I have new eyes! šļø
Six weeks ago, I underwent bi-lateral cataract surgery and my life changed.
Having new lenses so that I can see more clearly has been such a big thing for me because, for more than a decade, I had no idea that my blurry vision was a result of me not knowing that cataracts were growing in my eyes.
The decline in my sight was so gradual and crept up on me slowly over time to the point where wearing stronger and stronger glasses wasnāt helping and I started avoiding driving at night fearing that my sight would fail me, and I would cause an accident.
It never occurred to me that the reason I couldnāt see very well was because something else was going on. I thought this was what the aging process is about and I thought I had no choice but to limit myself and avoid doing anything that involved me needing to see things at a distance.
My husband suggested I get an eye test, and the optometrist detected that both eyes had these growths. Only then did I realize why it had become increasingly more difficult to recognize people from a distance and why people probably thought I was being rude or unfriendly because I didnāt respond to their greeting.
I wasnāt aware that my sight was slowly declining because it wasā¦. slow.
It was only when I was driving into a housing estate to take my granddaughter to visit a friend and she asked me why I was driving into the wrong entrance did I realize that I couldnāt see the writing on the big sign saying āvisitorsā and āresidentsā and had to drive right up to the sign and still struggled to actually see it, that I realized just how bad my sight was.
Seeing with more clarity now and being able to view things Iāve not been able to see for a very long time is a great analogy for life. Like the slow decline of my sight, without even really noticing it, we donāt ‘see’Ā life as it really is but through the lens of our own blurry ideas of what we believe to be the truth.
We all experience life from our own viewpoint and forget that we all live in separate realities. I donāt always āseeā life the way you see it and you donāt āseeā life the way I see it. We think the way we perceive life is correct and anyone that doesnāt perceive it the way we do, must be wrong.
Your view of the world has been affected by your experience of life and the beliefs and values you have, are unique to you.
Your truth isnāt my truth, and my truth isnāt your truth and neither of us are right and neither of us are wrong. We just see things differently and thatās really the truth. š
This realization reminded me of something Iād heard in the world of spirituality. Iām not talking about religion but about the spiritual essence that is inside every one of us. From a young age, I felt a connection to something bigger and more powerful than me. I heard of the āveilā that can separate us from our spiritual essence and how this veil has to be removed in order to experience an awakening or enlightenment.
Often, it’s only when weāre blind-sided (pun intended) by some event or situation, do we wake up to the fact that maybe our thinking is off and something else might be more true than the truth we believed and clung to for so long.
It took a moment of clarity to realize something was āoffā to wake me up to the fact that my blurry sight was negatively affecting my life, and I knew I had to do something about it. Having my eyes opened surgically, so to speak, also gave me insight into something important, and itās thisā¦
Removing the cataracts is like removing the invisible, but no less obvious āveilā that can keep us stuck as we look through the lens of negativity at all the things we āseeā as wrong, blurring our essence and preventing us from enjoying life.
The reality is that we all look through different lenses and thereās freedom in knowing I donāt have to convince you that my view is right and can accept that whatever you see and perceive, is right for you.
I also donāt have to force myself to perceive the world the way you do and can accept your view, unconditionally. What a relief! š
A core concept in the VedÄnta, a spiritual or ānon-dualā school of Vedic thought, the word MÄyÄ means the way we construct the world through false perception. MÄyÄ is thinking you’re separate from the Divine. Enlightenment is realizing this isn’t true.
Itās the veil that covers our real nature and the real nature of the world around us.
Kabir, the mystic poet from the 14th century, said āLift the veil that obscures the heart, and there you will find what you are looking for.ā
With my new vision, I have a new insight ā āI see through my eyes, not with them.ā š
All my love
Sharon
