Distorting Lens

The Dangers of Self-Vision

The self is a lens distorting what we see

I guess the colloquial saying is: you see what you want to see, and disregard the rest.

Actually, I might be quoting Paul Simon there, who, from what I am led to understand is probably quoting someone else, although he will by now have copyrighted it as his own.

For, according to the great Martin Carthy, this did in fact take place, and does not shower Mr. Simon in much favorable light.

As you may (or may not) know, Paul Simon launched his career as a singer-songwriter in England, making a bit of a name for himself over there before Simon and Garfunkel erupted here on our shores.

At one point, while still in England, Simon attended a Martin Carthy gig where Carthy among other things played the traditional song Scarborough Fair. Simon loved the song and, after the performance, asked Carthy to teach him how to play it. Carthy, being the nice guy he is, consented and taught Paul Simon this rather well-known traditional English tune.

The following day, according to Carthy, Paul Simon (now back in London) copyrighted this song in his own name — and he is still listed as the writer when you Google it. Carthy was not very impressed by this a little bit too American behaviour, you could tell by his retelling.

However, Google also tells you that Scarborough Fair is an English folk song about a market fair that took place in the town of Scarborough in Yorkshire during medieval times. So there.

Back to the distorting lens.

There are two amazing Sanskrit concepts: Nirvikalpa and Savikalpa.

Nirvikalpa means “without thought”, and Savikalpa means “with thought”. These definitions primarily concern perceptions. Seeing Nirvikalpa means seeing precisely what is there, without either conscious or unconscious elaboration or projection about what is seen. Seeing Savikalpa means seeing an edited version of what is seen which, according to Buddhist conjecture, is the normal mode of perception.

As a rule, our minds intervene between what the eye takes in and what eventually arrives as something seen in our awareness. The microsecond or two it takes thought to dress up (or down) they eye-input are not noticed.

Savikalpa means that if we are afraid of dogs, seeing a German shepherd (could be the kindest most human-loving dog in the world) means seeing something dangerous, not just a kind, four-legged animal.

We have all had some sort of experience or other with just about anything we’ll run into during the day and this history keeps very busy interpreting what we perceive. Very rarely do we see what is actually there and only what is there, i.e., Nirvikalpa.

Another Savikalpa phenomenon is that we normally interpret what we perceive in terms of survival value: will this help us or not, will this be to our advantage or disadvantage? The image usually arrived in consciousness with this subtext included — the value ranked.

And, sometimes, of course, we dress what we see up as particularly lovely when it is not necessarily so, for the simple reason that we like it to be. Friends (especially boy and girl dittos) usually slant in this direction.

Sexual attraction is especially guilty of this beautifying sleight-of-hand, and very skilled at it, to boot.

One of the brilliant side benefits from diluting and eventually losing (letting go) the ego (perception distorter par excellence) altogether through meditation is that we’ll also start to see the world as it truly is.

Scary thought.

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© Wolfstuff