THE REPUBLIC --Plato

A cyber-symposium hosted by a spirited tiger, I see….taking us back to the roots of democracy for a consideration of things going on in our own breakneak time and place?

Imagine if the media spoke with Plato’s insistent sincerity?  What ever would we do?

Please Tyger, share with us your thoughts.

Willful ignorance…

I can feel your passion and commitment while reading your post, Michelle, and I am reminded of a previous exchange that we have had concerning the eight-fold path, and how many individuals seem to ommit “right action” in favor of right mindedness, right speech, etc. 

(Hmmm, I just had an odd image of Buddha suggesting to a group of students that they are ‘talking the talk, but failing to walk the walk’. Not sure why Buddha takes on a very Tony Robbins-esque quality for me this morning…) 

Anywho, back on point… I believe that we often choose willful ignorance not only out of fear, but out of familiarity. The Allegory of the Cave rings clear and true in my mind as I contemplate this reflection, as well as your original post.

We are all afraid of the light. Afraid of what it might be. Some of us are afraid we don’t deserve it, others are afraid that we do. Either way we sometimes choose to turn away from the light because change is scary, and we prefer the comfort of familiarity. Even unfulfilling familiarity brings wih it a sense of comfort. Hell, harmful familiarity can sometimes feel more comfortable than the prospect of change!

This thought feels foreign to you… I sense that it even feels offensive to you. The idea that someone may turn away from the Truth, for any reason. This is why you are here, Michelle.

To lead by example.

Marianne Williams wrote in Return to Love: …as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Continue to shine your beacon of Truth and Light for all of us to see. Shine it with both passion and compassion so that others may gain the courage to join you outside the cave!

~Love & Light and a huge virtual hug for {{{{{you}}}}} 

Korenna

I dare say that I am seeking the balance not only for myself, but to also share it, debate it, and feel it out with others who feel the same call to stand firm and protect when necessary while we go through these Times of transition and change.

You speak my heart here, Michelle.  

Protection.  Guarding.  Holding the Sword with Vigilant Awareness.  Yes.

Love must protect itself, after all.  And the world as we see it unravelling before us is under predation by countless creeps of all shapes, sizes, and dimensions. 

I have admittedly been disoriented in my own research into how far down the rabbit hole really goes these past 6 months or so, only to come out the other end fiercely recognizing that just as I must not avoid the negativity, so must I not become entranced by its presence or the drama it is currently playing out in current events.  There is, I sense, a sacred balance to discover in which I can navigate in a maximum of freedom in the world for the sake of collaborating with others, like yourself, to transform this time and place from the inside out, through a collaboration of our fierce presence to Stand and Be here, despite what Is and what Is Not.

This is what we are here for, is it not?  It is for me.

And for me, the truly grating question of late has been:  How am I to act in the face of what appears to me to be an onslaught of willful ignorance – yes – bearing willful destruction, murder, genocide, and ecoside.  How to face that willfulness?  How to understand it’s conscious and negative intention beyond the veil of its own ignorance?  (I do appreciate that ignorance is its basis – but beyond that, how to face it down in its perverse displays of intentional violence?)

This for me has led to an enquiry into the nature of nihilism, or non-being – a negative path, if you will, with a suction of its own that draws people into itself and reinforces its own vibration.  It would be a kind of negative image of the evolutionary ladder from birth to Conscious Liberation.  It would instead lead from birth to varying degrees of Willed Self-Negation and Non-Being. 

This is where the fringe comes in, for me – and why I feel I must expose myself to it, disorienting as it can often be.  But having learned to recognize what it means to become entranced by its gaze – the gaze of the Abyss that looks back when we look at it too long – I can stand free and know What Is:  positive AND negative, and act in proportion to my heart and light while here on Earth, with you.

Phew…  Thanks for the chance to voice that.  Sometimes it all just comes flying out – phoenix-like and full of fury.

Love, Chris

Korenna wrote:

Marianne Williams wrote in Return to Love: …as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I appreciate Marianne’s simple articulation of this profoundly real truth.  This would make a wonderful topic for a long dialogue, I think.  I can already think of deep examples of how I have been given such permission by others – including here, online. 

One thing that excites me so about this idea is that perhaps, as things continue to heat up in the world under the duress and ravages of BushCo, those of us doing this work of letting our own light shine need not be too concerned about explaining ourselves to others.  Could it be that in simply boldly demonstrating this light we each are building in ourselves and among each other, that we have completed the communication?

A woman with a samurai sword slicing a watermelon in half to feed her family need not explain the force or strength with which the blade splits the fruit.