"What you see is what you get!"

Reality

“As above, so below; as within, so without.”

                              Hermes, Isaac Newton and others

This quote gets close to a million source hits on the web, and is attributed to everyone from an ancient Greek God to current day American Indians. It is translated in a multitude of ways. One respondent to the question of what it means quoted the “law of attraction”, saying essentially you are what you think and that you create your life by your thoughts.

I first heard the phrase in the early nineties, from a Lakota teacher at a retreat in the desert. To me it means that what you see out in the world is a reflection of what resides within you. In other words, our particular perception colors our world with the palette of our own experience. We interpret what we see through the prism of our limited understanding. That is why two people, side by side, can see one event and perceive it differently.

Perception is everything. Actually is the sole thing we can do, since we have only our own well to draw from. The one caution is that we be aware that our reality is inevitably different from that of anyone else. The fact that I see something one way, and you see it another way, does not make me right and you wrong or vice versa.

This is a good thing to remember during political seasons. For instance, a friend of mine is a Libertarian—extreme right wing party that believes government has only two legitimate functions—military and infrastructure—and should stay out of everything else. I am more of a centrist—government has a role to play in the greater good of society and at equalizing the inequities inherent in modern culture. He and I have radically different views of governance, and truly, cannot talk about politics without a fight. So we agree to disagree—and we have very limited contact during the political season.

Our perceptions are based on our particular experiences, and they are only “reality” in our own minds. Understanding this makes the world out there both interesting and completely mystifying. How else would we want it to be?

                                           In the spirit,

                                           Jane