Introspection of the outer world

We observe with our senses. Don't we? We have five senses: hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, sensing. But these senses do not really sense! They just transmit signals to the brain. How the signals are interpreted by the brain, causes us to sense something. It is known that the pain threshold increases when we are relaxed. We can endure more pain in a relaxed state. We can also get used to feeling something, like the clothes we wear, so that it seems we do not sense them. Therefore, our sixth sense is our brain. Do we know what our brain senses?

Our brain senses all the information that it receives. If the brain senses something, it makes us aware of an interpretation of what it senses. The brain produces a thought and it produces an emotion. But some things the brain senses and does not make us aware of it, unless we focus on it. Like the impulses the brain gives to the heart to beat, or our lungs to breathe. And think of all the other things that the body does, such as digestion. Most of these processes are (at least partly) supervised by the brain.

Notice that what we sense is NOT the outer world. But we sense something that we think is positioned outside of us. But who really knows 'where' something is? Who knows what is real? Whatever our brain tells us, is but a way to cope with what is called 'reality'. However, we register and we interact with reality, whether it is internal or external. How do we interact?
We interact with reality by interacting with our interpretation of reality. This is important to become aware of. Because we have become used to interacting with the interpretation of reality, it is our interpretation of reality that can change in order to change reality. This is not some infinite regression or nonsense. If we change our interpretation of reality, reality responds differently. This is a secret and it holds as its germ your happiness.

The question becomes how to change your interpretation of reality, if all you have is partial information. Realize that your thoughts and emotions are registered by your brain. I found that my emotions are reactions to my thoughts most of the time. If on the other hand, I consciously focus on a positive emotion, my brain registers different thoughts! And those thoughts that are produced when I feel happy, are also thoughts that make me happy.

Normally, you are not aware of your thoughts and how they influence how you feel and what you do. If you pay more attention to them, you will find, that you think a lot of things. You think them and they are real to you. What you think is real, what you feel is real, because you do not doubt their reality. It is a two-way experience: thought + emotion. That is, you do not question your thoughts, especially those thoughts that you are convinced are true. Nevertheless, have you felt sad, pondering about something that you know is true? Have you ever felt upset that reality did not match your thoughts, your principles? Have you ever felt upset at a time when you defended your thoughts against different ones? If you remember when that happened, note that your brain was registering emotions and thoughts. You were speaking (or thinking) your mind, but you were upset. Your emotions that went along with the thoughts were not positive - you were not comfortable with them. What does it tell you?

There is an important lesson to be learned from this. Your emotions register the quality of your thoughts. If you are happy you have 'high quality' thoughts. If you are upset you have 'low quality' thoughts. If you can pinpoint what you are doing at any such time, you can reverse the process. You can feel happy and produce high quality thoughts. To do this, please interrupt your mind when it is running on autopilot producing low quality thoughts. You know what I mean, it is when you can't stop beating yourself or somebody else up and feel frustrated.

Low quality thoughts make you feel sad, upset, angry and the like. High quality thoughts make you feel at peace with yourself and others, they produce joy, happiness, enthusiasm and the like. The only thing you need to do when you get upset by your own thoughts - and if you get upset that is always the case, because if you get upset for any reason, it is ultimately because you think certain things at the time, and those thoughts are yours, even if those thoughts were triggered by something or somebody you observed with your senses - is to let them go and accept that reality is not agreeing with you. This realization may temporarily hurt your ego, but if you let the thought go that hurts you, and you accept that there is a different thought that can make you feel at peace and relaxed, you might hunt for that thought and find it and think it instead and feel at peace. A good way to hunt a high quality thought is to relax and concentrate on feeling at peace with yourself. This costs a considerable effort if you have never done this before, but it is worth more than a single try. If you can do this continually, you are at peace all the time, because you have trained yourself to be happy by then, because you replaced all 'low quality' thoughts by 'high quality' thoughts. Then you can think what you want to think all the time, because it brings you peace.

Ultimately, you should decide what you think and what you feel. But if you do not decide what you think and feel and instead you let your thoughts and emotions dictate your reaction, who decides for you? What bizarre program is running in your head that you would allow your integrity to be undermined by some 'mere' (your!) thoughts and emotions? If you don't like them, change them. You can do it in the same way you created the thoughts and emotions you don't like, except that now you need to feel postive (at peace) when you create new thoughts. And keep doing it every time it is needed... for hours, for days, for months, for years. It becomes easy to be at peace after a while ;-).

You only have your inner representation of 'reality'. And that inner representation is what you deal with. You do not deal with reality itself, because you do not know what reality really is. So, if you are able to deal with your inner representation of reality to such a degree, that you can choose to have peace with whatever you think and feel, then you are free. At peace, you become a full representative of reality. Because reality is at peace with itself.

Reality embraces you for you to embrace it and have peace.
And with the arrival of your peace, world peace comes one step closer.