"Now, I say that this system [of thought] has a fault in it - a "systematic fault". It is not a fault here or there but it is a fault that is all throughout the system. Can you picture that? It is everywhere and nowhere. You may say "I see a problem here, so I will bring my thoughts to bear on this problem." But "my" thought is part of the system. It has the same fault as the fault I'm trying to look at, or a similar fault. We have this systemic fault; and you can see that this is what has been going on in all these problems of the world - such as the problems that the fragmentation of nations has produced. We say: "Here is a fault. Something has gone wrong." But in dealing with it, we use the same kind of fragmentary thought that produced the problem, just a somewhat different version of it; therefore it's not going to help, and it may make things worse." - David Bohm
I feel I'm finally starting to reap the first, modest, fruit of the practice of mindfulness (meditation) I started about two years ago. For those who are unfamiliar with mindfulness, it's non-judgemental moment-to-moment awareness or meta-cognition of our thoughts, emotions and actions triggered by external and/or internal factors. I realize for the first time in my life that my mind has been distorting reality! This is like realizing for the first time that I've been wearing glasses with lenses not adjusted to my eyes. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that I've already had my mental lenses adjusted, which will require more self-work.
Like our physical eyes our mind were perfectly suited when we were born. What makes our mental lenses maladjusted is what David Bohm calls "ego smog". As we grow, our personal ego accumulates "smog" forced upon us by the collective ego of the society we live in, which in turn blurs mental lenses, then our mind itself, which in turn distorts reality. This "smog" of fear-based ego is extremely good at categorizing people, including both its "master" and others, and things, filtering in what is relevant to it and/or convenient for its survival and filtering out what is irrelevant and/or inconvenient. Many identities we have acquired, including our identity with our physical body, are nothing but illusions.
Having realized this, I can identity many pitfalls I used to fall into, especially in my interpersonal relationships with others. If I had realized this earlier, I might have been able to avoid one "divine storm". But on the other hand, I can also say that I might not have realized this without this "divine storm". In any case what matters more to me is that I'm now fully aware that my mind distorts reality.
In this new perspective the world looks totally different to me as if I had my glasses adjusted. I can easily understand many behaviors, whether verbal or non-verbal, of other people as results of their "ego smog" and can even be compassionate for them.
It didn't take me long to also notice that the more intelligent and rational people think of themselves, the greater the danger of having their mind distort reality, simply because they have blind faith in their intelligence and rationality and are totally unaware of the fundamental "system bug" of their mind. When I said to some of them what must have endangered their ego, they lost control of their rational mind and allowed their endangered ego to behave totally irrationally, even by calling me names. I've already learned that the best way to deal with such people is to simply walk away from them to give them an impression as if they, or to be more precise, their egos, have won the battle instead of fighting in vain as certain types of truth can't be communicated but must be experienced, that is, they have to realize experiencially that their mind, which they trust blindly, distorts reality.