Though usually unnoticed, it goes without saying that all ideas are imaginary: no imagination: no ideas.
All animals are born with a repertoire of instinctual behaviors into a world that under normal conditions changes very very slowly. Ideas are not necessary in a stimulus-response jungle, but advantage is to that creature with the ability of intellectual synthesis. Enter Humanity.
Culture is imagined into being. From flint-and-steel to A bombs, from loin cloths to tuxedos. from rat-on-a-stick to haute cuisine, from water-in-a-bowl to trainloads of insecticide, the world in which we find ourselves is the cumulative realization of fantasy. And all this in a creature whose motivations are still hostage to blind instinct.
In an environment where every aspect of existence is charged with the products of imagination where is one to find a foundation of existential being? In a maze of ideas where is one to find a firm footing from which to take a step in the right direction. It seems obvious that a podium built of further fantasies (regardless of how exquisite) will be a poor jumping off place.
The core of being which in every case labors under its "repertoire of instinctual behaviors" is Transcendental Awareness. Transcendental Awareness is the ultimate truth of the sparrow, and the paramecium, and the beggar in the alley. Transcendental Awareness is anywhere and everywhere the Alpha and the Omega.
The world of illusion of which the ancients spoke is no less than the normal day to day existence of any unenlightened creature. That which we are is not running away from us. The mystery of being is the presence of our existence. If we relax our hold on our fantasies and are motionless at the core of our being we discover Awareness: lucid, un-configured Awareness.
How are we to re-imagine the world when the cumulative fantasies of humanity are leading us to oblivion.
Enlightenment is the only balm that can soothe the sorrows of the world.
Meditate.
No comments:
Post a Comment