LECTURE - 39 : WHAT IS PERCEPTION

God has stated: -

“God is He who has created you from one single self.”

The whole universe is recorded in one single point, which for the sake of understanding can be considered a microfilm of the cosmic record. The movement of this point from one place to another is the source of perception. Perception is information. Depth and obscurity is produced in the information. Resulting this depth, the point is turned up side down. Perception is one of the characteristics of the Black Point. And, these very characters of the Black Point are the information.

We are conscious of the fact that atomic bombs were dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When these bombs exploded, people saw that the hills had transformed into dust and smoke. These millions of year old hills were destroyed in a fraction of a moment as if these never existed at all. Even the smoke also cleared after some time and the hills were annihilated without leaving a trace of their existence,

Using the direct approach of thinking or the spiritual ways it would be said that the annihilation of a second consumed the survival of millions of years. The thing that was made in millions of years was destroyed in a second, that is, existence of millions of years was made non-existence in a second. Or to say, one second encompassed millions of years. The hills in Hiroshima represented the survival of millions of years. Just as the destruction of one second encompassed the life of millions of years, similarly, a femto-second of the Black Point encompasses the whole length of time from Eternity to Infinity. The working of the Black Point is beyond our comprehension because the perception that we use cannot observe the femto-second and the perception that can observe the femto-second is beyond the conscious sphere of understanding. The rule to observe the activities of a femto-second has been described in the holy Quran in these words: -

“We sent it down in the Night of Power. And, what will explain to you what this Night of Power is? It is the Night that is better than one thousand months. In this the angels and Gabriel descend to carry out the orders of their Lord. This Night is Peace till the dawn of Morning.”

The perception that becomes active in that Night is sixty thousand times faster than the speed of the conscious under normal circumstances. If a person gets this perception activated in his consciousness, which is sixty thousand times faster than normal perception then he can witness the soul and the angels and the laws and the formulae of creation come to his knowledge.

The conscious that using certain techniques starts functioning at a speed that is sixty thousand times more than the ordinary speed of the conscious, in Sufism is known as ‘fatah’ meaning openness. A spiritual associate before entering into the state of fatah has to pass through many stages. The journey of a spiritual associate is undertaken with the normal consciousness and by performing various exercises his conscious keeps on developing resulting in improvement of the speed that gradually keeps on increasing, eventually to become the speed that is required to enter into the state of fatah.

In journeying the paths of spiritual associability when the resistance of the conscious mind starts breaking, the associate experiences the state of Drowse (ghanood), that is, when a spiritual associate sits down and keeps his eyes close the state similar to half-sleep-half-awake overpowers him. And, the information pertaining to those things start coming to the mind, which are not present before the physical eyes. This information is acknowledged to some extent only but the most of it is ignored by the conscious or it slips away from the grip of the conscious because of its non-familiarity for the conscious.

The spiritual associate experiences the state known as warood (Reminiscence) is experienced when the resistance of the conscious mind is further diminished and the spiritual associate advances from the state of Drowse. This helps in having an increased capability of accommodating information of wider perspective. This third stage of the journey of a spiritual associate is known as Kashf (Knowing). This state is followed by (Ilham) Intuition. After this state of Ilham, the state known as Mu’aniqa (Embracing), which is followed by the state called mushahida (Observation).

After this stage the spiritual associate starts journeying the inner realms of his self. This state is called Sair (Perambulation). After this comes the state known as fatah (Openness). All these stages are the perceptions of Black Point. The closer the conscious gets to the Black Point, the vaster becomes the vista. And, with the widening of mental horizons the speed of the conscious also increases. And when this speed becomes sixty thousand times more than the normal speed of the conscious, the spiritual associate starts witnessing the Realm of the angels.

A person enjoying the faculty of fatah (Openness) witnesses the cosmic events with open eyes and can peruse the record of any time from Eternity to Infinity. At this stage performing muraqba is no longer needed. A person who is bestowed upon with the state of fatah and flight speed of fatah is activated in him witnesses that how the solar systems in the remote areas of the universe are created and how do they perish after living their lives.

Universe is the Eternity, an eternity in which it is being created every moment. On the one hand it is coming into being and, on the other, it is annihilating. This system of life and death, survival and extinction, existence and annihilation is ever continuing at such a great speed that we cannot measure them by the known units of time. For this very reason the phrase of ‘a femto-second of the Black Point’ is used in the foregoing explanation. Incalculable systems of galaxies come into being in the billionth fraction of a second and the similar numbers of systems perish in the same unit of time. The story of survival and extinction cannot be defined using the Spatio-temporal measures. Just as a child is coming into being every moment after his birth and is annihilating every moment similarly the whole universe is coming into being and annihilating in a billionth fraction of a second.

It is the statement of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), “The Pen has dried up after writing what was to be written.” A person enjoying the faculty of fatah witnesses that the countless galaxial systems are coming into being and are expiring after passing through various stages of their lives. One second of fatah is encompassing the whole length of time since Eternity to Infinity. This means that Time is only an hypothetical thing and is such information which we want to understand within the confines of our limit-ness whereas it is not limited by any chance.

We see Tom is reading the newspaper and Tom says that he is reading the paper or that he wrote a letter. Who is saying this that I wrote a letter, I read the paper. Tom sates all this but the understanding and statement making is done by the mind of Tom. What did Tom say? It is known to the mind of Tom. What did Ton do? This thing is conceived by the Tom’s perception. The state of knowing is not more than receiving information. A piece of information was received by the Tom’s mind that he should be reading a paper, at another information Tom wrote a letter. Close study of all these movements suggests that all these are no more than information. And, after acknowledging that writing a letter and studying the paper by Tom are activities performed because of information then it becomes necessary all the more to find that who is this Tom, then? If we ignore the information coming to Tom, then we would not be justified to ask that who this Tom is and what did he do?

Fact is that the mind of Tom received certain information, which he accepted. Now, the information is given by the mind and is received by the mind. The provider of the information and the receiver of the information are not two different things these both are one and the same Black Point that has been termed as Perception.

Ninety Million Miles – 3425 Years

Perception means that we are dealing with Time and Space. What is Perception?

Perception is the division of moments in such a manner that a larger unit is divided into smaller fractions and smaller intervals are summed up into a larger unit. Moment is not any interval of time rather it is such an information that splits and divides a moment into a billionth fraction and that also is the information which expands a moment to encompass millions of years.

A person who is in his eighties, sitting amongst his grand children, relates an incident to the children when he was only ten, at that moment he witnesses the record of all those past eighty years in that one moment. It did not take him even a second to recollect all those memories. And you could observe closely you will find him enjoying all that thrill which he went through sixty or seventy years ago. It seems as if he is reliving his childhood (past) in a present moment. It is not very unfamiliar for us that when we refer to past or become nostalgic the whole record is displayed in our memory like a rolled up film.

We are told that the distance of the sun from our planet earth is about ninety million miles. But, when we look at the sun, we see it in a split of a second whereas, if we were to cover this distance before having a glimpse of the sun, we would have been required to travel for 342.5 years continuously at the average speed of 30mph. Similarly there are planet that are billions of miles away from our earth but when we want to see them we can see it in a moment. It means that we passed through the whole distance in a moment.

The thing that brings the distances within the reach of a moment is the Perception. The thing we intend to elaborate is that there exists a relation between God and man and there does not exist any distance in this relation. But, since we have accepted the division of our perception in large units therefore, it appears that God is far away from man.

When it is said that the sun is ninety million miles away from the earth and if we accept it as it is, then keeping this distance in view, the reported presence of God can easily be counted into billions and trillions of miles away from man, which of course cannot be correct. The stations reported in the holy books are the seven heavens, then the High Throne. If the first heaven were where the sun is then the total station between the earthlings and God come to be ten and if the minimum distance between two stations were taken to be ninety million miles then, the total distance between the earthlings and God would be totaling around 900 million miles. And, it is not very difficult to estimate the time required for covering this much distance at the speeds that are in the human knowledge. For example if this distance were traveled at an average speed of 30mph then we would be required to spend 3,424.65 years in traveling continuously. If God is at such a far away distance then how can man have access to him, is quite paradoxical in the wake of teachings of the prophets who spent their lives in preaching the need and methodology of having an intimate relation with God.

Perception, in fact, is a point that expands and contracts and in both its states of expansion and contraction it remains perception. When this point shrinks and contracts the distances eliminate and when this point expands the distances also stretch longer and longer.

The spiritual science invites us to develop an understanding of this point and that we should have an intimate conditioning with that state of this point, which is known as its contraction. If we log in the contraction of this point the distances are eliminated for us and if we establish our connection with the expanded state of this point then the distances become longer and longer. The more we are involved in the expansion of the distance the firmer is the grip of the clutches of Time and Space. And, if we break away from the distances and intervals successfully, the distances are negated accordingly and we step into that angle of our perception where time and space cease to exist.

It has been mentioned that, on the one hand, Perception is the Time and is the smallest fraction of a second and, on the other, it is longest period of time that could be imagined by the human mind. Both these states are two different aspects of Perception and every one of us experiences them invariably daily. God has gifted everybody with the ability of expanding or contracting his perception.

Perception resulting from the contraction of the point is known as dreaming or the nocturnal activities and the state of perception associated with its expansion is experienced as awakening or the diurnal activities. Both these modes of perception remain active in the human beings all the time. Perception is nothing else but the mind’s working, that is, the way the mind measures the intervals and units. Intervals and distances are measured in small fractions or these are measured using longer units, both are the aspects of our perception.

When the information is mentioned, we do not find anything else to conclude that the origin of the information is the mind of someone and that where the information is received is also a mind. The supplying agency and the receiving agency of information both are the mind, which, too, has two aspects. The information of the expansion and contraction of the point is also given by the mind.

In the case of the Hiroshima incident, we are told that the age of the perishing hills was two billion years. Who tells that the hills aged this much? Nobody has ever lived for this length of time and then the history of mankind is also not dates back to two billion years. When we attempt to resolve this enigmatic puzzle, we have to conclude that the human conscious is imperfect to resolve things like these.

Man does not have the history of five thousand years then, how can this be suggested that the age of those perishing hills was two billion years. It means that the notation of two billion years is merely information and nothing more than the information. If one year is taken as a unit then this notation would comprise of two billion units, that is, the perception divided a sensation resulting from the given information into two billion units. The length of this information is felt in the mind as two billion years although no one has ever witnessed these two billion years passing by, yet the mind of the listener accepted this information.

Let us look at this from another angle. The age of the Hiroshima hills, as reported, was two billion years. It means that the measuring scale of this much length of time exists in one second of our perception because the length of this information is not more than a single second. Just in one second the mind measured the length of two billion years and accepted the ensuing feeling.

Non-serial Light

Every one knows that he is, and when it is known that he is, it is explored that what he is, and with this, this question also arises that from where has he come? ‘I am’, is the knowledge. How did it come to my knowledge that I am? The personal identity and the status of one’s individuality is the knowledge. ‘I’, is the knower and ‘am’ is the knowledge. When a person refers to his individuality he says, that on the one hand, I am the knower and on the other I am the knowledge. Who this knower is and how does this characteristic came into being or that how does the knower demonstrated his attribute?

Knowledge is nothing else than the information. Man being the knower and the knowledge is composed of two aspects and both these aspects are also information. Now, from where did this information come that ‘I am’? Man is an informative perception, a perception that is based upon information to which meanings are ascribed. On the one side the information does not have meanings in it and on the other meanings are ascribed to it. When there is length in the information an interval or a period is produced in it and when the length is not there the period becomes smaller and smaller, almost non-existing. The duration of the perception of information is not more than a second but the duration or the length of time, which is only a second stretches to encompass the period of millions of years. When we mention the millions of years, the whole length of this period is felt and understood in one second only.

Man is the information and since he is the information therefore his whole life is also information. The feelings, sentiments, emotions and the senses are all based upon information. If the information is there, the senses are there and if the information is not there we cannot sense anything.

What is this information?

Jesus Christ has stated, “God said, Light! And there it was.” The very same thing has been reported in the holy Quran in these words that God said, “Be! And it came into being.” When we mention about God, we cannot think of anything else but Light. God has also stated, “God is the Light of the earth and the heavens.” It means that everything in the universe is light. The things that we see or hear are also light. Our sight is also light, our hearing is also light, and the voice that we hear is also light. We are living in an atmosphere of light that is surrounding us from all sides.

When it is established that everything including God is light and when the light wanted that there be light, the light displayed itself in the form of light because all that is there in the light is also light. This means that the whole universe is a reflection of the light and since everything has been generated in the light therefore, every character, every constituent of this program is also light.

The book and the words written in the book are also light. And, since the book is also light, the words are also light, and our sight is also light, therefore it will not be wrong to conclude that the light peruses light, light witnesses light and light understands light. When we read a book, in fact, the light is reading light and, the light comprehends light.

What is light?

Light is information, the light and the information are both one and the same thing. Man prepares a dress for the protection of body. This dress could be that of cotton, wool, leather or some man made fiber. As long as the dress is on the body it moves along with the body. And, when the dress is taken off from the body, the dress becomes devoid of any movement. The dress is also the light. The dress of the light worn by our soul is known as Nasma.

The modern sciences have succeeded to explore that man and everything around him are enveloped in a shell of lights. Light, in order to display itself, becomes light that is visible.

To sum it up, all that is there in the universe is nothing but light. The light weaves a fabric to display itself, as long as the light keeps this dress on, the dress exists and when the light discards the dress, the dress perishes. The light is moving perpetually and continuously. There is no rest in the light therefore it displays itself in ever-new forms. It is the light that tell, “I am”. And, this ‘I am’ is again only information and nothing and the information is also light.