Submitted by Krishna on
Image by We are told by Buddhist sages that samsara and nirvana, the manifest and the unmanifest, being and non-being and all such interdependent concepts are not things or objects created in a world filled with appearances and observable facts, but are two different modes of seeing subjectively, in fact, both can only be perceived subjectively and for this reason remain inseparable in Consciousness as pure Subjectivity. Hence, the declaration of the Buddha that: "Nirvana and samsara are not two." Therefore, we can understand that both aspects of subjectivity are ways of understanding and expressing Consciousness. That is why, Nirvana and samsara are two different modes of being conscious: one works through perception and the other through gnosis or apperception. Hence, we realize that Nirvana and samsara can only be experienced through Consciousness. However, Consciousness needs the tool of our subjective self, without it nothing can be reflected, or experienced. Nevertheless, both are inseparable and need each other, since they are both the two complementary elements forming our subjectivity.
We could once more use the metaphor of a mirror and say that the mirror represents Consciousness, but more to the point, it is the matter and stuff that makes a mirror. In this example, we can observe that the polished surface of the mirror represents subjectivity on which everything connected to Nirvana and Samsara reflects. However, when viewed dualistically through the eyes of the ego, meaning through a subject-object relationship, then, both "Nirvana and samsara" are seen as different and conflicting. However, in reality they are both the two interdependent but opposite poles of subjectivity and will remain so as long as we operate as separate ego personalities... in this case, they will remain for ever separate and opposite to each other. What is the reason for this separation and opposition? The reason is that they will remain an opposite pair as long as we do not recognize that both poles are the reflections of subjectivity (like the ripples and waves of the sea) and that the real "Doer" and "Subject" of everything we do is our SUBJECTIVITY and CONSCIOUSNESS. As we explained, the Mirror itself symbolizes Consciousness and its polished surface represents our subjectivity on which Nirvana and samsara reflect. Therefore, we can see that the real subject and doer in life is our subjectivity. This is a crucial point that needs to be meditated and well understood. Hence, we recognize that Consciousness can only act through our subjectivity and on its turn, subjectivity needs the Presence of Consciousness to manifest the Presence of Absolute Being in duality.
This is the reason why Raymond Bernard like so many other sages, tells us that awakening means the sudden, instantaneous, intuitive (and therefore subjective) perception that the subject-object relationship is totally illusary and a fantasy of our imagination. In reality, subject and object do not exist except as illusions interpreted in a dualistic fashion. Therefore like all products of the mind they are based on concepts that can change. This is recognized by all sages and they agree in saying that in reality there is neither a perceiver nor a perception.Tthere is only the act of perceiving, which is the subjective aspect of Consciousness, called sometimes Unicity, pure Consciousness, the Presence or the Void.
Shen Hui a Zen Master says: "It is the absence of the absence of subject and object as phenomena that is the ultimate Truth that awakens." And Ramesh Balsekar continues by adding: "there is only a subjective happening, never an action done by any entity."
All thinking must necessarily refer to a person or anything and an event concerning the person or thing. Therefore all thinking is necessarily based on the existence of 'space' and 'time'. But, surely, space-time does not 'exist' objectively. Therefore there cannot be any phenomena or any thinking about anything in the absence of space-time. And if space-time is not something perceptible or cognizable, it can only be the SUBJECTIVITY - and that is what, surely, we must be: the Noumenon, the Source, spaceless and timeless INTEMPORALITY.
The past is an impression, a belief, a memory. The 'future' is a presumption, a conjecture. The 'present' is gone before we can recognize it as such. What is 'present', therefore, can only be 'PRESENCE', outside of horizontal time, in the moment - INTEMPORALITY.
http://www.plotinus.com/subjectivity_copy.htm
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