Occasionally on this site I’ve touched on the nature of cognition, a form of experience where all knowledge about the object of perception is known. Not just the surface of the object facing us but the entirety of its form, history, and function. While we might use the example of an apple, cognitions are more typically related to the nature of reality.
The subject came up recently in discussion and I thought it worth opening up a bit more. Consider this an evolving update. Let’s look at it from a spectrum of styles of experience. (the layers referred to)
We can start with the styles familiar to us in day-to-day life.
1) Deep Sleep – we experience nothing. The mind and senses are asleep. Even the ego sleeps.
2) Dreams – we can experience anything and everything but they are typically random noise produced by the mind and emotions digesting recent experiences. Typically brief and temporary.
3) Waking experiences of the physical world. We experience people, objects and circumstances that continue from day to day as we cycle through life. People around us also experience many of the same things but will tend to interpret them differently. The meaning something has or doesn’t, what is good or bad, what is wanted or unwanted, and so forth. But all content in this range will change. People die, objects break or are taken, circumstances change slowly or quickly.
4) Early subtle perception – with inner development, perception of the mental and emotional (energy) ranges of life may arise. This is somewhat like experiencing aspects of dream state while waking. But unlike dreams, the content is less personal and more non-local. This may bring us some insight and perhaps healing skills but this kind of knowledge can be very conditional, much like the rest of relative life. It can also be very misleading. Beings that exist in this range can have the same qualities and defects as people.
5) Intuitive understanding – when fine feelings become more conscious from deeper than mind, we’re able to pick up intuitive promptings. These are fine impulses of nature arising out of the flow that can give direction and information in life. But we have to test this in real world because it’s easy at first to confuse this with the above and get mislead.
As this becomes more clear, the discriminative intellect becomes more sharp and this can become very accurate. We’ll learn to sense shifts in the trends of time and prepare for change moving through nature. We may get solutions that just show up or creative outflows like music, architecture or science.
We also may get impulses that come as “downloads” or full sensory experiences that pop in, perhaps unpredictably. This content is far more accurate than prior experiences, depending on how much we avoid filtering it by the mind and emotions. Mind is still required to process and give meaning and words – the question is how neutrally that is done.
6) Ritam – when the bliss body becomes clear enough, we’re able to experience from the causal or celestial level. Ritam is short for Ritam Bhara Pragya, meaning that consciousness which accepts only truth. In other words, if we’re able to experience on this level without filtering it, we’ll begin to know things that are more universally true.
One key to losing the filters is reaching what is called makara, a point just above the third eye. Then the kundalini becomes stable, so the higher perception becomes more reliable. The 3rd eye may now be open as well, expanding the means of knowledge.
Another key is in unpacking the remaining junk and shadows for more reliable clarity.
Also of note, this is the level on which Sanskrit, closest to the sound of nature, functions. If we can listen to the Vedas on this level, we can share the experience of the person had who originally encoded those verses. In other words, those verses are encoded experiences that can be played back. This is not experiencing the Veda itself directly, however. That’s deeper in. This is experiencing its expression.
In a related way, as we approach Unity, what is sometimes described as the Inner Guru comes on-line. We discover we can know most everything we put our attention on. (with a few limitations related to being human)
Cognition
As best I understand, all of the above is within the range of everyone. But there are more specialized forms that are not. As Maharishi Mahesh Yogi put it, everyone can realize but not everyone cognize.
This is where the Rishi comes in. Rishi is a Sanskrit word meaning seer. The word is sometimes equated with Guru or teacher but a seer is simply one who sees reality. They may not be a teacher.
I’m not sure where the line is drawn exactly. Is the ability to see beyond the ritam level into creation itself and the mind of God within everyone’s range? Or just a seer’s? Ritam still offers a doorway for everyone to experience a seers experience or for a seer to experience another seers recognitions.
Basic Cognition
This first level of cognition is where deep laws of nature that are lively in consciousness are experienced directly by the seer. In this form of experience, there is direct perception, but the perception is total, meaning it comes with a perception of the object from all angles, from all time, and with complete understanding about it. This can be a massive import that takes months to unfold to the mind and be better understood.
For example Hiranya Garbha, the golden egg or seed form of the universe. This is an experience that includes the entirety of the universe, its history and progression and how it operates. The cognition happens in a very brief time but can take months to “unpack”.
Or there there are a plethora of smaller realizations that take less time. Some of these have been described in some of the secondary books of the Veda. A larger number of people have the potential to experience the way creation becomes in specific ways, from specific perspectives.
So there can be big and little cognitions. I suspect it would be typical for all seers to begin in this range.
Expressers
These are people who experience the laws enlivened by cognition above in vibratory form on the causal or Ritam level, giving direct expression to those enlivened laws. Such people may or may not be seers (seeing) in a technical sense but rather are conduits for manifesting. They are engaged in the process of becoming rather than as a seer.
Re-Cognition
This level of cognition is when laws of nature that have grown dormant are revived in consciousness, making them more accessible to others with basic cognition. It is a re-enlivenment in the current time, helping move things along that have gone stagnant in the cycles of time, taking creation to the next level.
Once awake, these laws intertwine with other awake laws, creating new synergies that further evolve life. I’ve noticed this synergy going on in the current cycle as consciousness further awakens.
From that basic reawakening, a larger number of people will re-cognize those same values in a given time, helping to enliven those principles in the environment. They may also come to embody specific combinations in their expression of the cosmic body for a unique synthesis for the need of the time. This is also taking place in the current time.
Vedic Cognition
This is the initial cognition of the Veda’s themselves, unfolding what might be called cosmic or divine memory, Smriti.
But here we have a couple of ways of looking at it.
On the one hand, we have those key seers who have the primary cognitions described in the core Vedas. These cognitions structure the process of unfolding all creations. They are said to inscribe Smriti (cosmic or divine memory) with their profound experience, adding to the memory and blueprints for our creation. Those memories can then be said to be revived in later cycles.
The effect of this is to inscribe new laws of nature in creation and move forward its growth and evolution.
However, from another perspective, prior to creation there is no time so how can there be a “first” creation in which those cognitions inscribed memory? From this perspective, all cognitions are created together in a brief musing of the divine. They form the blueprint of our creation and specific seers are prescribed who will arise in time and have those cognitions that unfold the next stage of the creation.
The effect of this is the same as the above – the difference is in origins – did the seer inscribe the memory or did the divine? Is there a difference at this point in their journey? Just in perceptive.
In any case, the Vedas exist as what may look like clear acrylic blocks that contain the full experience that enlivens the law in the specific way. They are also encoded with the seer who is destined to awaken them and the law of nature involved. Read any good translation of the core Vedas and you’ll see them listed at the start of their described cognition. It’s even in the written form.
Also encoded are the sound (vibratory) values that express on the Ritam level mentioned above. This initiates the process in our universe.
Summary
We have named Vedic seers who awaken laws of nature that allow the progressive unfolding of nature.
Then you have re-cognizers who reawaken certain of those principles later in the cycles of time, re-enlivening those original cognitions during revivals (and perhaps embodying them).
Then you have a broader group of seers who spread that enlivenment in consciousness and may embody specific combinations to allow unfolding different branches of the core principle.
And you have the expressers who enliven the vibrations into form.
And then you have the broader group of seers who expand the recognitions still further and enliven various secondary aspects or unique perspectives.
This is the essence of how creation unfolds in stages, through the awakening of dormant self-knowledge by direct experience. A few key individuals have that role while others have the role of spreading it.
We live in a massive place and there are considerable significant dynamics that go on behind the scenes sustaining and evolving creation.
Davidya
Last Updated on November 26, 2020 by Davidya
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I have some confusion. One of my teachers says that we are enlightened when our 3rd eye opens. This appears simplistic after reading the above.
The awakened people that I know have different levels of perception and are careful to express what they see. I have always felt this to be the big carrot that I am seeking because I am a healer and feel visual perceptions would help guide me in my healing.
I have been told that I can walk into a room and healing just happens. Because of my work, I can mentally understand this and hope to someday be able to visually see this.
Any insight would be helpful.
Celeste
Hi Celeste
How different teachers define common terms varies. “Enlightenment” is one of the worst. But yes, I’d agree 3rd eye opening is a low standard for the term. By that definition, I became enlightened in the mid-70’s, even though the ego was still very much in charge.
As I’ve written about elsewhere, awakening is a process in our relationship with consciousness. The development of perception is a related but separate process. Some people have lots of subtle perception from birth or long before awakening. Others have little even well after awakening.
Also, what opens to us with the third eye varies. Cosmic sight won’t help with healing much. More useful would be the clair’s. Enlightenment not required.
The other part though is “subtle perception” doesn’t mean seeing. It means perceiving. Rose Rosetree, for example, has very high aura reading abilities. But she doesn’t read them with sight – she uses feeling.
You might find this post useful -it explores styles of sensing:
https://davidya.ca/2013/08/18/aura-reading/
Also this one on Dominant sense. Sometimes, we look outside of ourselves for what we need when it’s already right here, just not in a form we’re expecting.
https://davidya.ca/2013/02/22/the-dominant-sense/
I do apologize though. I am visual so do use visual words and orientation. I write about being a seer as it’s part of the process here. But gut feelings? Healing? Not here. Walking into a room? I’m more likely to trigger someone than heal them. (laughs)
Often, our gifts are so normal and ordinary for us, we underestimate them or don’t even recognize them.
Thanks, that helps. It makes me realize there is so much more available. Reading your blog has really help expand my thinking. Hope to be able to know what you say on a deeper level.
Very much. This has been opening for me for over 40 years. I still discover new things all the time. And that’s just with this perspective here.
Really enjoyed this too David! Do you have recommendation for a good translation of the core Vedas. An online source would be better.
Hi Gayanee
No. Most don’t understand the core texts and thus the translations come off as mythic rites.
More accessible are the Upanishads – excerpts from the core texts. All Love Flows to the Self is an excellent translation but is out of print. You can find used copies around. The Upanishads by Katz & Egenes is one of the better translations of the complete text.
Other books I recommend are on the Books tab.
Of course, I’m fussier because of my background. But the online sources I’ve found tended to be fraught.
You are a gem 🙂
Perhaps a little unpolished, but thanks.
🙂
Polishing is beautiful. There is definitively a deeper resonance that comes through people associated with TM.
“Ritam is short for Ritam Bhara Pragya, meaning that consciousness which accepts only truth.”
In your experience, and those of others that you know, how are such ritam capabilities validated? As you state, filters and shadow issues can distort the clarity and meaning of the experience. To what extent can these factors delude one into believing that the understanding is valid and not unduly distorted, when in fact it is?
I have heard some say the experience is self-validating. If so, how would one really know this is not self-delusion?
One way would be validation by an external source. That is, if a ritam observer sees the truth about some aspect of the mechanics of nature, can this be validated by finding scientific findings supporting one’s ritam experience?
If there are now many with Unity / Brahman / Parabrahman, I presume there are many with Ritam capabilities that are refined, clear, unfiltered and beyond shadow issues. This would seem to be a huge blessing to the world — a way to, for example, assist scientists and engineers in their work.
I understand that there may be a translation problem, that is, a non-physicist will not be able to write out or even understand equations or frameworks to describe the observed mechanics in nature. However, it would seem that clear ritam observers could point in the right direction, perhaps, after being briefed on a particular area of research, and its current pending questions, could provide valuable insights as to whether the observed mechanics are more like “this” or more like “that” (that is, contrasting examples provided by the scientists.) Or perhaps the ritam observers could describe their observed truth in ways that scientists could relate to current models and hypotheses.
Otherwise, it would seem that ritam observers may have some nice visions and hypotheses as to how nature works, however they are untestable, with no parallels to known mechanics. If that is the case, how could a ritam observer have much certainty that their observation corresponded to something real, and not something imagined?
Sorry – this was in the trash too. Not sure what word it doesn’t like.
Clear ritam gives a very fast response. Some of what we get can be validated objectively.
Keep in mind the ritam level is the bliss kosha and causal level. The vibrations here express into form so if we can learn to edit in ritam, we change how the world is expressing. This is very validating.
Of course, at first what we usually get is information but that can sometimes be verified too.
A simpler example would be past life memories. (not ritam) At first, they’re more about purification. Then they make some sense of our lives. But eventually, some detail will come up that can be verified historically.
Dorothy Rowe uses ritam all the time in her healing process because she works a lot on the causal.
But yes, you make a good point. Early experiences are likely still through filters and somewhat less reliable. Until the resolute intellect is established after Self Realization, the field isn’t stable either.
I’ve seen awake people become deluded, believing themselves to be infallible. That indicates some value of identity remains and has co-opted the process.
Again as an example, Dorothy refers a lot to brain physiology as a reference point. She also validates by results.
But yes, a huge blessing. Recently, Lorne taught new techniques to awake people to amplify the divine in the world. I know people doing remarkable things for the collective. There is a lot of work to be done but it’s coming.
And yes, there are such conversations taking place. I’ve engaged in some myself. The SAND conference brings together scientists and spiritual people, for example.
It will take time to change the tide of the world but it’s coming along. And it has been moving from nice inner stuff into increasingly applied functions. For many though, they’re not aware of what is possible nor how to channel it. That comes in time.
The article itself is about even deeper structures that can have an even bigger effect. Not everyone will develop those skills but they’re coming too.
Nice, thanks.
You’re welcome, Lorey.
Namaste guruji,
I just finishing my sadhana and then i saw your post about mind and cognition which.i cant understand it, but when i follow the link to this post wow..
In my sadhana i saw 3 sages / seers , exactly like some images in hinduism.
Are these seer that you were talking about on this post? If they do what does the meaning of their present. And what are their connection with cognition.
Thank you guruji
Namaste
Hi Nullpolet
It’s hard to say. One key aspect of experiences – do they come and go or do they fill out and expand in time?
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The first can indicate some digesting of experience or purification taking place, much like dreams in sleep. The experiences come and go like waves on a beach. This is the majority of what goes on in there. As the backlog is processed, the mind settles much more.
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The second kind result from when doors open or channels becomes clear and we begin to experience new vistas. This may include past life memories, experiencing subtle beings, noticing the mechanics of the world, and so forth.
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It’s good to be circumspect until context is very clear. For example, some astral beings can take any form they like and may present as almost anything. A lot of the “channeled” material is in this category, as well as manipulation, etc.
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When we can recognize the difference between astral and celestial (by feel), we can avoid such pitfalls.
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On those deeper levels, there are many seers of yor still operating in various ways, helping with administration of the universe, leading peoples spiritual paths, and so forth. (Partly why I mention the value of the guru puja in learning meditation – connecting with their support.) This includes the Saptarishis, the Vedic seers, and other beings of light.
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Not all enlightened beings stick around. Some merge back into the absolute, their path complete.
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At a certain point in your progress, the intelligence that is alive within experiences will become conscious. Then experiences become self-explanatory. You’ll know who you’re experiencing, for example.
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Their showing up may be something opening or it may be another passing experience. Time will tell.
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Some of those sages had cognitions, some not. Experiencing sages is experiencing sages. It isn’t a cognition. Thats a totality of experience. Believe me, you’d know it if you had one.
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But meantime, sadhana isn’t about the content. Experiences can be interesting but the point of a spiritual practice is to go beyond the content and into the source. This is how you culture that and bring it forward into daily life.
When we can recognize the difference between astral and celestial (by feel), we can avoid such pitfalls.
Well, i used to stuck wih this but lately no, i just seeing it and forget it, still learning though.
(Partly why I mention the value of the guru puja in learning meditation – connecting with their support.)
Yes sometimes i do chant guru puja.
Their showing up may be something opening or it may be another passing experience. Time will tell.
Exactly, because soon after i comment on this post i got call about important ceremony tomorrow here in bali. I guess they are part of these. The Process for unifications the roots of worshiping or sadhana i dont know the words in english.
Thank you guruji,
Namaste
Hi Nullpolet
To be clear, a properly done puja or yagya isn’t simply spoken but is also on a meaning, feeling and action level. In other words, calling wholeness and engaging all aspects for attunement.
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Perhaps this is these are the words. 🙂
Hi Davidya. I just came to this post now after useful link from latest on healing. Thank you. It’s living and breathing!
You’re welcome, Jamie. This understanding “came through” when I was exploring the topic. It helped explain a lot, like how I could have a cognition before awakening (I was witnessing full time). There’s a big difference between what I had and a Vedic cognition that helps evolve creation.
Key is ritam and then that shift of the intellect from associating with the mind to associating with the Self and becoming “resolute”. hat can happen early if the Self is clear.