Friday 29 July 2011

Can we ever really 'see clearly'? (a question, not an answer)


(photo by MontyPython)

A post from the archive by Kaspa:
By way of the grape vine I heard someone asking "Does knowing we're going to write about it take away from really seeing what's there, in the moment?".

I think that's a really interesting question, but it points to a deeper question for me "Can we ever really see what's there?" 

Years ago I used to sit a lot of zazen. Zazen is the meditation of Zen Buddhism, where one just sits. When a thought comes up, you let it go. When another thought come up, you let that go too.  I imagined that if I let everything go I would reach a place of clarity. A place where I could simply be in the world and engage with the world without my own thoughts and prejudices getting in the way.

I think that we probably can wipe the grosser stains of our wind-shields, and see through the glass into the world more clearly. But I'm no longer convinced we can get rid of the glass 

In fact I literally have to look through glass, through a pair of glasses, to see the world clearly. I think this is where the edge is for me. Along with the habits of seeing that I talked about in my last post (Walk in Someone Else's Shoes) we each have a physical body and how we receive the world is mediated by our senses and then interpreted by our brains to give our conscious mind an experience that makes sense.

So we have a uniquely human  experience of each moment, by virtue of our human bodies. And I believe we have a uniquely personal experience of each moment by virtue of our individual histories. Is it possible to let go of those stories, those traumas and celebrations, entirely? 

Today I'm leaning towards answering 'No'. But what we can do is recognise all those parts of ourselves and treat them with more care, and appreciate them as the compost from which our poetry can be fed.

None of this answers the original question of course.  This post is already quite long, so perhaps that first question deserves its own post - either that or you can argue it out in the comments below....

"Does knowing we're going to write about it take away from really seeing what's there, in the moment?"

(Have a look at what people thought last time here and let us know what you think!)

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post. I feel like I just had a conversation with you without having to say a word. I guess that makes me a good listener, which is good practice for me.

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  2. Thanks Charade, for your good listening!

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  3. Tonight, I watched a candle. Intending to capture a small stone, I watched its flame but was looking for words and watching the flame. As I watched the changing shape of the lighted flame at its outer edge (that was outlined against the dark of the room), I thought of words...round, pointed, thin. Maybe thinking of words does not mean we did not also see the flame. I don't know.

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  4. This post is already quite long, so perhaps that first question deserves its own post - either that or you can argue it out in the comments below.
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