What is it seeing, or not seeing?

Eye upon the TV
Stare like a junkie
Stare like a zombie
Don’t look at me like I’m a monster
Watching him die
I need to watch things die (from a distance)
From a king’s mountain view
Damn my eyes!
Difficult to see you in this light
Weeping shades of cozened indigo
Should you see your maker
Look him in the eye
Eyes upon the ground (but high is the way)
Movements none would see
Difficult to see you in this light
See, I’m alright
Blinded by choice
Hypocrites won’t see
My witness, my eyes, my evidence
Eyeballs deep in muddy waters
Lemon juice up in your eye
Seeing E mother fucking T
… and a hundred other references in Tool’s lyrics and art


Eyes of duality look to separate

A single One sees to unify

Perception in tension

Choose your purpose

And keep choosing



For the perceptive eye…


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“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
-- Buddha

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“All things, oh priests, are on fire . . . The eye is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire.”
-- Buddha

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“If [one] has evil in the organ of the eye
And the eyes are impure with the impediment of karmas,
[That one] must only recite the Great Vehicle [sutras]
And reflect on the first principle.
This is called the repentance of the eyes,
Exhausting all bad karmas.
The organ of the ear hears disordered sounds
And disturbs the principle of harmony.
This produces a demented mind,
Like [that of] a foolish monkey.
[That one] must only recite the Great Vehicle [sutras]
And meditate on the emptiness and nonform of things,
Forever extinguishing all the evils.”
-- from the Lotus Sutra (Buddhism)

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“The eye altering, alters all.
As a man is, so he sees.
As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”
-- William Blake

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“Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and parcel of God.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad humanity must assume the aspect of Hell.”
-- Edgar Alan Poe

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“Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.”
-- William Butler Yeats

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“He had but one eye and the pocket of prejudice runs in favor of two. “
-- Charles Dickens

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“If a union is to take place between opposites like spirit and matter, conscious and unconscious, bright and dark, and so on, it will happen in a third thing, which represents not a compromise but something new.”
-- Carl Jung

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“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
-- Jesus, Gospel of Matthew

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"When you make the two into one, you will become children of Adam, and when you say, 'Mountain, move from here!' it will move."
-- Jesus, from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

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“In the highest state of consciousness man can reach, Life exists in Unity. With the spiritual eye open, one can perceive beneath the duality of life, the Oneness of all life - that is the Divine life itself; the Creator who stepped into his own creation. This is the Living One(ness) which is the goal of life. ... No two are present, only One.”
-- posted by “Vidya” on a forum, discussing the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

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“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”
-- Meister Eckhart

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“One who sees without distortion, free of prejudice,
has light in the eyes.
Self-interest blinds you
and buries your knowledge in a grave.
Lack of prejudice makes ignorance wise;
its presence makes knowledge perverse.
Accept no bribe, and your sight is clear;
act selfishly, and you become blind and enslaved.”
-- Rumi

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“The sensuous eye is a horse;
the light of God is the rider:
without the rider the horse is useless.
The light of God rides the body's eye.
The soul yearns for God.
God's light enhances the senses.
This is the meaning of Light upon Light.”
-- Rumi

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“The five spiritual senses are all connected.
They've grown from one root.
As one grows strong, the others strengthen, too:
each one becomes a cupbearer to the rest.
Seeing with the eye increases speech;
speech increases discernment in the eye.
As sight deepens, it awakens every sense,
so that perception of the spiritual
becomes familiar to them all.”
-- Rumi

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“This world and that world are forever giving birth:
every cause is a mother; the effect born is as a child.
When the effect was born, it too became a cause
so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
These causes follow generation upon generation,
but it takes a very well-illumined eye
to see all the links in the chain.”
-- Rumi

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Though the worlds are eighteen thousand and more,
not every eye can see them.
Every atom is indeed a place of the vision of God,
but so long as it is unopened,
who says, "There is a door"?
-- Rumi

And this special selection goes out to all the female bashers in this section…

Prying open my Vagina Eye:

“ [The eye is an archetype for] “the female genitals, as is clear from the myth of Indra [Hindu god of rain and thunder], who, as a punishment for his wantonness, was smitten with yonis [representations of the external female genitals] all over his body, but was so far pardoned by the gods that the shameful yonis were changed into eyes. The little image reflected in the eye, the 'pupilla,' is a 'child.' The great god becomes a child again: he enters into the mother's womb for self-renewal.”

-- Carl Jung (Symbols 268)

so long as you didn't have a yeast infection/s.

Thanks for the post RiseToYourHalo :)

Yeah, fascinating post. I am still taking it all in. Forgive and ignore the distracting joke.

She’d really only have all those friends for about 3 weeks out of the month… (how’s that mind’s eye image of the other week lookin' for ya? :)

And her only real friend would have to be a man with penises all over his body, because other than an eenie meenie minie mo, what’s the point?

This reminds me of a picture of a man that had an ear implanted on his arm:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...icle_id=487039

Who knows, maybe there’s a sex and porn-obsessed mad genetic scientist out there playing with his beaker as we speak.

Glad everyone enjoyed the eye quotes. Please add any of your own.

Winston, if you’re a Rumi fan as your sig may indicate, you would also like Hafiz, another Sufi poet from the 14th century:

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Poetry reveals that there is no empty space

When your truth forsakes it shyness,
When your fears surrender to your strengths,
You will begin to experience

That all existence
Is a teeming sea of infinite life.

In a handful of ocean water
You could not count all the finely tuned
Musicians

Who are acting stoned
For very intelligent reasons

And of course are becoming extremely sweet
And wild.

In a handful of the sky and earth,
In a handful of God,

We cannot count
All the ecstatic lovers who are dancing there
Behind the mysterious veil.

True art reveals there is no void
Or darkness.

There is no loneliness to the clear-eyed mystic
In this luminous, brimming
Playful world.

-- Hafiz

Doesn't he say, "I own the TV?"

Great post though, it has certainly opened my vagina...

From A Course in Miracles:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God

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The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have an end.

The body’s eyes are therefore not the means by which the real world can be seen, for the illusions that they look upon must lead to more illusions of reality. And so they do. For everything they see not only will not last, but lends itself to thoughts of sin* and guilt. While everything that God created is forever without sin and therefore is forever without guilt.

Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another level, they can never meet. The one correction possible for false perception must be true perception. It will not endure. But for the time it lasts it comes to heal. For true perception is a remedy with many names. Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one. They are the one beginning, with the end to lead to Oneness far beyond themselves. True perception is the means by which the world is saved from sin, for sin does not exist. And it is this that true perception sees.

(* sin defined by ACIM is ‘lack of love’)

No, it's "Eye on the TV"....and I do like some of the info Rise added regarding this but some of it is wrong and I think overly interpreted. It's like if you say to someone "hey, can you keep an eye on this?" that doesn't mean they're talking about the third eye just because they didn'tsay "hey, can you keep your eyeS on this". Ya' know what I mean? I'm not saying Tool doesn't throw these references in there but some of you people really need a day job and to stop OVER-analyzing things.

I think he says, "I own the TV..."

Then perhaps you should take a peek at the "official" lyrics that were posted long ago.

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You're right, I retort that statement and am currently pwning myself. I coulda' sworn they had released the "official lyrics" for this song already but I just went and checked and perhaps I'm wrong.

No fucking way, thanks....you're post is almost as if I didn't just fuckin say that I looked and saw I was wrong and openly admitted it.

The eye is obviously a prominent symbol for Tool, so it must mean ‘something’ to the band members.

I intentionally posted an open ended question at the beginning of the thread, along with some cool eye quotes so you can do your own interpretation. You may read something into a lyric and yet I may see it differently. That’s just the nature of perception. It is selective

Indeed it is, indeed it is. They are constantly reminding of us about that with their music aren't they? You have done a good job of getting that across in this post. Good post my friend.

Yeah, but official doesn't really mean anything. I think for myself, not what some one else deems "official". I use my vaigineye to reflect that which is refl....

Just kidding...

While I agree with this somewhat, the "eye" referenced in this song has absolutely NOTHING to do with the "third eye". All he's saying (if it IS eye on the tv, which I'm 99% positive of) is that we are drawn to the Tv...hence the lyrics "eye on the Tv because tragedy thrills me, stare like a zombie" that makes perfect sense and is pretty self explanatory without having to try and find some new age hidden third eye meaning, it's just not there in this song.

If our eye is on the TV, staring like a zombie, what are we NOT looking at?

And you’re right, Vicarious is written entirely from the perspective of the ego, third eye closed.

I think its more about the way we sit and watch things happen around us while doing nothing to change or effect our world. We need to watch things die and bad things happen in the world in which we live, as long as it is from a nice safe distance and we don't have to get involved.

It shows the inherent selfishness of people. We really don't mind that people rob and kill each other until it happens to us or someone we care about. Then it becomes our problem. Gangs are fine as long as they stay in the ghettos and away from my street corner. Domestic terrorism is ok as long it stays in Oklahoma or Wyoming.

What we should really be doing is actively participating in eradicating our society of the crime and poverty that is detrimental to our way of life. But we don't until it happens on our route to work.

WE NEED A HERO....<enter SUPEREULOGY> .....on second thought, I'll leave that up to Danger Mouse

I'm sure we will all sit back comfortably on the sidelines and vicariously watch Danger Mouse save us or not.

you're a fucking piece of shit.

your posts are shit, your opinions are shit, pretty much everyone i see in here hates you. you had no clue what was going on in that series of posts where i put that link, maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and reread it.

oh and you're a big fucking homophobe too, tough guy. fuck the hell off.

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“In Tibetan and Vietnamese temples have you seen the bodhisattvas, each with a thousand arms that reach out? In the palm of each hand there is an eye. That eye symbolises understanding. When you understand, you accept, and then you are moved and you act. Let us look at the palms of our hands and see whether we have an eye there already or not. If we do have one, we can be sure that our hand will not do anything to create suffering for other people. With an eye in the palm of your hand, you will not be capable of shooting and killing another human being. The practice of meditation is about putting an eye in your palm, by looking, realising and understanding your relationships with humans and other living beings.”

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and peace activist

Yeah, you and maybe 3 other people hate me. Big fucking deal, I can't make everyone happy, only your sister is guaranteed that. The only ones that end up hating me are the same ones that are either A) fucking idiots with dumbass ideas that either make no sense or do but are fuckign retarded OR B) fucking sensative sissies like yourself that feel bad for the intellectually impaired and for some fucking odd reason seem to think they're doing anybody a favor by saying something to me. I could give two fucking shits what you think of me and my opinions. I find it funny how you were all agreeing with me in the other threads and being nice and here you suddenly show your 2nd face.....The Pot fits you perfect you fucking sensitive hypocritical Nancy.

.....and I have no idea where you got the fucking notion that I was a homophobe, I have no problems if somebody like yourself is into sucking dicks. If that floats your boat, keep on suckin'...like a leech or a parasite, catch my drift?

Now Inner (I consistently aggree and disagree with you), if you really don't give "two fucking shits" about it, you wouldn't waste so much time responding to and insulting those that oppose you and your opinions...

Love and hate are similar, both require much time and energy.

http://toolnavy.com/showpost.php?p=2422474&postcount=8

keep hiding in albums where your worthless ass is safe.

thats all you can do is call me and others gay? oh i take it all back you're a fucking genius.

Welcome to the Flame Show boys and girls. To avoid scorching of the eyes, please wear protective gear. Thank you.

Well, I contradict myself often...I have yet to balance my yin yang therefore I flip flop...how's that sound?

You're a fucking idiot to think that comment had anything to do with homosexuals. Ever heard the term "context"...look it up and you might understand what was meant by it. Besides, I was joking with somebody and I was calling the situation gay, not the person. If your cognitive skills were at least at an average level you would have fucking understood that.

The eye sees what it looks at and what it is told to see. Tool wants to remove the second part, I figure. The third eye is not connected to any sort of 'ear' or transfer of information which tells it how to perceive. Robertus de Fluctibus also, it seems, believes it is linked to the higher worlds.

My third eye is failing to see how a situation can be homosexual...

You have forgotten Shakespeare's First Law of Metaphors: properly applied, any combination of words can become a euphemism for some form of sex. Apparently, though, today, it turned into man-on-man buttfucking. If it was tribadism, the words would probably be slightly more benign.

Ah! So the said parties were only partaking in a metaphorical contest to determine which of the said party in fact possesed the largest penis. The aforementioned contest then turned for the worse in which the said parties then began ramming each other in the metaphorical anus ergo, turning the whole situation "gay".

Correct, good sir.

I do love a good ass pounding! Metaphorically typing...

You two are gay