The Real Reality

Funny how some people think they are real. Because they sense physicality and feel sure they will live another day, they assume they are real and their environment is real.

Why is that a problem? Because it's untrue and, as all things untrue, it may well lead to false conclusions.

We are only real insofar as we think it's real. Beyond that, only God is real. We are nothing but automatons made to feel as if we're independent. That feeling of independence would melt away were we in the form of animals, with less intellect than we have. And were we, instead, in the form of a plant, our independent feelings would be dealt a heavier blow, always anchored to the soil. Our feeling of independence would vanish entirely were we merely in the form of inert matter.

But since we have intellect and have no constant connection to one place on earth, we pompously flout our freedom and interpret it, incorrectly, as being independent. Independence means you can subsist on your own.

Obviously you cannot fare well on your own to be alive. I'm sure you can think of many people without whom you'd not survive.

That you require oxygen to live the next minute should be enough proof how thoroughly dependent you are on - that which is real!

No, not that oxygen is real, and no, neither are the trees that provide oxygen real, and no, not the earth that provides growth is real. Only He Who created the universe - He and only He is real. All the rest is but a product of His doing. He gave us that which makes us imagine things.

This is the meaning of the verse of Shema that we say about 5 times a day in our prayers. This common interpretation, "Hear O Israel ..." actually should be translated correctly to mean "UNDERSTAND you Jewish people..." - that "God is ONE". "One" does NOT mean unique, first, or any other term that implies the existence of other entities, God forbid. It means that everything about the entire universe is nothing but AN ASPECT OF THE ONE AND ONLY REAL THING THAT EXISTS. The Shema says - Understand Jews that utterly everything in this universe, despite the fragmented appearance of particulates therein, constitutes an aspect of the ONE GOD. That this is difficult to decipher by intellectual analysis is notwithstanding!

Are there physicists among you? How does physics explain the fact that this closed system, the universe, humungous as it is, does not deteriorate into a state of randomness or disorder, but rather continues to function naturally by Nature? Is it not evident that some external source of continuous energetic input keeps it all going in beautiful harmony and organization? If physicists cannot imagine God, or will not allow themselves this luxury, what worth is all their physics training if so simple a question they must skirt?

So if we're not real, what will become of the future? We will remain with a life of imaginations, only we'll have, in the world-to-come, a much greater appreciation of the REAL ONE-AND-ONLY.

P.S. Update: Commenter Yankev adds a most important point hereto overlooked.