What is Real vs. What is Concept?

A very good distinction to draw if we are interested in operating with power in our world.

So what is Real?  Reality happens all the time, all around us.  If I hold up an apple, and ask what it is, the first response is, it's an apple, a sort-of round red object, etc.  Answers can go on for some time, but finally, we'll get to it is what it is.  All labels and everything else 'about' it is a concept.

So, Reality is.  It's very simple.  As human beings we confuse reality with our concept of reality.

For example, "I had a bad day", or "the deepest, darkest part of Africa" -- all concept -- that is a 'view' of reality - but not reality.  As a concept, it is not real, but my personal view of reality, that is filtered through my story about it.

It's powerful to distinguish Reality from my View or Concept of reality.  So the thing we are looking at is real.  Our concepts of it are not real.  We make it up.

I live in the world as I am, not as it is.  I live it where I am, in my own self-view.  It's a perspective, a view.

If we can leave the look of things alone -- acknowledging there is nothing to fix, or change or fiddle with, new and unseen opportunities and possibilities will arise that are unpredictable.

Learn to be permissive of the appearance world.  Notice when you are pulled to fix, fiddle, change, resist, etc. anything that is happening. 

Acknowledge Consciousness is fundamental.  It is the source and condition of all existence.  Margaret Laird says, "Conscious Identity is the condition of being exactly the same as Consciousness."

To quote Betty Albee, "It takes a quality of alertness in daily living to not be a reaction machine.  When I'm being myself, I don't have any attention on myself, like Betty doing something.  'Betty' doesn't exist.  I am being the happening."

In a recent seminar, Betty said, "Language is a transient view of reality.  There is nothing to fix or change.  It's a momentary view.  It comes to you for life and you give it all the life it has."

Yep -- we add all the judgment, meaning to the circumstances showing up -- giving it the "life" it has. 

Comments

[K]

well said!
i determine how i see the world i experience. i can let go of that picture and move on.., love it.

[K]

well said!
i determine how i see the world i experience. i can let go of that picture and move on.., love it.

[bronxr]

I dont know why but this confuses me and then I look on concepts as something negative also when I think about these concepts and about my
real self I feel pressure in my head and I red
that this is result of anxiety and pumping the
adrenaline to my head. Please can you clarify
me about these things?

[Mind Consciousness]

Hi Bronxr,

I'll try to clarify and hope it makes sense. When we look at the world, at your life - your circumstances, the people in it, your conversations, etc. Do you relate to people and circumstances as they really are?

We think we do, but when we take a closer look, what we are relating to is our own thinking and reaction to those things -- our judgments about them. Which gives rise to the saying, we don't relate to things as they are, but as we are.

And a belief, judgment, assessment -- those are all concepts. Those are not reality. Reality is quite simple, and we make it complex.

There isn't anything to be negative about -- only things to notice and discover about who you are vs. who you think you are.

It's not about controlling your thoughts and only thinking good ones, or not having any judgments or opinions -- because having them is part of what it is to be human -- it's just good to know that they do not need to dictate who you be in any given situation.

The reality of who you are is so much bigger than the human being picture of who you are.

Continue the discovery and inquiry -- it's easy to get sucked into the human drama like it's all that constitutes us. In reality it's only the after-affect/reflection of who we're being in our living.

MC