Head in a Bottle

distortions of view: Sensing
no change in the changing,
pleasure in suffering,
self where there is no self,
the unlovely as lovely.

"Gone astray with wrong views, beings
Misperceive with distorted minds.

Bound in the bondage of Mara,
Those people are far from safety.
They’re beings that go on flowing:
Going again from death to birth.

But when in the world of darkness
Buddhas arise to make things bright,
They present this profound teaching
Which brings suffering to an end.
When those with wisdom have heard this,
They recuperate their right mind:
They see change in what is changing,
Suffering where there’s suffering,
“Non-self” in what is without self,
They see the unlovely as such.
By this acceptance of right view,
They overcome all suffering.

"We see these things and perceive them with certain distortions. We think that they are permanent. We think that what they have to offer is lovely and wonderful. We think that there is a solid self here that has certain likes and dislikes, certain proclivities for things out in the material world that have [particular] characteristics. They're lovely and they're beautiful. We perceive things as lasting, and we perceive them as satisfying, and we perceive them as somehow contributing to the happiness of a self that has defined likes and dislikes that can be satisfied by the external world and conditioned experiences.

These distortions of perception are the first level of vipallasa. Another way that we distort the world is that we see certain people as more valuable to us.

As an old woman of color, I can tell you: I'm often invisible in environments, which is much of the time absolutely fine with me. Other times, when I'm sent to do a particular task or perform something, this can be counterproductive my task. This is true across Western culture.

Distortions of perceptions have an impact on who we see and the amount of worth that we attribute to them. [In Western culture, we name distortions as] racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, [and so on]. These distortions of perception have an impact on whether we act with kindness whether we water the seeds of misperception and stratification—negative expressions of greed, hatred and delusion—not only at the individual level, but at the community and social level. That is sanna-vipallasa, distortions of perception."

- Bonnie Duran