Perception is the function or activity of the mind through which we receive, sort and interpret sensory date. While it serves a very useful purpose... much of this activity is both unconscious and distorted. It is in our interest to see it meditatively and learn to relate to it skillfully.

What goes on in the mind when we remember things we have sensed, felt or thought in the past. It is through this activity of perception, and our attachment to it, that we have a very real sense of the past.

This talk examines how the mind names or assigns qualities or characteristics to the things we contact. How it relates and draws associations to similar things we have known...and what it is like to attach to that.

This talk looks at how we tend to form views based on likes and dislikes... and how we extend our views to form value laden statements about the world, the people in it and even ourselves. We move away from the direct experience into a world of fabrication and delusion. Our ideas become more real than the experience they represent.

Making full use of perception of the new year to skillfully look back to where we have been and forward to where we are going. .. and at the same time, collapsing time to the present moment.