Mark 8: 22-33, Seeing Clearly

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, we hear the words someone utters. 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. Our preconceptions and filters--the “rose colored glasses” and the harsh tyrant, the sensations from past events, the internalized myths about who we are--have to be seen for the illusions they are. This usually requires more than one look.

In today’s scripture, Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes “once again”. The first time did not restore sight completely. The man needed a second touch. Is this not true of us? Yet, we get inpatient! We whine that no matter what we do or how hard we try, nothing changes. We quit looking to see what we do not yet know. We claim “insight” about ourselves, others, and the situation at hand; the insight has become one more idea that blocks us from seeing clearly. Insight is problematic when it is a head knowing that does not connect us to our embodied experience.

True consciousness is an energetic state that we feel in our bodies. It is often likened to electricity. It enlivens, it quickens, it awakens. It brings a vision--a seeing of what is that sets our mind and body in motion. Our seeing is often unconscious--not known to our ego. We act in ways that create and sustain situations in our lives---inner and outer--that are unpleasant, hurtful, stagnating, life destroying or that are pleasurable, nurturing, mobile, life giving. Our seeing clearly is the key to making choices and creating habit patterns (in our thoughts and actions) that allow us to relate to all there is in life giving ways.

Within our psyche/soul, there is an “image maker” that is constantly at work. It generates pictures that we experience in our inner world as body sensations, emotions, gut knowings. 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.

When we seek to know the larger truth of who we are, we open to the touch of the DivineWithin/the Self 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 the Inner Divine Spirit that allows are ego/self to grow and expand to integrate all of who we are and what we have experienced.

Reflect on the current state of your “vision”. Where are you feeling blurry or confused in making sense of something? Have there been 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 the Inner Divine Spirit 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.