Not As A Lens Between Me And What I'm Dealing With
Cayetano Creek, Napa Valley, California, USA
February 16, 2024
"I do not put what I think I know from my learning and experience as a
lens between me and what I am dealing with. I keep what I know, so to
speak, above the space between me and what I am dealing with so that
it shines some light on
what I am dealing with rather than being a filter."
Not As A Lens Between Me And What I'm Dealing With
in that order.
Here's a
transformative
question for you that's worth taking time to
consider.
It's "What do you do with what you've gotten to know from all your
learning and experience?". We do something with what we've
gotten to know - that's for sure. That's not an unusual or a
far-fetched idea, in fact it's de rigueur ie
business as usual.
Even the most cursory
reflection
reveals we do something with what we know. But it's more than that
actually: it's that we're thrown to do something with what
we know ie it's that it's our
nature
to do something with it. What is unusual, is asking the
question (being in the inquiry) "What do I do with what I've
gotten to know from all my learning and experience?". And it's being in
this inquiry, that lives outside the realm of
business as usual.
Try this on for size (it's one possible answer): for the most part,
consider
that we use what we've gotten to know from all our learning
and experience. We exploit it. In a word, we apply it - or
(said more
rigorously)
we're thrown to apply it. We know how to
drive a car:
we apply it, so we get around; we know how to
speak English:
we apply it, so we communicate intelligently; we know when to bring an
umbrella: we apply it, so we don't get
wet.
When we apply what we know, it's to have life work better for us. But
look: from all our learning and experience, we also think we know how
to lose weight; we also think we know from all our learning and
experience how to
make more money;
we also think we know from all our learning and experience how to relax
and be less stressed. So even if we apply what we think we know, life
doesn't pledge to work any better for us: we're still overweight,
underpaid, and stressed out.
It's not necessarily a given that applying what we know,
improves the quality and / or the workability of our lives. Using what
we know as a lens through which to appraise what we're dealing with,
doesn't necessarily make life work any better - in fact it doesn't
necessarily make any difference to the way life works at all.
Applying what we've gotten to know and have learned from experience to
get along in life (in a word, to survive in life) may not
be the most advantageous way of using what we've gotten to know from
all our learning and experience. What then may be a more pragmatic
application of that which we know, aside from using it as a lens
through which to look at what we're dealing with ie other than as a
filter between us and what we're dealing with?
I
consider
holding what I know
like a light
(if you will) above the space between me and what I'm dealing with, so
that what I'm dealing with is illuminated by it (literally: I hold it
like a light
in the dark) rather than filtered through it. That's a new option to
consider.
Here's another: filtering what I'm dealing with through what I already
know, keeps me constrained by what I already know (ie surviving)
whereas holding what I already know
as a light
above the space between me and what I'm dealing with,
sheds light newly
on what I'm dealing with. Instead of filtering what I'm dealing with
through what I already know (ie surviving) it allows me to be free,
present,
and unfettered while I deal with what I'm dealing with
in the light of
what I know, yet not filtered through it.
When I put what I think I know from all my learning and experience as a
lens between me and what I'm dealing with (ie as a filter through which
to look at what I'm dealing with), it not only binds me to what I
already know (ie surviving) but it also ensures my certain diminished
presence,
whereas when I keep what I think I know
as a light
above the space between me and what I'm dealing with, it allows me to
be newly / astutely
present
to what I'm dealing with.
Postscript:
The presentation, delivery, and style of
Not As A Lens Between Me And What I'm Dealing With
are all my own work.
The ideas recreated in
Not As A Lens Between Me And What I'm Dealing With
were first originated, distinguished, and articulated by
Werner Erhard
answering Laurence Platt's question "Do you know
everything?" in
Questions For A Friend III
III (Coming Around Again).
