Things Are More Than They Are: Part 1

Nature Notes - July 2024

What is reality if not perception? Is our perception of something the reality, or does it differ from person to person? Dr. Inabinet takes us on a journey between reality and imagination.

​- by James Inabinet

All images courtesy of Pexels

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”  - William Blake
 
What kind of tree does the wise man see? That’s a very good question. If the saying, “it is what it is,” is true, then how can I not see the same tree as another person whether they be fool or not? In reading Blake, I have found him to be no fan of “it is what it is.” In fact, he thinks that things are – or at least can be – more than what they actually... are [this sounds ridiculous].
 
Blake can make such a leap because of his faith in the power of imagination. To Blake, the imagination is not just the basic way that humans perceive; imagination can go further. Remember that imagination is part of our everyday process of seeing. We know, for instance, that we see with both eye and mind. Our eyes take in “data” from the world [i.e., color and shading] and our minds – literally our imagination – realizes [to make real] the tree-form we see. Without imagination, we see nothing. There’s nothing there.

 
To be sure, trees, bushes and rocks are just there. They seem to just appear, unbidden. This is physical energy; what we see is reflected light. These are easy to verify; we can see, hear, and feel them. We see, for example, the shifting color of leaves scintillating in the late afternoon sun; we feel the rough hardness of red oak bark; we hear the staccato call of a pileated woodpecker drifting through the early morning tree tops as she flies away. This is a good thing! Because of our ready access to physical reality, we have vital knowledge of the world around us and can confidently assess the world, how it works, how we can be effective in it. This has brought us myriad ways to live and be on our beautiful, living green, blue, and brown Earth.
 
It’s important to add, though, that this isn’t reality. Because our minds are so involved, we never see the tree “as it is.” Our tree is always colored by the assumptions and preconceived notions we bring to it. The idea that we see the “real” tree as it is, is called naive realism. No independent, imagination-free tree exists! This is the pregnant point, though, because it provides the opportunity for things to be more than they are. The difference between Blake and scientists is that, while scientists downplay and try to minimize imagination, Blake doubles down on it. He wants more imagination, not less.

 
What Blake’s “seeing more” through the imagination is trying to get at is the spiritual energy that roils and flows in and through everything. The universe is not made solely of physical energy, but spiritual energy as well. Now, why go after this? Physical reality is all about facts and truth and “it is what it is.” Spiritual reality, on the other hand, is all about meaning. I have found that adhering solely to physical reality depletes the world of meaning. We may know how to live and we may be good at it, but we have trouble saying what it’s all for; we can’t say why to live. This state of being is Blake’s “mind-forg’d manacles” that limit or choke off the imagination – and meaning.
 
There are many ways to restore meaning. Meditation and mindfulness practices come to mind, but meaning can also be found by extending the imagination. Blake would agree. To do this, he would have us simply allow imagination to make it so. We begin as always with physical reality, seeing the flying bird in the first place, but we don’t stop there. We keep the “seeing processes” going so imagination and its deeper, more intuitive processes sees “through” the flying bird to the accompanying, deeper spiritual reality that’s there too, as Blake indicates,

“To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower.”
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Seeing in this way can be accomplished by adopting what I call the “imaginative attitude” an attitude we can “summon up” to help us throw off those manacles of limitation. In the imaginative attitude, we might see more, feel more. “Mere” things can become theophanies [i.e., the appearance of something divine]. This attitude is performed by the whole body. Blake thought the body to be the locus of divinity and source of imagination. This makes our bodies more than a mechanism pumping blood and breathing. No, our bodies are more like a wind harp. Spiritual energy is like a wind, a breath, a spirit that “blows where it listeth,” around and through the world–and me. And there it blows, like a whisper, making divine notes as though my body were a musical instrument. Then, in those whispering silent spaces, things become more than what they are.

“When the sun rises, do you not see a round Disk of fire
somewhat like a Guinea?
O no, no, I see an innumerable company of heavenly host
crying Holy, Holy, Holy.”

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