The transparency of things

Rupert Spira teaches that all experience—every sight, sound, thought, and sensation—is made of nothing other than knowing itself. Objects appear solid and separate, but upon investigation, they are found to be transparent modulations of awareness.

Consider the experience of seeing a tree. Where is the boundary between seeing and what is seen? The tree seems "out there," but the actual experience of the tree is intimately present, made of awareness. There is no experience of a tree separate from the knowing of it.

This understanding transforms perception. Instead of a subject here experiencing objects out there, there is only awareness taking the shape of all experience—appearing as seer and seen, but never divided into two. The world becomes transparent to its true nature.

Take any perception—a color, a sound, a sensation. Ask: What is this experience actually made of? Can you separate the seeing from what is seen? Notice that the experience has no substance apart from awareness. Now notice that awareness is not separate from the experience. There is just one knowing, appearing as multiplicity.

The main obstacle is habitual belief in separation—the deep assumption that there is a world "out there" separate from awareness. Another is thinking about transparency instead of directly seeing it. The practice requires intimate investigation, not philosophical speculation.