About perspective

The definition of a miracle is ‘a shift in perception that brings you peace. It is to see something anew in such a way that you achieve a greater sense of well-being and peace. You are in a crowd. A man steps on your foot and it hurts. You become angry at the clumsy person. Suddenly you see that he is blind. What happens to your anger? Your foot still hurts. But you suddenly feel compassion and forgiveness toward the man. The situation is the same and your perception has shifted so as to bring you peace.

One thing that is interesting about this example is the smallness of the shift in perception. It occured in seconds and without any significant movement. As humans, we often desire to see ourselves as unfairly treated. The popular position of ‘victim’ allows us to off load our guilt and shame onto others. I order to do this, we have to maintain a perception of ourselves against others and from that lens we can justify a variety of defensive and offensive positions.

Once we are in this fixed place, logic becomes the slave of fear. Looking through fearful eyes produces a fearful reality. The range of what seems important to you shrinks around you.

If you find yourself isolated in a shrunken world of fearful perceptions, one way to deal with it is to shift your point of view. Below is a link to an infinitely larger smaller range of perceptions. It might be valuable to remind yourself of these broader perspectives when you are certain that the person who just cut you off in traffic is an agent of the devil or at least out to personally ruin your day.
Subject: A sliding scale for the Universe.

 

A powerful view into where we stand in the universe… about half way between next to nothing, and just about everything 🙂 Much love to you all.

“Where the wild things are”

In this 2 part interview Bill Moyers interviews Maurice Sendak on “Where the Wild Things Are” (2004)

It is truly one of the best interviews I’ve ever seen.

http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/sendak.html