Nothing
is except the way we see it, and the way we see it is a choice that is made from
an accumulation of experience and influence. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the
beholder. How two intelligent people can look at the same exact thing at the
same exact time and see two completely different scenes or realities is not only
amazing, it is the stuff of life.
Where
we sometimes (I say we, but I mean me) go astray on this is in the idea that
another, or all others, should see everything as we see it. Now we really don't
believe that in a general sense, yet we somehow believe it in a specific sense.
That is, if we are looking at an unkept yard for example, many if not most may
see a thing lacking beauty, or something ugly, but not all would see that. Some
may very well see beauty, a natural environment versus a manipulated one, and
more.
Do
you think this has anything to do with, as the Dalai Lama says, appreciating the
goodness and thereby creating the goodness? Also, is it possible to look at an
unkept yard as previously ugly, but now somehow beautiful? Is it possible to see
a kept and unkept as different without one being bad and the other being good
and thereby appreciate them both?
I
believe that it is and that it is the act of looking to appreciate that creates
that to appreciate. One way I have found to achieve this is by relaxing my
tendency to judge. Now certainly, I might prefer one to the other; however, this
does not require that I judge one as good and the other as bad. The word and act
of acceptance is a key ingredient.
There
is a certain learning experience in opening to the idea of appreciation and what
that can mean to us. I am learning more all the time, and I have learned that by
practicing the activity of appreciation and the openness of potential
acceptance of something I may or may not prefer, to be among the most beneficial
endeavors of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment