Seeing Things Differently

Looking Without Glasses

By Jennifer Rose & Better Existence | August 22, 2014

Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati has a wonderful public facebook group for his ashram called Abhyasa Ashram Satsang. He recently posted an autobiographical account of his life with Swami Rama called "Witness Everything." 

I just started reading it and I am already finding it inspiring, already recommending it. I love how tender the writing is toward himself and his journey. There is a little story about getting glasses in it. In the story he is prescribed glasses, then another doctor takes them away, but in the interim he contemplates the question, What am I not seeing that others are seeing? Even as a boy he deeply contemplated vision, and how people might see things differently. 

Although the ultimate gist of "seeing" can be pointing at something subtle, reading that is how I got inspired to take off my glasses. I am pretty darn nearsighted and have worn glasses nearly constantly except during sleep since I was in third grade. There is an idea that how things look without glasses is "wrong." But when I tried walking along without my glasses, the word that came to mind to describe my vision was "gentle." When I put my glasses back on, the world seemed almost like it was screaming at my eyes, and I took my glasses off again and enjoyed my vision in its unique and natural state a little bit more. 

There is a theme in my conversations and reflections today about doing things in a way that is new, eschewing the habitual. 

I ate a melon I had never heard of before, a Sprite Melon. The child in me rebelled at the unfamiliar food, like a normal kid, without tasting it. Then we decided it was okay. 

A friend and I discussed how refreshing it is to stretch the eyes up and down and side by side into the usually ignored realms. Identities fall away refreshingly, we agreed. (And because of the revolution I am starting I can't help mentioning that eye stretches are a wonderful exercise that anyone could do for 2 minutes a day. You can contact me for instruction, or read about it in the book Joints and Glands Exercises by Swami Rama.)

Here are some images that caught my naked eye when I took off my glasses. I hope you enjoy them. I had so much. Thanks Swami J.