The Perceiver Is Not Perceived
Topic - February 11, 2008 - 8:13am
The Perceiver not the perceived.
Sri
Nisargadatta promotes a process of ‘neti neti’, in which one
investigates one’s being discarding the non-essential as ‘not this not
this’, so that eventually one will come to That which is
non-discardable, the essence that one truly is. About this he said:
To
know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are
not. Discover all that you are not—body, feelings, thoughts, time,
space, this or that—nothing which you can perceive can be you. The very
act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The
point being that one is the perceiver (that which becomes aware of) and
not the perceived (those objects of which one becomes aware).
This process may seem to be interminable as there are an almost infinite number of things that one is not.. However
it can be accomplished very quickly by considering the nature of every
experience that we have. Firstly if we look we can easily see that our
life is composed of a series of moment to moment experiences, and in
any given moment of direct experience there are only three elements:
thoughts (including all mind-activity), sensations (which includes all
sensory input), and awareness of these thoughts and sensations. All
thoughts and sensations are ephemeral objects (the perceived) which
appear in this awareness (the perceiver) which is the constant subject.
So at a deeper level than the ever changing objects (thoughts and
sensations) we are this constant subject, awareness itself.
To put this a slightly different way, we can easily notice that every thought and sensation occurs in awareness, exists in awareness and dissolves back into awareness.
i.e. Before any particular thought, or sensation, there
is effortless awareness of 'what is' (all thoughts and sensations
occurring at any given instant), during the thought, or sensation in
question there is effortless awareness of it within ‘what is’, and then
when it has gone there is still effortless awareness of 'what is'. So
awareness is the sub-stratum in which thoughts/sensations arise, exist,
and back into which they subside.
So
the mind, which is experienced as a flow of thoughts, and the body
which is experienced as a flow of sensations, are both flows of
ephemeral objects. This does not mean that at a surface level we are
not the mind and body for they arise in, are perceived by, and subside
back into awareness, which is the deepest and most fundamental level of
our being. However if we choose to identify with this deepest level,
awareness (the perceiver) rather than the surface level, mind/body (the
perceived), then thoughts and sensations are seen for what they truly
are, just ephemeral objects which come and go, leaving awareness itself
totally unaffected.
For
by definition awareness cannot be affected by any ‘thing’, as all
‘things’ are just ephemeral objects which appear in, exist in and
finally disappear back into awareness, the constant subject. Awareness
can also be defined as universal consciousness when it is totally at
rest, completely still, just aware of everything that is occurring
within it.( For example we all know that to be completely ‘aware’ of
what is going on around us in a busy
environment we have to be completely still, just witnessing the
activity). Every ‘thing’ that is occurring in consciousness is a
manifestation of cosmic energy (for the ‘string theory’ and the earlier
‘theory of relativity’ show that matter is in fact energy), which is
consciousness in motion. For energy is synonymous with motion, and
consciousness is the sub-stratum, or deepest level, of all existence.
Now
all motion arises in stillness, exists in stillness, is known by its
comparison with stillness, and eventually subsides back into stillness.
For example if you walk across a room, before you start there is
stillness, as you walk the room is still and you know you are moving by
comparison with this stillness, and when you stop once again there is
stillness. In the same way every ‘thing’ (consciousness in motion)
arises in awareness (consciousness at rest), exists in awareness, is
known in awareness, and subsides back into awareness. Awareness is
still, but is the container of all ‘potential energy’ which is
continually bubbling up into manifestation (physical energy) and then
subsiding back into stillness.
Thus
there is no dichotomy, or duality, between the physical world
(consciousness in motion) and awareness (consciousness at rest) for
they are both manifestations of the same essence. The physical universe
is just cosmic energy (consciousness in motion) when it is manifest
into physical form, and awareness (consciousness at rest) contains this
same energy in ‘latent form’ as ‘potential energy’.
According
to Vedanta this consciousness manifests into form purely for its own
enjoyment and to experience itself as ‘the many’. It manages this
experience by awareness of every thought and sensation experienced by
its many manifest forms. Thus our mind/bodies are instruments through
which this universal consciousness senses, experiences, interacts with,
and enjoys its own manifestation, the physical universe.