One night while I was studying in my room, I looked up through the window and saw Kanya Remembrance walking across the lawn. I stood up and watched her, thinking she was going across to the library or to see the teachers at the school. But she was coming toward my room! When she opened the door, I gave her a hug. We walked down to the beach, and I told her what I was feeling and what had been happening with me. From then on, every night when she could, Kanya Remembrance would come and talk to me.
Often we would walk down to the beach and talk about our relationship to Heart-Master Da Love-Ananda and the process He was bringing me through. One night, I asked her what an Enlightened person perceives. She suggested that I ask Da Love-Ananda, so I wrote this letter:
Dear Love-Ananda,
I love and miss You and can’t wait to see You again. I had a dream about You last night. Yesterday I served in the kitchen. We don’t have our usual help on Sundays. I made salads and marinated vegetables, yams, potatoes, grated beets, and tomatoes for 80 people. I have been really missing
You. I feel that there is something useful about not seeing You for this time. It makes me not take seeing You for granted so much because here I only see You when You walk to and from the library. So when I hear the conch2 I drop everything I am doing and run out to see You. Every second of Your Darshan is so precious. I watch You until I can’t see even Your shadow.
I can really appreciate Kanya Remembrance as a guide for me because she has gone through the same crisis I am going through. She helps me to make the commitment to real practice. I asked her last night when she came to talk to me about what I have been feeling—I asked her if You or any Enlightened person has a different perception of time, space, vision, sound, dreams, feelings, etc. She said to ask You. I think in a day or two I will be ready to take another step. I love You.
Love,
Shawnee
This is how He answered my question:
HEART-MASTER DA LOVE-ANANDA: Enlightenment has nothing directly to do with changing the perception of things. For example, if I look at a plant, it (generally) looks visually like a plant looks to everyone else. However, the Awakening to Divine Consciousness is a different Awareness altogether, a unique Awareness, of time and space, and of the Source of perception. Enlightened “perception” is that Awareness, rather than a different way of perceiving objects. There is a profoundly different Awareness of space and time and things, but not necessarily a different perception, although there could also (in some moments) be a different perception, depending on the characteristics of the
Enlightened person. The Enlightened person can be associated with siddhis [accomplishments, or powers], and therefore with a different perception. Such perception has nothing directly to do with Enlightenment Itself, however, but with how the Spiritual Energy is working through that person. So, potentially, as in My case, there can be occasionally (or as required) different perception and vision, but not necessarily.