Clear-Eyed

Now Clogged Up by Ego

A fresh-view doorway once wide open all clogged up now by ego

“In the seen, see only the seen. In the heard, hear only the heard. In the smelled smell only the smelled. In the tasted taste only the tasted. In the touched feel only the touched.”

Gotama Buddha once said this, and I have a hard time conceiving of better advice.

For all too often (as in near enough always) we see not only the seen, but as the seen enters us, it stirs up rivers of mental overlays and reactions that infest (yes, I find that word very appropriate) what is actually seen with the not-at-all-seen just then, and now what we see is the ego-colored version of what once reached the eye undistorted.

They talk about rose-colored glasses; perhaps we should wear those just to compensate for our built-in ego-scented retinas.

An all too common (and simple) example: John overhears Beth and Dave talk in the lunchroom. John, standing just outside the door, cannot hear precisely what they say, nor can he see their facial expressions, but he does make out the word “John” and he believes he hears a snicker (which could also have been Beth or Dave clearing a throat — and most likely was) but based on this John now not only suspects, but is convinced that they are poking fun at him, at his new tie perhaps (which his wife, who perhaps does not have the greatest taste in ties, had bought him over the weekend), at something like that, and the more he dwells on this, returning to his cubicle, the more convinced he becomes. He (and most likely his wife as well) the butt of office jokes.

Of course, this is not what he heard. It was not what was said. It is the ego-perversion of what the heard, and now John has swallowed this as fact, no less, and this fact now goes on to ruin the rest of his day.

Yes, this is a banal example, one to clearly illustrate the point. For the same principle applies to all things perceived through any of our senses, twenty-four/seven. We just never give it a rest.

Compulsively, obsessively we infest and overlay the seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, with our own private (often hellish) versions of what we imagine the perception to have been — and note, this infestation, this interpretation takes place in the literal blink of an eye, we are seldom at all aware of this: the perception we cognitively receive is already the infested one.

I believe that once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we all saw straight and lived much happier lives. How we ended up here, who knows? But Karma, as they say, is a bitch, and I’m sure we all, to some degree or other, deserve the cards we’ve been dealt.

I am grateful beyond words for Gotama Buddha’s advice, and for the path he blazed, to offer both relief on the way and a prospective riddance of all this damned ego-infestation.

© Wolfstuff