Most of us think that our views are the "correct" views. They very well may be the best possible view we could have. Thinking it is so does not make it so, in any kind of ultimate way. It could be said however that thinking it is so makes it so in a relative way. The Buddha once said "I too use concepts but I am not fooled thereby." We not being the Buddha are fooled thereby, taking our concepts to be really real. This leads to suffering, a sense of reification and solidity that is more apparent than real. In the relative sense, if we find it apparent, it is real. This "reality" becomes reinforced with group consensus. We are able to find plenty of agreement for our views because our views are shaped by our human-ness, societal conditioning, and the many feeds we share with "like minded"others. All of these views are partial, and partial view, is only illusion in the grand scheme of things.
As sensing plays such an important role in view it would follow that the better one is able to sense the wider the possibility of view. Changing the activity has the ability to change the sensing. Spending the day in a loud noisy environment could leave one with deadened senses. Performing work tasks in such an environment for extended periods has lead to permanent loss of hearing in some people. What if one were to go the other way, spending time in a very quiet place could this lead to a heightening of the senses? I remember well studying music at university with a very interested (therefor interesting) professor who had just returned from a visit with the extraordinary American composer John Cage. He recounted how Cage had told him that spending time in an anechoic chamber had a profound effect on both his way of thinking and his music. It was during his time inside the chamber he realized that "there was no such thing as silence for human beings." In the chamber he could hear what he called the "air molecules bouncing against his ear drum."
A very interesting exercise that Namgyal Rimpoche gave out was to walk down a city street with a portable tape recorder recording the ambient sounds. Listen closely while walking, after, play back the tape and see how much you didn't hear. You may be surprised.
(Interestingly the Buddha would not teach in the city. People were forced to leave the city environment to receive teaching from him. Along with getting beings to leave behind their "normal life", healing the senses may have been another aspect leading to more openness and freedom.)
If view is bound to karma, or if you prefer, to activities and involvements, and activities and involvements are bound to view, how does one come to freedom? That is, freedom beyond your partial view and your karmic legacy?
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