Page 214 - Matter: The Other Name for Illusion

matter what their number is, the people you say are "right beside" you, are
actually in your brain.

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O Objection: "We perceive the external world as it actually is so there
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R Reply: This objection shows that the questioner is seriously confused, and
has not understood what is being said. That is because the objection rests on
the following claim: "There is a physical world out there. However, everybody
sees that world differently in his own mind." This person thinks that such a
claim is being made, and goes on to object to it, thinking that he disproves the
claim by saying: "There is a material reality out there, and we see it as it is.
Nobody sees it any differently. The proof of this is that when there is a cliff
edge out there we see it as such, and stop walking."
However, the fact under discussion here is very different from what that
person supposes. One case says, "There is an outside world, but we see this
world differently from how it truly is." The other says, "We perceive all that we
experience in our minds, and we can never make direct contact with any sort
of original independent entity. For that reason we can never know what these
originals that exist in the external world are like."
The fact that we do not walk over the edge of a cliff does not mean that we
have direct experience of the original matter in the external world. When we
walk along a straight path and then stop at the cliff edge, we are walking along
a path in our brain, and see the cliff edge in our brain. In fact, even if we do fall
off the edge of the cliff, we still perceive doing so in our brains. That happens
in exactly the same way as when a bus hits us, or a dog bites us, as we have
seen above. When we fall off the cliff, the pain of any injuries or broken bones
we suffer still forms in our brains.
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O Objection: " God shows us these images in order to test us. .
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H However, why should God, the creator of all actions, bring about t
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R Reply: Naturally, God has no need to test people to see their attitudes,
since it is our Lord who has created all events, times and places. God is not
constrained by time and place. What for us are the past and future have been
212 MATTER: THE OTHER NAME FOR ILLUSION