Wonderful article. Clear and succinct.
I admit that the title "Spiritual Depth Perception" put me off at first -- I expected the article to be esoteric and a bit new-agey. But I'm glad I read it.
The main point of the article, I feel, is a cornerstone of personal development. It's a very simple concept. Nothing hard to grasp. But if your views are limited, and you identify yourself with one lens, it's very difficult to understand how a multi-lens viewpoint is useful, or is even possible.
Many of these lenses contradict each other. How can you be an atheist and spiritual at the same time? Christian and Buddhist?
While I currently identify most strongly with the atheist, object reality lens, lately I've been adopting other viewpoints. I've had a hard time explaining to people how I'm simaltaneously athesit and buddhist. How I percieve reality objectively and subjectively. "Yes, I'm aware that I'm holding contradictory ideas in my head. But they fit comfortably there... I just can't explain how..."
Steve, your metaphor (spiritual viewpoints as sensory functions--sight, smell, etc.) and your inclusion of a few down-to-earth examples (how you are able to simaltaneously hold a vegan and non-vegan perspective) made the idea of holding contradictory viewpoints seem simple and intuitive.
Lastly, I'd like the point out that the second to last paragraph ("We all have a tendency to fear and resist the unknown, so the notion of giving your beliefs so much flexibility may give you pause...") has an incredible amount of truth to it. A whole book could written about it.  |