Learning From Illusion

There's this thing companies and apps use called "dark patterns." If you've ever clicked through an app and had to pay twice as much in hidden costs and fees, you've probably been a victim of said dark patterns. There are laws against the worst kinds of dark patterns, but it's still common enough that I've caught a few of them in the wild (if you've ever tried to cancel your Photoshop subscription, you know what I'm talking about).

Oddly enough, this has me thinking about optical illusions - and how they apply to spiritual life.

As adults, we probably don't interact with optical illusions at the same frequency we did when we were younger. We have too many real-life problems and not enough free time to sit down and ponder life lessons to be learned from funky shapes on a screen. However, as optical illusions are largely geared for children, they're a simplified version of the situations we run into as adults in the "real world."

Take a look at the following famous illusions: how many black dots are there? Are the horizontal lines straight? Are the orange circles the same size? What metaphors for life can we learn from looking at these illusions?

Some reflections that come out when I've run this exercise with other people have been, in no particular order: the framing of a problem can make it seem more or less challenging than it actually is, things might not be as they seem; we can't trust what we see, and when we shift our perception, reality changes.

These are all true and valid. For me, optical illusions are manifestations of one simple principle: We can't rely on just our perceptions and experiences; we need to try to understand what's real.

For those of you who didn't know, I recently spent four months living in an ashram to focus more on this question: "How do I go deeper?" It was one of the reasons behind my 8-month-long break from the corporate world. While it wasn't easy, I highly recommend an ashram experience for anyone looking to contemplate spirituality seriously. It definitely changed me, but don't expect anything resembling enlightenment - inner peace isn't found in a few months.

There's a 3 step process outlined in ancient Sanskrit texts for translating the experiences we have and the things we hear into real personal transformation. This process isn't unique to the Eastern/Dharmic traditions and is open to anyone. Still, it's especially helpful in a spiritual context because the Main Thing in any spiritual tradition worth following is personal transformation that comes through connecting with divinity. The process goes like this:

1. Perceive. Take in experiences of all kinds, and be aware that they're just experiences - not reality.
2. Ponder. Reflect on what you've observed and find the lesson in it - something actionable.
3. Practice. Put those actionable things into practice, and repeat this process to see if anything changes.

This is an iterative process, very similar to the scientific method: make some observations, have a hypothesis, test it out, and observe the outcomes to start all over again.

The scientific instinct to seek the truth despite what may seem to be occurring externally is absolutely necessary for sincere spiritual seekers. All too often, people are taken advantage of by "spiritual" movements that rope people with excellent vibes - "It's all about love and peace and harmony!" - but in reality, they're little more than scams with no real philosophical basis.

The tricky thing is that if you haven't done this process a lot or if critical thinking wasn't a skill that was emphasized in your early education, being reflective - aka pondering - is difficult. So, here's how to reflect, step by step:

• Take what you've perceived and put it into words
  If you've read something or heard something, avoid using the same language. If it's something you've seen or experienced - like a movie - explain it in simple language.
• Look at your description from multiple angles
  Critique it to test if it's true, rather than just accepting it because it's comfortable to your preconceived notions. Also, try to identify other things you've heard that resonate with it.
• Try to find something to apply to your life.
  It doesn't need to be a big lifestyle change; it can be as simple as an affirmation to be more kind or to avoid lying to people. Ask yourself: "What's the lesson here?"

After applying this reflective process, there's hopefully something to put into practice, which, if properly done, should lead to personal transformation. In the context of spirituality, constant application of this reflective process is what it means to have spiritual vision.

Applying this reflective process that goes beyond our perception and experiences and helps us go deeper helps us see the hand of God at work. Call it the Universe, God, or the Supreme - if we don't recognize the signs coming our way, we will have a more difficult time achieving our goals because we'll be swimming against the current.

It's not that we should start taking the tiniest things as personal instructions from God. But there are lessons to be learned from everything, and by applying these processes iteratively and in a scientific manner helps us see things in this world as conduits of divinity. As is said in the Bhagavad Gita: "For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me."

It's like The Matrix - by recognizing that we're surrounded by things that aren't as they seem, we invite help from those who have escaped the Matrix and start to live a life filled with more possibility than simply going along with the flow.

Happy to be here,
-Sid