What is Reality???

Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an elephant.' 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.


"When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?'


"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied, 'An elephant is like a basket.' Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.


"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.


"Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.”

What is Reality???
Reality, Winston? You persist in this primitive delusion that there exists a reality outside the Party's truth. No. There is no 'real world'. Reality is in the mind, Winston. Not the mind of the individual, but the collective mind of the Party. If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face...forever.





%26lt;/Orwell%26gt;





More seriously, the story you just recounted (which I have heard before) hits upon a very important aspect of reality. Namely, that everything we know, everything we ever can know, must come through us through our perceptions. Our senses are the only connection we have to the entire outside Universe...the ONLY connection. And since we know that there are senses we can lack (deaf people lack hearing, blind people lack sight, all humans lack the ability to perceive x-rays, etc), we must be prepared to take everything we perceive with a grain of salt. The Universe might NOT be as we see it, true. But if it isn't, we don't have any way of knowing, and that's what's important. In a sense (no pun intended), each of us has their own universe which they explore, a universe defined by what they know and are able to perceive.





This, of course, is something that many religious people fail to understand. These 'faithful' christians and muslims and so on have had it so deeply ingrained that their holy book is true that they trust it EVEN MORE THAN THEY TRUST THE EYESIGHT WITH WHICH THEY READ IT. This is an enormous mistake about the nature of perception and investigation, and if people were only to wake up and see this mistake, we would see a lot more doubt towards these giant imaginary friends so many people have.
Reply:Green Meklar has said it best!!!! I agree with him 100%
Reply:whhhhaaaatttt????
Reply:old tale, good story, not sure what your question is tho.
Reply:Is is only your reality so make the best of it and think postive and stand strong,
Reply:Your focus is your reality!
Reply:There was a similiar children's book I had when I was a kid. It was called 7 Blind Mice. They found an elephant and argued over what it was because they each felt an individual piece of it. Then, one of the mice suggested they feel the whole thing.





Reality is more than what we see. It is what others see as well.
Reply:I really can't be arsed
Reply:Absolutly, that is what the world is like at the moment. The blind servants are the religions of the world, telling us what is and what isn't without actually knowing themselves. The elephant is the Truth, the Reality, God, The metaphysic princiapl etc. and the Raja is the enlightened being, who can see clearly what is going on.





The story is about the nature of conciousness - those who perceive what they feel (material being) have no clue to the existance of the elephant (God). The Raja on the otherhand can both see the non-material and feel the material, but he knows what is what. The Raja is enlightened.
Reply:hence reality is subjective and relative....as a man is so he sees.
Reply:I recall hearing this fable long ago. I believe it shows us that what we perceive as real may be just that...only our perception of reality, based upon our limited knowledge and that we should listen to the reality of others in order to form a complete picture. Because we are all blind when it comes to seeing the truth.
Reply:The Raja sounds like kind of a jerk who gets off on starting fights between blind guys.





This is a statement, or story, not a question. If you wish to spread you nickle wisdom, do so in the form of answers, not questions.
Reply:This old story points out the difficulty of distinguishing between perception and reality... where does perception end and reality begin, or are they the same? Or is there an objective reality that we all can agree upon? Is my reality the same as yours... clearly for those men the reality of 'elephant' was not the same. A neo-con may see the world as menacing and dangerous. Others may emphasize the value of trust and friendship. Does either view represent objective reality?
Reply:That thing before your computer screen....just over the keyboard.