ONLINE: Wed, Oct 28: "The View and the Viewer"

The View and the Viewer

This evening we'll play a self-inquiry game involving the following three statements.
Which is/are most useful for you?
Which are either a strategy, hypothesis or belief?

1. The viewer is the view in a relative sense.
2. The view is not the viewer.
3. The view is the viewer in a non-duality /unity-consciousness sense.

Here are some arguments for or against to clarify each claim.

A. Do I identify as the view or the viewer?
Would it make a difference in my search?

B. Is this question a useful strategy: "Who or what is aware of The VIEWER"?

C. All data is received by minds/consciousness: humans, animals, microbes, vegetation, rocks, planets… and every receiver takes in only a sliver of a sliver of the data available. Then the trouble starts. By the time anything reaches “me”, it has been bent at every step:
1. The senses. Our sense organs resonate with a tiny range of what is there, and that sliver is already re-configured on the way in.
2. The nerves. They transmit the re-configured sense data electro-chemically, across synapses, to a “sub-conscious brain.”
3. Re-cognition. The sub-conscious finds the closest similar memory and forwards that to the conscious mind (Gurdjieff’s formatory apparatus). It is very fast, not accurate, and good enough for survival… the opossum scurrying into the sewer turns out to be a crumpled paper bag.
4. Belief and ego. The conscious mind further distorts and twists that mostly un-re-cognizable data to align with and support our beliefs and states of mind. Then that mish-mash is interpreted even further by egoic minds.
5. Memory. Finally it is stored in memory, which has a field day completely distorting the already un-re-cognizable data.

D. "What is looking is what it's looking for. The looker is seeing itself." The Viewer IS The View... the FUNDAMENTAL question is "who or what is aware of The VIEWER"? -Lenny S.

E. “Experience is a worthless and transient existence unless the experiencer is known" — Richard Rose, Psychology of the Observer, p. 72

F. “Everything that we see, we visualize. Nothing is seen accurately. Something impacts upon our senses and we immediately project.” — Richard Rose, Ohio State talk, May 11, 1978

G. “He does not see the real world. The real world is hidden from him by the wall of imagination.” And: “Personality sees only what it likes to see and what does not interfere with its life.” — Gurdjieff, in Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, ch. 8

H. “What objects may be in themselves, and apart from all this receptivity of our sensibility, remains completely unknown to us.” — Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, A42/B59

I. “We do not see reality as it is. We’re shaped with tricks and hacks that keep us alive.” — Donald Hoffman, TED talk, 2015

J. “…the whole of existence to be a mirage from one viewpoint and reality from another.” And: “The world I see now I see in the same way I’ve always seen it, only now the world is recognized to be what I am. The world reflects my identity back to me.” — Mike Snider (the Triune Self), video talk, at 1:51 and 2:28

K. "Doesn’t matter what you call IT: viewer, looker, observer, witness, watcher -whether large or small first letter -they are all objects-in-consciousness. Phrases have been used: “Ultimate Observer & Absolute Observer (both which i say is GOD)... are, as well, objects in consciousness. Eliminate ALL objects in consciousness and “then” ABSOLUTE. So…. the “correct” way to say what TAT has been saying: “The View is Not The Viewer” is The v/View & v/Viewer are ONE, but not ABSOLUTE… “what is prior/before” ONE&NONE -- ABSOLUTE. -Lenny S.

L. In his nonduality teachings and his book The Triune Self: Confessions of a Ruthless Seer, Mike Snider frequently explores the core realization that the looker is seeing themselves—meaning the seeker and the sought are fundamentally one (paraphrase‡). While the exact wording can vary slightly across his recorded talks and writings, his central quote on this concept emphasizes: “…the whole of existence to be a mirage from one viewpoint and reality from another.” And: “The world I see now I see in the same way I’ve always seen it, only now the world is recognized to be what I am. The world reflects my identity back to me.” — Mike Snider (the Triune Self), video talk, at 1:51 and 2:28

Thanks to Lenny for developing this evening's topic. His complete notes are here:
View and Viewer