perception

At first sight the whole bodily perception was alive to the beauty of form, colour and living presence of the flower. As so often is the case, thought then got hold of it, memory snapped in and timeless perception was lost!

The common narrative of self, time and causality so deeply embedded in consciousness hinges on a limited perception of the world, though perception like consciousness per se is boundless. The dictionary defines perception as the faculty by which we perceive the world through the senses and the mind. From childhood we learn to navigate the world of bodily senses via the apperceptive abilities of the cognitive mind which play their part in assimilating experience and establishing meaning and value in our lives. Despite the natural intelligence and sensitivity of the body, powers of reason, feelings etc, our journey into adulthood is invariably hampered by faulty integrations of one kind or another that are closely related to language which, as we mature, becomes a major factor in conditioning experience and forming our sense of self.  Any attempt to dissolve the resulting loops and knots without getting caught up in the pathology of it all is something we can all look into. Release from deeply ingrained behaviours may at first suggest a long laborious process in which a change for the better can possibly take place over time. Indeed time passes whatever we do, but the experience of psychological time is built in to our sense of a separate self. So the question is not can ‘I’ do this and how long it will take, but rather, can ones attention be so complete that it is no longer involved in psychological time?

There is an emergent strength and beauty in the perceptive freedom of such a quiet mind, which transforms the educative process of life as a whole. Clearly, this is a different kind of living and learning. 

  .….to be continued….