How do we know what is and isn't real?

The evidence for reality or more precisely the formlessness of it is before you simply look at this thread and it becomes self evident

 

doesn't have to be physical to be real. but to get back to the topic question:
if you keep running into something, stubbing your toe against it, whether or not its what you think it looks like, chances are pretty good its a real thing of some kind.

 

Pays to know the difference before you cross traffic.

 

or at least be aware that there is something called reality and that it is a thing that exists.

although that is assuming that it pays to remain physically alive.
physical life is known to have some rewards,
where as non-physical life is not a thing that is known about at all,
claims of various and sundry beliefs being somewhat unconfirmable.

 

truly experience metaphysics???
It doesn't have to be so complicated, has buddism found god yet?
There's only one Truth, the Truth of the Father
The only Truth that matters... Understand that Truth and everything else falls into place, including, the metaphysics of everything

 

Reality without dreams is just somebody's nightmare, while dreams without reality are someone else's fantasy. They are context and content where one without the other is contradiction in terms. Without faith in both our memories and dreams we cannot have awareness or know either one.

 

Buddhism isn't looking for God, or even metaphysics for that matter. It's a practical way of coping with the reality of a world of suffering and dislocation. Conceptually, I'd agree with you that there is only one Truth. The problem is we can never really be sure what it is. I'm willing to concede with Descartes that the fact I'm thinking about this implies that I exist. Nothing else is certain, not even that. I could be a brain in a jar in some science lab. Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, among others, thinks we're all somebody's computer simulation. I'm an Okie existentialist in the sense that I think life is a gamble. We place our bets and roll the dice. But I like to make educated bets. I go on the basis of personal experience, book larnin', reason and intuition, to improve the odds. I have what Santayana calls "animal faith"-- the kind that gets cats and dogs and fieldmice through life. They don't paralyze themselves sorting out these quandries. I assume the existence of physical reality that I can feel, smell, touch, hear, or taste. From my knowledge of science, I'm also aware that my perceptions of it are distorted and not what the reality "out there" is at all. C'est la vie. I still find it ever fascinating and mostly enjoyable, and take great satisfaction in pursuing goals and activities that give a sense of meaning to my life and that I realize may be ultimately absurd. When you say the "Truth of the Father", it sounds religious. That's the meaning I've embraced. I had a "moment of clarity" in which I gained a new appreciation of existence from the passage in Genesis that God created humanity in His own image and likeness. So we can best encounter the divine by knowing ourselves and other human beings. This made going to WalMart a more meaningful experience for me. World religions and philosophies are great repositories of humanity's distilled wisdom, as well folly. "The Kingdom of the Father is spread out everywhere upon the earth, and people do not see it." (Gospel of Thomas, 113). Exploring it is an exciting adventure for me.