Metanoia: Beyond the Mind?

The Greek word, "metanoia" literally means "beyond the mind." However, we often define it as a “profound change of heart.” Given the centrality of Seeing True’s™ explorations and explanations for transformation, what do these ideas tell us, and where might they take us?

In The Science of Man, a practice-based approach created by Rhondell, a psycho-spiritual teacher deeply rooted in The Fourth Way and the work of Georges Gurdjieff, our starting point is a radical proposition:

In every moment, everyone is acting in what they perceive to be their best interests, which is based in how we perceive ourselves, others and the world.

Now to be clear, we may be misunderstanding or be misinformed, or we may even be delusional. Regardless, in any given instant, each of us acts consistent with what we believe in our heart of hearts to be true and valuable, which necessarily includes our own perceived self-interest.

This is the moment of potentiality for Seeing True.™

Metanoia means to understand something in a completely different light, or seeing something in a way you have never seen before or in a non-habitual manner. It means a deep and profound shift in perception in the deepest seat of our consciousness or awareness. With that transformed perception and understanding, what we believe to be true and valuable is altered deep within us. From that comes an entirely different cascade of feelings and actions.

We’ve all experienced this kind of profound shift, either in our own lives or in the lives of others. Often it is precipitated by something disruptive: a life-threatening illness, a disruption in primary relationships, a catastrophe of some kind, or any number of stressors that are deeply significant.

In the psychological realm of the “ladder of inference,” this cascade is entirely predictable even if what it predicts is not.

We believe and perceive reality through our own unique lens.

We then translate reality based on how we see and understand.

Note: There is a great likelihood the translation is faulty.

The translation creates feelings within us, from which our actions are fueled.

Because our lens of belief and perception is often off the mark, and unconscious,

our feelings and actions necessarily miss the mark, and can even be destructive.

This is why so many of our attempts to change ourselves fail. We can’t change the outsides without changing what is deep within our ways of being and perceiving. This is also why so many human challenges keep repeating.

Greater still is the problem of changing the world. After all, the world we see is a translation, so our feelings and actions are often disconnected from reality. How could we possibly alter the world when the world we are seeing is some figment of our imagination?

Seeing True in Reality and In Practice™

What in the world can we do when our ways of seeing and understanding simply continue to reinforce the ways we see and understand?

Therein lies the way forward. First in acknowledging that which Jesus called “blocks in the eye.” We do not see rightly. In fact, we can’t see rightly.

However, we can begin to inquire and question. We can test our assumptions and expectations. We can discover our biases and blind spots. We can become curious.

When new possibilities are interjected, ever so slowly the old ways of seeing and understanding begin to lose their power. Each time we question is like a single feather being placed laid upon the issue. At some point in time, just like an apothecary scale, the weight of many feathers will change us profoundly.

Some would say that “the work” is this steady and steadfast process of re-evaluation.

One moment, one breath, one step at a time.