False Perceptions

Have your ever thought about your ability to think falsehoods? Like, I believe a giant green hairy dragon with ten tentacles is outside my door. Of course, most of us would not believe there is or even could be such a thing outside our doors. Yet we can construct anything our imaginations can contrive. And we all do, on a daily basis. All of us are constructing falsehoods every day!

"Not me!" you say. "I am not a liar,"  or "I am a realist." Well let's think it through a little further. What is your perception of your fellow man? Pick someone who really disgusts you or at least mildly annoys you and analyze your perception of this person. Is she a perfectly created child of the universe, beautifully and wonderfully made? Is he made of the same spirit of good that made you? Anyone being honest enough with themselves can admit they have had far from angelic thoughts about what a person is made of when that person annoys or disgusts. And who wouldn't be quick to admit such a person is a devil of some sort?

Maybe at that moment of disgust, she appears to be made of some sort of garbage not suitable for mankind. And now we get to the point. "He appears to be made of some sort of garbage..." Appears to whom? To you of course and anyone else who would agree with you. Is not this appearance simply a false thought, for does it not contradict the truth that one human being is made from the same spirit as another, even if they don't always act that way? You need not accept this philosophy. But you can investigate its validity by applying the following suggestion.

 The suggestion is this: Try a different perception next time you entertain a thought about someone that they are anything less than perfect. Forget about the person for a moment and address only the thought you have about the person. Acknowledge that your opinion at the moment is your perception. Then, treat it as a false perception, like the giant green hairy dragon. Take this treatment more than once. Instead of focusing on the person who annoys, treat the thought about that person as a false perception. False perceptions, of course, are false. They have no substance in reality. Allow the perception to disappear. It will, with practice, disappear.

Then note the results of applying this treatment to yourself. You may find it has some effect, maybe more effect than going over and over in your mind what the annoying person has done or is continuing to do. Perhaps that person changes, or you change. Or maybe, just maybe, the whole darn problem disappears.

Perhaps into the nothingness from which it came!