(no subject)
Too many people not only don’t know what the truth is they aren’t even aware they don’t know. Furthermore they have unconsciously rigged things so that they can never figure it out or even begin to undertake the actions to do so to protect themselves from the discomfort of doubt and dissonance. Ironically the beginning of all wisdom is admitting what you don’t know. It’s thus impossible to acquire wisdom about the nature of truth so long as you are certain you know what it is. You won’t look for something you are already positive you have. Only by admitting you don’t know what the truth really is and that you never fully will, can you even begin to understand it. An example of this can be seen in the Zen parable below:
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
The problem with most people is that they go through their lives carrying around cups full to the brim fully convinced their cup is nearly empty. So many people think of themselves as open minded; open to new ideas, thinking they are an empty cup; when in fact they are filled with dogma, doctrine, assumptions, beliefs and opinions. They are unaware of all this because they can’t see the contents of their cup. Like a heartbeat a person’s core beliefs and assumptions are always with them but like their heartbeat they never notice it unless something disturbs its rhythm. Most of the time people aren’t even aware of what their core beliefs are unless something comes along to challenge them and bring them into focus. Even then most of the time a person is only aware of their beliefs to the extent that they conflict with a rival idea, rarely is a person fully aware of the extent of their beliefs and assumptions even once attention has been drawn to some of them.
People are willing to accept and integrate new information that causes a paradigm shift in their core beliefs only so far as they are able to accept that new information without triggering an overwhelming cognitive dissonance cascade. A cognitive dissonance cascade is where an idea is proffered that calls into doubt a core belief in such a way that if it is accepted it calls into doubt two or more other core beliefs which when they collapse lead to the discovery of four or more revelations that when accepted leads to conclusions that cast doubt on eight core tenants, ect. The greater the accepted paradigm shift the more information is accepted that leads to other larger paradigm shifts in even more fundamental core beliefs. If the process is allowed to run to its logical conclusion the person will keep accepting more information and their core paradigm will drift further and further from its original position until the person’s world view is no longer at variance with the available information that was once held in direct opposition to the previously held core beliefs. The problem is this sort of cognitive dissonance cascade places a great deal of stress on a person’s psyche as it undercuts the foundations of all they hold to be true. Thus the process of revelation is often a highly unpleasant one as a person is forced to accept deviations from what they previously held to be true in greater and greater magnitudes. The cognitive dissonance this creates often causes a person to reject the revelations as the next level of paradigm change is seen as too great to endure. Thus if information that leads to a core belief paradigm change is given to someone and the level of dissonance would lead to a cascade effect they will often reject the information as false regardless of its obvious veracity as a way of resolving anticipated cognitive dissonance.
As a result trying to share certain kinds of information with people is very difficult even if the person claims to want to know the truth and/or see the bigger picture because once you reach a certain point any further revelation would lead to a cascade of doubts which would lead the person far from the foundation of ideas and concepts they had previously built their lives on which for many people is too much to bear. The end result is a person who claims to wish to know “the truth” but once they are shown more than a certain amount will deny it because to do otherwise would send them tumbling down the rabbit hole and they know it. Even if on a subconscious level they know it. They know it and so they reject it because the alternative is too painful, too difficult.
Only those who resolve to follow the truth where ever it leads, regardless of how they feel about where the search leads them, will be able make the needed paradigm shifts along the way to be able to gain the necessary perspective to gain a more accurate picture of the truth. I say a more accurate picture because the “whole truth” will forever be beyond anyone’s ability to perceive and the best one can hope for is to see it clearer than you did before. Reality is like a fractal, you can’t ever claim to have all of it because it grows more complex the closer you examine it. The best you can hope for is to see as much of it as you can and perceive not the gross structure but the underlining connections and patterns that make up the fractal as a whole. That will allow you to gain a larger view than you can normally achieve by not only seeing reality for what it is but also to be able to predict the patterns that caused it to take the shape it does. For it is in those patterns and connections the understanding of them and how they shape reality that reality is truly formed. Once you see reality as a web of interconnected causal events and learn that it isn’t a static structure and is always shifting and changing both with your increasing understanding of it as new information is added to the ever growing picture and changing with the forces acting against one another you realize that “the truth” is a lot less of a stable thing than people would like to imagine. This is difficult revelation for most people and that combined with the cognitive dissonance necessary to reach this state means many people will fight tooth and nail to avoid reaching it even “if” they claim to seek truth.
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
The problem with most people is that they go through their lives carrying around cups full to the brim fully convinced their cup is nearly empty. So many people think of themselves as open minded; open to new ideas, thinking they are an empty cup; when in fact they are filled with dogma, doctrine, assumptions, beliefs and opinions. They are unaware of all this because they can’t see the contents of their cup. Like a heartbeat a person’s core beliefs and assumptions are always with them but like their heartbeat they never notice it unless something disturbs its rhythm. Most of the time people aren’t even aware of what their core beliefs are unless something comes along to challenge them and bring them into focus. Even then most of the time a person is only aware of their beliefs to the extent that they conflict with a rival idea, rarely is a person fully aware of the extent of their beliefs and assumptions even once attention has been drawn to some of them.
People are willing to accept and integrate new information that causes a paradigm shift in their core beliefs only so far as they are able to accept that new information without triggering an overwhelming cognitive dissonance cascade. A cognitive dissonance cascade is where an idea is proffered that calls into doubt a core belief in such a way that if it is accepted it calls into doubt two or more other core beliefs which when they collapse lead to the discovery of four or more revelations that when accepted leads to conclusions that cast doubt on eight core tenants, ect. The greater the accepted paradigm shift the more information is accepted that leads to other larger paradigm shifts in even more fundamental core beliefs. If the process is allowed to run to its logical conclusion the person will keep accepting more information and their core paradigm will drift further and further from its original position until the person’s world view is no longer at variance with the available information that was once held in direct opposition to the previously held core beliefs. The problem is this sort of cognitive dissonance cascade places a great deal of stress on a person’s psyche as it undercuts the foundations of all they hold to be true. Thus the process of revelation is often a highly unpleasant one as a person is forced to accept deviations from what they previously held to be true in greater and greater magnitudes. The cognitive dissonance this creates often causes a person to reject the revelations as the next level of paradigm change is seen as too great to endure. Thus if information that leads to a core belief paradigm change is given to someone and the level of dissonance would lead to a cascade effect they will often reject the information as false regardless of its obvious veracity as a way of resolving anticipated cognitive dissonance.
As a result trying to share certain kinds of information with people is very difficult even if the person claims to want to know the truth and/or see the bigger picture because once you reach a certain point any further revelation would lead to a cascade of doubts which would lead the person far from the foundation of ideas and concepts they had previously built their lives on which for many people is too much to bear. The end result is a person who claims to wish to know “the truth” but once they are shown more than a certain amount will deny it because to do otherwise would send them tumbling down the rabbit hole and they know it. Even if on a subconscious level they know it. They know it and so they reject it because the alternative is too painful, too difficult.
Only those who resolve to follow the truth where ever it leads, regardless of how they feel about where the search leads them, will be able make the needed paradigm shifts along the way to be able to gain the necessary perspective to gain a more accurate picture of the truth. I say a more accurate picture because the “whole truth” will forever be beyond anyone’s ability to perceive and the best one can hope for is to see it clearer than you did before. Reality is like a fractal, you can’t ever claim to have all of it because it grows more complex the closer you examine it. The best you can hope for is to see as much of it as you can and perceive not the gross structure but the underlining connections and patterns that make up the fractal as a whole. That will allow you to gain a larger view than you can normally achieve by not only seeing reality for what it is but also to be able to predict the patterns that caused it to take the shape it does. For it is in those patterns and connections the understanding of them and how they shape reality that reality is truly formed. Once you see reality as a web of interconnected causal events and learn that it isn’t a static structure and is always shifting and changing both with your increasing understanding of it as new information is added to the ever growing picture and changing with the forces acting against one another you realize that “the truth” is a lot less of a stable thing than people would like to imagine. This is difficult revelation for most people and that combined with the cognitive dissonance necessary to reach this state means many people will fight tooth and nail to avoid reaching it even “if” they claim to seek truth.