The Hidden Treasure

A Contemplative Enquiry into the Self and the World

In this essay, I explore how it is possible to know the nature of reality when everything we know of the world is mediated through the senses. What begins as a philosophical enquiry becomes an experiential investigation, leading to the same realisation expressed at the heart of all spiritual traditions: that the essential nature of our self is identical to the nature of reality itself.

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Everything you know about the universe is filtered through perception. The universe appears as sights, sounds, textures, tastes and smells, each directly correlated with your faculties of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling.

For this reason, you do not have direct access to the universe as it is in itself. Your knowledge of it is mediated by the senses and shaped by their limitations.