Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

by Joseph Goldstein

THE THREE DISTORTIONS OF EXPERIENCE There are three distortions of experience that can occur. The first is distortion of perception; the second, distortion of mind; and the third, distortion of view. The first is when we simply mistake one thing for another. We might be walking in the woods, see a stick lying on the path, and mistake it for a snake. This kind of distortion is easily remedied by a closer investigation of the experience. Distortions of mind occur when we think and ruminate about our mistaken perceptions. We see the stick, take it to be a snake, and then, thinking about all the stories we’ve heard about poisonous snakes, we become afraid. This is the distortion of mind. It’s a little deeper than the first distortion, but it’s still quite possible to see through it as we examine the situation more closely. It is distortion of view that is the deepest and most difficult to remedy. This is the case when we become so convinced of the truth of something that no matter what evidence is presented to the contrary, we hold tenaciously to that belief. There are many examples of this at work in our lives and in our society. There are many people today in America who completely dismiss the theory of evolution in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence supporting it, because it doesn’t fit with their particular view of the world. In the political arena, there are members of the “birther movement,” people who don’t believe that President Barack Obama was born in the Unit...