As we said last week…those who are psychologically separated from others — and this goes far beyond merely the human species — are also, by the very intrinsic nature of things, separated in time… with the past being separate from the future for them. Most of us, unfortunately, do not live in a true relationship with others and with phenomena, time included. For most people, it is space that separates the past (or the present) from the future. For most people, it is space that separates the ego, the so-called center, from others. This space divorces one from true and accurate relationship; one cannot be engaged — or married — to truth and accuracy if one is so divorced.
Space divides people in so many ways. We are talking about limited space here. There are separative notions caused by divisive countries, religions, political establishments, cultures, and groups; clinging to these, as so many rigidly do — because of old traditions or being second-hand — contributes directly or indirectly to the conflict, violence, and divisiveness in the world. A global citizen, because of intelligence and sapient consideration — by not blindly belonging to any “provided ideologies or beliefs” — goes beyond all of these inculcated divisions and separations, and does so fully, not because of some learned and absorbed dogmas, but because he or she has wisely gone beyond mere ideation and reaction. The absorbed space — taking many forms — that divides people is limiting, is very fragmentary. Intelligently going beyond belief and dogma is not another belief, is not merely another dogma. Going beyond primitive, ignorant conditioning is not another form of conditioning.
Some might say, “Well, I live in the here and now, so I am not merely entrapped by time, conditioning, and cold ambition.” However, for so many, this “here and now” still involves very limited, confined space. Many, though they think they are in the here and now, still look at things from and with a concept of a learned center; there is space between this center and the perceptions that thought thinks “it has”. That center, or supposedly separate “I,” is still a learned image; it remains of (and from) the old; it is still — like so many inherited or absorbed beliefs — an extension of the past (which is not, really, the here and now at all). Direct, uncontaminated perception — not mere absorbed concepts and images — goes beyond all this; it is this direct perception that may be the only true religious mind. Absorbed concepts and stuffy, learned images may feel that they are spiritual; but true spirituality is what goes beyond secondhandedness, the dead absorbed past, and absorbed beliefs and images that contribute to friction and conflict in the world (as well as to distorted perception).
To perceive very intelligently, the mind must look without bias, without preconceptions, without rigid, implanted patterns. A truly intelligent mind perceives directly, without the screen and false power of outside authority, without beliefs, without implanted values. Beliefs and implanted values warp perception and cause the mind to accept (and cling to) erroneous things. When one says that one “has” beliefs, one’s consciousness consists of (and actually “is”) those beliefs; and when such beliefs look, they see what they were taught or programmed to see… which is biased and “loaded.” True spirituality may be perceiving without mere distortion, without a (limit-causing) space between absorbed images (including the image of “me”) and the perceptions. Most people do not care to operate as wise action far beyond the distortion that ingrained reactions manifest as. There are better things to be than bias, distortion, contributing factors toward world conflict, blind acceptance, symbolic ideas, rigid reactions, and limited space.
Living in a rotten environment. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
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