Why is it so difficult to see phenomena as they really are?

In my previous article, I mentioned that when setting the scope of improvement and innovation, one thing to keep in mind is that there is a tendency to bias towards improvement (small changes) rather than innovation (big changes).

In this article, I would like to talk about the second process of improvement and innovation, which is the use of meta-consciousness and observation of phenomena.

The difficulty of taking things as they are

(2) Use of meta-consciousness and observation of phenomena
Perceive reality as it is, with meta-consciousness and bodily consciousness, from multiple perspectives, in relation to what we intuitively want to be.

In the first process, we made a intentional choice about the scope of improvement and innovation. The second process is to capture the “reality” within the selected scope as it is.

Taking reality as it really is may sound like a very simple thing to do, but it is actually very difficult.

Please take a look here. What is this?

Yes, it is an apple.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the process by which we recognize that this is an apple.

In order to perceive that this is an apple, we have to get the sense of “red light and non-red light”, and then perceive that the red part is a circle with a concave top, and then fit it into the “apple” that we have seen before. This is the process we go through.

I would like you to look at the same picture again. This time, try to reserve the judgment that “this is an apple” as much as possible, and try to “perceive” the redness of the red part, the concavity at the top, and what extends from there to the top.

What do you see? There are light and dark areas in the red, yellow spots, and a smooth surface, so you may have been able to get a better sense of what this photo is about.

There are things we think we see, but actually we don’t.

Now that I have talked about the difficulty of taking things as they are, I would like to look at the limitations of cognition from another perspective.

There is something I would like you to try. In the figure below, while closing your left eye and looking at the ● on the left with your right eye, try changing the distance between the figure and your eye. The key is to display the image on a slightly larger screen, and then move the distance between the screen and your eyes closer or further away.

Isn’t there a moment when the ★ on the right side disappears?

Please try this too.

How about this? Did you see the moment when the right side ★ disappears?

And when it “disappears”, you may have noticed that it is complemented by the color of the background (green).

This is called a blind spot, and it is a dark spot that occurs because light gathered in this area does not reach the brain as a signal, but the unseen area is complemented by the brain’s function based on the information in the surrounding area.

This is about physiological dark spots caused by the structure of eyes. Not only from the structure of eyes, but I’m sure we have all experienced that there were times when we thought we were seeing things, but we were not.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “The Blind Men and the Elephant?”
I learned this word from my coach when I was taking coaching sessions before.

“The Blind Men and the Elephant” is a fable of Indian origin that describes a situation where blind people are touching an elephant and the person touching the feet describes it as “lumpy”, the person touching the tusks describes it as “clingy and hard”, and the person touching the back describes it as “wide open”.

What each of them expresses is different, but each of them is saying the right thing. The fact is that they are all expressions of different aspects of a single matter.

Ever since my coach taught me this, I’ve been trying to keep this phrase in mind as I look at things.

“If the world as I see it is just a part of something bigger, a bigger movement, what other aspects are there?

“What does this look like to other people?”

I try to look at things with these kinds of questions in mind. These questions are especially important for me when I am observing an issue that I am directly involved in, because I have a bias to extract only the aspects that are convenient for me.

Become more aware of one’ s cognitive limitations

So far, I have talked about the difficulty of observing phenomena as they are, and the limitations of our own cognition.

It goes without saying that it is very important to observe reality in situations of improvement and innovation, but it is necessary to do so while being aware of the limits of our own cognition.

If we become aware of the limits of our own cognition, we will be able to observe phenomena with the following questions in mind

“Am I able to see the events in front of me as they really are? “
“Are we not making easy judgments based on similar experiences in the past?”
“How does this event look to others?”
“Does what I see now represent all the relevant events?”

On the other hand, there are reasons why it is not easy to have these questions.

This is because the more experienced we become in a certain area, the more intuitively we are able to see more things than others. I’m sure you all feel that you know far more about your work than others do, and that you can often make decisions intuitively.

This “sense of knowing” may prevent us from continuing to hold on to questions such as the ones above. It is very good to be able to see things through as we become more experienced. However, when we become unaware of our cognitive limitations, as in “I know everything,” we increase the risk of not being able to face reality.

I think it would be good to aim for a state of balance between being able to see more and more as we become more experienced, while at the same time becoming more aware of the limits of our own cognition.

In this article, I talked about the difficulty of observing phenomena as they are, and the limitations of our own cognition. In my next article, I would like to consider how we can approach observing things as they are, even with such difficulties and limitations.

Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)

・In your experience, if there was an experience that could be described as “The Blind Men and the Elephant”, what kind of experience was it?

・In the above experience, what good came from having not only what you observed, but also what others around you observed?

Bunshiro Ochiai