The article named Deeply Seeing makes a distinction between look and see. The author thinks that sometimes we see things with our self-contained state of ego, but sometimes we see the world only with eye. We distinguish ourselves and the outer world with egoic boundaries (P.71). For example, I see the people we love with aesthetic thinking, but we look many other people with no sense of aesthetic consideration.
I think sometimes that we cannot see the world even though it is right in front of us because we are absent-minded. Only when we keep both our eyes and hearts can we feel the world. That can also be called the difference between seeing and looking. I think the difference between seeing and looking lies in the point that whether we have used our heart to feel it. The famous philosopher named Saint Bonaventure has put forward the idea that there are three eyes of knowing- the eye of flesh, the eye of reason and the mystic eye of contemplation (P.73). Meanwhile, there are also three eyes of knowing for artists. I believe that we spend most of our time of the look of flesh. We see many things with no thinking and attention. After seeing, we forget it and get used to it. Some educators have put forward the theory that children like repeat their actions again and again because they do have no idea of what the world is, so they have the feeling of safe by repeating their actions. We adult have got used to the world and we are so familiar to the world that we do not want to waste our time on observing the world. As the old saying goes, “Beauty means this to one and that to the other.” And a Chinese poet says, “Darkness gives me a pair of black eyes, but I use it for search of light.” Beauty can be found here and there in the world, but we tend to be less interested in looking for the beauty of the world. Nowadays, with the development of the society and the science, people spend more and more time on the technology such of telephone, ipad and so on. I think only when we feel the earth with our feet, touch the trees and flowers with our hands and see the world with our heart, can we enjoy the pleasure which is brought by the nature.
Shelly,
Insightful blog post! It appears that you also had difficulty reading the articles because you realized that we spend too much time with technology, which interferes with aesthetic appreciation of our surroundings. On page 72, the author states “seeing occurs when our attention is arrested by a person, object, or scene”. I spent a lot of time pondering this quote because that goes against the popular idea and lifestyle of multi-tasking. I think our generation, specifically in college, stretch ourselves too thin. We are constantly engaging in a million different activities, and do not have the time or energy to focus deeply on one thing. In my opinion, this is prevents the author’s idea of seeing because she says “momentarily merging with the thing seen”, but we don’t have many spare moments! Now the question becomes, do we create or make spare moments? We have to take a conscious effort to designate time for aesthetic seeing because it enhances life. Seeing makes us appreciate little things in life, that we normally take for granted. Thank you for incorporating the idea that we “see the people we love with aesthetic thinking, but we look many other people with no sense of aesthetic consideration.” I strongly agree with this point and it goes to show that we collectively make up a giant world, but everyone lives in his or her mini world 🙂
Nicole
We see so many people everyday and we may think nothing of them. But there are certain people we interact with that we have a special feeling and thinking of them that sets them apart. I thought that was a great example that you had of that quote. I agree we don’t really see the world because we are so busy with our lives. We don’t have time to “stop and smell the roses.” I think there are differences between seeing and looking at art. I think most of the time we just see art as something physical and don’t really have a spiritual or emotional feeling towards the art. I agree that we do need to slow down occasionally and enjoy what is around us. And not just look at art and leave and forget about it. I think it is nice to really look at something and enjoy yourself and really think about it. I think artist who are really passionate about their work end up producing something wonderful because it comes from the heart. I loved the video that was assigned for this because it really showed who they were in a piece of art.
Hey,
You had a very insightful response throughout about creative spirituality, and alot of the points I agreed upon as well. Especially about how the looking and seeing of different objects we want to see depends on our own imagination. One thing though that you bring up is about the change with all of the technology, and think that our looking and seeing of future generations will change due to the technology. I dont think the looking and seeing will do with nature as much as it will with technology . What about you? Another thing is that why do you believe that people choose to see rather than look? Do you think it has to do more with the beauty in the nature or that people choose when they want to see rather than look?
Hi Shelly,
Great post. You went deep into the article and even used outside sources which I find very impressive. I can tell that the topic of spirituality is something that you have thought of before. Regarding your post, I think it is really interesting how you bring up that children repeat the same actions because that is where they feel the most comfortable. After thinking about this statement, I would argue that children who are just seeing the world take on much greater risks and are much more curious at discovering new things than adults, who in fact repeat their daily actions over and over again. When young children first learn to walk they explore everything. The world is so large to them, yet they will never shy away from following their parents somewhere new. Adults on the other hand generally go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday, go to work the same way, and repeat all of this for many many years. I feel as if they are the ones who are afraid to discover the world. What are your thoughts on this?
Christian