How does the kind of seeing Dillard describes at the end of her essay differ from the kind of seeing she describes at the beinning?

The moment of epiphany Dillard contemplates at the end of her essay, On Seeing, is comparable to the breakthrough or “a-ha” moment experienced by a creative individual after a period of intense searching or observation. For Dillard, this revelatory moment is akin to a spiritual or religious experience: unpredictable in its arrival and resistant to all efforts of human control, the event is like a gift bestowed directly from a higher power.
Although the essay’s conclusion is an extension of the gift metaphor (the anecdote about hiding pennies for strangers at the beginning of the essay), to arrive at her particular endpoint, Dillard contemplates the different ways in which one may experience sight beyond observation, in darkness or if one is blind, for example, and how these might expand one’s consciousness and spirit. Where the act of seeing is concerned, Dillard moves from the literal and figurative experiences of “looking” and “seeing,” respectively, to a moment of transcendence.