Hi Edgar,
My comment is written below:
>What nonsense! That experience suggests there is an
objective world (the eggplant) and that the cognitive >representation of
that world is illusion. Only if the monk went back again later and it
wasn't an eggplant but a >squashed frog and kept changing every time he
looked at then we might conclude there was no objective >world. The monk
accepted that the reality of the objective world was the eggplant, not
the squashed frog i>llusion in his mind.
>My point
again is that what is in the mind and what is in the world is the same
thing and that it is only one thing, >and that the rules that govern all
that are causal and consistent. That includes the phenomenon of errors
of the >senses and cognition that can be corrected by internal
consistency.
>That is true because things are
only illusion in the sense that they are observer dependent views of
reality. >Reality itself has no reality independent of any observer.
Just as in relativity there is no absolute motion, only >motion relative
to an observer. Every event is an 'experience' or observation by an
'observer' even if it is just >an electron responding to a force. The
whole idea of an external reality independent of observers is a
>construct of the mind and represents the cognitive world view of every
organism, each of which is different >and dependent on the biological
and cognitive structure of that organism.
>And that view is my own cognitive construct in my own mind which depends on my
>cognitive structure.
>So
we go round and round and never get to any observer independent
external reality. Therefore everything is >illusion, but only in the
sense that it is impossible to identify an objective reality behind
everything independent >on any observer's direct experience since no
observer could ever experience it.
>So what is
not illusion, at least in my experience, is the illusion - that is the
contents of direct experience in the >ground of the present moment, but
known to be illusion since their manifestation depends on my structure.
>And even worse, my supposed structure which determines reality is a
construct of its own structure! But at >least in my experience that is
consistent and follows causal rules.
>Those are
the contents of consciousness. I can however experience experience more
directly when all >contents fade away and only pure consciousness
remains, that experience is the reality of the present moment >empty of
all, or almost all, content. Or, if I open my eyes, the perceptual
content reappears but is not >categorized by the mind. That
categorization, e.g. the separation of the perceptual content into
discrete things >which stand in relationships to each other is a
construct of the mind and as such is illusion. But it is a consistent
>illusion ruled by causality.
>And since that is all there is, that illusion must be accepted as reality, but
>only when recognized to be illusion.
Go you get a headache when you make a cup of tea? :)
Mike.
