I noticed a highway that flows between my senses (let’s call them my “eyes”) and my mind (let’s call that my “head”). Traffic flows in one direction on one side, and in the other on the other.

The traffic flowing from my eyes to my head carries ideas from the sensory world, and fills my mind with concepts based on sensory perceptions.

The traffic flowing the other way, from my head to my eyes, carries theoretical knowledge, usually imported from the “port” of my ears, which, these days, gets most of its traffic via special airplanes from the eyes, carrying written words. This flow brings ideas to the senses, and the senses try to unpack the deliveries and recognize them in perception.

It seems that knowledge of things not initially or directly sensorial, like knowledge of the mind, intellect, identity, and the ultimate-seer: the conscious-self does not come up the highway from the eyes. It gets imported from a special importer, and is sent down the highway to the eyes.

This is what I noticed, and I feel like Yajnavalkya confirmed this in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaṇiṣad when he explained to his wife, śrotavyaḥ, mantavyaḥ, nidi-dhyāsitavyaḥ… draṣṭavyaḥ.

“Self-Knowledge starts as something we hear, then becomes something we contemplate, then becomes embedded in the way we perceive, and that is how we actually come to see it as a living reality.”