I think that perhaps all we can “know” are illusions as illusions.
I suppose I need to find other people who know what I know. I do not think it will be easy, but it will probably continue to be very lonely. It’s funny to me how many people completely miss the point and think that these things I say are judgmental and arrogant or narcissistic. I don’t know about other people, but to me, it’s not judgmental to call a spade a spade, to make observations, while being open to the fact that one’s conceptual framework is what makes a spade a spade to them. I know this, and it is problematic and complex.
The bottom line is that it is about being open, which most people simply are not. And I do not think that I am being not-open with I disagree with, say, the proposal that 1+1=4. I do not create the context, but rather observe and work within it. This is, actually, a very important point, and one about which many people are confused. It is true that I have my perspective, and I have my interpretation of the stimuli I receive from the world. But I do not create a context for me.
I am a human being. The mental context with which I work is programmed for me according to my biology. So, in the same way that I have not created the parameters of the context of mathematics, and can observe, not judge, that 1+1 does not equal 4, I can look at the context within which we humans perceive things and observe accordingly.
We do not create or decide reality—the way things really are. We do not even create the hard-wiring that provides us the context in which we think, part of which is context itself. What we create, what is ours, is our attitudes. We may have similar attitudes as others, but our own karma, the fact that I experience things differently than any other being—per space and time—means that my attitude, the way I see the world, my perspective, is my own, and very much under my control to change and allow to evolve.
This is why I can say that everyone can certainly have their own “opinion,” but everyone cannot decide reality, what is, “for them,” for there is no such thing as a reality “for me.” There is, rather, the way I perceive and judge reality, which is often mistaken for reality. What is mine is my perspective and the attitude with which I process the material that has already been processed by my perception. It is why it is incorrect to say that an opinion is wrong; but, a judgment call can certainly be wrong. An opinion is about personal feelings, a judgment is about what objectively is. As I have said before: everyone has the right to be wrong.
I do not decide whether or not you are wrong. That’s determined by whether your judgment corresponds to reality. I merely recognize it or not, point it out or not, by the powers of observation and thought. If you can tell me why you are right, then great, I will learn something. But usually, a person who is wrong will not have a good defense of his position, and will rather resort to cheap shots and accusations of arrogance or narcissism, and thus completely miss the point.
Again, although life is not this simple, the logic of which we are speaking here is simple and can be understood by this question: is it judgmental of me to say that 1+1 does not equal 4? Or, am I rather making an observation, the veracity of which is decided not by me, but by the context in which the material of the question resides?
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From my personal notes, 5/7/00
