DREAM LIGHT15/01/19
In the land where there is no sun, do people crave for light or since they don't know what sunlight is; do they make successful living in the cold, wet and dark?
What if there was a tiny bit of visible light; do people dream about it and hope one day they live in daylight? And who would have imagined and desired the idea of living in daylight? Who placed the light there in the first place?
Living in the light not only enables us to see ourselves, but also provides us with warmth and good feelings away from the cold wet dark of the material world.
When we arrive into the world, our first task is to get in-touch with our feelings and senses to make sense of the world we live in. We learn what feels, seen, tastes, smells and sounds nice and our mind is made up. Along the way, we learn that some things we desire make us sick and we are forced to change our minds and modify our behaviour against our desires.
We keep doing this until we have established what ought to be good for us from what's not. But the trouble is, the basis is not only self-serving but also materialistic. Our desire to feel warm and protected by sunlight has forced us to block others' light by absorbing it all to ourselves.
At the same time, we cannot live successfully among others if we are selfish and mean. And so we learn that not all good feelings and desires are good for us, but to modify our behaviour for the sake of the community.
And this is the objective social value of modifying behaviour from individualism to communal because it not only checks against our own indulgence for health's sake, but also reinforces community maintenance.
In here is a world of material opportunities where people have put in place mechanisms for developing material desires and systems of control. Such that our behaviour is conditioned to the demand of desires. And as a result, no doubt that the strong and powerful have extreme feelings of selfishness or egotism also referred to as narcissism; the excessive sense of self importance and superiority.
We not only strive to look good and possess nice things, but also we must be seen as doing good when pretentious in order to achieve self praise.
This in the social is the false sense of self. It is constructed upon the accumulation of selfish material desires. And so if we don't have any experience of light, we are likely to make a successful living in the cold, wet and dark.
Once more, Material Freedom is living to fulfil own desires where what feels good is the right thing to do. While the material world is linear and narrow, it is the whole wide world of the material self.
Well, believe it or not, somewhere else in the unknown is the world of light. And this world not only enables the individual to see clearly his/her material 'self' but also his/her holistic person. In order for one to see the light, he/she must come out of him/her 'self' or transform. This is transcending the material into being.
It doesn't mean that one no longer has a self, but instead the illusion is quantified a practical being.
We know the process of controlling an addiction is not easy but can be done. Because we started by training our senses to control how we feel and think, this time we learn to use our minds to rule our emotions.
Remember in the beginning we learn from feelings and senses, this time we have enough data in our memory to learn from our minds. The material data of feelings and senses are filtered through the mind to produce an objective outcome.
That distant light associated with warmth feelings serve as hope as we endure the cold and wet dark world of material desires. We can now go there in our minds and think objectively on ways that truly enhance our health and maintain our groups.
Once more, we can truly feel good and desire been healthy and safe without blocking someone else's light.
Material Freedom is doing what one feels good but all for his/her own desire. Since we don't know who placed light in our dreams, we won't go there. Instead we would be able to think of ways that are not selfish, that are good for health and at the same time maintains the community. Objective Freedom is reversing Material Freedom.
Rather than acting according to feelings and senses, try acting according to thinking objectively.
I once defined culture as a social progression of behaviour from habits to customs. Habit is developed through likes, dreams and desires; modified to acceptable standards and adopted as customs. People share these acceptable standards which form the basis of their communities. It is sharing of their common ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge of their group.
In our cold, wet and dark world, a group of people who enjoy marijuana for example eventually became addicted. To solve their problem, Marijuana is legalised to ensure the desires of the group is maintained without criminalising themselves. But it's believed the consequences of marijuana does not affect their behaviour or having any ill effect on their health.
Also significant in this group is their social standing. They not only share the basis of consumerism, but also similar age. The long term effect of marijuana would have an identity or genetic membership to the group.
It doesn't suggest that addicted behaviour is standardised by regulations, but modification through time to acceptable standards. Its commercial potential may elevate it a commodity in the system of control.
You know in the land of the cold, wet and dark, there are spots in ourselves that we cannot see. It is only when we live in the light that we are able to see who we really are.