Do you see:

• A white light passing through a prism, splitting into a spectrum of 7 colours
• The recombination of spectrum of colours into white light
• The dark background filled with radiation (if yes, you must be a physicist)
• The school where you were taught this
• The magnifying glass, you would use, to burn holes in paper
• The kid

There is only one absolute, which is called by many names. The rest is the reality we inhabit.

• The absolute cannot be defined or perceived. The absolute is independent of everything and the source of everything.
• The rest is relative, even time and space. The rest is the reality we live in.
• When we strive to see the absolute and the relative together, they give us clues to riddles of reality.

Your reality is yours alone. It is the meaning you give to what you see. It is relative to you, cannot be separated from you.

• Perceiving your reality is not limited to seeing with your eyes or senses. Each one of us decides ‘what’ to see and ‘how’ to see it. Consciously and subconsciously. The ‘how’ has a more powerful impact than the ‘what’, as  seen in the above prism example.
• Few see the fullness of their relative truth, either due to ignorance, disinterest or laziness. It is safe and comforting to stay as is.

The greatest gift, you can give yourself, is to try and see things as they are.

Here are a few perspectives on the process of seeing and knowing. How we use filters to see the world and how those filters eventually become us.

• From light to sight, it is all in your head.

• We see a very narrow band of light flooding the Universe.

• This is called the visible light and is just 0.0035 % of the full spectrum of light.
• Human eyes detect visible or white light, which is actually a mix of 7 colors, from red (longer wavelength) to violet (shorter wavelength). Our retina is designed to catch only these wavelengths.
• The main source of visible light waves for us is The Sun, the star of our solar system.
• Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray waves are invisible to naked eye. They originate from our Sun, death of stars, pulsars and other sources in deep space.

On a side note, the more we are understanding the Universe, the more we are realizing how less we know. It is fascinating that:

• 99% plus of light spectrum is not meant to be seen by us.
• 99.99% of atom is empty space; the entire 7 billion strong human race can be compressed in a single sugar cube.
• 98% of human genome, earlier labelled as non-coding junk DNA, has a purpose which we are not clear about.
• 95% of the Universe cannot be explained; it is made of mysterious, invisible dark matter and dark energy.

• The familiar external world is a mental construct.

• Color exists in the mind of the observer.

• Colour of an object is not found within the object. Each colour is simply a specific frequency light, reflected by the object. If an objects atoms absorbs all the frequencies of visible light except for frequency associated with say blue light, then the object will appear blue to us. White objects reflect all frequencies of visible light. Black objects absorb all frequencies of visible light.
• Our eyes detect red, green and blue best. These 3 primary colours are mixed to create upto a million colours, which we experience in our head.
• The colours are observer dependent. While our eyes catch the frequencies reflected off objects, it is the brain which creates the perception of colours, using information coming from senses, emotions and memories. Few years back, internet was abuzz trying to guess the colour of a dress. Some saw a white and gold dress while others saw a black and blue dress. That is because our brains judge color and brightness, in comparison to what they are used to seeing. It is believed, early risers are likely to see the dress as gold, while night owls mostly see the dress as blue.

• Brain creates shapes, perspectives and orientation that we see as our world.

• For example, when images are focused on the retina, the lens turns them upside down. The brain then turns them the right way up again. A newborn baby initially sees the world upside down till its brain learns to adjust.
• Each eye, being apart, produces a different visual. Brain combines them into one 3D visual with depth.
• Past experiences decide what we see more than what we are looking at.

The 3D physical Universe of light, colours and shapes as we know it, exists solely in our brain.

What we experience as out there, is a brilliant internal construct. Influenced by the observer’s own filters.

Created in a soft squishy blob of fat tissue, floating in fluid, inside a dark chamber called the skull.

• We see best with our whole self.

• Our senses influence what we see.

• It is estimated 50% of our brain is involved in visual processing. What we see, determines majority of our memories and our memories play a key role in the way we behave.
• However, we rarely make sense of our world, with only one sense organ operating alone. Sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell collaborate continuously. They pick up stimuli in form of light waves, pressure changes and chemical signals. This information is converted into electrical signals, which are carried by the nerves to the brain, where it gets processed into holistic mental representations.

Incidentally, besides the big 5, there are many more senses which are still being understood. For example:

• Equilibrioception gives us a sense of balance, and keeps us upright
• Proprioception tells us where our body parts are and enables us to touch our nose with our finger, even in dark. Without these senses, which we are mostly unaware of, we would neither be able to do basic tasks or push limits of creative performance as in case of dancers and gymnasts.

• Our emotional state influences what we see and vice versa.

• What we see triggers associated memories and emotions in us.
• Everything is connected. The notion of things, such as rationality and emotions, being separate and compartmentalized is outdated. All that we perceive, decide and do, no matter how rationally, is coloured with emotions. A living example is the fact that today people, irrespective of their country, culture and economic status, are willing to conform to new restrictive norms due to both fear and better understanding of Covid.
• However, in a society that places a premium on pure cognitive abilities, at the cost of emotions, imagination and intuition, it is easy to experience a disconnect with self, others and nature. We have let go of a significant part of us, that makes us humans, and reduced ourselves to simply rational beings. It is not surprising, that many fear, that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace them one day, for algorithms are all about blind objective logic.
• To face your fears and listen to your gut is not such a bad advice after all.

We are advanced beings. We operate best when we are our whole selves.

Every faculty of ours has a purpose and works optimally in balance with other faculties. At same time, a key part of us, operates at sub conscious level.

The more we are self-aware, the higher is our effectiveness and contribution, and the more synergistic we are with the world around us.

• Our familiar physical reality does not exist, until it is observed.

• There are two pillars of modern physics that describe our Universe.

General relativity describes the very large phenomenon (space-time and gravity; footballs, planets and galaxies).
Quantum physics describes the very small phenomenon (subatomic particles).
And both do not talk to each other. General relativity treats the universe as fundamentally smooth and curved while Quantum physics treats the universe as series of tiny but abrupt changes. The bridge that connects the microscopic quantum world and our familiar visible macroscopic world is yet to be found.

• Quantum physics, despite being a century old, continues to shock and divide the scientific community.

Matter behaves very strangely at the subatomic level. It is completely counter-intuitive to what we observe in our daily lives, despite everything being made of subatomic particles. In fact, today’s technological revolution of laser, LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), transistors, smartphones and so much more is not possible without Quantum physics. It works but no one understands it.

• One strange characteristic is that only when we measure sub atomic entities, they pop up as particles with either a specific position or momentum. They come into existence as a quantifiable thing. On top of that, the outcome changes every time measurement is done – in a completely unpredictable way.
• But when not measured, sub atomic entities don’t exist as particles. They are simply possibilities spread out like waves without any physicality. They can be in several places or states at once. They can at best be predicted as mathematical probabilities.
• Measuring or observing the wave, collapses the probability into a particle. One of the many possibilities becomes actual which we see as reality.
• Latest research indicates quantum phenomena may be acting on every scale and we are simply unable to detect them in larger objects.

• Implications of Quantum physics are profound and yet to be fully comprehended.

• The Universe is an infinite ocean of pulsating energy, from which emerge entities that we are familiar with.
• There are no clear objective demarcations between things at an atomic level. Things as we know, have specific properties, independent of observer.
• Observer influences the observed. Two people can observe the same event, see two different things happen, and both be correct. There may be no such thing as a single shared objective reality.

• From knowledge to knowing.

• Do you wonder what is true (Ontology) and how does one get to know it (Epistemology).
• Our faculties are the most powerful instruments that helps us in acquiring knowledge and internalizing it.

o Senses and personal experiences
Our senses and experiences help us to convert external facts into internal values. For example, when we see and touch water it acquires a factual reality. However, when we drink water, to quench thirst, it acquires personal value. Facts may be same for all but values change as per person and context.

o Intellect
Our intellect helps us to arrive at right judgement. It is not about being rational or intelligent at the problem level but is our ability to see the issue from multiple frames, discern the eternal from the transient, and focus our actions towards greater objectives. Our intellect helps us to transcend the senses and the mind which tend to act, react and express non stop.

o Intuition
Our intuition is our direct perception of the truth without requiring logical validation. It is knowing something even if one is not sure of why. It is the highest form of intelligence, arising from a place beyond the mind or intellect.

Our faculties are our greatest guides and friends, when applied correctly.

• Bringing it all together … the spontaneous process of seeing clearly, acting effectively and being our full potential.

• All our faculties have a place and purpose in the larger design of who we are.
• Just like a telescope or microscope gets its optimal magnification power through the right placement of right lenses, in same way, each one of us is designed to achieve our potential, which is way more than what we believe about ourselves, by using our faculties in the right way.

• Read this with full awareness. Read it again. Stamp it in yourself.

YOU ARE A FORCE.

PART OF THE SAME FORCE THAT
SHINES AS STARS
BURSTS AS SUPERNOVAS
ERUPTS AS VOLCANOES
ARRIVES AS SEASONS
BEATS AS HEART
POWERS LIGHT
MOVES MIND
SPROUTS SEEDS
FUELS ATHLETES
INSPIRES ARTISTS
EXPRESSES AS LIFE

THIS FORCE IS THE CENTER OF YOUR CIRCLE.
LIKE THE SUN IS THE CENTER OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, NOURISHING THE SYSTEM, HOLDING IT TOGETHER.
THIS FORCE IS YOUR CORE, SOURCE, IDENTITY. EVERYTHING IS BECAUSE OF IT. IT IS THE CAUSE.
YOU CAN CALL IT SOUL, CONSCIOUSNESS, ABSOLUTE TRUTH OR ANY OTHER NAME YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE.

POWERED BY THE FORCE,
KNOW YOUR NATURE.
THIS IS WHO YOU ARE AND BEING YOURSELF IS YOUR PRIMARY PURPOSE.
YOU MAY CALL IT YOUR TEMPERAMENT, QUALITIES, CONSTITUTION, ATTRIBUTES, INTENTION OR GUNAS.

KNOWING YOUR NATURE,
LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION.
BE GUIDED BY IT FOR IT IS YOUR WINDOW TO YOUR SOURCE.

EXERCISE YOUR INTELLECT, EMOTIONS, MIND AND SENSES.

AND, TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY.
FOR WITHOUT IT,
YOU CANNOT ACT.

TREAT EACH OF THE FACULTIES AS PART OF A CONCENTRIC CIRCLE WITH FORCE IN THE CENTRE, FOLLOWED BY YOUR NATURE, INTUITION, INTELLECT, EMOTIONS, MIND, SENSES AND BODY.

YOUR FACULTIES WORK BEST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH EACH OTHER, INSIDE OUT AND OUTSIDE IN.

• When all your faculties work in the right sequence and in coherence, they create a field called you. This field is the force that manifests itself as you.
• You are connected to and part of other fields. Who you believe you are, decides the boundaries of your field, influences your field and other fields. You are your own limitations.
• Nothing is right or wrong in isolation.

o Your emotions are as important as your intellect.
o Your internal world is as real as your external world.

• How you use your faculties, decides whether they free you or chain you.

o When in coherence, you are more than the sum of your parts. Just like how trillions of cells come together to create something as transformative as you.
o When any faculty is overused or underused, the impact is negative and immediate.
o Today we are mostly a sum of our mind, emotions and senses, hijacked by external stimuli.

The greatest gift, you can give yourself, is to empower yourself to see things as they are.

When you do that, then in the prism and the spectrum of colours, you perceive yourself and the Universe.

To end …

• Every single part of your life can be changed by a shift in perception.
Keisha Blair

• Development involves giving up a smaller story in order to wake up to a larger story.
Jean Houston

• We think we’re the lamp shade. We’ve forgotten that we are the light – the electricity and the luminosity.
Michael Beckwith

• इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्य: परं मन: |
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धे: परतस्तु स: ||

indriyāṇi parāṇyāhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ

The senses are superior to the gross body, and superior to the senses is the mind. Beyond the mind is the intellect, and even beyond the intellect is the soul.
Bhagavad Gita