Perception analyzed with Qualified Non-Duality QND could be framed in terms of one interpretation of the Buddhist Skandhas which are traditionally discussed variously in other ways than what follows. The same holds for Dependent Origination which here is simplistically taken to mean: if A requires B for its existence, & B requires A, then by “dependent origination” neither independently or truly exists.
Letting Vision stand in for all the other Senses, with the understanding that the following can be applied to all of them, consider an Object of Visual Perception. That sense mechanism can never contact or verify the Object directly, being initially mediated by the Visual Form of the Object. Furthermore, what would be such a Form without an Object to which it applies, & what could be a Visual Object without the Form. Object & Form here are mutually-defining in the manner of Dependent Origination & thus neither is real in itself.
The Form in turn is detailed by the Perception signals, here light waves, Within Signal we include the entire chain of Neurophysiology to the mysterious point where constitutes primitive Thought & call it all the Perception. Perception & Form also exhibit Dependent Origination with neither independently real.
Interior to perceptual Neurophysiology, at early mental lever, Conceptual category is superimposed as in “this is a chair” – a radical editorial interpretation specific to the Perceiver. Like a biological Genus this generalization identifies the Perception as that of an Object generically identified as “chair” for instance. Concept & Perception exhibit Dependent Origination with neither independently real.
Like a biological species perceptual Discrimination mentally specifies “a red easy chair” for instance. This specification pinpoints somewhat within the Conceptual category, another subjective editorial interpretation. Discrimination & Concept exhibit Dependent Origination with neither independently real.
Finally Sense Thought Cognition registers, associates, & process the specified generalization but Cognition & Discrimination exhibit Dependent Origination with neither independently real. These 5 “skandhas”: Form, Perception, Concept, Discrimination, & Cognition have mediated Visual Perception of the Visual Object with Dependent Origination at the front end as well, between Form & Object. So too at the inner Subject, Dependent Origination applies to the Subject & the Cognition.
Thus 5 “skandhas” or steps in Visual Perception serially link Object & Subject by Dependent Origination with neither independently real. Consciousness illumines all that as an ephemeral reflection without establishing reality to any of it (UQND), or from another view (QND), without separation from any of it. In accord with UQND, Un-Qualified Non-Duality, pure, nondual Consciousness alone exists.
Virtual
Reality VR:
A couple of very smart
characters, among many, suggest we consider the lesson of VR Virtual
Reality. Cognitive Science Philosopher
David Chalmers chimed in early on the past bandwagon of pointing to The
Matrix movie as a profound parable, one far more popular than the earlier
version that the cinema had emulated, Descartes malin genie the evil
genie (or genius) entrapping the Brain in a Vat. Harder to label is the other genie,
I mean genius, Nick Bostrom, nominally a philosopher, who offers Bayesian
"proof" for the following proposition.
If we do not destroy our
technological civilization by prompting further Climate disaster, or by war or
political collapse, over-population, & so on; & if no Armageddon–like
meteoric disaster, etc. does the deed, if none of these occur then Ray
Kurzweil's elitist techno-utopia will surely come to pass. However many starve
& rot with disease & violence, if some insular elite defend islands of
exponentially advancing Computer technology, while escaping their own
Nano-technology, Bio-technology, etc. then they will eventually program
innumerable The Matrix level VR's Virtual Realities. Among those
will likely be some "period pieces" as depicted in the movie,
capturing a past version of Earth's civilization, such as the one we now find
ourselves in. The most advanced VR's could pass for our own world &
no one could tell the difference. So much for the like–like comparison
between our world & all these many particular VR's among a far
greater number of other kinds of VR. Bostrom calls those particular ones
"ancestor" VR's because they emulate the experience of the
relatively few people (~ half dozen Billions) in our world. We are those
relatively "few" "ancestors". Here comes the kicker.
selection from Sri Ramana Maharshi
Those inexpensive (by futuristic technology
standards) Virtual Reality programs will be so very numerous that for each of us now, that there might
be, who knows, a Trillion more VR individuals will take the place of
each of us, distributed over the man VR programs. Here Bayesian
"logic" kicks in & flatly declares, that by those
"odds" (lets say a Trillion to 1) we most certainly live in
one of those Future VR's right now, each of us as most likely being VR
characters, or avatars if you will.
Now given Bostrom's claim
that we probably live in & as VR right now, unless we soon destroy
our civilization or experience other disastrous collapse that will have prevented
that technology (we rarely get to use the future perfect tense
"will have"), we turn back to David Chalmers. Putting aside the
destruction scenarios, Chalmers, like many other Cognitive Science Philosophers
assure us that we could never tell the difference in VR.
Our point here is that we are
as good as being VR anyway, because how could we ever know? In fact our
individual Waking State lives (Dream State ones are otherwise) actually are as good as VR in absolute Consciousness,
no more real than that. Awakening to Identity with pure Consciousness, we are
Liberated from the succession of Waking State dream-lives (& Dream State lives as well).
Sound like fun? But actually all the real fun,
Happiness & Love are already firmly planted in that Consciousness Reality,
as is our Being & Identity already.
selection from Sri Ramana Maharshi
Dimension
Games:
Brian Greene's garden hose
analogy for "campactified" String Theory dimensions
represents one of the recent versions of the contemplation below; Edwin
Abbott's Flatland included an older one. However ancient, the exercise
remains worthwhile.
If our "robust"
reality were compared to a 1-D world, infinitely dense with points, all that
would appear as nothing to 2-D viewer in a 2-D realm that contained our 1-D
linear world. Viewing our 1-D Line broadside, the 2-D viewer cannot make out
the infinitesimally thin Line with zero thickness in his 2-D world. Should he
take the Time-dimension out of our 1-D Space-Time continuum, the 2-D view would
try to examine a cross-section, a completely invisible 0-D Point bereft of both
thickness or 2-D Area, & also bereft of even any 1-D Length.
That 2-D viewer, proud of the
Area of his world might be shocked to hear from a 3-D viewer examining his
world on edge & finding it to be a simple 1-D Line of no Area &
certainly no Volume. The 2-D Space-Time continuum at any moment is a 1-D
cross-section of the same sort, with no Area or Volume.
But anyway, the 4-D viewer
addressing the Bizarro World Cube might redirect the cubistic 3-D viewer
from his Solid Volume to the volume-less Area of a single Surface. Appreciating
that Surface, the 4-D viewer further humiliates his listener with consideration
of the infinitesimally thin & sharp zero-Area of a single 1-D cubic Edge.
Alas, diminished further is the focus down to a 0-D corner. Negligible are
these Forms revealed to be, from a perspective of 3-D Space, never mind 4-D
Space-Time. Every Moment of Time in 4-D Space-Time captures a 3-D World
cross-section of no 4-D Volume, no "substance", no reality
so-to-speak.
Likewise, our own physical
Forms & Mental Images are like surfaces & edges of no extent in the
infinite-D Space of absolute Consciousness. So much less significant are
the "corners", the 0-D individual Ego's crying out for recognition in
empty space. Consciousness embraces all & yet all things & individuals
are as nothing in the infinite dimensions of Consciousness. Fortunately, we are
not things, nor are we individuals. "Each" of can know irrefutably
that he/she is actually Consciousness itself.
selection from Sri Ramana Maharshi
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