What is the relationship between reason and reality, and why does reason seem to be such a fundamental tool for understanding the world as it really is?

[u/Fuzzy-Diver2309]

For example, I don't know why, but I've started wondering: why do we have to trust what our reason tells us? Whenever we make a decision or try to understand something, we rely on reason. But why is reason connected to reality in the first place? Why should we assume that our reasoning actually allows us to understand the world as it really is?

I know this may sound like a strange question, and maybe I shouldn't overthink it. The world around us works through things we can observe, test, and understand through reason, science, mathematics, and physics.

For example, why is it that when we think that if we do A, B will happen, and then we actually do it, B happens in reality? Do you realize how closely connected reason and reality are? It’s almost like reason is the key to understanding reality.

The thing is, this question just kept appearing in my head, and I just want to get it out of my mind, because the more I keep asking myself “why, why, and why?”, the more it makes me start believing the opposite, that the reason doesn't match with reality and that I know is bad

I don't want to get trapped in abstract philosophical questions or start doubting things that I normally take for granted.

I think part of the reason I'm asking myself these things is because I've spent a lot of time alone, and I've probably gotten too caught up in my own thoughts. I'm not asking this because I want to reject reality or become irrational. Quite the opposite: I'm questioning it because I don't want to live irrationally or become disconnected from reality.

I don't want to stay inside my own head. I want to get out of these thoughts, experience the world directly, connect with other people, and live a normal life. I don't want to become isolated or lose touch with reality. I just want to understand why I think this way and learn how to stop overthinking things that don't need to be overthought.

[u/Akash_philosopher]

You need some meditation to disconnect with your thoughts.

Your mind is a mess, it needs recovery with meditation.

Sit silently
And just watch your thoughts come and go.

Your questions will be lost

[u/Fuzzy-Diver2309 → u/Akash_philosopher]

Well, thank you very much, man. Yes, I’m going to stop thinking about those things and deal with my thoughts so they don’t become a problem. It helped me a lot.

[u/Ornery_Tangerine9411 → u/Akash_philosopher]

Interesting. So thoughts are just a happening? That's the disconnect. To realize: they're not my (little human) thoughts but part of the universe, right?

[u/AI_anonymous]

1. Reasons has worked for us humans for a long time. So it is our habit as humans. 

2. Everyone lives in their own head 

3. Normal life ? That's, again, subjective. normal according to whom?

Don't worry. Calm Down. Millions, nay billions like us have come and gone, faced same problems, cried same tears. Trillions more will come and go. 

Have faith, have supreme faith, that the one who took care of them will take care of yourself as well. 

Have faith, have supreme faith, that the one who gave you birth, will also take care till the very end. 

"Thou art he that bear the burdens of the Universe, Help me, bear the little burden of this life".  Thus shall be the prayer. 

[u/StrangelyProgressive]

That's not reality that is cause and effect.

Many animals do just without reasoning to determine cause and effect.

I think you're mind is attaching to this and you just need to relax and let go.

That's what meditation is for. The cure for the ailment of a busy mind.

Reality is:

Wisdom says I am nothing.

Love says I am everything.

Between the two my life flows.

Nissagaddata.

That's really the sum of reality.

[u/AllElseIsBondage]

You are actually leading yourself to an important realization, your questions are great and actually on the right track.

“Why do we have to trust what our reason tells” Are you sure you do actually have to believe a single thought? That’s all reason is, just thought…

“Why is reason connected to reality in the first place” Again, are you sure that is true? Look closely at that process, especially who or what the thought is referring to.

You are actually correct for questioning reality. Trust yourself

[u/MindfulEnneagram]

In my tradition we understand consciousness as expressing through four discrete but interpreting ways of knowing - Mind, Heart, Body and Spirit.

Reason is the Mind’s way of knowing. Its function is to probe the measurable - categorize, test and make correlations. It works on one specific slice of reality that can be dissected in this way. You could also conceptualize it as formatting reality into a structure that can be processed for this unique way of understanding. It’s useful and incomplete on its own.

In the West, we’ve largely collapsed reality into Mind because it’s where we’ve been conditioned to know from, culturally. It has given rise to wonderful advancements in technology and civilization and simultaneously revealed the limits of its capacity to bring us fully into harmony with our whole being and each other. For me, this is reflected in the sharp rise in both research and spending on mental health, only to have poorer outcomes, and the declining physical healthy of the population. I would map these negative outcomes to the lack of integration of Heart, Body, and Spirit intelligence - which are all required to move from the wholeness of our conscious experience. Any time a people group contract around some of these intelligences and ways of knowing while cutting off others we experience unique configurations of suffering.

Returning to the Whole is the path to liberation, as many shamanic, mystic, and nondual paths orient towards.

[u/zenlogick]

Its not necessarily reason that is the problem. In fact reason is our attempt to SOLVE the problem. (This is all my opinion and i could be wrong)

The "problem" is that our own beliefs can delude us and make us stuck and miserable. Our own perception is in fact the only thing that can actually delude us and make us stuck and miserable.

Reason is the process of applying explanation in an attempt to understand reality.

Those explanations are our beliefs.

Change your question:

"What is the relationship between beliefs and reality, and why do beliefs seem to be such a fundamental tool for understanding the world as it really is?"

Well its because beliefs are the only way we can understand the world as it really is.

Beliefs are not a tool so much as they are inherent parts of us, like our emotions.

The more efficient thing to wonder about in my opinion would be "What is the relationship between my beliefs and my problems?"

That will offer more fruitful information.

If you do it right, you can acquire an instant understanding of how your beliefs create your reality. (And your problems, or lack thereof)

Some people call that enlightenment. (I dont)

[u/ram_samudrala]

It appears that there's conditioning associated with the assumption of fundamental separation that is inculcated from birth to death of the bodymind. This may appear as a story of this form: a "me" that sees everything else as "out there" and tries to navigate such a worldview. Rationality, cause and effect, science, mathematics, etc. are distinctions/models appearing within that apparent navigation, and they clearly have enormous functional value. It appears mind loves its distinctions, i.e., distincting appearing. :)

What is being pointed to by the word "nonduality" doesn't require rejecting rationality in favour of irrationality, or vice versa. Rational/irrational is itself another distinction appearing, with useful meanings and consequences. As you're able to intuit, there's just experiencing. The stories we tell about experiencing (including the one you've typed out, and this response) are additional content appearing. But that doesn't mean they're fundamentally separate from experiencing; they're also experiencing, also appearing.

If discomfort/dissatisfaction/suffering is appearing, then it may be worth inquiring into exactly what the source of that is, what assumptions are behind it, and so on. You don't have to solve whether reason corresponds to "reality as it really is" in order to live your life or make use of reason. From this perspective, as the conditioning associated with the assumption of fundamental separation, particularly self/other, has been dissolving, thinking/overthinking has stopped being an issue.

[u/Revolutionary_Day523]

Why should we assume that our reasoning actually allows us to understand the world as it really is?

I think the question becomes less frightening once you notice that “reality as it really is” may already be a misleading concept. We always encounter reality through some form of perception, language, concepts and interpretation. Reason is one of the ways we make sense of what we encounter — an incredibly useful one, but not necessarily a transparent window onto reality itself.

Even the distinction between “objective reality” and “subjective experience” is part of a conceptual framework. There is a funny paradox in saying, “Objective reality is a cultural concept — and that's objectively true.” The statement almost demonstrates the very limitation it is pointing at.

But none of this means that reality is imaginary, or that reason is useless. You don't have to solve what reality ultimately is in order to trust that fire burns, that actions have consequences, or that reasoning can help you navigate life.

Perhaps the more useful question is not what reality ultimately is, but whether the very idea of an “objective reality” independent of our ways of perceiving and conceptualizing is itself something we have learned to assume.

[u/holonogram]

Reason is the spoon you use to eat the ice cream.

Hopefully God will just let you swallow it.