How everything is true and I perceive it inaccurately. Rightness and wrongness, then, may be irrelevant.
This morning, Carol and I sat at our huge picture window overlooking our back yard – wondering. We wondered about the scene before us. Birds crisscrossed our visual field to land in trees adorned with bare limbs serving as perches. Grass hummed below us with the inaudible sound of a million insect steps. We marveled at the vastness of creation that presented itself so verdantly before us.
“It’s an illusion,” we reminded each other, entranced by it all. “And yet, it seems so real.”
Then I recalled three things I’ve been pondering lately:
- Hoffman’s theory of Conscious Agents in which I came to realize that I don’t perceive the world as it is – rather, I perceive it as I NEED to perceive it in order to be fit enough for my genes to survive into the next generation.
- Presentations of quantum physics has demonstrated that matter, space, may not exist as I perceive it.
- Other presentations lead me to believe that time, too, may not exist as I perceive it.
And yet, there it is before me! Time, space, and consciousness coming together to experience… what? Reality? No, can’t be – reality only exists when there is a conscious agent to witness it. My beliefs? Ah, maybe…
Let’s assume that I am perceiving that which I believe. That would mean that I perceive space-time as a presentation of what I believe. Everything, including time and matter, is literally what I perceive it to be.
If that is true, then logically, everything must be true – even things I think are false. That falseness is, itself, true. Where it gets interesting for me is that I may not be perceiving the presentation accurately.
Accuracy is not a right or wrong affair. You’re either accurate or you’re inaccurate. Accurate is a state of being “correct in all details; exact.” Anything short of this is inaccurate. Quantum physics says I cannot be accurate because I don’t possess the equipment to be so detailed as to include “all details”. “All” is a pretty big word for just three letters.
So, I get it – I’m inaccurate. Somehow, that feels less threatening to me than to think that I’m “wrong” – another small word with huge implications. I can definitely feel the difference between, “I was inaccurate about that” and, “I was wrong about that.” “You’re inaccurate…” doesn’t hold the same sting as, “You’re wrong!”
Same goes for the concept of “rightness” on which my ego thrives. Even now, I feel I’m right about this post – when I’m now considering the probability that rightness might more accurately be stated as, “maybe less inaccurate.” Do you feel the difference while comprehending the impossibility of rightness? I do!
This leads me to question my perceptions thus: “If time and space do not exist and I cannot be accurate given the limitations of my present form, what is true?” To which I now feel to answer, “everything!” It’s ALL true – and, I perceive it inaccurately!
Do you feel the freedom of that answer? Everything is true. ALL that I perceive, think, wish, intuit, and much more exist within the boundlessness of non-existence – ala Lewis Carroll’s delightful character, the Jabberwocky. I just perceive inaccurately – meaning, “less than completely.”
Yeah! I perceive less than accurately. That’s the truth. Not right or wrong – just inaccurate! I can live with that… for now…
