What is the meaning of this stanza in William Blake's Auguries of Innocence We are led to believe a lie when we see not through the eye which was born in a night to perish in a night?

Answer 1

The awareness in our brain that we call the "self" is an illusion created by the brain.

Our brain created this experience of a separate "self" to handle the billions of pieces of sensory data that we take in every second. When we are brave enough to give up this ego or self, we become liberated from our thoughts, which are in constant protest and judging people, mostly ourselves. The brain created the "self" for a very good reason, so that our species could work together to survive. Bruce Hood states that the "self" is really just the SUM of all our experiences and with each new experience the brain becomes to a degree a "new structure" or architected awareness.

In William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence" he beautifully expresses this, by giving us a version of God as "everything," all-inclusive in our human existence. To understand this better you can read my book, "From Hollywood to God" by Kelly Granite Enck.

William Blake wrote:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

Answer 2

This stanza from William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" suggests that when we rely only on external appearances and superficial judgments, we are susceptible to being deceived and led astray. It emphasizes the importance of seeing beyond the surface and using our inner vision or intuition to perceive the truth that may be hidden from plain sight. The image of being born in a night to perish in a night symbolizes the fleeting and transient nature of illusions and falsehoods that are not grounded in deeper understanding.