I sat breathing on a park bench. A wide bright green lawn lay before me with a row of dark green trees beyond. A path contoured the far edge of the lawn beneath the trees. My eyes were level, gaze unfixed. A glint, moving swiftly at head height caught my attention. I didn’t immediately follow it with my eyes, but my mind registered it as a bicycle helmet, the rider moving left to right. When I shifted my gaze to confirm this, I saw only a dragonfly – no bicycle anywhere. I resumed my meditation and moments later again saw the same glint with my peripheral vision. “Another bicycle” my mind said without hesitation. My direct vision followed and again said “dragonfly”. And a third time the same thing happened, just as before.
Then I began to reflect. My peripheral vision was convinced that a series of cyclists were riding by. Even though my “superior” direct vision had “disproved” it at least twice already, the mind habitually made the same leap. This process and its implications were interesting enough to consider, but prodded by a recent reading of Yogananda, I took it a step further: Perhaps my direct vision is also misleading. My eyes & mind tell me “dragonfly” with certainty, but should I simply accept that? Is there a “higher” vision that could offer a clearer, truer perception? And could there another even beyond that?
