Saturday, March 31, 2012

How & What We See

     "So many of the clients I see feel deep anger and cynicism about people. They summarily dismiss some for not meeting their expectations, and constantly put down others for their 'trivial' concerns and 'stupid' pursuits. In their anger and frustration, they do not see that they must change the way they see their fellow human beings if they are to release their own pain.
     When you look at others with the part of you that is feeling bad about yourself, you tend to see other people as bad. I see like that sometimes. When I’m feeling bad about myself, I see human concerns and pursuits that go way beyond trivial and stupid all the way into completely incomprehensible. I can see all that stuff. There is a lot of it to see in people – if you’re into seeing it.
     If you’re not into seeing it, you might want to periodically travel to that part of yourself that isn’t feeling bad, which is the heart, and start seeing the world with the eyes of the heart. The eyes of the heart don’t see bad in people, except with the compassionate desire to comfort and alleviate their pain. The eyes of the heart see the brave and beautiful search of other human hearts looking for happiness, truth, peace, love, and God. Every human being is a seeker of the truth of her own self and of the truth of the universe. When we know that we’re all on this journey together, we no longer concern ourselves with who’s bad and who’s good, who’s stupid and who’s smart, who’s ahead and who’s behind, we just take the journey, following the same searching heart that everybody else is following.

     ‘Make your eyes pure,’ says St. Hildegard of Bingen, and they will see only purity.

     So the next time you look out the window and see multitudes marching into their next round of trivial and stupid pursuits, immediately change your vision, see with your heart, see them all as the pure, searching human heart looking for happiness, truth, peace, love, and God in the best ways they presently know how to do this. Fall in love with them all for doing that. Fall in love with them all, period. They’re heroes and saints and gods and goddesses in magnificent disguise. See them as truth looking for truth, as love looking for love, as God looking for God, and you’ll be seeing truly. ‘The world is as you see it,’ says the sage Vasishtha, so when you see with the eyes of your heart, you see the whole world on a journey to the heart.”



        Alter RM, Alter J. “How Long Till My Soul Gets It Right?: 100 Doorways on the Journey to Happiness.” Regan Books, 2001.

Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia

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