Look at anything, and you imagine you perceive what's actually there, but the capacity to see is far from automatic and must be developed. By smoothing out the knots within one's character, one is best able to receive the cool breeze of knowledge, without it catching on an aspect of one's being and creating havoc.
Of course, this sounds remarkably like Buddhism. It's injunction is be calm and then it shall become clear what you should do.
In reality, calmness is not enough, as one must learn also to see. Seeing has a cultural aspect, and is as such broadly environmentally conditioned. The markers of peace and danger will also be different depending on what parts of reality are vital for you to ascertain if you want to survive.
On top of that is a more narrow cultural overlay, which may also influence survival. For instance, in Western culture it has been fairly standard to assume that appearance and reality are two separate conditions. What somebody asserts about themselves fits the category of appearance, whereas reality is viewed as being necessarily evasive, an entity which has to be shot at on the wing.
In traditional Zimbabwean culture, reality and appearance are different sides of the same thing. Appearance may be a manifestation of a hidden reality, for instance, when a goblin in the midst of the community is suddenly suspected. A peer steps forward and confesses to having purchased the pint-sized slave to gain a supernatural advantage, but (because the goblin is, really, avarice), the entity had somehow gained advantage over him instead. Now he wishes to get rid of it.
Goblins are thus burnt or exploded or otherwise eliminated. The community, having addressed an underlying reality by means of an apparition -- an "appearance" -- then psychologically re-balances itself along more normative lines.
As you might see, in Western culture, appearance often has a defensive function, protecting individuals from too much prying into their actual motivations. By contrast, appearance has a hygienic function in the example given above. It allows everyday reality to function smoothly, without drives and passions getting too far out of control.
To see the world in one of these ways means not to see it in the other way. One can't employ both methods simultaneously, because they negate each other. The Westerner, for instance, does not want his appearance dispelled as a goblin. He needs it, for instance as so much woolly clothing on a winter's day. The African, likewise, needs his manifestations of mere "appearance" as a way to deal more effectively with reality.
So, what ultimately is reality and what is appearance? In both cases, cultural prejudices pertain -- but, also methods of cultural hygiene. Whether I am Western or culturally African, I see what I have been trained to see, and consequently I don't readily make sense of other people's modes of seeing. We may tend to see the other as crazy and having distorted views, not realizing that others have systems of hygiene that work differently from what one has come to expect.
There are also cultural systems that can replicate a malignant coding, in much the same way cells sometimes reproduce malignant DNA. I have stated oftentimes before that it is critical to combat these manifestations, ideally with a magic bullet. It simply isn't good to deny they exist.
People don't like hearing what I have to say on that, it's clear. A healthy society recognizes a disease within its midst, but an unhealthy or malignant one puts it down to perception or malignant vision. "One would not see the malignancy if one's eyes were not themselves diseased!"
I can avoid addressing the issue and simply etherize the patient. He seems to be begging for a potent pain killer. I'll tell him that he has a great "identity" and to carry on by all means.
Buddhism says there is much value in ceasing to care because then one has no horse in this race and everything becomes clear finally.
As a kind of Buddhist, I will wait and see what the patient decides to do. He states his vision is quite clear and I am not perceiving him correctly. Well, maybe he is right.
Let's wait and see.
Of course, this sounds remarkably like Buddhism. It's injunction is be calm and then it shall become clear what you should do.
In reality, calmness is not enough, as one must learn also to see. Seeing has a cultural aspect, and is as such broadly environmentally conditioned. The markers of peace and danger will also be different depending on what parts of reality are vital for you to ascertain if you want to survive.
On top of that is a more narrow cultural overlay, which may also influence survival. For instance, in Western culture it has been fairly standard to assume that appearance and reality are two separate conditions. What somebody asserts about themselves fits the category of appearance, whereas reality is viewed as being necessarily evasive, an entity which has to be shot at on the wing.
In traditional Zimbabwean culture, reality and appearance are different sides of the same thing. Appearance may be a manifestation of a hidden reality, for instance, when a goblin in the midst of the community is suddenly suspected. A peer steps forward and confesses to having purchased the pint-sized slave to gain a supernatural advantage, but (because the goblin is, really, avarice), the entity had somehow gained advantage over him instead. Now he wishes to get rid of it.
Goblins are thus burnt or exploded or otherwise eliminated. The community, having addressed an underlying reality by means of an apparition -- an "appearance" -- then psychologically re-balances itself along more normative lines.
As you might see, in Western culture, appearance often has a defensive function, protecting individuals from too much prying into their actual motivations. By contrast, appearance has a hygienic function in the example given above. It allows everyday reality to function smoothly, without drives and passions getting too far out of control.
To see the world in one of these ways means not to see it in the other way. One can't employ both methods simultaneously, because they negate each other. The Westerner, for instance, does not want his appearance dispelled as a goblin. He needs it, for instance as so much woolly clothing on a winter's day. The African, likewise, needs his manifestations of mere "appearance" as a way to deal more effectively with reality.
So, what ultimately is reality and what is appearance? In both cases, cultural prejudices pertain -- but, also methods of cultural hygiene. Whether I am Western or culturally African, I see what I have been trained to see, and consequently I don't readily make sense of other people's modes of seeing. We may tend to see the other as crazy and having distorted views, not realizing that others have systems of hygiene that work differently from what one has come to expect.
There are also cultural systems that can replicate a malignant coding, in much the same way cells sometimes reproduce malignant DNA. I have stated oftentimes before that it is critical to combat these manifestations, ideally with a magic bullet. It simply isn't good to deny they exist.
People don't like hearing what I have to say on that, it's clear. A healthy society recognizes a disease within its midst, but an unhealthy or malignant one puts it down to perception or malignant vision. "One would not see the malignancy if one's eyes were not themselves diseased!"
I can avoid addressing the issue and simply etherize the patient. He seems to be begging for a potent pain killer. I'll tell him that he has a great "identity" and to carry on by all means.
Buddhism says there is much value in ceasing to care because then one has no horse in this race and everything becomes clear finally.
As a kind of Buddhist, I will wait and see what the patient decides to do. He states his vision is quite clear and I am not perceiving him correctly. Well, maybe he is right.
Let's wait and see.
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