Chapter 10 Volume 2 Knowledge - 5

Genie: "Then I must demand your full attention, for here I am obliged to speak more deeply than ever before, and trace in detail what I have said. "What are you?" Me: "To answer your question in the most general terms, I am myself, myself." Genie: "I'm fine with that answer. When you say 'self,' what does that mean? What does the concept of 'self' contain?How did you come up with this concept? " Me: "On this point, I can only explain by contrast. The thing should be something outside of me, the knower. I am the knower itself, and I am the same with the knower. In this way, about the thing A problem arises in the consciousness of things: since things cannot know themselves, how can knowledge about things be produced?

Since I myself am not a thing, and have no determination of a thing—for all these determinations of a thing are only within the sphere of existence of the thing itself, and never within the sphere of my existence—how can it arise in me? What about the consciousness of things?How do things penetrate into me?What is the connection between me as subject and the thing as object of my knowledge?But there is no such problem with my consciousness of myself.I have knowledge within myself because I am intellectual power.What I am, I know because I am that; I know directly that I am that, because I exist at all, and I am that because I know directly that I am that.There is absolutely no need for a subject-object connection here; my inherent essence is this connection.I am both subject and object, and this identity of subject and object, this return of knowledge to itself, is what I mean by the concept of self, if what I am thinking here is something definite at all. "

Elf: "So perhaps the identity of subject and object is the essence of you as an intellectual force?" Yes I am." Genie: "Then, this sameness - which is neither subject nor object, but lays the foundation for both, from which both arise - can you grasp and realize?" Me: "Absolutely not. The conscious and the conscious appear as two different things, which is the condition of all my consciousness. I cannot conceive of another consciousness. In seeking to know myself, I realize that I am subject and object, and the two are directly linked." Genie: "Can you realize the moment when this incomprehensible unity splits into subject and object?"

Me: "How can I be aware? Because my consciousness is only possible with and through their division, because it is really my consciousness itself that divides them. And in this Outside of consciousness, there is never any consciousness." Elf: "Then perhaps this division is what you necessarily find within yourself once you become conscious of yourself? Perhaps this division is your original primordial being?" Me: "That's right." Elf: "Then what is the basis for this split?" Me: "I am an intellectual force, and I have consciousness within myself. This split is both a condition and a consequence of consciousness. Therefore, like consciousness, it has its ground within myself."

Genie: "You say that you are an intellectual force, and that is at least the problem now; you are yourself as such an object. Therefore, your knowledge is presented to yourself as objective knowledge, and as subjective knowledge. Knowledge presents and emerges in front of your knowledge without, of course, you being aware of the presentation." Me: "That's right." Elf: "Then, can't you make some more precise statements about the characteristics of subjective and objective things that appear in consciousness?" Me: "In terms of form, but definitely not in terms of specific content, the subjective thing appears to contain the basis of consciousness in itself. The basis for the existence of consciousness, internal observation and concepts lies in the subjective thing itself; From the point of view, the subjective thing depends on the objective thing, and the subjective thing follows the objective thing, as if being dragged away by the objective thing. On the contrary, the objective thing contains the basis of its existence in itself, and it is in its own right. It exists as it is, because it already is. The subjective appears as a passive and static mirror of the objective, before which the objective emerges. The subjective mirrors the objective, according to In the subjective itself; it is this and nothing else that is reflected in the subjective, and its ground is in the objective."

Elf: "Then the whole subjective thing may, in its inner nature, have exactly the qualities you have specifically described above with regard to the consciousness of beings outside of you?" Me: "That's true, and the coincidence is striking. I began to perceive, dubiously, that appearances of beings that occurred outside of me, independent of my influence, had their origin in the inner laws of my consciousness, and that this This appearance is in the last analysis only an appearance about the laws themselves." Elf: "Why are you only half-believing?" Me: "Because I still don't understand why exactly such an appearance is produced in terms of content, that is, an appearance of matter extended in continuous space."

Elf: "You have already understood that this is only your feeling after all, and you have expanded it into space; you have already guessed that your feeling can become sensible precisely because of its extension in space. It seems, therefore, that we now need only examine space itself, and elucidate the origin of space in terms of mere consciousness." Me: "That's right." Genie: "Then let us try. I know that if your intellect remains primitive and unaltered in unity, in the same state as it was at the beginning of your intellect's existence, and that If existence is not eliminated at the same time, this state will not be eliminated. Then, you will not be aware of your rational activities, and I don’t think you have such consciousness. However, if your intellectual activities Within the bounds of this unchanging unity, passing from one mutable state to another, you become aware of your intellect. If you are doing this work now, put your intellect presented to you, how, then, will this inner vitality of your intellectual activity, your heart, appear to you?"

Me: "I feel that my mental ability is moving repeatedly inside, and one point quickly transitions to another point—in a word, it is like an extension of a line. A specific thought constitutes a point on this line." Elf: "Why is it just like an extension of a line?" Me: "Do I have to give a reason why I cannot go beyond the bounds of my own existence without going beyond it? That's the way it is." Spirit: "Thus, this is how the special activities of your consciousness appear to you. But your general knowledge, which is not acquired, but inherited - all special thinking is but a renewal or renewal of this knowledge. Further regulations——in what form does it appear to you?"

Me: "Obviously represented as an image in which one can draw lines and mark points in all directions, that is to say, it appears as space." Genie: "Now you will fully understand how something which after all arises from yourself can appear to you as a being outside of you, and even must appear to do so. "You have penetrated to the true origin of the appearance of things outside of you. This appearance is not perception, for you perceive only yourself; nor is it thought, for the thing does not appear to you as a mere thought. It is Actually is, and is, absolutely immediate awareness of beings outside of you, just as perception is immediate awareness of your state. Don't let the sophists and half-baked philosophers fool you into saying that things do not pass through themselves. manifested to you by the person who embodies it; you are directly aware of what actually exists and could exist, and there is never any other thing than what you are aware of. You yourself are such a thing; The deepest grounds of the essence of your being are established in front of yourself by your finiteness, projected outside of yourself; all you see outside of yourself is always yourself. We have put this This consciousness is justly called intuition. I intuit myself in all consciousness, because I am I, and this consciousness is intuition to the subjective, to the conscious, and to the objective, the intuited and the conscious. That which is also myself is the same ego as the intuition, but this time it appears before the subjective in the form of an object. In this respect, this consciousness is a kind of intuition to me. The active perspective of things is a kind of peeping from the inside to the outside, starting from myself, that is, using my own unique mode of action-observation, starting from myself and revealing myself .I am a living visual activity. I watch, this is consciousness; I watch my own visual activity, this is being conscious.

"Thus the thing is completely transparent to the eye of your mind, for the thing is your mind itself. Before all perception you distinguish its possible forms and their relations: limits and Certainty. No wonder you always thereby limit and determine only your knowledge itself, which you undoubtedly know. Thus knowledge of things becomes possible. But this knowledge is neither in things nor From things. This knowledge comes from you because it exists and is inherent in your nature. "There can never be any external sense, because there can never be any external perception. There is, however, an external intuition, but not of things. On the contrary, this external intuition, this external intuition, which emerges outside the subjective The knowledge of the subjective thing is itself a thing, and there is nothing other than that. Through this external intuition, even perception and sensation are regarded as external. I never see or touch the plane, But I intuit my visual or tactile action on the plane, which is always true, because it has been proved. Illuminated, transparent, sensible, pleasant space, that is, my knowledge The purest form of my being is invisible, but can be seen, and in this form my visual activity itself can be seen. The light is not outside me, but inside me, and I myself am the light I have asked you how you know your senses of sight, touch, etc., and how you know your sensations in general; you have answered that you know them directly. Now you may be able to ask May I be more precise in describing this immediate awareness of your feelings!"

Me: "This immediate awareness must be dual. Sensation itself is an immediate awareness; I feel my sensations. But from sensations never arise any knowledge of existence, but only of my own state I am, however, not simply a feeling, but an intuition, for I am not merely a practical creature, but an intellectual force. I also intuit my sensations, and therefore from myself and My essence also produces the knowledge of being. Sensation is transformed into sensible things; my sensations, such as redness, smoothness, etc., are transformed into redness, smoothness, etc., which are outside me, and such things and The sensation of such things I intuit in space, because my intuition itself is space. This also explains why I think I see or touch planes, when in fact I neither see them nor touch them. Not touching the surface. I just intuit my visual or tactile activity as the activity of seeing or touching a surface." Elf: "You already understand me, or really, you already understand yourself." Me: "But if this is the case, for me, whether I am aware of it or not, the object is not produced through inference according to the law of causality; on the contrary, the object is directly in front of me without any inference. directly in front of my consciousness. I cannot, as I said before, think that sensations will be transformed into sensible things. Such sensible things are pre-existing in consciousness. Consciousness does not begin with my feelings, Feelings like red, smooth, etc., but something red, smooth, etc. that started outside of me." Genie: "If you had to explain to me what this red, glossy, etc. thing is, you would do it other than say that it makes you feel Is there any other answer besides this?" Me: "Sure, if you ask me questions, and I'm generally willing to discuss your questions and try to explain them. However, no one asked me questions before, and I didn't ask myself any questions. I completely forgot about my physical self and immersed myself in intuition; what I was aware of was not my state at all, but only what existed outside of me.Red, green, etc. are properties of things; things are red or green, nothing more.The thing cannot be further explained, any more than, according to our previous agreement, the thing as sensation can be further explained.This situation is most obvious in vision.Colors are manifested outside of me, and the human intellect, left alone and not thinking about itself, can hardly explain red or green as something that evokes a certain feeling within the human intellect. " Genie: "There is no doubt about it; but can sweetness or sourness be explained in the same way? Here we need not inquire whether the impression produced by sight is generally a pure sensation, or whether it is a Is the intermediary between the intuition and the intuition the means of linking the two in our minds. But I agree with you completely, and appreciate your statement very much. Of course you indulge yourself in intuition, and Without paying particular attention to yourself, or to some external action, you even allow yourself to indulge naturally in intuition. Those apologists who maintain a so-called consciousness of things other than us, when we ask They invoke this statement when they point out that the law of causality by which such things are inferred is inherently in us. Thus they deny that any such inferences are made. When they say that under certain circumstances We certainly do not want to argue with them when we are actually conscious, but when we explain to them the nature of intuition according to the laws inherent in the powers of the intellect, these apologists themselves still draw such inferences, and repeat at length, After all there must be something outside of us which compels us to conceive exactly this way." Me: "Don't get excited about it now, just give me advice. I don't have any preconceptions, but I just want to pursue the truth." Genie: "Intuition, however, necessarily follows from the perception of your own state, although, as you have already discovered by deduction, you are not always clearly aware of this perception. Even when you make yourself In obsessive object-consciousness there is also always something which is only possible to become aware of through unconscious contemplation of yourself, through careful observation of your own state." Me: "Would the awareness of beings outside of me, then, be accompanied by an unconscious awareness of myself, whenever and wherever?" Elf: "Exactly." Me: "The former will depend on the latter;—is it actually so?" Genie: "I think so." Me: "I'm only satisfied if you point this out to me." Elf: "Do you only set each hook into the space in general, or set each object to fill a certain part of the space?" Me: "It's the latter case; every thing has its definite size."