Consciousness

There are two ways of seeing the world. The first way is through language, the means by which I am speaking to you now. Language uses symbols and associates them with artifacts found in "the real world."

The second way of seeing the world is without language, and, especially as we become older, this is the more difficult way for many of us. Could we look at our environment without the need to strip it bare, without dissecting it with language and symbols, and simply see it for what it is? This world without language is always there; it is the foundation of experience. Despite this, our minds are fast, powerful, and entrancing. Before we are even aware of what is happening, we are caught up in the language used to describe our experience rather than simply observing what is happening before our very senses.

In reality, the foundation of our experience is married in perfect harmony with the environment and the thoughts inside our heads. In fact, the thoughts inside our heads are in no way separate from the environment, just as the environment is in no way separate from the thoughts inside our heads. The world as we see it is exclusively all there is, and though the material world external to our minds is clearly consistent, it is nonetheless a construction of the mind itself.

At the bottom of the page, we see the symbols that swirl throughout our consciousness, whereas the hand reaching out to feel the texture of the tree is sentience itself reaching for direct, unfiltered experience. Though we may think of them as separate, it is clear to see these processes take place together on the same page and are a unified experience.