A French author Anis Nin once said that, “We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.” Human mind is one of the marvelous creations by all-powerful. It is capable of thinking and developing the reasoning ability. Observation is the first step of learning using our five senses out of which the “sense of vision” plays an important role. Exposure of any kind begins with the vision. Allah, the Almighty has mentioned many times in Quran e Pak to see the universe through the eye so that our hearts may become firm in believing. But our eyes only give the basic framework. The whole story gets completed when our mind comprehends it according to its own level of perception.
Perception can simply be defined as, “The way of understanding and interpretation”. This way of understanding and interpretation depends on our Creeds and Ideologies which ultimately are dependent on the social environment and the era of time during which we enter into our conscious age. Every person has unique qualities and levels of perception. There is a famous proverbial phrase, “Is the glass half empty or half full?” which indicates that a particular situation could be a source of misfortune (pessimism) or fortune (optimism). So on each kind of situation, we have 50% opportunity and 50% trouble with it. It’s up to us, what we go for. Catch the opportunity or to drain your energies in worrying about the trouble that we can handle even before coming while taking the preventing measures. Our attitude towards a certain situation, whether optimistic or pessimistic is what we can call, “Quality of perception”.
Level of Perception in the people living in the same social environment and time may differ. It depends on the two main factors, Knowledge and The Third eye. Knowledge plays an important role in raising the level of perception. The description of stars by an ignorant and an educated man will be far dissimilar, though the star seems same to both of them. The difference lies because of knowledge. However, in some cases merely the knowledge cannot increase our level of perception until we have something called, “The Third Eye”. A non believer astronomer studies the universe in detail, but he fails to recognize the God while a saint who doesn’t have worldly knowledge will be able to unmask the divine mysteries kept there to explore. It was the same “Third eye” which let Newton to discover the Gravity after observing the falling apple from its tree.
Just as the human race is diverse in its complexion, language and culture, the human minds are also diverse in the same ways. To succeed in the society we not only need to keep up the quality and level of our perception but also to understand the point of view of others. We need to accept and respect the Differences.
