There are at least two reasons why we must learn to look at our world differently. What do I mean by ‘looking at the world differently’?
When you look at a plant, for instance, and right now as I am typing this, I am looking at my jade plant, I see what I have learned to see. I see a spread of succulent leaves, some large, some small, in various shades of green depending, among other things, on how the sunlight strikes them. Many seem to have a gloss over them. I also see grayish-brown shoots of various thicknesses.
What I don’t ’see’ are the atoms and molecules whose particular configuration and movement give rise to this thing that I call a jade plant. What I don’t see is the subatomic world which is made up almost entirely of space and in which energy can take the form or appearance of particles or waves. The jade plant that I do see is just one expression of one layer of reality. I have reason to believe that there are many more, not just because science tells me so, as do the mystics of almost every spiritual tradition, but because I too have experienced other layers or forms of reality.
What I also don’t ’see’ is the constantly changing nature of this jade plant. Instead I see a plant that seems to be exactly the same from when I last looked at it and which I don’t expect to look different later today. But in fact, the energy of this plant is in constant motion. Yet what I have learned to see is a static form of this plant that is the result of my past perceptions.
As my thoughts give rise to my reality, I see the reality of past thoughts. Should I now change my thoughts, have different ones, or better still, simply suspend all my previous thoughts and keep a fresh and open mind, I will see something different. I will certainly not see this jade plant as I have seen it thus far.
Things are just the way we see them but equally, they are rarely the way we see them! We see a reality (consenses reality, if you like) brought about by our past thinking. Rarely do we see the dynamic reality of ‘now’. So, for these two reasons,
1. There are other layers of reality that we have not learned to see
2. The form of reality that we have learned to see is of past, not present, real-time cognition
if we are serious about knowing and engaging with what is ‘real‘, we need to learn to see the ‘real’. It is this need to ‘get real’ that philosophers and spiritual masters from various traditions remind us of when they speak of the ‘world of illusions’ that we are so caught up in. It is not that the jade plant is an illusion, but the way I have learned to see it prevents me from seeing the full nature of its reality.
What has all this got to do with happiness? Our happiness or unhappiness is the result of how we see the world, the people and situations in it. When our perceptions reflect historical data, not current data. and when our perceptions do not encompass the full scope of a situation or a person, we are not getting the ‘full, real picture‘. As a result, we respond, or react rather, to inaccurate and incomplete data. Can we therefore seriously expect to respond ‘accurately’ and achieve accurate and true results, both of which are necessary for our happiness?
What would happen if we could penetrate the illusions, see differently? What would we find? In my experience, what I find leaves me in awe for I see a reality that is perfect, free from my judgments, a reality that simply ‘is’. In Buddhism, it is called ‘suchness‘. It is a reality that I do not need to fight with or to overpower or run from. It demands nothing of me and takes nothing from me. It regards me in my ‘am-ness‘ as I regard it in its ‘is-ness‘.
I think the source of our sorrow and the source of our joy are intimately entwined. Our sorrow is that we have forgotten who we are, we have forgotten we are one with that source of all life–absolutely indestructible, perfect, joyful. The source of our joy is when we remember that. So if I could say one word, in the deepest sense, without any explanation, to myself, I would say “remember.”
Richard Bach
Lucy Lopez – Hire Me!
Naturally Happy!
[...] looking to help someone step out of their conditioned habits and get into the flow of their natural happiness and peace, it is important that we are mindful of our own conditioned habits, our ‘threads of [...]