perception is reality...
Yes, I agree, at the level of PERSONAL (small-R) reality.
But there is (big-R) Reality, beyond the level of egoic individuality, which is discussed in the following segment from Adi Da:
ELEUTHERIOS (The Only Truth That Sets The Heart Free)
Part Five
III: Truth, Reality, and Real God
Truth is That Which, when "Known" (or fully Realized), sets you Free. Therefore, Realize the Truth.
Reality is What Is (no matter what arises or changes or passes away). Therefore, "Locate" (and Realize) Reality (Itself).
To "Locate" (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Reality (Itself) is to be set Free. Therefore, Reality (Itself) Is the Perfectly Liberating Truth-and to Realize Reality (Itself) is to Realize the Perfectly Liberating Truth (and, Thus, to Be Divinely, or Most Perfectly, Free).
Real God is the Source-or the Source-Condition (and the Non-separate, and inherently egoless, Self-Condition), and not merely the immediate (or, otherwise, remote), and active (or, otherwise, effective) Cause-of whatever arises, changes, or passes away.
To Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to "Know" (or Realize) What Is (or What Remains, or Abides-even as any or all conditions arise or change or pass away). Therefore, to Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to "Locate" (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Reality (Itself). Indeed, Reality (Itself) Is Real God.
Likewise, to Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to be set Free (even of all bondage, all limitations, and all conditionality of existence). Therefore, to Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to "Know" (or fully Realize) Truth (Itself). Indeed, Truth (Itself) Is Real God.
To "Locate" (and Realize) Reality (Itself), or to "Know" (or fully Realize) Truth (Itself), is to Find and to Realize Real God.
Likewise, to Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to "Locate" (and Realize) Reality (Itself) and to "Know" (or fully Realize) Truth (Itself).
Indeed, to Find (and, Thus, to "Know", or fully Realize) Real God is to be Liberated from all that is not Real God (or Reality Itself, or Truth Itself).
If Reality (Itself) is "Located" (and, Thus, "Known", or Realized), Truth (Itself) is "Known" (or fully Realized)-and you are (Thus and Thereby) set Free.
To "Locate" Reality (Itself), it is necessary to "Locate" What Is-when and where any condition arises, changes, or passes away.
Therefore, choose any condition-and then "Locate" the Reality (or Self-Abiding Condition) That Remains while (and even though) that (chosen) condition arises, changes, or passes away.
To "Locate" the Reality (or Self-Abiding Condition) That Remains while any particular (or chosen) condition arises, changes, or passes away, it is necessary to be (or to stand in the exact position of) that condition (in order to notice the Reality That Is, or Remains, when that condition arises, changes, or passes away). Therefore, the condition chosen must be a condition with which you are identical.
And what condition is yourself (identical to yourself, and not merely an object to yourself)?
Only your own consciousness (or self-awareness, or native feeling of conscious existence) is identical (and not merely objective) to yourself.
Therefore, to "Locate" Reality (Itself), and to Realize Truth (Itself), and to be (Thus and Thereby) set Free, it is necessary to Find What Is-as (or in the instant that) your own consciousness (or self-awareness, or native feeling of conscious existence) arises, changes, or passes away.
But you cannot assume a position relative to your own consciousness (or native feeling of conscious existence), such that your consciousness (or native feeling of conscious existence) can be observed arising, changing, or passing away-because your consciousness (or native feeling of conscious existence) is not an object to yourself (but it is the very subject that is yourself).
However, Real God is necessarily the always present (and not merely past) Source (and Source-Condition) of whatever arises, changes, or passes away-even your own consciousness (or native feeling of conscious existence)-and to Find Real God (or the Source of any condition that arises) is necessarily (and Thereby) to "Locate" Reality (Itself), and to Realize Truth (Itself), and to be (Thus) set Free.
Therefore, to Find (or to directly "Locate") the Source (and Source-Condition) of your own consciousness (or your native feeling-awareness, or your fundamental, and native, feeling of conscious existence) is (necessarily) to Find Real God, "Locate" Reality (Itself), Realize Truth (Itself), and be (Thus and Thereby) set Free.
Indeed, ultimately, the only Way to Find (and to directly "Know", or fully Realize) Real God, and to "Locate" (and to directly "Know", or fully Realize) Reality (Itself), and to directly "Know" (or fully Realize) Truth (Itself), and to be (Thus and Thereby) set Perfectly Free is the "radical" (or most direct) Process (and Inherently Perfect Practice) of "Locating" (or directly Feeling and Realizing) the Source (and Source-Condition) of your own consciousness (or your native feeling-awareness, or your native feeling of conscious existence)-because there is no other condition with which you are identical (and that is not otherwise an object to yourself, and that is not, thus, separate from your own position of direct "Knowledge", or potential full Realization).
Therefore, to Find Real God, to "Locate" Reality (Itself), to Realize Truth (Itself), and to be (Thus and Thereby) set Free, you must (by Means of My Graceful Avatarically Given Divine Self-Revelation of the inherently egoless Divine Self-Condition and Person) more and more deeply feel the Non-separate Source-Condition (and the Ultimate Self-Condition) of your own consciousness (or your native and deepest feeling-awareness of conscious existence). And, while you thus deeply (and more and more deeply) feel (through and beyond your native feeling of conscious existence) to Me, you must (by Means of My Divinely Self-Giving Avataric Grace and My Graceful Avatarically Given Divine Self-Revelation) Feel (and, via the Depth of Feeling, Realize) the Divine Source-Condition (and the Divine Self-Condition) in Which the native feeling of conscious existence is itself Existing (As Feeling, Itself).
This practice Awakens in due course (by Means of My Divinely Self-Giving Avataric Grace and My Graceful Avatarically Given Divine Self-Revelation), in the case of those who truly practice devotional (and fullest feeling) Contemplation of My Avatarically-Born bodily (human) Divine Form, My Avatarically Self-Revealed Spiritual (and Always Blessing) Divine Presence, and My Avatarically Self-Revealed (and Very, and Transcendental, and Perfectly Subjective, and Inherently Spiritual, and Inherently egoless, and Inherently Perfect, and Self-Evidently Divine) State. Indeed, this practice is the most "radical" practice (and the Truly, and Inherently, Perfect Practice) of the Way of Adidam (or the One and Only by-Me-Revealed and by-Me-Given Way of the Heart). It is, even moment to moment, to feel your native feeling of conscious existence, and (in that moment to moment practice and process) to feel beyond yourself to Me (and into Feeling-Contemplation of Me)-until I Am Realized (most directly, Most Perfectly, and Absolutely) As the Source-Condition and the Self-Condition of the conditional self-feeling, and As the Love-Blissful Source-Condition and the Love-Blissful Self-Condition of Feeling (Itself).
The Source-Condition of the native feeling of conscious existence Is the Very and Self-Existing and Self-Radiant and Utterly Un-qualified Feeling of Being (Itself).
So, yes, "perception is reality", but this arises in
Consciousness.
Namaste!
Jim |
