Perception is a mirror and a wall full of shadows

Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.
-ACIM-W-304:1:3-4

Do you believe that above quote from A course in Miracles?  Whether you are a student of A Course or not, does anything in that statement ring true to you? Is it the first time you heard such a 'preposterous' 'New Age idea lol?

It is not the first time I heard it and my introduction of it certainly didn't from any 'New Ager'.  I remember reading The Allegory of a Cave in an introductory philosophy class (I won't say how many years ago) during my university years. If you haven't read it and care to do so I enclosed a link below.

Though the point Socrates was trying to make was how knowledge can be blinding and  socially destructive if forced upon a person or taught too fast....I was stuck on  Plato's interpretation and the question that arose, "Why do these prisoners believe the shadows are real?"

These prisoners, many  believed represent souls caught in an illusionary world dependent on  their five senses ...their very limited physical perception...to determine their reality.  They  were conditioned to believe in  their very restricted , chained states that the shadows were all there was.  They didn't know there was more beyond what they could presently perceive.  The shadows reflected off the wall were everything.

We only see what our mind allows us to, be they shadows on a cave wall reflected by a fire light behind us or real images in sunlight.

What if we could take ourselves and other people from this limited perception out into the light?  What would happen to perception then?   It may take time for us  to let go of  old beliefs and perceptions, to actually adjust and see with different eyes what is really there...but it would be worth a few burnt corneas wouldn't it? To get to truth?

The point is perception is just a mirror or in this case a wall...reflecting shadows.  Let's open people up to the real vision.  Let's remove their chains, and take them into the light of Truth. Let's change the collective  state of mind so the world changes.

Hmmm!

Read:


The Allegory of the Cave: https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf

https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm





https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm