Can you explain more what realities are?

Question: Can you explain more what realities are?

Answer: In Buddhism we learn the true nature of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking; and also about visible object, sound and the other objects which are experienced through the five sense-doors and through the mind-door.

Question: I know already what touching is. When I touch something I know what I am touching. I know when I touch my ear or the chair. Everyone knows that. I know when I touch something which is hot.

Answer: We use words and concepts in order to express what we mean. We say, for instance, that Cairo is hot or that a fire is hot. Heat itself is a reality which can be directly experienced through the body base without there being the need to name it. Heat is a reality which is true for everybody, it is absolute truth. When you think about Cairo or a fire you think long stories but there is no direct experience of a reality. The real purpose of Buddhism is not to intellectualize about the world and form up stories about the world and about people. The aim is to develop understanding of realities such as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching or thinking, and also of visible object, sound, odour, flavour, tangible object and the objects which appear through the mind-door. These are realities which can be studied when they appear one at a time.


Topic 159