WHAT
OTHERS HAVE SHARED
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| WHAT
OTHERS HAVE SHARED |
| DOORS OF PERCEPTION Years ago, we used to think, that one was either a materialist or a spiritualist, that one either believed non-provable things existed or didn't-and that one couldn't possibly be both. We also thought that the materialist is scientific and the spiritualist is woolly and undefined, slave to all sorts of mumbo-jumbo. But it isn't necessarily like that at all. The spiritualist and the materialist both work on the basis of prejudice-to say God exists or does not exist, for instance, is equally prejudiced. Basically, we don't know. But that is hardly enough. Just saying '1 don't know' for the rest of your life is not much use. |
| The next step is to be open, not closed; truly scientific, not prejudiced—like a lot of so-called 'scientifically-minded' people are: full of unsubstantiated a priori assumptions based oil the erroneous notion that logic and rationality are unassailable. They aren't. Logic is a game and we set the rules-there's nothing eternal or infallible about it. Just like Tweedledee said in Through the Looking Glass: " If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic." Similarly, just a belief or faith that something is the case-God exists, for example—doesn't make it true. Being 'spiritual' is just as prejudiced. So how does one approach things in a truly scientific way? Simple. By being empirical. Experiment. Check it out. If it is the case, if it happens, it's true and if it doesn't, it isn't. This sounds more simple than it is, not because it is complicated, but because we are. We all have so much baggage-our attachments, identifications,prejudices, beliefs, fears and superstitions ( there are some delightful rational and scientific ones too! )—that dropping it all to become empirical is tough. |
| Travelin' light is often far more difficult than it sounds. But do it. And watch the world open up. Each time you drop some baggage, you feel lighter and another window opens up—to flood your world with a little more sunlight. A being who is open is always learning-from a butterfly or a Sufi master, an Einstein or the plumber who has come to mend the drain. Because he is uncluttered, unprejudiced, available to absorb and assimilate. A being who is closed shuts out the world; a person who lives in beliefs, dogmas and prejudices cannot learn from the world around him—he can only wrap it in his chains. In a world where science has proved that energy is the building block of matter, where it has verified once and for all that meditation is no mumbo-jumbo and quantitatively proved that it is greatly beneficial, it's time we took off these dark glasses of materialism and rationality, of spirituality and salvation, and looked at the world as it is. If the doors of perception were cleansed, said William Blake, everything would appear to man, as it is, infinite. For he has closed himself up, and sees all things through the narrow chinks of his cavern. |
| Amit Jayaram, India |
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