21. February 2019 – text & photo original by Diana
We meet each other. We greet each other. Sometimes we talk a lot, sometimes we only change a few words. And I wonder; do we really see, do we really perceive the person in front of us? In a face-to-face conversation with our acquaintances, friends and family, we often avoid looking directly in their eyes.
We only have the impression that we look into their eyes. We look only at their eyes. Would that be because we are embarrassed or we just protect us instinctively? Are the eyes a gate to the soul, as it is said?
The fact is until we look deep in the eye of a person, we can not really say that we have seen it. In the bustle of the day, we barely have time to really “see” even our beloved ones.
We have noticed that in today’s life, the way we usually greet each other, always being sunk into our daily problems and plans, is superficial. It has become an automatism. Many of our actions, words and gestures are done automatically, without being truly aware of what they really mean.
The African people of Zulu has a tradition; Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a spiritual practice through which the participants help each other “to be recognised into existence”, to remember his true identity, to recognise their true value and to participate consciously in the process of life. In this tradition, when two people meet, they say, looking deeply in the eyes of the other: “I am here to be seen!”. The other responds: “I see you!”. A scene reminding of this tradition I saw in the “Avatar” movie, and this inspired me, making me want to experience myself this way of saluting.
“I see you!”
For me, the effect was astounding! “I see you” is not only a greeting, but it is also an invocation! It is a recognition of the fact that the one next to you exists and you perceive this person in its entirety: body, mind, soul, consciousness. It’s a profound experience!
Speaking hundreds of words each other conducts to the awareness of only the physical and mental body of the one next to you. But the gesture of looking deeply into eyes generates a profound, wordless connection at the consciousness level, a very consciously process!
Few are those who look with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Albert Einstein
Maybe you think: “What a stupidity! How not to be conscious of what I’m doing or what I’m saying, I am awake, I am not sleeping! Therefore I should be conscious!”. Well, this can be true! Physically you are not sleeping! But to be conscious means more than just be awake, not sleeping. It means to say and to do things consciously, by being aware, and not automatically, from habit. It is hard to believe, but everything you do as a habit, and as a reaction, not action, is a program that runs in your subconscious mind, and the subconscious governs about 90% of the physical and mental processes of a human being! Of course, these programs can be rewritten, modified, as an old saying says: “Everything you’ve learned, you can unlearn!” You have only to want it!
Further, you can do a little experiment! Whatever your habit is, you can choose to replace it for once or several times with something else, very different, maybe even by doing something entirely new. You will notice in a while that this habit, without which you thought you could not live, will lose its importance and you will gain your freedom. You will not be the slave of your habit anymore. You only need a little willingness and insistence!
Coming back to our theme, I suggest you try this too: when a loving person appears next to you, someone who counts for you, take her / his face between your hands, look deep in their eyes and say from the heart: “I see you!”. I’m sure you’ll have a moment of fullness!
The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe