Two-Eyed Seeing
Over the last 2 years, there is this practice that has evolved in my life. This was not something I saw on Instagram, or read about. It was something I started randomly playing with – and in doing so, creating ease in my mind, and dare I say PEACE within – so I continued to experiment.
Oddly, I found it assisted in finding balance during life’s bumps and lessons, untwisting personal conflict, and it brought trust when there was inability to understand the state of the world.
The Practice involves looking at life and the situations one faces from two eyes, or two perspectives:
One eye: As a Human
The other eye: As a Spiritual Being
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
One eye sees life and the emotions that go with being HUMAN. Permission is given to experience the craziness of life and release whatever emotional energy needs to be addressed without it taking over the entire system. In my experience, it can involve yelling into a waterfall, crying in the forest, or being mad at life as you stomp down the grocery isle.
Then when you’ve had your fill…
Switch to the other eye – and practice seeing the experience from a more spiritual perspective. View this person, situation, or event with unconditional forgiveness, love, and compassion (not with naiveté or as a doormat – that's totally different).
To dig deeper, ask yourself questions, such as:
What happened to this person that could have created this behaviour?
Were they born with this pattern of behaviour?
What is the greater purpose in this?
What is this situation teaching me?
How is this for my best?
Do I trust life is committed to my growth in this situation?
This does not mean that things automatically become euphoric and everyone lives happily ever after. And it doesn’t mean you won’t have to do hard work, and confront situations that need addressing, experience conflict or practice hard boundaries that people don’t like.
What it does mean, is that you may find greater ease and peace in viewing things from different perspectives. And you may be surprised at how the body eases it’s contracting, bracing and spinning, and becomes grounded and lighter.
Practicing two-eyed seeing involves releasing a whole lot of fear and embracing unconditional forgiveness, love, and compassion.
Same mountain — two different perspectives.
About a year into this experiment, I was sharing this idea with a client, and she responded, “Oh, that’s like the First Nations Guiding Principal of Etuaptmumk”. I was a bit stumped — she enlightened me:
Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall explains the Principal of Etauptmumk as learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledge and ways of knowing... and learning to use both eyes together, for the benefit of all. It is viewed as a gift of multiple perspectives. Etuaptmumk is the Mi'kmaw word for Two-Eyed Seeing.
Later, I randomly came across an article (while searching for a recipe) from a Jewish Rabbi named Yosef Y. Schneersohn, where he spoke about how his father had taught him a life-changing lesson:
“There are things which one must look upon with a right eye, with affection and empathy, and there are things to be regarded with the left eye, with indifference and detachment. On a siddur (prayerbook) or on a fellow Jew, one should look with a right eye; on a candy or toy, one should look with a left eye.”
The Rabbi described this as a transformative experience: it left him with a vastly different perspective, one that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
I was again in awe of life, and that we can learn something that has been used for decades in other cultures and in different ways, without even knowing those ways existed. How beautiful is that!
Rosie