12-20-2007, 01:49 PM
In the introduction of Journey to Ixtlan, CC defines seeing as "responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality."
This is exactly how it is in non-duality. When the mind is not in the forefront and you are just perceiving the world without talking about it or describing any of it, your whole mode of functioning is purely sensory - what you see, hear, touch, smell and taste. That is the actual world. That is what CC calls "perceptual solicitations". They're solicitations because you're in silence until something engages one or more of your senses. Watch a dog - they respond to any noise or sound, they investigate any smells that hit their noses, they respond if you touch them... they're good teachers on responding to perceptual solicitations.
It's funny because in many spiritual circles or systems, the senses are looked upon as limitations. But if you just look at this, what else can there be when the mind has stopped?
The energy body? What is it? Could it be the hightened unified sensory input?
I'm not sure of the direct quote, but I recall somewhere else DJ saying that he never said seeing is done with the eyes alone. And something about engaging the entire body. When I find it, I'll post it.
Here's a quote from U.G. Krishnamurti:
"The natural state is not the state of a self-realized God-realized man, it is not a thing to be achieved or attained, it is not a thing to be willed into existence; it is there -- it is the living state. This state is just the functional activity of life. By 'life' I do not mean something abstract; it is the life of the senses, functioning naturally without the interference of thought. Thought is an interloper, which thrusts itself into the affairs of the senses. It has a profit motive: thought directs the activity of the senses to get something out of them, and uses them to give continuity to itself."
This is exactly how it is in non-duality. When the mind is not in the forefront and you are just perceiving the world without talking about it or describing any of it, your whole mode of functioning is purely sensory - what you see, hear, touch, smell and taste. That is the actual world. That is what CC calls "perceptual solicitations". They're solicitations because you're in silence until something engages one or more of your senses. Watch a dog - they respond to any noise or sound, they investigate any smells that hit their noses, they respond if you touch them... they're good teachers on responding to perceptual solicitations.
It's funny because in many spiritual circles or systems, the senses are looked upon as limitations. But if you just look at this, what else can there be when the mind has stopped?
The energy body? What is it? Could it be the hightened unified sensory input?
I'm not sure of the direct quote, but I recall somewhere else DJ saying that he never said seeing is done with the eyes alone. And something about engaging the entire body. When I find it, I'll post it.
Here's a quote from U.G. Krishnamurti:
"The natural state is not the state of a self-realized God-realized man, it is not a thing to be achieved or attained, it is not a thing to be willed into existence; it is there -- it is the living state. This state is just the functional activity of life. By 'life' I do not mean something abstract; it is the life of the senses, functioning naturally without the interference of thought. Thought is an interloper, which thrusts itself into the affairs of the senses. It has a profit motive: thought directs the activity of the senses to get something out of them, and uses them to give continuity to itself."