Can we see without glasses?

We look at life through different glasses or filters if you like. Growing up, beyond our toddler years, we begin to make sense of the world through the eyes of adults. Parents, caregivers, early teachers, and so on. We see with wonder at first, but slowly take on their views of what’s right and wrong, introducing duality to our brain. Their fears, conflicts, and comparisons become ours, not intentionally but by the design of how we learn at an early age, through observation and imitation. 

[That’s why we must, and this cannot be emphasised enough, shatter pain as it arises, to give our children the chance of a healthy, joyful life. It is our only chance for the transformation of humanity, which is necessary for us to flourish on this planet. If one generation were to end all pain from the duality of comparison, the chaos of the world would end right there...]

In our adolescent years, we imitate the thoughts of the cultures we identify with. We listen out for what’s considered cool, studying the world according to how one is accepted and respected socially. We strive to fit in, until that’s not enough anymore and we want to stand out, usually taking place by the time we enter adulthood. 

As we move into work, the competitive element has taken over, conditioned by years of education and parenting that have modelled exactly that. We seek for advantage over the other. Jealousy and envy are being hidden in friendship and collegiality. We look to our role models, bosses, and institutions for guidance on how to 'get ahead' in life. Their definition of success, whether that be financial, academic, in the family, or of alternative nature, is what we make our life all about.

Once this is revealed as meaningless, which it is for many people now, we tend to look for some other authority to tell us what to think and do. This is what we have learned, to entrust our life to others, without even knowing that we do (which is why you might be denying this right now. If you find yourself having a strong reaction to what you are reading, it is worth investigating its real source.)
We need people to give us meaning and hope for a better life because we ourselves feel empty and lost inside. The coaches, psychotherapists, teachers and, shamans are meant to fill this bottomless pit by helping us make sense of ourselves. Even partners and trusted friends are being used for this purpose sometimes.
We don’t realise that it presents to us another way to ‘get ahead’ in life, only this time in the realm of the ‘best self’, the ‘spiritual’, or whatever you like to call it, which we unconsciously consider being the grandest of them all. Now we strive to be ‘more present’, or ‘more conscious’, compared to our ‘unconscious’ neighbor. 

It is a particularly dangerous juncture as we believe to have stepped out of the system when in reality we are only not aware of us being in it anymore. It causes great conflict between what we believe to be true, and what actually happens – we believe to be rather good souls, but our lives are filled with problems. It doesn’t seem to add up and feels to us more complex than we think it should be. With time, and as we’re consumed by thoughts about ourselves and our lives, we become even more bitter, dissatisfied and unhappy than before.
We have reached somewhat of a dead-end here. 

Either we decay in denial of reality and our own emptiness, seeking someone else to fill it, or we go into it, perceiving and learning from life just as it is. Surely glasses to see through must have their use when the immensity of dealing with life feels far too much. The responsibility to look for oneself is too great. But is the truth not right before our eyes, in the simplest things?
Can we not learn from life itself, directly and immediately, rather than re-live some old or alternative version of it? 

Like the octopus, that does not get to meet its elders, learning life from scratch. It has got no past, no future, and no time whatsoever. All that it sees is new and heavenly, even in the ugliness of it.