We stumble our way through life, essentially blind to the obstacles in our path.
Like bats and cave fish, we navigate our way through a virtual darkness, while approximating our surroundings as we go.
Let me explain...
As you are probably aware, bats use a form of "echolocation", to understand what is ahead of them. In the darkness they project and receive a series of high-pitched sound pulses, which enable them to understand their surroundings. Their senses pick up this echoed information, as what we might understand as dots and linear patterns. These perceived points of impact are then "filled in" by what might be best described as internal or natural programming, built up by instinct and experience. So even though a bat is using sound, they actually perceive their surroundings in three dimensions within their brains, which also enables them to gauge distances.
Like bats we too perceive approximations through our senses.
Our two eyes provide us with perspective and distance recognition, as well as detail of colour (electromagnetic radiation) and shape. And just like bats our natural programming combines our gathered information, to create visual approximations of our world. As a result, when we walk into a room, we usually observe it to be uniform in colour and geometry. However, if we look at the walls carefully, especially in an older house, we will notice that the walls are in fact not exactly uniform in colour and that perhaps there are visible brush strokes and just maybe there are patches of light and dark.
And the geometric walls, which surround us have imperfections to their straightness in the corners. In other words, our brains have produced images of our surroundings that are approximations, and which have been "tidied up" to fit in with our perceptions. These images are in fact a kind of illusion. A kind of "virtual reality".
In addition to this we react to occurrences in our world using our primitive responses.
Our initial reactions to events are usually an emotional response. Our logical, rational understanding comes in later and very often, our emotional response overrides our logical self. To illustrate this point, imagine you just now, notice a spider crawling up your leg. There is no time for reasoned thought. you shake your leg violently or brush the creature off your leg with a flick of the wrist. You react with emotion, you react instinctively.
In addition to this our desires, our dreams and our believed needs, also often completely override our logical understanding of potential consequences. We react emotionally. This is why teenagers often do things without thinking and compulsive shoppers can't stop themselves from impulsive purchases.
So, here's the thing...
We move in a world that we are relatively blind to, and we react to our world primarily using emotion.
So, what can we do with this knowledge?
We need to evolve a better way of "seeing" our world that we live within. In effect we need to develop new internal "software" to apply to the information that our senses are providing.
We need to clean the connections to our senses.
We need to remove the clutter, misinformation and inappropriate interpretations.
If we "think clean", we have freed ourselves of the baggage that is twisting our understandings.
If we "clean our minds", we will become aware of the amazing world we are part of.
If we "clean our minds" we will begin to see the universe as it actually is.
It is through Meditation that we can achieve such a "cleaning" process and activate who we truly are.
Meditation is the pathway to enlightenment.
Why not find out more!
Geoffrey C. Sydney, NSW