ORDER AND IDEATION
Dialogue 16A: The greatest hindrances to perception are ideas. What is the difference
between fact and the idea about the fact?
K: How do the professionals regard perception, the seeing—the act?
R: In Vedānta, it is said that consciousness acts through the sense organs.
Consciousness takes the form of the object, like water taking the shape of the
vessel. That is perception.
K: What is perception, the seeing, to you? You see the chest of drawers; you
have the image of the chest of drawers, therefore, you recognize it as the chest of
drawers. When you see that piece of furniture, do you have the image first or do
you see first, have the image and then recognize?
R: Instantaneously the image arises, then we call it a chest of drawers.
A: There is seeing, and immediate naming.
K: So I do not have the image first. There is seeing, association, recognition,
naming. I do not start with the naming, the image. That is fairly easy. I see you
this morning. I saw you yesterday and, therefore, there is an image of you. So
that image is you. Is there a difference between the physical object of perception
and its mental image?
A: There is a difference between the two. In the case of an object, there is an
image of a shape; the other is an image created by reactions which are not merely
of form and shape.
K: Take a simple example like a snake, the brain cells are conditioned to snakes;
they know that snakes are dangerous. The brain is conditioned from childhood to
the danger of a snake and so it reacts. The child, not realizing the danger, may
not react, but the mother comes along and tells it. When you name something, a
picture is formed in the brain. The brain becomes conditioned and, in a certain
environment, the name is called up.
A: The question therefore is—before seeing the fact, the idea about the fact
arises, which may not necessarily be factual.
K: Are you saying that when one feels angry, the naming of the feeling
strengthens it?