04-14-2011, 08:52 PM
I'm not picking on anyone in particular, because a number of people have used the word "producing" clear vision, or a clear flash, or relaxation. I think it represents a way of thinking that will steer you far enough off track that I want to make a post and explain why.
Consider the word "produce". It implies a product you're bringing into existence. That would imply that it's some sort of product that isn't there until you make it or present it. It implies that you think clear vision is like a foreign thing, outside of yourself, or different from yourself, that you have to create in order for it to exist. In terms of other body functions it would be like saying I'm producing walking, or I'm producing my voice. It makes it sound as though it's a special thing. But it isn't special.
The words we use indicate how we really think about things. And people way underestimate the role of their constant, consistent thoughts and beliefs in how their vision plays out. Beliefs about vision have everything to do with how good vision is. And what I've noticed is people with blurry vision who are attempting to improve their vision think of good vision as something so extraordinary, as if good vision isn't a part of who they are. Do you think of good vision as more distant from who you are than your ability to walk well?
It's good to be enthusiastic about improving your vision, but in that enthusiasm, we often delve into unnecessary tangents and intellectual explorations and fascinations with implications of other things the essence of the Bates method reveals or suggests. And we end up making things far more complex than they need to be in creating philosophical ideas and meanderings, symbolically suggesting that good vision is so fantastic that it must be created outside of ourselves in some wonderful way instead of realized as who we are.
And even the term "vision improvement", or "natural vision improvement", which have gotten to be standard terms that I've struggled with a good replacement for, reveals that we think of our vision in terms of something that must be improved somehow. And yet we also talk about improving vision to normal, which is an oxymoron. If you want it normal, then it doesn't need to be improved. You only need to do it right. What happens is you get so stuck in thinking of bad vision as part of yourself that it remains part of you until you reject it.
When you begin rejecting blurry vision, you have no choice but to reject your way of seeing that is causing blurry vision, and in doing so you have no choice but in every moment be consistent in your way of seeing that is in line with good vision. If you keep "falling back" to blurry vision when you "have to" see something quickly, you haven't rejected bad vision yet. If you want to see, then you will reject bad vision, always, no matter what. You will consistently use your eyes/vision in the correct way that promotes good vision, even if your vision is blurry or unclear at the moment and you "need" to see something clearly quickly.
Of course, you do still have to understand how to do things right, but your thoughts about your vision are a stumbling block that will prevent you from understanding what good vision means, because you can't have good vision until you accept it as who you are and work on integrating it into you as who you are. Integrating it as who you are means a period of confusion and uncertainty as you try to understand how to do things right. But you will not understand how to do things right until you've accepted good vision as who you are. When you've done that, you will be incredibly fast and efficient at learning how to see correctly, because your mind will frantically work on it on overdrive until you've inevitably got it just right.
Consider the word "produce". It implies a product you're bringing into existence. That would imply that it's some sort of product that isn't there until you make it or present it. It implies that you think clear vision is like a foreign thing, outside of yourself, or different from yourself, that you have to create in order for it to exist. In terms of other body functions it would be like saying I'm producing walking, or I'm producing my voice. It makes it sound as though it's a special thing. But it isn't special.
The words we use indicate how we really think about things. And people way underestimate the role of their constant, consistent thoughts and beliefs in how their vision plays out. Beliefs about vision have everything to do with how good vision is. And what I've noticed is people with blurry vision who are attempting to improve their vision think of good vision as something so extraordinary, as if good vision isn't a part of who they are. Do you think of good vision as more distant from who you are than your ability to walk well?
It's good to be enthusiastic about improving your vision, but in that enthusiasm, we often delve into unnecessary tangents and intellectual explorations and fascinations with implications of other things the essence of the Bates method reveals or suggests. And we end up making things far more complex than they need to be in creating philosophical ideas and meanderings, symbolically suggesting that good vision is so fantastic that it must be created outside of ourselves in some wonderful way instead of realized as who we are.
And even the term "vision improvement", or "natural vision improvement", which have gotten to be standard terms that I've struggled with a good replacement for, reveals that we think of our vision in terms of something that must be improved somehow. And yet we also talk about improving vision to normal, which is an oxymoron. If you want it normal, then it doesn't need to be improved. You only need to do it right. What happens is you get so stuck in thinking of bad vision as part of yourself that it remains part of you until you reject it.
When you begin rejecting blurry vision, you have no choice but to reject your way of seeing that is causing blurry vision, and in doing so you have no choice but in every moment be consistent in your way of seeing that is in line with good vision. If you keep "falling back" to blurry vision when you "have to" see something quickly, you haven't rejected bad vision yet. If you want to see, then you will reject bad vision, always, no matter what. You will consistently use your eyes/vision in the correct way that promotes good vision, even if your vision is blurry or unclear at the moment and you "need" to see something clearly quickly.
Of course, you do still have to understand how to do things right, but your thoughts about your vision are a stumbling block that will prevent you from understanding what good vision means, because you can't have good vision until you accept it as who you are and work on integrating it into you as who you are. Integrating it as who you are means a period of confusion and uncertainty as you try to understand how to do things right. But you will not understand how to do things right until you've accepted good vision as who you are. When you've done that, you will be incredibly fast and efficient at learning how to see correctly, because your mind will frantically work on it on overdrive until you've inevitably got it just right.
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
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