Perception

In our conventional reality, compared to the ignorance-free ultimate reality of the Buddhas, perception is two-fold.

First, there is the raw data picked up by the sense organs—that’s how an eye can perceive shape and form and an ear can hear sound.

Second, the rational mind creates meaning from the raw sense data and categorizes it. For example, if somebody sees a hard object with four legs and a smooth, flat top, that person’s mind will infer that he or she is looking at a table.

Along with this rational function of the mind, the mind also works on an emotional level labeling every sensory input as either positive, negative, or neutral. If the data received from the senses is positive, the individual will long to maintain contact with it, whereas if it’s negative she will try to remove herself from sensing the object. Buddhists would say that these emotional reactions to our sensory inputs have become habits ingrained in all beings over many lifetimes, creating powerful reactions to particular stimuli.

Furthermore, these created categories from the rational mind and labels from the emotional mind reinforce each other distorting the mind and creating the cause for suffering. Through practicing meditation, we can begin to open and relax the mind, helping us to undo the habits that keep us ignorant of true reality.