FAQ & Technical Forum

Dear Julia

Thank you for this post which is from a rather difficult section of DB Module 1.

This question was extracted from pages 23 and 24 of the PDF transcript for this session from the section which i have copied below and highlighted the relevant areas for review.

The correct answers are as follows:

Physical Organ = Dominant Condition
Immediately preceding moment of cognition = Immediate Condition
Object = Object Condition

I hope this gives some further guidance on this.

Eamon



So, let’s look in a bit more detail at how this works. Basically, consciousness has two functions – perception and conception. Perception is a non-conceptual state of mind.

Conception is a notional state of mind; in other words an awareness that cognizes an object through the instrument of a mental image and thinks about, reflects on, that image. Mental image would seem to be a bit of a misnomer because it refers not only to visual images (our usual idea about what an ‘image’ is), but also to smells, tastes and so forth – the ‘images’ of all five senses, and mental consciousness. In technical terminology, a mental image is called a ‘generic image’ or a ‘meaning generality.’ Conception tries to make sense of the objects we perceive. As we shall see, it usually distorts our perceptions.

Conception takes place when you mix the object with a subjective projection of the object. You are unable, under normal circumstances, to separate your projection from the object itself. In other words, you cannot discriminate the objective reality from your own subjective opinions and projections made on the basis of an image you have created yourself. So, conception can be described as a deceptive cognition. This does not mean that all conceptions have no validity. Obviously that is not true. What it does mean is that all conceptions are deceptive with regard to the appearance of the object, because what we take to be the object is actually the mental image. Conceptions may be correct with regard to how that object exists. And, they may be incorrect with regard to both appearance and existence.

There are two kinds of perception: sense perception and mental perception. Sense perception depends on an object - a sound, a smell, a visual object, a taste or a tactile object, and the physical organ - ear, nose, eye and so forth. In addition, it depends on a prior mental event. That is it’s dependent on the immediately preceding moment of cognition.

These three, called respectively, the object condition, the dominant condition and the immediate condition must all be present for a sense perception to occur. All sense perceptions are non-conceptual, or bare perceptions. Bare here means nothing is added; naked if you will. You experience the object just as it is – for a micro-moment.

Mental cognitions can also be perceptual. Mental perceptions do not require a physical organ, they require only the mind itself - that is, the preceding mental event (perception or conception, either sensory or mental). That prior mind moment is the dominant condition, the mental-organ so to speak, as well as the immediate condition. The object condition for mental perceptions can be physical form, or more subtle objects such the clairvoyant perception of the mind of another.

Most of the perceptions that a person with normal sense organs has are true perceptions. That is they see the correct relative (or conventional) reality of the object itself. If there is a defect in the organ, the perception may be false. For example, if you press on your eyeball in a certain way, while looking at the moon, you may see two moons, or a blurry moon. Clearly, the view from planet Earth does not include two moons, so that is a false perception because the eye organ was functioning improperly. Mental perceptions such as dream perceptions are also mistaken or false perceptions because the dream image does not, in fact, have the existence that it appears to have while one is in the dream.

Non-conceptual, in reference to perceptions, means that ones perceive the object in a clear and immediate way; barely, without adornment. There is no overlay of judgments or projections, merely the objective relative reality of the thing itself. Unfortunately, under normal conditions those objectively correct moments of perception are gone in a flash. I could go into great detail in this discussion of the mind, but for this course, intended as an introduction, any further elaboration might be more mind boggling than clarifying.