between personal perception and reality, which are not always matching up, because the human lenses are constantly shifting.
“Every person has a different view of another person's image. That's all
perception.” (Steve Alford)
In the light of this concept here is a short story which I recently came across
and find worth sharing it further … some of you might know it, some of you
might not, but regardless, it will make it for a good, short reading. Enjoy!
Story: Changing our vision
There
was a very wealthy man who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted many
physicians and was being treated by several. He did not stop consulting a
galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent
hundreds of injections, but the ache persisted with more vigour than before.
At last,
an elder who was supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called
for the suffering man. The wise man understood his problem and said that for
some time he should concentrate only on green colours and not to let his eyes
fall on any other colours. It was a strange prescription, but he was desperate
and decided to try it.
The
millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green
paint and directed that every object his eyes were likely to fall to be painted
green just as the elder had directed. When the wise man came to visit him after
few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured
it on him since he was in white dress, lest their master see any other colour and
his eye ache would come back.
Hearing
this, the wise man laughed and said "If only you had purchased a pair of
green spectacles, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls
and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large
share of his fortune. You cannot paint the entire world green. Let us change our
vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world,
let us shape ourselves first.”
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at
change.”