"Of Men, Mountains and Trees" by Alan James

Two types of truth, conventional and ultimate, are distinguished. Conventional truth is based in generalisation, e.g. 'All men have 2 legs'. Problems can arise from making such truths into laws which are expected always to be true. Ultimate truth is based in analysis of experience; investigation. Doing this, the meditator finds that you can only experience one thing at a time - the senses don't overlap. The mind synthesises reality from discrete elements. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is mentioned, shows how the observer and the observed are inseparably linked. Individual experience is the only measure of truth. 

Alan James founded the House of Inner Tranquillity, along with his wife Jacqui James in 1980. He continued to teach the way to enlightenment until his retirement in 2010.  

This talk was originally given in June 1982.