Srini RamaKrishnan <mailto:[email protected]>
July 12, 2014 at 10:12 PM July 12, 2014
All reality is mental perception. We each believe that which is true
for us in that moment.
I am familiar with that idea. There is an area where it's a terrific
operational strategy. The edges of that area are sharp, though, and
hanging onto that belief along those edges is a good way to get your
fingers shredded. It can also be a long fall when you let go.
When the earth was flat, it was, when everyone started to believe it
was not, it was not.
What changed the belief that the earth was flat was a steady mounting of
empirical evidence that the earth was a spheroid moving through space.
Many people chose to ignore the evidence and go on believing that the
earth was flat, but eventually the denial structure needed to maintain
the false belief crumbled under its own weight.
Reality is not silly putty. We can change our own attitudes and
perceptions to a large degree by what we do with our beliefs, but our
sphere of influence is small. Holding onto a false belief can do a lot
of damage. Mother Nature bats last, and her course corrections are not
always gentle.
Right now for most of this world material satisfaction is the highest
objective. If there comes a point when one realizes for oneself that
achieving the summum bonum of material life is still unsatisfying,
then one sets off on other paths of enquiry.
And when those paths of enquiry turn out to be equally unsatisfying, you
still have this precious gift of life to spend as you will. The sky will
still be there, and the trees, and the stars. There isn't any need to
escape nor create a philosophical maze to convince yourself you're not
going to die. You can just breathe into the present. You can still treat
the other precious beings who share your trip with compassion. You can
still turn to your own inner compass, your Inner Light, for guidance on
the path you are meant to follow.
Neither is right, neither is wrong.
Have you convinced yourself of that? If so, enjoy it while it lasts.
--hmm
