Through education systems, the media, our individual background, our cultural background, our social institutions, our parents and peers, we have been culturally conditioned into adopting a web of opinions through which we interpret reality. We only see what the web of our opinions allows us to see. It obscures the true nature of life like a veil, giving us the illusion that we know who we are and what life is all about.

It may be comfortable to live in the false security of this consensus pseudo-reality, as the majority do, but we pay a high price. We stop feeling really alive, and we believe that our filters are the only correct filters. We start believing in absolutes, instead of embracing the never-ending journey of reducing filters.

An example: Some non-human cultures can be very sophisticated. Wolves, for example, although beasts, can hunt and coordinate in packs through a very sophisticated emotional signal system. They share an intricate emotional worldspace.

Yet anything outside that world system is not registered. You could read the Bible to them, but no luck. What you are, with that book, is basically dinner plus a few bits that will have to be spat out.

The point is that we humans respond, and can respond, only to stimuli that fall within our worldspace, our worldview. Everything else is non-existent - often spat out and discarded.

Since no human can possibly gain all knowledge, our filters always discard information that would be useful/meaningful at a higher level of consciousness. Truly enlightened individuals understand that the removal of filters is an infinite task: the more filters that are removed, the more filters the individual becomes aware of.

This is the Conundrum of Enlightenment.

Date posted : December 24th, 2006 by Michael Haupt Last Modified : September 28th, 2007 / Filed under : World View / Report a Concern Navigate : Previous post / Next post / Top of Page
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