Journey to becoming better human being – 47

Is what I see not a fact?

 

I had gone to drop Suresh the other day. His father was anxious and asked Suresh, ‘got late?’ On my way back, I was thinking about it and admired his concern and care. Next day when we met, Suresh was apologetic about the behaviour of his father, suggesting that he insulted Suresh in front of me. I was stunned. What appeared to me care and concern appeared to him as an insult. Same words ‘got late’, but so diverse meaning. I decided to take it up in our weekly meeting.

 

“You hear not only with the ear, or see with the eye, but also with your mindset.”

 

Incredible but as I thought more, it made sense. All along I had believed that what we see is what everyone sees. If it is restricted to receiving the picture of what is happening, perhaps that would be true. But the picture has no meaning without getting interpreted and that is where the mindset is involved.

 

I recollected what I had heard about eating. What we eat is treated and transformed in the process of digestion. We notice the process of eating but do not notice the process of digestion. The fact that we do not notice it, does not mean that digestion is not taking place. In fact, eating and digestion are so closely related that we talk only about eating and take digestion for granted.

 

Perhaps similar is the case of what we hear and what we see and for that matter any signals that we receive from all the five senses. What we receive from outside is only the signal, but it is our mindset that gives it a meaning. And what is this mindset?

 

“The mindset is complex processes going on in our mind at the same time.”

 

What we are talking about is the basic actions such as seeing and hearing that we take for granted in daily life. How complex it could be?

 

“The mindset consists of a blend of signals from other senses as well.”

 

When I was in front of a beautiful scene and at that time there was terrible odour, then the whole experience would be registered with both messages at the same time.  This is not restricted to only external sources through five senses but is also affected by signals from within the body. Thus, when I was in front of the same scene and was extremely hungry or running high temperature, that also would get registered simultaneously distorting the visual signal of the scene.

 

“The mindset also consists of memories and imagination.”

 

I was in front of the beautiful scene of sunset on the beach. I saw the waves and that reminded me of the terrible experience of a rough boat ride I had few years ago. A shiver passed through my body. I also thought about what would happen if someone would be swept by the waves. Now the feeling connected with the sad memory or the sad future possibilities also would get registered concurrently, distorting the visual signal of the scene.

 

“The mindset also consists of other mental processes and emotional tone.”

 

When I saw the scene, at the same time in my mind thoughts were going on about the lose I was likely to suffer in some shares purchased by me. It could also happen that for last few weeks I had been feeling a sense of frustration in relations. All this will also affect what I ‘see’. I was amazed at the complexity involved. But soon I learnt that more was yet to come.”

 

“Perception through senses is not passive. It is active and you see what you want to see.”

 

I was baffled. I would think that we see whatever is in front of us. Now what is implied is that there may be anything in front of us, but we would only see what we want to see. How can it be? I was not convinced. I was asked to look around, then close the eyes and think about what did I ‘see’? I did it and recollected that I had seen the participants of the meeting. I was asked if I had seen the colour of the wall or the size of the flask that was lying on the table that also was in front of me. I realised that my ‘seeing’ was selective.

 

“Each one has one’s own mindset and the mindset itself changes from time to time.”

 

That would mean that in front of the same scene, different persons will have different meaning and even the same person would have different meaning at different time. New realisation. But what would be the importance of these insights?

 

“This learning is an important step in the direction of self-knowledge.”

 

Now I understood the active role played by my mindset in interpreting whatever I see or hear and that in turn going into making my mindset. I would look forward to the work of understanding more about my mindset and whether and how I can influence it.

 

In the meantime, I also realised that the way what I ‘see’ is affected by my mindset, what others ‘see’ is also affected by their mindset. What each one of us have is our interpretations which is bound to be different. This is how misunderstandings happen.

 

‘Got late?’ Same words. Me and Suresh had different interpretations according to our mindset. There was no such thing as one was right and the other was wrong.

 

I experienced a gentle flair of bliss, as I felt within me an acceptance of everyone around me as they were, respecting the diverse interpretation that each one of us had. Afterall each one had one’s own mindset and that too changing from time to time. All that seemed to matter was the feel of humanness in each other.

 

Feeling blessed with the richness of human warmth all around and realising the power of mindsets, I moved ahead in my journey to becoming better human being.