Imagine you are in a supermarket car park quietly minding your own business. Suddenly an old man brusquely asks you to get out of his way and then barges past you. Before you have time to think he is gone, and you’re left fuming at his rudeness and aggressive attitude.
Most people would brand him as a grumpy old man, and some might react angrily. You choose not to. You had the presence of mind to stop and wonder what just happened. You noticed that you were annoyed and then you reflected on the old man. He was well dressed but looked dishevelled, he hadn’t shaved and there was an air of sadness about him. Your annoyance started to dissipate. You saw him walking to his car and you went over. “Are you OK”. The old man looked at you “Yes I’m fine”. He paused “actually I’m not fine my wife died yesterday and I am totally lost, I loved her so much”. He was too proud for a hug, but you squeezed his shoulder and simply stayed with him for a while. Suddenly the rudeness and aggressive behaviour made sense and it was no longer a problem.
By taking time to notice, listen and suspend judgement you realised your perception had completely changed. The old man was rude and aggressive but now you understand what he was dealing with, your annoyance turned to compassion.
If you were able to perceive what was happening at a soul level, then the story could have changed again. His wife may have agreed to leave the Earth Plane so that he could meet another partner who would bring great wisdom into his life. We rarely have this insight, but if we did, then his wife’s death would not be a cause for sadness but a celebration of what new opportunities were to come.
My point here is that our perception of events changes as we expand our awareness and open our minds to the ‘music behind the words’. An interesting observation is that as we gain more awareness, judgement becomes less appropriate. Judging the old man as rude and aggressive clearly makes less sense when you realise that his wife had died. I believe greater awareness inevitably brings more compassion. This mirrors what happens as we raise our vibration both through life and in the spirit world. Spiritual development is really about raising the vibrational signature of your being.
“Spiritual development is really about raising the vibrational signature of your being”.
Another interesting aspect of being human is the different roles the two sides of our brain play in our perception of the world. I refer here to Iain McGilchrist’s book The Master and his Emissary. From his research, the right side of our brain is designed to see the whole united picture. In other words, it understands context. The left side is designed to dissect and explore detail. Focusing on the aggressive actions of the old man is about detail, noticing the full range of his demeanour is context. Iain suggests that we have become fixated with left brain analysis in the west and have lost sight of the balancing importance of right brain context. I agree with him and believe that achieving a balance is what allows us to navigate our way through life with compassion and awareness. Science has its place, but it doesn’t have all the answers.
Let me put this altogether into a short summary. As human beings we have the capacity to appreciate the whole picture or the context of a situation. We also have the ability to dissect and analyse the details of what’s happening before us. Both are important and necessary. The depth of our awareness, whichever side of the brain we are using, depends on our willingness to observe and notice. This in turn is related to the extent of our consciousness or world view. The more developed we are, the more likely we are to both appreciate and perceive the depth of what is being played out.
My final point is that there can be no such thing as ‘The Truth’. There can only be the truth of what each of us observes and senses. I invite you to pause and wonder next time you get caught up in a situation. Instead of reacting, you might choose to be silent for a while and see what you perceive.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay