The Perceived

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never catch myself at any time without a perception and never can observe any thing but the perception.

David Hume, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, wrote those thoughts in his 1741 work, Treatise of Human Nature, Hume is saying that whenever we look for our true self all we find is perceptions. There is always a space between the subject and the object of our perceptions. Perceptions become beliefs and beliefs become choices and choices become experiences. We call that processed life, but that reality, or any reality built on that foundation is rooted in separation. There is another self that is creating these perceptions. We believe through our perceptions that there is another entity involved in creating our perceptions.

The contrast from our experiences influences our perceptions. The notion that the seer is different from the seen is an element of our distorted perception.

The history of physical reality is based on the fact that we are more than we believe, but we doubt this innate belief and create another belief system. In linear time there will always be space and time between us the seer, and the seen.

Hume goes on to say:

The now-moment in which God made the first man and the Now-moment in which the last man will disappear, and the Now-moment in which I am speaking are all one in God, in whom there is only one Now. Look! The person who lives in the light of God is conscious neither of time past nor of time to come but only one eternity.