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Writer's pictureNicholas Clay

Perspective and Perception

For most of us, the photo to the right is easily

Perspective and Perception
Perspective and Perception

seen as a face. For an objective observer, it can be said that in the photo exists only some trees, leaves and a few birds amongst a cloudy sky background. What there is to understand is that our perception equals our reality. What you perceive the picture to be is what it is to you and is as real as anyone else's percptions. Yet also understand that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to see the picture, only an objective and subjective way. A high ego (low awareness) creates a strong subjective perspective of reality, and a lower ego (high awareness) creates a view closer to objective reality, aka what is. It's the difference between seeing the face as reality or an illusion of reality. The closer our mental model of reality is to reality itself, the more at ease and aligned our mind becomes. 


Everything we judge comes from a place of our egoic perspective. Right or wrong, good or bad. These are subjective terms that we use to identify, contrast, and judge the world and others in it. Someone can do good or bad things and not be inherently good or bad as a person. Judging someone as being a bad person is no different from claiming to see the face in the photo as the truth. Gravity is a truth, as it affects all of us without prejudice.


When it comes to morality, not one thing has ever been agreed upon by every single human living on planet Earth at any given time for a given circumstance. Yet the vast majority cling to and fight over "rights" and "wrongs." We fight endlessly over our made-up subjective terms and perspectives. All of this is grounded in an unhealthy ego and a dualistic belief (a belief in separation).

        

The universal truth is that no one's right is any more right than another’s. A perspective is that there is a face in the picture above, and the objective observation is that there is only what is. Even to say there are trees, clouds, leaves and birds are all terms developed in language that humans made up to identify things. This is not about being "right"; it's about understanding and not conflating the distinction between reality and our subjective illusion of reality. Awareness is of no judgment, no right or wrong, only objective observation. This is the power of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is a practice of observing ourselves without judgment and discovering our true selves which pierces through our ego. This is where Non-dualism (oneness) is also discovered if we are to go deep enough.

        

Don't think too hard about what this article means; take it for what it reads, not how you may interpret it. 

                                                 

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