Right to fight

If I have disdain for the opposition and I am perfectly happy with my point of view, then I have the right to stand up for and fight for that happiness. All the while, shrinking my universe to the size of my knowledge and understanding. What a fool I am.

Trish's picture

Yes, me as well. I'm tired of living in the prison of my own thoughts and point of view; may I embrace 'not knowing' and be humble and discard 'being right' and the pride and arrogance that goes along with it. What's out there, past the edges of what I think I know? Can I gather the courage to push my self-made boundaries aside? That's my mental conundrum lately, wanting to change while equally fearing it out of habit.

ChrisBowers's picture

Had a similar thought a few days ago about religion and NDE's.  The problem athiests have with religious people is that they believe something in which they have no proof.  The athiest may not realize that he or she is doing virtually the same thing they blame the religious people for doing in that they (the athiests) are adamantly and proudly claiming there is no "God", or intelligent conscious source of any kind.

Neither polarized side has adequate proof for their positions, but remain content and polarized within their chosen belief system.  Two sides of the same coin (while neither side would be willing to admit they are on the same coin as the perceived "other"), and what is real remains real and true, regardless of any adopted belief or strongly held opinion that has so much more to do with arbitrary location of birth than anything else...

Wendy's picture

When you've already seen the view from the perspective someone else is talking about, at some point it is convenient to call an apple an apple, an orange an orange. However fighting about anything is a complete waste of time - discussion is often worth while though. Kind of like peeking around a tree - looking at the view from the right and left, then back again. Eventually, even though the 2 views look different, you settle on 1 idea of what's really happening. I guess your point though is that once in a while, even though you think everything is settled, it's good to check yourself by entertaining the idea that someone else sees things more clearly than you do. I actually love the process of finding out that someone else had the right idea all along - it's great to be able to change your perspective, or help someone else change their's -  it's when there's movement in attitudes that all the fun happens.

garydgreer's picture

I have not a doubt that what you describe is more common than not.

garydgreer's picture

You know, I have heard Richard Dawkins say that he would be willing to entertain the thought of a source type creator, but considers it unlikely. Of course he would also say the difference is that he doesn't give a "flyin' ...", if you (not you personally) believe him or not and you (Christians, or especially Muslims) want to impose your (what he considers) dangerous beliefs on him and everyone else. Either way, I think you are still on the mark, as it is a never ending battle over what I consider to be nonsense. You might say, "the tails (yarns) of mice and men." :>

garydgreer's picture

I really just meant that the two contrary acts of professing disdain and professing to be perfectly happy is delusion in it's grandest form and then, attaching some kind of given right to be proud of and protect said delusion is truly the act of a fool.

Yes, about helping to change someones perspective or awareness, it's when all the sudden you see their eyes light up. It has just "clicked" and they have just thought of something they never got before. It's a wonderment. And I never grow tired of witnessing it or experiencing it myself.

Oh, and about the apples. No one is really fighting about the apples and oranges anymore so, yes, I think then we have agreement and we can log something of that nature as a given for convenience.

tscout's picture

       Other than falling in love,,,, a piece of new knowledge, or a new perspective that questions something we think we know about,or , "have grown to feel safe with",is the most stimulating thing I have experienced. Like water,,which we are, we seem to become stagnant when locked into any belief system, so the rush we get when something new strikes home is like breaking down the dam, or turning on the faucet. Then the question is, is it tap water coming out of the faucet? or glacier water? ha! ,,L,,T

garydgreer's picture

Good one. Funny

On a practical level, I know around here, the tap water faucet can not produce the "Dam"-al rush that we experience. In comparison, the ah-ha moment of self revelation as it were, must most certainly be glacially stimulating, easily distinguishable from polluted waters.

Starmonkey's picture

And then, the NEXT level is realizing that none of us are right and none of us are wrong. Or all of us are right and all of us are wrong... whatever... the mirror. One can get dizzy if one thinks too much about "direction[s]". That's why I LOVE the WingMakers philosophy so much. The approach to "God" or what-have-you is so PERSONAL and yet so intangible. Also why I'm having a hard time attending these sweat lodges some friends hold in the Lakota tradition. I'm not Lakota. I believe in more than four or seven "directions". And I choose to not use a name or names when referring to archetypal powers or forces. Unless it's direct knowledge, it's all opinion and hearsay. Or heresy, some would say.

Old fashioned, but non-traditional. Blessings and namaste

garydgreer's picture

I get it Monk. I have felt drawn to the indigenous people and their associated life view (or view of living). At times I have felt myself at odds with certain aspects that go along with experiencing that culture. A feeling of mistrust almost but more like mischief or trickery. Kind of like being around someone that you expect to try and sell you something. Maybe there's a combination of vibrations in play, but I end up with this same kind of feeling when said and done. Also, I remember the creepy vibes that ultimately would exclude my presence from church groups.

Anyhow, yes, maybe it's more like I think you are conceptualizing, in that it's an ever increasing distance in a generational gap. The gap being the amount and quality of collectively experienced information acquired from birth to the time your child is born. Compared to the amount and quality of collectively experienced information of your child from birth to the birth of the next child. Or your father or an ancestor. That gap has been getting progressively larger and right now seems to be enormous. That has to create some kind of gap morphin' whirl that is easier understood by the later of the generations. That whirl would also be unique to previous whirls.

Starmonkey's picture

Yes, but shouldn't it also be shrinking and compressing at the same time? To those who are aware of it or make use of all connections anyway? Because the only real difference, is a difference in perception, non? So if that is what you think and feel, then it is "so". Otherwise, all variations are merely conceptual and experiential.

The spiral and the cone are interpenetrating. The dna double helix,for example. Also present in W.B. Yeats' "the Vision", when he talks about the two opposed gyres. Coming and going... Sine and cosine...

Just throwing some more monkey in the wrench. ;)

garydgreer's picture

Well yes, then there's that too ... I think that's why it's easier for the youngins also. They start with a shorter ways to catch up, um ... and are less dependent on the people with the wrong information. Kind of like being born knowing the change taking place between the reality we thought we knew and the real one... so there's less of a gap on that side.

Starmonkey's picture

If they are informed, that is. If they are paying attention to the pop culture or misinformation trip... then, no. I think the U.S. puts peeps at a serious disadvantage with our media, etc. Hype and fanfare and whatever's new... It's no wonder that most never grow up. But I suppose every country has its equivalent. But taboo, superstition and blind belief in "what one's told" kind of hamstring one for open and non-judgmental experience. Plus believing others' opinions instead of discovering for oneself

Starmonkey's picture

Just had to throw it in your post instead of a new one... We finally hit critical mass! 260 members! The number of kin in the tzolkin (Mayan). Kin 88, planetary star, happy to be aboard this galactic earth ship! And traveling through this oh, so interesting adventure... Thanks for the fun and inspirational dialogue, Gary

garydgreer's picture

Hey, fly on Monkey Man. Thanks for your input, insight and willingness to stretch things a bit with me. Those flying monkey dudes in The Wizard of Oz always scared the living daylights out of me, but I see them in a whole new way now. Knyuck, knyuck, knyuck ... 

Like I've always said (and usually directed toward myself) ... Thank goodness for critical mass!

Kin 99 Blue Galactic Storm on board. Boy, that brings up another thing. One way says I'm 12 Etznab kin 38. The other says (I think the one your are using) 3 Storm kin 99.

Starmonkey's picture

Same here. One says I'm kin 88, planetary star (Jose Arguelles, dreamspell, etc) and one says I'm a monkey of some tone (have to look it up again). Hence the moniker, starmonkey!

And I LOVE the Wizard of Oz! Nothing like a bunch of miss-matched friends off on an adventure, sharing their strengths and weaknesses, and trying to find home or wholeness! Takin it from black and white to color, brother! 

Starmonkey's picture

And as far as those monkeys go... They ain't nothin to worry about! They're ticklish. That's how you get 'em

onesong's picture

well just following your posts and a quick 'g day to you all'.  I'm an 'electric blue monkey' if that means anything to you ;). I used the Mayan calendar in drum circle for many years. 

I really only came in to tell anyone that watched the Berry College Eagle cam last year that the new eggs are laid, one on Jan. 6 and one a week later.  So my grandson and I-we're bird watching from the warmth of my puter room again-check it out in your spare time. Last year we watched from January until about March when they fledged.

Starmonkey's picture

Hello there, fellow gap kin. And almost my occult kin... which is self-existing skywalker.

Pretty cool about the eagles! We saw little Cooper's hawk fledglings in the desert of Arizona last summer when visiting WindSpirit. So cute when their feathers are coming in. Got buzzed by mama once while standing there gawking at them. When they were still in the tree even! Later, they were down on the ground and at the bird bath... So cute!

garydgreer's picture

I just think eagles are of the most formidable and plain, "bad-ass" creatures.

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