Reality is a Construct (Secular) The ancient thinkers explained with detailed specificity how consciousness constructs the entire range of reality from the grossest to the subtlest phenomena. For simplicity’s sake, one can reduce the explanation to twelve salient points, as follows: Everyday reality appears to be a given, but on investigation, it reveals itself as a human construct. The building blocks of reality are not tiny physical objects (atoms, subatomic particles) but exist in our awareness, where everything begins and ends as an excitation (activity) in consciousness. We know reality as the experience of observer and observed occurring in the now. The fundamental experience of both observer and observed is in the form of mental sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts (SIFT). Sensations, images, feelings, thoughts are entangled modifications of awareness, the result of social and cultural conditioning and accepted systems of education. Our awareness gets deeply involved in many systems (education, politics, gender, religion, etc.). Systems are arbitrarily made and changed.  Therefore, no construct has a privileged position over another.  Truth is always relative inside any system. These constructs, however, are intensely real for the individual awareness embedded in it.  We allow ourselves to be programmed by such systems and would feel naked and vulnerable without them. In the world’s wisdom traditions, this is known as the state of bondage. Excitations of awareness are not as basic as pure, timeless, dimensionless awareness. They modulate pure awareness like a switch that brings the familiar world into existence/experience. Excitations or vibrations take place in the domain of time; in fact, they create the sensation of time itself. Pure awareness is timeless. We are entangled in a vibrational reality that feels real on its own terms but is basically a mental construct, like a dream. To realize this is known as “waking up.” To someone who is awake, everything in the phenomenal world exists on the same playing field. As constructs, the same status is shared by birth, death, body, mind, brain, universe, stars, galaxies, the big bang, and God or the gods. Freedom lies in the experience of knowing yourself beyond all constructs. You are pure awareness before the subject/object split came about. All human suffering is the result of attachment to a construct, including fear of the construct we call death. Death is only real within the limits of the construct we manufactured. It doesn’t occur to the awareness that stands apart and sees all experiences rising and falling in the timeless moment of now. The ultimate goal of all experience is the same: finding the “real” reality in one’s own being. ----- Reality is a Construct (Christian) Christ-centered thinkers should see how consciousness in Christ constructs the entire range of reality from the grossest to the subtlest phenomena. For simplicity’s sake, one can reduce the explanation to twelve salient points, as follows: 1. Everyday reality appears to be a given, but on investigation, it reveals itself as a human construct, orchestrated by something greater than ourselves. 2. The building blocks of reality are not tiny physical objects (atoms, subatomic particles) but exist in our awareness, where everything begins and ends as an excitation (activity) in consciousness in Christ. 3. We know reality as the experience of observer and observed occurring in the now. The fundamental experience of both observer and observed is in the form of mental sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts (SIFT). 4. Sensations, images, feelings, thoughts are entangled modifications of awareness, the result of religious, social and cultural conditioning and accepted systems of education and "truth." Our awareness gets deeply involved in many systems (education, politics, gender, religion, etc.), most of which have no eternal bearing. 5. Systems are arbitrarily made and changed. Therefore, no construct besides Christ has a privileged position over another. Truth apart from God is always relative inside any system. 6. These constructs, however, are intensely real for the individual awareness embedded in it. We allow ourselves to be programmed by such systems and would feel naked and vulnerable without them. In the world’s wisdom traditions, this is known as the state of bondage, yet, in Christ, we are made free. 7. Excitations of spiritual awareness are not as basic as pure, timeless, dimensionless awareness. They modulate pure awareness like a switch that brings the familiar world into existence/experience. 8. Excitations or vibrations take place in the domain of time; in fact, they create the sensation of time itself. Pure spiritual awareness is timeless. 9. We are entangled in a vibrational reality that feels real on its own terms but is basically a mental construct, like a dream. To realize this is known as “waking up.” To someone who is awake, everything in the phenomenal world exists on the same playing field. As constructs, the same status is shared by birth, death, body, mind, brain, universe, stars, galaxies and God. 10. Freedom lies in the experience of knowing yourself in Christ beyond all constructs. You are pure awareness before the subject/object split came about. 11. All human suffering is the result of attachment to a construct, including fear of the construct we call death. Death is only real within the limits of the construct we manufactured. It doesn’t occur to the awareness that stands apart and sees all experiences rising and falling in the timeless moment of now. 12. The ultimate goal of all experience is the same: finding the “real” reality in one’s own being.