Is the world truly how we perceive it? Why do we have a skewed perception of everything around us?
In Why Buddhism Is True, Robert Wright explains that the idea of emptiness squares well with modern understandings of perception in Buddhism. He writes that today, scientists say that perception isn’t passive but active—that our brains construct the world we experience at least as much as we receive it.
Check out how our projected preconceived notions of the world change how it looks.
The World Isn’t as It Seems
We all project our preconceived thoughts and feelings—the stories we tell ourselves about how things are—onto the world. Here’s the basic idea of perception in Buddhism: When you come across something, like a dog, one brain region (the thalamus) receives sensory data (like the dog’s appearance and the sound of its bark). Another brain region (the medial orbitofrontal cortex or mOFC) combines those data with your preconceived stories about that thing. Together, they form your perception of the dog, but your preconceptions take priority. For instance, if you love dogs, you’ll be inclined to enjoy their presence. Meanwhile, your friend who was attacked by one would find their presence threatening.
(Shortform note: The brain’s habit of projecting our preconceptions is part of an even larger neurological system. Another part of it is the reticular activating system, a brain structure present in all vertebrates that filters sensory information so you perceive what’s most relevant—or meaningful—to your interests. The fact that it isn’t unique to humans suggests that neither are projection or meaning-making. From single-celled organisms responding to chemical gradients to insects recognizing flower patterns, life forms evolved to perceive what’s relevant to their survival rather than perceiving reality “as it is.” So our habit of projecting meaning onto experience isn’t just psychological—it’s been built deeply into our brains by evolution.)
Because of our tendency to project our preconceived notions and feelings onto the world, everybody experiences things slightly differently. And it’s not just strong thoughts and feelings that shape our perception. According to Wright, we all have tons of subtle preconceptions and project them throughout our lives. Dogs, pens, cars, potholes, snow—each is paired with subtle thoughts and feelings that shape how we experience and relate to it.
The takeaway is that like Buddhism, science says that none of us see the world as it really is. Because our projection happens beneath the level of our awareness, we believe our perceptions represent the world as it really is. But the world as we see it isn’t really there.
(Shortform note: Wright’s point about projection extends even to contexts where we think we’re being purely objective. As Thomas Kuhn argues in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, scientists observe the world through theoretical “paradigms” that shape what they notice and how they interpret it. For instance, before the Copernican revolution, astronomers invented elaborate mathematical models with circles within circles to explain planetary motion because they were unconsciously projecting their assumption that Earth was the center of the universe. Once astronomers let go of this assumption, they could see a simpler explanation: The planets, including Earth, orbit the sun in ellipses.)
