What I see, when I stop to look, is so immense that it seems impossible to talk about. And yet, the entire vastness is reflected, in full, in every corner. Every moment contains all of history. The most mundane image — coming home on a hot day, I see the cat curled up and sleeping on the serving dish in the middle of the dining room table — when I stop and appreciate it, begins to radiate in all directions. I notice the connections, how this cat merges with every other cat, this hot day with every other hot day, how the memories of past and future cats and dishes and tables shimmer, leaving every hair on the cat’s body shining in the light. Just looking at the cat in the dish, I sense something vast. It takes the subtlest shift in perception to see her glowing that way! And, really, the profane scene is glorious. Each grain in the wood of the table seems so unbelievably sharp. Looking at the cat in this way, I think, is not so different from going to Mass, where we are expected to look for Christ in bread.

But, usually, I do not see any aura around the cat! Because I do not stop. And the cat, I think, is just something else, a cat, a category, over there. The table is just a table, not an altar, which is another category entirely.

It is like, being outside, and staring at the ground at your feet. At first, you see only grass. Then, you notice one ant. And then, five ants. And suddenly, you realize there are hundreds of ants in the grass under your feet. But the ants were there all along. We used to call this “putting on our ant eyes,” but what was actually happening was more like a taking off of shades. When we put aside the idea that the ground is static, we see that it is moving on a thousand tiny feet.

Kafka reminds me I do not even need to go anywhere to see the world. I only need to awaken my senses, and realize that what our senses do is bring what is out there into me, so there is no out there: 

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”