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awareness
November 2008 
Ways of Seeing
Susan
If what I am watching evaporated before my eyes, I would remain. Anne Truitt – Day Book (1982)
Ways of Seeing
Imagine that your eyes are like a highly sophisticated camera that can be fitted with many different lenses. The lens in use determines how and what you see.
The way that you focus your camera determines how distant or intimate you become with the world around you.
Many of us have become so familiar with our world, that we don’t see it anymore. Therefore, I want to invite you on a journey today that will allow you to shift in and out of different ways of seeing. The intent is to uncover and discover information that you can put to use to enhance your ability to consciously choose the most effective way to view your world.
The first lens we will gaze through is fear. To the fearful eye, everything is threatening. Take a moment to notice that when you look towards your present reality in a fearful way, all you can see and concentrate on are things that can potentially damage or threaten you.
The next lens we will apply is greed. To the greedy eye, everything can be grabbed and possessed. When greedy-eyed, we get stuck in loving things and using people. The greedy person tries to get joy from possessions, but nothing is ever enough. The greedy lens has an insatiable hunger and is always haunted and deflated by what it can’t possess. It can never show up fully in the presence of the present.
To the judgmental eye, everything is categorized, framed and defined. When the judgmental eye looks out, it sees things in terms of good, and bad, right, and wrong. It is always excluding, or separating, and therefore, it never sees in a compassionate or celebratory way. Sadly, the judgmental eye is always equally harsh with itself. It enjoys neither forgiveness, nor imagination to see deeper into the core of things, where truth becomes paradox. It misses the subtleties and nuances of life.
To the resentful eye, everything is seen begrudgingly. The resentful eyed can never enjoy who they are or what they have. They are always looking out toward others with resentment. They are resentful because they see others as more beautiful, more gifted, or richer, than themselves. The resentful eye lives out of its own poverty of spirit and forgets to see or acknowledge its own inner gifts and blessings.
To the indifferent eye, nothing speaks to them, or sparks their involvement. It is said that indifference is often used as a tool to hold control over others by being indifferent to the needs and vulnerabilities of those under their control. Therefore, indifference requires a great commitment to non-seeing. Indifference has the ability to sneak up on you and can place you out of touch with compassion, healing, and love. When you become indifferent, your imagination becomes frozen in the limbo of cynicism, and ultimately, despair.
To the inferior eye, everyone else is greater than you. Others are more brilliant, beautiful, and blessed than you. The inferior eye is always looking away from its own treasures. It can never celebrate its own presence, or potential. The inferior eye is blind to its own beauty.
Our eyes were never designed to look up in a way that inflates another to superiority, or to look down, reducing another to inferiority. When we look someone in the eye, it is a validation of truth, courage, expectation, and innocent curiosity. Each one stands on equal but different ground.
To the loving eye, everything is alive and real. This art of love is neither sentimental or naïve. The loving look creates a climate of connection, celebration, and an inclusive reality. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature, and destiny.
If we could look at the world in a loving way, then the world would have permission to rise up before us full of invitation, possibility, and depth.
The loving eye is bright because it is autonomous, authentic, and free. It can look lovingly upon anything. The look of love refuses to become entangled in the agenda of power or seduction. The loving eye sees through and beyond the superficial image and is fully and instantaneously capable of effecting deep change in how we view our world.
The lens through which you habitually see your world is central to both your presence and your creativity. To recognize how you see things can bring you increased self-knowledge, and can enable you to glimpse more of the wonderful treasures your present life secretly holds.
The eye is the mother of intimacy, bringing everything close to us. When you take the time to gaze lovingly at someone or something, you bring it inside you.
Therefore, there is spirituality, and holiness, available to us this very moment, when we adjust our eyes through the lens of love.
Take a deep breath in and then let it out and take a moment to focus your awareness on your eyes, especially those little muscles around your eyes. Simply tell them to relax and let go of their hyper-vigilance. Now, allow your vision to land on something that is pleasing to you. Take it in and allow it to become a part of you.
Notice that all it takes is a small, gentle shift in your perspective. Making this shift can yield an endless opportunity to drink from the well of vibrant, lively energy that is waiting patiently to fill you with renewed vitality and wellbeing.
Access: Public
Susan; perspective is a favorite topic of mine; and I am in complete awe of the way you have described it here. WAtch me link your blog…with the eye of love…on my status bar.
I have also linked this blog to the Light shines through blogs on Gaia series of The Power of Light pod.
I will send a link to my regular newsletter readers.
Wow, thanks for telling me about this, Meenakshi. It totally speaks to me. What an awesomely elegant teaching-metaphor, Susan !!!!!!
First, let me add the lens I used for so many years: the Perfectionist. The Perfectionist sees only how what is seen could be “improved” or “better.” In any of various ways. The Perfectionist sees what is, but only through the lens of “what COULD be” or, more painfully, what OUGHT to be but isn't. What is is seen as what it isn't !!! How painful, how paradoxical, is THAT !!!!!????
The healed Perfectionist is able to see what is, the perfection of what is in being exactly what it is, in being the choice of All That Is to express itself this way at this time, and ALSO able to see potentials within what is, and appropriately move toward actualizing some of those, without judgment of what is.
Second, there is another lens: The lens of The Truth – which translates usually to My Truth or Our Truth. This lens sees reasons, or authorities, or experience, but like the two-dimensional inhabitants of the metaphorical Flatland, it cannot entertain the possibility that some folks could see a third dimension, my metaphor here for Truths different from Mine or Ours.
I believe none of us are completely without this lens; none of us can fully understand at all times how everyone who differs from us, could be that different – or even that they ARE that different!!. We are all egocentric to some extent, I believe. We can't grok others, we can't feel or sense our way into the reality occupied by someone else. That's just a limitation of being human, as long as we don't go beyond the lens of “human.”
Third, your metaphor lends itself perfectly to a metaphor I use in my ministerial counseling: some lenses can zoom in or zoom out from their habitual scope of visual field/awareness. Now ain't THAT fun?? Then we get into spiritual scopes of what is seen, or deep into the subconscious, or whatever. The ability of a lens to zoom in and out is a very important aspect of lenses, and one we could all cultivate more, and life would be much more interesting. Even on a smaller scale, if you can “see” galaxies, and molecules, not just tables and cars, life is indeed more interesting.
Fourth, some lenses know how to employ other lenses to enable them to see different things. This is when we can actually learn from someone else's words or experiences. Wheee !!! Or when we use other physical lenses like telescopes and microscopes, enabling us to see more than normal.
Fifth, your blog speaks to my personal experience in another way I have never written about, so let me see what I can say, haha. I somewhere got the idea that I was personally responsible for fixing anything I saw that I judged as bad, wrong, harmful. That is too much of a responsibility to bear, so I have blinded myself in some ways. I only half-see things. That is in the process of healing, as I get a better idea of my responsibilities.
Also, somewhere I got the idea that what I saw might not be TRUE. I might be seeing an illusion, I might be fooling myself about what I saw, or someone might be fooling me by presenting stuff to my vision which wasn't real or true. Thus, I never really could accept what I saw, engage with it, treat it as “real.” I always held back, only half-seeing. That too is healing, as I get a sense of SELF independent of whatever I am seeing. That results in discernment, being OK with various perspectives, and a trusting of a core Self that might see different things on different levels of existence yet understand them all without getting lost in any of them.
I have no idea if anyone can relate to that, but thanks for providing a space to share.
Gratefully, OM Bastet
I edited that slightly from the version that went out in Notifications, but then I realized I forgot a major point I wanted to say.
With regard to the sense of Self independent of what I see: I have realized that what I see is intimately determined by who I am, and vice versa. I cannot separate them. I see AS a particular Being or person. If I were someone else, I would see a different-flavored visual display, even if the external is the same. We are not cameras.
Thus, until recently, I lived in a kind of fear, that what I was seeing determined who I was, so I better not see things I didn't want to be the kind of person who saw those things. And I opted for the opposite too: I couldn't trust that what I saw wasn't just made up by me, based on who I was. I couldn't trust that I was seeing “things as they are.” Now I am ok that I never can see “things as they are.” It's a huge philsophical issue, and there are terms thrown around like enactivism, deconstruction, etc. Just to point out that your metaphor could jump into deep philosophical waters if it chose !!! :)
But the main point is that inside myself, my identity was unhealthfully and unnecessarily locked in to what I was seeing.
Nah, haven't captured it in words yet. Will work on it. Perhaps someone else will relate to this weird stuff.
Blessings, OM Bastet
Thanks for sharing this…it's really powerful. I think it's important for everyone to read this and I'm so happy I found it (thanks, Meenakshi). It can really help someone makes sense of things and to clarify how we see things and how each lens affects/alters it. Thanks!
Thanks Morningstar for linking this wonderful blog. I've been learning to use different lenses lately – at work in particular. Some lenses sure do bring discontent and unhappiness for me, others are soul satisfying. I appreciate Susan's thoughtful, insightful blog.
Judi
Love it!;) thanks Meenakshi for redirecting here, the love that is you shines so bright, warming and soothing like the rays of the sun.
Susan, wow, I feel we see eye to eye on seeing beyond images, fear, jealosuy, envy, greed…Beautiful to be able to learn to see thru, and beyond…
Cheers to gaia and all it's amazing beings!:)
Thanks Lisa for the link (although I did read this yesterday and thought: wow!) Just saw the link again and decided it was time to officially comment: wow!
Dear Meenakshi, Thank you for so generously sharing this blog entry with so many of your inspiring friends. It is thrilling to have a basic idea enhanced, fluffed up, validated, added to, etc. etc. Like having a Christening to welcome a new baby who gets gifted with thoughtful and beautiful gifts from each new visitor. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to post a response. Warmly, Susan
Catching up on friends blogs after my eye problem, thank you for sharing this beautiful and inspiring blog Susan
OMG ! Susan
You so eloquently defined the many layers of ourselves…through self observation we can accept that all these layers exist…As we peel off the layers that cloud our vision…that shroud of deception that cause us misery …we begin to reveal the truth that lies within us all…We then have the option of choosing which lens we want to see from…
I know in my life I have seen through all those layers at least once or twice.. but none brought me Peace or a feeling of ONEness until I chose to see through the lens of LIGHT and LOVE!
Thank you so much for this challenge!!
Blessing to you Dear Sweet Susan…
Sending all who challenge themselves Mountains of Love…Oceans of Peace…Stars Filled with Endless Possibilities !!! (((Chocolate Kisses)))
If no one objects in the next day or so, I shall donate this blog+comments to Collective Wisdom: The Library of Community Threads (as a link.) It certainly does qualify, and I'd love to share the wisdom provided in the blog and comments, with a wider audience.
Blessings, OM Bastet