Introduction:
"The Knowledge" is accumulated knowledge. It's what society, gives us, puts in us, feeds us, conditions us with, or conditions us into believing.
This new series will be about dismantling that collection of knowledge that is a learning which is untrue. Therefore, it's about dismantling the untruth of societal conditioning.
It is not my intention to discuss theory or what we think we know. I'm doing this for clarity. It's not for accumulating more knowledge or information. It's about exposing the untruth of the conditioning that we are all subject to from the moment of birth, throughout our entire lives.
This is not about intellectualising, or being intellectual, about the conditioning, or the untruth; "the knowledge". But, the only way to "expose" it, is to use language.
Neither is this spiritual, although, it does point to something that there is no word for.
The limitations of language make this somewhat difficult because words are open to interpretation, but this is definitely not about intellectual discussion.
So, it's about confronting illusion, and I use the only tools I have available which are thought, reflection, and honest questioning: the Introspective part of Truth and Introspection.
One thing that this series is especially not about is building a new belief system.
It's about breaking down the construct of the knowledge.
Knowledge is not "knowing", knowing is something different.
What I am doing is expressing what I have come to understand, which is not knowledge. If we call it intellectual, then it can be debated. If we call it spiritual, it gets wrapped up in robes and incense, pomp and ceremony.
Really, it's something of a mirror, and, if held still long enough, there's a possibility to see "something", without flinching, without resisting or rejecting...
... I want to say "the process" but I don't mean to imply that it's a process to be formulated into a process to be followed.
I would not know how to do that.
Confronting The Mind | Part One: Let's Get Real
In everyday speech, "I" refers to the identifiable person that others see when they look at you, when they address you, when they interact with you. By the same token, the word "me" refers to the physical body and presence that interacts with the phenomenal world; the physical person.
In Truth, "I" refers to the sense of self that thinks, feels, intuits, senses, perceives, is inspired to create and other such "things".
In short, it is the inner, private world of experience; that which moves you.
A deeper Truth is that the "ego" and the "spirit" exist only by name. The following might expand on this, just a little:
The topic of conversation, on social media, in which I wrote this, was "authenticity".
I wrote: "Being authentic doesn't mean anything because no matter your mental or emotional state, your confidence level, or thinking at any given time, that's who you are at that time ... authentically. Simply put, it's impossible for anyone to be inauthentic. Even putting on a brave face, or 'winging it' is being your authentic self in that moment. Openly admitting to feeling a certain way about 'the mask', is equally as authentic as not admitting it to anyone."
Basically, what I'm saying is that... Authenticity? It's a fake concept created by scammers for fakes.
So, the "I" that refers to "me" is not a fixed entity but more a placeholder for experience in the moment.
And, it's subject to context, language, and deeper inquiry.
And, in a sense, that's what this series is about.
So then, the question comes up about "fixing" what's broken.
I don't see that there's anything to fix in any person. Every person is completely whole exactly as they are. No one is broken. Therefore, how can there be anything to fix?
By and large, people believe the majority narrative; that which society perpetuates.
Self-improvement is as much a money-making enterprise as government, education and the justice system, to name just a few.
And, it's a business model that anyone can duplicate if they convince enough people that they know what they're talking about.
So-called 'healing' is the biggest untruth ever unleashed on the unsuspecting masses, created and perpetuated by religion and the spirituality and personal development industries and its plethora of self-proclaimed gurus, masters, and coaches.
Having said all that, even the religionists, gurus, masters, coaches of the self-help industry and so on, who honestly or innocently believe their own stories are authentic in the sense that they are unable to be anyone other than who they are or who they believe themselves to be.
Now, anyone wishing to take issue with any of these people [because of the above paragraph or otherwise] would be wise to seek out those who deliberately seek to scam and con people, knowingly and intentionally.
Although, I would question the wisdom of taking issue with anyone about anything.
Anyone can learn something new at any age, and I can't pretend to know everything there is to know about learning.
Beyond formal or self-directed education, the most worthy learning is to know oneself deeply.
Growth, as I understand it, is to grow in depth rather than intellectually or in some other way.
King Solomon of the old testament - and I emphasise that I am neither religious nor a Christian - sought, as the story goes, only to be the wisest man who lived. Growth, as I see it, is to know and understand oneself so completely that one knows that all people, without exception, are subject to the human condition* and that all people function and, generally speaking, behave much the same the world over.
Many years ago, I said to someone close to me, "I wish I understood people". I really didn't understand what I was wishing for at that time. Years later, it occurred to me that to understand others, I would have to know my "self" as deeply as possible, (not 'myself' but my "self").
Only by understanding "the self" would I, or anyone, be able to understand humans in general.
This understanding has caused me to feel many positive and extremely negative emotions about humanity as a whole as my thinking shifted over the years with each new insight.
The most worthwhile growth is attained by studying one's self; one's thoughts, feelings, emotions, reactions, responses - the inner, private world. However, it is pointless to challenge your thoughts or thinking processes the way some people would try to teach you that you can or should, or whatever, simply because, at best, doing so has only a limited affect for a very short time.
All that is required is to notice, to see oneself from the inside, without any effort whatsoever to fix or change anything**. It is by observation that change or growth naturally transpires. It just unfolds.
Simple Example: During any given day, I might feel a need to go and buy something from the local shop/store. I observe that it's raining outside and, without much thought or deliberation, I pick up my umbrella on the way out the door - it just "unfolded" that way.
It's perhaps not a great example, but it conveys my meaning to some extend.
- End of Part One -
Footnotes:
* Human Condition, Definition: What it means to be human; the experiences, characteristics, and limitations of life shared by all humans, as opposed to other lifeforms.
** It is the desire to fix or change oneself that defines one's resistance. It is this resistance which causes the problem, effort, and struggle for change, not that which one wants to change. Rather than challenging one's thinking, actions, habits, etc. simply observing or noticing the behaviour with curiosity will allow change to unfold. Of course, first one must relinquish any desire for change.
Read Part Two: Knowing The True Self
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