“Be vigilant with all, even the voices that live in your own head. Always listen, but do not always follow. When you meet those who can guide you, follow them.
“There will be times when you feel you can’t trust yourself. Trust yourself anyway. There will be times when you feel completely alone. Know this: you are not alone.”
In time, more will be given to you, and you will understand.
“Mo, I must go now, but I will never leave you. Though my time here is over,
I will always be with you. Things are not what they seem.” As these final words left his mouth, Mo’s father was gone.”
This excerpt is taken from The Mosaic, end of Chapter 1: THE MORTICIAN
Imagine the consequence of these words in your life. Even if this has not happened to you, and even if you have not yet read The Mosaic, you have read the short excerptabove. The Mosaic has found you and is asking you to consider what these words mean to you.
The way we see the world shapes us. It becomes the foundation for the way we think and the basis for what we believe. Imagine then, when we pause for a moment and realise that the world we see is not the only world there is, and even more, what we see blocks us from seeing the other things that are right before our eyes, Are you with me? Before you question what I am saying, have a look at the picture below:
What do you see? For those who have never seen this picture before, you most likely see either an Old Hag or a Young Socialite? Most likely you cannot see both of them. Whichever one you see, try now to see the other?
If you have seen this picture a lot of times, like I have, most likely when you look at it now, you can see both, but here is the interesting thing, you CANNOT see both of them at the same time. To see one, you have to not see the other. Now, can you remember the first time you looked at this picture and could only see one image? Can you remember, the moment your perception changed and you suddenly saw the one you didn’t see before? It is a moment of awe.
The way we see dictates the way we think. It changes the way we function in relationships and the way we do business. It determines who we hire and what we think about the people to whom we report. It effects how we vote and how we function as a country. It leads us to align with certain religious beliefs, and it influences our thoughts about right and wrong.
We create stories about life from what we see; and our stories become powerful tools to either unite us or separate us from the world around us. All too often we use our stories to tell others, the way we view the world is right and consequently, the way anyone who sees the world differently is wrong.
To see examples of this, we don’t need to look too far. Look at the political silos that separate us and prevent us from solving problems that together we could solve easily. But don’t stop there, everywhere we look, we see silos of separation. Look at our religious institutions; we speak of one God, but believe ours is the only right God. Look at our beliefs around the color of a persons skin, or the border they live behind, or the way they choose to express their sexuality, or their thoughts on the most compassionate way to treat an unwanted baby, or in climate change, or in any of the other places we disagree.
What would happen if we were to consider the possibility, that what we see is not what is, it is just what we see? How would these words affect you? “Things are not what they seem“, We might come to see that the way we see the world is not the only way to see it; that people are not what they first appear to be; that we can not judge a book by its cover.
What would happen if instead of trying so hard to have the right answers to the questions, we started to question the answers we have always given?
Could it be possible that this one perceptual change could alter the way we function in the world, the way we relate to each other, and the way we come together to create a new future?
Have a look at this TED TALK to see how perception in general changes everything.RESOURCE: PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING TED TALK: Rory Sutherlandhttps://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything/transcript?language=en
In The Mosaic, it was only when Mo left the silo of his own pain and started walking, only when he stopped his questioning mind and listened to the ordinaries that appeared before him, that he saw things were not what they seemed. And if the story ended there, it would be well worth reading to understand this one point, that everyone in life has a story and if we were to take the time to allow them to share their story with us, it would enrich our lives.
But, the story does not end there.
After Mo listens to the stories of the people he meets, he discovers something new. These ordinary people are anything but ordinary. Who he sees when he looks at them now, is way more than what he originally saw. It is only then that he meets a Monk who unzips the sky and walks him into a parallel reality where . . . well, I can’t tell you the whole story here, because i want you to buy The Mosaic and enjoy reading the story for yourself.
Suffice it for this newsletter to simply ask the question, what if these parallel realities actually exist? What if, as Mo’s father tells him, we are never alone? What if, as we have shown previously, just because we can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there? What if, the space we call empty is not empty? What if, those we can no longer see became visible to us again? What if, miracles were happening all the time, but we just couldn’t see them?
This is The Mosaic.
RESOURCE:YOU ARE NOT ALONE FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEO by Daniel Levin
https://www.facebook.com/danny.levin.735/videos/10156974652971310/
What if our emptiness is our greatest strength. We have all heard it said, that as long as we are full, nothing can enter us. The Mosaic wants to add something here to our understanding and that is, what if seeing what we always see is blocking us from seeing something so much greater. Perhaps we would come to “see”, emptiness is not bad, but rather a new opportunity to see something greater.
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RESOURCE: ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES by Paul Reps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSlvBuovLv8
What we see is only a very small part of the world that is and when we shift the way we see, blocks are replaced by possibilities, new answers appear, beliefs change and innovation happens.
I realised in “writing” The Mosaic, helping people see what they don’t see is my wingspan. IF YOU FEEL STUCK, if you are just doing the same things over and over again in your business, your relationship, your personal life, wherever? If you are interacting with only like minded people, if you know there is more to life than what you are seeing and if you are ready to come out of the silo that keeps you from seeng things differently; let’s have a conversation. This is not a sales call, this is an invitation.
