William James, the American philosopher, said that reality is where you place your attention. Reality is where you place your attention. So, if we place our attention only on the small model, that is reality for us and we can be convinced, totally convinced, that that is the truth, that is reality. And if we then meet someone whose attention is on the whole, the whole picture, then we are convinced that person is wrong. The person with the big picture, who has an all-embracing inclusive quality of attention, who is loving, who can see many aspects of a situation, who is inclined to be tolerant, that person will see the narrow-mindedness of the egocentric person but won’t condemn them.
( The Brick Wall of the Ego 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
