The Master and the Power of One's Perceptions by A. Paul Miller
It was a lovely spring day and after a light shower during the night the air smelt fresh and clean. It was 10:00, and the Master decided rather than spend any more time in the school’s library that he’d go for a walk out in the forest. As he was opening the heavy oak door to the courtyard, he bumped into a student who had stopped in the doorway and was looking up at something just above the door frame. Fortunately, with his quick reactions, he grabbed the student before she fell to the ground.
“What on earth are you doing standing in the doorway like that? You are almost certain to get knocked back down the steps.” asked the Master.
“Sorry Master.” said the girl “I have walked under this archway hundreds of times and I have only just noticed this inscription above it. In reading it I suddenly stopped and wondered what it meant and was trying to grasp its wider implications. What is meant by that inscription: More powerful than the truth are one's perceptions?”
“Ah,” said the Master smiling “Now that is the big question. I was just going for a walk in the forest, would you like to join me and we can chat about it?”
“Sure,” said the girl.
The Master started, “How many Blacksmiths do you have in the village?”
“I beg your pardon“ said the girl, caught completely off guard. She quickly recovered and answered,”Two.”
“Are you sure?” said the Master “There might be three, in fact I am pretty sure there are three.”
“No, I don’t believe that you are right. There is John, his smithy is next to the butchers and there is Allan whose smithy is next to the mill, at the other end of town. Who else is there?”
“What about Simon?” suggested the Master
“He does not count Master he is only an apprentice and is not fully qualified yet.”
“True, but he has only 3 months of his apprenticeship left before he can open his own smithy, so I consider he is all but a fully qualified blacksmith.”
“Hmm,” said the girl “that is a bit of a grey area then.”
“Yes, but what is true? Do we have two or three blacksmiths in the village?” queried the Master.
“Wait a minute Master, you just asked what is true and not what is the truth. Why the switch?”
“Ah, you noticed that.” said the Master smiling. “Let’s continue walking for a little along this path. I think I see someone coming the other way who might help us settle this point.”
“Isn’t that Julie, Simon’s fiancé coming the other way?” asked the student.
“Julie, a moment if you don’t mind,” asked the Master.
“Yes Master, what is it.”
“Tell me something, do you consider Simon to be a blacksmith?” asked that master.
“Of course.” said Julie.
“But,” blurted out the young student. “He still has 3 more months left on his apprenticeship.”
“I know” said Julie “but it is all but complete and the final few months are just about managing the accounts of a smithy. He has learnt all the required metal and tool skills.”
“Is that all Master?” asked Julie.
“Yes thank you Julie and all the best for your wedding day. I believe it is a few months' time.” said the Master.
“Yes it is, but how do you know?” Julie said smiling
“Just because I spend a lot of time sequestered away in the school, it does not mean that I am not aware of what is happening in the village.” the Master said smiling.
“So,” said the Master, turning to the young student. “I believe he is a blacksmith and so does Julie. Doesn’t that make it correct?”
“Let’s walk Master, the birds singing in the forest are so calming and I want to have a bit of a think about what you said.”
After a few minutes the young student turned to the Master and asked, “If we were to take Simon to the next village right now, would they consider him to be a fully qualified blacksmith?”
“No.” said that Master
“If we were to take him to Weatherington, 40 miles way, would they consider him to be a blacksmith?” the student followed up.
“No.” said that Master
“Wait a minute Master I think I see what’s going on here. If I were to ask all Simon’s friends and relatives in the village, they’d all probably agree with you he is a blacksmith, however if I were to go outside of the village they’d most likely say no. So the fact whether Simon is a blacksmith or not is based on who I speak too and is therefore contextual and also based on their perceptions.”
“Very good.” said the Master, “Continue, you are onto some very important insights here.
“I feel as though I have three concepts entangled here and they are quite slippery to get a grip on.” the student said frowning.
They walked in silence for about 10 minutes when the student suddenly stopped and said, “I think I have it Master, does this make sense?”
She started, “Simon’s friends and family, yourself included, have this perception of him as already a blacksmith, so it is true as far as you and they are concerned. However, it is not the truth because outside this village he would still be considered an apprentice until the next 3 months are over. So information is contextual and perceptual. If the context shifts, then it is possible that the information might remain the same or it might change. Within the context of Simon’s friends and family he is considered a blacksmith, and that is their perceptions of him, but if I shift the context to the surrounding area to include many other villages, then their perceptions would be that he is not. I could go to any village in this country and they would all agree that he is not.”
The student was getting quite breathless now as she rushed to get her train of thoughts out before she lost the thread.
“Therefore within the village, whether Simon is considered a blacksmith or not, is perceptual. It is true for his friends and relatives but it is not the truth because with a much broader context he is not. We could not convince Simon’s friends he is not, so for them their perceptions of him are more important to them than the truth, even though within the broader context of the rest of the country, he is still an apprentice.”
“Excellent, excellent.” said the Master, now beaming. “I summaries that concept by saying that what is true can be found somewhere, in this case with Simon’s friends, but the truth can be found everywhere, in this case everywhere outside the village, and that is he is still an apprentice.
Continuing the Master said, “People will fight tooth and nail to protect their perceptions even to the extent of ignoring anything that might challenge them, even ignoring facts and the truth.”
“But why Master? Why are people like that?”
“Good question” the Master said “People get very confused about what is true and the truth. Since their identity is so wrapped up in their perceptions and what is true for them, they are frightened because they do not know who they would become if they were to question them. It takes a lot of courage and soul searching to challenge and change one's perceptions.”
“I do not want to be deceived by my perceptions, but want to know the truth about myself and the world around me. How would I go about doing that Master?”
“There is a stream over there just off the path, let’s go over to that.” The Master suddenly said veering off to one side.
The two of them stood on the small bank looking into the water.
“What are we doing here?” asked the student.
“Wait” said the Master.
Suddenly a fish swam by and the Master turned to the student, “Okay, if I were to ask that fish if the water was clear or muddy, what would it say?”
“Weeeeell, I guess it would say clear, as the mountain stream is so clean just here but about 30 feet down it’d probably say muddy as there is a little run-off from the light rain we had this morning.”
“Makes sense.” said the Master. “Now if I were to ask it if it was wet, what would it say?”
The student looked stumped she did not know quite what to say to answer that. “I guess it would not know how to answer that, as wetness is all that it has known.” She said after a few moments of reflection.
“Correct. In order for the fish to answer that question we’d have to take it out of the water and then inform it that this is what dry feels like and then put it back in the water and tell it that this is what wet feels like. Now it’d have a point of comparison and could answer the question.”
“Okay”, the girl said, quite unsure of where this was going.
The Master smiled, “In order to assess something, we need to step back out of it and look at it from outside, from a place of objectivity.”
“I know what you are going to say now,” the girl said excitedly, “the place to stand within yourself to look at one's perceptions is during meditation, when we are within the Meditative Feeling.”
“You got.” said that Master, “Now let’s get back on the path and continue our walk.”
"I have one more question if I may?" asked the student. "Do you consider Simon is a blacksmith?"
"No," said the Master smiling "but he will be in three months."