LSD-1-Perception vs. Reality

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Perception vs. Reality

By Surf C. Reyes

President, LOVE Foundation and member of LightShare e-Group

[This is an excerpt of the presentation delivered by Surf Reyes as one of two members of the panel of “reactors” during the Lambat-Liwanag Conference on Light-Seeking and Light-Shar­ing Education held at the Buenaseda Hall, Philippine Normal University (PNU), Manila, on June 29, 2001. Main paper presentors were Prof. Enrique D. Torres of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and Dr. Romeo M. Barrios of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM). The other “reactor” was Cely Siva of PNU.]

WITH the objective of enriching the views given in this gathering of light, please allow me to respond from the point of view of LOVE Foundation (LOVE being the acronym for Laboratory On Value Education).
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..Value education, like edu­cation in general, remains a much misunderstood, if not abused, term. And like all things that go beyond the reach of the measuring sticks of the intellect, it eludes com­plete definition which can only point at it like a finger to a star; and the problem is when people get fixated on the pointing finger instead of turn­ing to look at the star.

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.....In the executive brief on LOVE Foundation, the follow­ing are used as pointers to the meaning of value education: “Value education can be viewed as a kind of alchemy, the process of transforming the content of consciousness from fragmentation to whole­ness. Value education can also be viewed as an environment­al concern, where the environ­ment is the human conscious­ness itself, the pollution of which distorts the image of the core reality, which is the oneness of all. This effects the separative attitude that is the source of all the problems in the family, the community, the nation, the world. And the pollution has be­come so bad that we can barely see the original state of our con­scious­ness through the smog.

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...Value education is learn­ing to be free. Learning to be free of the pollution in the in­ner environment. It is the process of regaining awareness of our original state of conscious­ness, the original goodness, our true nature. Value educa­tion is the process of regain­ing awareness of the reality of the interconnectedness of all. And as in the concern to re­vive and nourish the physical environment, the need is for a sustained collective effort. Ul­ti­mately, value education leads to natural, effortless ap­plica­tion of core values for the good of all, or for the good of the whole.

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...LOVE Foundation advo­cates value education as the foundation of all human learn­ing. Love as the foundation of all human activity.” Common to the views ex­pressed this morning has been the seeking of light in rede­fining terms and objectives for the reformation of the present educational system. In the spi­rit of light-sharing, we offer a master keyEnlightened views and decisions, as in the reformation of education, will naturally fall in place when they are founded in awareness of the core reality which is the oneness of all. that can make the process easier:

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....The universally accepted core values as love, peace, harmony, respect for all, equality, etc., that has re­mained largely as intellectual instead of experiential, can be brought down to a practical level only with the awareness of this core reality. The core values remain as utopian con­cepts in the intellect because of the attachment to the perception of everything and everyone as separate from each other. When perception of separation is taken as real­ity, conflict is inevitable. When perception is taken as reality, consciousness plunges into the darkness of ignorance.

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Enlightened views and decisions will naturally fall in place when they are

founded in awareness of the core reality which is the oneness of all. .

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....As all communicators know, there is a world of dif­ference between perception and real­ity. If there was a thick piece of rope in the grass and one perceived it to be a snake, in reality it remains a rope, but his perception of it as a snake becomes his reality and would affect his feelings and his ac­tions toward it. He would av­oid it in fear, and maybe have sleepless nights worrying ab­out its slithering into his room

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....Perception is an intellectual in­terpretation or judgement and, due to its inherent limitation and vulnerability to distortion, is subject to error. The lack of awareness, or experiential know­ledge, of the truth of re­ality tends to make one dep­endent on perception.

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...To illustrate further,let us use another experiential mo­del. Most of you have pro­bably experienced viewing ste­­reovision pictures in books entitled “Magic Eye.” To those who haven’t, these are computer generated pictures which, when you learn to view with a certain unfocused look, you suddenly discover beauti­ful 3D objects within.

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....It is not easy to learn the method of diverging the eyes to experience this unbeliev­able visual phenomenon. And you need to keep that altered way of looking or you lose the vision when you focus on the surface picture. People with­out experiential knowledge of the phenomenon would see only the flat outer picture, but those who have learned the “magic eye” look, see through the surface and into the inner 3D image.
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....In the same way, perception can only see the outer surface of this world of appearances, but there is a way of seeing through the outer appearances and being aware of the inner core reality. To borrow from The Little Prince, only with the heart can one see rightly, what is essential is invisible to perception and the intellect. This experience has changed my life. It has provided me with an experiential model to realize that all of the saints and ascended masters actually see a common those who have not yet learn­ed to see with “magic eyes.” And so they talk in parables, in profound abstractions. But how else would you describe light to those who, blindfolded from birth, have no experience of it?

LOVE Foundation points to this “essential” or core reality as the oneness of all, or the interconnectedness of all. Let us try to bring this to a more practical level using as an­other experiential model…the jigsaw puzzle.

I’m sure all of you have experienced putting jigsaw puzzle pieces together to form one picture. It all starts with a cluttered jumble of separate and seemingly mean­ingless pieces that, toge­ther, form one meaningful pic­ture. Let us experience the re­ality more closely. The pieces look quite alike in shape, and some even in color, yet no two pieces are actually alike. Each jigsaw puzzle piece is totally unique, with its own shape and colors, and designed to precisely lock with other piec­es to form that one beautiful picture. Each individual piece has no real significance or meaning except as part of the whole. So each “I” has no meaning except with­in “we”. Hold that in your ima­gi­nation for a while to serve as a mirror image of the core reality of the oneness of all. Consider all of us and every­thing in our environment, as the jigsaw puzzle pieces that form the one universal pic­ture. From this core reality na­turally spring all the core values.

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....True self worth, respect for others, for instance. I have come to realize that a stud­ent’s low self image is a major block to learning and being creative. Low self image comes from perception, and making people aware of the core reality is the only antidote I know. So I once told a workshop participant, “Be aware of the reality that you are the only one of your kind in the whole universe, are al­ready as one whole.

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....The pro­cess then is really regaining awareness of the core reality. It is said, “you cannot com­pare apples to oranges.” In re­ality, you cannot compare an ap­ple with another apple. In the awareness of the reality of the uniqueness of each and all, the practice of comparing (as in one student to another) com­pletely loses meaning. No jig­saw puzzle piece can be better than another. Trying to imitate somebody else is impossible and a disservice to the whole. Can you imagine a green jigsaw puzzle piece in the forest area of the picture wanting to be blue like the pieces in the sky area? Or one piece abhors an­other? In the con­text of the whole picture, no jigsaw puzzle piece can be “ugly” or “less important.”

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....When people talk of res­pect, they invariably focus on “respect for elders.” It sounds like we respect them for being old. Then we institutionalize ways of expressing this res­pect as in saying “po” in our sentences and kissing their hands. But what have we insti­tutionalized to express respect for the young? True respect cannot be selective and must be founded on “sterner stuff.” True respect is founded in ap­preciation of each other’s uniqueness, and acknowledge­ment of each other’s import­ant and indispensable role in forming the total picture. Res­pect must be for all, including the environment. Non-violence and compassion, cooperative­ness, harmony and synergy in relationship with others, be­come natural expressions of being aware of the core reality of the oneness of all.

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....Responsibility and discip­line find their true meaning in the realization that each is im­portant to the whole and needs to play his totally unique role to the best of his ability since nobody else can do it for him. With this awareness, there is no need to impose or com­mand discipline and respons­ibility. With the awareness of the interconnectedness of all, one has “response-ability,” but in ignorance (taking separa­tion as reality), one can only be reactive or reaction­ary.

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On the proposed “learner-centered” approach, we offer the refinement of making it learning-centered instead. This provides the space to include the “teacher as pupil” idea. For on the teacher and student re­lationship, based on this jigsaw puzzle image, it is quite clear that both must learn from each other’s unique experience of the same one truth. Teaching and sharing then is not passing a com­modity to another, but ex­tending oneself through the other in the process of awak­ening to one’s whole being which is the total picture or the oneness of all. We cannot know the total picture except through each other. For we are, in reality, extensions of each other.

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This makes practical sense of Greg Bopraden’s “Isaiah Ef­fect,” meaning in the reality of the interconnectedness of all, each one’s consciousness and actions affect everyone and ev­erything else. Of course these are all invisible to those who are attached to perception, for in ignorance, they take the ap­pearance of separation as real­ity.

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“Knowledge” is yet ano­ther term that needs to be re­defined. Many mistake intel­lectual knowledge with expe­riential knowledge. In reality, all knowledge comes from ex­pe­rience (That is why we say life is the only true teacher). Then descriptions of the expe­riences are recorded as inform­ational data or intellectual refer­ences.

But one can have much intellectual knowledge by read­ing and listening to lectures and yet not have the expe­riential knowledge. One, for instance, can have so much intellectual knowledge about swimming or riding a bicycle without ever being in water or touching a bike.

The failure of formal education is in merely being a repository of purely intellect­ual references acting like a computer server feeding data into the intellectual hard drives of students turning them into mere computers. Many educators are satisfied collecting intellectual know­ledge (much like many bu­sinessmen collect money for its own sake) and, depending on the size of their collections, confer upon themselves acade­mic titles (like Doctor of Divi­nity).

The challenge of true edu­cators is in turning these intel­lectual references back to ex­periential knowledge in them­selves, and in their stud­ents. They must, for instance, not be satisfied with collecting be­liefs. It is no longer enough to believe in love, peace. We must be, live love and peace. Belief must turn to being.

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In reality, all knowledge comes from experience.

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This is most pronounced in the “study” of spirituality. The­o­lo­gy is defined The study of the nature of God and reli­gious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions. Theo­logy can thus be viewed as quite presumptuous. It assum­es that the immeasurable couldactually be measured. The words “study” and “rational” point to using the intellectual mind as the instrument for know­ing God and Truth.

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The failure of formal education is in being purely

a repository of intellectual references.

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It is like a group of people blind­folded from birth trying to learn about daylight by go­ing through lectures and study­ing books in braille. Towards the same objective, it is ob­vious­ly better to make them aware of their blindfolds and how to remove them. This will lead to direct experience of the truth. They can be, live in daylight and not merely be­lieve the truth about it.

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....It is in this light that I propose Egology as a kind of “practical theology”. Ego is the attachment to the appear­ance or illusion of a self sepa­rate from the whole. We de­fine Egology as the study of the ego, the block to aware­ness of Truth. It is learning to be aware and be free of the veil that covers the Truth. It is learning to grow from know

ing with the mind to knowing with the heart.

We should redefine the term “study,” which tends to be limi­ted to collecting intellectual knowledge, to mean learning to experience appreciation of the miracle of life, through whatever subject or course it may be. A computer can col­lect and process data, but it cannot appreciate. Only creat­ive consciousness can. Creativ­ity is of the heart, and the computer has none.

Prof. Torres correctly calls the intellect-bound system “al­i­en­ating education.” What is essentially alienated is the heart faculty from the intel­lectual faculty. The prevailing educational system is so en­amoured with the intellectual faculty, it has made it all-im­portant, the be-all and end-all. It develops the intellectual fa­culty at the expense of the heart faculty.

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We cannot know the total picture except through each other.

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Value education cannot be divorced from any form or level of education. The bottom line objective of all learning must be to make students positive and constructive mem­bers of society.
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