Vision and Understanding

Vision for the blind

By trade, I am a mathematician.  I can do lots of tricks in math, but only in math.  But there are so many things I just don't know.   Why don't I know?  What prevents me from knowing?  Why can't I answer so many questions?  This has to do with mental capacity, of course.  (See, http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-teach-ant-how-to-read.html)  Still I keep trying.  This is despite the serious models presented to us by scientists and theologians to help me along. Let me explain understanding through the metaphor of sight. We use this metaphor all the time.  "I see it," is the most familiar expression.  Yet the deeper questions are how clearly you may see it, or how deep is your vision.  Vision-type statements involving understanding include.

·         I see what you mean.

·         It is still fuzzy, but I am getting on to it.

·         I saw through it at once.

·         They recognized the facts of the situation.

·         She has great insight about this mystery.

·         He's very clear-sighted.

·         I saw the change in perception of the public views.

·         I'm unclear about what do.

·         You need a clear understanding to see what the problem actually is.

·         Their motives are so obvious as to be transparent.

·         They turned a blind eye to what was happening there.

·         The whole concept was opaque to us all.

·         The scientist sees things differently from the artist.

When I don't understand, I just can't see it.  I try to see, but cannot.  I recently replaced my flooring with wood.  Love it.  Don't know why I persisted with carpet so long.  The wood is sort of glossy, but not mirrored.  You've seen this, I'm sure.   Consider insight or truth as reflected off this floor - like a TV show. So, looking at the truth-TV show reflected off this glossy wood floor, I see something of an image, something of a show. Nothing is clear.  With sound, I perceive more.  Without sound, I rely only on the reflected image.  That's it, a very poor vision of the reality of what is - the show.  It is a poor form of understanding, being only partial and inaccurate.  At understanding has so many degrees, and sight has so many shades, the one parallels the other quite understandably.

The depth of my vision is thus constrained by my very own sight.  I see only glimmers of what is.  While the reality of what is - is there, the blurriness of my vision and the blurriness of what I see prevents a the clear image.  So, this is the real world.  If I work hard, I can somewhat clarify reality, but this takes time and much effort.

This is the plight of us all as we venture along trying to understand what we cannot. But the lack of understanding, or seeing, or insight, or vision, or clarity is troublesome to the mind. It creates internal conflicts and confusion. Ultimately, we simply believe – or forget about it.   Belief is the fall-back option of the human. Without it we would wither and dither away into paralysis.