Mondo Metaphysics (Guest Post By Daguerreotype-O-Negative)
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-I believe that there is a reality that I and everyone else are experiencing & manipulating & shaping.
-We Interpret this reality through our philosophical worldview like a colored lens with a fixed depth of field would see a landscape.
-If we realized this fundamental quality of our limitations of perception we could then look through many different filters to see different aspects of the one reality that we are shaping.
When I hear the words of Siddhartha, Jesus, Socrates, Morihei Ueshiba, Nietzsche, Thich Nhat Hanh, & Eckhart Tolle I hear the exact same message with little variation. The main differences in some of the great philosophical teachers' perspectives seems to simply be their background, but it all comes down to the simple fact that we are all humans that were simply born here and we are just trying to make sense of everything that surrounds us and there are some fundamental conclusions that we all tend to come to if we just let go of our biases, bigotries, and assumptions that were thrust upon us by our ancestors. I think just the realization that there are many different perspectives on the same things is a seriously important fundamental fact that we need to accept in order to have any sort of balanced worldview.
But in order to keep multiple different perspectives in your mind, without struggling to have one win over the other requires a very high level of acceptance of your fear.
It is extremely hard for people, that grew up being told that their one perspective was the only correct one, to accept that every perspective has something to offer.
Creative people tend to have an easier time with this, because they tend to see every piece of information or every feeling and emotion as something that can be used to paint a aesthetically pleasing tapestry or write a beautiful paragraph with.
If you realize that every single idea is simply pointing to something, but is not actually that thing itself, you will have learned the most important lesson for anyone attempting to experience reality directly!
If you take to heart the analogy of the person pointing out the moon to someone, and the person they're pointing out the location of the moon to focuses on the finger pointing to the moon and never actually sees the moon itself, that is the closest analogy I've seen in literature capturing what it is like for anyone who doesn't realize that you can't deify the messenger, they are simply pointing to something that you can see for yourself.
Once you realize that you have the ability within yourself to navigate reality directly, & all philosophy & beliefs & religions are just road maps & road signs along the way you will have finally cracked the ultimate code. You will be free. Do you close your eyes while driving & assume the GPS will get you where you are wanting to go, try it sometime, it is very helpful to have a guide but it is useless & ultimately dangerous to have faith blindly with your eyes closed! Read between the fucking lines.
Comments
He pointed out that growing up and conceptualizing within a paradigm made it difficult to see another perspective. Cross paradigmatic communication was difficult at best. A skill to acquire is to step into and out of paradigms. With practice this is easier to achieve and with concerted effort cross paradigmatic communication can occur.
You can even become so skilled at this that you can call into question one of Kuhn's thesis, viz., that you cannot do this. :)
The practical advantages of this are nearly endless, the boost to empathetic responses to Others is but one gift that arrives in this packaging.
Peace,
RF