Perception and the Trance of Reification
The ever-present, never-changing aliveness of no-thing beingness reveals itself whenever we attend to any phenomenon — so long as we do not mistake the recognition (or perception) of an object's appearance-pattern for reality itself.
The mind is a metaphorical pattern-recognition process, and its perceptions are inextricably linked to thought and emotional reactivity.
Yet, once aware beingness — the reality reading these words — has been clearly seen (by itself), irrespective of what it is aware of, then all phenomenal experience is recognized as this beingness itself.
All is one.
From this clarity, each pattern is recognised and experienced as an expression — a modulation — of no-thing beingness, not as an objective reality to be reified or grasped.
The mind innately reifies what it perceives, turning processes into objects.
This tendency — known as reification or nominalisation — is built into the structure of thought and language.
But this is not merely a conceptual slip — it induces a trance state.
Reification, when embedded in language, can bypass critical thought and induce suggestibility. Once entranced, the mind becomes vulnerable to external influence — a mechanism often (and sadly) exploited to persuade or manipulate.
As the Human Givens Institute notes:
“For instance, when the process of enlightening somebody about something is turned into ‘enlightenment’, it becomes an abstraction, just pretending to be something concrete. All such words lack specific, essential information; namely who is doing precisely what to whom.”
—Human Givens Institute
Reality is not a static object, but a fluid process.
It is not a noun, but a living verb.
It is not a thing to grasp, but a movement of beingness — a seamless unfolding.
This is why the Buddha referred to truth not as substance, but as Dharma — a lawful arising within the undivided field of awareness.
Not separate from us. Not other than this.
With Love,
Freyja