Notion of Growth

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

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Hermann Kuhn
- Total perception (pramana) - We experience total perception as the immediate and complete comprehension of complex situations as they occur in the present. As supernatural as this ability may appear to us, as naturally and effortlessly do we handle it in our daily life. Without constantly applying total perception pramana21 - we would hardly have chances to survive.
pramana is complete perception and understanding that with lightening speed evaluates multi-layered, interconnected and highly complicated situations for which an intellectual analysis of the many factors would be far too slow. We handle this ability with dreamlike certainty, though we are almost never aware how complex this process really is.
One example: We want to cross a street. We see a car approaching whose course might collide with our intended path. In this brief moment - before we decide to either step onto the road or not we comprehend the totality of the situation in all its complex diversity.
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We register the speed of the car, the width of the street and with this also the ability of the driver to swerve to avoid us. We take in visibility (day, night, cloudy, foggy or clear vision), nature and condition of the road (dry, wet, icy, asphalt, pebbles, sand) and the velocity of the car in relation to all these components. We check if other pedestrians intend to cross the street before us and thereby possibly might cause the car to slow down. The form of the car makes us reflect that this type is preferred by young aggressive drivers. Some - however vague - notion arises that the driver might be pressed for time.
21 Western languages contain no term that might come near this type of comprehensive insight (perception). Therefore this book uses the Sanskrit-word pramana mentioned in the sutra.