To be real we must get over our perceptions that we know things. Knowing, in a way is prejudice, when we think we know something we shut down our awareness and stop being open to the moment.
Who we are changes each moment… we exist as a being not just in a physical form but as an entity in time, the moment by moment perception of reality defines who we are.
As such “who we are” is always in flux if we are always sensitive to the changing circumstances. Whenever I am fixed in my perception of who I am, I forget to take every situation as is comes to me. For example if I perceive myself as a “teacher” then I will act out by trying to educate….. If I perceive myself as being “helpful” then I will act out by thinking I am above a situation.
I often hear people say……”I help people” but this in effect is coming from a place that says…..”I am better than the people that I perceive as needing help”
Or for example “I teach” … In reality, no one teaches anymore than the student’s capacity to learn…and so learning is a higher skill than teaching. In this regard the student only “learns” what he wants to from a given experience, the teacher only shows the student whatever the “teacher” thinks is important coming from the teachers perspective.
When a person thinks they are teaching they are putting what they do above the student who is actually doing the work of “learning”. After all, it is the learning that is important, not the teaching.
Thinking that things “mean something” disrespects the spirit of the moment in that if we are always learning then we must be open to the possibility that maybe “it” means something else…..Every moment has different possibilities. Getting over our perception that somehow we “know“ the meaning of something is a way to finding harmony in a new reality of infinite possibility.
These concepts are a subtle learning we get from Taiji practice. Indeed, it is somewhat arrogant to always be so sure we know what something means. When we are so sure we know something, we show our lack of understanding that “things are not always what they seem”.
I would like to practice this.
I saw a sentence just this morning.
It said, “Distance yourself to gain perspective”.
Seeing from a well rounded interpretation.
Yes, I would say too: “get some distance from yourself to gain perspective”
You sound like you know what your posting about