Balaji Prasad
By Balaji Prasad
“The night in which all cows are black.” ~ Hegel
How well do we see in the dark? Even more importantly, do we know when we are in the dark, and when we are not? For, if it is night but feels day, then all that we say will be miles away.
Enlightenment
If years and years
have instilled fears …
Can we be seers?
Or have all these tears
just left arrears
in a mind that veers?
Might a light that clears
transcend these ears,
so reality steers?
To see or not to see?
It is not so obvious, but when you really want to see something, you will see it. And when you really do not want to see something, you will not.
Free will exists. First, it is free; and secondly, whatever you will will be. For better or for worse.
This is not hard to see if one looks around. When someone, for example, is driven by an intense dislike of a particular person, they will “find” things that someone who is not driven by the same passion will never see. Or the opposite too. Someone, for example, who dotes over a favorite child may find the “logic” to explain or reframe the child’s behavior, however egregious it may appear to an unbiased observer.
So, we have the ability to will things into existence whether such things exist or not, and whether they even have the potential to exist at all.
And therein lies the tragedy of sight: sight with the wrong light.
The universe’s lights
The universe shines bright. It is infinitely large. One only needs to look heavenward on a dark, starry night to see what appears to be an incredibly beautiful ceiling studded with brilliantly lustrous objects that could be conceived to have been designed by some divine artist of infinite skill.
Faced with such infinity, is it possible to not feel at least some sense of wonder and, if warranted, a modicum of humility that could temper a self-styled “intellect” that may grasp far less than it presumes to?
If one could grasp even a small part of all this with some semblance of integrity, that would be something approaching true sight.
Seeing the universe’s lights needs the right kind of light, though: one that is rarely shone, though. But why?
Blinded by the “light” … of words
The words are unlovely, dark and deep. And they have no promises to keep. [Taking some liberty here with Robert Frost’s expression of awe at nature]. When reality is seen through the warp of words, it ceases to be what it actually is.
It is even worse than that. The ideas and the words not only alter the sight that is presented, but also almost irrevocably alter the seer as well every time the seer sees something other than what there is to see. These vaporous ideas form a habit of sight, drive a habit of mind, and warp the ridges of the mind that is the very light that endows the seer with sight.
Each time you shine the gift of light – your mind – on some part of the human-manufactured parallel universe, there is a tremendous opportunity cost. You fail to see the real universe. You fail to see the real you, and to hone your ability to see based on what you see about this most important part of the universe that you call “me”.
When you see the two universes, the one of the gods and the one of the humans, and when you see the agent of the universe that is you, and the parts of you that often get in your own way, that is the beginning of light… and the beginning of sight.
It is the beginning of enlightenment, the beginning of a unity, a harmony, an epiphany.
The world will never be the same again. And you may find that you have gained sight, but at the expense of being able to communicate in the human universe, where words are the currency, a currency that you get increasingly bankrupt of. You will hear others, but they won’t hear you. You will see things that they cannot see, and they will see things that you would rather not see because seeing these will impede your ability to see with the universe rather than against it.
And when, as a consequence of freeing your light, you step back and allow the universe to do its magic to you, and through you, you will do much much less and will carry a much smaller load than what the human universe imposes on you. You become lightened.
Balaji Prasad is an IIT/IIM graduate, a published author, SAT/ACT Online and in-person Coach, and K-12 Math Tutor at NewCranium. Contact: balaji.prasad@newcranium.com.
