This is a summary of a portion of Swami Tadamanandaji's lecture on Viveka in which he points out why it is arbitrary to imagine that you are located inside the body, looking out as it were.
The idea of being "inside
the body looking out" is arbitrary because this sense of location is
merely a side effect of your sense organs, particularly sight.
The argument is developed by suggesting that:
- It
is a Side Effect of Sensation: Just as identifying the body as
"me" is arbitrary because it is based on the presence of nerves
(sensation), the sense of being located inside is an equally
arbitrary side effect of your sensations.
- The
Primacy of Sight: As human beings are highly visual, the sense of
being a conscious being behind the eyeballs looking out into the world
becomes primary.
- Loss
of Sensation Eliminates Location: To illustrate the arbitrariness
of this location, Swami Tadatmanandaji suggests a thought experiment: if
you were blind, deaf, and your entire body was numb head to toe, you would
have no physical sensations. If asked "Where am I?", you would
have no sense of location whatsoever, demonstrating that your sense of location
is entirely due to your senses.
- The
Swapped Senses Example: In a hypothetical scenario where a
scientist could swap the nervous impulses from your eyes with someone
else's, the moment the switch was flipped, you would feel like you were
instantaneously transported to their location, simply because you were seeing
what their eyes picked up. This shows that the feeling of being located is
entirely dependent on where the sense input (like sight) originates.
