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Scotomas

The other day I was going through photos and came upon one of my favorites.  Here it is:

I love the sense of serene purpose in this frame.  It speaks to me of the soul taking flight only after experiencing the quietude of a calm mind and a pure heart.  And yet, when I looked closer at the frame, something was wrong.  There in the middle was a huge spot, a photographic flaw.  It set me to pondering how we humans see our own worlds. 

If we are in survival mode, chances are that we are looking at our lives so quickly that we fail to see the dark spots even if they’re right in front of us.  In psychological terms this “blind-spotted thinking” is called the scotoma paradigm. 

If we begin to examine our minds, we can sometimes catch these blind spots but all that we can do about them is correct them after the fact.  Like the photographer who must repair the spot each time a new photo is taken, we make a blunder, we have to apologize.  When we attempt to control someone else’s behavior, we amend ourselves by pulling back and examining our own behavior instead.  This process makes us a little more civilized and perhaps even happier in our relationships, but it does not prevent us from continuing to create more spots on our character.

So what is there left to do? In the case of the photographer,  the solution was to clean the lens.  For us, this means going inside ourselves to a place where we can honestly examine what creates those scotomas in the first place and then healing them in a way that frees our hearts from the desire to create them again.  

For most of us, this does not happen in a flash of brilliant revelation like the “journey to Damascus.”  Rather it requires pure intentions, honest examinations and trust in a higher power.  When all three align, you will know that you are on the Way.

Only when wisdom, courage, timing and perserverance are combined can one have a sound basis for initiative.  The action must be complete.  It must burn clean; it cannot leave any bad ramifications or lingering traces.  An act that leaves destruction, resentment, or untidiness in its wake is a poor one.  Then initative is insufficient, and Tao has not been attained.

Deng Ming-Dao

Happy Day,