“It is proverbial,” writes Albert Adler, “that we actually fashion our own experiences; everyone determines how and what they will experience.” It is a hard thing to remember, especially in the momentary encounters of our daily lives, that we are actively creating the world of our experience. We are constructing, moment by moment, what we perceive to be true.
We have lived for quite some time under the scientific illusion that there is a world that is real going on all around us, and that what I see and know at any given moment is the truth about this reality.
There are two art forms that seem to address this human dynamic with interesting contrast: impressionism and realism. Interestingly, each became a notable movement in the art world during the same century. Gustave Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans is, perhaps, the most famous of the 19th Century realist movement. As an art form, realism attempts to capture ordinary life events in the manner of their “realistic” occurring. There’s little attempt to “tell a story,” as it were, beyond capturing a still-frame of the event itself and letting this “still” be the story. On the flip side of this is the more widely known, Claude Monet. As the name suggests, impressionism attempts to capture an impression, one might say feeling, of a scene. Impressionism communicates an experience, especially with nature, that always exceeds our attempts to reproduce the exact details of a setting or event.
In truth, these art forms are best understood along a spectrum of human perception, though I would suggest that impressionism is the more honest approach. I say more honest simply because there is an apparent awareness that the intricate details of a scene can mislead us into believing that we fully understand what is taking place.
We live our lives by the impressions we create with our environments. Another way of saying this is that we are in constant dialogue with the world around us. The daily challenge for us is living in the awareness that I never see or experience another person or event “in-itself.” Rather, who or what I see and experience is always mingled with my own disposition and conditions of perception.
When I live as one consciously aware of my own impressions and perceived real-ity, I can notice that what I see, perceive, or believe in the moment of my experience of another person or event is limited to what I can see or know in that tiny sliver of experience that is passing away even as I experience it. If I step back from the world of my own impressions—the reality I am pressing onto a person or event, I can simply notice, without judgment or conditions, even if briefly, who the person desires to be or how an event may be perceived by others. I need not constrict or constrain the person or event to my own limited perceptions or expectations.
When my approach is conditioned by an open heart, unconditioned by preset expectations, I open myself to create a new experience with the other person or in light of the newly experienced event. I can move without fear, knowing that I do not and cannot see everything there is to see. Compassion hereby becomes my disposition, as the flow of Love begins to craft the impressions I create, which is when reality is seen with the requisite humility that transcends categories of judgment, both my own and that of others. This is where true freedom resides. This is when we begin to live into reality the infinite possibilities of Love, as we create something new together.
What is the experience of life you desire to create? What perceptions or expectations do you need to let go in order to create this reality with others and the environment where you live and move?
“May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears.”
~Nelson Mandela
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