Verse 25: “Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened; his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”
How we like to think what we see is all there is! We glance at something, we recall a picture of what something is like, we get a faint impression from a comment, or we hear someone’s words. Without conscious input, an image or idea about what’s happening comes to us. We react based on a picture of what we think is true. It may or may not be!
We all have times daily where we act or react based on what we think is real, only to find out later our truth is not the truth. The errant “vision” happens in all our relations—external ones with our spouse, family, friends, job, environment, etc. and internal relations with our thoughts, feelings, desires, sensations, “voices,” etc.
We have to enter into a space of openness and receptivity to what “is” in order to see. We have to see our preconceptions and filters—the “rose-colored glasses” and the harsh tyrant, the sensations from past events, the internalized myths about who we are—for the illusions they are. This insight usually requires more than one look. In this scripture, Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes “once again.” The first time did not completely restore sight. The man needed a second touch. Is this not true of us? Yet, we get
In this scripture, Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes “once again.” The first time did not completely restore sight. The man needed a second touch. Is this not true of us? Yet, we get impatient! We whine that no matter what we do or how hard we try, nothing changes. We quit looking for what we do not yet know. We claim “insight” about ourselves, others, and the current situation, but the insight has become one more idea that blocks us from seeing clearly. Insight is problematic when it’s a head knowing that does not connect us to our embodied experience.
True consciousness is an energetic state we feel in our bodies. Often likened to electricity, true consciousness enlivens, quickens, awakens. It brings a vision—a seeing of what is that sets our mind and body in motion. Otherwise, our seeing is often unconscious, not known to our ego.
Within our psyche/soul is an “image maker” constantly at work. It generates pictures we experience in our inner world as body sensations, emotions, gut knowing. The image-maker cloaks our soul’s energy with the dressings of our life experiences. The experiences often contradict the truth of our soul, yet they prompt our thoughts and actions whether we are aware of them or not. This unconscious seeing can lead us to act in ways that create and sustain life situations—inner and outer—that are unpleasant, hurtful, stagnating, life-destroying.
Seeing clearly with true consciousness is the key to making choices and creating habit patterns (in our thoughts and actions) that let us relate to all there is in pleasurable, nurturing, mobile, life-giving ways. When we seek to know the larger truth of who we are, we open to the touch of the Self/God Within that allows us to see more clearly.
The ego/self always has limited vision. It does not and cannot hold all there is about who we are or who others are. The Self/God Within can and does hold all the fragmented and disconnected pieces of our life’s experience—memories, feelings, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, sensations. Through consciously seeking and connecting to the Self, we invite the touch of God Within that allows our ego/self to grow and expand to integrate all of who we are and what we have experienced.
Inner Reflection
Reflect on the current state of your “vision.” Where are you feeling blurry or confused in making sense of something? Have you had recent experiences of being short-sighted or blind-sided? Where do you find yourself repeating patterns even when you want to do something differently? Ask God Within to help you see more fully and clearly what needs to be seen. Open to what is not yet known that will bring clear vision and all that comes from it.