“We talk about the lifetime of a system as the time over which it works, between its beginning and its end, and for stars that shine this is a long time.

“What does it mean to perceive something? It’s not enough to see it without some understanding. It might be a small part of a big thing, or one aspect of several. If you don’t understand, then you don’t know what you’re looking at. And if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you don’t know what you’re seeing.

“Seeing tends to stop at the parts, but perception can extend to the whole. Seeing, perceiving, and understanding are a loop: as one grows, so do the others. How much more do you see in a person once you understand them? How does your seeing change as you understand the world? …”

Exercises in Enhanced Perception

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Note: a free, audio version of this essay is available for download. Listen to it while you sit beneath a dark and starry sky. To download the MP3 audio file, Click Here.