To "indoctrinate" is to teach a person (implant an idea) to accept (believe) an idea that corresponds to some kind of concept or
belief about the world. As such, this
is what always happens to us in family, school and society, because we are led
to believe in (positive acceptance) or reject (negative acceptance) a series of
codes previously perceived and believed by others, along with their underlying
assumptions. These may have a greater or lesser or a nil correspondence to
Reality, because they are just thoughts and beliefs lodged in the mindstuff,
which we identify with and remember from our memory sack, and which are elicited
every time we react to a stimulus.
Take a Christian who thinks of his particular
“god” when the word “God” is mentioned; whereas a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddhist
will need another kind of word for supposedly the same concept, or not? Or
countless other labels used by people to classify others and themselves, and
usually clashing with the actual definition of the label.
So when we meet and sit down with any new
person, this is what happens: one indoctrinated mind with its underlying
assumptions tries to contact another indoctrinated mind with its assumptions,
and there is either agreement, leading to liking, or disagreement, which ends
up in dislike or rejection. And that’s about as far as it goes if there’s
nothing else to work on. Or perhaps the bodies connect, but the minds don’t. Or
the feelings connect, but the thinking process doesn’t, etc. etc.
This is why we all need a new kind of modern
education for the 21st century, called Disindoctrination. First, since
we can’t avoid it, we let everyone go to school and learn all those words, theories
and assumptions about man and society and the world, hoping for the best. We
have already done that ourselves. In the final analysis, it is a test to see
how far we are involved in our own egos, and accept them, or whether we have
some kind of sense of something more, something higher. Then, at some point
when we are ready for it – due to longing, suffering, pain, rejection or
whatever – we can make a brand-new start to life, by taking a crash course in Disindoctrination.
Now, disindoctrination is not
re-indoctrination with a different set of beliefs. Disindoctrination has
to come from an inner understanding of our limitations, using common sense, and
questioning everything from the beginning. What can I really be sure of?
Something I’ve read in a book or magazine, seen on TV, or seen for myself, with
my own eyes? Have I seen that correctly? What is seeing? What is perceiving?
How do I see the world? Where is that world for me? Out there – as I’ve been
told? Or can we reason it out with a few basic pieces of information and come
to another conclusion?
1st lesson in Disindoctrination:
Sense Perceptions.
The senses can only tell us what we are capable of
perceiving – never the whole story. We are very small in this world (fact:
trying walking around it and see); our capabilities are very limited, and
mostly we are trained to judge things from the human or societal standpoint. Modern
science has described what ancient wisdom knew from experience. The eyes, as
one of the five sense, see energy forms that we interpret in our minds as “a
thing” or “a person”. Reason should tell us that through this channel we see
only partially: what is in front of us, or the front part of the object in
question, but not what’s behind it or inside it, or around it, or within it.
The stupid science-class question of a tree falling in the woods with no one
around to hear it – is there sound or not? – assumes that only humans hear. But
we hear only what is audible to us. A grove of trees may very well note the
falling of an ancient tree hit by lightning and falling, but they will note it
in their own way, which of course is not in ours. As with sight and hearing, so
with touch and tasting and smelling. These are human inputs only, in a world
that has myriads of possibilities above and beyond the human.
2nd lesson in Disindoctrination:
Wash Away Beliefs.
Anything you know from your own experience, analyse it
and accept for the time being. Anything you do not know in your own
experience, wash this all away and see what’s left. That means: concepts and
ideas you have not confirmed in your own experience (1); beliefs and
suppositions your have about anything and everything (2); assumptions,
opinions, ideologies, religious concepts, scientific concepts (3) you have not
personally verified. Examples:
(1) Theories about the mind; theories about
personalities; theories about the world; theories about the universe; about
animal behaviour; about human behaviour; about space, time, life, evolution,
consciousness, materiality, spirituality, about chakras, meditation – what it
is and what it is not; about sexuality; about any other theory…
(2) Belief in this god or that god; belief in
scriptures and bibles and holy books; belief in good and bad; belief in war or peace;
belief in eating this or that because someone says so; any kind of belief, because
belief is a substitute for true knowledge or truth. No belief means saying “I
don’t know” and being unafraid to say it.
(3) Assumptions about the past of mankind,
evolution, development, ancient civilisations, and about the future of mankind;
opinions on doing or not doing something for reasons unknown; ideologies about
heaven and hell, earth and paradise, truth and untruth, good and evil, etc.;
religious concepts that so-and-so said something or did something as an Act of
God; scientific concepts concerning the material world, based on thinking and
observing, but which you cannot prove to yourself.
3rd lesson in Disindoctrination:
New Mind Patterns.
The so-called “mind” and all of its functions has to
be totally revamped. You have already partially cleaned the stables in lesson
2, washing away beliefs. Now to re-establish a certain amount of order, you re-define
your mind by observing it, watching it, simply witnessing what happens. This can
be done by sitting and using Awareness to look at the way the mind operates.
You can take – as a guide, not as a belief system – the yogic terms for
mind as:
(1) Citta or
awareness – that which is most “you” looking at and observing the physical and mental
processes.
(2) Manas or
memories – all those words and images and picturings that you can remember or
bring to mind at any given time. Part of this may also be: the ability to
reconstruct or re-create new combinations of memory, called Imagination.
You may think it’s fun, even “creative”, and it is, but does it really correspond
to any Reality at all?
(3) Ahankara or
identification – when you give your sense of “I” or “me” to any thought,
feeling, sensation, idea, ideology, concept, argument, belief or set of beliefs,
theory, assumption. When “you” give your affirmation to any of these, you are
identifying with it, placing your energy into it, fuelling it with your mind.
(4) Intellect or discerning
faculty – the part of the mind that says “yes or no”, “is or not is”, “true or
not true”, corresponding to reality or not corresponding, etc.
By practising this, your sense of “I” can be
re-arranged so as not to be flooded by thoughts and feelings that really don’t
have to be “you”. As for any fear that the “I” may be “injured”, read tomorrow’s
entry called “Onion Layers”.
No comments:
Post a Comment