Noumenon and Phenomena
Noumenon (singular) and phenomena (plural) are usually perceived as two different things, subject and object, but the whole truth is that noumenon is the non-perceivable aspect or source of all phenomena, immanent in all phenomena. Phenomenality does not arise into existence from itself and has no essential nature of its own, other than the noumenon which it actually is. Since all objective phenomenality is the manifested aspect of noumenon, and each object is essentially noumenon, then not only is noumenon immanent in each and all objective phenomena, but it is also transcendent of all objectivity. Because of the simple misunderstanding of nondual reality, seeing subject and object as separate entities, ignorance has become pervasive in the way we tend to perceive our world. Ignorance is that through which our perceptions are filtered and warped into a wrong view of the real reality in which we exist. Our notions of separate existence, as subject vs. object, as noumenon vs. phenomena, as this vs. that, as me vs. other than me, etc., are the filters through which dualistic, dichotomous perceptions originate and persist. The basic notion of separation or dualism arose because of the idea that the perceiver of an object is different than the object; so there is a basic idea of separate existence of subject and object. This misunderstanding can be overcome only through a comprehensive analysis that leads to a recognition (or re-thinking, re-cognition) of the true and real condition of the totalistic functioning of the whole matrix of existence until the misunderstanding gives way to the full understanding of nondual subject-object process. It’s all process.
From the perspective of the noumenal absolute there is no difference whatsoever between the center and the periphery. From the perspective of the phenomenal relative there is a difference, but it is merely an appearance of difference, a dichotomy made up by mind as a matter of discernment. An Advaitayana contemplative tries to replace dualistic perspective with the supreme nondualistic perspective. We try to find our center by seeing what it is that fills the gap between two thoughts. In this gap we will find what-we-really-are from the perspective of the absolute. Here we dis-cover (or recover) that which was never lost – our real Being, our Source, our Center, all those names of what is Supremely Nameless. This is the Center from which all the first, second, and third dimensional relativities and perceptions emerge. It is in this gap, this interval between conceptual constructions, that we find our center from which we exist as pure Being, purely subjective. This gap, this Center, is the nondual, nondifferentiated unity, the homogeneity of all the heterogeneity of relative diversity.
All the configurations of form, whether of subtle mental or of gross physical, are transitional aspects beginning and ending on the background and periphery of this Center. All of the objectivity of existential Becoming move upon the base of the fourth dimension of subjectivity. Subjective Being is never separate from any of its differentiated dimensions; the circumferences or peripheries of the activities of the first, second, and third dimensionalities are nondifferent from the fourth, the center, the source. We call it the fourth (as did the Ancients) because it is also all-inclusive of the first, second, and third levels of Itself. Any term is as good as any other in any attempt to describe IT, being ItSelf nameless. The nondual fact is, the bliss of knowing the whole truth of IT, is that we are IT. We do not need to try to return to IT because we have never left IT, our Center of Being and Becoming. We are both noumenon and phenomena, but all of both.
