What You See Is (Just a Hint of) What You Get
I recently watched a short clip of Oprah describing a magical moment in her redwood grove. She had visited this place in her garden a hundred times before, but this day was different. On this day she released the word "tree" from her mind and entered the grove with full attention, endeavoring to truly experience the essence of this majestic setting. She noticed something she had never noticed before - a vibrant, pulsating field of energy, as if the space was alive and conscious, and she was at once connected to and non-different from it.
Oprah's experience was not an anomaly, but an example of the capacity for higher human perception. While our world might appear full of familiar objects - the cars we drive, the food we eat, the bodies we inhabit - science tells us these are 90% empty space, swirling clouds of electrons and other particles vibrating at rates beyond the ability of the human eye to register. The world we occupy is actually a vast, energetic, vibratory field where boundaries are far more fluid than they appear. It is a subtle world of energy, light, sound, and thought just as real as the gross physical perception logged by our senses.
Yet so few of us experience this expanded reality on a consistent basis...why?
We have created shorthand of words and symbols to simplify our experience. We use labels like "redwood tree" or "coffee cup" as proxies for vibrant energetic systems. While imprecise, this shorthand is useful. As a colleague of mine said recently, "Life would get far too complicated if we described drinking our morning latte out of an 'interactive, vibrational field shaped like a cylinder and designed to hold hot liquid'."
However, using shorthand has a downside -- we often forget the deeper truth of our reality as we slip into the habit of using labels. Rather than staying tuned to the vital essence of our experience, we default to past memory or preconceived notions about how things will be. Our words and labels tether our mind to the historical. Our labels freeze reality. Instead of remaining alert in each moment, listening and seeing intently, we numb the intensity of our experience with comfortable ideas about what we think we understand...what we think we've already figured out.
Philosopher J. Krishnamurthy claims we never actually see or listen to anything "because our mind is not free; our ears are stuffed up with those things that we already know...if one can listen to something with all of one's being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is liberation."
Oprah's visit to her redwood grove could have been an unremarkable replay of her many past visits but, on that day, she was open to seeing and listening in a different way. She brought a beginner's mind free of labels. She brought her full attention without prejudice. As a result, she experienced the raw energy and intelligence of the space which immediately transformed her perception.
My spiritual teacher Dattatreya Siva Baba puts it this way, "When you look at an object without words or thoughts, you will understand it in a completely different way. You will simultaneously lose all knowledge and all ignorance...but you will gain omniscience."
Just as a map can never convey the true essence of the territory, our shorthand descriptions can never capture the deepest essence of the world around us. In order to know the richness, aliveness, and creative pulsation that animates all things, we must look beyond seeing. Listen beyond hearing. Experience beyond words.
Oprah's experience was not an anomaly, but an example of the capacity for higher human perception. While our world might appear full of familiar objects - the cars we drive, the food we eat, the bodies we inhabit - science tells us these are 90% empty space, swirling clouds of electrons and other particles vibrating at rates beyond the ability of the human eye to register. The world we occupy is actually a vast, energetic, vibratory field where boundaries are far more fluid than they appear. It is a subtle world of energy, light, sound, and thought just as real as the gross physical perception logged by our senses.
Yet so few of us experience this expanded reality on a consistent basis...why?
We have created shorthand of words and symbols to simplify our experience. We use labels like "redwood tree" or "coffee cup" as proxies for vibrant energetic systems. While imprecise, this shorthand is useful. As a colleague of mine said recently, "Life would get far too complicated if we described drinking our morning latte out of an 'interactive, vibrational field shaped like a cylinder and designed to hold hot liquid'."
However, using shorthand has a downside -- we often forget the deeper truth of our reality as we slip into the habit of using labels. Rather than staying tuned to the vital essence of our experience, we default to past memory or preconceived notions about how things will be. Our words and labels tether our mind to the historical. Our labels freeze reality. Instead of remaining alert in each moment, listening and seeing intently, we numb the intensity of our experience with comfortable ideas about what we think we understand...what we think we've already figured out.
Philosopher J. Krishnamurthy claims we never actually see or listen to anything "because our mind is not free; our ears are stuffed up with those things that we already know...if one can listen to something with all of one's being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is liberation."
Oprah's visit to her redwood grove could have been an unremarkable replay of her many past visits but, on that day, she was open to seeing and listening in a different way. She brought a beginner's mind free of labels. She brought her full attention without prejudice. As a result, she experienced the raw energy and intelligence of the space which immediately transformed her perception.
My spiritual teacher Dattatreya Siva Baba puts it this way, "When you look at an object without words or thoughts, you will understand it in a completely different way. You will simultaneously lose all knowledge and all ignorance...but you will gain omniscience."
Just as a map can never convey the true essence of the territory, our shorthand descriptions can never capture the deepest essence of the world around us. In order to know the richness, aliveness, and creative pulsation that animates all things, we must look beyond seeing. Listen beyond hearing. Experience beyond words.
posted by Stacey Lawson at
8:47 AM
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