Substance

Do you make reality? Or does reality make you?

I have adopted a sort of mantra that answers this question for me: "The world is me, and I am the world." I think I adopted this mindset after reading about Buddhism. My sense of self is what I use to propel myself through life. It is what I use to triumph through all adversity - my own willpower. By strengthening myself, I strengthen the world. I create my own reality. I bear no faith in deities or fate. Only I exist, because I, and only I, can only control myself.

Life is built by our own actions. We do not find ourselves. The substance of our being can only be shaped and molded by our own hands. If we mold ourselves to be inwardly detrimental - self-hatred, poor diet, bad habits - then our reality is going to be poor. The decisions we make to shape ourselves shapes the world, and so, the world shapes us. If we strengthen our substance through the gradual weaning of bad habits and self-hatred, then the perception of reality will improve. We progressively shape reality around us as we grow and mature. Our reality makes us, so we must make our reality.

I think that when someone reaches a certain point in positively molding their substance, or willpower, they begin to more effectively exert their will on reality. Self-love enables the power to place one's hands on the fabric of reality and change it. By this I mean the creation of music, technology, art, mathematics, writing, etc. Magic, really. People can quickly snowball when they realize the power that they have in their hands, the power of creativity. People use that creativity to change their reality, which causes the world to change.

We are just substances of the world. I think that we make up a piece of something far larger than ourselves. We mold our own little corner of reality and invite others into it so that we may learn from each other. With our powers of creativity, we try to express ideas that ascend beyond our physical constraints. There is some deeper meaning behind all of life. This is why people turn to religion, to answer this question. But I think religion does not acknowledge the correct answer. The answer was never the sky, the stars, or the intangible fate. It's within humanity.

We make reality. We create art, whether it is collaborative individual, by leaving artifacts of ourselves behind in the world. Every single word we say, game we play, question we ask, text we send, leaves something behind. We build ourselves, and the world around us, at each moment in our lives. Nothing else controls that. Nothing. The human willpower is the most supreme force in all of existence. Our ability to manipulate reality itself with our minds, bodies, and souls is why we have reached this point in civilization.