Noumenon Vs Phenomenon

Noumenon Vs Phenomenon

Came across a beautiful word – Noumenon- which can clarify the spiritual path very nicely.

Noumenon means the one that can know itself- consciousness.

A chair cannot know itself.
A body cannot know itself.

So they are not Noumena.

They are Phenomena, where one can know the other (through sense organs) – Duality.

But even in phenomena, the body cannot know the chair unless it is conscious.

That means Duality (phenomena) needs a third component: consciousness,

Duality itself is blind, and consciousness is its light.
(Tamasoma Jyotirgamay)

All phenomena are transient; they come and go – dreams at night and even the Sansar itself.
They are not the permanent truth.
(Asatoma Sadgamaya).

Phenomena die every moment, giving birth to the next moment.
(Mrityurma Amrutamgamaya).

And since all phenomena are dualities, and since they are always moving, they need Time and Space to happen.

(Separateness is necessary for me to see a chair, and a time stamp also, to describe it: when it happened?)

But consciousness is self-knowing (self-effulgent), so it doesn’t need TIME or SPACE to know itself (non-duality).

That’s why, in Samadhi, the time-space complex disappears and only the subject, the only light, the only truth remains – consciousness, and that’s the life itself.

We are all consciousness, and our bodies are like shirts that we change with every birth – as Krishna describes it to Arjun.

Our Ego is a phenomenon, and the pure eternal consciousness within us is the Noumenon.

Consciousness is the truth; ego is only a reflection.

Invest in the Noumenon – it’s within.

We cannot know consciousness like we see an apple in our hand.

Nisargadatta always said, “Stay with ‘I am. ‘ ”

All other experiences need sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, etc.

But “AMness” perceives itself.

It is not a sensory perception. It just ISness.

Which sense do you use to know that you exist? None.

The spiritual path rests entirely on this fact.

Our life is made of zillions of sensory experiences.

Even perceiving our parents, friends, our car, money, the food we eat, the water we drink, etc., are all sensory experiences.

But consciousness stands alone; it doesn’t need the senses; it just IS.

That’s why it is called Noumenon. It needs nothing or anyone else.

That’s the Atma, consciousness, whatever you call it.

But our daily life is different.

We see an apple first, then eat it, then we enjoy its taste, etc., and then we know the taste of the apple.

That is an experience, and a phenomenon, generated by duality: I and the apple.

Whole Sansaric life is nothing but a phenomenon.

An apple cannot know itself.

Our body cannot know itself either.

So they are not Noumenon.

Even the senses cannot function if a person is unconscious.

So when we say we are conscious, we mean we have a borrowed consciousness.

It’s not ours.

An easy example that might help-

Sun has its own light, and the moon, even though it seems to have light, has only borrowed light, not its own.

Now, replace light with consciousness, the light of awareness in us.

We all appear to be conscious, but our consciousness is not ours; it’s only borrowed from the mighty Sun of consciousness, the formless existence, the life itself.

We are the moon and the consciousness is the Sun shining through us.

The day consciousness withdraws, we become unconscious, or die.

In meditation, that’s what we seek: the consciousness.

The Sun is the noumenon, and the moon, the earth, and the whole planetary system are phenomena.

They all came from the Sun.

All forms that exist came from the almighty formless consciousness.

So, the consciousness is the noumenon, and the whole Sansar is the phenomenon, which is always transient.

We all need consciousness, but consciousness needs nothing and no one; it is conscious by itself; being conscious is its nature.

Now, the fundamental difference between the Sun and consciousness is this: the Sun has light, but the “light” of consciousness is special; its light is the consciousness itself, which it gives to all of us, out of generosity.

And in meditation, with practice, instead of projecting our consciousness to the outside world and keeping gathering experiences (as Rajiv says), we “turn” the consciousness inward, back onto itself.

Then, instead of knowing the world, it starts knowing itself.

Consciousness is Noumenon, the one who CAN know itself.

When consciousness starts knowing itself, that is called Dhyan.

And when Dhyan is perfected, and consciousness becomes centered in itself (Sthitpragnya), only consciousness (Noumenon) remains, and the whole Sansar (the phenomenon) disappears.

When that happens, a disciple asks Guru, “What happened to the Sansar? What happened to that dualistic world, me, you, him, her, etc?”

Guru replies, “It was never there; duality was only an illusion, a dream (Maya) (as Priya describes in DM).

You were always non-dual consciousness, never the body, never the mind.

You were illusioned before, and now you are enlightened.

As a body, you were mortal, and as consciousness, you are immortal; as forms always die, formlessness is eternal, and energy can never die.”

Duality is a phenomenon and consciousness is the Noumenon.