How Will You Perceive This?
Test your perception as you read about “perception”.
It probably irritates some when they hear someone [me] say “It’s all a matter of perception”.
I can understand that. Because it might seem as diminishing the importance or seriousness of certain matters that bring people real pain and suffering. And we will silently, others not so silently, demand others’ respect for certain situations we consider to be tragic.
For me to say “it’s all a matter of perception” is only the surface.
I guess I should begin by admitting just how incredibly hard this is and there are no words that can describe the degree of challenge that comes with this. Because to say, “It’s all a matter of perception” is still another perception.
In any case, when you realize or have accepted that you have control over your perception you’re still going to cry, probably more and harder…because you want to hold on to certain perceptions since they make us believe they offer a legitimate reason for us to continue to be a certain way. They are incredibly useful to our ego, in fact, our ego created many of these perceptions.
See… I’m not saying to deny what’s happening or to suppress or repress your emotions in the face of it. And whatever the case was, whether you could do something about the situation, did it, and it still happened, or you couldn’t do anything about it and again, it still happened — it doesn’t really matter because it’s part of a naturally unfolding thing we call human life. It’s humans, being humans, doing human things…as stupid, obscene, tyrannical, compassionate, bizarre, romantic, comical, or whatever it might be. It’s part of it. Humans, in my opinion, are ultimately incomprehensible.
So, going back to perception.
Perception is like asking the question: Which color do you want to paint it with? Depressing grey? Happy yellow?
Another example is, what background music do you want to use for this event?
When watching a scene in a movie or show, do you ever tamper with the background music they use? Or am I the only weirdo here?
For instance, with a beautiful scene of a couple kissing so passionately and the directors chose a perfectly romantic song to go along with it — to enhance the drama — but then if you play with it in your own mind, replace the song with a sad one and you’ll notice how that exact same scene changes the whole feel to it entirely and it even modifies the thoughts in your head to ones that fit that particular situation, now the thoughts are aligned with other sad thoughts, but if you change it back to a romantic song then most likely the thoughts will slowly shift back to more romantic thoughts and little by little stepping further away from the sad thoughts. This is why music is considered a non-invasive form of therapy because it really can change our mood, and thus our thoughts.
I’ve said that “sometimes you can’t perception your way out of a real tragedy” — I still believe this.
There are tragedies that happen daily, and your heart will break when you witness the horror. You shouldn’t try to deny, suppress, or repress what’s happening, that’s not what it’s about at all. Because heartbreak is the appropriate perception that calls for situations like those. But if you can stand just one, only one, perspective behind it all — which, as I’ve admitted before, takes a whole lot of effort — it’s still going to feel like hell, or like getting bitten by a venomous snake… you’ll cry or scream it out, but you know deep within that it will pass. By standing one place behind and seeing it for what it is: life unfolding, you’ll notice that your suffering will not be unnecessarily prolonged, and it won’t get such a hold of you because you’ll have a deep sense of equanimity. The pain will still throb from time to time, but you’ll have a sensitive understanding of life now and you’ll accept the throbbing instead of resisting it.
Perceptions are just that, perceptions. Filters that have been cut with our biases, beliefs, experiences, values, the list goes on.
These perceptions will elicit certain emotions,the positive sort that we welcome with open arms or the negative sort that we often try to repeal.
Let’s consider suffering. When you’re in it, it’s real. It’s excruciatingly real and one feels stuck in that state until it finally subsides, until next time. Suffering is not a perception, but it does arise from it and there’s no problem with it arising — we can’t abolish it, it’s part of your human life. Everything causes us to suffer. It’s built into our existence. According to the Buddhist four noble truths, we suffer due to our desires, and the ultimate lesson is learning to liberate yourself from this desire trap while continuing to have an open heart, one that can love without anger or resentment.
What about no perception? Standing nowhere? What sort of thoughts or feelings would we have then?
“Oh, certainly not! I’ll stand on my own head if I must!”
I’ll leave it at that for now.
