Reality is Personal

Reality is always personal.
-Deepak Chopra

Hmmm! Do you agree with that or are you still under the impression that there is only one reality we all share? Do you believe that the world is just a certain way and if we do not see it the way the majority does, we are psychotic? Or do you suppose all the ancient masters are right...that reality is an internal experience that differs from individual to individual?

I am looking out at a tree under a grey November sky. Is that tree real outside or inside me?

My eyes pick up the photons of light around the tree and those rays pass through my cornea, are bent and refracted a certain way depending on my lens physiology and are sent to my retina.  There the rods and cones do their thing and a visual message is created and sent to the optic nerve.  It then travels  along a sorting out pathway and is finally taken to the occipital lobe of the brain where "the tree" becomes "my" reality.  I perceive a lovely little tree with some remaining red leaves on it,  under a silvery November sky with precious light escaping through. I perceive the world at that moment as beautiful.

I have a perception of reality.  Is it yours?

 Say you come along and you are near sighted while I am far sighted.  You are colour blind and red just looks like dreary old brown to you. You also  have a thousand things going on in that head of yours ...making you feel stressed and depressed. Is your reality of that tree going to be the same as mine?  Probably not.  At that moment you may look out at that tree and see a scrawny little dying thing under a dreary dark sky, to justify your present moment impression of the world as being so darn depressing.

Your perception of reality was not like mine.

Say...another person comes along and they are completely blind.  They do not see the tree or the sky and no one tells them about it.  All they see when they look in the direction of it is darkness.  so what is real: their darkness or the tree?

Reality is personal. It takes place within us, not outside us. So guess what that means? 

You and you alone are responsible for your version of reality. If it isn't the way you want it to be don't go around chopping down dreary little trees and complaining about dark and dreary skies making your life miserable.  Go inside, take ownership of what you see and change what is going on in your mind.  Okay, okay...you cannot fix your colour blindness maybe but know that tree is a heck of a lot more than how you see it. You are just perceiving  it and the world outside of you in your own unique way.  But ultimately it is not outside of you, it is inside of you.  Reality is personal.

If we can change what is going on inside us, we will ultimately change what is going on outside of us. If I choose to see beauty, (even if I can't see a thing), the world will be beautiful.  If I choose to see dark and dreary, it will be dark and dreary.

Choose to be optimistic. It feels better. Dalai Lama

All is well.