This is a key area in understanding how we see the world. By understanding why we see the world the way we do, it can help us interpret it differently. We can experience it in a way which is more helpful, peaceful and joyful.

We instinctively see the world in terms of ‘this’ and ‘that’. We are different from that person and that tree is not the same object as this car.

That all sounds pretty obvious. But the problem lies in what it leads to. By discriminating between this and that, we introduce perception, or how we feel about it. We like this person, but not that one. It’s a ‘bad’ car but a ‘good’ tree.

This way of viewing the world seems to be ingrained within us. We cannot think of another way that the world could possibly be. But it’s actually at the root of all our problems.

We spend our life trying to get more of what we perceive as good and avoid what we perceive as bad. But none of this is real, as our perceptions are formed from our personal life experiences. What we think of as good now, may be bad in a few years time. For example, we love our partner now and want to spend the rest of our lives with them, but then the relationship breaks down and the marriage ends in acrimony and hatred. We love the new car, until it too breaks down.

We also attribute qualities to things that aren’t deserved. We might refer to our ‘bad’ back or ‘dodgy’ knee, for example. But the reality is that the back isn’t ‘bad’, it’s just a back. We might have mistreated it by working it too hard or perhaps have had an injury. But none of this makes it ‘bad’. Sore, yes, but not ‘bad’, as if it’s been naughty. It’s as if we have an expectation that things should go a certain way and when they don’t, we blame them. So the back is bad because it didn’t do what we wanted. Something is ‘wrong’ with the car because it isn’t working as effectively as it used to.

But look a little deeper at these examples. Perhaps the back is sore because it has given 50 years of faithful service but you haven’t looked after it properly. You use ineffective lifting techniques and ask it to do more than it is capable of doing. Now who’s being ‘bad’?

Or perhaps the car has ‘gone wrong’ because it hasn’t had its regular service and having done 100,000 miles, some of its mechanical parts are getting a bit worn out. What else could you realistically expect to happen?

We live in a world of opposites. Light and dark. Good and evil. Right and wrong. This is sometimes referred to as ‘duality’, as opposed to ‘oneness’, where we don’t make these distinctions.

An alternative view to this world of opposites involves taking a more dispassionate view of things and exercising mindfulness. By being aware of how we see things, we can identify when we are exercising unhelpful perception, perhaps because we are holding on to past feelings or intolerant views. We can then consider these perceptions and where they came from, before considering whether the situation really is one of right and wrong, or perhaps it’s a little bit muddier than that.

Perhaps the sore back has actually come about because we are not living in a way helpful to it and not listening to what our body really needs.