In Praise of Reality

by Robert Fritz
October 2010

Everything that is real happens in reality: relationships, the creative process, music, art, sports, career, fun, pain, cooking, eating,
spending time together, love, spending time alone, LIFE. So why do
people have such trouble with reality?

Too often reality is seen as the enemy. Even Albert Einstein was not a
fan. He said, "Reality is merely an illusion, although a very
persistent one." Yet, he played the violin. In a now famous story, one
day he was playing in a string quartet with some very illustrious
musicians, one of them the great Jascha Heifetz. Albert found one
passage especially difficult. After making many mistakes, his friend
Jascha called out, "Albert, Albert, what’s the matter with you? CAN’T
YOU COUNT!"

Maybe Albert tried to explain to his friend Jascha that his playing out
of time was merely a persistent illusion, but, if he did, I bet Jascha
wasn’t buying it. While in some broader philosophic notion of Absolute
Truth perhaps reality is merely an illusion, on the local level where
there is music and life, it is the plane of existence that we live in.
And while people are often prone to say things like, "My truth and your
truth," as if reality were merely a matter of opinion, reality is an
objective truth that is less subject to interpretation than many might
think.

Let’s talk in real terms about reality. To be alive is not the same
thing as being dead. Life has certain properties that inanimate objects
do not. There is a before something is alive, when it is alive, and
after it is alive. Something alive may or may not know it is alive, but
self-perception is only incidental to the fact. When that something is
no longer alive, it operates in a very different way than when it was
alive.

But here I am, talking in support of reality as something that can exist
whether we perceive it or not. I hope we kind of get that, especially
if you want to create something, and especially if that something is
your own life. You can’t play the violin in tune unless you can hear
what is going on IN REALITY so you can adjust your pitch as needed.

While the creative process usually begins in the imagination, if it is
successful, it will end up in reality. And, if we are to master our own
creative process, we must have a firm grip on reality. Usually when
things like this are said, someone mentions Vincent Van Gough. Wasn’t
he as crazy as a loon? Didn’t he cut off one of his ears? Wasn’t he
self-destructive as could be? Well, yes, he was when it came to his
life. But, when it came to his art, it was a different story. He
mapped out his canvases structurally. He had a firm understanding of
how color worked, and how to use it to be expressive. He knew what he
wanted to paint before he put brush to canvas. He evaluated the current
state of a painting with his desired state as he moved through the
creative process, and when his vision matched what was on the canvas in
front of him, he signed the painting. Had he used the same process in
his life that he used when he painted he may have had a different
history. Who’s to say? But, for him to paint as he did, during those
moments he had to be acutely aware of reality.

In reality you may be having a hallucination, but the hallucination is
not about reality. So, you might say if you wanted to try to describe
things in terms of "my truth, etc." that your "truth" in the case of
hallucinating is independent from the actual reality in which you are
having your delusion. In your "truth" maybe you think you can fly, but
if you try, the reality of gravity will win the argument.

One of my "famous quotes" (according to Google) is "Reality is an
acquired taste." For most of us, we don’t like reality because it may
include unpleasant things. But insisting that things are not what they
are doesn’t make them change. Once you become a fan, anything other
than reality is not something you want because it is where the action
is.

It takes discipline to learn to see reality as it is. It takes skill,
because we have been trained to think comparatively, which means we have
been trained to have reality stimulate triggers of concepts we have,
past experiences we presume to be the same as what is going on,
theories, speculations, beliefs, and so on. To see reality takes
looking and observing. But the mind isn’t good at that because it takes
the ability to be okay with not knowing something while we are finding
out. The mind hates not knowing, and so, when we don’t actually know
something, instead of looking to find out, our minds wants to fill the
space with answers that pretend to know what we don’t know. To learn
how to, not only tolerate, but appreciate not knowing something until we
find out, is how we acquire a taste for reality.

One thing we can count on: Reality will be real. That’s why it is reality.


©2010 Robert Fritz



Views: 4

Comment by db on September 30, 2010 at 9:54pm
A Moth... the Butterfly of Night...

db
Comment by Khem the Is Real-ite on September 30, 2010 at 11:18pm
If you think you are alive, I can assure you that you are quite mistaken.

That is the Objective IsReality.
Comment by Roman Kozlowski on October 1, 2010 at 7:27am
What is really real? Is it merely the acknowldgement of a state of things that actually exist? Phenomenology investigates that which appears in consciousness, and as it would similarly appear to any consciousness. As for whether reality is 'truth', depends more on consensus that can be diversally compartmentalised because of different communities and their societally agreed upon structures, the most profound of these being religious belief systems in that they diminish impartial objectivity. Distorted 'truths' in this way even come to be viewed as 'facts', pseudo though they are, just as the Sun always rising in the east can be said to be a fact from a primative perspective.
Comment by Kernel John on October 1, 2010 at 8:23am
Khem,
I think I'm alive and agree with Alexander's point. Roman makes sense too. As for db, I have seldom disagree with what he contributes. . . . On the other hand, if I do understand your obtuse utterings above, I think I disagree. As such, I do not share the reality you seem to represent. I do, at least to a degree share in the reality represented by the other 3. Does that make you wrong and us right? Of course not. Personally, I think we all are only scratching the surface of what is life and how it is transmitted through matter to emerge in various forms/patterns of consciousness. Science is beginning to formulate related questions as a first step for the creation of new paradigms. I also believe that in some strange way, the consciousness elevation that is taking place in forums like this seeding the void for the coming into existence of these same new paradigms. Believe me, the new paradigms already exist just waiting for someone to discover them - each one moving us closer to a better depiction of reality or pushing us further away. The idea, you represent, that you are not alive may make some sense to you but when I apply your notion (as I understand what I think you are trying to say) to myself and the other souls that surround me, your notion seems to be struggling for breath. Stop hiding in the shadows Khem. Say what you mean and mean what you say. In the mean time, check out this popular conception called the Wonder of You. Cheers
Comment by Khem the Is Real-ite on December 15, 2010 at 6:20pm

Who the fuck is Robert Fritz?

Comment by Khem the Is Real-ite on December 15, 2010 at 6:22pm

More important, why should we care?

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