Beware the Perceptive Trap
Here’s something fun to try on a friend.
Q: How do you spell “joke?”
A: J-O-K-E
Q: How do you spell “folk?”
A: F-O-L-K
Q: How do you spell the white of an egg?
Oftentimes, the answer you get will be “Y-O-L-K” which is, of course the yellow part of the egg, not the white.
This is a decent example of the perceptive trap. We learn, from the time we enter this world, to observe and identify patterns. Whenever we are confronted with something new, we associate it with things that we have already observed and take to be “true.” This is useful. In fact, it is necessary to our survival.
The problem arises when we become trapped by our habits of attention. We no longer see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.
The Eight of Swords is a visual representation of the perceptive trap. We are imprisoned by a blindfold of our own choosing.
Through practices such as meditation and introspection, we can become more aware of our preoccupations and default perceptions, and, little-by-little, remove the blindfold.
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