Mind, Brain and Illusions

 

Old lady, or young lady?

Its not the picture that matters here but what our mind does with it. Look one way and old lady, look another and young lady.

Obviously we are not getting the old or young lady "from" the picture because how could we decide. we are bringing the old lady and young lady "to" the picture. Plato discusses this in depth in the Theaetetus where he likens the mind to a clay tablet which can record impressions and when something matches an impression we get the experience.

Show this picture to people in the Amazonian jungle and they may not see either lady cos they are not familiar with the styles of clothing at all. The peasant woman, or the chic city girl. And maybe kids today may struggle as they may never have seen a peasant woman like that. 

Today we think about this happening in Neural Networks in the brain rather than clay tablets but the idea is the same. 

But there are 2 levels to this illusion. 1) is the visual illusion which can go either way. 2) is the interpretation of the illusion which can go many ways. Recently I got a slightly different view of it.  

I have been looking at illusions all my life, and thinking about reality and how it comes to be and only recently did I see clearly how important they are for uncovering the process of Mind. Usually we think like Plato and almost dismiss the magic of the illusion as a mechanical process in the brain. Big deal.

But if we go back and forget all the learning of brains and image recognition that force us into only 1 perspective of the illusion we can experience freshly the extraordinary experience of the picture changing before our eyes from a young woman into an old lady and back again. It is like the picture itself physically changes in from of our eyes. And it is a complete transparent process, there is no evidence anywhere of how it happens. How the images form is completely light and empty. There is some mental power required, we can "force" our way between the images but this is all happening not on the page but in our "Mind."

Now "Mind" is the central concept to Buddhism and I have wondered for a while exactly what it is. I suspect it is this. The ability to form the world and make it one way or the other. I am using Mind to change my interpretation of that illusion right now. It was boring material brains, neurons and clay tablets now it is something completely intangible, light and empty called Mind.

And so Buddha says this:

Well actually the word dharma has been mis-translated here. Replace "think" and "thought" with what is referred to here as Mind. Its that ability to switch between the old lady and the young lady, and to decide on what things are. When we look at this ability in its pure form like this it becomes incredibly profound.

The problem with Plato and Neural Networks is that we are using our Mind to decide on a particular interpretation of this experience. Our Mind can have such a fixed view of illusion (that its brain) that we don't see the infinite power of the mind at play.

If we just sit with this power we can see that everything that "exists" is really manifested by this power of the mind. Its far more than just old lady or young lady in that picture, but is at work throughout every aspect of our world. It is even manifesting here to make a sense of these words. This text is just another illusion! I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, I suppose I will come back again some time, and I have no idea what they will see in this "picture" of words I have painted.

This is the practice of meditation: to practice just being present and seeing "reality" as it is. That is NOT deciding whether the picture is an old lady or a young woman just examining the black marks on the page. And we can use the free "mind" that arises from that attention to just "reality" to really look at the processes that occur when we do suddenly see the old lady or the young woman. And we can examine the process that make these bizarre things arise. We can see that they are really illusions and we can see that there is not really an old lady or a young woman there.

"Pure Mind" they call this. A Mind free from deciding that can just look. Now isn't that an interesting thing that we can even observe how we make an illusion like the Old Lady come into existence! This is not "thinking" in any ordinary sense. This is even deciding, it is just allowing things to be as they are.

That is quite unusual for people in the West who are schooled from Day 1 to make things happen. We are encouraged to  actively engage with the world and make things happen, both physically and mentally. Look at me typing away here not just actively engaging with my mind but producing an account of it. The Mind is actually completely peaceful with no "activity" at all. Yet it is radiant like the Sun and it illuminates everything. But it does this effortlessly and without a single movement. It is this core stillness of Mind that enables things to move! How could the Old Lady emerge in a Mind that was 

itself busy manifesting.

That story of the Zen monk annoying a new recruit demanding to know Enlightenment by over filling their tea cup. How can you know enlightenment you stupid monk. You are already filled like this cup, how can I teach you, goes the exchange.

It is because the mind is empty that it has room to manifest the world. And this is that stage of staring at the black and white picture before deciding and just being there with it. And in that quiet space then activity happens and we get the old lady or the young lady. And we can work to push things one way or the other, and we can watch even the arising of desires to switch between. All this activity is not Mind it manifests in Pure Mind. And what is really profound to note is it is not us. We are watching it! It is not us! We may think "I'm seeing the Old Lady" but actually you can watch the arising of this illusion itself. Not just see the Old Lady but see the decision involved in making her come to exist. From the standpoint of a still mind we can see everything that happens as it happens. And we are none of it.