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SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
59
This may sound academic, but we often handle inactive, potential qualities in daily life. One example for this is an architect who presently is sailing. While on his boat his ability to build houses certainly does not cease. It continues to exist, but on a latent level that does not manifest at this particular time. Another example is a book decoratively positioned on a shelf, whose potential to convey ideas is inactive at that moment.
This plane constitutes the basis for an identical perception of reality by a wide variety of people. The functioning of this fundamental plane (dravya) is not influenced by the activities of the elements on any of the three other planes.
All embodied beings directly and intuitively connect to this plane. We automatically and subconsciously compare all our experiences with their potentially possible variations. We affirm intuitively whether an experience belongs to our particular reality. Everything that does not agree with the possible variations is rejected and consequently does not reach our attention. - The plane of facts (blava) is that part of reality where single features of the elements17 effect our present.
Here we experience how specific features of the elements really behave, how they feel like, what reaction they trigger within us, what meaning they convey and how to handle them.
Here is the anchor against which we check our concepts of reality. Here we test if an assigned meaning (nama) concurs with the real characteristics (bliava) of an object etc. Here we check whether the ideas and concepts along which we form our personal reality (sthapana) match up with what we really experience, or not.
And here finally the planes of names (nama), concepts (sthapana) and actual facts (bhava) can converge to form a unified perception of reality that unlocks further dimensions of our consciousness.
17 and their combinations
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