Question
First, thank you for reading this question! I am 19 and an undergraduate astrophysics student. For two or three years, I have had the impression, almost a sensory feeling, that there is “something else,” that the tree in front of me is only an image. I often feel that what makes up material reality is ultimately like a dream, and that I wake up only in brief bursts of a few seconds, one day here, another there, usually in a forest. So I wonder: is there really “something else”? Is what I feel a response to an ego-driven fear? Is there a process of development? Does Buddhist practice help us feel this fullness more often? Thank you for any answer you can give me.
Anonymous
Master Kosen’s answer
What matters is not asking whether the tree is real, whether this is a dream.
What matters, according to quantum physics, is becoming aware of the relationship between the observer and the observed object.
Kosen