Walking the Wall

Taken by me, Pigeon Forge, TN

As
a blind man I think I see a lot better than when I was sighted. Because
I don’t really think we see with our eyes; I think we live in darkness
when we don’t look at what’s real about ourselves, or others, or about
life. I think no operation can do that, and when you see what’s real
about yourself, you’ve seen a lot–and you don’t need eyes for that.
       –a quote from the movie At First Sight

A man spent nearly all of his life, 51 years, in the dark,
“seeing” with other senses than his eyes. Then he regained his sight
and had to deal with his eyes seeing colors and shapes but having no
idea what he was seeing–no memory map to tell his brain what he saw.
After struggling to make sense of it all, he ended up loosing his sight
again. He came to understand that there was a vast difference between
seeing and seeing;
and a different kind of darkness than just the absence of light. This
reminds me of something that Joseph Campbell said in one of his many
interviews with Bill Moyers as documented in the book The Power of
Myth, he is paraphrasing a verse in Sanskrit which also appears in the
Tao-te Ching:

He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows that he
doesn’t know, knows. For in this context, to know is not to know. And
not to know is to know (65).

He who thinks he sees, is blind. He who sees even though he cannot see, sees. To see is not to see. And to not see, is to see.
I needed this reminder as I had gotten so caught up in seeing with
physical eyes and doing doing doing so much that I have lost sight of
what is real, what is important to pull out of the darkness–to
understand the value of being still, silent, in darkness.