Ramana Maharshi/Thanks and Welcome

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone and thanks for being here. This is a Sangha and we welcome

and embrace people of all spiritual traditions and Religions. We have people

from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, Sufism, and

many other belief systems (and non-belief systems) represented. Within this

diversity, there is unity as we are all interested in the nature of truth

and the mystery of perception and the perceiver. Who is it that perceives?

What is perceived? Over a quarter of century ago in a philosophy class I

learned that Kant, a great western philosopher, had reasoned that the "Thing

in Itself" can never be known. Kant argued that we can never truly know what

we are perceiving in essence as the mind itself has built in categories

which determine how perceptions take place. His conclusion, as I recall, it

was that we are

limited to knowing only perceptions. The great nondual traditions focus on

the nature of perception and the nature of the perceiver. The great master

of masters, Ramana Maharshi, before whom the yogis and tantrics bowed, has

said again and again to find out who the perceiver is. Who is the "I" that

looks out and "sees". There lies the eternal clue which leads to the Eternal

Realization or Recognition. So my dear and wonderful friends, what do you

perceive? How do you perceive? Who perceives?

 

Love to all

 

Harsha

[Guest guest]

Harsha wrote:

> Hello everyone and thanks for being here. This is a Sangha and we welcome

> and embrace people of all spiritual traditions and Religions. We have people

> from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, Sufism, and

> many other belief systems (and non-belief systems) represented. Within this

> diversity, there is unity as we are all interested in the nature of truth

> and the mystery of perception and the perceiver. Who is it that perceives?

> What is perceived? Over a quarter of century ago in a philosophy class I

> learned that Kant, a great western philosopher, had reasoned that the "Thing

> in Itself" can never be known. Kant argued that we can never truly know what

> we are perceiving in essence as the mind itself has built in categories

> which determine how perceptions take place. His conclusion, as I recall, it

> was that we are

> limited to knowing only perceptions. The great nondual traditions focus on

> the nature of perception and the nature of the perceiver. The great master

> of masters, Ramana Maharshi, before whom the yogis and tantrics bowed, has

> said again and again to find out who the perceiver is. Who is the "I" that

> looks out and "sees". There lies the eternal clue which leads to the Eternal

> Realization or Recognition. So my dear and wonderful friends, what do you

> perceive? How do you perceive? Who perceives?

 

I don't know. :-)

 

But.........

The last few days I have been perceiving life as flowing through

me (using me loosely here) and being perceived or registered

as sensations, feelings and thoughts in the animal, emotional

and mental brains. There really is no difference between the

form and content of these brains as the content is the way

the form has formed or constricted. Like a filter. Clear seeing,

I suspect, is a filter which allows for clear flowing. Or one

that allows for clear flowing without the addition of added

identity or identification.

 

I used to feel that the realization of my own nothingness

was in the perceiver i.e. that the perceiver was nothing

but I now feel that it is in that which is perceived. Nothing

in the sense of no-thing i.e. not an object or identity. Not

snagged by the filter.

 

Is there more to be seen?

 

Marcia