twice
Posted on Jul 2nd, 2008
by 
Laura
Laura
I was once given advice by an Indian who was very much worried about my preoccupation with words. "You must learn to look at the world twice," he told me as I sat on the floor of his immaculately swept adobe room. "First you must bring your eyes together in front so you can see each droplet of rain on the grass, so you can see the smoke rising from an anthill in the sunshine. Nothing should escape your notice. But you must learn to look again, with your eyes at the very edge of what is visible. Now you must see dimly if you wish to see things that are dim----visions, mist, and cloud-people...animals which hurry past you in the dark. You must learn to look at the world twice if you wish to see all that there is to see."
--Jamake Highwater
--Jamake Highwater
Access: Public
attention
August 2008 
Laura, this is great! Although I would have never put it into the words “looking twice at the world”….lately part of my practice has been to look at the world once, and then again. Or to have a thought, and then to put the thought into a larger web of awareness instead of just acting on it. To realize again what awareness means: to look more deeply, to expand our view, to include everything beyond just the surface impression. I like what Jamake Highwater said about seeing dimly to see the visions, mist and cloud-people. Thanks for passing this along, Kathy
oh, I'm glad I followed Kathy here, delightful!
It took me a moment to get a sense of the distinction between looking at the world twice and looking 'then again'—-but yes. to see more deeply seeing is primary for me but I am trying to listen more deeply, inhale more deeply too. lately I've been seeing all sorts of things I wouldn't if I hadn't looked more deeply. a terrapin by the roadside, a witchy sort of plant strung with cobwebs and conducting a sort of private symphony in front of a bunch of lilies, a Cross pen lying in the grass. and last night the faint call of an owl.
That's wonderful….seeing all those new things. Like the part of “conducting a sort of private symphony in front of a bunch of lilies”. Ahhh, yes!
Yes, it was. I'll post the photo soon. Nicole, glad you found this post interesting too. : )
The first time we look with our mind, the second time we look with our soul.