We communicate with each other verbally and learn from such activities. Although our five sense organs are not superior to some species, we can utilize them in a more coordinated way and learn about the external world more correctly. In addition to using our five sense perception to learn on the outer world, we also use our ability, thought and investigation to process the acquired perceptual data and knowledge coherently in daily social life. We organize what we have learned and record them using letters. Later, we pass on our knowledge to the next generation. Unfortunately, we are mindlessly living according to the rules of the prejudice. We are very much biased, and we often forget that what we have learned from the former generation could be largely formulated in a specific condition, confined by the availability of resources. Knowledge acquired through activities such as listening, learning, communicating is often affected by one’s schema accumulated from cultural background and tradition, and also by personal emotions and feelings. Knowing reality beyond the limited state is not an easy matter.
Human beings devise language to share experiences with one another, and with conceptual words, we can define the relationship between things. Unfortunately, we sometimes use language in a careless way. We mostly fall into the error of assumption that names, or words used in ordinary life accurately characterize the essential nature of the object or the existing other beings. We tend to believe in every day life that whatever can be named, exists. The next generation often does not know the names recorded in scriptures or books, e.g., whether those are Love, God, or Tao, were in fact devised to identify certain conditioned states by experiencer. The beginners at a learning stage blindly accept the former generation’s heritage as reality, forgetting the key person who had experienced. In quantum mechanics, photons are known to behave either as waves or as particles. Here, reality is not determined as one or the other by Nature (or God). Whether they are ‘waves’ or ‘particles’ are dependent on the experimenter’s choice and the condition of the experiment.
The physical laws of nature do not describe an autonomously existing external world. Rather, they describe the observations made by observers with mental volitions that are consequent on certain measurement operations. We must not be biased by our blind faith and habits. We should be careful not to manipulate another’s faith or feelings, thinking that I or my faith is absolutely right, while others are wrong. Sometimes, silence can be more musical than any song.