The Transparency of Things : Contemplating the Nature of Experience

The Transparency of Things calls us to look clearly at the nature of experience, without any attempt to change it. A series of contemplations leads readers gently but directly to see that our essential nature is neither a body nor a mind, but is the conscious Presence that is aware of this current experience. However, these contemplations go much further: as we stand as conscious Presence and reconsider the objects of the body, mind, and world, we find that they do not just appear to this Presence but within it--and further exploration reveals that they do not appear within this Presence but as this Presence. Finally, readers are led to see that our experience is and has only ever been one seamless totality, with no separate entities, objects, or parts to be found.;The garden of unknowing -- Clear seeing -- What truly is -- Everything falls in to place -- Abide as you are -- The drop of milk -- Consciousness shines in every experience -- Ego -- Consciousness is its own content -- Knowingness is the substance of all things -- Our true body -- 'I' am everything -- What we are, it is -- Peace and happiness are inherent in consciousness -- Consciousness is self-luminous -- The choice of freedom -- The ease of being -- Knowingness -- There are not two things -- Knowing is being is loving -- Changeless presence -- Time never happens -- Unveiling reality -- We are what we seek -- Nature's eternity -- Consciousness and being are one -- The fabric of self -- The true dreamer -- The here and now of presence -- Consciousness is self-luminous -- Consciousness only knows itself -- Consciousness is freedom itself -- It has always been so -- Sameness and oneness -- A knowing space -- Consciousness peace 'I' -- Just this -- The doer -- Origin, substance and destiny -- Love in search of itself -- Openness, sensitivity, vulnerability and availability -- Time and memory -- The moon's light -- The natural condition. The purpose of The Transparency of Things is to look clearly and simply at the nature of experience, without any attempt to change it. A series of contemplations leads us gently but directly to see that our essential nature is neither a body nor a mind. It is the conscious Presence that is aware of this current experience. As such, it is nothing that can be experienced as an object, and yet it is undeniably present. However, these contemplations go much further than this. As we take our stand knowingly as this conscious Presence that we always already are, and reconsider the objects of the body, mind, and world, we find that they do not simply appear to this Presence; they appear within it. And further exploration reveals that they do not simply appear within this Presence but as this Presence. Finally, we are led to see that it is in fact this very Presence that takes the shape of our experience from moment to moment while always remaining only itself. We see that our experience is and has only ever been one seamless totality, with no separate entities, objects, or parts anywhere to be found.