The Nature of Perception🔗

Today I will explore the phenomena of Perception from the perspective of ancient traditions, philosophy, phenomenology and modern science.

Please listen! I am defining perception. 'The way your patterns react and respond to the facts is perception.' Please understand, the way your patterns respond to the facts is perception.

Let me make it more clear. Understand this story:

An old man went to a nearby village and was coming back to his home. From a distance, he saw that his house was on fire. That's all - he literally started boiling and burning, rolling on the ground and crying! One of his sons came to him and said, 'Why are you crying, father?' The old man said, 'Oh, my house is on fire! My house is on fire!'

The son reminded him, 'Don't you remember? Just yesterday we sold the house!' Immediately, the old man got up, and became completely alright! He was okay! All his suffering, his pain, everything disappeared. Everything became alright for him.

But in a few minutes, the second son came and told him, ‘Father, we sold the house, that is true. But the money has still not come to us! We have not yet received the money!’

Immediately, the old man started rolling on the ground and crying, ‘Oh, my house is on fire! My house is on fire! My house is on fire!’

Listen! It was the same house burning. For a few minutes, it was a suffering for the person! The next few minutes, it was not a suffering for the same person! Then again it was a suffering! So it is nothing but his perception: how his patterns cognized the happening.

When something happens, if you cognize it just as facts, with just the five senses and without any purpose inside, you are called a ‘materialistic idiot’. Your philosophy of living is ‘stupid atheism’!

I am trying to give you the essence of philosophy, which is the combination of your patterns and the facts. If the facts are playing a hundred percent role, you don’t have any pattern. I wanted all of you to understand - not having a pattern, and

having complete consciousness, is great. But some people neither have consciousness nor have patterns. They are non-responders who are soaked in dullness! I am talking about them. They live in stupid materialism with their life philosophy as stupid atheism. Every one of you lives with a philosophy - whether you understand it or not! If you don't understand the philosophy with which you are cognizing life, be very clear: you are a stupid atheist.

I can give you one more example, rajju-sarpa nyaaya. It means, if you are walking in a forest at midnight, and there is a rope in front of you, naturally, what will you feel? You will feel that the rope is a snake! And especially at night, you will always feel that the rope is moving slowly! Your eyes will create the perception that the rope is moving! So, the moment you feel the rope is moving, your whole spine starts moving. You will have an electric shock spreading in your spine. Your whole body will shiver! The being will shake!

Listen! When you perceive the rope as a snake, the way you respond will be different, and after a few minutes, when you see that the rope is not moving, suddenly you realize that it's not a snake, it is just a rope, the way you respond will be totally different. The moment you realize this, the whole fear will settle down. You will be free! If you perceive the fact, then there is no suffering. But just your wrong perception can literally give you a cardiac arrest! Even before the snake bites, you might be dead just by the perception that there is a snake!

I can give you the various levels of perception. Understand!

œ There is a rope but you cognize it as a snake

œ There is a rope, you cognize it as a snake and you take a stick to beat it and kill it - Communist!

œ There is a rope, you perceive it as a snake, and you plan to take it and put in on somebody whom you don't like - Terrorist!

œ There is a rope, you perceive it as a snake, get frightened, and then you see and realize it's a rope, not a snake, and your fear disappears - you can be called as jeevan mukta.

œ There is a rope, you perceive it as a snake and there is no fear inside you - you are just in the space of 'oneness'. You are a Nithyanandite!

The moment you come to the space where you neither see the rope, nor do your patterns cognize it as a snake, nor do you have the possibility of fear nor the possibility of any wrong cognition, you are an incarnation!

Basically, perception is processed fact. Understand, this is the exact definition: perception is processed fact. Facts can be processed in the fire of ignorance, or the cold of patterns - anything, anything, anything! Anything can process facts.

Now, I am giving you the best possibility of perception. Bring integrity in your thinking. Listen! Bring integrity in your thinking. Your eyes will not forget the reality even at that moment, and it will not cognize the rope as a snake. Many times, due to lack of integrity, your body and mind cognize their own facts, their own concepts.

The best philosophy on the planet Earth is Kapila's sankhya! Do you know why? Because he had no patterns! The processing of the information did not happen with any patterns. No patterns are involved in the processing of the information. A rope is seen as a rope. Not even an iota of the idea of snake is superimposed on it! Superimposing any idea on life takes away the joy of life.

Pure listening is pure perception. Usually, whenever you listen to the truths about perception, your mind boils. Your mind just resists. It does not want to imbibe it. If I talk about meditation techniques, you will be ready to sit and listen, because you know you will have to do meditation, and transformation will happen. Your mind knows that somehow it can postpone or push aside listening to the truths about perception. Tomorrow! Later on! The mind knows how to play the game, it knows how it can cheat and continue to be in ignorance. But when I talk about perception, your mind is afraid to listen.

How many of you cognize a subtle fear running inside your system even at the thought of knowing about perception? It is because knowledge of perception demands change NOW! You have to change now! You don't have time to play the game of 'tomorrow', 'later on', 'I will learn unclutching. Then I will unclutch, unclutch, unclutch. Then I will look at that rope deeply! Then I will realize it is not a snake anymore!' The space of postponement, the space of self-denial, the space where we let the mamakara and ahankara be alive, exists when you give yourself the space for practice. That is why you are very comfortable with the philosophies which demand your practice.

Listen! All human beings need to listen to this fact. When you catch a snake and start off playing with it, your mind says, 'If the snake bites, if I die, what will happen? No! I will hold the snake's neck in such a way that if it bites me, I will tighten my hold, squeeze it and kill the snake also!' Okay! But, is it going to bring your life back?

Look into your life. At every step, you are planning with the possibility of revenge. And you think that if there is the possibility of revenge, you are free from the danger! Possibility of revenge does not free you from the danger! Only if you have a proper medicine for snake-bite, or you wear a protective costume, it can be real protection! Look in. How many of you cognize that you consider revenge mechanism as self-protection? It is not the truth! Revenge mechanism is not self-protection mechanism. I tell you, only when you understand that revenge mechanism is not a self-protection mechanism, you will understand non-violence - the essence of the saint Mahavir's teaching.

Pure listening is pure perception!

Today is Mahavir Jayanti. And in this auspicious space and time, I bless you all to experience non-violence; the real, true, non-violence of Mahavir. Mahavir's non-violence is not based on law and order. It is based on the understanding that revenge mechanism is not self-protection.

Listen, listen to the truth - revenge mechanism is not self-protection. Either you protect yourself how much ever you can, or you are exposed! You are exposed. Listen! That is the non-violence of Mahavir. Protect yourself as much as you can, and wherever you can't, be very clear, you are just exposed, vulnerable. This is the secret of non-violence. But you always think that revenge mechanism is protection.

The other day I met a person who is superficially trying to follow Jainism. I asked him, 'Are you not afraid to walk alone from place to place?' Immediately, he responded 'No, there is a law in this country. If anybody attacks me or kills me, he will be put in jail. He will be hanged.' Now that cannot be the reason for your perception of security! Understand, had he responded saying, 'No, I will protect myself as much as I can; otherwise I know I am exposed to that possibility. I am okay with it.' – this is non-violence. Then I would have been sure he is a follower of Mahavir.

As I said, superimposing any idea on life takes away the joy of life. The fear which has spread in your body when you see the 'snake' will not allow you to take the natural responses of 'fight or flight'. An integrated man will not perceive a rope as a snake. An authentic man will not allow the fear to spread in his body. A responsible man will not have the 'fight or flight' response. When you are in a space of enriching, you will not be beating the snake or running away.

The basic truth is - bring integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching to have the best perception! With the best perception, create your own understanding and knowledge bank about what is security, what is fear, what is good, what is bad, what is right, what is wrong, what is the goal, what is tathaata, 'isness'.

Listen: this is the best strategy I am teaching you for your life! I am not giving you any spiritual principles, moral science, life solution lessons. No! I am just giving you the best possible strategy for life! Best strategy for life! Best strategy for the possibility! When you understand security, understand it purely from the angle of security, not from the angle of revenge. Even if you take revenge, it is not going to bring your security back. Even if you kill all the fellows who killed others, all those who got killed are not going to come back to life. Maybe it will maintain the law and order. I accept that. But that cannot be the reason for your cognition of security.

The funniest thing is that all the basic necessary cognitions of your life are confused, messed up. If I ask you - what is disease? What is your cognition of disease? Your answer will be all about your plans to handle the disease. You do not have the cognition about the disease itself. You have the cognition only about the doctor or the medicine or what you will do after you get the disease. Look in.

What is your cognition about your sickness? 'I will go to Swamiji and get healed,' or 'I will go to this doctor,' or 'I will go to that doctor', or 'I will do this,' or 'I will do that'. But that is not your cognition about the disease itself. Have the right cognition about the disease, then you will not allow the disease to happen inside your body, inside your system!

Have the right cognition about security, and you will have proper security. Wherever you can't make yourself secure, you will at least know that you have to find some other solution. Then you will understand that your body can never be secure. Your mind can never be secure. What can be made secure is only you, and it can be done only by you - which is Soul and Consciousness. You have to be enlightened as a basic need!

There are three levels of perception:

When the rope is not going to play any role in your walking in that forest, and when you don't even cognize a huge tree standing in front of you, why will you cognize the three-feet rope? The cognition coming from the correct perception keeps you completely powerful from that moment onwards.

Seeing the rope as a snake and getting frightened is shrishti-drishti – seeing what IS. Then realizing that the rope is a rope, not a snake, is drishti-shrishti – seeing what you want. The theory that none of these possibilities exist - not being bothered about the rope, or not cognizing the rope in your inner space as a snake, or having fear for the snake – if you say that none of these possibilities exist, it is ajaata siddhanta. Your delusion is unborn. Your powerlessness is unborn. Your wrong perception is unborn. Your failure is unborn. When you know this, when you perceive this, you are new-born!

Dangerous perception is the only danger you have in your life, because most of the time, that is what you do!

A blind man was sitting in front of a huge fire with a burning stick in his hand. Somebody came and asked him, ‘What is this? Such a huge fire! Don’t you see? What are you going to do about it?’

‘Yes, yes! That is why I took this burning stick and put it on my eyes. Now I am not seeing the fire!’

Can that be the solution?

You may laugh now, but all your solutions are usually of this type. And you even accept as your guru, the fool who tells ‘Take the stick and put it on your eyes! You will not see the fire anymore, and the problem will be solved!’ Burning your eyes is not going to give you liberation from the scenes you are seeing. It is like saying, ‘Now I don’t need to bother! Even if the snake is in front of me, I will

not have fear!' Look in! Shrinking from life is nothing but putting the burning stick on your eyes!

It is so unfortunate! Just because your eyes are burnt, it does not mean that the fire will not impact you or the world will not impact you! Perception of the fire is still burning from inside you, as per your experience. The innermost perception has to change. You need to realize that it is not the outside scene, but the innermost perception you carry for the outside scene, which is impacting you and giving you the experience of your reality.

I tell you, if there is a fire burning and you sit at a distance and just go on gazing at the fire, you will feel the heat in your body! If you just turn your eyes away - maintain the same distance but just turn your eyes away - you will not see the burning, and you will not experience burning in your body! How? The seeing has not reduced the distance between you and the fire! That is perception and reality!

The great news for human beings is that Maya can be crossed! Perception can be transformed! You can become enlightened! O humanity! I am here to give you that great news! Perception can reach perfection! When you bring perfection into the perception, a moment of perception can literally bring enlightenment!

I will give you an example. Recently we visited the cremation grounds in Varanasi. When we were watching the dead bodies burning in front of us for hours, some of us were just sleeping, some were affected and were feeling nauseated, and some were not at all affected by the same scene of the body burning part by part in front of their eyes. What is the difference? It is just the processing of the information with patterns, or the patterns with the information! The possibility of the perception!

Look in. Drill all these great truths inside you with integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching. With integrity and authenticity, drill, drill, drill! When you drill with integrity and authenticity, normal perception itself is nothing but perception of God! Because any perception will directly lead you to the space of the root of all actions, including perception!

The essence of today's satsang: bring integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching in your thinking, in your perception. You will see that the ultimate perception becomes your reality. It becomes your reality!

Let you all achieve, experience, live, express, radiate, share, explode and enrich with eternal bliss, Nithyananda. Thank you!

Always be in a place where you will be pushed to live in authenticity. Choose friends who expose your inauthenticities to you, who constantly supply you with vitamin a - authenticity! The vital vitamin for vitality is authenticity.