Perceptions
and Judgments
“Whatever
we perceive in the world around us reflects who we are and what we
care about most deeply, as in the old saying, 'When a thief sees a
saint, all he sees are his pockets.'”
Robert
Frager
I
know I've written about this topic many times. I keep circling back
to it because I believe it is one of the most important spiritual
lessons. If one can truly get this, and understand that our
perceptions are always colored by our personal experience and are not
ultimate truth, one has won half the battle. The way we perceive the
world has more to do with us than it does with objective reality.
Take,
for instance, this scenario: Two summers ago, a friend of mine
discovered mice in the attic of the house where he lived. He called
his landlord and demanded that something be done about the mice. The
landlord came over, put mothballs in the attic and went away. Then
the friend could not tolerate the smell of the mothballs. He ended up
moving out of the house rather than waiting for the mothballs to lose
their aroma. Recently, my friend, who now lives in another house,
heard mice in the attic. He called his new landlord and demanded that
the house be de-moused. The landlord sent over an exterminator who
said the job would cost quite a bit since there was evidence of mice
in both the attic and the crawl space under the house. My friend
immediately began making plans to move out of the house, assuming
(but not knowing) that the landlord would not pay for the costly
extermination. In his world view, mice are disease-bearing threats.
Now,
here is my take on this: Two-thirds of the world live with mice. I,
myself, have lived with mice. So you put out traps, you plug up the
holes where they get in and you continue to do this until you do not
have mice any more. I have never moved out of a house because I heard
a mouse in the attic. I, too, have put out mothballs to drive mice
away—they stink and they don't usually work. I have never moved out
of a house because of mothballs. In my world view, it is more trouble
and expense than it is worth to move every time you get a mouse in
your house.
Two
identical experiences, two very different responses, both based on
prior experience. I see mice as a nuisance; he sees mice as a threat.
Neither of us likes mice, but our responses to them are different. So
it is with all things. We see (or perceive), we judge according to
our past experience. We calibrate our response based on our judgment,
and not on what we have seen. Someone else can see exactly the same
thing and, based on their past experience, respond differently. No
one is right, no one is wrong—just different. Instead of looking at
our friend's response and judging it, we would be better served to
look at our personal perceptions and question their basis. Therein
lies a most important spiritual lesson.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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