For four hundred years, we have known that neither the sun nor the moon ‘rises’ anywhere in the sky. Planet Earth spins to either catch the Sun’s light or to move away from it. Do we feel the furious rotation of the Earth as we look at the moon apparently sliding across our night sky? No. Therefore, we make up poems and myths about it or about our fierce ‘father’ the Sun, whose light the Moon borrows and flashes back at us. It is a matter of perception. So, though we know something to be true, the psyche pushes strongly in the opposite direction. The irrational side fights the rational side of our minds because the aura of the apparent takes over and therefore, we still say, “Let’s watch the sunrise.”
There is another kind of perception which is based on nervousness and insecurity. A political reporter was travelling in a war-torn African country where he had been warned about attacks on foreigners suspected of being anti-government agents. He had taken care to travel on foot, keeping off the highways, when he blundered on to an arterial road and suddenly saw two heavily armed soldiers just hundred metres ahead of him. Their very headgear made them look like aliens. He stared at them, unable to move. When they spotted him they glanced at each other and began walking towards him. His heart sank and he prepared for death or mutilation as they reached him. From within the mountain of military gear came a timid plea, “Have you got a cigarette?” Here, we have a situation where tension and fear are built by what the traveller had been led to expect. Do you think he was just lucky? What if he had run from the soldiers?
Vibrations matter
Perception and understanding or the lack of it, forms the web of all relationships. Much of the trouble and tension around us both in familiar and unfamiliar situations comes from our perception of other people. And their expectations from us. Enter a meeting expecting hostility, and you will generate that same kind of vibration. And yes, of course, you will meet with resistance and blocks. Or is there someone you meet every day who is habitually rude or annoying, in whose presence your mind automatically hardens, walling him off? As an experiment, what if you pitched a completely different version of yourself at him? How do you think he would react? Underlying external behaviour is human instinct which no one can fool. But, what you can do is to try to change your own perception in order to modify the attitudes around you.
From our ancient teaching system comes a method of how a teacher gradually heightens the consciousness of the student in his care, concentrating on the student’s focus and understanding step by step. “Do you see that tree?” “Yes.” “Do you see its massive trunk ?” “Yes.” “Do you see the branches above it?” “Yes.” “Do you see that fine branch on the right side?” “Yes.” “Do you see two leaves at the tip of the branch?” “Yes” “Do you see the new moon between the two leaves?”
Is perception everything or can we be trained to develop it?
The author is Consultant, Publishing (Oxford University Press). minioup@gmail.com
