Your vision is partial

 

You, who always think you know enough about a situation to judge of it, would save yourself much grief if you would remember that your vision is partial.

 

 

How many times have you been surprised by new developments in any situation?  Each time this happens, it should remind you that your vision is partial. There is always more to any situation than you perceive.

 

How many times have you judged a situation? How many times have you blamed someone?  How many times have you been moved to anger by the actions of other people? Have you ever let go of judgments after they have been proved wrong or lacking in scope? Do you find it hard to give up judgments?  Judgments bring grief and distress. Wouldn’t it be easier to withhold judgment, pleading ignorance of all the facts?

 

You see only what you have words for.  You see only what you believe already exists. Do you think there could exist concepts that you yet have no words for? Of course there must, just as today there exist concepts that you did not have words for twenty years ago. Everything exists forever, but your vision is entirely dependent on your perspective.

 

 

How many of your beliefs come from the time, place, or gender in which you live?

Would you have advocated for gay marriage in the 1920s? Would you have been the plantation owner who freed his slaves in 1820? Plato and Aristotle, both great teachers of mankind, justified the existence of slaves. Most people are typical products of their time and place, accepting more beliefs than they examine.

May I be freed of the typical beliefs of my time, place, and gender. May I give up all judgments. May I be open to knowledge instead.

Many of your beliefs are held at the unconscious level, but they entirely dictate what you will be able to see. If you think all members of a political group are idiots, that another race is lazy, or ignorant, that one sex is controlling, or irresponsible, or unreliable, you will see examples everywhere you look. But what are you seeing but your own creations? Out of infinity, you are choosing to see only what accords with your beliefs.

Why would you do this?

 

There is no possibility you could see everything that exists in a situation: the motives, pasts, and fears of everyone involved, or what is going to happen next, and how this is going to affect everyone. It is not possible for you to know all of this. You may think you do know everything about a situation, and so this allows you to judge of it, and tell others what they should do, and why they are wrong.

But consider this, friend. Every time an event is coming up in your life, you picture to yourself how it will be and how it will look. You are always wrong in this. The reality of what comes to pass is beyond your knowledge to predict. Is the child you have anything like the child you imagined you would have?

Human vision is limited, deals in named quantities, prefers what it already knows, and is uncomfortable with not knowing.

 

But you do not need to rely on it.

Image by Gus Howie