Humanity is in love with its idealized notions. The concept of enlightenment and spirituality are permeated with such notions. Much of my work has been to separate the wheat of spirituality from the chaff of false notions. Needless to say, that meets with a great deal of resistance.
As the following quote suggests, idealized notions include much more of life than just spirituality.
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.” – Thomas Sowell
I would only take issue with “of the Western world over the past three decades.” When humanity is without a clear sense of the transcendent, attempts to replace it with idealized notions run rampant in the hearts and minds of the people. No arena is left untouched… psychology, love, politics, philosophy, ethics, justice… even the hard sciences like physics. Such echoes of truth, perceived as truth, hold truth at bay for lifetimes.
That is world history in a nutshell.
It seems within humanity right now people are content with the rationalization of having a good intention. Their job is done as long as they can say that was not my intended result. When it would be more ‘good’ to move past that reality into the space of taking action aligned with nature. What could be more ‘good’ than that. 😉
That explains so perfectly why there are so few out of so many (in my world) that hear about the opportunity to expand their notions on what it means to be a human being and actually move forward with it.In my opinion your artistry of separating the wheat from the chaff is nothing less than masterful.
Thank you Brahmarshi
Prime example of putting the cart before the horse. Best to understand life before you commit to a path in life. Yet it is not enough to know it intellectually. You have to know from the depth of your being.
Thank you for finding your depth and shining the light out from within the gold mine.
You are a very special human being.
You had me at… Consciousness became conscious of itself and perceived it as other….
So many moons ago…. 🙂
“World history in a nutshell.” So elegant and so true! I agree wholeheartedly with Michael Brandon- your explanations of how the universe works are masterpieces. The Knowledge, as taught by you, will get traction and grow big in the world because it is so true.
Much wonder is that just by your teaching of meditation, exploration , your class, retreats, reading your blogs etc and practice your teaching, it comes so easy to feel the knowing comes out from the depth of our beings. and knowing it become so easy and simple and comes out naturally and automatically.,even without knowing it. You are so,so,……….great, Brahmarshi .many many thanks.
To really look at my own idealized notions and to what extent I continue to create notions is a difficult process to say the least. In terms of world history or any field of thought, how can we interact or have a better relationship with what has become complete structures of thought built around notions? You have said, “the trick is to have your boat in the water, but no water in the boat”, does this apply here? Can we learn from or transition from a mindset full of notions? How can the intelect serve us better, rather than create more notions that hold truth at bay?
“The only true knowing is knowing that you know nothing.” The exploration tills the soil. It is not about labeling things as a notion or as truth… It is about cultivating a healthy relationship with life and moving forward. Humility is the flip side of wisdom. Concrete answers are notions. We live in the world of notions. You will and must act through notions… but do not lose your Self to them. water/boat.