Pleitez 1

Erika Pleitez

Prof. Kane

English 115 MW

1 October 2018

E1.1 Reality Within Knowledge

Reality is an abstract concept within the world. It is a term that branches out into multiple

different theoretical answers by people who use the idea of perception to interpret what the core

to one’s reality is and how it functions the mind to motivate one to move forward as an

intelligent individual; furthermore, it brings a sense of discovering an identity as in creating a

changing purpose for each individual to follow until death. Perception plays a role in creating the

“worlds” that individuals walk around in because one knows that there are not one but many

realities that exist within each and every single mind in the universe. Eyes of the individual

project a certain reality that becomes the gateway to becoming successors of past people;

although, by attaining that success, one realizes that gaining a sense of knowledge assists in

developing a world. Obtaining the knowledge signifies that you discover “self” and development

as a whole and combining reality and knowledge together, it is how groups of people come

together to productively interact with each other to become something much greater, conceptual,

analytical, and have a high degree of cognition along with the usage of language. Although,

keeping that in mind, people also avoid in following delusions of the reality they created which

is, in other words, absolute ignorance. This follows the idea that people can work more fluidly

once realities are combined together when it comes down to working together productively.

A group of individuals may come together to productively work in efficient ways as each

of their realities are combined together. This can lead in reaching a greater sense of cognitive
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skills utilized in everyday situations whether it is at home, school, or someone’s house. An

example of a group where realities are combined together to create one magnificent world while

pertaining to knowledge and “self” are a group of animators working in an animated film. In an

animation team, there are multiple different artists working in different areas, such as, the

concept artist or animator and each person determines the concepts of art, for example, color,

through perception. In other words, every artist envisions their own version of reality with each

of their teammate’s part to the project; furthermore, with the reality they envision, it assists them

in communicating with each other through a sense of direction and evolved language used by

everyday people in order to work productively and put together each piece as one reality made

up of many. An interesting idea to think about is that the reality used to create believable stories

are fictional realities that would soon belong to a character and these realities are created by the

worker, which are real individuals of the real world. The concept of language used in creating

realities are important when detaching from delusions. By following the example about

animation teams, workers use attitudes from the real world and place it into the fictional realities

which, otherwise, “...determines which is the right logic of fiction or what fictional reality really

is,” (Crittenden). Fictional realities or characters are completed logically based on what

situations each one is put into. Utilizing language is an important factor in a productive group

because it guides each person to understand a different perspective. Sentences are developed by

the worlds within the minds, and it proves the point that they are made from the attitudes

displayed to the realities outside each mentality. Language is what guides people to have a list of

logical principles that define worth of the individual and contain a sense of compassion to their

surrounding area, whether it be objects or people in your working team. In some form, to the

Buddhist point of view, “...this is to be regarded as a series of objects and events in which we are
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interested, and about which we can make true and false assertions and even have knowledge, but

to which we are to remain “detached” in a certain way,” (Crittenden) and becoming “detached”

is what people drift away from. Becoming detached signifies that people need to remove

themselves from the false assertions caused by their own fictitious or true reality and one who

does not become detached discovers that they are defined by social agreements which is the root

cause of unhappiness and unhealthy cooperation; furthermore, it is the cause of rifts between

multiple mindsets and causes each to become corrupted with ignorance. Ignorance mainly causes

a break within the production of a group because one out of many may be blind to what

knowledge is present and might stay within a “fiction” of their own reality without opening the

door to different possibilities to evolve their skills in interpretation.

A productive group of people may be dysfunctional if the reality of one person is trapped

within the ignorance of their own false assumptions or accusations. They are defined by the

social norms as in the common sense of other people's realities that do not belong to them.

People who are ignorant will agree with claims by others and either display a rash attitude that

deems them childish rather than intelligent. An example of ignorance within a group of people is

in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” where he envisioned men held captive in a cave where no light

is to be seen but rather the shadows of the outside; moreover, the men knew that the shadows

came from outside where the hidden knowledge resides. The men symbolize ignorance of people

in the real world who cannot cooperate in social gatherings as they only refute with nonsense

towards those who vocalize valuable knowledge and the hidden conscious much like Plato

mentions, "Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes, and that it

was better to not even think of ascending; if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the

light, let them only catch the offender and put him to death,” (Plato). Ignorance in gatherings are
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caused by the impulsivity of the body and the mind combined together and when one wants to

discover their identity and reality, they need to detach the mind, the most important aspect to a

living thing, away for that it will guide the intellectual to notice the beauty and naturality of the

outside and hold compassion towards others. Attaining the knowledge to further ascend to

greater depth and spirituality will aid the people to project their interpretations materialized from

the information they learned over the course of evolution and “...is also inferred to be the

universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this

visible world,” (Plato). Those who fail to demonstrate the common decency, especially, within a

gathering will most likely “...have his eye fixed,” (Plato).

An important factor for all people in a group to be able to work efficiently is that all must

come to a realization that every living thing experiences suffering within happiness. Each person

goes through events of happiness but being “whole” as a human involves the balancing of both

happiness and suffering together for as long as a “self” exists. In Buddhist views, there are three

different types of suffering people experience which are “...'ordinary suffering' which is the

experience of pain and unhappiness in an everyday context; ' suffering through change ' which is

the feeling of unsatisfactoriness caused by the impermanence (and thus necessary decay) of

everything; and, finally, the suffering caused by the fact that our existence is conditioned,”

(Mellor). After experiencing all types, people are able to isolate “I” from “...the world,” (Mellor)

and that is the first aspect to keep in mind before working in a group. An individual must

experience “self”, or in other words, solipsism, the idea that self is all that exists before combing

all realities together to form something that would appear to be like a utopian consciousness.

People will realize after experiencing the “self” and suffering in isolation, like Rene Descartes as

he sought to discover the doubting self, every member of a group will think “I find here that
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thought is an attribute that belongs to me; it alone cannot be separated from me. I am, I exist that

is certain; but for how long? As long as I think...,” (Descartes). Discovering “self” leads to

gaining self-knowledge which will allow the individual to transcend their basic knowledge to

contribute to groups but in order to do that, according to Hindu claims, one must discriminate

between the real from the unreal, give up the unreal for the real, have self-control inside the

mind, and have “...intense longing to be free from the bondage of ignorance and delusion by

seeking self-knowledge,” (Dhiman). If all fails, there is no chance for self-realization, a major

factor in working efficiently in a group. When a group productively work together as realities are

brought together, each reality may be different but might also be similar based on the

experiences each person went through and the idea that “...Birth is suffering (dukkha), decay is

suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering.’ This

means...that all forms of existence whatsoever are unsatisfactory and subject to suffering,”

(Mellor) is what makes a living individual exist; furthermore, it proves the attitudes a single

person may have towards the world. By working together, people need to acknowledge their

“self” which materializes into knowledge and it diverts them away from being called ignorant

and simple-minded.

There is no such thing as there being only one reality present. The world is assembled by

multiple realities created by people who have set principles of discovering “self” within the

happiness and suffering they experience over the course of the ever-changing population.

Realities can become something greater in a working group and to achieve such combinations of

realities from multiple people, knowledge is the key factor all must gain before proceeding.

Without knowledge, there would be no existence because knowledge comes from the mind and it

is caused such evolutionary differences to become the world today.

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Work Cited

Bramann, Jorn K. Descartes: The Solitary Self –Abridged (from The Educating Rita Workbook).

Crittenden, Charles. “Everyday Reality as Fiction – A MāDhyamika Interpetation.” Journal of

Indian Philosophy, vol. 9, no. 4, 1981, pp. 323 – 333.

Dhiman, Satinder. “Who Am I: Self-Knowledge According to Advaita Vedanta.” Interbeing,

vol. 4, no. 1, 2010, pp. 17-28.

Mellor, Philip A. “Self and Suffering: Deconstruction and Reflexive Definition in Buddhism and

Christianity.” Religious Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, 1991, pp. 49–63.

Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” The Republic, Plato.