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Is the material world an illusion?
- Thread starter 1137
- Start date
How would it matter. Even if the world were in some sense an illusion, you would still have to deal with it as if it were not. Yes, I know there are so called, "Enlightened Masters" who reportedly walk through walls, thus proving the world is an illusion, but they never take my phone calls -- so perhaps they are the illusion.
mycorrhiza
Well-Known Member
It might be an illusion, but I don't believe that it is. Why? Well, I have no actual proof that the world is real as all my senses might be illusions too. It just kinda feels right.
The world being an illusion doesn't really serve a purpose to me as I believe that the physical world is "good" rather than "evil".
The world being an illusion doesn't really serve a purpose to me as I believe that the physical world is "good" rather than "evil".
Its not an illusion, Its real it can be interacted with and you can't escape it but like your name says it is a perception, an experience that you can only know. Just because no one can experience it like you does not make it an illusion, but just a different experience.
Well, it could be a simulation.
Even if this did turn out to be a program, and we eventually 'woke' up to the real reality, how could we be sure that we aren't still in a simulation? Could a being ever be sure they aren't in a simulation?
So, it seems to me that whether we label this world reality or illusion doesn't really matter. I think whats important is how the particular reality we're in can be experienced.
Student of X
Paradigm Shifter
I think its more like a veil that reveals and conceals the Real.
"Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don't know, but I take my illusions pretty seriously.
I prefer to look at this dilemma differently. Assuming the material world exists, our perceptions of it are not the territory. The maps we create of the territory will always contain something similar to illusions in them, or things that are not accurately representative of the territory.
I agree. Not even our senses represent reality. They merely interpret it. For instance, we see various wavelengths of electromagnetic energy as colors. But those colors do not exist outside our head. They are mere interpretations.
Songbird
She rules her life like a bird in flight
This.
And that.
Seeing as you're possibly illusory, I now make off with all your beer and money. In that order. Any attempts to stop me will probably be illusory too, and I recommend you just let me in.
Your dastardly plot to lull me into an epistemological stupor with your twisted logic while you make off with my beer and money will surely fail because you don't know that I keep a spare key to my cottage under the rock by my front door! Hah! Eat your defeat!
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
It depends on the perspective taken. The glib answer is that it is both.
According to Quantum Mechanics, the world of our physical perceptions is very much an illusion created by processes we have only begun to understand. In the non-Quantum world of human physical perceptions, the world we experience is VERY real and anyone who wishes to dispute that has a free offer to meet my handy dandy baseball bat.
Marble
Rolling Marble
According to Ramana Maharshi, what we see as outer world is just a projection of the mind.
When you are in deep, dreamless sleep, there is no world.
Only when you awake and your mind starts to function again, world exists.
So according to this philosophy: Yes, the world is an illusion.
(For reading more about the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, follow my signature.)
When you are in deep, dreamless sleep, there is no world.
Only when you awake and your mind starts to function again, world exists.
So according to this philosophy: Yes, the world is an illusion.
(For reading more about the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, follow my signature.)
outhouse
Atheistically
if you jumped off a high bridge all your questions will get answered. :yes:
Such a shallow mindset... Can you please spare us the immature and shallow opinions? I am trying to have a serious discussion.
I am not saying that a material world that is an illusion is any less important. Think about this, most of these theories that the material world is an illusion use quantum physics to back them up. So, by studying the illusion we learn it is an illusion which is quite important. Besides that, even if it is all an illusion we are still perceiving the illusions of pain and such. If it is an illusion it is quite quite realistic, and there would be no reason to stop studying and experiencing it.
It isnt an illusion we are just blind and cant see things that go the speed of light.
blackout
Violet.
Or at least an illusion of a serious discussion!
*wonders if she fooled anyone*
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say that it is an illusion in the classical sense of the word but a perverted version of the Pleroma. More of a false copy of reality than a illusion.
Rhizomatic
Vaguely (Post)Postmodern
I like the Nietzschean perspective. As he sums it up in The Will to Power,
I don't think that there's an objective or inherent nature to the universe to contrast with subjective/illusory understandings of it. You might interpret that to mean that illusion is all anyone can ever have or aspire to, but I think it's probably more accurate to say that what we have isn't a matter of illusion and reality, but rather is a matter of different perspectives with different truth values. Our reality is a subjective construct, and so it's fair to call it illusion, but that can be deceptive because there isn't a different, truer option available.
Friedrich Nietzsche said:
I don't think that there's an objective or inherent nature to the universe to contrast with subjective/illusory understandings of it. You might interpret that to mean that illusion is all anyone can ever have or aspire to, but I think it's probably more accurate to say that what we have isn't a matter of illusion and reality, but rather is a matter of different perspectives with different truth values. Our reality is a subjective construct, and so it's fair to call it illusion, but that can be deceptive because there isn't a different, truer option available.