Interpretation

Our senses constantly keep gathering information from the outer world and sending it to the brain. The brain then analyzes the information received and interprets it by comparing it with the previously stored information in its memory bank.

There is no understanding or feeling without interpretation.

Therefore, all that we experience is subjective.

We create our world; we all interpret and see and experience everything according to our own perceptions.

Since our mind knows the world by drawing conclusions from the information provided by our senses and from memory, all that we know is filtered and interpreted. We cannot truly see the world as it is.

Therefore, there is no such thing as objectivity or direct

knowledge. Everything is relative because we are all sentenced to our specific conditioned frames of mind. As long as we all have different perspectives, as long as our perception relies on our senses and memory, we cannot realize the absolute truth. All knowledge based upon perception and interpretation is imperfect and conditional. Only when we stop to interpret, we see the truth.

Inner truth is only glimpsed by disconnecting the mechanism of interpretation.

As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita:

“Yatha deepo Nivaatastho Naingatay Sopmaasmrita

 Yogino YatChittasya Yunjato Yogmaatmanah”  

                                                                   (6: 19)

“As a lamp in a spot

Sheltered from the wind

Does not flicker,

This simile is used for the subdued mind

Of a yogi practicing meditation on Brahman” (Gita 6:19)

  

Just as a flame does not flicker in a windless place, similarly

if we can withdraw the activities of the senses and

isolate that part of the mind responsible for filtering sensory input, then we can temporarily shut off the ongoing process of interaction with the outside world and turn inward.

We will then be in a neutral place that is free of interpretations. We will then be in an absolute state, entirely without distinction or relativity.

This is called ‘Nothingness’, and it is the truth underlying all things.