Okay, if the point is to have one consider whether a blind person can visualize the things in absence of visual stimuli and enjoy the experience using remaining senses coupled with such a visualization, then I would say that a person can visualize only to the extent he/she has actually seen the light or objects with eyes in the past. Here, the people who say we can visualize are late blind. I, being congenitally blind and having light perception, can visualize to the same extent as I have actually seen the things. For example, I could distinguish a bus from a truck by seeing its front hood only in the broad day light. So, I can visualize, not even in the dreams, the whole composition of a truck.
Essentially, I mean, a person who has not visually witnessed the snow falling and glowing, or does not have any such analogous visual experience, can not visualize it in the same way, she can only borrow its descriptions half-heartedly, along with other sensory inputs. To give another example, I can never visualize beauty of the female form that is seen with eyes and is sufficient to uproot vishwamitra from his penance, but others who are blind can, for they have witnessed the appearance of a person visually. Still, I opine that article was not making this point. It was extolling silence and hinting at the possibility of a blind man enjoying the snowfall primarily to his being silent witness... Regards Rajesh Asudani Assistant General Manager (PPS), Reserve Bank of India Nagpur 09420397185 O: 0712 2806676 Res: 0712 2591349 Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" John Milton -----Original Message----- From: accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Asudani, Rajesh Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 10:46 AM To: Geetha Shamanna; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] How could a blind man watch the snow? More wonderful thing is to have it discussed in the list!!!! Wonder whether it has become a place to discuss philosophy!!!!! Yes, superimposition of blindness to bring home value of silence is a cheap gimmick and I have heard long sermons as to how closing your outer eyes or having them closed as a result of blindness is a wonderful blessing as it opens inner so-called eyes and elevates you to a higher level of appreciation etc. etc. The above article, as per my opinion, falls into the same category of non-rational subjective experience without any useful objective appeal... and make a blind person escape goat, too bad. Regards Rajesh Asudani Assistant General Manager (PPS), Reserve Bank of India Nagpur 09420397185 O: 0712 2806676 Res: 0712 2591349 Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" John Milton -----Original Message----- From: accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Geetha Shamanna Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 10:09 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] How could a blind man watch the snow? Wonder why people write such rubbish in articles. This article is about the significance of silence, and the blind man watching the snow analogy is totally out of context. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kotian, H P" <hpkot...@rbi.org.in> To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in> Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 10:34 AM Subject: [AI] How could a blind man watch the snow? Hello all I am allowing this posting for members to reflect on the mindset / enquiry; prevailing about prevalent notions on visual disability. Harish Kotian Moderator hi not sure whether this is an OT. Thought this might interest some of AI members. If you share this view please post it. regards rohith Saying it with silence There was this very beautiful line that I read in Orhan Pamuk's novel, 'My Name Is Red'. He wrote about a blind man watching the snowfall and smiling to himself. That line stayed with me for a long, long time. How could a blind man watch the snow? I pondered. I know that when the sight is taken away, the other senses become sharper. The blind man must have felt the cold air around him with the tiny snowflakes brushing his cheek; he must have caught a puffy, wet ball in his hand and had felt it melt in his palms. But did he hear the snow falling? Somehow I believe that he actually listened to the snowfall, more than he felt it. He must have listened to the silence of the falling snow. He listened, because he was silent inside, in his own wonderful and special way. Often silence makes people uncomfortable, accustomed as they are to the noise and commotion of the world, but silence is all about coming home to ourselves. When we sit in silence we relax and slip into an exquisite nothingness. We look within and drop our opinionated mind and learn to feel everything around us more deeply. When the incessant chatter of the mind stops and we let the quietness around submerge us, something sacred is born within. Nietzsche said that our greatest experiences are our quietest moments. Needless to say, it is only in silence that we are capable of listening. Like that blind man watching the snowfall and smiling to himself, we learn to listen more when we are silent. Silence is the basic ingredient for entering into our intuitive mind and to resist the cacophony of meaningless noises outside. It is interesting to note how Silent and Listen have same letters but are arranged differently. We humans have a tendency to talk more and listen less; much of it is because we have forgotten the art of waiting and allowing ourselves to grow silent within. Nature has no trouble in remembering this art. Nature thrives on silence. We never hear the footsteps of moon when it appears on the sky. We don't hear a loud bang when the sun comes out and the stars burst open in the sky. Their arrival is always wrapped in a glorious silence. Look how the tree knows it! It remains bare, beautiful and still; waiting for the new leaves, knowing that the old has gone and the new will soon be coming. The tree waits in silence. Just like tree, when we are silent and waiting, something beautiful inside us keeps on growing and it is this stillness and silence that gives birth to creativity. Often it happens that when we wait in silence, life rushes back to fill those crevices in our souls. There are times when silence becomes the most potent way of communication and is more effective than words. We all have at least one memory when we have faced that eloquent silence of our elders such as parents or teachers when we have felt a cold fear at the bristling silence of their fury. When their silence had scared us more than angry words. When just one quiet look had had us behaving better than a harsh reprimand or scolding. Lovers all over the world are said to communicate with silence. Understand each other's silence. The famous telepathy between two people who have strong feelings for each other happens in a compelling silence. In a business world the salesmen are taught the art of persuasive silence. After he has urged the potential client to buy some product and the customer is contemplating quietly over what the salesman has described, the well trained salesman remains absolutely silent during this important hiatus. Often he gains his sale by using this important tool. Undeniably, silence needs a special kind of power and authority of mind and saying it with silence needs a certain 'command of language'. To say nothing is often more difficult than expressing the anger, love and betrayal with words. However, being silent with a natural and calm stillness within is like a spiritual reflex. Analyze it too much or think too much about it and it degenerates itself into something superficial and edgy. If we become self-conscious about silence then we begin to work against it. We rush to fill it with inane talks and nervous gestures, and the silence loses its value. But we can certainly develop this powerful way of communicating by practicing a calm mind. By realizing that between stimulus and response, there is a space and in that space is our power to choose our response because in our response lies our growth and our freedom. That "space" is silence. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal said "All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone." As these beautiful lyrics of the song 'Sounds of silence' by Simon and Garfunkel say: "People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening, People writing songs that voices never share And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence. Hear my words that I might teach you; Take my arms that I might reach you. But my words like silent raindrops fell, And echoed In the wells of silence." Each time when I feel that I just cannot take another step forward in life, I seek refuge in silence. And sure enough I get recharged with fresh dose of faith, hope and confidence. ________________________________ Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. 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