The virtue of vision

Virtue: Vision

Language has a complex structure that gives life to our thoughts and our dreams. The words that make up a language can be even more complex because they hold the meaning of an entire culture. Many times a single word can speak for a people, a word like vision. Yet as powerful a word as vision is, one  must truly look deep into the context in which it is used. In the context of spirituality and religion there are two meanings that stand out as most meaningful, vision as the act or power of anticipating what may or may not occur, and vision as an experience in which the divine or spiritual appears in the mind during an altered state of mind. Vision can also be a powerful idea that a person holds, just as with artists or great leaders and scientists.

Being able to have a vision of the future can be confusing to some. The idea is linked many times with having prophetic insight, a predicting of the future. In some cases it could very well be what is happening. The other possibility is that the vision is simply an idea or dream of great desire to see things evolve from the current events unfolding into something different, something better. The important part of both types of vision in this case requires the individual to be aware of their surroundings, both physical and spiritual. The information that can be gathered from this awareness gives the person the ability to predict what could be, then the desire to reach for it. Both types of vision are a driving force in the souls of humans throughout time that have led to greatness or ruin.

In the spiritual context, vision is very important as a divine experience. Through vision one can see the spirit and divine realms. We come into contact with things greater than ourselves through these experiences. Without them there is truly no real point in religion. The connection that vision gives to the individual brings not only comfort and peace but also a sense of meaning, a sense of inner connectedness that brings humans close to the worlds around them. Through vision, the gods let us see Them, sending us Their love, blessings, and knowledge.

Vision applied as a virtue becomes more important when you look at the meanings. For throughout recorded history vision has driven the spiritual side of humans to reach out to fellow human beings, to reach out to the worlds around us, and to reach for the stars themselves. Though vision has at times brought disasters onto the heads of our kind, it is vision that has brought us back to life each time. And in the end I believe it will be vision that saves our souls as well as our planet.