The Subject/Object Split - The ‘Visual’ Sense Organ & Perception

When we were children, we heard a great deal of words from our caregivers. Over time, those words became knowledge, concepts, and beliefs. Many of these words appended themselves to bodily sensations, and slowly became believable. The decades-long regularity of this self-practice eventually formed into the misperception that we were those perceptions by which sensations were built upon.

Therefore, a belief is a small segment of conceptual knowledge that has been hidden by its very own impetus, by its very own regularity, and stored in various bodily sensations. A belief feels real because it seems to be the feeling itself. Since sensations arise dependent upon outer conditions, it seems like there is a central perceiver that looks through this perceptual/sensation filter like how you might look through a kaleidoscope, and see a different world.

Within its own momentum, these self-beliefs create a pseudo-reality, an internal world built upon a framework of conditioned conceptions that is felt as an experiencer. Not only does this create a sense of an inner world, but also an outer world, (another inner concept) where we impart beliefs and sensations onto visual objects, making them seem real and solid. In this way, we bring a felt world into conceptual form. Let’s look at how that happens.

The visual information coming through into the eyes is intercepted by our inner conceptual framework. This stimulates subtle sensations in the body that correspond to the knowing of that object. It’s as if we have a middleman capturing that raw information, then scrambling it into a series of believable facts, as though something gives rationality or logic regarding how things are seen.

What’s interesting about this type of sensory perception is that the subject/object validation is made up of a subtle bodily/mental strain which pushes the object away. It creates the object over there, and thus a perceiver over here. Emerging out of this dualistic strain is the incidental by-product we call space, and the passage of time is experienced as a result of persistently trying to reinforce this duality, which is tantamount to pissing in the wind.

However, since thoughts are just thoughts, and sensations are just sensations, that middleman, when looked for, can not be found. It's decisively looking for it as if it were some type of anchor binding you to the experience of subject and object that unearths its illusive nature.

The sense that this fetter seems to be creating a tangible world is called 'perception'. It's the reflective nature (the back-and-forth resonance between subject & object) of the six-sense consciousness that creates the deceptive pretence that we call the human condition.

I would suggest re-reading the above at various times, but hold the conceptual framework very lightly.

So, we are going to try to find this middleman, which might seem like the recipient of visual information; something central to experience. Just to note: this is quite a subtle type of observation, so if you notice any straining, that won't be helpful. Relaxed is best, and let the seeing occur organically.

Try this exercise: 

Please find some quiet time, sit down for 20 or so minutes, and allow something of how you currently understand the visual field to just happen quite naturally. 

When looking around the room at the various items, does it seem like you try to identify with what is seen?

We identify in three ways: 1) the tendency to pull visual information inwards towards a centre. 2) the tendency to separate visual information from a centre. 3) a neutral position where there is neither, but something of visual information is known or objectified.

Additionally, you might notice individual items in the room that fall into one of these three. For example, perhaps there's your laptop, then someone else's book. The felt experience of both objects may be noticeably different.

The question here is what in your body informs you that one object is your laptop, and the other object is someone else's book? What does that feel like, and what happens mentally?

For most people, there is usually a bodily sensation that gives validity to these observations. In order to see this, please sit in a quiet space, and relax the visual field.

Without looking directly at any particular object, become aware of the periphery of your vision, so that you are aware of the objects in the outer part of your visual field. You should notice the objects in your periphery seem less define, almost soft and perhaps fuzzy.

Spends a few moments becoming familiar with this peripheral perspective.

Next, turn your gaze to your laptop, and notice how, in the first few seconds, your laptop changes from the softness of the peripheral vision, to something that now should seem more defined.

Try the same exercise again, but look at an item that you don’t own. How is it known that you don’t own this item? What does it feel like inside?

The question here is what in your body informs you that one object is your laptop, and the other object is someone else's book? What does that feel like, and what happens mentally?