Karen Restivo
In Other Words....
I saw a photo recently of a magnificent bridge and its perfectly mirrored reflection in the water below.
It was an uncanny sight to behold - one image constructed in form, whereas the other reflection only an illusion.
Simply put, the bridge’s form and reflection were identical.
Looking at this experience it made me wonder, is the world around us a reflection of our thoughts and beliefs found within us?
From the science perspective: we can look for answers from neuroscientist Anil Seth.
Seth notes that billions of neurons in the human brain are working together to generate a conscious experience which brings him to the conclusion, “We’re all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it ‘reality.’”
(Note to self: Not finding an answer here.)
Or, we can turn to cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman to ask the question: Do we experience the world as it really is or as we need it to be?
Hoffman answers, “When we simply open our eyes and look about a room, billions of neurons and trillions of synapses are engaged in our minds constructing reality for us.”
(Not feeling any closer to an answer yet.)
From the philosophic perspective: let’s turn to Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) who said, “What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.”
He explains further in the story below:
A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken.
He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled.
And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.
Years passed and the eagle grew very old.
One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky.
It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat on his strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in awe.
“Who’s that?” he asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said the neighbor.
“He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth - we’re chickens.”
So, the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. —
Back to the original question: Is the world around us a reflection of our thoughts and beliefs within us?
The answer is yes.
Referencing the story above, our thoughts and beliefs can be very limiting if we don’t challenge ourselves to look outside the obvious patterns of existence around us.
In other words, the moral of the story is - don’t settle for being a chicken when you were created to be an eagle.
There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them. Anthony de Mello
Karenrestivo57@gmail.com