Acharya Prashant addresses a question on how to develop the ability to see reality correctly, both gross and subtle. He states that the answer is very straightforward: the reality of anything is determined by your experience with it. He illustrates this with examples, asking how we know poison is fatal. It is because of our experience with it. Similarly, we know chili is spicy not because it is spicy for itself, but because of the experiencer's experience of it. The experience you have with a thing is the criterion for knowing its reality. It's a simple matter. However, the speaker explains that this simple matter is not so simple for humans because we are complex beings. A thing can seem good to us for two reasons: either because it is genuinely good, or because we have learned to consider it good. Similarly, something can seem bad either because it is genuinely bad, or because we have been conditioned to consider it bad. This is where the problem lies. Nature has given humans a capability for survival, which scientists call the power to evolve and psychologists call the power to adapt. This ability to adapt, while useful for physical survival, becomes a curse when it comes to the mind. Mental adaptation means that whatever situation you are in, you become like it. This is called conditioning. You internalize the external situation. This ability, which helps the species survive physically, is detrimental to the quality of life because it makes us adapt to falsehood. If falsehood is all around, a person adapts to it. They stop feeling the trouble from the lie; it no longer seems bad. They stop calling the lie a lie. The speaker uses the analogy of a frog: if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in normal water and slowly heat it, the frog adapts to the rising temperature and eventually dies. We are like that frog, constantly adapting to the lies around us. This adaptation is why we don't see the obvious. We don't ask fundamental questions about life because we have become comfortable. The speaker explains that the history of humanity is largely a history of its falsehoods. Societies have run on patently false beliefs for centuries. This is because of our tremendous capacity to adapt to lies. This is why, even when everything seems fine on the outside, something inside feels uneasy. That unease comes from a point within that cannot compromise with falsehood, which has been called the soul. This is why it is crucial to question everything you have assumed to be fundamental in your life. When you ask a question and the other person gets irritated, you should understand that your question is valid and you have caught the tail of a lie.
