Seeing the World More Clearly — Part Three

What might genuinely change in the world if all of us devoted our lives honestly 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 and deluded. Many do not see, and yet insist that their low-resolution image of the world is the most precise 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 soar in a world where all the seagulls seek freedom in catching a larger fish.

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

Perhaps, however, when we are in a difficult situation in life, 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 must 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 limited clarity we know are wrong and should not be done, and still we continually lie to ourselves and do them. We must first stop those things.

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

Aydin Areta