Day 6 of 365: Emptiness of Perception as Validation

One of our reactions to emptiness of things is to think, "But, I can see it with my own eyes!"  That is often my gut reaction.  Nagarjuna deals with this method of solidification next.  He essentially looks at each of the six inner sources of conciousness (eye conciousness, ear conciousness, etc) and the six outer sources of conciousness (visual objects, sounds, etc).  If you are unfamiliar with this, just think of looking at an orange.  The orange would be the visual object.  The eye organ senses the orange, and this is registered by our visual conciousness.  This is sequentially, in a relative truth sort of way, how we take in the world.  What Nagarjuna asserts is that this doesn't really prove anything.  There are three possibilities for the arising of our perceived sense object and perceiving sense conciousness: the perceived sense object arose before the perceiving sense conciousness, the perceiving sense conciousness arose before the perceived sense object, or they arose at the same time.  The first case is the hardest.  We often think that there is something out there which we are perceiving.  However, how can there be an object of perception before the actual perceiving?  Without yet perceiving it, how would you prove it is there?  We are in fact always one step behind.  The orange we're looking at in this instant is not really the same orange as exists in this instant.  The orange we're looking at in this instant is from the last instant.  We mistake them for the same because they are so similar in appearance.  The second case is easier.  How could a perceiving sense conciousness exist before the perceived sense object?  There would be no object to perceive.  The third case is also fairly straightforward.  We experience these sense objects and sense conciousnesses as being causal, so they cannot arise at the same time.

If we are, as the teachings suggest, always one step behind, then why not just relax?  After all, there isn't a present moment to relax in either.  What's the harm in just opening your heart?