It is certainly true when it is said that people tend to be blind to that which is right in front of them or under their feet. Perceiving details, subtle as they typically are, requires our most refined attention. In encounters, meetings when we run into a stranger who we try to acquaint and familiarize ourselves with, we settle for the types of details which are fed to us, so blatantly obvious that not very much effort or engaged attention would be required to detect it. We maintain our level of engagement in life to a degree in which everything happens automatically and, ideally, with as little resistance and uneasiness as possible. In this state of affairs many of our more subtle functions literally go to sleep, rust, and even become so callous from lack of activity that they fall into the category of ‘permanently inoperable’.

Now aside from the reality of the situation, the possibilities are quite optimistic. Take, for example, Chinese Face Reading, which at first thought gives us a clear idea of what the subject entails. All of the details of a man’s countenance, that is, the size, structure, and proportions of his face hold significance. The distance between the eyes, the size and shape of the forehead, the length and width of the nose, the alignment of the teeth, dimples or lack of, round head or oval head — and so on. This is rather esoteric, I admit, and possibly relates more to fantasy than reality; but imagine the mind that would put such a system together. What types of new efforts would you make in your next encounter if you were to investigate features of the face, examine and analyze the tone and pitch of a voice, the physical gestures of the spine, torso, and limbs. There are some things which are automatic in life and there are others which are only apparent upon one condition: intentional effort.

Of course, there has to be motive behind such efforts. Why would someone need to investigate deeply into the details of his life, environment, and the events which surface and toil around him? Why probe at all when, automatically, we find ourselves quite comfortable and able to live in the conditions of life as we are. Along with the never ending fuel of distractions that increase in intensity from day to day, generation to generation, such an attitude is quite sane. However, upon Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there is the idea that some people aim for the subtle, the refined, and the miraculous in their lives. They have an ambition to amount to something beyond the mere sum of their parts. They search through cities, countries, and continually beyond borders for the extraordinary. Some of them find that all of that searching brings them back to themselves in a full circle and to the understanding that they have to first work on developing their more refined functions, studying the minute details of the very moment, and always increasing the frequency, duration, and depth of such efforts. Then, possibly, something else unveils itself.