Perceive > Experience > Express

To evolve spiritually, it is necessary to understand who we are and what our role is in the material realm through which we are interacting. If you have been reading my other Pages here, you would know that I hold the following view - we are tendrils of awareness extending from the Source Superconsciousness in search of experiential stimulation. We have each adopted physical lifestreams in this world and have associated our Selves into the body that experiences the lifestream of our choice. In order to obtain the  full value of the experience, we have elected to live through the entire growth from a single cell into the full sized body and mind of our chosen person, unbiased by any preknowledge. This is why the only things we seem to know are things that we have learned from when we were born. The knowledge of our True Self remains hidden.

The vast majority of humankind are not ready to cope with this kind of knowledge so they live and die believing that they are nothing more than the body of flesh and mind of limited conception. But some of us are driven by the need to know. We have found various gurus who have guided us through various stages of our lives until we are here, ready to receive this level of learning. In this Page, I look at how we can process the information we are exposed to. My starting point is a video recording of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev explaining the three stages in an experience and giving his opinion about them.

The first stage is the perception of events. As known to science, the body has five senses of perception. What we perceive is information that we receive through these five senses. Spiritualists claim that there is at least one other sense, but without verifiable proof, that can only be a belief. Whatever the case, anything that comes into one's train of thought, whether through the physical senses or through a nonphysical influence, is a perception. Of course perception is coloured by the filters of bias and preconception through which the information reaches us. The information, from whatever input source, goes through 3 stages - raw input, filtration processing, and finally, storage. At the end of it, what gets stored in our memory banks is what we have perceived.

Experiencing is what we do with that perception - how we turn it around in our mental and emotional processes and extract value from what it means. What has been perceived and stored is revisited and reviewed in the context of what we already know or have learned previously. This is the stage where the impacts to our internal experience are generated. Experiencing may happen right on the heels of the perception to the point where one may imagine that it is part of the process of perception. But it is surely a separate process and it is important to recognize the difference.

Expression is what we do with that experience which becomes tangible to the external world. If we sit in a state of serene calmness and are utterly unchanged by the perception and the experiencing of it, then there is no expression of it. However, if we even smile lightly, that is an expression. If we sigh and whisper or shout something out loud, that is a stronger expression. If we are moved into telling people about what we have experienced, that is a voluminous expression. Expression can be conveyed by sight or sound or even a communication beyond our 5 known senses. 

Sufi dervish dancers find their experience in their dance. The dance is also their expression. There is another Sufi form of expression, the rhythmic bending and erecting of the body combined with a chanting. Native Americans and Africans also use rhythmic dance as experiential expression. As do singers of bhajans and other forms of religious singing or chanting. 

Music, painting, sculpture, poetry, creative writing... all of those are expressions of profound internal experiences. Human creativity is incredibly varied.

My Blog is an expression of my internal experience. I wish to share with you a video about two great souls, Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi, who demonstrate two entirely different but remarkably effective methods of expressing their internal experience. It's a long video but well worth your time, so don't watch it in haste.

The human experience is vast and their needs and capacities are varied. There are many people for whom the language of silence is enough. But, as with most of the advanced paths, they constitute a minority. For many more, even though they find themselves moved in the presence of a souls such as Bhagwan, the experience does not stick with them. They usually end up seeking something more.

My expectation is that the majority of Bhagwan's followers don't really understand what they experienced in his presence. What has probably happened is that they were so moved by him, they have simply replaced or supplemented their previous deities with him. The same thing has happened with many  spiritual souls. The path of their devotees remains one of bhakthi, which is also good. If they can inspire their followers to greater piety and good works, then their karma can also be consumed.

In the video that I linked at the beginning of this Page, Sadhguru posits that there is altogether too much expression of perception happening in the world with not enough experiencing of it. There's great depth to that thought.

People are so taken up with wanting to tell others about what they saw or heard that they allow themselves little time to ponder and digest. If we allow ourselves the time and effort to immerse ourselves in experiencing the perception we have received, that will go a long way towards resolving our internal battles and clearing our karmic baggage. After all, isn't that the primary purpose of our taking on the travails and toils of a life of flesh? It is from the internal experience that we can learn and grow. Expression is secondary and surely not mandatory.

Nevertheless, having experienced the perception, if we find that there is something worthwhile in our experience to be expressed, then that expression belongs to the world and should be shared. That is what the many teachers, great and small, have done for us. I am hopeful that my humble Blog serves that same purpose, albeit in a small way.

It is abundantly clear to me that our primary purpose in this material world is the experience.  The experience is what can help us to understand and to grow. If we are able to offer expression of that experience, that can potentially impact the lives of others. 

What is not clear to me is, how much would expression of an internal experience impact one's own karma?