Corrie van den Bosch has written a reflection for Contemplative Evolution Network (CEN), of which she’s a member. CEN is a network of people who seek to change the violent and hurting situations in our world through the power and intention of contemplative time together, and so help evolve the world through Love. In Corrie’s July reflection, she writes:
Earlier this year I had cataracts removed from my eyes. The effect was amazing. I didn’t realise how much my vision had deteriorated over time. I was having some difficulty reading and thought I needed new lenses. However, when I went to see the optometrist, he identified the real problem: cataracts. In fact, he told me I was on the cusp of being legally blind!
Now, with the cataracts removed and new lenses implanted, I see clearly. Colours look brighter, and I notice details I had not been able to see for a long time. With my sight fully restored, I realise we cannot see what we cannot see until we see! It is like a refrain that continues to play itself in my mind. We cannot see what we cannot see until we see. And not only with our physical sight. It is equally so with our minds and understanding. At various times during my life, some insight.
At various times during my life, some insight has registered for me, and I said to myself, “Of course. How come I didn’t see it until now?” Usually, I have had all the elements of that insight long before that moment. But I had not seen their import or brought them together into a cohesive whole until it was given me in that moment of insight.
When I read Kevin Gallagher’s CEN reflection for June, I find the same insight there too. Kevin writes of how Teilhard de Chardin wrote The Divine Milieu as ‘a way of teaching how to see’. In Teilhard’s understanding, as Kevin points out, seeing is key to the spiritual life. And he is not thinking only of physical sight. He has in mind a deeper sight, the capacity to see the inner reality of things.
For me, to see the inner reality of things requires an evolution of my consciousness. I cannot see what I cannot see until the moment a new dimension of vision is revealed to me. This, of course, is what our Contemplative Evolution Network is about: to contemplate our human and natural world until we begin to see more deeply into its inner reality; to see the multilayered relationship of all that is with all else that is; to see the oneness that underlies the amazing diversity all around us.
Read the full reflection by Corrie, here.