"In order to know something, let us be that thing"
All
is one, any form is an aspect of the Whole, attention links.
After these three hypothesis, let us describe the
Levels of Contact:
1.
SENSORY LEVEL
The first level consists of what the senses can seize: lines,
curves, the shape and colour of the object.
2.
EMOTIONAL LEVEL
The second level of exchange is the attractiveness of the object.
Does it make us come closer, or move away, are we disconcerted by it? This level
is also related to aesthetics; does it seem nice, pleasant, to our liking, do
we feel comfortable with it ?
3.
INTELLECTUAL LEVEL
The third level concerns the meaning of the object to us. What
does this curve mean? On a leaf, what does a reddish spot mean? What does a
triangle mean? This obviously depends on our education, what we have studied
and assimilated in the past. The beginner (in botany, geology or symbology)
will not see much - not much sense - where the expert will see a whole world.
Thus meaning deepens with time.
4.
QUALITY LEVEL
This fourth level is the quality transmitted to our state of mind.
In contemplating an object we imbue ourselves with a quality which our field
of consciousness registers. This quality is beyond the preceding levels, and
we can feel its synthetic nature within us. The preceding levels remain outside
us (our body, our reaction, the meaning it has for us), here we have an inner
resonance.
In our thinking, this level does not concern verbal expression nor meaning,
it concerns the quality of our attention moving to and from the object. The
field of consciousness (or the mental) becomes pure before a crystal, fixed
and firm before a stone, soft before a flower, deep before an indigo tone...
Words cannot fully express quality. Moreover, in order to really grasp the quality
of our mind it needs to be purified and cleared and this requires some training
and attention.
5.
BEING LEVEL
Whilst contemplating, an impression other than one of quality will appear. It
is a kind of transfer of being, a perception of purpose
inherent in the form. Thus the One, concentrated within the object,
is felt and shared. Beyond sensitivity to quality, one knows, one touches knowledge
directly.
We no longer contemplate a stone, but the mineral kingdom. We are stone feeling
as if space were filled by the concretion of the mineral world. We no longer
contemplate a flower and its delicate qualities; there is no us nor the flower,
there is only flower, essential flower, sweet expanding sensitivity. After the
qualitative resonance, this level of exchange is lively, sharp, direct and immediate,
we share being and its purpose.
Contemplation includes these five levels of perception.