Those Who Are Able To See, Are Those Who Are Willing To Look
What’s going to save humanity from itself?
More politics?
More politicians?
More policies?
More government?
More laws?
More nations?
More armies?
More armaments?
More religion?
More technology?
More commerce?
More money?
More time??
The next movement? (for whatever…)
The lengths that we have been, and continue going to employing the use of any number and combination of the above mentioned systems and methods in an “attempt” to overcome our difficulties is truly astounding. The only plausible explanation for such repetitive and ultimately ineffective activity that can be seen from this vantage point is the continued faith, or belief, in the concept of “hope”. A most damning concept. Let’s take a minute to look at what “hope” actually is.
To “hope” for something is to have a “desire” that some “future” outcome will be realized/attained/achieved/etc. So it’s continued “desire”. We’ve already seen repeatedly that “desire” creates division and separation between what actually “is” and some mental projection that then winds up creating psychological time and ultimately conflict and struggle as it serves to perpetuate the current undesired circumstances.
What exactly is meant by this statement “those who are able to see, are those who are willing to look?” Sounds pretty esoteric and mystical.
Unfortunately, this also happens to be the most direct and concise way that it has occurred to the author to convey what is being seen. The words “see” and “look” are meant to be taken 100% literally, as in what is generally the very first interpretation under the definition of the word. The word “look”, has a definition where the intended meaning here appears to be the combination of the second and third interpretations under the definition:
2: to ascertain by the use of one’s eyes // as in “look what I brought you”
3a: to exercise the power of vision upon : EXAMINE
So, quite literally what is being meant here is to “look and see” as one would look at and see anything. As one might look at a tree off in the distance through a window. Really, quite un-extraordinarily, literally, boring. However, there is also something within this activity that is also potentially life transforming at the same time. Therefore, from this standpoint, it may also be an extraordinarily miraculous action at the same moment it is mundane. Or maybe it’s that the idea of it that is mundane, but the actual doing of it is extraordinary?
An additional meaning the author would also ascribe to the meaning of the “look and see” is to “acknowledge”. To “register”. To “take in”, “take on board”. Then one might ask, “well…, what is meant by ‘acknowledge?’”
From the definition:
to accept, admit, or recognize something, or the truth or existence of something
This also seems pretty straight forward. Something is either seen as existing, or not existing, where the outcome of this determination is registered, or recorded in our brains as a memory, and ultimately potentially moved about and used as thought. So again, what is meant quite literally and simply is to see things as they are.
By now it must surely be apparent to the reader that at different times, different humans appear to have difficulty with this activity, as even in the face of facts a denial, refusal, and all-around un-acknowledgment of the fact of “what is” still fails to enter their consciousness.
So why and how could humans possibly not be able to be in contact and relationship with the fact of life’s present circumstances at any given moment? Why does this behavior continue to persist in our collective consciousness?
The author would have to say, that from their vantage point, it would appear that humanity is stuck in the thought cycle of “measure/record/accumulate”, “recall”, “compare”, and “judge”, and this cycle revolves around one central and grand thought concept, continually circulating within the collective consciousness, as “I”.
The thought concept of “I” gives rise to the emotional poles of “fear” and “desire.” How is this? The thought “I” creates “not I” as per the law of opposites. When “not I” exists it creates something to then be either “desired” or “feared”. In order to “want” anything automatically implies a separation, and therefore a division because “wanting” implies the “having” of some “thing”, some “thing” which is “different” from “the I.” So the act of “wanting” creates an “object”, or “state” to be obtained or maintained, as well as a “subject” who must do, or perform the act of the “wanting.”
Therefore, because this “mental division”, or “mental separation” is created, it also implies “mental space” between the thing that presently is which is “undesired”, and the “desired” thing to be “had” at some future point. This setup therefore then creates the need to constantly “move towards” the desired thing, and then conversely “move away” from a undesired thing. We are then everlastingly caught oscillating between these two opposing pairs, or poles in the present moment due to the creation of psychological time that becomes required in order to “move towards” our projected desires as “goals” and “ideals”, and “move away” from our projected fears as anything that is deemed “undesirable.”
The thought concept of “I” has a very massive, profound, and detrimental effect in that it serves to blind us from being able to “see” and “acknowledge” the present moment fact. The acknowledgement of the present moment’s fact is something that we can ALL do together in that it exists independent of us, independent of our thought and thinking, but we all have to be able to collectively acknowledge it.
When we are unable to acknowledge the fact of the present moment’s experience it results in a general, over-all lack of awareness of the present. That is by being caught up in the whirlwind cycle of the movement between the two opposing poles of “desire” and “fear”, our attention is diverted away from the present — our attention is simply not wholly present and a result of this is that we are then many times more likely to encounter hardships and suffering as a result.
So then those who are able to “see” are those who are able to impartially and non-judgmentally observe the goings-on of their own thought processes in the exact same manner as one would observe the occurrence of any external phenomena for the sake of acknowledgement alone.
As an example, say for instance you’re driving your car and you start to hear a funny sound coming from under the hood. You then pull over somewhere safely, leave the car running and get out and open up the hood to be able to “see” the running engine. As you lift the hood, you’re met by the experience of being close to a running engine. You’re met with loud sounds, vibrations, smells, higher temperature, moving parts. Your senses take all of this in, they acknowledge the presence, or occurrence of all facets and aspects of this experience because it’s important, there could be a problem and you could break down somewhere. As all this is taken in, you then begin to hone in on the strange sound in order to investigate exactly what the problem is. The purpose of this activity is again, to observe, to see, and to register the exact fact of the present moments circumstances in order to let it tell you what it needs.
Furthermore, those who are able to see in this way allow themselves the complete and total mental freedom to do so. That is, in order to see, one must start out with total mental freedom by being able to put aside, or momentarily suspend all conditioning occurring as this “record/accumulate”, “recall”, “compare”, and “judge” process of thought. The process that attempts to record the present moments circumstances and fit it into some type of mental categorical box that’s based on some prior memory.
Once one is able to observe this process as one would observe a running engine, one has created space between themselves and the process and is thus in a position to be able to recognize the process. And once the process is recognized, once this process is acknowledged and “seen”, it is then seen from then on. This action of seeing will then give rise to any required action of doing.
What’s strange and foreign about this action of “seeing” is that this type of action is a completely passive one. That is, just the act of “seeing” is its own action and any resultant activity is then not the resulting action of thought. This form of action is then the action of infinite intelligence.
Again, nothing mystical about this, but just eminently and everlastingly practical.
