Philosophy, Being and Reality

Some reading on the subject of philosophy, ontology, epistemology, metaphysics and the nature of reality that I’d recommend: Choosing Reality, by Allan Wallace, Dreamtime and Inner Space, by Holgar Kalweit, The Holographic Universe, and Mysticism and the New Physics, by Michael Talbot, and an excellent first major book, as an overview of world religions, mythology, philosophy and ontology (the nature of being): The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell.

But to summarize the nature of being and reality, we can say this.

Nagarjuna, the pre-eminent philosopher of Buddhism, describes the true nature of reality as non-dual, interdependent, mutual-arising. The Middle Way which he explains is between the two extremes of nihilism and eternalism. The ordinary perception of concrete, separate, divided beings and things, is an illusion. But it is their separateness, their duality, which is the illusion, and not their existence. They are not, non-existent; they are empty of inherent existence, empty of separate existence. This can be conceptually grasped, with difficulty, but can only be fully comprehended when it is viscerally realized, and directly seen. That, is enlightenment. And by comparison, yes, we live in Plato’s cave of shadows, and see nothing but illusions. But that does not mean that reality does not exist – it simply means that we are not awake to it. But we can be.

J. Todd Ring,
January 30, 2021