The Perceiver Is Also the Projection
El perceptor también es la proyección
A student asks about the nature of the perceiver, and the teacher explores how identification arises from what changes slowly, and how even the sense of a localized perceiver is itself a projection.
The Perceiver Is Also the Projection
A student asks about the nature of the perceiver, and the teacher explores how identification arises from what changes slowly, and how even the sense of a localized perceiver is itself a projection.
If I go back to what you're describing, it's almost like a painting I can so clearly see when it's about the objects. The thoughts, the sensations come and go; they're being projected from me. But what's mind-blowing is the perceiver. I'm trying to apply your words while staying focused on the perceiver. So what you're saying is: the perceiver is like a slower shape-shifter?
The perceiver is everything, but because some things change more slowly, we have the capacity to identify with that which changes slowly versus what changes quickly.
Can you give an example? Like the body?
The body-mind. The body changes slowly; day and night changes fast.
Closeness and identification
And what is always close to us, for example the body-mind, becomes more "I." By "close" I mean that it changes slowly. Actually, it is always with us, so in a sense it never changes. That's why we don't identify with the sun: it goes away, and then we can't identify with it. It comes back the day after. It appears and disappears, appears and disappears. We identify with the body-mind because it's with us always.
When we go to sleep, we identify with the image within the dream. Then there's dreamless sleep, where there is no identification and therefore no memory. But it can happen that you, in a sense, wake up in dreamless sleep and become aware of this process.
Fear of change
The key point is this. Imagine the gold is a ring, and now it's changing from a ring to a necklace, and then to the next thing. Because we are identified with the ring, we begin to fear the change of it. We have imbued a sense of self into it, and now we want to be that. We already know it's changing. We know our body will die. We know it will end. We don't know what will happen when that happens. Now this becomes a source of fear and unrest.
What also changes is our story: when the mind creates this identification and the narrative of the "I," that narrative is threatened in daily life because of change. Even if we identify with certain emotional states, those are threatened because naturally everything changes. We identify with an emotional state that's more like the ring, and now it's changing into a necklace. We don't like the necklace. We want to be the ring, and now we're in this push and pull, trying to stay in one shape. Those are mental and emotional states we're trying to preserve because of identity. But if we're not identified, we don't mind those changes.
In meditation, let's say I'm not as identified with the emotional state because I'm in meditation, a kind of peaceful laboratory. But what I am identified with is the perceiver. And so, yeah, maybe that's where it was breaking open for me: the perceiver and everything that is perceived are the same, but also the perceiver is part of the projection. I think that's what you were saying.
The perceiver as thought
Yes, it's a thought. So it's a projection. It's phenomenal. That's simple. What you can do is take that as a koan. Meditate on this: does a sound need a perceiver in order to be?
Does a sensation need a feeler? That was powerful. Yes, it is a koan. It truly is.
Meditate on it in the sense of contemplating, looking, and searching for that perceiver-subject, with openness to it not being there. Be open to noticing that it's always going to be a thought. In a sense, there is a perceiver, but you could look at it differently and say: there is a perceiver, but it's not localized. It's everything. It's everywhere. And what is appearing is itself the perceiving, not separate from what is perceived.
That is what I believe. Yes, because the identification is with the perceiver that is here. This is good homework. Very exciting. Thank you.
My pleasure.