Enlightened-Who?

 

“It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.”
― Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

 

What is enlightenment? Is it a place we reach and stay at? Is it a never-ending journey on which we occasionally receive glimpses during peak experiences that keep us moving along carrying water and chopping wood? Is there a point of absolute enlightenment or is it relative. I can definitely say that each day I understand things more clearly than I have before. I can also definitely say that each day I find more confusion and it is in this interplay of light and darkness that I find the most growth. I have also yet to meet anyone that I could neither learn from nor teach even if some of the lessons were less than pleasant ones. As far as I can tell that’s why we’re all here with each other.I don’t know if I’ll ever reach a point at which I’ve made it and can say “i am enlightened.” Yet looking at those who do say it that is possibly a good thing. At least I know I’ll have fun on the way.
Blessings, G

 

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Angel Over Hidden Water (Crocell)Angel Over Hidden Water (Crocell) by G A Rosenberg

 

Ringmaster of the Unearth CircusRingmaster of the Unearth Circus by G A Rosenberg

 

Circe’s Madness

 

“There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.”
— Plato

 

I didn’t know who she was but she released the animal inside of me. Not in the way that you might think tho my memories are hazy. Since I’ve met her tho every single dark thought I have expresses itself. I have discovered a wildness in me and have become almost feral. I can reign in my actions but the desires are there. Never have I felt so out of control. Never have I felt so free. I have greater knowledge of myself than ever before. At times I am almost grateful for this. Few people have had this upfront a view of the beast that they contain. I accept this wild man this beast so that one day I can transcend it or so I hope. Until then I tread on a narrow edge. The jury is still out on which way I’ll fall off.
— Part of a note found in an alley

 

Blessings, G

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Circe's MadnessCirce’s Madness by G A Rosenberg

 

Turquoise NetTurquoise Net by G A Rosenberg

 

Encouraging Candles in the Darkness…

 

“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
― Plato

 

To my mind we are all progressing upon our path. Some of us may stay willfully ignorant for weeks, months or possibly even decades but then something happens that shakes their world view and perhaps in the smallest way they open up. Perhaps they are willing to understand a point of view they never have before. Perhaps they (and by they I almost always mean we for I have yet to meet anyone fully free from ignorance. I know that I have my share and possibly more) have found an iota of compassion for someone whom before they withheld any understanding. Funny thing tho how much difference such a change can make. It is something akin to lighting a candle in a dark room as opposed to one with all kinds of sunlight streaming in. The candle may be as bright in most cases but in the darker room it stands out a lot more…
If we are all progressing even at the rate of a candle every thirty years, then how can we discourage anyone in their growth. The realization that we all progress has been one of those candles for me.
Blessings, G

 

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Lava GuardianLava Guardian by G A Rosenberg

 

MarbleGameMarble Game by G A Rosenberg

 

Sightseeing

 

“«Who are the true philosophers you have in mind?» he asked.

«Sightseers of the truth,» I answered.

«That must be right, but what exactly does it mean?» he asked.”
― Plato, The Republic

 

When you go sightseeing what do you look at? Do you look at everything in the guidebook that you clutch like the bible (or perhaps the modern equivalent of the browser on your iPhone? Do you look at the obvious sites, the ones that ‘everyone’ goes to? Perhaps you are adventurous, talking to the people who live in whatever area you are exploring, listening to their word of mouth tales of the hidden treasure, the sites that few see that somehow feel so much more memorable than the standard museums, castles and monuments. Perhaps, if you are like me, you prefer to wander,hang out with the natives and see what only they see.
It seems that when we go exploring reality the same choices present themselves. There are the truths that exist in all the holy books and many choose to just acknowledge those. Then there are those who read more and deeper, looking for the meanings behind the truths, perhaps to discover a bit of what’s hidden beneath the surface. There are other paths as well. Talking to people and discovering the personal takes that only they know, meditating, exploring within and discovering our own connection to truth as well.
Just as in sightseeing, I believe in doing it all, reading, meditating, praying, compassionately knowing people and integrating the experience . Of course sometimes the large monuments are cool as well.
Blessings, G

 

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Flames of CreationFlames of Creation by G A Rosenberg

 

Texture - Color PlayTexture Colour Play by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 19 2013

“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
― Plato

 

I wonder if the above quote is semantically the same as never discourage anyone, after all aren’t we all making continual progress albeit in some it is almost imperceptible . In my experience, when we stand still recalcitrant to any lessons, ie continuously act like a jerk, life continues to rub our nose in it until we at least begin to get the message.
No matter how much they may have owned materially or no matter how many trappings of a ‘good’ life they had, I have met very few jerks who have had happy lives. But then again, people who have made the decision to be happy, to accept their lives as  a challenge rather than as something done to or for them seldom tend to be jerks. Perhaps that is one of the earliest lessons…
Blessings, G

 

 

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Focus
Focus by G A Rosenberg

 

Rooted DesignRooted Design by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 18 2012

Three quotes tonight but they all dance around a common theme that has been on my mind quite a bit lately and perhaps more and more in my heart:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
― Plato

“for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
–Dalai Lama

For the sake of discussion, let’s define compassion as the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes and thus gain an understanding of them and their needs. Perhaps what empathy aspires to be when it grows up or perhaps when we grow up.
When we feel compassion for someone, it does not mean feeling sorry for them tho it does mean feeling their suffering. It does not mean we give them our agreement as much as our understanding. Often when practicing compassion, it means we are there suffering with them yet we know to spoon feed them what they need to stop their suffering, we are cheating them out of a lesson they will now have to find a new way to learn.
Blessings, G

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Bunratty Castle in County Clare Ireland

One from the archives:

Krishna Playing to the Heart by G A Rosenberg

Still travelling, now back in England. Tomorrow Stonehenge then Tuesday home.. THis trip has been a great one and as I hoped as much an internal one as it has been an external one

Quote of the Day – February 25 2012

“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”
–Plato

Are these three mutually exclusive, wisdom, honour and gain? I mean the proletariat leaning side of me would love to see lovers of gain be of a different ilk than either lovers of wisdom or lovers of honour? What does it mean to be an honourable man?

“Dr. Mark Powell: How do you know right from wrong?
Prot: Every being in the universe knows right from wrong, Mark. ”
–from K-Pax

This quote strikes me hard. Hard enough that I’ve started writing this section three times and each time I went back and deleted it. I recall so many times in my life that I absolutely knew the right thing to do and I flat out did the opposite? For the life of me, I don’t know that I could give a good reason why. In at least a few cases, I wanted to see where doing the wrong thing would lead me? At other times, it just seemed to be the easiest choice to make given what the people around me were doing. At no time, did I ever come out of the situation saying “Wow, I’m glad I did that”. Most often the response was more like “Well, I paid the ticket and saw the show” I continued on.
Is that what honour is? Knowing the right thing to do and doing it? If so, does our inner integrity and honour go up as we do what we know is right and diminish when we don’t? Is it that shadow self, that I spoke of yesterday that pulls us back from doing the right thing if it can get an ego payoff by doing the opposite? How do I tame it?
These seem like trite questions yet in my life of late they become more meaningful every day. Blessings,  G </h4>

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Radiating Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Elevator by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 12 2010

“Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.”

—Wikipedia

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Platonic Cave? by G A Rosenberg