Tip #3 Practice Seeing the Gestalt
How do you know your friend? Do you tell them apart from everyone else only because their nose is a certain shape, and their hair or eyes a specific color? Even if they didn’t have distinctive features, couldn’t you recognize them?
Gestalt is a theory of perception that rejects just seeing reductionistic parts—it’s the idea that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
I think it is important to practice seeing all beings in this manner. It’s almost indescribable when you know a plant is just what it is—it’s an individual that can be set apart from other plants. It’s like seeing a plant from far away and just already knowing what it is.
I am not a master of seeing all plants this way. There are many thousands of plant species on this planet, and I am still learning the ones to whom I have been exposed.
This photo is of White Sage (Salvia apiana)–one of the very many white leaved sages out there! That said, there is something somewhat distinctive about the leaves of this sage that’s hard to describe. But when you really know this one, you will always know it when you see it. I think that is seeing the Gestalt. 💫 💡
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