"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein
I can remember hearing this quote for the first time and being blown away by it, even though I really didn't know what it was getting at. Somehow, I knew there was a truth to it.
More and more, I can see how incredibly easy it can be for us to believe the habitual thoughts we have about ourselves, about our lives, and about each other. These thoughts create a feeling and get projected out onto whatever is happening, making it look as if the outside world is creating our internal experience.
The truth though is that we are having a thought in that moment, that we give our attention to, and our consciousness (awareness) brings that thought and feeling alive for us.
This alone has been a profound thing for me to see. I no longer think that the outside world is what is creating my internal experience. I can more clearly see that it's my thinking about the outside world that creates it.
What really drove this home for me was when I realized that two people can be in the same exact situation and experience it completely differently. Seeing that each of us is having our own separate reality because of the thinking we choose to bring to life, helped me see that reality is in fact an illusion as Einstein stated.
It has also been powerful for me to see that much of our thinking comes from a collective story that we tell together. In the end however, it is our belief in this thinking that brings it to life within us, and the amazing news is that we have the capacity for fresh thought, which means that at any moment our reality can shift based on a new thought coming in that we put our attention to.
I had the experience of fresh thought yesterday while watching Westworld on HBO. It's a show about a futuristic park, looked after by robotic "hosts", allowing visitors to live in imagined narratives. No matter how real the fantasy may look, there are no consequences for visitors, allowing any wish they have to be indulged.
Somehow, while watching this imagined reality, it became even more clear to me that we are all living out a narrative about ourselves. Whatever we believe is true about society, our capacity, our personality, etc. is the thinking we bring to life and what then drives our behaviors.
All it takes to change this narrative is to realize that it IS IN FACT a narrative. Then we can be open to new thoughts and ideas about who we really are. The more we see that we are bringing our thoughts to life, the easier it becomes to be open to fresh, inspired, hopeful thoughts. Our imagination and the creative potential we all have access to will then provide us with more thinking of this nature.
It really seems to be that simple.
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