Perceptual Truth.

Is perception reality? Different people have different opinions on this subject. The fact that there even is a such thing as opinion lends credence to the notion that no, perception is not reality, but allow me to play the devils advocate here and illustrate the opposing view.

Perception is reality. As long as you will live, your perception of the world is the upper limit of all you will ever see and know here. You can even lead yourself to believe that a widely known falsehood is truth. If truth is not the perception, no one in the universe will ever perceive the truth.

I am a firm believer that compassion is the revealer of truth. Compassion is that which opens the mind to consider another's perspective. So how much compassion can you have if you believe that perception isnt truth? How open can you be if youve already made your mind up that everyone is wrong and no one can be right? Why be compassionate if you dont even believe truth is obtainable?

So heres my stance. Truth is relative. Each individual makes their own truth and it belongs only to them. Even when two individuals have contradictory opinions, theyre both right, but only to themselves. Compassion is taking this into consideration and examining anothers perspective, because each individuals perspective is what makes them who they are. Compassion is the method of learning about others, and on a deeper level, learning about the self.

Originally posted by smithjustinb
Is perception reality? Different people have different opinions on this subject. The fact that there even is a such thing as opinion lends credence to the notion that no, perception is not reality, but allow me to play the devils advocate here and illustrate the opposing view.

Perception is reality. As long as you will live, your perception of the world is the upper limit of all you will ever see and know here. You can even lead yourself to believe that a widely known falsehood is truth. If truth is not the perception, no one in the universe will ever perceive the truth.

I am a firm believer that compassion is the revealer of truth. Compassion is that which opens the mind to consider another's perspective. So how much compassion can you have if you believe that perception isnt truth? How open can you be if youve already made your mind up that everyone is wrong and no one can be right? Why be compassionate if you dont even believe truth is obtainable?

So heres my stance. Truth is relative. Each individual makes their own truth and it belongs only to them. Even when two individuals have contradictory opinions, theyre both right, but only to themselves. Compassion is taking this into consideration and examining anothers perspective, because each individuals perspective is what makes them who they are. Compassion is the method of learning about others, and on a deeper level, learning about the self.

I agree. My truth, plus anothers equals greater truth for both parties. We have to trust that others may understand things we don't. Then you realize that it doesn't matter how much you know, but, how much you are willing to accept.

Perception is OUR reality. But there is so much more happening outside of us

Does the sun "perceive" of it's rays?

"What Matters is what fiction you believe" - Orson Scott Card.
In my opinion everyone lives in a completely different world than everyone else (metaphorically of course) each persons world is made up of their perception and interpretations of things as well as a persons ethics and morals. Each sentient mind is a universe that has yet to be explored.

Originally posted by CiceroWiggin
"What Matters is what fiction you believe" - Orson Scott Card.
In my opinion everyone lives in a completely different world than everyone else (metaphorically of course) each persons world is made up of their perception and interpretations of things as well as a persons ethics and morals. Each sentient mind is a universe that has yet to be explored.

Yea that's an interesting thought. Terrance mkenna talked about having an operating system of the mind, everyone's OS runs different software and has different functions based on everything that person has been though in their life.

The world seen through our eyes, but with no interpretations or explanations from our mind would be something similar to something we unfortunately can't talk about on this forum