"I-sight" ain't 20/20...

What happens when we let go of the eyes we have relied upon for a lifetime, and try to see with our heart?

In Mark Nepo's "The Book of Awakening:  Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have", he retells a story by a blind Frenchman, Jacques Lusseyran.  Mssr. Lusseyran describes fear as the only thing that truly prevented him from seeing:  

"Still there were times when the light faded, almost to the point of disappearing.  It happened every time I was afraid.  If, instead of letting myself be carried along by confidence and throwing myself into things, I hesitated, calculated, thought about the wall, the half-open door, the key in the lock;  if I said to myself that all these things were hostile and about to strike or scratch, then without exception I hit or wounded myself.  The only easy way to move around the house, the garden or the beach was by not thinking about it at all, or thinking as little as possible.  Then I moved between obstacles the way they say bats do.  Otherwise what the loss of my eyes had not accomplished was brought about by fear.  It made me blind."  (emphasis added)

Mark Nepo goes on to describe a process, that to me is a continuation of "seeing in the dark"... that "only by stepping without hesitation into the next inch of the unknown" can we truly see the life we are living.  That sight is a picture more whole than what the eyes alone can reveal.

Many philosophers and spiritual sages draw the distinction between fear and love, making a digital decision: Love or Fear?  The way of the heart? or the way of the 5 senses we were taught were necessary to survive life here on Earth? Is there anything more? How do we move without fear, like Jacques Lusseyran --floating freely in this world, as long as he expected to remain safe?

Maybe the truth of our vision only comes when we can accept the limitations of our "I - sight":  That at times what we see may look hard, at times the landscape may be unclear.  We may encounter fears about our "obstacles", and maybe that fear is the only thing that prevents us from moving around those obstacles with ease.  We believe we fear the unknown,  and yet when we open our heart, we can make the unknown known by choosing love, and moving into the unknown without fear.

Maybe like Jacques Lusseyran we don't actually need our eyes at all -- we can choose to fly free when we let ourselves see with our heart.