A thing does not appear as it is, nor does it appear otherwise

One of the most precise formulations of the ontological status of appearances. A thing does not appear as it is — because what it “is” is consciousness, and consciousness is not an appearance. Nor does it appear as something entirely different — because the appearance is made of consciousness, not of something else. The rope appears as a snake: not as a rope (what it is), not as a tree (something entirely different), but as a snake — a plausible misinterpretation of the available data. Every appearance is this kind of plausible misinterpretation.