Think on This 2

[Inquiry]

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth

Marcus Aurelius

[DanMcD]

Marc makes an interesting point but does he ‘see’ and ‘hear’ this way or is this just his intellectual conclusion?

[Inquiry]

I know that most, if not all, of what I see and here is a reaction, a self-serving distortion. I’m not always immediately aware of this, but it’s obvious in retrospect.

[DanMcD]

@Inquiry

I know that most, if not all, of what I see and hear is a reaction, a self-serving distortion.

I’m asking where does the ‘distortion’ come in?..I’m looking at the tree the energy coming from that object is always ‘new’ in the same way as sunlight is always new, the photons entering my eye / brain have never been ‘seen’ before…so with the ‘energy’ of the tree has never been seen before.

[DanMcD]

(cont.)

The information of the things around me, my body as well, that energy is coming through my senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and there is no ‘distortion’ apart from the limitations of the senses themselves. Thought / thinking becomes a ‘sense’ here when it identifies the energy form being received by the brain, names it, recognizes it: “that is a bird, a tree, etc. if this is so, when does the ‘distortion’ take place? Is it when thought recalls from memory past ‘experience with the object? A ‘like or dislike of what is happening?
A ‘desire’ regarding what is being sensed?

[Inquiry]

@DanMcD

I’m asking where does the ‘distortion’ come in?

As to “where” this distortion comes in, I’m not sure what you mean.

The passive aspect of the brain’s conditioning is like a suit of armor. What little can be sensed through what few openings there are is part of what you have to fabricate your reality with. The active aspect of the brain’s conditioning is like a sword wielded reactively to whatever doesn’t conform to its strictures.

[DanMcD]

K is saying I think that the main ‘distortion’ of my perception, my sensing of the energy ‘field’ that the body / brain is part of, is that beside my sensing of what I am physically in relation to, there is a psychological ‘center’ that has formed from the past and through this my ‘pure’ sensing is filtered and distorted? That the sensation that there is an ‘observer’ apart is false. Among other effects of the presence of this separate psychological observer is that I give different ‘values’ to different ‘things’ in Nature.

[Inquiry]

@DanMcD

That the sensation that there is an ‘observer’ apart is false.

There is no actual separate person, but there is the psychological structure that creates the illusion of a separate person, and until/unless that structure is revealed, the illusion persists.

[DanMcD]

@Inquiry

There is no actual separate person, but there is the psychological structure that creates the illusion of a separate person, and until/unless that structure is revealed, the illusion persists.

This ‘center’ or distortion views itself not only separate from the real flesh and blood body but also as if it is the body’s ‘owner’. And as the body ages or falls ill, it feels as if it has been betrayed! And ‘suffers’.