Human Development

Journeying within transcendence - from blindness to sight

Description:
Confession of ignorance is followed with confession of faith, while certainty leads to ignorance. Abstract vision sees impersonally and is unable to go beyond basic assumptions or to treat people as subjects rather than objects. Everyday vision desires no changes and keeps its distance from new situations. Vision that looks on any situation as a means to gain is controlled by power and by fear; anything threatening power threatens existence and must be eliminated; this is ignorance of truth and leads to blindness. In this case, habitual vision, built up as a defence and enabling growth and development, becomes blind persistence in routine; awareness that it is there is the first step to returning to sight. Self-conscious (as opposed to self-aware) sight is like the critical judgement of a third party on one's actions; love is tempered by fear which holds it back, preventing spontaneity. There is the vision arising in moments of stillness; the ordinary way of functioning disappears and there is apparent blindness which develops into a new kind of seeing, in the present and with faith as connections are formed with what is deep down within the self. There is the vision of the contemplative, of God, accepting things as they are, disorienting other vision so it can be reoriented. This is the vision of the self manifest in myths, symbols and dreams, revealing the blindness, drawing closer to wholeness. Finally is the vision which wants to learn and be changed, that is prepared to risk transformation, when it is seen that all the types of vision are within one's self.
Context:
The eleventh section of St John's Gospel, Chapter IX 1-41, is related to a stage in the spiritual journey of the individual.<
Broader:
Journeying within transcendence