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SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
101
SUTRA 18
QUOUG PUIQUE: II 9C lll Vyanjanasyavagrahah (18) The first step of sense-perception - apprehension (avagraha) - perceives objects and events in an indistinct way. (18)
Apprehension (avagraha) is our first step in the sequence of senseperception (mati). Here we apprehend objects and events in such vague, uncertain way that we neither can form an idea of what we perceive (ilia), nor evaluate or further process it.
This first step of sense-perception takes place irrespective if we later interpret, store or evaluate what we perceive or not. In fact we apprehend far more than we consciously process - much of what we perceive never passes the next threshold to our attention.
This process is another filter between reality and our consciousness. It works entirely different than darshana43 (see sutra 15). darshana determines whether a tendency towards an object will arise in the first place. In contrast to this avagraha (apprehension) certainly perceives objects, but only hands them to our conscious processing when the perception is lasting or is repeated several times.
An example illustrates this process: A pot of clay does not get wet by a few drops of water. Only when we moisten it repeatedly, its wetness becomes apparent. In a similar way we apprehend matter that manifests in form of sound, smell, touch etc. During the first few moments we are unable to clearly determine what we have heard, felt or smelled. Yet when we perceive the event or object repeatedly, we become able to identify it.
43 darshana is an experience that happens before our perception-process
even starts. It mirrors all the concepts and patterns we maintain on the plane of our mental structure (sthapana - sutra 5).
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