I listened to "Buddhism for Busy People" by David Michie. I like listening to someone with an English background deal with Buddhist concepts, even though a stream of my lives before and after the present one seems very unrealistic to me.
When I was hypnotized, I was asked what was I seeking from the hypnosis. I had a little trouble deciding what the answer was but I settled on 'getting new eyes.' A couple of years ago, we lived in a condo high above the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. We were so close to the water that we couldn't see any shore between our building and the Gulf unless we stood out on the balcony. So, each glance toward the source of light showed a giant body of undulating water and clouds, nothing else. It was such an unusual sight for me that I looked at the scene very often. I was impressed at how fascinated I was by such a relatively empty and uncluttered sight.
But the next year we were there, the scene seemed commonplace and unsurprising to me. I hardly glanced at it. I noticed the difference in interest level and tried to muster as much visual interest as I had had previously but it seemed something in me had just decided the view was ordinary.
When I explained what I sought from hypnosis, I wanted my mind to see things anew, not as though I knew them. David Michie said he sometimes worked at viewing his living quarters, his place of work and even his wife as a place or person he was just visiting. He wasn't trying to lessen his commitment or knowledge but he wanted to see anew, with fresh eyes.
I doubt that fresh is always better. We have sometimes remarked that if we drove through our small city of 25,000, we might not see anything that merited living there for 40 years. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, he explains that when the woman who became his wife first saw him walking through the streets with a large baguette sticking up out his back pocket, she thought him funny looking, not husband material.
We sometimes replace our wall or statue art with other pieces so that our eye is refreshed and catches again on what is displayed, instead of having the impression that we have see it all before.
Trying to look at anything, your hand, your friend, a favorite object as if you haven't seen it before can open your eyes to what is there instead of having your brain tell you you already know all about it.
