Parallel realities.

[crow]

You hear about parallel universes, every now and then, and it's an interesting notion.
But I have come to see it more in terms of parallel realities, and I encounter these phenomena every time I deal with humans.
We all use more or less the same words.
We all more or less use these same words in the same way.
And we mostly more or less receive and deliver more or less completely different messages, as a result.

People more or less inhabit solitary realities.
Some may approach each other more or less closely.
Most more or less diverge completely.
Human interactions are more or less a minefield, as a result.

A very few men, throughout history, have inhabited a stable version of reality.
One upon which they are able to more or less agree.
These are generally known as the great philosophers.
People who have read them see a  more or less distinct pattern.

Interestingly, although I have never read any philosophy, I have, I am told, paralleled the known philosophies.
All by myself.
And what does this suggest?
What it suggests to me is that reality is a rather stable and knowable thing, if one is able to closely examine it.
Remove bias, conditioning, wishful thinking and opinion, and reality is what remains.

Even more interestingly, the bulk of people will, upon witnessing my witnessing of reality, infer my enormous insecurity and my consuming need to feel superior, and no matter what enlargement I may offer, to clarify this, will steadfastly infer ever more base meaning to what is taking place.

The conclusion I draw from this is:
There can be no bridge between parallel realities.
They are, apparently, immutably mutually exclusive.
One may inhabit a reality that accurately reflects reality, and share it with a rather small number of others, or one may inhabit an opinion-based reality among countless other opinion-based realities, that stretch on and on into infinity, each of which are inhabited by one solitary ego, that is, by its own definition, the only one that is correct.

I don't bother myself with what the great philosophers said.
If they could know reality, then they are no different from me.
And if I am no different from them, then we don't need to know what we have discovered, because we have all come to the same knowing of reality.
More or less.

[§Transcix]

Beginners don't yet realize that just because a particular philosophical paradigm has a particular philosopher's name to it, this doesn't mean there's anything proprietary or unique about it; the beginner doesn't yet think of themselves as on the same level as the philosopher.

But we do come to realize that some things are more fundamental than others in the realm of philosophy and spirituality, and that all valid perspectives operate from their basis.

But we cannot take these fundamental premises for granted, as others who may disagree with us do not yet realize them, so we must be patient and choose our words carefully when we talk to these people.

Nevertheless, we share many beliefs in common with these people. If you feel these people do not 'accept you' for who you are and what you believe, that doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible to have bridges between your respective realities.

You already share much with them. Yet finding truth in order to let it go is one thing, while never finding it in the first place is an entirely different affair.

But then, once I found it, I would not let it go. Though maybe it would let me go..

[lost_wanderer]

truth is like water. you can't  grasp it with your hands. You can bottle it up but It will stagnate and become rancid. Truth must always go freely in the world.

[crow]

Like 'knowledge'.
Knowledge-of-good-and-evil...
Don't touch that tree!
God didn't expel Adam and Eve.
Eden just vanished for them, after the first taste.

[lost_wanderer]

"But it taste so good" must have said Eve while eating the fruit.

And all was lost for the taste of pleasure.

[crow]

Lao Tzu has things to say about desire.
None of them are good.

[§Transcix]

If the apple of knowledge propels itself into my mouth,
I will not run away from it.
I do not desire to hoard knowledge,
however I do possess various (noble) intentions.
Knowledge for its own sake is useless,
it is but a means to an end.
(including knowing and bettering
thyself)

[Biannual Scab Miracle]

How much wiggle room is there in this reality?  If there is really only one true spiritual path, then are specialization and preference perversions? 

[Conservationist]

Seems unnecessarily extreme. Either good or perversion.

[crow]

Wriggle all you like.
If you fall off, it's your problem.
But once you're on it, the reason becomes clear.
You wriggle less because there is less reason to wriggle.

[§Transcix]

How much wiggle room is there in this reality?  If there is really only one true spiritual path, then are specialization and preference perversions?  

Some paths are more ascetic than others, but all entail a transcendence of baser impulses. The impulses remain but are no longer what dictate, instead their energies are used in higher ways.

A unity is only truly a unity with a healthy variety to unify in the first place, anything less is a homogenous blob of undifferentiated oneness. The variety remains, unity is not the goal, but the patterns become structured in higher ways.

[Biannual Scab Miracle]

Seems unnecessarily extreme. Either good or perversion.

I did that consciously; kind of just poking the beehive right now.  Hopefully on a future thread I will have an insight of my own to present, but for now I'm appreciative of the thought-provoking responses.