Perception

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.

Reality

This is the age of the virtual everything. I believe most people are living in their minds to the movie themes of their iPods.

There are 16 rain-saturated inches of new snow outside my house. I do not own a snow blower. I shovel. Lifting scores of shovelfuls of wet snow is real. Walking to the train or the market, which are only one mile away, in the cold and the muck to avoid using my buried car is real. Being wet to the skin with rain and exertion is real.

I focus and cherish these realities and their accompanying difficulties as part of my practice. It is the practice of being human, a small, mortal animal on a large planet in a larger Universe, subject to its actual elements and their effects.

Perception

I know I struggle with my self perception daily as I grow older. Gravity is changing me. My DNA is winding me down. Perception is very tricky. Philosophers have struggled with the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity for centuries. I have been snapping photos lately on my daily walks. This shot has jarred my perception, even though I took it and know exactly what the subject looked like in my eyes as I was taking the photo. I am learning in my practice to try to give qualified attention and validity to my perceptions. I must perceive, assess, judge and act. I am human. But I am learning to always accept that my perception may be skewed or flawed. By testing my perceptions with the perceptions of those I trust, I often learn a great deal about myself. Life, lived fully, is a joint venture.