Orientation in Space of the Innate View

This morning I was watching the predawn sky while visiting a friend in New Mexico. The beauty of the scenery framing the dawn; mountains, olive tree and even the gold cat sitting in the tree between me and the dawning sky could not distract me from my primary energetic need to orient myself.

Remembering for the millionth time that the sun comes up in the east, I thought, “If that is in the east then I must be in the west.” An unusual feeling flowed over me like an inner mental stumble caused the entire dawn watch to fade as I turned my attention toward the cause of that energetic shift. My training in yoga and logic caused a different dynamic to arise, a studied curiosity that is without emotional content. In other words I actually did not feel a desire to know but compelled to review.

As a human being, my sense of direction orientation is centered here in my consciousness. If that is so, then truly I can say that the sun is in the east just below the horizon. However, the task of orientation is further and spontaneously made more sophisticated by needing to identify the orientation of other objects in relation to me- the center. So, in order to make a judgment of my being in the west I need to produce a magical act of shifting my awareness to the point of view of the sun.

From my consciousness central position I am able to perceive me present and sitting on the bed from the position of the sun without regard to personal safety of that precarious point in order to identify that one who is familiar to me sitting as located in the west. After organizing this piece of knowing I looked up and saw a mountain directly in front of me. The feeling of need to orient myself returned.

A question arose “Where is that mountain?” From my contemplation strategy up to that point there was no way to answer that question. In ordinary innate view there would be a overlooking of the logical progression and at this point a flooding of data, orientation make- do Boolean or fuzzy logic would take over the process and one would feel oriented. My curiosity, for the benefit of understanding the underlying dynamics of orientation would not allow that flood to distract me. I held my deliberately simplified parameters of careful logic and found that it did not allow for any third object.

After some time, I answered the best I could while continuing to hold the strategy of shifting consciousness incrementally for the purpose of this exercise in spatial orientation. “It is over there” as I pointed to it. I felt that answer somewhat disrespected its massive presence but held my structured and simplified view. At this point, I did not feel that the mountain held any real status and position at all so I continued to deliberately add a third element.

Disregarding the cat in the tree watching me watching him, I gently viewed a triangulated position of the now increasing light of the sun, my position on the bed and that mountain over there. The satisfaction of the held simplicity of that orientation dynamic caused me to perceive a natural phenomena of human consciousness that is a gift or bestowal that comes with the innate view of human realm participation.

A plain movement of consciousness toward objects is naturally unadorned with emotion or thought. This plain movement or shifting of awareness imbues objects with a different kind of awareness and is a necessary aspect of healthy and normal perceptual orientation. So, in effect, that mountain me awareness, dawn me awareness and bed sitting me awareness could have interaction there needs to be different amounts of me awareness in the other to be able to notice them from the point of view of primary identity orientation.

Mountain me fades to a smaller percentage of my bestowal of consciousness, cat me receives nothing as well as tree me while dawn me is quickly losing position to another awareness point somewhere interior to my bed sitting me point of view where the mental manipulation of ideas is increasing.

This effortlessly and lightning quick ability to imbue objects and others with awareness is connected to a primary function of existence in the human realm is described in Buddhism as the innate view. The traditional Buddhist position of innate view describes the confused or wrong view that a self exists when it does not. This conclusion that is repeated again and again throughout Buddhist philosophy and psychological training of the mind is a basic distillation of many elements and dynamics that wisdom has introduced or entered into consideration as part of the path. However it has become or changed into a system that attempts to erode the superstructure of the ego. The punishment of the ego will cause it to submerge or change or adapt to the harsh methods to destroy it. It easily changes into a disgusting display of impoverished self-degradation that is totally fake. It is frightening to watch a person who is attempting to control their ego by being so humble when they are hiding self-cherishing. They can even be hiding it from themselves.

The overactive self-cherishing and inappropriately proud ego needs to be separated from self-cherishing to rescue the suffering state that that person is imprisoned by. The ego needs to be healthy, flexible and strong enough to withstand and flow with the rigors of preparation for transformation. The beaten down ego is useless.

In many of the teachings that I have given so far we have discussed a number of aspects of how you are alive as a human being that I am calling your innate view. This is because many of these aspects are unique to human life only and will do you little or no good in the transformed state. This timing you are doing preparation to transform into another kind of being in your actual being inside- the real you that emanated you into this human environment.

We have discussed human perceptions and how many of these give rise to a feeling of solidity and permanence of the human experience. This is good in that it helps the actual being in its emanated form (you) to take seriously the work of preparation that is needed. A sense of suffering both subtle and manifest should alert you to the dilemma and cause you to seek methods to release you from suffering. This sense of suffering is not present in enlightened beings that have cracked thru the innate view and returned to balance. Before they crack thru or emerge or regain the enlightened state from the viewpoint of human realm they experience suffering of a different kind. A kind of holy anxiety or other symptoms can be experienced by them and a certain distress of being separated from how they actually exist. This is also manifest in practitioners from previous lives who struggle to regain a method to continue their work from previous lives and who wish to make definitive advances in inner process before human life ends again.

The innate view is blinders to the myriad forms of life surrounding the individual. As a practitioner becomes more like what they will become in the future in the next stage of development this part of the innate view begins to erode. The mediator begins to experience inside and outside forms, colors, feelings and energetic movements that do not seem to relate to the human experience. At this point when the innate view is eroding that person needs a mentor to explain and introduce perceptual orientation from the viewpoint of a transitional being that the human practitioner is becoming so that they keep a good balance in the human life and gain understanding of the future that they are becoming.

It is at this point that some people begin to feel that they are unique in their abilities and take advantage of their position of understanding to seek power and prestige. Others might become confused and unable to process what they are experiencing. Some of these will be people who take recreational drugs and seek to artificially erode the innate view with its natural barriers for fun. This might cause a disturbance in the natural process of awakening to the path of preparation especially if it become a seeking of a feel good feeling rather that being alive to the actual work of the two lessons of human life.

These two lessons are to learn the true nature of compassion (not sentimentality) and how to really get along with others. These two lessons completed will allow you to enter a new phase of development in your actual being who is on the evolutionary journey to perfection. These attainments of compassion and getting along with others are the hallmarks of maturity needed to enter training for inner sense development after this life is over and you become a candidate for another way of being. However, the spiritual sensualist, whether they were attracted to drugs or not, needs to return to balance.

To return to our discussion of the innate view there are many elements to be considered. This complex set of perceptions and instructions effortlessly perform this imbuing of self in others and objects, among other strategies, and are a rich source of distain for Buddhist scholars and inept meditators. The traditional view of escaping this human dysfunctional state is strong in Buddhist philosophy and is to be thought of as a necessary evil to study the workings of the mind so that it can be overcome. Inept meditators are like unskillful butchers who make a mess of what should be humane and painless. Even the careful meditator faces challenges while in a transition position of awareness development in the possibility of being aware of more than one level of being at the same time.

The meditators mind struggles against the human innate inner need to orient and stabilize the perceptions toward a changing internal environment. At the same time interactions with others can decay into dynamics where a sea of other beings poorly constructed strategies include pressing their own innate view and orientation upon their own environment including the meditators space. The meditator becomes a base for orientation and receives the awareness of others.

A traditional remedy has been to seek solitude as the meditator reaches certain changes and plateaus of transformation when sensitivities can become raw and over-stimulated by others. However, beyond that place is a stabilization of energies that will return to a more normal configuration unless the meditator becomes fascinated with their sensitivities, equates them with spiritual development and becomes stuck in a very uncomfortable place. The loss of plain perception, its function in the human realm and its value as an aspect of a correct conventional view in Buddhist terminology can create further stress.

The meditator who is not in isolation such as Western practitioners who must drive daily to work and interact with many people need to remain stable in their life and spatial relation to their environment. In real terms disorientation is a disruption or misalignment with innate orientation process. This plain perception requires no emotional involvement and should be thought of as natural and even somewhat pleasant sensation in a more neutral sense.

In traditional study of the workings of the mind in Tibetan Buddhism a detailed description of the “physiology” of the various systems and processes help the scholar step away from an emotional attachment to the process so it can be viewed and analyzed. There is yet another aspect of more generalized awareness of environment that underlies the spontaneous moving of awareness toward a specific object, which is the subject of another range of thought or discussion.

Because awareness can be attached to energy or even become mixed with denser forms of energy such as the human body does not diminish its actual nature that is operating in different, perhaps even quantum, parameters. Quantum in this case refers to the definition used in physics- an abrupt transition from one energy level to another. When the parameters of maifestation are exceeded that object or energy will not be seen but could be measured. Beyond those parameters it cannot at this time be measured but felt. Beyond that, it cannot be felt, seen or measured but still exists and can be percieved in other methods that are reproducible.

Dysfunction is created when the individual sets up emotional programming to punish them self or prevent themselves from interacting with their environment out of fear and trauma. They literally become incapable of seeing important environmental objects such as the car in front of them while driving due to mixing emotional content in a function that is or is trying to function in the effortless natural manner. This creates various taboos of what you are seeing demanding that you not see it. Growing distress is created in the natural process that is thwarted in its necessary function. The energetic struggle between the sense of self- preservation and taboos to not enter into any awareness dialogue with the environment creates tensions in systems that will eventually fail to perform their functions.

A balanced sense of self-preservation, spatial orientation and ability to communicate effectively with others are only a few of the processes. That individual needs to return to an appreciation of the natural process and not interfere with its smooth and pleasant functioning.