Seeing the World More Clearly — Part Three

What, in truth, might change in the world if all of us honestly devoted our lives to seeing it more clearly? Human beings have lived among us, and still live among us, who have seen life and the world with greater precision. One reason changing the world is difficult is that we do not all see it with the same clarity. A few see and point things out, while many call them mad or deluded. Many do not see, yet insist that their low-resolution image of the world is the most accurate possible, even though they have devoted only a small part of their lives to learning and sometimes have denied themselves even that.

A question from Jonathan Livingston Seagull has remained inscribed in my heart throughout my life: Richard Bach's question, “Why is the most difficult thing in the world to convince a bird that it is free?”—free to fly and to soar in a world in which all the seagulls seek freedom in catching a larger fish.

At the end of our first meeting, the young woman asked me what, apart from making an honest effort to learn, she should do. This time her question contained only a genuine desire to know, and my honest answer was that I did not know.

Perhaps, though, when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, the correct question is not “What should I do?” A better question is: which things am I doing even though in my heart I know I should not be doing them? We should stop doing those things. The limited clarity with which we see the world always makes it difficult for us to know what is right. Yet there are things that, even with our limited clarity, we know are wrong and should not be done, and nevertheless we continually lie to ourselves and keep doing them. We must stop those first.

Every step that does not take us further into darkness is ultimately a step towards leaving darkness.

Aydin Areta
November 2018