The Nature of Perception - Rupert Spira

so what is the nature of perception somebody asked the painter Paul says on that question and he replied a time is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will trigger a revolution that time is coming when a single carrot freshly perceived will trigger a revolution he said that over a hundred years ago so I would suggest that that time has come and he said this in response to our conventional way of perceiving perception and indeed all experience is conventionally believed to be divided into two essential ingredients a subject herself on the inside and an object other or world on the outside and this belief that perception and in fact all experience is divided into these two essential ingredients underpins our entire world culture it underpins the way we think feel act perceive and relate enshrined in this belief is the idea that there is an outside world made of something called matter and an inside self made of something called consciousness or awareness which shares the limits of and is itself a product of the body a world made of matter on the outside a self made out of a limited temporary consciousness on the inside and these two entities joined together by something called mind and this fundamental presumption upon which our world culture is based is enshrined in our language in such phrases as I see the tree I the inside self connected to the outside object other all world by an act of perceiving now in order to restore some credibility to the English language I would like to also quote what William Blake said a hundred years before Suzanne when he was asked exactly the same question about the nature of perception he said when the doors of perception are cleansed everything will appear to man as it really is infinite when the doors of perception are cleansed or divested of this belief that experience is divided into these two essential ingredients an inside self and an outside object other or world everything all things ordinary things like Suzanne's carrot or this experience that we're having right now will be perceived as it really is not a collection of finite objects known by a finite self but as it truly is infinite so in order to explore the true nature of perception in fact the true nature of experience these two men and thousands and thousands of artists and scientists with them embarked on a path of exploration the two paths of knowledge and love or devotion are very well described in the indian and and indeed the Western tradition the two paths of nano yoga and bhakti yoga the way of knowledge and the way of love were part of mainstream India but this third path the way of perception the way of form was not so widespread in India it was found in the tantric schools of India Tibet and Kashmir and it was also found in the laboratories and studios of scientists and artists in the West this yoga of perception in Sanskrit the name form form is Rupa which is also very significantly the same word in Sanskrit for beauty as is often the case with language language itself conveys a profound understanding and this identity of form and beauty in a Sanskrit word Rupa is very significant and this way of perception is is the third way that is not usually spoken of the two paths of Nana and bhakti we are all familiar with but there is a third yoga Rupa yoga the way of beauty and the way of form so how did how did these artists and scientists explore the nature of perception this the dualistic presumption that is enshrined in our language in phrases such as I see the tree we can go in either direction to explore the true nature of our experience either in words towards the eye which is the way of the mystic or outwards towards the tree the carrot the object the world which is the way of the artist or the scientist people like Cezanne and blake and innumerable artists and scientists went apparently outwards seeming to go in the opposite direction from the mystic that went in words in fact it turns out that if both disciplines the discipline of the mystic and the discipline of the artist or scientist is taken far enough they both arrive at the same conclusion so Paul says understood in front of one of the most solid enduring structures of nature a mountain more subway tile and he had this realization I don't know or experience a mountain all I know is my perception of the mountain exactly the same could be said of us now look around you now we think we see a room a world in fact we have no idea that we are experiencing a room or a world all we are knowing or experiencing is our perception of the room or world in fact we can't even be sure as that we are experiencing perception but we can't be sure that it's a perception of a room or a world because we never come in contact with that room or world it's not a perception of a world it is just a perception experience knows perception thought ads of the world keep looking around your you had the same room the same knowing only your current perception and ask yourself is there anything present in the perception other than perceiving is there anything present in the sight of the so-called room other than the experience of seeing look around you and try to find anything other than the experience of seeing and having ascertained in your experience that all we know of a so-called world or room is the experience of seeing go further ask yourself what is the substance the nature the reality of seeing seeing must be made of something and if we are experiencing seeing we must be experiencing what it is made of go intimately now to the experience of seeing and with an imaginary hand reach out and touch the stuff that seeing is made of what do you find that do you find anything other than the knowing of your experience go back to the experience of seeing and ask yourself is there any substance present there other than the knowing of it and don't limit this experiment just to seeing range freely over your entire experience thoughts images sensations perceptions do you ever know or come in contact with anything other than the knowing of your experience try now to find something in your experience other than the knowing of it it's not possible all we find in experience is knowing not the knowing of experience just as previously rediscovered it's not a perception of the world all that is known in experience is knowing consciousness now ask yourself what is it that knows this knowing it is obviously known experience is known what is it that knows knowing is it known by something other than itself no it is knowing that knows itself this knowing that is the reality of all experience knows itself it never comes in contact with anything other than itself pure consciousness is only ever aware of itself it never knows or comes in contact with an object or another now if we ask this knowing or pure consciousness what do you know about yourself if we ask awareness which is identical to consciousness if we ask awareness what is your experience of yourself do you ever experience the absence of yourself if it could speak it would say no do you ever find a limit in yourself if it could speak it would say no in other words if we ask pure knowing or awareness what its experience of its self is it will always reply if it could speak in my own experience of myself I am ever-present and unlimited that is I am eternal and infinite it is only thought that superimposes the apparent limits and destiny of the body onto awareness thereby seeming to reduce awareness or consciousness into a finite located temporary self but if we stick closely with awarenesses experience of itself and after all awareness is the only one that is aware of itself and therefore awareness is the only one that can legitimately know anything for sure about itself if we stick to awarenesses experience of itself it will always say all I ever come in contact with or know is my own eternal infinite self when I say awareness I'm not referring to some abstract extraordinary cosmic awareness I'm talking about the very knowing with which each of us is knowing their current experience right now the knowing with which you are knowing this ordinary experience is God's infinite eternal awareness and although from the point of view of the mind it seems to know a collection of finite objects and selves from its own point of view which is the only real point of view it never knows or comes in contact with a finite object or self it only ever knows its own eternal infinite being and whether we realize it or not that is the experience we are having right now so if it is true that pure consciousness or awareness is the only one that is aware and all this awareness is ever aware of is its own infinite eternal being how does it come about that we seem to experience a world of finite objects themselves so to answer this question I have to go to my favorite metaphor of the screen and the image only the screen we are talking about here is a magical screen you have to imagine a TV screen for a start the screen has no edges it is a screen that is infinitely expanded but it is a screen that is also aware so when the movie begins on our magical TV screen it is viewed not by somebody sitting on a sofa but it is viewed by the screen on which it is appearing so this screen is a metaphor for the light of pure knowing infinite awareness and before the movie begins the screen are aware screen is just aware of its own transparent emptiness just as before any appearance of thought feeling sensation or perception awareness just knows and is itself alone now when the movie begins a street a scene appears such as a street scene houses cars people what does the screen experience does the appearance of the street scene suddenly fragment the screen into a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves no from the screens point of view and the screen is the only one that is doing the viewing it simply continues to experience its own ever-present infinite self and the appearance of the street is just a coloring of itself a modulation of itself a vibration of its self but it never ceases to be or to know its own eternal infinite itself so for whom is there for whom are there a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves for one of the characters in the movie instead of asking the screen what is your experience if we asked one of the characters in the movie one of the people walking down the street in the movie what is your experience from the point of view from the limited point of view of that character the character will look around and we'll say I see objects and selves and I am one of those objects so from the limited and illusory point of view of one of the characters in the movie there are a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves but from the real and only point of view of the screen there is no such multiplicity and diversity there are no objects and no self there is just its own ever-present infinite being it never ceases to be or to know itself in other words a multiplicity and diversity of finite objects are only real as objects and selves from the illusory point of view of one of those finite selves in other words the separate self who is represented in this metaphor by the character in the movie the separate self is only a real separate self from its own illusory point of view ignorance is only real from the illusory point of view of ignorance awareness knows nothing of a separate self it knows nothing of a separate inside self nor does it know anything of a separate outside world the inside self and the outside world are superimposed by thought onto the reality of our experience which means this very experience that we are having now is itself infinite awareness staring itself in the face now imagine in the movie that a child is born if we ask one of the characters in the movie what has happened the characters say a new person has appeared a new being has been born and then as the movie proceeds that character will grow up eventually gets sick grow old and die at least that's what the character in the movie will tell us but what if we ask the screen what is your experience when the child is born what is your experience we're talking to the screen now we're talking to infinite awareness and the screen will answer nothing new comes into existence nothing is added to myself nothing grows old no one grows sick and nobody dies because from the point of view of this infinite screen from the point of view of the light of pure knowing it only ever knows or comes in contact with itself and itself is the ever-present reality or substance of all experience this is what Parmenides meant when he said that which is never ceases to be that which is not never comes into existence that which is luminous empty knowing never ceases to be in its own experience of itself it wasn't born it's not growing old it never knows sickness or death that which is never ceases to be and that which is not for instance a finite object or self that which is not never comes into existence existence comes the word existence comes from two Latin words ex and sister a meaning to stand out from nothing truly stands out from infinite awareness that which is never ceases to be that which is not never comes into existence no finite object ever truly comes into existence no finite object and no finite self whether we realize it or not this very experience I'm not speaking of extraordinary mystical experiences that one in a million enlightened sages have I'm talking about the reality of our ordinary everyday experience this very experience that we are having now is only infinite awareness shining knowing and being only itself never being or becoming an object other self or world this is the revolution that says on who was talking about a time is coming when a single object freshly perceived will trigger a revolution the Revolution he was speaking of was this understanding that matter mind and consciousness are not three separate realities they are not three separate things there are three ways of seeing three ways of seeing one reality if we stand as a body if we believe and feel that what we essentially are is something made out of matter called a body our experience will appear in accordance with that belief our experience will seem to be a multiplicity and diversity of separate objects that appearance is just the inevitable corollary the inevitable counterpart to the belief that what I am is an object a body conversely if we think that what we are is essentially mind then experience will appear in accordance with that belief everything will be we will cease being realists and we will become idealists everything will seem to be mind thinking feeling sensing seeing hearing touching tasting and smelling and if we know ourselves to be ever-present unlimited awareness then it is inevitable that experience will appear to us in accordance with that understanding we will no longer think or feel on behalf of an inside self and no longer experience a multiplicity and diversity of separate fragmented objects and selves everything will be seen as it truly is as William Blake said when the doors of perceptions of perception are cleansed everything will appear to man as it truly is infinite this very experience this ordinary everyday experience that thought once conceptualized as being composed of these two essential ingredients a self in here that sees and an object other or world out there that is seen this apparent duality between the inside self and the outside world will collapse and all experience will shine with the light of pure knowing with infinite awareness and that collapse of the self that sees the inside self that sees and the outside object or world that is seen is what is known commonly as beauty that is what the experience of beauty is the collapse of the inside self and the outside world beauty is to our perceptions what love is to our feelings the collapse of the inside self and the outside object or other in fact it's not really a collapse of the inside self and the outside object or other they were never truly there to begin with the experience of love or beauty which are identical is the realization that our experience is not essentially divided into these two ingredients a subject and an object that is why in sanskrit the word rupa means both form and beauty it is based on the understanding that the experience of beauty is the essential nature of all perception just as love is the essential nature of all feeling not just the essential nature of those pleasant feelings that we have to a few people in our close circle but the essential nature of all feelings even feelings of a hatred or depression likewise beauty is the name that we commonly give to the essential substance of all perceptions not just the pleasant perceptions but all perceptions if the mystic goes inwards to explore the self he finds infinite awareness ever-present unlimited awareness the scientist or artist who goes outwards to explore the world and seems to set off in a different direction finds exactly the same reality ever-present infinite awareness the poet John Keats said truth is beauty and beauty is truth that is all we know and all we need to know truth the ultimate realization of the mystic beauty the ultimate realization of the artist or scientist truth is beauty and beauty is true these two are identical that is all we ever really know all that is ever known in experience is this luminous empty knowing you I right now the knowing with which our experience this ordinary experience is being known is itself God's infinite awareness and all this infinite eternal awareness ever knows or comes in contact with is itself a finite object is only such from the illusory point of view of a finite self infinite awareness knows nothing of a finite object or self and we are free at every moment to be whatever we want to be if we believe ourselves to be a body experience is very obliging it will appear in accordance with that belief if we choose to be mind experience will confirm that belief and if we choose to know ourselves as we truly are ever-present unlimited awareness then everything in our experience will confirm that understanding all experience will shine brightly with the light of pure knowing thank you you

Channel: scienceandnonduality

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Keywords: Rupert Spira, Non-Duality, Illusion of Separateness, perception, science and nonduality, advaita, advaita vedanta, nonduality, self, consciousness

Id: xjwBWE64fG0

Length: 42min 42sec (2562 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2013