Seeing without the Observer

How few see the mountains or a cloud. They look, make some remarks, move on. Words, gestures, emotions, prevent seeing. A tree, a flower is given a name, put into a category and that's that. You see a landscape through and archway or from a window, and if you happen to be an artist or are familiar with art, you say almost immediately, it is like those medieval paintings or mention some name of some recent painter. Or if you are a writer, you look in order to describe; if you are a musician, probably you have never seen the curve of a hill, or the flowers at your feet; you are caught up in your daily practice, or ambition has you by the throat. If you are a professional of some kind, probably you never see. But to see there must be humility whose essence is innocency. There's that mountain with the evening sun on it; to see it for the first time, to see it, as though it had never been seen before, to see it with innocency, to see it with eyes that have been bathed in emptiness, that have not been hurt with knowledge---to see then is an extraordinary experience.