In our pre-reflective attitude toward the world, we are unquestionably experiencing a reality; there is an all-pervading quality of reality, i.e. realness of things, that surrounds us at all moments. We don’t just perceive objects; we perceive them as real, as actually being there.
If we pay attention to the quality of reality of our experience of the world, we see that this quality is neither increased nor diminished by the addition or subtraction of objects from our field of view. The sense, or the weight, of reality stays intact, somewhat independent of quantity, even when we close shut eyes and ears.
We can now freely enter the reflective attitude and question this reality, whether things exist or not; but in this questioning, what is put into question is whether things exist independently of us, of the mind, of consciousness. We can become suspicious of the independent existence of objects. However, even in this reflective attitude of doubt, in the questionability of existence of things, the quality of reality still holds as before and is unaffected by our doubt. It cannot be suspended, pushed back, ignored, or in any way affected by any acts of consciousness. We can even doubt or deny our own existence, as the subject; and even in this case, the quality of reality, this unfathomable and indescribable sense of realness, is by no means affected.
We could perhaps imagine the whole world disappearing before our eyes, but even that cannot rid us of this ever-present sense of reality. It is as if the sense of reality has nothing to do with the world though it seems the two are intertwined. Insofar as we are subjects, experiencing the “I”, there is the inescapable quality of reality tagging along.
Wherever I am, the quality of reality is also there, with the same weight and familiar presence. The quality of reality cannot have any home but the subject itself; clearly we are not speaking here of the human subject, because humanness which is a form is itself an object of perception, an object for the “I.”
In spite of all the internal and external turbulent conditions we may encounter in any world, this quality of reality stays intact. In sadness, anger, anxiety, excitement, etc., this quality neither increases nor decreases; it is only falsely attributed to a specific content in the field of awareness. What appears to be an intense experience, is not an increase in the power of the quality of reality but rather a focusing of that power on a particular experience at the expense of taking it away from other contents of experience.
So, wherever I am, the quality of reality is there too! When we are not experiencing ourselves as subjects, when the “I” is not, let’s say in dreamless sleep, the sense of reality is no more. But when we are experiencing the “I”, even in a dream state, the sense of reality is there, and it is there with exactly the same quality as it is in the waking state. It is always with the “I” regardless of where this “I” experiences itself to be, whether that world is fictional, objective, material, mental, etc.. This quality is unaffected by the structure of the surrounding world of the “I” and the forms of its objects. It is always the same and there with the “I”, but it can never be described except mistakenly and in terms of false associations with the objects of experience. It is essentially formless.
We can perhaps distinguish between the dream and the waking state based on the stability of their respective structures: the dream world is quite unstable, often senseless and incoherent, relatively speaking. But regardless of the content of experience, whether in dream or waking state, whether hallucination, imaginary, etc., the quality of reality is always the same and familiar to us, as if it is part and parcel of our existence.
Let’s look at this thought experiment: imagine a person born in a dark world where there are no suns or sources of light. Somehow, he’s born with a helmet light mounted on his head, but since he’s born with it, he doesn’t even know it exists; it’s just part of him. Let’s say this world has no mirrors either where he can see himself and find out about the helmet light. As he grows up and moves around this dark world, wherever he goes, things are illuminated and seen, such as when you turn on a flash light in a dark room and objects appear. Since this has been his lifelong experience, and not knowing his helmet light is the source of the illumination, his only explanation, which develops into a natural belief, is that this world is a world in which its objects have the intrinsic attribute of luminosity; they just shine, that visibility is an attribute of the objects. He will never suspect that the luminosity of objects come from himself, from his light. He believes so not knowing he’s the one illuminating them; and he will never find out until he realizes he’s the one carrying the source of light.
Such is the relationship between the “I” and the quality of reality which appears to be falsely attributed to objects. The quality of reality which is an intrinsic quality of the “I” is reflected on the contents of experience of this “I”, so the “I” believes that objects are real and truly out there, not knowing this quality of being real, of actually being there, the very sense of actuality, is his own quality.
But our examinations above hopefully provide some insights so that one can inspect their own experience and realize that it is both logically and experientially impossible that objects will have anything to do with the quality of reality, and that this quality cannot be attributed to anything but the “I.”
The quality of reality seems to have been mixed up with the objects of experience; we attribute the quality of reality to them, but upon further investigation we could see that it cannot depend on objects because this quality, or its magnitude if you will, remains the same; it is formless. As in a projection on the screen, both the projection and the screen seem to coincide, but the reality of the screen is distinct from that of the film and the events in it. The screen is not something in the film, but it must be there and become anonymous for us to be able to experience the film.
Reality is always fine, intact, and safe; it is always alright; it’s not going anywhere; it is not affected by anything, any event in the world. You are Ok!
NOEMAYA 