What exactly is CLEAR SEEING
 

WE have heard the words clear seeing before. Many gurus have used these words to mean seeing something truthfully. But what does that mean because the way it is used it is most mechanical (a feel good word).

Let me illustrate what I mean by clear seeing by taking an example. My grandfather used to go to the horse races, and my mother, presumably in order to protect me when I was young, used to criticize my grandfather calling him a gambler. Later on, I came to realize the truth that he did not go to the horse races to gamble but to socialize because he had few friends. Socializing was the inner meaning of that activity for my grandfather. So, clear seeing involves the understanding of the inner meaning of what you or someone else is doing. This also leads to empathy. Without understanding the inner meaning you approximate the universal meaning on to a person and miss the real significance.

Re Saurab
 

Thank you for that lovely story. So profound. So true.

In a spiritual setting it is called Clairvoyance (clear seeing)
other than that I agree with Redchic


Namaste

I haven't heard that phrase much. But, it doesn't seem like a 'feel good' phrase, necessarily, to me....since seeing
something clearly could have an unpleasant result. No?
It seems like a wise phrase, tho. :)
I wish it was habitual; with practice it could be.
But that wouldn't mean mechanical to me, anyway.
Sorry - I just have a diff take.

I have many filters that I can see through which color my perspective.:cool:
My mind has formed these through my Life's experiences.
Some positive some negative and usually built symbiotically with my ego.

Now if "I" clear these filters by whatever practices I have practiced, what is left???
I would contend that "I" am Unconditional Love that is connected with my Source and my Guides..
So from this perspective I can have "clear seeing".
Just another limited perspective of what I see "clear seeing" to mean.:icon_sunny:

No I must say I haven’t heard that phrase either.

After reading the story I would have framed it as “seeing the big picture” which I tend to do a lot in my life now but didn’t of course when I was younger.

In 2021 I moved from Northern California, U.S. to Southern New Mexico, U.S. While planning my trip a vision came to me. I could see my entire trip, the road to New Mexico was wide open and clear, and I had a strong feeling that this was a move that I was suppose to make.

The experience felt intuitive but there was incredible visual clarity. Like a clairvoyant experience that had a definite impact on me. I don’t know how I trigger these experiences, as they have happened more then once. They just come on especially when I am contemplating something.

A clarity in sight that is not in my mind, like I am viewing something that is right in front of me. I view all of these experiences as scenery on the way to something greater. I don’t get attached to them, although they are extremely pleasant.

On our way back to the source we may encounter all sorts of features which we might think of as abilities we have acquired but I see them as indications of what might come in fuller measure on the path of spiritual development. I do not anticipate or expect to receive so-call psychic abilities, often they just come to me on their own and then they go dormant. Our deeper being has all sorts of fantastic abilities.

There may be any number of interpretations of the phrase "clear seeing" but there won't be any single 'exact' one. Context will influence or determine what it means to any particular individual, group or organization.

Never heard of it before but seeing the truth of something would be beneficial.

utopiandreamchild

Starman you are not alone I to have visions like that.


Namaste

Namaste:hug3:

Re Starman
 

Another lovely story, it must be a good feeling to have them.

I don’t get the visions but I get a sense of knowing deep inside and as I said, a kinda knowing what the big picture is.

Lucky you and Native it must give you a lot of assurance.

Nice illustration. Samyak dhristi are words which mean Perfect Vision. They are used both in Buddhism and in Jainism. They have also been used to mean 'approach' as in perfect approach and perfect understanding. Some other traditions have used the phrase, a 'Moment of Clarity'. I have heard this phrase used in the Christian and recovery movements. What clear seeing means when it is spoken by a Spiritual Teacher or Guru is a moment of grace, a perfect moment, a moment of higher intuition, a revelation, a moment of awakening, an Aha moment of something that seemed misunderstood before becoming clear and perfectly understandable. Or something that had only been understood up until that point in a certain way revealing itself to be understood or seen in a more comprehensive way. :smile:

This song has often reminded me of Clear Seeing and the end of suffering, a beautiful feeling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c

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Redchic12, in my perspective everyone will experience everything eventually because everything is part of our being.

1. The stories only feel good if you have learned a greater insight from them.

2. There is no such thing as luck, although I do know what you meant, and I do consider myself blessed and very fortunate.

3. Visions, in my opinion, are a progressive state of intuitive feelings, keeping in mind that all things are connected and nothing stands alone.

As we continue with our practice a refinement is taking place within us that will allow us to perceive finer and finer vibrations. Those vibrations will appear in many different ways, and we will label them in various ways. Clarity is basically a nakedness in sight; no interpretation or putting into thoughts or words. Just a naked clarity that speaks for itself in silence.

Peace be with you:smile:

Thanks Starman.

Yep it’s not about luck you’re dead right. I get that.

Yes I also agree that visions are a progressive state of intuitive feelings. So can i ask you what did you do/feel/think about in your life that led to these states. I guess I’m interested in how you progress from strong intuition then into visions. I mean is there a process or it just happens thru grace or something like that.

It’s ok if you prefer not to reply cos I understand it is a very personal thing. Just thought ide ask.

seeing is believing
 

Clear seeing, as I understand it, is the ability to perceive (not only "see") that "I am not the body" "I am not my thought" "I am not my emotion" "I am not my ego" etc...

The more this awareness expands the greater or deeper the "seeing".

Ultimately it is not with the physical eyes that we see, nor even the clairvoyant third eye, but with the heart.

The amazing thing is, and the litmus test for this clear seeing, is that once you've experience a new way of experiencing, you can't "unsee" because your consciousness shifts - you're changed forever, and nothing is the same anymore.

Just by way of analogy, we've surely all experienced revisiting some childhood playground or something and there's a moment of shock or clarity when you realise it all looks so small and maybe shabbier than how you experienced it when you were a child. That's because you've grown up and your "seeing" is different now. You're wiser (maybe that's arguable but let's say more mature).

Clear seeing for me is ‘clarity’ - clarity is when everything within me is clear and truth is illuminated as right and true. Illuminated for me, means ‘I’m no longer involved in process’ and clear seeing means I’m seeing beyond process. I would also relate this as ‘awareness aware’ or wise self .. seeing. Your illuminated being is aware of itself in clear seeing. You are aware your not engaged with senses interpreting but rather senses not interpreting.

I don’t believe it’s clairvoyance because one can still be involved without full self realisation.

In fact full self realisation is what allows for clear seeing. You then see things not only as they are, but as you’ve been and are no longer.

Like everything clear seeing is not ‘permanent seeing’ but rather aware everything is an ever changing view..

. . . . etc. blah blah

p.s. The totally enlightened ones see only one divine Self masquerading in all forms and egos. There is nothing that is not Divine.

((sigh)) maybe one day.

Moving observation and spiritually thought provoking. I once revisited a field where we did alot of playing as children and mis spent some of our youth. Wheat was grown in this field which was over 40 acres..when I returned having moved out of the neighbourhood, the field was fallow and alot of weeds were growing there etc. The space has been industrialised now changing it even further. The experience gave rise to a poem and I was fascinated by the transfiguration of the place by 'Time'.

Another experience that your post brought up for me was when I went to do some work experience in a primary school, (elementary school) to see if I would or could go into Primary school teaching. When I stepped into the classroom it was an Alice in Wonderland experience, totally bizarre, odd and strange, tiny little chairs and desks :D :D

At even a deeper level your post has given rise to my thinking about 'Change' and 'Spiritual Change'. Is there a difference between let's say worldly change and soulful awakening. You say that things are changed forever when there is a spiritual awakening and I agree, or at least something like that, forgive me if I am mis-quoting you. But also the idea of change brings up death and even the idea of elimination where as 'Spiritual Change' for me brings up inclusion with no lose, so you can still use the emotions, thoughts and skills of your 'old self' if you so choose to.

This is just my opinion of course. When I had an OBE/NDE experience I was at once something completely different, transfigured but also I was still myself :D , too bad some people might say !!! (joke). So yes, thanks for the inspiration etc. :smile:

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Re Uma
 

Love the glasses picture and words!

I love these memories and the way you shared them and your wise seeing. :icon_sunny:

What do you mean by "worldly change" and by "soulful change"?


Thanks for your kind words and reflections and question.

Change and death are human words, aren't they? When we experience a more timeless space, a breathless space, they lose a lot of power. Isn't death really a transition experience from one state to the next? What happens in a transition? Something is lost, something new is found.

An OBE helps the seeing for sure! Out of body, helps us be more into the soul body experience and see that physical body is "not the real me".

An NDE experience (depends what it entails) can help us see even more. There are lots of NDE stories out there of nonbelievers coming back totally changed in consciousness from their experience, and confident of their purpose in life and what they have left to do.

Lots to explore.

:cool: Goes with your name too!

Many years ago I was driving on a multi-lane urban road in the rain at night. There were sodium street lights reflecting off water and hard surfaces.

In the distance I could see some unlit object on the road. I could not make it out until I was close. It was a horse on the road.

As soon as I knew what it was I could make out its various parts, then able to interpret what were previously disconnected odd gray shapes.

So the mental construct was necessary before I could integrate the bits that I was seeing.

Thus Clear Seeing generally requires my knowing what I am looking at.

If my belief systems are inadequate in scope and definition it is almost impossible for me to see clearly.

I find it useful to reference several beliefs/maps in any particular situation. Having only one theory would make me one-eyed.

I'd call that "intuitive interpretation". It is only as good as you can leave out of the way your beliefs and expectations, and you don't rationalize that interpretation.

A guru, as everybody, can believe he sees clearly, but he may be mistaken.

If your grandfather excessively bet on the races, then he was gambling. If he didn't do that, then he wasn't gambling.

Thank you, :smile:




Not sure what I mean :biggrin: No seriously. I had an experience recently which might help explain. I sat and meditated the other day doing a meditation which I hadn't done in a couple of years. I wasn't looking for hard results let's say but the results were spectacular, I could really feel a current there that wasn't there before. The meditation was on loving kindness for oneself and others. Why was it so different than when I tried it at other times ? However, the difference was really subtle too. So I recon I've had a fair bit of 'Worldly Change' that had taken place, moving house, getting married, writing, parents growing old, lots of things like that, so stuff has shifted. So even though there has been much worldly change, I was still the one who experienced that loving kindness meditation in a more profound and expansive way. It was like a new suit or something, i could tell you where the suit was made by whom etc. etc. etc. (these would be the worldly ingredients) but not quite be able to tell you about what it feels like to wear it. Sorry for poor analogy
So there seems to me to be some kind of difference albeit it subtle, as you call it the 'Seeing of the Heart'. And as you say once you've seen it you've seen it, it won't be undone but also I feel that the 'percolation' of the seeing takes place sometimes unbeknowns to us which makes it a great mystery too something positive

The poet Derek Walcott says in his poem Love after Love,

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

Also TS Elliot's observation,

“We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”

But we also know that we know this place, so the knowing includes our 'old' selves too if that makes sense. We don't disregard our 'old self' and say, oh hi this is me the 2.0 version :biggrin: but the reason I say it, is that many do, the world seems to help people to do that as well.


Yes so death is part of a story, so someone leaves the stage whom we loved, if they leave unexpectedly or abruptly, tragically etc. then our whole world is turned upside down. We wait then with courage, which is extremely painful for alot of humans at first for the following acts of the play to unfold, which they do, this brings meaning again, if we can see through the tears of course. Meaning is restored. We even might conclude that the play has been determined planned in some way which points to 'A God' :biggrin: but maybe I'm taking it a bit too far hahahaha ! Thank you sorry my answer is a bit higglely pigglely and constrained. I feel the limitations of words in a way.

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I have higglety pigglety moments too (aplenty me thinks :D). Love the quotations.


If I understand you correctly by “worldly change” you mean material circumstances (what some of us call the shifting of the karmic stage, and we could quote Shakespeare on that one).

Quote:

'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players' (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7).

Your analogy of the suit ... let me try to rephrase it a bit. You say you tried a meditation technique or intention for the meditation practice (loving kindness meditation) and you had profound and expansive experience which you describe interestingly as a new suit that you could understand in one way but in another way is indescribable. I get that. This is what you mean by soul change?

Just as we play many roles in life, so too we wear many worldly suits but we know these roles are not us. Of course when get caught up in a role, thinking “I am a brother. I am a man or a woman. I am a banker. I am an adult. I am whatever,” then we allow the suit to take our power away. We have become it.

But when we have a soul change experience like you describe we come into a more expansive field of awareness and our ego experiences itself in a new way, like a new suit.

Is this more than or less what you meant?

Thank you. Forgive my spelling and ignorance, I thought it was higglely :biggrin: hahaha my black hen. Moving on swiftly lol.




Yes, definitely that kind of angle, obvious change let's say and ie material change. But I was also thinking of perception and how something like a couple of notes in a melody or colour in a painting can change it's whole meaning. Or those glasses you posted, they kinda seem obvious put when they are on you they are not obvious at all. lol, except for the world seems reddish lol.

So spiritual change or soulful awakening or something like that can be just be a tiny little shift, whereas folks have spoken about huge efforts to climb the spiritual mountain to become enlightened, its probably a male thing too, reach the goal etc. etc.etc. That kind of thing fascinates me or you could say the effort to reach enlightenment has been enormous as in the stories of The Buddha etc. but the change in folks is probably just a little or subtle shift in their awareness.

Also it feels to me that change in the world can be abrupt and it actually doesn't have to be and in a way it can't be, what leads up to spiritual expansion is often abrupt in terms of suffering perhaps or displacement etc. but when a spiritual expansion happens it's not abrupt it's filled with recognition like a garment, a nice garment of clothing you like or a pair of shoes, it feels ok and familiar etc. This is probably what i meant by the suit :D Oh the suit, the suit, the bloody suit hahaha. Sorry, I'm kinda acting there to myself. So yes its difficult to word a spiritual experience where you are at once transcendental but haven't really lost anything as in your body at death etc.

Definitely many roles we can play, brother, sister, worker, banker etc. And some folks are playing them because they are asleep. They are attached to the role as you suggest and spiritual expansion or ....Clear Seeing is not always an option at that moment. Thank you for the conversation ..allows me to absorb and examine some points even if it is in a Higglety Pigglety way :biggrin:

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As the mind gets chaotic, which it naturally tends to do, especially with so much false news from every angle, and false collective understanding of the whole, collective misdirection, contraction, split consciousness and emotions, fear, and limited language, it is necessary to practice seeing and questioning, everything, to get and perceive as clear as still water. The force that shrinks your understanding is always present.
The mind is like an orb of water, if it's disturbed, the water moves and it's hard to see through, the reflections get distorted, creating illusions, that so often are believed as truth, because the mind grips on what it thinks.
When the water is undisrupted, only then you can see through, and the truth clears up.
It is important to remember that you never know what you don't know. Since the universe is infinite, there is always more uncover. So don't catch the newfound knowledge as ultimate truth. It's always a relief, but don't settle. Always seek beyond...


*Side note - Clairvoyance is something else (saw it talked about in the comments) it is the ability to see intangible things with your physical sight. People with that ability are often called Seers, because it usually goes along with seeing through into the truth of the "matter". But those are 2 different practices.

Know Thyself are the words written on the Temple of Delphi thousands of years ago and to know something is to see it. To know one thing is to know all things.