Body Swap
Can we really live the life of another?
What would life be
like if we were able to change our viewpoint from one mind and body to
another? How would the world then be
seen?
Can a person
really understand what it is like to stand in the shoes of another? We all live in this world from a singular
perception, relying on our feelings to guide us on understanding other people
and the interaction that they have with us.
Some think that compassion is the closest thing to stepping into someone
else’s life. They ask, ?how would I feel
if I were in the same position?’ They
imagine and play out the circumstances in their heads to try and see through
the eyes of another.
What is really
happening here when such things take place?
Imagine that Sally
is walking to the shops and she sees in front of her a beggar on the street
asking for money. She begins to think,
?gee, I feel sorry for that guy who sits begging in his dirty old clothes, not
able to help himself.’ Then within her
thoughts she thinks of how life would be like in such a circumstance. Some of the first things she might question
in herself are:
Where could she
get food?
How could she wash
herself?
Where could she
sleep?
These questions,
however, are not realized to be about how Sally feels, not truly how the beggar
would really feel within his own reasoning position. The compassion that Sally has is more based
on her own fears created within herself derived from what she considers not to
be the standard way of living life.
Sally is not the beggar so therefore cannot reason a multitude of things
that are really important within his life.
Having compassion
for someone is one thing, but actually knowing how they truly feel is
another. Not one person is the same and
utilizes their thoughts in the same way.
When we think things inside ourselves we immediately assume that others
understand and think in the same lines, but it can be quite the opposite. Whilst one person might be thinking of the
situation of the beggar from a sympathetic point of view the next might be
seeing him as weak and not willing to make a change in his life. Each is a totally separate viewpoint on the
creation within this world. Each person
has their own singular viewpoint that is unique and differing to all others.
How then would we
assume that we can understand another when in totality we can never truly be
them in form. Here is another example of
how this might be seen:
Sally is talking
with her friend Kim. Kim has a story to
tell her about an experience she had with her boyfriend, that he did something
to hurt her. Sally’s compassionate
nature feels sorry for her friend and she immediately thinks that her friend
should separate from her boyfriend in order to protect herself. Sally immediately assumes that she is feeling
and communicating correctly with her friend Kim when she agrees to what she is
saying. Then they part from each other
to go back to their separate lives.
What is then in
Kim’s mind now? Is it exactly what her
friend Sally says that will influence her to make changes in her life?
Kim was sitting
with her friend Sally in the café. They
were talking about her boyfriend and what he had done to her. She has so much love for her boyfriend that
she understands why he has done it, because lately she has been neglecting him
a lot with all the work she has been doing.
However, she is angry inside and what her friend says to her she thinks
about, that maybe they are better off apart.
But then as she is walking away she cannot bear the thought to live
without him and wants to mend their differences and find more time for
him. She does not want to have the
separation.
When viewing back
at these two paragraphs from the different viewpoints of Sally and Kim, is
Sally really understanding her friend and living within her shoes to give her
advice of how she should make changes in her life?
The obvious answer
is no.
We cannot ever
walk in the shoes of another, never feel how they feel. If we did then things would be so different
to what we could imagine because we would no longer have the mind from our old
body but the mind of the new one that thinks so different and views life from
such a different perspective, with different past and experiences.
When you think
that you are relating to another and you give advice on how people should live
their life, ask yourself, am I giving advice to what I would like or what the
other person really needs? In turn to
this your life can not be lived by another, the way you view is from your own
perspective and determines how you wish to view the world around you. It is all a unique experience, one that can
not be lived by another.
So the answer
is: No , we cannot live the life of
another.
About the author
Tags: asking for money, beggar, circumstance, circumstances, closest thing, compassion, fears, feelings, interaction, mind and body, multitude, old clothes, one person, perception, sally, shoes, sleep, viewpoint
Leave a Reply