An essential element of my practice is the conscious separation of my perception from my concept of reality. Personal perception is deceptive and often unreliable. For example, if you approach a restaurant and see many people on the sidewalk outside, you may perceive the crowd as a line to get into a full restaurant. But, if you test that perception by approaching closer, you may well see beyond the crowd an empty restaurant which hasn't yet opened for business.
Reality, mine and yours, in the daily functional sense is a web of interaction, shared perceptions and activities, based on those perceptions. The better I am at constantly testing my perceptions in situations by looking from different perspectives, by reading, researching and asking questions, the clearer my understanding of what is really happening around me.
In my practice, I am learning that stupidity is based in lack of curiosity. Trusting one's perception to be 'true', without questioning it, is the road to a narrow and unhappy life.
