The Snake and the Rope
La serpiente y la cuerda
A reflection on how the sense of being a separate perceiver is a projection of thought, and how recognizing what something actually is dissolves the illusion.
The Snake and the Rope
A reflection on how the sense of being a separate perceiver is a projection of thought, and how recognizing what something actually is dissolves the illusion.
In the sound, there is only sound. In the sensation, there is only sensation. In the thought, there is only thought. This is the Heart Sutra from Buddhism.
Looking at the sense of a perceiver
So just look at when you experience this sense that everything is outside of you. Look at the subtle sense behind it. It will be thought-based. What can happen is that you recognize: "Oh, what I am sensing, what I thought was this perceiver," it will seem real, until you recognize it as thought. This is the whole process, even of the meditation today: noticing what something actually is, is what changes something illusory into something real.
The rope and the snake
In Hinduism, they talk about illusion and ignorance. There is a well-known metaphor of a rope and a snake. Illusion is to see a snake when there is in fact a rope. It is not that the snake is not there. It is just not a snake.
In the same way, it is not that what you sense to be the subject is not there. It is just thought. It is not the subject.
A two-step process of disillusion
This was described as a two-step process of disillusion. First, you experience a snake, which is a projection of the mind. Then you see it is not a snake. But there is still a further step: looking more closely and seeing that it is a rope.
In a similar fashion, there is a sense of a separate, localized subject, a perceiver, and everything seems to be outside. What I am saying is that this sense of a self is the perception of a snake. There is no self-subject there. It is projected onto a sensation.