Chapter 8 of The Practice of Contemplative Photography (paid link), by Andy Karr and Michael Wood, explains the flash of perception in terms of the experience.
The authors use an excellent example. Have you ever had someone you know well shave off their mustache? You see them and know something is different but can’t quite put your finger on it.
Sometimes, the things or people we are most familiar with, we have the most trouble seeing clearly.
When we see the person, we obviously have a direct perception of them because there is recognition but that perception is quickly covered up by everything we know about that person based on past experiences.
In other words, we have a conceptual view of that person. We are projecting all of our past experiences onto them.
Flashes of perception occur only when there is a gap in the thinking process.
That is why the practice of contemplative photography and seeing what may seem to be trivial things is so important. We learn to see what is actually there in the moment – no past, no future.
The image above is a simple example. I was eating with my husband and friends in a restaurant. The table was set. Normally, I would just see the forks on the table. But there was a moment when thinking stopped, I looked further and saw the shadows. I saw the streaks of light along the edges. I saw the grid created by the forks and their shadows. I saw the little circles at the base of the tines.
Imagine if we were to look at the familiar people in our lives that way.
It is important to be able to recognize a true flash of perception, that moment when eye and mind are aligned. In this chapter, we learn the qualities of the flash.
The first three are about moving from concept into direct experience.
1. It is sudden. There is a break in the flow of activity (especially of the mind).
2. It is shocking. You are startled into the moment.
3. It is disorienting. It is a fresh way of seeing, apart from our regular storyline.
The next four are about the perceptual experience itself.
4. It has clarity. It is true, detailed, and unfiltered.
5. It has richness. Everything is seen with intensity.
6. It is absorbing. You are focused and still.
7. It is buoyant. The experience is relaxed, freeing, and joyful.
In order to practice recognizing the flash of perception, the authors present an exercise called “the human camera,” where you close your eyes, turn around, and then open them quickly, noticing what arises and when conception clicks in.
I think you will be amazed at how conceptions pretty much rule us and, in my opinion, limit our experience of life. When have you been startled by a flash of perception?