The other day, I had a quick read about perspective. It is something humans constantly rely on. We believe it defines our understanding, reactions, and decisions, but if you look closely, perspective itself is limited. It’s not absolute; it’s shaped by many factors, most of which we don’t even notice. Yeah, even when we ‘try’ to understand someone else’s perspective, we are still caught in limitation!

The first limitation comes from our senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are the ways we experience this world, but each sense only gives us a fragment of reality. The human eye sees only a certain spectrum of light. The human ear perceives only certain frequencies. Even touch, taste and smell are conditional; they rely on the body, on receptors. What this means is that everything we perceive is filtered, and dependent on conditions outside of our control. We don’t experience the world directly; we experience a version of it that our senses allow.

Then there is the mind, which adds another layer of limitation. The mind organizes and interprets sensory information. It remembers, judges, predicts, and imagines. But it’s also bound by conditioning, habits, beliefs, and past experiences. The mind works on input from the senses, so if the senses are limited, the mind’s understanding is limited too. Together, senses and mind create a narrow and broken perspective, which can never fully capture the totality of reality.

This is where Vijnana Bhairav Tantra (VBT) comes in. It doesn’t just point out the limitation of perspective; it shows a way beyond it. The Tantra explains that what we usually consider ‘seeing’ or ‘understanding’ is only a small portion of the truth. Beyond the mind and senses, there is awareness, and this is infinite. Awareness is not conditioned or limited. It doesn’t depend on senses or mind. It pervades everything… every object, living being, cell, and even the whole of nature. Awareness is the constant… it’s the field in which everything exists.

VBT gives over a hundred practical methods to experience this awareness directly. These are not theoretical ideas; they are techniques you can apply in daily life. Some are simple, like watching your breath or observing your body. Some involve noticing sensations, sounds, or even the silence between thoughts. Each method has the same goal: to help you move past the filtered perspective of the senses and mind, and connect with the totality of consciousness. When you do this, perspective doesn’t disappear, but it expands. You begin to see multiple dimensions of a situation simultaneously, not just the narrow view you were conditioned to have.

To help you understand, I can share a small example. A few days ago, I had a small, hurtful situation with my friend. Due to the incident, my senses took over me… but one single thing that remained constant was the awareness of his turmoil while I was being hurt myself. So even when my perspective tried to take over me, the proper cultivation of awareness made empathy possible. Now, was that awareness even more hurtful? Yes. Awareness comes at a cost of moving beyond human boundaries. It can even make you bicker at times about having it, but walking up the path is definitely worthwhile. Because this path is long, and there will be a day when this bickering shall end.

Now let’s continue with the information part. Another thing to remember is that awareness is present everywhere. You don’t have to create it. You only need to recognize it and align your perception with it. The practices in VBT are tools to help you notice it more clearly, more consistently (please take diksha from a Guru who belongs to this parampara). They train the mind to stop clinging to fragments and start seeing the whole. They train the senses to be channels of experience rather than filters that distort reality.

In practical terms, this means that perspective is not fixed. It is contextual, flexible, and dependent on the level of awareness you are accessing. Ordinary human perspective is like looking through a keyhole… you see part of the room, not the entire space. When awareness is cultivated, perspective widens. You can see patterns, connections, and truths that were invisible before. You understand cause and effect more clearly. You notice the constancy of consciousness itself.

So, to summarize VBT’s Perspective Speck simply: senses and mind are tools, but they are limited tools. Awareness is infinite. The practices it offers are ways to experience this directly. They are simple in principle but deep in effect. By practicing, you don’t become someone different; you simply begin to perceive more fully, from the level of what already exists in everything. (be mindful; superiority ego clashes may arise; please proceed with caution)

In the end, our usual perspective is just a speck of reality. The full perspective is rooted in awareness, and it is accessible to anyone willing to practice noticing it. VBT gives the measures for this, not as philosophical ideas, but as practical exercises. Awareness is already here… perspective expands infinitely when we align with it.

Yours,
Brahmamayee