What is reality?

How can I define reality?

Is reality what I see, hear, smell, sense, taste? In other words, do my sense inputs define the nature of my reality? Yes, they do.

Dogs, for example, have differently developed sense organs, and therefore experience reality differently. They also have a smaller brain, and therefore have much less processing power available to them.

I could go on and on about the different species and their sense capabilities, but that would not bring me any closer to an answer to my opening question.

Actually, I touched a bit on something, namely that reality is unique to the different species that exist on this planet, mostly based on the input from the sense organs these various bodies have developed.

In other words, reality is what I perceive through my senses. Perhaps that is not entirely accurate, because the sense inputs get transformed into electrical pulses that stimulate various regions of my brain and trigger thoughts and feelings.

So, where am “I” in this process? I am dependent on input from any variety of sources. These sources can be external to my body or they are internal to the body. Whatever they are, they are brain stimulants. I can feel the wind on my skin, and I can feel the full stomach after a meal. I can hear the cars driving down the street, and I can see the darkness behind my closed eyes.

An “I” does not really exist independent of sense experiences. Sense experiences feed into a hub which after some time calls itself the “I”. The hub is the brain, where really all experiences take place, and where the sense of the “I” originates.

So, the experience of “I” and sense experiences are on the same level. They are experiences. So, that is where the key to reality is found, in experiences. Experiences are real. Experiences are what reality is.

I can focus on any experience and make it the central aspect of my life, my life’s mission, so to speak. I could use “love” or “compassion” or “greed” or any other experience and become the embodiment of this experience here on earth.