Considering Reality My teacher is correct. My concept of reality is a barrier. I told him that recently. "Sometimes I am not sure what is real anymore." We need to work through this, find the key that opens the door so I can get through it. I tried to meditate on the concepts while I davenned this morning. I thought about them before and after as well. It is clear that this will take time. Perhaps setting out in writing how things seem at this point will be helpful. Our perception and interpretation of the physical world happens in the brain. We have a soul which, while bound to the body, is separate from it. In our mind we can have both "true" and "false" experiences -- just because we believe or imagine something does not make it so. This is where things get scarey for me. In the physical world we can make observations and measurements which help us to conclude what is "real". In the realm of intellect, how do we determine truthhood and falsehod? I understood my teacher to tell me that we do it the same way, we test our spiritual hypotheses, look for results and determine their truth -- which must coincide with Torah. At this point my mind puts up a caution flag: It sometimes seems like when the data doesn't "fit" we excuse it away -- even in Torah. G-d heals the sick. We ask G-d for healing and the person dies. "G-d said no... The person completed their task... " G-d promises peace: ”...at a different time. " or "this is a different peace." And these may well be so. An explanation certainly can be true. It is our best attempt to reconcile Torah with our experience. And yet I still feel at great dis-ease with it. How do we know the difference between conjecture and reality. Whatever reality is. Once I thought I knew. Not now. There is more to creation than the physical. It appears that G-d decreed that the way we can bring those realms into this world is through mind, like a portal into the unknown. Is it like looking through a monitor, listening through a speaker? Does the soul ascend and return to enlighten the mind? What does it mean to see in a place where there is no physical existence? What is key to the door to unlock an understanding of reality? Shoshana's Page