BENEATH THE VEIL OF PERCEPTIONS
Sara de Clercq - 26 November 2021
There is an inherent substratum that exists beneath the veil of our ordinary human perceptions.
The true nature of reality escapes ordinary intellect, as meaning is placed on words, words are placed on events in the world, other people and ourselves. We oversee, overlook and overthink what is actually right here, right now.
Neurobiology shows us that “reality” appears in a similar way to members of the same species, equipped with the same neuronal system. Different species have different perceptions of the world. This means reality is modified and distorted by the neuronal system that is perceiving it.
There are two layers to unpack here;
(1) First there is the layer of meaning constructed in mind.
(2) The second layer is the layer of perception through our senses.
Meaning constructed in mind
Let’s start with the first layer. Meaning constructed in mind which we might refer to as the ego construct.
The ego construct is the imagined idea of ‘who you take yourself to be’ your ‘identity’. You may experience the ego construct during your day-to-day as the storyteller, or a narrative that runs in mind. The ego construct is a meaning-making machine. It’s constantly informing the meaning you apply to your experiences through storytelling.
Most (if not all) humans respond to their experiences and perceptions of reality, rather than reality itself. We respond to the meaning we place on reality. The meaning of what we think we see in the world. We filter reality through the ego construct -the identity structure. We have ideas, opinions, and perspectives on the world that are often personalised.
This brings me to one of the core presuppositions of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).
We don’t see reality as it is, we see reality as we are.
This is why two or more people can see the exact same event, experience a conversation or perceive an environment whilst having a completely different perception of what they are seeing and experiencing. And therefore a different response to whatever is occurring in that moment.
Our responses vary because our experiences of reality vary. Our personal values, our filters of mind systems, our beliefs, the way we code time, our language structures - our own personal ‘map’ of reality all influence our experiences, all the time. Our map is formed by our past experiences. And this map often comes with an agenda. We paint the present moment from past experiences, and we do this almost constantly. The use of symbols and words has created a world of its own. And most humans live ONLY in this world. The world of meaning, interpretations and associations.
The world of cognitive conversations, value systems and ideas.
A world of constructed narratives and stories in mind.
The way out of this world is by seeing through this world. Seeing through the narratives, through the meanings made up in mind and becoming objective to these stories. By becoming objective to what we were first experiencing subjectively.
The way out is by de-constructing the stories in mind.
There are many different practices to engage in, a few examples are: meditation, journaling, yoga, group work, somatic clearing and working with a coach/teacher/therapist. This process can take a few years, to truly start seeing through the stories that we tell ourselves, to truly see through words, symbols and meanings. Once we become more attuned with this ‘new’ reality without any meaning we have a more direct experience with reality and a more direct relationship with the present moment.
When we become more objective to these stories in mind we can become more in touch with a sensory experience.
We begin to taste, feel, touch, smell and see reality more clearly simply through the senses.
Naturally, there is less distortion of mind playing out.
This opens up more joy, freedom, play and effortless ease and calm in day-to-day living and being.
Naturally, a decrease of anxiety, stress, angry, hurtful, insecure and other unresourceful thoughts.
Bernard d’Espagnat has compared reality to a rainbow seen by the inhabitants of an island in the middle of a river.
The multicoloured arc looks as real to them as all of the things under it. At one end of the rainbow there’s a poplar, and at the other the roof of a farmhouse. The island inhabitants are convinced the rainbow exists. They think that it would still be there, in exactly the same place, even if they closed their eyes or quite simply vanished. And yet, if they could leave their island and drive around in a car while keeping their eyes on the rainbow, they’d see that it’s position wasn’t fixed, and that it’s two ends weren’t always over the poplar and the farmhouse.
It’s position depends on where the observer is. This comparison shows that even macroscopic objects have no intrinsic existence, and that the observer plays a vital part in how they are perceived.
A truer reality lies beyond this perception. This reality is utterly inaccessible to thought.
We cannot perceive this reality through our thinking mind. As we clear those thoughts in mind, we see them for what they are, what becomes available is a more direct experience with, and as, reality.
Like mentioned before, a more sensory experience.
In addition to this, so far as Buddhism is concerned, even pure consciousness never perceives what we call reality.
At the first moment of a perception, our senses capture an object.
At the second moment, they create a nonconceptual mental image of a shape, a sound, a taste, a smell or a touch.
When we arrive at the third moment, our mental mechanisms start up, along with our memories and acquired habits and a multitude of consecutive conscious moments identify the object’s image as being this or that. They interpret it and have positive, negative or neutral feelings about it.
Meanwhile, the impermanent object has already changed.
Thus normal conceptual consciousness never perceives a simultaneous reality.
All it can perceive are images of past states.
Practicing presence, or simply NOT leaving the moment, is a way of re-membering and re-aligning with what is true already.
Prior to mental conceptualisations. What we find is a place of silence, emptiness, nothingness and magnificent creation.
Creativity ex nihilo, out of nothingness becomes available. A practice of re-aligning with our true essence, our natural state.
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Perception through the Senses
As we play with a new dimension where our awareness of our senses becomes more vivid and alive, we see, hear and feel things we’ve never felt before. We experience and feel more, we become more sensitive with reality and ourselves, but there is less suffering at this stage.
There are less mental processes playing out.
And the only reason why humans suffer is because of mental processing.
We play in this new re-covered dimension for a while.
This is a pretty comfortable place to be in, most of the time.
As we find our comfort more and more, we being to ask different questions. We discover that our senses form another sensory illusion. Illusions about time, space and causality. Where it might seem to be that events are happening in a logical frequency of cause and effect. But are they actually?
As Khyentse Rinpoche put it: “All phenomena of samsara and nirvana arise like a rainbow, and like a rainbow they are devoid of any tangible existence. Once you have recognised the true nature of reality, which is empty and at the same time appears as the phenomenal world, your mind will cease to be under the power of delusion. If you know how to leave your thoughts free to dissolve by themselves as they arise, they will cross your mind as a bird crosses the sky without leaving any trace”.
Reality simply exists, as it appears. Which isn’t confined to an exterior object or interior subject: consciousness. In this dimension, we find that there is no contrast in reality. Contrast is only of the mind.
It is said in the Prajnaparamita: “to understand perfectly things have no reality in themselves, is the practice of supreme, transcendent knowledge.”
A relationship with life, with the moment, as the moment, as it arises, becomes available. A reciprocal relationship as and with the moment. Time and space merge into one. As a union of appearances and emptiness. Where all form and formless arise, simultaneously co-existing. All is happening, without contrast or comparison. What is true can’t be compared. Fear, anger, anxiety, excitement, stress, purpose and passion simply fade away. As well as all other meanings. What there is, is what there is.
In the truth of it, all past, present and future events are identical in that they have no intrinsic existence. What is true doesn’t change, what is true doesn't move. What is true is always ever present, unmoved and untouched. A beginningless beginning.
For an ordinary mind, there’s a difference between the way things seem and their true nature. In terms of our personal experience, this leads to a mixture of suffering and happiness. At some point on our journey of discovery, we directly perceive the ultimate nature of phenomena. This leads to immutable wisdom in which all disparity between appearances and reality has vanished.
What’s more, a mental image - of a flower, for instance - is deceptive because we don’t generally think that it’s impermanent and devoid of intrinsic existence. Buddhism calls this ‘invalid cognition’. But it is possible to replace this with valid cognition, which sees the true nature of the flower (emptiness) and isn’t influenced by ordinary concepts. It is said that one of the characteristics of enlightenment is the ability to distinguish between pure, non-conceptual perception and mental images.
For now, watch the thoughts in mind. Watch them carefully, examine them.
How are they playing out? Are they more auditory, auditory digital, visual, kinaesthetic or maybe a mixture of all?
When are they playing out? What situations, people and context are they stronger?
Journal daily, and keep note.
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