Michael Cameron's Portfolio
The ‘mind’s eye’: that seemingly solid picture we have in our head that describes our outer world. When we think of our mind’s eye we typically think about pictures or images that appear in our mind that represent something. These pictures can represent things that are very simple such as a pencil or they can represent very complex things like emotions and love. In either of these cases one thing is clear: the picture in our head has the ability to represent each of these items as we understand them.
We accept that different people have different view points on just about everything. We become used to attempting to understand another person’s opinions or arguments. We have all tried to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’ with varying levels of success. One needs only to look to politics to see an example of some extraordinarily opposing views. We should also consider examples where opposing views are much more subtle; such as a person’s ideas about what a good haircut looks like.
People often assert that they have the same view points as others. We are much more likely to befriend people who possess similar opinions to us, just as we are likely to dismiss people who have views that do not match ours. We can observe this in many aspects of our day to day lives. People have been forming groups to study, socialize and support a varying number of causes that come in a great variety of underlying ideas that range anywhere from football to surgery. Since these groups have very broad implications on society, as well as direct impact on the individual participating, we need to closely examine the underlying principals behind the belief that our ideas are indeed the same.
Our mind is constantly offering up a plethora of information related to whatever topic is at hand. For example, when you think about ‘water’ you may envision an ocean, a simple glass of water or a memory of swimming. Our mind seems to relate to us all sorts of images that may apply to the given topic. These images may range broadly in relevance to what we are thinking about. Try it right now – think about the word ‘water’ for ten seconds and see what comes to your mind. Slow down, turn your focus inward, and pay careful attention to the ideas that your mind produces. You will quickly realize that there are a great number of ideas to which the word ‘water’ applies. Consider that the transient nature of our thoughts simply does not fit into the concise structure of words.
An important step in enlightenment is to realize that these representations within our mind’s eye are constantly changing and should not be considered as a fixed. For example: do you think the word ‘water’ has the same implications for an Olympic swimmer as it does for a plumber? What about a plumber who then becomes an Olympic swimmer - would the plumber then posses the same interpretation of the word?
Our experiences are the primary influence in the flavoring of a particular word or idea. Two people will both agree that water is water, but as we’ve seen in the previous example each individual’s ideas about water may be very different. This is an invitation to inquire within our own minds as to how this mechanism works. Since our ideas of a simple subject may be different from another person’s idea of the same subject we need to question if our ideas are reflecting what actually exists in reality.
In reality, our experience of water has an infinite number of qualities, appearances and consistencies that our mind attempts to take in. Our mind experiences this vast amount of complex external stimuli, simplifies it quite drastically, and forms a ‘label’ of what water is to us. This is a cardboard cutout – an inaccurate representation of what water actually is. When we think about water we see an overly simplified idea of what our past experiences tell us water is. The actual experience of water is beyond any words that we have to describe it, but our mind insists on forming a label to identify water.
Since our minds inherently try to engage in this behavior we all struggle with a history of ignorance that mentally reinforces this practice. We see the ‘idea’ of water instead of actually seeing the water itself. In other words, since our mind already has a picture of what the water is, we neglect to pay attention to the stimuli we receive when experiencing water directly. Buddha provides some insight here:
” Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. “
- Buddha
The consciousness mistakes its internal abstraction of an object to represent the actual manifestation of the object in reality. This is a false perception. We constantly project our internal representations of objects and ideas over our day to day living, resulting in an inability to directly experience reality. Essentially, our own mind gets in the way. This happens so quickly and so frequently we don’t even realize it is occurring. Our mind tends to label everything we come into contact with: objects, experiences and perceptions. These can range from simple things we encounter in our everyday lives to complicated feelings: a pencil, your car, the person who sits next to you at work, the smell of smoke or the feeling of pain.
It’s amazing that we can effectively communicate to each other given this vast number of differences in our experience and conceptualization of a simple word. It also becomes very easy to see how our miscommunication arises from our inability to express reality as we perceive it.
We live within an amazing quirk of circumstance on a tiny piece of rock in a galaxy so massive it is beyond our ability to imagine. Our lives are full of extraordinary phenomena exhibited by the minutest of details, yet we are dragged away from fully experiencing it by the mind.
The first step is to overcome your ignorance and fully experience reality. Practice experiencing reality by not being restrained by the concepts of your mind. Realize the full extent of the insulation forced upon you by the mind’s eye, and liberate yourself.
The second step is to help others do the same.
