Acharya Prashant refutes the idea that one's perception can be improved to understand the divine. He states there is nothing called "improvement of perception," as perception itself is a projection one inflicts upon oneself. He advises against being in a rush to express existing knowledge and instead to first receive something new. The concepts of "better perception" or "higher perception" are too prevalent, and one must be watchful. There is a great difference between perception and attention or realization. Everyone has perception, and each person perceives as they are; you see how you are and get what you are. Therefore, there is nothing in perception itself. Acharya Prashant explains that perception is always false because the perceiver, the ego, is false. He uses the example of Buddhists who, when speaking of seeing rightly, use the term "apperception" because perceiving is always false. Similarly, the concept of the "divine" as commonly known or read about is just another human fancy. He suggests forgetting the divine and focusing on the worldly, the humanly, and the mundane, as that is what is important. While the word "divine" can be used to point to something outside oneself, looking outside generally does not help because there is so much work to be done inside. He encourages discussing one's humanness and what one is truly living as. Perception follows the state of the self, the ego. The ego is highly resistant to changing itself, so it happily agrees to change things *about* or *around* itself, such as perception, but not itself. The ego's desire to change its perception is a trick to avoid changing itself. He compares this to a patient who, instead of taking real medicine, takes false ones, making them not only diseased but also cunning. He warns against false spiritual notions and pop spirituality, calling them lethal and fatal. Beliefs exist only to protect the existing state of the self. He concludes by challenging the listener to pick a worthy battleāthe one against the selfāand fight it wholeheartedly, rather than focusing on superficial changes.
