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My View of Reality
The basis for my view of reality is strong conviction in the oneness of all things. This belief is expressed in different spiritual traditions but I don’t believe these traditions are the basis for my belief. Even during the period of my life that I held a strict materialist cause and effect view of reality, my belief in oneness was present. I reasoned that everything in the universe is made of the same basic components and that ultimately the components were linked to one source. (The Big Bang) During this time I held physics as ultimate truth and felt alienated and irritated with any mention of God.
Today I still don’t believe in a personal, transcendent God, which is what I always equated the word with before, but now I can accept the notion of God as an expression of All That Is. Besides the idea of an anthropomorphized, personal, creator God, I had trouble logically believing in a separate reality. I still hold this view because if everything is interconnected, no reality can exist independent of the one we are part of. I don’t believe in the idea of God as a creator because that would place them outside of this reality and in offering an answer only creates a question as to what created God.
Though acceptance of spirituality has gradually trickled into my life in the last few years, reading Quantum Questions marked a major shift. Learning that the physicists that I had esteemed all were mystical led me to evaluate my beliefs. Learning the basics of quantum mechanics also reinforced my views in oneness. If at their core, matter exists in states of probability and uncertainty it cannot be said to possess independent existence. This truth also led me to accept an idealist philosophy since at the basic level matter exhibits characteristics closer to that of a thought or idea than a concrete “thing.”
Applying these beliefs to impersonal concepts like matter is perhaps easier than applying them to my own Self. For a long time I didn’t believe in the idea of individual souls because it seemed absurd to me that my ego could exist separately from my body. I can’t completely accept this idea now either but I also realize that the idea is more complex than I thought. If souls exist, they are not part of the ego. The ego is a collage of experiences and programming introduced to me throughout this physical life. If I have a soul it is not named Willy because Willy is product of conditioning in this life. Connecting the idea of soul to mind is more tempting than to body because mind is more intangible and indefinable than body; however I don’t think my true Self can be equated with either.
It is possible to observe my thoughts and metal processes occurring when I am in a mindful state. This implies that a part of me exists separate from mind. I am reluctant to indentify this with the soul but it is an interesting phenomenon that I believe is significant. Perhaps I possess a soul but at its core level the soul must be connected with everything else.
While I expect the specifics and extremities of my beliefs on reality to evolve considerably, I believe it is unlikely that my fundamental belief in oneness will change. I have not encountered any logical problems with my belief and more importantly it guides me to act in a compassionate manner towards all things through the recognition that all things are parts of my Self.
