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Growing up through my teen years, one of my favorite sayings was — “Perception equals reality.”  Since then, that statement has taken on new layers of meaning, and a recent study gave some additional validity to the idea.

This article in Wired Science describes how athletes were asked to try to kick field goals. After a series of kicks, they were given an adjustable model of the goal posts, and asked to adjust the model so that it represented the actual size of the posts (to scale, of course =). When a kicker missed kicks, they would adjust the model to represent a goal post that was smaller than the actual, and when they were successful, they would adjust the model to represent a goal post that was larger than the actual. The implication was that the kickers perceived the goal as being a different size depending on their relationship with the goal (in this case, their ability to kick successfully).

If this doesn’t shock you, it should. Or perhaps it shouldn’t, as it’s been around for a long time as an essential part of various ancient philosophies, such as the delightful idea of Maya.

The Big Secret of Life

This might be called the ‘big secret of life’. When we assume that the world actually is what we perceive, we get into all sorts of problems. Our minds lock down, and we form assumptions and opinions that are not based on any actual ‘reality’ so much as they are based upon our own ideas and perceptual biases.

It doesn’t take a scientific study for us to realize this. If we think about life, we’ll notice that all around us there are examples of misunderstanding, different opinions, and different tastes. All of us have probably experienced times when our own opinions on a matter changed, or a taste that we didn’t prefer became desirable after we tried it a few times. Here we find the same implication — that our minds and ideas have a lot to do with how ‘reality’ is perceived. On a deeper level, if we learn to observe our mind’s activity, we can watch this process in action as our mind fixes on an apparent object or idea, locks down a perceptual ’snapshot’, and then skips away to whatever is next.

Realizing this (or experiencing it if you are someone who enjoys observing your mind’s activities) can create immense life changes. If you observe human conflict, almost all of it derives from disagreements of perception. When we believe that our perception is indicating a true reality, we can then consider the other person ‘wrong’, and that’s a great excuse to yell at them, ignore them, hurt them, or even shoot them or drop bombs on them.

What if the problem isn’t who is right and who is wrong, but that we are all deluded into believing that our version of reality is the real one?

Think about this for a moment. That’s the basic assumption, isn’t it? I believe that my version of reality is the real one. If I’m ‘open-minded’, I might admit that I don’t have full information and that my mind can be changed if I’m shown the appropriate evidence. If I’m really open-minded, I might even recognize that I can never have complete information, and that my version of reality is always going to be biased. However, the truth is that most of us are emotionally committed to our version of reality, and we’ll defend it even if we are presented with strong evidence that suggests we’re wrong.  This is when conflict and violence really begins.

So No One’s Wrong?

It’s easy to see the problem with this train of thought. It implies that none of us are right or wrong, and from one point of view can suggest that any action or belief is thus acceptable. We want to rebel against this, because we feel that some actions are definitely bad. Yet we’re missing something here, because the real problem (and the real solution) isn’t found by dissecting our actions and arguing about who is right and who is wrong. This is what causes wars. The real problem (and the real solution) is found when we recognize in ourselves our emotional and intellectual commitment to Dualism. When we observe our dualism, recognize our own tendencies toward inner and outer conflict, and see our current mode of thinking for what it is, then we discover that the solution isn’t to harm or kill those who disagree with us, or even to try to change their minds. The solution is to attend to our own Awakening, so that we can cease to be a force for conflict in the world. Only then might we find true World Peace — when each of us attends to our own Awakening. From this perspective, this is the most important thing we can do with our lives.

Going Deeper

But wait! There’s more =) For in Awakening, we find true compassion, and discover the beauty of everything — including dualism. That’s the beautiful thing about Awakening, and it’s the very reason that it might be possible for the whole world to someday Wake Up. If Awakening saw dualism as bad or evil, it would be playing the same old game — dividing the world into the ‘Awakened’ and the ‘Asleep’, and making judgments or assumptions based on those divisions. Awake, we see everything ‘as it is’, without judgment, and that is why we can have love even for those who harm us (do you remember Jesus saying something about this?).

This is no different than discovering our own inner peace — when we think that anger is bad, we get angry at ourselves for getting angry! We create a cycle of violence that keeps turning around and around. But when we love our anger and approach it with curiosity and delight, it evaporates.

We can only possess conflict if our hearts are not overflowing with Love.

Reality Equals Perception

The deeper we observe, the more we discover that perhaps the only thing we can truly call ‘real’ is perception itself (for what else do we truly have evidence of?). Taken to its extreme, this seems very lonely. All that exists is my perception? The activity in my mind? Yet we can only feel lonely if we are still holding on to that most tenacious of illusions — the belief that there is a ‘me’ who is perceiving. If we sit and observe with awareness, this ‘me’ is nowhere to be found (though we can easily discover the mental structures we’ve used to create a powerful sensation of ‘me’).

Perception with a single observer is indeed lonely. But perception with no observer at all? At first this sounds nightmarish to our minds, but if we actually experience this pure perception, untainted with ideas and preconceptions, then we discover what so many people have tried to describe as Oneness or Awakening or Pure Awareness or Nirvana. Our words always fail to describe this state of being, simply because our words create ideas and this pure perception is idea-less (in that it perceives even ideas without assumption).

Here is where the magic lies — in pure perception. This does not mean that we need to silence our idea-making mind. It only means that we need to observe those ideas for what they are. We’re already awake, in the sense that we can’t get there via effort. Only through awareness — allowing perception to perceive. Just as we enjoy a piece of chocolate most when we put it in our mouth and taste it (a rather ‘passive’ activity that can be missed if our mind is over-thinking the experience or running off on other errands), we truly taste life when we’re allowing our natural awareness to Just Be.

In the Meantime

Until we personally unravel the secret of allowing perception, isn’t there anything else we can do? Why not have some fun with the idea of ‘Perception Equals Reality’? Once we start to notice how much our ideas and assumptions create our reality, it becomes a delightful game to start considering what ideas and assumptions we might hold that would create a more fun, harmonious, and loving world. I’ll end with two assumptions that many of us hold, and suggest some fun replacements.

Assumption: There are mean people in this world, and there are nice people in this world.

Replace With: ‘Mean’ people are the ones most in need of my compassion and love. Why not give them a friendly smile?

Or Even Better: Everyone is behaving perfectly. The world would be boring if everyone was nice. Still, it’s a fun game to try to get ‘mean’ people to become ‘nice’ people. I love to find creative ways to make this happen.

Assumption: Sometimes I’m going to be happy, and sometimes I’m going to be miserable. That’s just human nature.

Replace With: These ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ are what makes my life into a beautiful story.

Or Even Better: Why is ‘happy’ better than ’sad’? Every emotion is a wonderful thing to experience, and I’m curious about what each one ‘tastes’ like. In fact, I can’t wait for the next emotion to surface so that I can savor it!

The idea that our perception equals our reality is an enormously helpful idea to consider. Play with it a little, give it some thought, and see where it takes you. =)