The Transparency of Things by Rupert Spira

Author:Rupert Spira
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781908664112
Publisher: Non-Duality Press
Published: 2012-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

A very simple experiment will show the falsity of this interpretation of experience. Place your hand on a nearby surface, such as a table. A new sensation will be generated by the contact of the hand and the table. It is a single sensation.

Now ask yourself, “Do I feel the table?” The answer is obviously “Yes.” Now ask yourself, “Do I sense my hand?” The answer is obviously “Yes.” So in this experience we readily admit that we feel both our hand and the table.

However, is this new sensation that is generated by our hand touching the table two sensations? No, it is one. Yet we have acknowledged that both our hand and the table are experienced there.

Therefore, the new sensation that is experienced is neither ‘hand’ nor ‘table.’ It is not even correct to say that it is a combination of the ‘hand’ and the ‘table’ because, in such a statement, we are combining two conceptualised objects that are never experienced as such. They are non-existent as separate and independent entities.

To formulate the result of the experiment in these terms would be to use concepts that are themselves disproved by the very experiment that we are conducting.

So, let us call this new sensation that is generated by ‘our hand touching the table,’ sensation ‘A.’ Of course it is not possible to conduct this exact experiment in real life because it is not possible to isolate a ‘hand’ and a ‘table.’ There will always be other elements present.

Now, let us add one new element. Imagine that a blue wall is placed behind the hand on the table. A new sensation, which is now the combination of sensation ‘A’ with the ‘blue wall,’ will appear.

However, just as we concluded in the previous experiment, there is in this new experience no separate sensation ‘A’ nor a separate ‘blue wall.’ Both sensation ‘A’ and the ‘blue wall’ are concepts that are not actually experienced as such.

Similarly, to formulate our new experience as a combination of both ‘A’ and the ‘blue wall’ is again to use concepts that are disproved by the new experiment. So let us call this new sensation that is derived from the inclusion of the ‘blue wall,’ sensation ‘B.’

If we carry on ad infinitum with this experiment, adding objects as we proceed, we will arrive at a sensation called sensation ‘Z,’ which comprises ‘ten thousand things.’ This would in effect be the totality of our current experience.

This experiment shows that we do not actually have the experience of separate isolated objects. The concept of separate isolated objects is an interpretation of our experience. It is not a description of it. The interpretation is a useful hypothesis but it is a mistake to confuse the interpretation for the actual experience.

This experiment demonstrates two facts about experience:

It shows that we do not experience ‘ten thousand things.’ We do not experience a multiplicity of objects. Two objects cannot exist at the same time. We experience ‘one thing,’ a multifaceted object comprising mind, body and world, and this ‘one thing’ refers to the totality of our experience at any moment.

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