Back today, thanks to Anthony DeMello in Awareness, to a recurring theme:
“We see people and things not as they are but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are.”
Seems like infallible logic to me, particularly given that the principle is supported by the sage wisdom of Brad Paisley in I’m Still a Guy”
“When you see a deer you see Bambi, I see antlers up on a wall.
When you see a lake you think picnics and I see a largemouth up under that log….
When you see a classic French painting, I see a drunk, naked girl.
You think that ridin’ a wild bull sounds crazy, but I’d like to give it a whirl.”
Two people, two different perceptions/reactions. That is not, of course, an inherent problem – people can and do see things differently. However, conflict can arise when (hypothetically speaking, of course) when (not if, when) one person insists that his/her perception/reaction is the correct one, and in fact the only correct one (think “fake news” and “alternative facts”). That is where the trouble starts, the trouble being directly proportional to the insistence.
The grace in all this hides in the problem itself. If I see things as I am, it follows that when I change, it changes how I see things. Or as DeMello puts it: “The day you are different, they will become different. And you will see them differently too.”
Miraculously, it is the same for everyone.
It occurs to me... 