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 Mason's
Meditations
If
you're looking for something to chew over, some thoughtful seeds
for mental cultivation, bookmark this page for Jeff Mason's monthly
meditations. To think in or take away...
Number
Thirty Two: The Cave
Imagine,
like Plato, that most people live in a cave without knowing it.
They go about their lives oblivious of the limitations of cave life.
The air is smoky. The light is no good. It flickers. Images appear
and disappear. Time moves on, and the familiar reality of the cave
is taken to be the only reality that exists. The surfaces of things
advertise themselves brightly, and are the first seen. We cave dwellers,
like children, are habituated to a certain way of life based on
all kinds of illusions and fantasies that are taken to be true.
We think we see palaces and boulevards, but they are only projections
on the walls.
What,
now, if something happens to disrupt the unthinking flow of busy
life? What if tragedy strikes your family? What if the doctor says
that you have only six months to live? What if the stock market
crashes? What if a new disease starts to get out of control? What
if war breaks out? The lights start to come on. The cave is illuminated,
and the residents see that they exist in an empty underground chamber.
In
the corner there is a way out, but it is scary to leave the comfort
of home as long as the illusion of safety is maintained. Unless
pushed, no one wants to leave the normal course of life. It seems
that human beings are able to handle only small doses of reality.
Let us hope the cave doesn’t collapse.
.
Mason's
Meditations will next be updated early May 2003
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31.
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18.
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16.
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