When looking around the Grand Canyon with a gas station folded map in your hand it is plain to see that the map is not the territory. If the map is a good one, there will be scribbly-scrawly things indicating roads, mountains, canyons, rivers, and what not. But a little blue line wiggling across a cellulose sheet of paper is not the same thing as a river. The map will work for navigation purposes. But, for the real thing, you need to look to the territory.
Something that is not so obvious is the fact that as you stand admiring the landscape you are also looking at a map — not the territory. Because of how our perceptions work, because of the mechanics of our brains, we are never looking at the territory. We are always looking at a map.
This map is carefully constructed from the cornucopia of impressions that come pouring in through our five senses — mixed in with a large dash of experience. All of this is constructed and stored in our brain.
I don’t say this to diminish the wonderful experience of pondering a gorgeous landscape. Rather this is a reminder that the view you “see” is constructed from perceptual lego blocks created yesterday and the days before yesterday. This map, can be most excellent. But it is not the territory. Because it is a map, there is the ever present possibility that new elements are there in the territory right before your eyes which are being ignored because they may not as yet be translated onto the map.
If every brown flying blur that we have seen was a bird, we will very likely interpret the next brown flying blur as a bird as well. There is a huge momentum in the map department of our brains to do this.
“If this is the way it is, then this is the way it is — what do you expect me to do about it?” Well, perhaps just keep a small post-it note on the map (down in the lower corner) to remind you that this is the map and not the territory. The territory may contain wonders previously unguessed at.
Maybe don’t be so sure that you’ve seen it all before. Perhaps you’ve seen all of the map before. Perhaps the map has nothing new and wonderfully surprising to offer. Just remember, the territory is greater than the map. The map is a boiled down version of the territory. So…. it is very possible that as you penetrate through the vision of the map toward a more direct experience of the territory you may be in for some amazing times.