In our experience of life, we have many things which occupy our perception. Feelings, ideas, sensations, etc. They are the content, the stuff which helps to give form and flavor to what is happening all around us. Our physical body is a key player in this, with our various senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and so on. Our minds are conditioned from the moment we are born to recognize the spoken language and arrange our thoughts into concepts and bits of communicable meaning. We also have a multitude of emotions and feelings which constantly color this panorama and infuse us with an ineffable vibrance.
Yet the recognition of perception itself is often lost within this vast experience. We lose sight of the nature of formlessness as we stare into the whirling vortex of formation. These various objects of perception become not only our focus, but often our obsession. We might wish to hold and keep some forever, while pushing others out of our sight completely. We may seek to find certain comfortable patterns at the expense of other more confusing ones. The activity of limitation becomes our occupation, but unfortunately this effort is constantly thwarted by the inevitable. We can never completely limit that which inherently has none. Boundless awareness itself always remains as a backdrop.
These perceptions are like birds in the air, and it is their nature to fly away. The more we try to hold on to them, the more we deny their reality, and the more we distort their true nature. They come and go. Let them.
