The recent post about the Shroud of Turin made me reflect on how we see and even interpret reality. The Shroud itself is a test, demanding that our brain decipher what is externally unknown.
This reminded me of a post I read recently about a biological fact: our vision begins "distorted." Biologically, the image projected onto our retina is unregulated and even upside-down. It is only when this chaotic information reaches the brain that it corrects and "reprograms" it, presenting us with a stable and coherent world.
This journey toward understanding led me down other paths. In my studies, I came across a story involving an indigenous tribe, the Aymara. Their language has characteristics that are likely related to the absence of "time technology." For them, the past is in front. They call the past nayra, which literally means "front" or "eyes." The future is behind. They call it qipa.
In the end, we do not see the world as it is, but as we are programmed to see it. The truth, whether scientific, historical, or spiritual, will always require us to look beyond our first impression, recognizing the filters.
The passage that inspires me about this subject is in ( Jeremiah 33:3).
So a person might have lived a happy childhood and became a happy careless person. But another person may have lived in an abusive environment and so he formed a cautious and tough character. Otherwise he wouldn't had been able to cope with that environment. When the first person sees the second person through his own glasses he may see a bad person, because he doesn't know the conditions that that second person has gone through. He can not understand that those conditions have shaped his life. It wasn't that second person's choice. It was the result of his life. So he judges him strictly and according to his own experience. And this is completely wrong.
When we are strict judges of people God takes us through the same path they had gone through. And only then, when we are having the same experiences as them, we can really understand them and be merciful to them. Because we want to be merciful to ourselves really.
We know that Christ took the human nature. I am wondering did God really know how it feels pain before that? I don't think so. When did God really know how it feels? When He felt pain, hunger, tiredness, illness... through Christ. He only then could understand us what we are going through. Again some thoughts of mine, I may be wrong.
Well God is the best psychiatrist. He made us, He knows our nature, He even became one of us. And He knows how to treat each one of us.
Well spoken! Our circumstances and environment in life shapes us and we learn from those experiences we encounter.
I remember being in a discussion with another leader at the Church.
We both was in charge of administrated duties and we both taught Sunday School classes but we disagreed on a certain conduct matter. (mostly me disagreeing on what I believed to be partiality going on in the Church that I spoke up against. )
The other Brother couldn't quite see it as I did.
He sat in front of me at the table and I set a solid partition between us.
I asked him, "can you see what's going on this side of the partition and he said no and I told him I couldn't see what was going on on his side.
We both could see the partition but from different perspectives.
I learned from what I saw on my side and he learned from what he saw on his side.
He would have to come over to my side and view the matter from my perspective and that would be impossible.
We learn things from different vantage points that shapes who we are.
By the way the Pastor addressed most of the issues going on in the Church.
What do you think of the Shroud of Turin? Is it true or fake? Putting on the "glasses" of the Word of God what do you see?
About the other things you wrote, it is true that reality or truth is unique but the way each one of us perceives it differs from a person to a person. The way we perceive our environment has to do with our own individual filters, as you said. Though I would use the word "glasses" instead. We see the world through our own glasses or filters. What we see and how we interprete it has to do with our own experiences from our lives. And this has to do with our character. Our character is a mixture of things we inherit from our ancestors eg cleverness, even passions and certain weaknesses that pass down from generation to generation and the experience in our lives especially during the age that our personality is formed, the young age. Things are vage and unclear when we are little kids and start forming as we grow older. Random things take certain shape. And this differs from person to person.
But as far as whole communities are concerned, I have never thought of it. I would think that people see their environment depending on the conditions of that environment. So eg when a group of people are living in a jungle full of wild animals they have to be conscious all the time. So they use the past to "see" the future, meaning that the experiences from the past help them see and cope with future challenges. Maybe my thoughts are wrong, they are just thoughts.
Your post reminded me of a speech I have heard on the net recently. It was from a priest who had studied psychology as well as theology and so he was combing both in his preaching.
In simple words what he was saying is that we see the others though our own glasses and this is wrong. Because we all have gone through different events in our lives which have shaped our characters (plus the characteristics we all inherit from our parents which also differ from person to person).
The recent post about the Shroud of Turin made me reflect on how we see and even interpret reality. The Shroud itself is a test, demanding that our brain decipher what is externally unknown.
This reminded me of a post I read recently about a biological fact: our vision begins "distorted." Biologically, the image projected onto our retina is unregulated and even upside-down. It is only when this chaotic information reaches the brain that it corrects and "reprograms" it, presenting us with a stable and coherent world.
This journey toward understanding led me down other paths. In my studies, I came across a story involving an indigenous tribe, the Aymara. Their language has characteristics that are likely related to the absence of "time technology." For them, the past is in front. They call the past nayra, which literally means "front" or "eyes." The future is behind. They call it qipa.
In the end, we do not see the world as it is, but as we are programmed to see it. The truth, whether scientific, historical, or spiritual, will always require us to look beyond our first impression, recognizing the filters.
The passage that inspires me about this subject is in ( Jeremiah 33:3).
Have a blessed start to your week, everyone.
So a person might have lived a happy childhood and became a happy careless person. But another person may have lived in an abusive environment and so he formed a cautious and tough character. Otherwise he wouldn't had been able to cope with that environment. When the first person sees the second person through his own glasses he may see a bad person, because he doesn't know the conditions that that second person has gone through. He can not understand that those conditions have shaped his life. It wasn't that second person's choice. It was the result of his life. So he judges him strictly and according to his own experience. And this is completely wrong.
When we are strict judges of people God takes us through the same path they had gone through. And only then, when we are having the same experiences as them, we can really understand them and be merciful to them. Because we want to be merciful to ourselves really.
We know that Christ took the human nature. I am wondering did God really know how it feels pain before that? I don't think so. When did God really know how it feels? When He felt pain, hunger, tiredness, illness... through Christ. He only then could understand us what we are going through. Again some thoughts of mine, I may be wrong.
Well God is the best psychiatrist. He made us, He knows our nature, He even became one of us. And He knows how to treat each one of us.
Blessings.
Well spoken! Our circumstances and environment in life shapes us and we learn from those experiences we encounter.
I remember being in a discussion with another leader at the Church.
We both was in charge of administrated duties and we both taught Sunday School classes but we disagreed on a certain conduct matter. (mostly me disagreeing on what I believed to be partiality going on in the Church that I spoke up against. )
The other Brother couldn't quite see it as I did.
He sat in front of me at the table and I set a solid partition between us.
I asked him, "can you see what's going on this side of the partition and he said no and I told him I couldn't see what was going on on his side.
We both could see the partition but from different perspectives.
I learned from what I saw on my side and he learned from what he saw on his side.
He would have to come over to my side and view the matter from my perspective and that would be impossible.
We learn things from different vantage points that shapes who we are.
By the way the Pastor addressed most of the issues going on in the Church.
Blessings.
What do you think of the Shroud of Turin? Is it true or fake? Putting on the "glasses" of the Word of God what do you see?
About the other things you wrote, it is true that reality or truth is unique but the way each one of us perceives it differs from a person to a person. The way we perceive our environment has to do with our own individual filters, as you said. Though I would use the word "glasses" instead. We see the world through our own glasses or filters. What we see and how we interprete it has to do with our own experiences from our lives. And this has to do with our character. Our character is a mixture of things we inherit from our ancestors eg cleverness, even passions and certain weaknesses that pass down from generation to generation and the experience in our lives especially during the age that our personality is formed, the young age. Things are vage and unclear when we are little kids and start forming as we grow older. Random things take certain shape. And this differs from person to person.
But as far as whole communities are concerned, I have never thought of it. I would think that people see their environment depending on the conditions of that environment. So eg when a group of people are living in a jungle full of wild animals they have to be conscious all the time. So they use the past to "see" the future, meaning that the experiences from the past help them see and cope with future challenges. Maybe my thoughts are wrong, they are just thoughts.
Your post reminded me of a speech I have heard on the net recently. It was from a priest who had studied psychology as well as theology and so he was combing both in his preaching.
In simple words what he was saying is that we see the others though our own glasses and this is wrong. Because we all have gone through different events in our lives which have shaped our characters (plus the characteristics we all inherit from our parents which also differ from person to person).
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