The Crossroads of Bivalent Perception

"[O]ne takes a stable seat with good alignment at the Crossroads of Bivalent Perception" - Walking the Wakeful Path Home

 The Crossroads of Bivalent Perception is the first of six locations identified in 'Walking the Wakeful Path Home.'

The image of a crossroads evokes being faced with a choice to make about which way is the way forward.

In the case of walking the wakeful path of Asheyana, one is faced with a choice to make about which way is the way home.

One may have heard ideas or received advice about which way is the way home. 

From an Asheyana perspective, relying upon one's own experience of Insubstantial Basis is the guide for the return home.

In taking a stable seat with good alignment, one is preparing physically for a session of meditation.

In taking a seat at the Crossroads of Bivalent Perception, one is preparing viscerally and conceptually for a session of meditation.

This step has to do with refining one's approach to decision-making in daily life.

The term "Bivalent Perception" is adapted from the Principle of Bivalence as applies to evaluating logical propositions:

"In logic, the semantic principle (or law) of bivalence states that every declarative sentence expressing a proposition (of a theory under inspection) has exactly one truth value, either true or false. A logic satisfying this principle is called a two-valued logic or bivalent logic." - Principle of Bivalence, Wikipedia

Bivalent Perception here refers to perceiving situations that arise in daily life as having only two outcomes: good or bad, opportunity or threat, and ultimately, for-me or against-me.

Bivalent Perception has both visceral and conceptual components. The visceral component apprehends visceral or immediate threat or opportunity. The conceptual component apprehends imagined or conceived threat or opportunity.

Being invested in physical or social survival in this life, one would have some kind of habituation to ward off from oneself and one's kind what is evil, a threat, or against-me and to seek out or draw to oneself and one's kind what is good, an opportunity, or for-me.

The challenge comes when this habituation begins to ossify into a Substantial Basis underneath appearances and their meanings, potentially overreaching beyond a natural inclination to establish basic balance in one's life.

One and their kind may even come to see this Substantial Basis as a kind of shared, Objective Reality, innocent to the knowledge that for the refuge such ossification reinforcement may seem to initially provide, this eventually comes to constrain one and their kind into a pervasive, Joyless Anxiety.

The ground of working with bivalent perception is witnessing the presence of bivalent perception within or throughout one's perception of oneself, of one's kind, and of the external world.

The path of working with bivalent perception is disentangling extreme 'for-me' or 'against-me' postures, habits, and concepts into knowledge of appearances in the world, clarity as to their non-personalized meaning, and awareness of one's own inclinations toward over-personalizing appearances.

The fruition of working with bivalent perception is a balanced presence when meaningful appearances in the world arise, allowing for the possibility of relating with these meaningful appearances skillfully and intelligently.

Sitting at the Crossroads of Bivalent Perception, the way home is to take a step back from the crossroads, from 'for-me' or 'against-me' postures, habits, and concepts.

First, one may find that a particular road at the cross calls out more than others as the way home, and proceed along that way.

Next, one may find that rejection of the crossroads altogether is the way home, and proceed in that way.

Finally, one may find that through meditation practice, developing an experience of Insubstantial Basis as the guide, whichever path one outwardly chooses in consonance with this guide is the way home.

May these words inspire the Asheyana practitioner to persevere in meditation practice, discovering for themselves a reliable guide home through the many crossroads encountered in this life. May it be of benefit.