Perspective is unique to the one experiencing it. “It’s all relative.” This popular statement means the same thing. Every experience or thing exists in relation to something else. This is very important to understand because it is the source of all human conflict. Each human being experiences their own reality. This is the reason we struggle to understand one another. This concept of a separate or unique reality is a little difficult to apprehend given our indoctrination, but maintain an open mind for the duration of this post and it may become more clear.
The dogma that science adheres to is that reality is an objective thing that can be measured and observed and the entire universe resides inside that reality. Through my own experience, I can assuredly state this is not the case. However, it is what ninety-nine percent of humans buy into. Do not make the mistake of assuming that the majority is infallible. The majority is also just a collective perspective. The universe is set up in such a way that we think we are separate from everything else and vice versa. It is the atlas of the grand design for us to believe this. Only when we transcend this belief of separateness does this become clear. That is beyond the scope of this post though and it will be discussed in future posts as it is a more advanced topic. Instead, this post will dissect perspective to show how it shapes our reality and our relationship to one another.
This may seem trivial and obvious, but it is hugely important to acknowledge and understand the concept of relativity. We only know darkness because of light. Something is only soft in relation to something hard. Silence can only exist relative to sound. Something only arises in the presence of another. A thing can only exist if you give it attributes or qualities. Those labels that you ascribe to said thing are in relation to another thing. In describing a tree we may say that it has a slender, brown, rough texture on one end and a robust, green, waxy and smooth texture on the other end. The adjectives used to describe the tree separate it and make it distinct from the wide, boxy, straight-lined, grey house next to it. Thus the tree emerges in our conscious mind and we give it the label of “tree.” This is how we create all of reality. We divide it then label those divisions so as to maintain a separate egoic self. Science is very good at doing this. In fact it is the entire premise of science. It is the nature of the egoic mind to separate, quantify, label, define, etc. Notice on a daily basis how often you find yourself pointing out distinctions between things and people. Its so habitual that we aren’t even aware we are doing it.
One thing to consider is that when we define something we put limitations on it. A frog can only be a frog based on the qualities that we believe it to possess. Therefore, anything not having the properties of a frog by definition, cannot be a frog. It must be something else. And so it goes on and on to infinity. When we encounter someone, the mind immediately projects onto them labels and categories so as to be able to make distinctions between self and other. The egoic mind must make these distinctions in order to maintain the sense of self. So when we define those we meet, we are in a sense denying them to be other than these definitions. For example: we meet a well groomed man wearing a suit who happens to be driving a Mercedes Benz. Our mind has preconceived notions about people who present this way. Before we know anything about this man we have already put him in categories and given him qualities. Our interaction with him will be jaded and the potential to experience him as he truly is will be gone. This is the game reality is playing with itself. Not only are we the perpetrators, but we are participants. Some would say we are victims because there is something much larger than ourselves at play here. Victim is a label the ego likes to use. One who recognizes the game takes responsibility for it and the concept of victim no longer exists.
Since humans have the gift of self-awareness as well as the ability to form complex communication we find ourselves in a sea of vastly different perspectives. In speaking to one another, we find that other people don’t experience reality the way we do. Everyone has a unique perspective and opinions abound. This is the origin of all human conflict. We absolutely cannot understand why we disagree. The reason is that there is no objective version of reality. Do you honestly think that Mozart’s reality was the same as yours? Do you think Taylor Swift experiences reality the same way you do? Is your version of reality the same as Hitler’s? These examples may be extreme, but they more clearly illustrate the point. Every human system interprets sensory input differently. No two people identify with the same thoughts or feelings. The mind conceives of different concepts when interpreting experiences. Everyone’s perspective has been and continues to be shaped by their experiences. This is so fundamental, but almost no one considers it. No two experiences are the same, and each human being is the sum of their experiences. Since everyone’s perspective is unique there must be as many versions of reality as there are perspectives. Reality is ever evolving infinite perspectives overlapping which collaborate and co-create.
In reality, there is no such thing as moral objectivity. The idea of right and wrong doesn’t inherently exist. These are ideas that we have created and projected onto reality. As a collective society we decide how we want to live by creating laws and social norms. In nature it isn’t bad to commit murder; we as a collective have assigned that value to murder. Again, this is very important to comprehend. We move through each day labeling things as right and wrong, good and bad, pretty and ugly, etc. These are all arbitrary values we project onto our experiences. By doing so we paint ourselves into a corner and create our own suffering.
When we incessantly label and define everything around us we are experiencing our own projections. Mooji said, “You are perceiving what you are conceiving.” Not only do we deny ourselves the perfection that is happening all around us at every moment, but we also limit our experience. This life can be so much more than the mind can imagine if only we’d be open to the possibility. Concerning our interactions with others, if we can be mindful that everyone’s perspective is unique and that placing values and judgements on our experiences only limits them, we’d find ourselves living a joyous and harmonious life.