Seeing the Seer

Have you ever met someone that you agreed with on every single aspect of life? Me either. Follow me here. If you and literally no one else have the same perspective on the same world that we’re all looking at, wouldn’t that mean that everyone is off base about the truth of reality to some degree? (This includes you.)

By some important, backdoor logic, the fact that no one shares your view of the world means your view isn’t right, either. The trouble is almost none of us keep this fact in our minds as we move through the world. It is rare that a person would enter a conversation or a negotiation or some sort of conflict presupposing that they are biased with a skewed perspective. We think we are right and that the world we see out of our two eyes is, in fact, the world. 

It’s not. And, knowing what the lens you see the world in does is helpful. 

This, of course, isn’t just a rant or a reminder of this fact. It’s important to know what to do about this and it’s simple: see yourself. You have a filter or a lens of the world. If you can see your filter, you can see more truth and place it into better context. 

Meditation is the simplest act of observing yourself that I know of. Notice the act of observing yourself moves the vantage point from your eyes to a place where you can see your eyes at work. This extra space and awareness can help us remove the dangerous assumption that how we perceive the world is gospel. Once you can see your frame, you can own it. Until then, you might not realize that you, like everyone else, are working on partial truth. This is particularly dangerous if you think it’s the whole truth,