“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others,” says Jonathan swift. Pebbles lay on the ground contain a huge building, a small mustard seed contains a big tree, an egg contains a beautiful chick, a drop of water contains a gigantic ocean and, in a child, sleeps a scientist, a great visionary, a business man, farmer, carpenter, and so on. My right vision about me gives the fulfilment of God’s vision about me. “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love,” Meister Eckhart.
Holy Bible enhances on vision “The eye is the lamp of the body.” This verse describes the eye as a lamp which lights the entire body. The eye, physically, is the lamp of the body. If you look around you, you see light. The light is being conveyed into your whole person, into your body. If you close your eyes, what happens? Everything seems to be dark. You are in darkness. If you open your eyes, everything is bright. You close your eyes, and you are in the dark again. If we are in a lighted room, we see everything clearly. We can move around obstacles and locate whatever we’re looking for. But walking in darkness results in stumbling and falling. It is clear that the physical eyes can see sharply only if the vision is focused. If they are not focused, we have a blurred vision. It is all about the external vision. Let us see how external vision is connected to internal vision.
Our eyes are the entrance to our hearts and minds and, as such, they provide a doorway to our very souls.” If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light”. Eyes that not only see well, but also perceive well. It is not only what we see, but how we perceive that, that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Our vision decides whether what we see is bright or dark. I am reminded of one story which I read somewhere.
A young couple moves into their new residence. Their living room was graced with broad glass window panes. As they sat for lunch, the wife remarked, “Look at the opposite building, our neighbours have hung their cloths to dry. See how dirty they are. They don’t seem to know how to wash their cloths.” Every time their neighbours spread their linen to dry the wife used to pass similar disparaging comments. One day with surprise the wife said “Look at last they seem to have learned how to wash their linen. How clean and bright it looks today!” The husband with a mischievous smile remarked, “Yes, darling, you know this morning I cleaned our glass window panes.”
Negative attitude leads to bad perception, but if our eyes are good, our whole person will be illuminated. If we perceive goodness, that will radiate outward from within our hearts and minds. But if we allow our eyes to linger on evil, we are so affected by what we see that darkness actually begins to radiate from within and can corrupt us and those around us.
To have clear vision, first we need to clean the glasses of our mind, and focus on positive thinking a good judgment demands an unbiased and objective examination. If our mind is blind there is no point in having good eyesight. The problem of double vision occurs when our two eyes do not look in the same direction. One eye is looking at an object and the other eye is looking at something else. Our pre-conceived biased ideas and prejudices cloud our mind to see the good in others and appreciate them.
Our thought and vision are interconnected. Actually, what we see connected to our thought, or thought form our vision. So, to clear the vision we need to clear our thought. To refine our thought what we could do? I feel our thought pattern is developed by childhood experiences, family atmosphere and friend circle so on. To clear our vision all these factors can be refined through conscious and continuous effort. Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do. Don’t let others limit your vision. If you can remove your self-doubt and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you never thought possible. If we could see the world through the eyes of children we would see the magic in everything… I just love this and it’s so true! Just sit back for a bit and watch a child’s play, dream, creativity and imagination… It is so important that parents nurture this aspect of childhood… As life goes on the world around can tend to shut us down and close off this wonderful way of being. So, allow your children to be children, support their dreams and believe in them, in turn they will believe in themselves and will develop good vision.
Here comes the role of education. Education gives us knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something better. Education widens our vision and gives platform to act out courageously against evils. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have great view on life. It opens up new horizons, which eradicate the darkness and enlighten the mind, heart and body. Here the paradigm shift takes place. Education-a knowledge around the world to a self-knowledge. Education forms you to know yourself and then you will come to know what is the hidden treasure in you. “AHAM BRAHMASMITI”-A perception into within. Your eyes are the true light of your body and this body is the temple of God (Holy Bible). Let us be a student every day and have a clear and true vision about us.
Different vision on a Fly in a Coffee cup…
What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup?
The Italian – throws the cup and walks away in a fit of rage.
The Frenchman – takes out the fly, and drinks the coffee.
The Chinese – eats the fly and throws away the coffee.
The Israeli – sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, buys himself a new cup of coffee and uses the extra money to invent a Device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.
The Palestinian – blames the Israeli for the fly falling into his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN, takes a loan from the European Union for a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then blows up the coffee house where the Italian, the Frenchman, and the Chinese, are trying to explain to the Israeli why he should give away his cup of coffee to the Palestinian – Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart.