“Deluded by ignorance, man mistakes one
thing for another. Lack of discernment will cause a man to think that a snake
is a piece of rope. When he grasps it in this belief he runs a great risk. The
acceptance of the unreal as real constitutes the state of bondage. Pay heed to
this my friend…”
from Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination
It’s just
the nature of the way our minds work that the world as we perceive it seems
like a pretty important, pressing, and immediate thing. It’s really the tiny
bubble of anxious circumstances that surround us – the bills we have to pay,
the kids we have to pick up, the movies we ‘have’ to see, the politics we need
to get our panties in a bunch about. In this ‘western’ society we live in, even
when we expand our focus beyond that personal immediacy, we tend to look to
mainstream media as the window to the rest of world – but in fact that is a
tiny bubble of delusion, too. We end up getting our heads [literally] wired
into a kind of sphere
of presumed realities, when if we simply step back from it all and
look at it objectively, we can see most of it isn’t really real at all.
What we all
seem to have here is actually a perception problem –
or let's call it a limited perception
problem.
There’s
a lot of powerful forces that play with us in this way these days, what with
all of the devices that we're constantly engaged with – hi-tech pocket
belief-inseminators that enclose us in a kind of “protective and secure” bubble
of reality, where our fears are managed by our ability to confirm what’s most
comfortable to us. They don’t simply connect us to a very particular world,
they monitor the complexities of our every reaction, and keep instant tabs on
our fears and desires – in order to better form the realities they would have
us presume. We walk around, staring at screens, surrounding our heads in a
bubble of ideas that support a “safe” and entitled worldview—when just beyond
the bubble’s confines, we clearly see that certain very very important things are going
terribly wrong, and require some legitimate, immediate and principled
attention too.
Our
mainstream media even goes so far as to constantly parrot that those profound
values we’ve always taken for granted – values like honesty, sanity,
responsibility, civility, and charity – are passé and archaic. We’re
continuously told that we live in a “post-truth” world, when the actual truth
we all know intuitively is this: NO, WE DON’T.
We’re told
that we have to look at things in one of two, or possibly three ways only, and
by that volition we’re given the precious (democratic) gift of “choice,” when,
in reality, if we’re only looking at the three choices presented in that one
little bubble of delusion, we are actively surrendering a virtual ocean of far
superior choices – the truly powerful potential we are actually swimming in all
the time. That “acceptance
of the unreal as real” is what “constitutes
the state of bondage.”
It’s time
for us to start paying attention to what we’re paying attention to!
“…illumining
with the candle of our ego a bright circle of awareness, we also darken the
remainder of the room…The process of making conscious thereby also makes
unconscious…the ego concentrates into one pole the divine primordial
half-light, thereby also darkening the divine.”
James
Hillman, from Senex
and Puer
The
destruction of our planet's environmental balance, the willful vivocide of the
planet’s biodiversity, the aggressive misappropriation of the Earth’s resources
by a fearful minority, the rejection of the very values that keep humanity a
going concern, and the suppression of Life’s collective intelligence, reason,
and spiritual sanity are the ruinous symptoms of living in that little
ego-bubble of delusion – of only casting light on to a tiny bubble of manufactured
interests at the expense of keeping our real well-being, and our responsible
stewardship of the planet and all the life on it, ignored in a realm of
increasing darkness. We’re painting ourselves into a corner and trying to be
happy cowering there because we’re essentially being brainwashed to think it’s
the “best” choice we have.
Break out
of that bubble now!
Turn away
from that artificial technological reality, and place your faith in the
miraculous underlying spiritual technology that supports and sustains all of
being. Fear is what separates us, fear is what divides us – Love is our
unifying reality. The presence of Love as a defining inspiration for change and
growth is what must free us. The true reality of this amazing life is alive in
that surrounding universe of infinite creativity—everything that isn’t within that tiny bubble of fear—the
ocean of innovation, interdependence, and the energy of Love alive in
all things, and available in absolutely every other direction we have
to choose from—where all the spiritual solutions we need plainly are awaiting
us.
“As you
become more truly alive, you see an infinitude of universes, a beginningless,
boundless sea of life, energy, and delight, full of goodness, aware of itself
in its absolute ultimate peace and security, freedom and happiness.”
Robert
Thurman, Infinite
Life
The latest book: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor from Llewellyn Worldwide can be ordered direct on this page or online; and the first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for them it at your local bookstore!
