Perception Is Realtiy

In a very real sense, our perception creates our reality. However, what we know and understand about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is dwarfed by what is unknown to us. So…

Despite our collective ignorance, so many of us proclaim that we know THE truth and anyone who disagrees is either deluded or ignorant.

This frenetic grasping at certainty, and at a dualistic notion that everything must be either/or, I believe, adds to the general sense of discontent that permeates relationships and our society. It is as discontent that gnaws at us, disturbing our peace.

If we could acknowledge that things may be both/and, that our perception of reality is not the whole story, and that another person’s perspective could be just as real and even just as true as our own, perhaps we could begin to have the conversations that would lead to the kind of understanding that could generate peace.

Wayne Dyer used to say when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. So for our reflection today, I’d like to share a series of quotes below about perception. Perhaps reflecting on the wisdom in them will challenge us to rethink what we believe we know. And then when our minds are open, our hearts will open too so that we can perceive others from their point of view.

If we can do this with discernment but without judgment, perhaps we can begin to recognize what unites us rather than what divides us. We could begin to see with compassionate eyes and encounter others with hearts overflowing merciful love.

Wisdom of the Sages

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace. Dalai Lama

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people’s if we are always criticizing trivial actions, which often are not real defects at all but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives. St. Teresa of Avila

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is – Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.  William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.  Friedrich Nietzsche

The outer world is a reflection of the inner world. Other people’s perception of you is a reflection of them; your response to them is an awareness of you. Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. The Buddha

If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa

Reminder: The explanation of the ritual, suggested prayers, and list of questions for meditation and reflection are in the Novena for Peace Ritual, Questions, & Prayers post.