METAPHILOSOPHY
Title
METAPHILOSOPHY
Author: wholenous (Constantinos Prokopiou)
Site: wholenous.eu
Series: Buddha’s Metaphilosophy
Publisher: Esoterism Academy
Diligence: Naya Prokopiou
Year: 2023 / Edition 1
Language: English. Pages: 276
Book format: PDF
Copyright © Constantinos Prokopiou 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Contents
Cover page. 1
Who is Wholenous! 3
BUDDHA BEING.. 5
THE TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF BUDDHA BEING.. 7
EIGHT SAMADHI 9
What is a Buddha?. 13
God and you. 15
BUDDHA’S BOOKS SERIES. 19
Title. 21
I. THE BEGINNING.. 27
The Religious Consciousness. 29
Experiencing Reality. 35
Seeking the Truth. 39
The Real World and the world of people. 42
Human. 45
The Eternal Presence. 49
The Ancient God, believers in idols and " pseudo-enlightenment " 54
True Perception and Primordial Thought 57
The True Liberation. 61
The Liberation of Man. 69
The Path of Initiators. 76
True Freedom.. 86
Eternity Within Us. 93
The Real Revolution. 103
II . THE VISION OF LIFE.. 111
The Inner Reality. 113
God's View.. 123
The One Essence of God. 128
The Way. 133
Reality, Truth and You. 136
Reality As It Is. 138
Consciousness Is Free, Here, Now.. 139
Consciousness in the depth of being. 142
Nature Restored. 147
Only Perception Exists. 150
God and Man. 152
The Real Man. 156
The True Master 158
True Meditation is non-meditation. 160
Man and thought 166
The Road of Liberation. 169
III . THE DEEP UNDERSTANDING.. 173
God and you. 175
God in the Depth of our Being. 178
The Holy Word. 182
The Sacred Space Within Us. 186
Everything is Love. 187
The Truth about Existence. 190
When. 198
Who, Where, What, When, Why?. 199
In the Vastness of Heaven. 201
In moments of experience. 209
The real and the fake. 213
The Kingdom of Truth. 219
The Path of the Wise. 222
IV . THE INNOCENCE OF SILENCE.. 225
The Absolute Nature of Consciousness. 227
The Lost Purity of Intelligence. 230
Sacred Invitation. 232
Survival Guide. 234
Spiritual Rules. 236
Practical Meditation. 238
Meditation. 239
Out of Body Consciousness. 243
V. LEXICON.. 251
Basic Hellenic-Latin-English Philosophical Terms. 253
I. THE BEGINNING
The Religious Consciousness
THE ANCIENT WORLD RELIGION
Since ancient times, thousands of years ago, when man became aware of his existential situation in Existence, he conceived the Basic Religious Principles (and the Basic Religious Terms of Existence and Life), on which he built all his subsequent understandings of Existence... Basic Concepts such as the Supreme Being, Divine and cosmic, soul and body, immortality and life, etc., have an ancient origin...
“History”, the thousands of years that have followed, up to the present day, have done nothing but clarify and deepen these initial basic conceptions...
Religion is an ancient story. Over the years all enlightened people have simply restated the same Basic Theory. Even the Great Religious Reformers, such as the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Orpheus, Jesus, etc., simply "confirmed" with their personal experience and testimony the Ancient Universal Religious Experience of Man, his Contact and Union with the Absolute, which is his very (deepest) Essence...
So. which Religion are we talking about? For the One Ancient Universal Religion of Humanity... We are all commentators on the "divine inspiration of universal man"... Even the religious practices, the initiations, the mystical experience, the theosis (deification), have an ancient origin . From the ancient ecstatic worship of the "primordial" to the modern meditative practices of Eastern and Western mystics, all practices have the same basic human function, the "dissolving" of the "Spiritual Element" from its lower carriers, the liberation, the "ascent” and its Diffusion into the Infinite Divine...
In fact it could not be otherwise because this whole spiritual path that people have been on is nothing but investigation, clarification and realization of human nature itself.
THE TIMELESS RELIGION
For thousands of years now, man, through all religious views, religious practices and religious life, has been trying to "rise" above his "historical existence", towards the Transcendent, the Timeless, the Eternal, the Absolute.
The "Essence of the religious phenomenon" is therefore the "Transcendence of human consciousness", its Expansion, the Realization of a Transcendent, Free, Eternal Consciousness, which Spreads and is Lost in the Absolute.
The Study of Religion, of religions, of the historical manifestations of the phenomenon, is precisely the investigation of this "Transcendence of human consciousness and the Experience of the Absolute", some historical moment. The real "history" of the religious phenomenon is the revelation of the "timeless transcendence" that is eternally valid, throughout historical time...
The History of Religion, of religions, has nothing to do with "historiography" that would limit the religious phenomenon to a historical event, to a natural event or sequence of natural events. Such a story is for lazy intellectuals, not for those who want to get to the "essence of things".
Where the Transcendent Manifests, where man abandons time to Ascend to Eternity (within the Mystical Experience), where thought ends in Sacred Silence and worship in Absolute Surrender to the Divine, in Integral Silence, all theories are abandoned , all perceptions, and the Sun of Truth, of the True, of the Real, God rises...
METAPHYSICAL THEORIES
The Absolute Objective Reality Is "What It Is", Timeless, Immutable, Without Attributes... But the Perception of Reality, is a completely different thing... We only have Perception of Reality "from the Point of View of the Eternal". In every other case the "Perception of Reality" depends on the "Observer"... So, all "perceptions of reality" (of all beings, in all worlds, and on earth...) are "relative". They apply to the "Watcher", but they don't apply completely…
If this is true, then all the "metaphysical theories of men", "religions", "philosophies", "scientific concepts", etc., are human constructs that interpret from the point of view of the "Observer" Reality, but are not the "absolute truth"…
All these "temporary constructions" (world-views) serve only to elevate us to a "higher view": to an Expanded Consciousness, and therefore to a wider "perception of reality"... It is a mistake to regard any relevant perception as "absolute truth" and mechanistically interpret Reality.
The "real application" of a "religion" or a "secret theory" always leads (and this applies at least to the "known" religions and philosophies...) to the Liberation of Consciousness from "mental" and "physical" limitations. Every metaphysical perception, in its "completion" cancels itself... At the "Peaks of Reality" there is only Sacred Silence... Silence of existence, Silence of thought, Silence of "senses"... Only Silence...
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE REAL
The “Experience of a Consciousness” is real… but is it objective? Consciousness (each consciousness, everyone's consciousness...) perceives Reality from its own "position" (state, level...). What it perceives "partakes" of the Real, and applies to consciousness, and perhaps to other consciousnesses in part (in the function of intersubjectivity ). But is the totality of our "experience" objective?
Is the perception of space-time objective? Of course in the vast universe space-time "differentiates", but we don't talk about that. In a "concrete space-time", here on earth, can we have objective perception? Personal objective perception? No…
Take for example the "simple flow of time" that our watches show. When we are alert we find that time flows slower or faster depending on the situation (depending on the "intensity of attention at the moment it flows", which is greater in unpleasant situations than in pleasant situations, where the "attention" given not to what happens to us, but to what we take in from "outside"…), but that doesn't matter so much. When we are not awake (in the case of sleep...) there is no (perception of time) time. That means, what? That time stopped, that the clocks stopped? Certainly not. If we are not awake for several hours when we "come back" we realize that "some time has passed". But when we happen to "sleep" for two hours, for example, we realize (when we "come back") that "a few minutes have passed" (after we fell into "sleep"). We cannot, even approximately, perceive the amount of time when we are not awake... Everyone experiences his "own reality" which "partakes" of the Real, (but does not identify with the Real). We naively believe that we live in "one reality" all together, which is "out there", and to which we connect when we are awake. In fact, we ourselves "construct" our "reality". But this "construction" is influenced by many (subjective and objective) factors...
During wakefulness our "perception" is "selective". Its "content" depends on the depth of our understanding, our mindset (i.e. our fixed perceptions, our "beliefs", our "information", etc...), our interests and our choices. We may be with other people in the same "space", "perceiving" the same events, but in the end we "take" them in a different way (each of us)...
From all this comes the very simple logical conclusion: That the "experience" we have is personal (i.e. adapted to our own constitution, situation...), is to a large extent arbitrarily constructed, and above all that it does not completely identify with the Real...
Beyond personal perceptions... consciousnesses can participate through intersubjectivity, not in a "shared reality", but in the "experience of a reality with common elements" with the "reality of the other", (and this is completely different)...
Only by the Expansion of Consciousness, by its "spiritual elevation" can the consciousness "participate" more of the Real... We have a Full Perception of Reality only when we Ascend to the Absolute Consciousness, the Timeless, the Attribute-less... This Is "One Reality in Common for all"…
THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness (one's Present Consciousness) is not only Relative (in terms of its ability to perceive the Real, and in terms of its "content"...), but also at the bottom of the scale of states (that it can experience theoretically…)… By its “nature” (by its “definition”…) “relative” is something that can take on various (different) contents… Thus, from the beginning, defining Present Consciousness as “something relative” we accept that the Present Consciousness is “evolving”…
But in what sense can the Present Consciousness evolve (and it really evolves…)? It is a logical conclusion that in whatever state a consciousness finds itself, it cannot truly evolve except by "expanding." It is logically impossible (except for some physical damage... as long as consciousness is attached to its material carrier...) for a consciousness to "regress" to a lower state... Certainly the evolution of consciousness (with its "expansion"...) does not have the meaning of a "inevitable shift"... Consciousness can accumulate experiences, reproduce the same perceptions (repeat) and return to the same dead ends, forever (or almost forever...) This is the case with the majority of people...
"Spiritual awakening" has exactly the meaning of a "radical shift of consciousness", so that it completely reorganizes its perception (of the Real), acquires another "experience", another "content" (of the Real)...
Now, whether consciousness (perhaps by its very “nature”…) follows any particular evolution is a matter of “interpretation”… The fact is that consciousness evolves by “expanding” (or otherwise shedding its limitations…)… The Vision of a Final Evolution, a Completion, can only be "One Consciousness Without Limits", without limitations... Sinking into the Vast... the Timeless... God...
Experiencing Reality
Absolute Reality, Ultimate Reality, Limitless Reality, Boundless Reality, No "Obstacles" Reality, are not abstract terms of metaphysical, or simple thought, but Reality that some people Experience, Truth that they Understand, Life that they Live.
Since Antiquity there have been people who have Approached Reality Directly, beyond common human powers...Beyond the senses that apprehend the immediately objective, external world...Beyond the inner sense or consciousness (and "thrill") that apprehends the powers of life that exist behind the phenomena...Beyond the thought that simply describes based on the real elements of Reality, ending up in a construction, in a thought construction , that reflects Reality, but is not Reality...
Beyond all this there is a Direct Approach to Reality, a Direct Contact with Reality, an Experiencing Reality, Unlimited Reality. But it (the Experiencing of Reality) is a Road Unknown that Leads Elsewhere, Beyond the everyday perception that people need to survive in the world. It is a Road that leads to Objectivity, Real Objectivity (Objective Reality), because it leads beyond the ego, to a Wider Perception that is Lost in the Boundless Presence that Embraces All.
On the contrary, people who are locked in thinking, in the ego, consider the "external" to be objective on which at least most people agree. In other words, they do not experience the Objective (beyond the ego), they are not the Objective, but through the subject(s) they accept as objective the "external" that everyone perceives... But to be precise this is not the Objective, it is what the subjects perceive as objective.
This Land of Reality (the Experience of Reality) has always been the Truth of All Those Who Searched and Found Within themselves the Limitless Depth of their Being, it was the Life They Lived and which Belongs to Human Nature, to Every Man.
There is thus a World Tradition that "speaks" of Reality, of Truth, of Life.
Often, however, the people who follow the Ancient Tradition, precisely because they are not able to Experience This Reality, perceive it through thought, the ego, and thus the Truth falls into theories, teachings, religions.
Certainly the Secret Experience (the Experience of Reality, Direct Contact with Reality) has as much to do with (theories, teachings and) their religions and practices as food has to do with the price list. The food fills you up, the price list doesn't.
What all real seekers of Truth do is precisely to talk about the Ancient Tradition, to Gather the Truth that is "buried" in traditions, in religions - and which actually remains unused by those who supposedly follow the religions - and to bring out the Essential Content of the Ancient Tradition, the Real Message, which is beyond descriptions and words, the Secret Experience, the Experience of Reality, the Experiential Approach to Truth, the Free, Unlimited, Unhindered Life.
Yes! Truth Exists within religions (and within many philosophical approaches to Reality) but who uses it? How many Buddhists reach Nirvana? How many Christians perform theosis (deification)? Many people, activities and institutions and theories and words and religious deeds… but we would like to meet a man who experienced the Truth of his Religion, the Reality (through his tradition).
Nevertheless, the fact that while there is Knowledge people walk the path of ignorance, it has to do with them, with their choices and with the use of Knowledge, not with Knowledge itself.
To the extent of our powers, to the extent of our possibilities, we try to say that within all traditions One Ancient Tradition Emerges, One Truth is found. We just have to Apply it, Live it, nothing more.
We refer to the Great Wise Men (Humans, nothing else), Orpheus and the Hellenes Philosophers, Lao Tzu, the Upanishad Masters , Buddha, Jesus... the way we understand these People who Experienced Reality, and approach their Teaching just as a Hint to Experience (each one of us) This Truth, to Live Truly, as They Lived.
Certainly their followers (who often not only "represent" them but also "treat" them as their property) may have another perception, different from our own "view". It is our right to say what we understand. Their right to claim what they claim. Only he who "wants" to be deceived is misled.
We understand that Reality Is One, Truth Is One, Life Is One and all the Sages speak of this One Experience.
In fact, what we are saying is what the Wise Men have always said. Whether we understand and speak from Personal Experience or simply repeat what others have said is not so important. We never claimed to be someone or something that any human could not be. In reality We understand that we are nothing, we do not want, nor seek, nor are we anything. Ultimately what matters is not who we are but whether what we say is the Truth.
Try, Discover the Truth for Yourself... This is the only pursuit a True Man can have... that is, Everyone, Alone Experience the Truth... This is what our honesty requires.
Seeking the Truth
On the Road to Truth we are forced to talk about the Supreme Experience of the Divine Essence Within us, the Common Spiritual Life that is "Shared" by some beings, some people but above all to solve many misunderstandings about what Reality is, the Kingdom of Truth, the Kingdom of God, Eternal Life… as a Direct Experience of Reality, beyond the theories of men…
There are beings (and people who walk among us) who experience an Unbounded, Free, Unobstructed Perception, (who feel that they are One with All), who have Transcended the limitations of thought (which enslaves us to the subject, to the ego), of "feeling", of the "body".
The One Perception (Revealing the Oneness of Existence) is a Real Objective State-Activity (since it is beyond the subject) and is attended by All Who Experience the One Reality, apart from the particularities they experience because of their connection to the psychosomatic organism, the body.
Precisely because of this One Objective Common Condition that All these beings experience, they constitute One Community: They participate in One Common Spiritual Experience even though they manifest in different bodies, in different parts of the world (things that are secondary and non-essential).
According to Our Understanding Every Perception, every person, every one of us, Is This Same (Absolute) Perception and can be Unlimited or limited depending on our “choices”.
In other words it is Within Human Nature, Within our Capabilities, the Present Perception (that we are), or the Sense of Presence we have, our Consciousness, our Being, to be able to Expand, to Overcome limitations, to Open to the Limitless... the Unknown, the Vast.
We want to say that any human being (having human nature and operating within normal frameworks) can have this experience: Enter the Sacred Space of Reality, Free Nature, Unlimited Perception. We have never claimed that the Sacred Community has in its Bays superhumans or saints or other beings. On the contrary. You must be a Real Man to Enter the Holy Community.
A real person, who is anyone, who can be anyone because he has human nature. A real person, but not everyone is and does not want to be.
Because, to Enter the Sacred Space of Reality you must Enter "Alone", leaving out all limitations, attachments to material things, passions and habits, the ego itself, all the thought process and the accumulation of knowledge around "psychological center” of the ego, burdened by life, society, human culture...all the mental garbage.
It depends on us alone whether we belong to the Life or to the death that is life on earth.
There Are Some People Who Live the True Life, Who Directly Experience Reality, the Oneness of Existence, Who Are One with All... A Free, Unobstructed Perception.
Of course, because we are talking about a Spiritual Objective State, This State is Outside of Space and Time, it is a Perception. One can Belong Here (in This State) regardless of where one "is", where "lives" (physically). There is no organization, no theory, no teaching, no specific activity, no technique, or anything else. We Just Live.
Life Itself Is the Purpose of Life. The Real Life. There is no other purpose. The Real Life Self-fulfilling Every Moment. We don't need anything else.
The Sacred Community is a Spiritual State, Unlimited, Free, Open, Beyond Time and certainly not identified with specific persons or specific activities.
The Real World and the world of people
There is Another, Different Reality, from the reality that people perceive and experience. There is a Community of People (who are Real People, Authentic Humans) who Perceive Reality completely differently than what humans perceive.
There is a True World, beyond the world of men. It is a World of Light, a World of Love, a World More Real than the real world that people experience, every day, on the planet.
It's A World Where Natural Events Are Called By Their Names. Real is Real. Right Is Right. Beauty Is Beauty, Life Is Life.
People do not Live in the Real World, they live in a fake world, a manufactured world (by their intelligence and pseudo-culture ) according to the interests of a few...
People live in a prison made by their minds, society, circumstances.
People live in a fold, ideological-economic-political-social, which they want to call society and civilized world. Their world is a fold and their culture is a "garbage culture".
In the world of men Truth is not Truth (truth is whatever is in our interest). Law is fair when it supports our own interests. Beauty is imposed by society and by "companies". Everything is "transaction", and everything, souls, feelings, life, survival, everything is tradable.
Our World, the "Kingdom of Nature" as Lao Tzu used to say, the "Kingdom of Truth" as Siddhartha used to say, the "Kingdom of Heaven" as Jesus used to say, is more real than the world of men.
We perceive Natural Events, "what they are", "what happens" and call them by their names. We do not hide behind ideologies and words.
We worship the Living God, not the god of thought or institutionalized religions which is an "idol". We are One with God, with everything, with everyone, with the world – because All Is One.
We do not fortify ourselves in an ego, we do not declare war on others and the universe, for personal interests.
We live "without ego" and go along with everything, even the evil that dominates the world. We see it, we don't ignore it, we don't fight it, we just avoid it, going our own way.
We do not live in mystical worlds, absorbed in personal subjective experiences (which are all fantasy). We live in the Objective World.
We live with a Free Mind (from the prejudices burdened by its restrictive nature, society, circumstances).
We live with Free Senses.
We are One with the World, Nature, Sky, Sea, People, Life, Earth. We go with the Stream of Life.
Of course, dear brother (who are here right now, in this book and reading) you have every right to think that we live in a world of fantasy (that we may have made up out of inability to live and struggle in the real world)… and all your world of everyday life is the real world.
Error!
We had the courage to go "beyond thought", to abandon the ego... to Unite with the Universal, with All.
We have Eternal Values that We Live and Defend.
Truth, Freedom, Knowledge,
the Unity of All, the Equality of All,
the Brotherhood of Beings,
Love Without Limits,
the Humble Offering.
It takes strength, effort, to defend these. You have disappointments - it is the weary road - the road that leads to Life, to True Life.
In what is the world of men real? They built it with the thought that misleads, they made a prison culture... Guards and prisoners all in the same prison...
What is the real world of people? In selfishness? Injustice? In slavery? In the conflict? At war? In misery? No brother! Everything that is happening around us – and we allow it to happen – is all wrong.
Human
Consciousness Is One, Infinite, Eternal, Limitless... The Activity of Consciousness within created, limited fields, is a secondary phenomenon...
The "Manifestation" of Consciousness in the limited fields, the created worlds, its "connection" with some "carrier" in these worlds, is a temporary phenomenon and follows a chronological cycle in which the Beginning and the End coincide. In this "connection" (in "incarnation" in some world) the Perception and Understanding of Reality is Completed only in Self-Knowledge (i.e. in the Perception of the Real Essence of Consciousness) and not in the peripheral manifestations of Consciousness and in "worldly experience". ..
In this material world, Consciousness perceives Reality when it has Self-Awareness, i.e. Perception of its own Essence, which is Infinite, Eternal, and not when it is absorbed in the peripheral experiences it derives from its "connection" with the material carrier.
Self-Realization (Enlightenment, Liberation, Salvation) is possible when the Consciousness Returns to the Self abandoning all external activities (which can of course be "activated" whenever necessary). The "secret experience" of all initiates is liberation from the world, not cut off and isolation from the world. Meditation (True Prayer, etc.) is overcoming the activities of the mind, not some activity, i.e. stopping the channeling of consciousness in its "connection" with the carrier, in the "mind (which is a creation of this "connection"), in the brain, nervous system. As long as there is any connection, activity through the "connection", the mind, the brain, we are still on a psychosomatic, mental, cerebral level. True Meditation Liberates Consciousness, Functioning in its Real State and Perception, as Pure Consciousness, Directly, without the aid of "connection" to the material carrier, the mind (which arises from this "connection"), the brain, extra-intellectually ... Nirvana (the exhaustion of interdependent processes-phenomena, of relative existence, resulting from our “connection” with the material carrier), in Buddhist terminology, is Full Perception, not “perceptual emptiness”... Theosis (deification), according to Christian mystics, is a Realization of the Divine Consciousness, which has nothing to do with the spiritual - material ego (which results from the "connection" of the soul with the material carrier)...
The Realization, the Perception of the Real State, of Reality (Enlightenment, etc.) is a matter of "Understanding" (i.e. Experience) and not of mental activity, mental perception. It is a transition to another higher, deeper, existential level and not a movement (always on a mental level) from one theoretical concept to another theoretical concept. True Understanding which is an experiential action (and not an intellectual activity) means going beyond the intellect, means silence of the mind (and the brain), means Direct Action of Consciousness (and not through the "mind", the brain), Perception and "Understanding", extracorporeal... So, how can one attempt to interpret, to explain, such a transition with mental descriptions and terms? When we "attempt" it, it is a representation of the Experience, actually a pseudo-initiation, pseudo-meditation, pseudo-realization, pseudo-enlightenment...
Whoever Silently Understands (mentally), whoever tries to realize "something", through activity, simply remains "attached" to the carrier, the psychosomatic mechanism, the brain and the nervous system, does not Understand... Nirvana, Absorption in God , the Silence of the mind, everything, marks the passage to Pure Consciousness, the Pure Operation of Consciousness without the mediation of the "carrier", the passage "Beyond"... The Beyond is a Sacred Place, Inviolable . You arrive here by giving up all "connection" with the material carrier, the mental activity, the intellect. And when You Arrive, You Understand that there is no “realization” (as the mind wrongly assumes), no enlightenment, nothing. All is simply Manifesting, Returning to our True State and Nature, to the Reality that is Always Here, Eternal (and which we are not aware of due to the "connection" to the material carrier and distorting psycho-mental activity). The "dream" just ends... When one becomes a Buddha, he realizes that Everything Is Buddha, from the beginning and forever... only the dream has the nature of time... So, what "thing" are we talking about? We're just chatting. Why; No reason... Just to chat... Intelligence is not the way, it explains nothing, it leads nowhere...
When a Consciousness has realized this Deeper Level of Understanding and is finally Freed from the ego (the "connection" to the carrier, the psycho-mental activity, the intellect, the brain), It Is, Perceives, and Works, in its Eternal Nature, beyond the worlds, beyond time... What exactly is such a Consciousness? What shall we say? That it was born then, here or there? that it grew up anyway? that it studied, does it or does it not have degrees? does it have this or that job? anything; All this is unimportant... Even the activities, the creation or not of a family, financial situations, etc., all are indifferent, unimportant, because they belong to the "cosmic space"... Consciousness, however, extends far beyond the cosmic space (and a material carrier)...
Life is Experience, not "interpretation"... all "interpretations" are useless... Experiencing Reality is a breath away from the present, without effort, without any activity... experiences, studies, searches, it's all useless... All we need is to Experience our Nature, nothing else. This Nature is Free, Infinite, Eternal, beyond any "connections" with various agencies, beyond occasional mental and cerebral functions...
Reality (as our Inner, Real, Nature) can be Experienced, "indicated" to be Experienced by others, but it can neither be interpreted, nor described, nor be the basis of a theoretical approach, a theory... Anyone who tries to approach or access Reality through the intellect simply does not Understand what we are saying...
The Eternal Presence
PERCEPTION, as a term, has a dynamic meaning that means precisely a cognitive process, Knowing. To know means to see directly, to come in contact with, to join, it does not mean to mentally approach through concepts, to believe, to have beliefs. It is about a deeper process of understanding, about a real contact, about an existential experience. Knowing is an Ongoing Process that when it "becomes" Knowing, static knowledge (supposedly "complete"), is petrified and useless... because it does not reveal what is happening in the present, "in front" of us, but is based on memory, in time .
So, PERCEPTION (with this meaning) is an Happening, a Becoming, it indicates Movement.
Some use terms like, Consciousness. The correct term is Conscious which denotes a process. The term Consciousness is misleading because it has an ontic character and an ontological meaning.
Also, the term Self-Consciousness is a static term that does not correspond to Flowing Reality.
All this philosophical grammar (elementary things after all) helps us to understand that we are PERCEPTION (PERCEIVED), in the sense of the Flow of Knowledge, of Knowing (constantly), Something Alive, Manifesting Here, Now, within the very experience of knowing .
PERCEPTION (with the meaning we said) is therefore the Source Spontaneous Direct Cognitive Energy, which "informs" us that WE EXIST, We are a Continuous Process of Existence, a Current of Existence more correctly, (EXIST), that Lives in the Flowing Moment, that constantly changing "content" (content of experience). The "information" about our existence comes primarily from this very PERCEPTION, with its own wherewithal and then, secondarily, from our relationship with something "else".
This very PERCEPTION (the Existential Happening ) is our "Being", the way of existing in the space of experience.
But since we are talking about a Cognitive Process, can it (like a core of existence) have limits, be limited to certain activities, or behaviors? What is DEPTH OF PERCEPTION? How far can it be expanded? to be dilated? And what is its Real Quality, its Character? Its temporary limitation to a "type" of perception? In a defined behavior? In a specific activity? such as thought, sensation, or physical experience?…
We want to say that PERCEPTION EXISTS, either like this or otherwise, even if its "content" changes, it does not depend on a specific content. It exists as a Pure Happening (as a Function, if you will) regardless of content.
This (if understood) means many things.
It means the Endlessness of the Process (a Process that continues in various fields of experience, worlds).
It also means the Infinite Depth of Potential, Expanding to the Limitless.
It also means the possibility of PERCEPTION being "trapped" in an activity (such as thinking, conceptual activity) and seeing through it, distorted Reality.
It also means that PERCEPTION Can be One (like Pure Perception, without "content") or from a COMMON BASE have many manifestations. To be artificially "separated" from its ONE BASE and to experience its individuality, within its "limited" activities.
It also means that THIS PERCEPTION is the BASIS OF EVERY "PERCEPTION", the Soil Where Every Limited Perception Grows and Grows up, such as EVERYONE'S PRESENT PERCEPTION.
PERCEPTION IS THE ESSENTIAL NATURE (the Background) of the PRESENT PERCEPTION that we feel when we "differ from our BASE, inasmuch as we differ in the character (traits) that we differ.
Essentially our PERCEPTION and CURRENT PERCEPTION (Everyone's Perception) are the same thing. In other words, what is individuality? The "x" man? The "w" man? It is PERCEPTION that is limited to a "particular mode of operation".
From here (from what we say) many conclusions can also be drawn that can take our "reflection" further down.
THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE PRESENT PERCEPTION IS ALWAYS BEYOND ITS LIMITED AND LIMITED ACTIVITIES.
PERCEPTION (the PRESENT PERCEPTION) Is and Remains PRESENCE (An Immediate Perceptual Data) Embracing whatever is contained in our awareness at the given moment. This means that Presence Remains Presence even when all that we perceive changes or ceases to exist altogether, (sensory activities, emotions, thoughts, perceptions of an individual existence...). The Only Thing That Really Exists, Eternal and Indestructible , is the PRESENCE.
PRESENCE is in the nature of PURE PRESENCE, regardless of its "content". The Processes, the Functions, (such as thought, the senses, etc.) that cause separations between us (or our body) and the world are "artificial perceptions" of the given moment... they are purely, not ontic, but functional in nature … these are not permanent situations.
REAL FREEDOM Consists in Realizing that WE ARE PURE PRESENCE…all separations, all processes, “states” are just temporary, without permanent character. Therefore they can be "overcome". It is a mistake to take them (temporary states) as permanent states of being . Ultimate Freedom from all, Reveals the ONENESS of PRESENCE.
Ultimately, because we always have to guide "thinking" to a conclusion, because people don't want to think (in the healthy sense of the term), what we need to UNDERSTAND is that PERCEPTION IS ETERNAL PRESENCE and it is we who "determine" what is its "content". We "build" the world we "live in". We determine our "course", our "destiny": "You Are Exactly What You Perceive".
If we don't ASCEND, throwing off all attachments to the worlds of illusion, To the Clear Sky of Freedom, if we don't LIBERATE, we will never be able to EMERGE into the LIGHT, into the TRUE REALITY (not what we think is Reality), Where ALL IS ONE, ALL IS GOD.
All Traditions speak of an Initiative Journey to Freedom, to the RESTORATION OF OUR TRUE NATURE, OUR DIVINE NATURE.
And like our "grandfather" Odysseus, we should "ignore" the song of illusions that invite us to their imaginary worlds. The Only Guide in the JOURNEY TO TRUTH, is the Deep Nostalgia of our Spiritual Homeland, the True Ithaca, which is our Home, our Nature... the Complete Liberation from all, no matter how beautiful they seem (they are not, they just imagine). Adventures in fantasy islands, experiences, no matter how much we think they enrich us in "knowledge", are actually like the dream of the night that is lost in the light of day. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE OUR HOME.
This INTERNAL JOURNEY OF UNDERSTANDING, of dissolving illusions, only leads us to Here We Have Always Been. But we only really understand this when we HAVE MADE the Journey. We're Back Here Where We Started. We have closed the CIRCLE of Existence, of Becoming. We are Outside of Becoming, Outside of Place and Time. WE ARE EVERYWHERE AND FOREVER.