Perception And Reality

 A car is a riding machine for us, a complicated power transmission chain for an engineer! Which one is its reality? Reality is nothing without perception. A statute Krishna in temple, mere stone or God! Depends on how you perceive it!

So, there are perceptions and there are things unknown, if there is any thing in between it is only a stop gap perception of things based on effervescence of our bubbling desires and tremors of our hidden fears exciting our imagination, like old lady in the moon, and ghosts in the dark rooms of the house, till one reaches to a better one.

Because knowing is perceiving only, when we do it scientifically we are only fixing method of perceiving (if you do this such and such will happen...!) to ensure the repeatability of outcome. 

All knowledge is paradigmic, and slight change in paradigm changes perception of reality. 

Reality that can be observed by senses is limited, large part of reality is deductive or logic based. For example what is sun? An orb shining in the sky which gives us light and warmth. That is what we know directly by using eyes, and our skin. Ok, but is that all of it? It is also a mass of highly condensed gasses burning at a very high temperature! But can we feel that through our senses! No, that is deductive, meaning scientists have deduced that indirectly based on scientific paradigms of what is a gas, what is light, what is spectrum of light etc..these paradigms are only current state of understanding of things and keep changing with newer facts ....Simpler example- when your husband looks upset that is something that you can perceive directly, but is that the reality? Let’s find out first why he is upset? Perhaps because he is hungry. So, now what is the reality, that he is upset, or that he is hungry? For less smart the first one (that he is upset) for smarter the second one (that he is hungry). Why smart, less or more, because the second understanding can be used to deal with the problem. It’s a solution, just give him to eat and he will be better, indicating better understanding. 

All that you call “reality” is perceiving in progress, one can never be sure that ultimate point has been reached and final perception can be freezed as reality.   At best it means that only currently the limit of understanding has been reached. Once Newton’s perception was reality, now Einstein’s is. Who knows what next? Perhaps we will eventually deduce (only deduction will be possible...by this very argument!) that truth (reality) is a function of time. That, to understand reality is an endless endeavour. The thing is further complicated, as Quantum mechanics has already cast as much doubt on the nature of observed reality itself- perceiving, method of observation, itself changes the outcome. 

-Pulastya