüchow Verlag

*** OM C. Parkin in Darshan “I slept and dreamed my life”