The Ability to Perceive Reality

Many times I find myself writing about a matter that is truly fundamental to my existence.
The way the universe flows through my fingers and body, is effortless.

The words flow too easily. The words don’t capture, what was sacrificed in introspection. They don’t account for the no-mind states of peace which feel out of body. They don’t capture the spirit’s relentlessness to find the truth, at 3.40 a.m. in the morning before a long day of work.

The task of perceiving reality serves many great benefits. The journey can take a person a lifetime.

What must be written, must be written. I shall close my eyes and allow it to flow.

Perception is a function of one’s awareness, intention and sensory acumen.
When one presents a sincere intention to find the truth, they naturally bring their awareness in that direction.
Perception is a natural side effect of one’s awareness of their sensory apparatus.
How is perception developed?
With one’s awareness to the inputs being received by their sensory apparatus compared to a measuring tool on which they assess their goal.

If the goal is to catch a collapsed lung on an x-ray or increase production on the assembly line, one’s awareness of the process and the materials in front of them can be compared with an objective measurement.

This process can also be used to assess one’s intuition. Intuition is not an emotion, but an internal feeling.

Assessing and testing the internal knowing increases one’s perception of this knowing or intuition.

In this way, the intuition becomes a guiding force instead of being the often squashed-out gut feeling. Decisions made from intuition versus logic can be tested.
I personally have tested stock moves made purely from instinct versus logic.
The intuition-based stock moves consistently win.
Was there reading, studying, and assessing leading up to the decisions? Absolutely.
The intuition presents itself organically when one is on the pursuit.

When one understands the value of their perception, their journey becomes an exploration.
It’s not a bid to find out what to do.
It’s a journey to perceive all the inputs, outputs, and subsequently gain an understanding of the true factors at play.
Then, their understanding is tested.

The what-to-do is a natural next step.
As perception is developed, the subtleties behind matters begin to present themselves.
One gains a natural interest in understanding others’ intentions. One asks questions that dig deeper and deeper. After all, understanding the true matters behind something yields great benefits.
When one pursues their perception to capture more nuances, they slowly become more attuned to reality.

Reality is like nature. It is what it is.
Yet, this simple understanding is often lost.
Why?

Expectation – people bring their expectation of how things are supposed to be.

Should – People have a preconceived notion on what they should do or what they shouldn’t do.

Beliefs – They have a belief formed long ago about how something works. By definition, a belief is a notion on a matter that one cannot prove. I have to believe that there are aliens on Earth. But I don’t have to believe in gravity. I can drop a glass, every time it will fall towards the center of the earth.

By understanding how expectations, shoulds and beliefs stand between me and the perception of reality, their release happens naturally.

Without expectation, shoulds, beliefs, an opportunity arises to perceive what actually is going on.

Recently I met a woman who had no voice in her head. She saw the present interaction for what it was. She felt the emotions behind the question before the words were ever understood. There was no lag time from when the question was asked to when she presented the answer. Her technical skill in the method of medicine she practiced stood above the rest. Her Aurora was felt many feet away from her.

I had the fortunate circumstance to explore the depths of the spirit with this woman. As I write this discussion, I can feel an unmet curiosity regarding the impetus for her enlightenment. At this juncture I do not know why she chose to live in peace. I suspect, she has a genotypical or phenotypical advantage that facilitated this journey. She was born without the voice in her head. Yet she still made a conscious intention to choose a life path in spirit, free from the distractions of this world. The sincerity of her commitment ultimately outweighs any genetic advantage. When I met her, I told her she was on my Everest. She lived casually at the place I sacrificed everything to be at. Imagine climbing to the top of Everest, after a multi-year journey, sacrificing it all, to find someone in a beach chair, under an umbrella, drinking lemonade, at the top of the summit.

Why do I share this story? To point out that I do not know where the desire for awakening and enlightenment arises. Why did I choose such an extreme and uncommonly traveled path? What lives within me that felt so compelled to relinquish my societal conditioning, thoughts, and my Mind? I do not know. 

What I do know is that I was tired with my Mind. I was tired with the voice in my head that never turned off. The trials and tribulations of my mind frustrated me. I would have a good day and then a bad day. The Mind made up stressors, lies, and opinions. It prioritized ego and the preservation of the ego over actually seeing and feeling reality. The Mind as I came to see it represented everything that was untrue. As you read my words or listen to them, your Mind is talking over me. Every fourth word is interrupted by your mind forming a thought. It’s like the tale of Harrison Bergenon in Kurt Vonnegan’s short story. It is constantly distracting us from the reality that sits right in front of us. It prevents us seeing our true potential of what we can accomplish and create in our time on this planet. 

To focus, our society needs effort, breaks, caffeine, prescription stimulants, just to quiet the Mind long enough to get the task at hand accomplished. Forget the notion of getting lost and truly understanding a matter at its deepest level. Initially I asked my Mind to reel itself in but I was at a loss. Affirmations, self-talk, journaling, meditations, morning routines, are all creations of the mind to entertain itself. Through serendipity and desperation, I became exposed to work such as the writing I’m doing today. I knew I had a Mind that was distinct from my consciousness, because I could tell when my Mind was going crazy. I was not my Mind. There was a Consciousness separate from the mind. 

It was revealed to me that I can turn my Mind off. An example of my Mind of the past was like a car that never turns off. At home, my car is off in the garage. It’s not driving aimlessly around when I don’t need it. My mind was a dog that never stopped barking regardless if it was happy or sad. 

To quiet my Mind, I needed an understanding and a sacrifice. The understanding was that there is a consciousness separate from the voice of my mind. That consciousness, as I have come to know it, is my spirit. That spirit can feel and understand, without thinking or logic. 
The sacrifice came from letting go of all the pleasure that I gained from my Mind. The Mind is our greatest source of pain, but also our greatest source of pleasure. Ego stroking, feeling accomplished, self-worthiness, are some of the unique pleasures the Mind provides. In this way all pain and pleasure came from the same place. To turn my Mind off, I had to give up feeling pleasure. It was my sacrifice, and looking back to it, it was one I’ll happily make again forever.

On the other side, with the Mind off, I felt peace, quiet, the ability to see reality, to experience truth, to feel what needs to be felt, to be all in, and to experience enlightenment. You get all those things automatically for free, if you live without mind, and in spirit. It was my quest to free myself from my Mind, and after experiencing my Everest, I don’t want to come down from this summit.