What buddhism says about physical reality? I had a discussion with one of my friend, who said, there's no such thing as physical reality, as per Lord Buddha. He quoted &quot;The universe only exists inside this small body&quot;.
As per my understanding, this is about how we understand the universe is different. But his idea is that there's no physical reality, all we are experiencing is a delusion.
Any idea about this ?
As Thrangu Rinpoche once said, some people spend a lot of time arguing whether a chair really exists or if it only exists in our minds, but here we are much more concerned with our attitude to the chair. Are we attached to this chair? Do we hate this chair? Do we think we are the chair? Are we free from this chair? That's what really matters in practice, not whether it exists or not.

At the same time, as my teacher said, "reality is our interpretation". Here you go. The only reality we can know is reality we perceive in our mind, and this perceived reality is our own interpretation. Whether the physical reality exists or not, all we see is our interpretation.

So if in this interpretation there are any mistakes or gaps, but we attach to it as if it were truth, as if what we perceive in our interpretation were 100% objective reality - when we think like that we get into all kinds of trouble.

Like, we get attached to "the chair" or hate "the chair" - because in our interpretation it means something and we think that's the only truth. Then when someone gives us new facts about "the chair" - we don't accept them, because they don't fit with our reality, our interpretation. We only see what we know, what we believe, not what's really there. This is what's called "delusion".

So maybe you and your friend are both right. This is about "how we understand the universe" is different AND all that we experience is our own delusion.