As we are

‘We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are’

Anais Nin used this statement in her 1961 work ‘Seduction of the Minotaur’. She presented two illustrations of distinctive perceptions in passages that occur shortly before the adage appears in her writing. When Nin wrote the adage she did not take credit for the notion. Instead, she pointed to a talmudic text.

 We see only so much of the world as we have perceptive organs for seeing. We see the world not as it is, but as moulded by the individual peculiarities of our minds. Every man looks through the eyes of his prejudices, of his preconceived notions. Hence, it is difficult to broaden a man so that he will realize truth as other men see it.

 As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As a man sees in his heart, so he sees. Through unclean windows, lenses, senses, we see things not as they are but as we are. Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We are conditioned to see it.

 When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms. We must examine our prejudices and the conditioning that created it. Only then, we will realise that as we are, we are likely to see things in the same light. And that is the reality that deludes us into believing we are objective.

 It is the tragic truth of ‘as we are’

from true objectivity, we stray far!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis