Breaking the Spell
by nano Sunday, Apr 20 2014, 4:49am
international /
prose /
post
In order to understand the human condition we must draw upon human experience in its totality, including all known written and oral traditions.
Understanding is the fruit of the knowledge ‘tree;’ with understanding we are able to make informed decisions. Without knowledge and understanding we are slaves to those forces that weave fictions, myths and outright lies. Most people are familiar with the maxim, “knowledge is power,” please note that the phrase is emphatic, it is not vague or ambiguous, it does not lend itself to interpretation it simply states a fact, that knowledge IS power -- we should also note that knowledge does not imitate power, it simply IS POWER, why? Simply because with knowledge comes understanding and with understanding comes AWARENESS and with awareness we become grounded or anchored in the REAL not in someone else’s myth, fiction or fabricated imposition.
The earliest known comprehensive writings of various civilisations are of a theological nature; these texts and their associated compendiums provided various cultures with guidelines and answers (some fanciful) to age-old questions; they also encoded laws, rules and behavioural prohibitions which were designed to unify and organise large, densely populated societies -- behavioural codes were necessary as large groups of people would have descended into chaos without social guidelines. We must not forget that ancient scribes and rulers were pragmatic and extremely practical as survival in days past was an extremely challenging proposition.
I am writing this piece on Easter Sunday, a day sacred to religious Christians that believe their saviour, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead on this day; the chant, “He is risen,” could once be heard in orthodox Churches throughout many orthodox nations; notwithstanding that the resurrection story is entirely based in myth and symbolism. Nevertheless, that ancient story, or persistent cultural myth, is not without value, as has been inferred above. It is one of the first stories of personal liberation and freedom, that of ‘dying’ to a former existence and being reborn as a greater, more complete robust entity, but first we must TRACE the origins of that story and to do that we must first trace the origins of thought as without thought there is no language, narrative or knowledge.
I shall refer to various ancient texts from diverse cultures regarding thought and knowledge, however, we must not forget we are dealing with one common denominator, HUMANITY, of which we are all part.
In the Old Testament (Genesis) we encounter a creation myth, one which was never intended to be taken literally, ancient theological texts were primarily pedagogic and were meant to be instructive. The mythic deity pre-empts knowledge and thought in the sense that he ‘speaks’ to his creations, Adam and Eve (who understand); the Abrahamic God then places the first prohibition or restriction (of the text) on his victims -- Adam and Eve are instructed not to eat of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” under pain of death if they do, an interesting prohibition to say the least, however, we first must analyse the process of thought and how conceptions ideas ‘knowledges’ form in the mind in order to gain a deeper understanding -- do not be daunted, the process is simplicity itself, though numerous western philosophers have tripped over themselves attempting to discern as much. Thought is essentially a comparative process, by making various 'measurable' comparisons, usually of opposites, we arrive at certain conclusions (erroneous or otherwise, as measuring/comparing is a finite activity and Truth of course is INFINITE) after which the thought process continues until we either go insane or are saved by sleep (mental rest) or liberation/emancipation.
The 'train’ of thought is so familiar to humans they imagine it was always thus or intrinsic to being not a learned process superimposed on consciousness by language/culture, aha!
So what does the above statement imply or reveal? Simply that another far more natural state of mind (consciousness) preceded thought and that that consciousness is entirely natural, cosmic in fact! It should also be noted that due to its primal, unpolluted nature that conscious shares characteristics with cosmic creation or the continuous, infinite universe of which we are a continuous part!
The man made ‘God’ of the OT is indirectly telling us that if we engage in comparative thought, involving irreconcilable polar opposites or binary oppositions (represented as ‘good and evil’ in the text) we would surely die to our innocent, continuous, unpolluted consciousness or primal state of perfection!
I would now draw from an ancient Chinese text that also infers something beyond thought but first westerners must understand that Asian cultures do not thrust ideas or knowledges onto others, they infer, hint, imply and allude, nevertheless, one could hardly miss the point of this Taoist quote, which also mentions the CLASSIC binary opposition of ‘good and evil’:
I quote from an early piece on the parent website, “ ...from Light we emerged and to Radiance we return. The following quote was written in 600 BC by Lao Tzu:
"If not for the notion of beauty there would be no ugliness.
If not for the notion of good there would be no evil.
Polarities alternate one with the other and are mutually bound in opposition.
The wise man (Sage) therefore achieves action through non-action and imparts
his teaching silently as the ‘Way’ [Tao] imparts all things that can be known, naturally and easily."
O lover of Love
Love of mine
We are One
We are ONE”
As stated previously, humanity is our common denominator and so we share in exactly the same human condition -- need I say that we should never allow anyone/state/culture to divided us with lies, myths and fabricated falseties.
A more concise, unambiguous and direct description of thought and consciousness originated in ancient India, but is it any different to that inferred in the OT or the Tao, you be the judge?
Patanjali concisely wrote in his aphorisms that Yoga is a state characterised by “the cessation of the modifications of mind”, in other words Yoga is a state devoid of thought, which of course implies TOTAL AWARENESS, as consciousness unrestricted by finite thought becomes/is INFINITE!
A cautionary note on Yoga is here required; Yoga has two distinct branches, philosophical and practical, both originated and co-exist in culture today, however, the culmination of Yoga (and that implied by the previous religious, philosophical quotes) is antithetical to culture, as without finite thought/language, upon which culture is built, culture simply disappears. Nevertheless, the state of clarity achieved by that to which the allusions/quotes refer, increases awareness, which allows perception to fully apprehend the 'illusory' (false) or constructed/fabricated nature of culture, which is then seen in all its harmony-disharmony, or if you prefer, 'beauty and ugliness' -- usually a disproportionate mix of both qualities! The various processes and mechanisms of any given culture become immediately transparent, which allows clear, aware, perception to easily spot weaknesses, strengths and avenues for subversion, improvement or social reformation that others, enslaved by cultural myths, are unable to see/detect.
Now this is where most people slip up, culture is not an enemy of awareness and increased knowledge/power, culture is required for large numbers of people to live co-operatively together; however, when culture is captured by self-seeking minority interests that oppose the greater good what must be applied to remedy that perverse culture is the knowledge/POWER gained from clear perception and awareness of the REAL not the myth, LIE or misrepresentation.
As knowledge increases, POWER, or the ability to alter course, transform one’s immediate environment or indeed free oneself and be reborn again, increases in direct proportion to the amount of effort work and application invested in a particular task that anticipates a particular outcome.
The power to transform culture comes from the people that refuse to support, work or contribute to perverse cultural directions -- ‘perpetual war,’ debt slavery, induced by worthless paper or digital money produced from thin air, as occurs in every nation that is part of the Reserve Banking Cartel, are two obvious examples of destructive perversity.
One need not be a genius to understand that a homosexual U.S. president that has a secret extra-judicial ‘kill list’ is in REALITY a sociopathic criminal murderer, or that a nation that specialises in the continuous killing of civilians (six million since the illegal Vietnam war) is in fact the world’s leading terrorist (by definition) State.
When cabals and their puppets LIE openly about a Kiev ‘government’ that is neither representative or a government and attempt to sell a lie/fraud to the aware world as legitimate, simple VERIFIABLE REALITY dictates that the government in Kiev is nothing but a group of neo-Nazi fascist thugs that have staged a coup and usurped a legitimate elected government!
If known and proven political puppets, propagandists and sociopaths like Clinton, Albright and Brzezinski -- and others in the privately owned corporate media -- say that the sky is green or that neo-Nazi thugs constitute a legitimate government one need simply LOOK and VERIFY it’s a LIE!
Kiev today does NOT HAVE a legitimate government -- a DEMOCRATIC vote by the MAJORITY is the only form of legitimacy a government can have yet Wall St puppets in Washington continue to read from the most absurd fairy tale scripts provided by minority forces in their desperate attempt to convince the wider community that black is white and white is purple!
If the ‘Emperor’ has no clothes and parades around in his naked ugliness but others say he is splendidly dressed BELIEVE YOUR EYES and the simple REALITY that stares you in the face, DAILY! Only then would you be able to increase your personal power, achieve clarity and effect change in your self, society and immediate environment. Your personal power increases in direct proportion to the time spent participating in REALITY, the opposite is true for those that engage and embrace myth and fantasy.
Believe nothing, verify everything, then culture, government or any other cultural vehicle is easily reformed and the world would have a VIABLE chance for peace and harmony.
The existing status quo is suicidal/nihilistic and will inevitably lead to ruin, destruction and death -- that is the VERIFIABLE Truth!
Enjoy the break and the transformative message of Easter.
Peace.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali -- 400 BC
http://jungledrum.hopto.org/news/story-962.html