Looking out over the garden one spring morning a few days ago, I suddenly had the impression that everything I was seeing was perfectly organized. Despite the enormous diversity of plants, flowers, shrubs, trees, etc., everything was growing and multiplying in a beautiful, harmonious, inspiring order.

So I had to ask myself whether what I was seeing was in itself perfectly organized, as it appeared to me, or whether it was my consciousness that was organizing everything that way. In other words, was all that harmonious and inspiring order part of the garden’s very nature, or was I simply perceiving it that way?

I did not give myself an immediate answer because at that moment it seemed more appropriate to continue asking. Roses, and almost all the flowers I’ve observed, grow from their center outward; but both "the center" and "the outside" are concepts that exist in my consciousness. Perhaps in another world none of those concepts even exist - neither center, nor inside, outside, space, night, day, or any of the other thousands of concepts that give me a vision of what is "inside" me and "outside" me. Worse - or better - still, how can I know for sure that there really is an outside and an inside, if everything perceived by my senses is always configured by what I have learned and what I remember?

I kept wondering about this, and realized that just asking myself about such things is something we don't normally do. We are so conditioned to respond that I was surprised at this way of being in the world (so to speak) and at noticing, albeit fleetingly, that I was actually having a very simple experience of "apperception," as this phenomenon of realizing that we are perceiving is called. Keep in mind that everything we perceive can sometimes include the perception of the perceiver. So one listens to music, or sees a flower, or detects a fragrance, and at the same time one realizes that one is perceiving all of that. To intentionally  “apperceive” - to perceive through the senses at the same time that one "perceives oneself" perceiving - is interesting because it gives one a sensation of being present that goes beyond what we usually know as "being present."

So, momentarily immersed in this feeling of really being present, I also had an insight. In addition to all this understanding about concepts and the world that surrounds me, I had the intuition that there truly is an order in everything that exists. One has intuitions, or whatever these experiences are called, of all kinds and in general they do not go beyond an expectation or a guess about some future event, etc. This time, however, an intuition presented itself to me in a different way. As I understood my relationship with the world in this way, this intuition occurred that was not something exact but was instead a diffuse but certain feeling that everything has an order, a direction and a meaning... including myself.

This structurality (this is how my friend Isabel refers to this other phenomenon) does not explain the inclusion of oneself in the act of perceiving, but it does explain the inclusion of the opposites that exist in what is perceived. In other words, the inside and the outside are part of an indivisible structure in its true essence. These opposites exist as separate concepts, because we need to understand and name what we are perceiving. But while these opposites do manifest separately, they do not truly exist as such. This structural existence of what is perceived is sometimes revealed, and this tends to happen when I have that deeper understanding that something exists beyond what I perceive, because otherwise I would not be able to explain my intuition that it exists. This phenomenon of "intentionality," *  which was part of the scholastic teachings of the Middle Ages and was revived in the 19th century by the Swiss philosopher Brentano,** explains that in every act of consciousness there is an intentionality that refers to the object one is thinking of. We not only think, we always think about something, and that “something” is an "object" for our consciousness. In this way, the act of thinking and the object we are thinking of become a structure called “act-object”. For the consciousness, this matter of acts and objects is important, because it explains the operations of the consciousness, including its mechanisms and its possibilities for transcending those mechanisms. It is in this possibility of transcending the mechanisms of consciousness that a new way of seeing the world and being in the world appears. 

All this that I am clumsily trying to explain from simple observation, was masterfully expressed in a series of three conferences given by Silo in 1972 in Argentina and Chile. These conferences, titled "Transcendental Meditation,"*** have been one of the most important milestones in my life because they opened a door to topics that I never imagined could be so spiritually profound.

In fact, the concept of "structure" is a simple one whose spiritual scope is hardly apparent when it is only a concept; but in its practical application in the world of human beings, it reveals a much broader dimension where opposites are reconciled and everything is organized in a system that includes all that exists.

This is not of minor importance. Consider one of its most important derivatives, the principle of solidarity, which invites us to liberate ourselves by treating others as we want to be treated. Or the principle of conformity, which explains that if winter and summer, day and night, are okay with us, then we have overcome the contradictions. And finally (to keep this writing short) the principle of denial of opposites: It doesn't matter which side events have put you on; what matters is to understand that you have not chosen any side.

Going back to the garden and the simple observation of nature, and to the intuition that there is an order that underlies everything… I have the strong feeling that I need to follow these intuitions, because they have the power to bring me closer to an understanding of the world that is inspiring and that can be, in a certain sense, an irreplaceable source of reflection.

Finally, despite there being no end to everything I say, I realize that this intuition that I’ve been able to access is something that does not belong to me at all. Instead, it belongs to all of us: when our compulsions quiet down, when our internal noise is silenced, when we clearly feel ourselves present in the world, this intuition belongs to the whole human race.

It is there, in the internal silence that belongs to all of us, that such intuitions manifest themselves. It is also in that silence that the possibility of acquiring new perspectives opens up for all humankind.

*    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionality

**    Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (/brɛnˈtɑːnoʊ/; German: [bʁɛnˈtaːno]; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintroduced the medieval scholastic concept of intentionality into contemporary philosophy.

Originally a Catholic priest, Brentano withdrew from the priesthood in 1873 due to the dogmatic definition of papal infallibility in Pastor aeternus. During his subsequent career as a non-denominational professor, his teaching triggered research in a wide array of fields such as linguistics, logic, mathematics, and experimental psychology through the young generation of philosophers who gathered as the School of Brentano.

***   Fifth step

 “See in the memory the tendency.”

The mental form is intentional and works by bringing what is remembered into the present. Discovery of the intentionality that links acts to mental objects and of the action of memory over the entire act-object structure.

See in the memory the tendency. I experienced that every representation and, in general, every object of consciousness, is related to an act. And that what is retained in memory is continually brought up to date in the face of any new act that is proposed to the consciousness. Every act of consciousness works with retention, updating, or projection.

That is, the consciousness works by remembering, updating, and futurizing. There are innumerable combinations of times in the consciousness. There may be "past-future" times of consciousness that I also update at the same time. For example: right now, in this moment, I remember when I was a child, and what I thought I would be when I grew up: an engineer. Do you see? Combinations of this type are very frequent in the consciousness. Every act of consciousness that moves in the present moment always involves projections and retentions. Every act of consciousness, even when it futurizes, always does so by bringing the memory into the present. The data that I have to futurize are also data recorded in memory, and the image of the future that I may have and the projects I am working on are based on data in my memory.

However you imagine the world in the year five thousand, you imagine it using data that you have recorded and that you will put together in a particular way. This will produce syntheses that, of course, do not occur in everyday life in our twentieth century world, but it will work with data recorded in your memory. This tendency of the memory to arise, to complete acts, is unavoidable. And it doesn't depend on the memory itself. Here I discovered the mechanism of intentionality, which also manifests, above all, in the memory. (p. 75-78 book of T.M. Silo).

EDITED & TRANSLATED BY TRUDI RICHARDS