Letting go of definition

I went to college, and took lots of classes that all accumulated to me graduating with a BS in Sociology. There is one class in particular that I did awesome in. It was a philosophy class. Learning about all the great philosophers of our time, was so mind expanding for me. Different ways of viewing the world. The one that stuck with me the most was a guy names DesCartes, his supposition was this concept of the brain in the jar. What if we as human kind are all just a brain in a jar somewhere and some scientist is creating all of these stimulus for us to experience while under the illusion that we are a body and actually in this constructed reality. Wild right? But I think that stuck with me for a reason, on a deeper level we can consider that without any or all of our definitions of a thing. It would all be brand new to us, just like a created stimulus in a lab. Try this experiment for me.

The next time you are outside, I want you to look up. Stare (not at the sun). but the clouds or the sky and now as you are staring up, I want you to forget everything you know about the sky and the clouds. There is no defined word for what that is, there's no pattern that you know of about how the sky should move or shift. There is nothing predefined about any of that. Stare at it with 100% wonder. As if it's the first time seeing a cloud. Don't try to define it by another definition either, like oh they look like marshmallows, release that too, just look with fresh eyes as if it's the first time you've discovered it.

All of the sudden, underneath all the definitions or assumptions about a thing, you find wonder, and discovery, and curiosity, and its amazing isn't it?

I did this the other day as I was headed from here to there on a longer stretch of highway, I looked at the horizon and I shifted out of everything I remembered that I knew about a horizon. And after peeling away all the layers of what that was, all I was left with was wonder. And I have to say, I almost got a little teary eyed about that experience because it was really so beautiful to see a thing without all the extra, definitions of a thing. What if we did this with more of our experiences. Strip away all the things we have pre-defined about it, and experience it exactly for what it is. Through the eyes of the first time seeing it. It all becomes amazing.

So this is what I challenge you to do, today, I want you to step out of your current construct. I want you to peel away the layers of the things around you to see a thing, brand new, with eyes of amazement and wonder, and appreciate the miracle of what that is, at it's core.

Beautiful right?