Investigating the Discovery of the Teaching

Understanding What We Call an “Objective”

When the spiritual genius investigates the teaching, he discovers that an “objective” is not a single thing but a constellation of three domains:

1. The inner field — the body, sensations, thoughts, and the entire apparatus that experiences.
2. The outer field — forms, sounds, and the whole array of objects encountered.
3. The unity of both — the deeper suchness in which the division between “what knows” and “what is known” dissolves.

These three are treated as a single inquiry because each reveals something about the nature of experience, and all three are required to understand reality clearly.

How the Inner and Outer Are Discovered

The inner field seems like “the one who knows,” while the outer field seems like “the known.”
But when examined with precision, the line between them fades.

The inner is discovered to be inseparable from the outer,
and the outer is discovered to be inseparable from the inner.

This discovery unfolds through two complementary insights:

Seeing that the experiencer never exists independently of experience,
and
seeing that the experienced never exists independently of the experiencer.

When both are understood in this way, their shared suchness appears without division—free of any sense of two separate substances.
This non-apprehension of duality is the true discovery of the object.

How the Teaching Itself Is Discovered

The teaching is not merely heard or repeated; it must be discovered through three modes of wisdom:

1. Wisdom Born of Learning

The genius begins by focusing the mind on the stated meaning of what is studied.
Words form a temporary scaffold; conceptual understanding provides a doorway.
Through careful attention and trust in the meaning, a first, basic clarity emerges.

This is the discovery of the teaching through learning.

2. Wisdom Born of Reflection

Next, the genius recognizes that the way things appear is shaped by mental construction.
Outer objects gain their form through how the mind verbalizes them.
This reflection reveals that experience is not simply “out there,” but arises in interplay with inner formulation.

Recognizing this allows the teaching to be discovered on a deeper, less literal level.

3. Wisdom Born of Meditation

Finally, the genius fixes the mind on the bare fact that objects arise only by conceptual designation — that there is no inherent “thing” apart from naming and perception.

This stabilization, where the mind rests solely on the nominal and no longer imagines substance on either side — inner or outer — produces a discovery beyond thought.

Here, the duality of knowing and known collapses, and the teaching is realized directly rather than interpreted.

How All Three Layers Connect

These discoveries of the inner, the outer, and their shared nature become possible only because the genius first enters into the teaching as an objective through the structured learning of the three collections.

The teaching provides the map
→ reflection reveals how the terrain appears
→ meditation uncovers the ground beyond maps and appearances.

In this way, the three kinds of wisdom uncover the three dimensions of the objective world, and this entire process rests on a single commitment: to investigate experience until nothing is left unquestioned.