Edward’s Diary Entry 106: Limiting our View to the Social Perspective is Wrong

Immersed in our thoughts and emotions, fixated in our beliefs and opinions, our “normal” outlooks are exclusively human. These outlooks were created in childhood and youth, depending on place of birth, parents, social conditions, education, and degree of self-induced or maybe God-given “Self-Awareness”. The lower our Self-Awareness, the blinder we are to reality, and the more prone we are to unconscious reaction instead of attentive and effective action. Like blinkered horses, we see only what is in front of us – to plough along in a straight furrow marked out by human ingenuity, or like racehorses to win some kind of competition imposed on us,  or to follow a leader, a set of scriptures, a belief system, or just our own unbridled passions...

We know man has enslaved many animals and uses them for his own purposes. What we don’t realise is that man enslaves himself too. And the purpose is either unknown or unconscious. We operate as if we were separate, independent, isolated units or bubbles acting in opposition to an outside world whose only importance is – for some unknown human reason – that is should give us pleasure, wealth, food and drink in abundance, success, power or authority, and other human pursuits, with no questions asked. "It’s me against the universe, and I want all I can get…" That is a poor life philosophy, a wrong outlook, but it lies behind many so-called “normal” thought-patterns.

This is the social perspective of life – our mainstream human world where only humans count, and only certain humans, like political or religious leaders, newscasters, writers or psychiatrists – whoever we have invested with authority in our minds. The exception may be human beings directly involved with plants and animals, who take them into account, but mostly for production purposes only, even if “green thumbs” may love their flowers and breeders may very well “love” and care for their horses very well.

But on this blog we are interested in increasing “Self-Awareness” to such an extent that it explodes out into the world and becomes sensitive to all Life around us – from the tiny ants to the elephants, from a leaf on a bonsai to a giant sequoia, from a beggar in the street to the wisest of the Wise. Every time we hear an opinion from a man or woman, we have to question it and see whether it actually does include any larger aspect of Life. Is it only concerned with human pursuits? If so it its limited. Does it coincide with our observation of Nature? If not it is too limited. Does it account for relationships with the living soil, the plants and animals, people from other continents? If not, it is too exclusive. Is it an opinion someone has written about and we have just accepted as our own, without any analysis? If so, we need to rethink and analyse. What are the basic tenets or assumptions behind the opinion or idea? Can we simplify it and see what it really means? And many other questions.

If we don’t “unblinker” ourselves and reach out to the entire world, we are missing our life and all our chances for happiness in an increasingly globalised humankind. Can you embrace Nature? And the entire world?