“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident” – Arthur Schopenhauer.
This excellent quote captures in essence the dangers of perception, of maintaining a closed mind towards things and ideas that do not easily fit into one’s belief system, or can be explained by personal experience. Such mind obtuseness has as consequence a lack of vision and ability to pick up and connect dots between seemingly unconnected events and information. At the very least, it rejects the gift of genius for oneself; at its worst, it kills it for others.
In its stubborn need for security as condition to acceptance, the mind-in-perception omits to dream outside the box, awakens late to novelties and thereby misses out on being part of the initiating and forming energies of innovation. Stuck in dealing with the products of others’ prowess rather then igniting and fueling its own creation, the mind-in-perception soothes its feeling of impotence by acquiring matter and status symbols, or indulging in sensual stimulation.
However the position at the bottom of the power chain rather than at its top is not, as mind-in-perception believes, a result of tough luck in life, but always consequence of its fear to open to and support potential. Such mind insists that potential squeeze itself into the mind’s limited vision, appease its needs and soothe its fears. But innovation, or the gift of insight, idea and inspiration from Spirit, is the highest expression of who Soul can be; asking it to become smaller so that it can be received by the mind is akin to asking a person to be less beautiful or smart so that we can love them.
Yet as the quote in the opening states, supporting our Truth can give rise to ridicule and opposition and thus feelings of inadequacy, an unattractive prospect indeed. So the mind, in an attempt to self-protect, closes off all opportunities for such violation by others, preferring instead to watch the sky, frog-like, from the bottom of the well, stubbornly insisting that this view is all there is.
Fighting off opportunities for channeling innovation requires quite a bit of energy, though. All prompting for evolution, growth and expression comes from Spirit, i.e. desire, inspiration, ideas, hints and information, right connections and new opportunities, as well as the shut down of dead-end paths. However, as the mind insists on a single point view, it deliberately shuts out the surrounding energies that do not fit its well perception, judging all such cues as irrelevant, rejecting them as annoyances or worse feeling victimized by the closing of dead ends.
While based in fear of ridicule and judgement, this obstinate exclusion of Spirit also gives rise to great arrogance, the exact trait which induced the fear to start with. For once it limits itself to the well, the frog will fight to defend its worldview at all cost and against all odds, feeling challenged in self-worth by anything and anyone who does not conform to its vision. By holding this attitude and enacting it towards others, the Soul deprives itself of the very power it craves, for arrogance, or the insistence on the validity of one’s perception, is the very setup for a humbling experience down the road.
One such limited perception is the belief in matter and scientific laws based on sensations of body and the deduction of mind, a perception also known as atheism. During the period of Spirit sacrifice, manifestation is always reliable and provable as it is tied to force and independent of intent. Thus all testing and experiments can always be repeated independently and will deliver same results when using same methods. However when sacrifice ends and intent yet again becomes the determining factor behind manifestation, then the scientist whose intent is to discover Truth will achieve one result, and the scientist whose intent is to prove or disprove will achieve another. This setup will divide the scientific community into two camps and make the ascertaining of Truth impossible.
The true purpose behind such mayhem is to break the mind’s insistence on its own definitions, scenarios and visions, its judgement of what is and what is not true, sacred, beautiful or powerful, for such mind is the Soul’s main obstacle to greatness. It blocks the reception of higher wisdom where contradictions are equally and simultaneously Truth, such as the contemplation of the serpent as good, Satan as Jesus, and matter as perception. This limitation of the mind keeps the Soul from ever ascending into power over life and death, i.e. over evil, fulfillment and its life experience.
Whether making the church accept Spirit from outside of the Bible or an atheist accept God, the breaking of perception, just like the breaking of a newborn chick’s eggshell, is a necessary step in the Soul’s evolution.