We all live within a Cultural ASSumption that our sense perceptions provide us with direct information about reality.
But this is not how it IS.
Reality is what it-is-as-itself. It is a direct experience of what IS.
REALITY (or the truth) can't be gleaned by bouncing some sensory-perceptive radar off the surface of an encounter and then interpreting what the encounter means.
Yet, THIS IS how all of our perceptions actually work!
They provide only indirect feedback about reality, and zero feedback about the TRUE nature of reality.
Our perception were NOT designed for perceiving reality or the truth, they were designed for helping us to survive as the "self" that we believe that we are.
It is hard for us to actually grasp that our perceptions of what's there are DIFFERENT from what is actually there.
But, if we think of our perceptions as various forms of radar, we may be able to better understand this disconnect.
For example, when we see a blip on a radar, it is clear to us that the blip REPRESENTS an object, providing us with very limited and indirect information about that object. When it comes to radar, it's clear to us that we aren't seeing the plane and that the blip in no way tells us what the plane actually looks like, or any other information except for the plane's location. What we're doing with radar is bouncing radar signals off of some object and seeing the effect this has on our radar screen.
We can grasp the indirect nature of this process because we know that the airplane is so vastly different from the small blip of light that we see.
Well...it is the SAME with every perception that we ever have.
It is ONLY because our perceptions are so familiar, and the only one's we've got, that they seem to "be" reality for us.
The eyeball doesn't actually see the object it perceives. Since the eye functions by picking up light patterns, what they eye sees is ONLY the light that bounces off the object that it perceives. So, we're not seeing the object but the light.
But, to be more correct, we are not even seeing the light that is accepted by the object but ONLY the light that the object repels.
Since the light hits the eyeball and stimulates nerves that we receive as a pattern that we interpret, we aren't ACTUALLY seeing the light either.
Furthermore, we can only pick up the data that our INDIRECT perceptive process can provide us with.
This means we don't hear the object, we can't feel weight or texture or temperature, or view inside the object, and so on.
Try to get that right now as you read this on your screen.
We are NEVER aware of any aspect of anything that can't be represented through our senses. Any aspect of the object that can't be carried through some perception cannot be known via perception.
What's most significant is this: No matter what can or can't be carried through some perception, we are NEVER directly perceiving or experiencing anything.
We are simply interpreting the perception of STIMULATED NERVE PATTERNS.
This activity is NOT the object or anything else we perceive.
We have no direct perception of or contact with the object itself.
This is true for each and every one of our perceptive senses.
So we are NEVER perceiving the thing itself.
We never grasp the the real nature of any object or anything we perceive for that matter.
This is true for hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, even thinking.
Perhaps we grasp that our perception of the outside world are indirect, but still take for granted that our thinking and emoting are direct since they are within us.
What we perceive within our own minds and bodies isn't anymore of a direct connection to the true nature of reality than is our perception of an object outside our bodies.
The content of our imagination and memory has been formed through the "re-creation" of sensory perceptions. Internal dialogue is a conceptual mimic of the sound of our voice. Our thought patterns and distinctions are based on our particular language and our relationship to a perceived reality.
Concepts are never the thing itself, they only represent or mis-represent something, and our emotions are manipulations, not feedback about reality.
What all this means is that we can never grasp the TRUTH through our perceptions.
We are left only with an INDIRECT EXPERIENCE.
Interesting isn't it?
What's actually important is to simply notice this, and to allow your concepts (beliefs, assumptions, convictions, etc) remain in the domain of concepts, and not the truth.
But this is not how it IS.
Reality is what it-is-as-itself. It is a direct experience of what IS.
REALITY (or the truth) can't be gleaned by bouncing some sensory-perceptive radar off the surface of an encounter and then interpreting what the encounter means.
Yet, THIS IS how all of our perceptions actually work!
They provide only indirect feedback about reality, and zero feedback about the TRUE nature of reality.
Our perception were NOT designed for perceiving reality or the truth, they were designed for helping us to survive as the "self" that we believe that we are.
It is hard for us to actually grasp that our perceptions of what's there are DIFFERENT from what is actually there.
But, if we think of our perceptions as various forms of radar, we may be able to better understand this disconnect.
For example, when we see a blip on a radar, it is clear to us that the blip REPRESENTS an object, providing us with very limited and indirect information about that object. When it comes to radar, it's clear to us that we aren't seeing the plane and that the blip in no way tells us what the plane actually looks like, or any other information except for the plane's location. What we're doing with radar is bouncing radar signals off of some object and seeing the effect this has on our radar screen.
We can grasp the indirect nature of this process because we know that the airplane is so vastly different from the small blip of light that we see.
Well...it is the SAME with every perception that we ever have.
It is ONLY because our perceptions are so familiar, and the only one's we've got, that they seem to "be" reality for us.
The eyeball doesn't actually see the object it perceives. Since the eye functions by picking up light patterns, what they eye sees is ONLY the light that bounces off the object that it perceives. So, we're not seeing the object but the light.
But, to be more correct, we are not even seeing the light that is accepted by the object but ONLY the light that the object repels.
Since the light hits the eyeball and stimulates nerves that we receive as a pattern that we interpret, we aren't ACTUALLY seeing the light either.
Furthermore, we can only pick up the data that our INDIRECT perceptive process can provide us with.
This means we don't hear the object, we can't feel weight or texture or temperature, or view inside the object, and so on.
Try to get that right now as you read this on your screen.
We are NEVER aware of any aspect of anything that can't be represented through our senses. Any aspect of the object that can't be carried through some perception cannot be known via perception.
What's most significant is this: No matter what can or can't be carried through some perception, we are NEVER directly perceiving or experiencing anything.
We are simply interpreting the perception of STIMULATED NERVE PATTERNS.
This activity is NOT the object or anything else we perceive.
We have no direct perception of or contact with the object itself.
This is true for each and every one of our perceptive senses.
So we are NEVER perceiving the thing itself.
We never grasp the the real nature of any object or anything we perceive for that matter.
This is true for hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, even thinking.
Perhaps we grasp that our perception of the outside world are indirect, but still take for granted that our thinking and emoting are direct since they are within us.
What we perceive within our own minds and bodies isn't anymore of a direct connection to the true nature of reality than is our perception of an object outside our bodies.
The content of our imagination and memory has been formed through the "re-creation" of sensory perceptions. Internal dialogue is a conceptual mimic of the sound of our voice. Our thought patterns and distinctions are based on our particular language and our relationship to a perceived reality.
Concepts are never the thing itself, they only represent or mis-represent something, and our emotions are manipulations, not feedback about reality.
What all this means is that we can never grasp the TRUTH through our perceptions.
We are left only with an INDIRECT EXPERIENCE.
Interesting isn't it?
What's actually important is to simply notice this, and to allow your concepts (beliefs, assumptions, convictions, etc) remain in the domain of concepts, and not the truth.
