Blog #73--Common Fallacies Limit Our Awareness

I stopped short of an intersection to allow a person coming from the opposite direction to turn into a business entrance to my right. I was doing him a favor, but he stopped in front of me rather than proceeding, probably delayed by someone else.

I recalled the phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished,” but that is not a true statement. I stopped for him in part because I saw the light was about to change to red. It annoyed me that he failed to acknowledge my assistance, but my ego was adversely affected only briefly. I wasn’t really sacrificing anything, so no punishment was involved. And since I gave of myself freely without needing something in return, I benefitted from the new energy returning to me to fill the void.

Our egos limit the balancing of energies possible through unselfish acts of kindness toward others. If we are unaware of the positive benefits we receive for our “good deed,” then it is easy to imagine it was punished. But believing that statement discourages us from helping others in the future, which is an ego goal but certainly not our spirit’s purpose. In truth, unless we have some ulterior motive for our giving, we receive in equal measure to what we give. True good deeds aren’t punished.

We have all heard a wide variety of other similar statements which have little if any basis in fact, and many of us believe them. Perhaps a quick review is in order. For example, “The truth hurts.” No it doesn’t. What hurts is the lies we use to replace truth, that and the fear created by the misunderstanding. Accepting truth simplifies our lives and allows us an opportunity to forgive ourselves and others.

Our ego can only distort truth as it spins its curved path through life and fears a loss of control once truth is known. We are one with the Universe and our creator. Knowing that cannot hurt us; what hurts is not knowing.

I often hear people say, “I changed my destiny.” For instance, one football team is way behind until the fourth quarter, when a big rally gives them a last second victory. The coach brags that his team changed its destiny, but that is a circular statement. The word “destiny” represents a force that guarantees we proceed down a specific path whether we think we want that path or not. Claiming to change destiny by personal will power is like saying we are more powerful than our creator, which is an impossible scenario. It is either destiny that we win at the last second, or there is no such thing as destiny. They can’t both be true.

Another example of circular thinking relates to our perception of “heaven.” Most world religions believe there is an afterlife that is better than life on Earth and is eternal, at least for those who have earned it. And yet, many of these same people are eager to have babies who “come from heaven.” If heaven is a real place, and if we are happier there, then why would we want more spirits to exist in finite bodies on a limited three-dimensional planet where disease, wars, pain and confusion are at least as common as pleasure and happiness?

“Seeing is believing” is a common refrain, but as I discuss in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” humans see far less well than many other species. And what we see depends on our confidence level at the time. The more fearful we are, the more distorted the image our brains register. It is rare indeed when two people see the same event in exactly the same way. And yet we often refuse to believe things we don’t see.

I’ve known blind people who see better than many with 20:20 vision because they are not deceived by eyesight that fluctuates randomly. In spirit, we are all one with each other and our creator; our eyes are only able to see differences, not equality. Maybe we should put less trust in our vision.

Those who prefer blind faith over rational thought often utilize a similar answer whenever someone asks them why a creator would do things that seem incongruous or nonsensical: “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” This sounds beautiful, but it is not an answer.

Some of the most brilliant people throughout history have stated there is a precision to the Universe that can be calculated, although the formulas for this exactitude have yet to be derived. In my mind, neither argument solves anything. Whatever is the truth, we can neither define it nor claim a specific deity as the decider-in-chief. A solution has yet to be discovered, one way or the other.

“It is not ours to question why.” We have a curiosity that requires at least some of us to seek answers to the riddles of our Universe. It is part of everyone’s DNA. Of course, we are also unable to determine a precise answer to the question. The Universe is a closed system; everything moves in circles and spirals and ultimately returns from whence it came. There is a precision to the finite world, but eternal considerations are beyond our grasp.

An answer to the question “Why?” may benefit some of us in the short term, but the answer then becomes the next question. Thus, we spin in a circle and eventually realize the only way we can discover the true answer is to stop asking the question. That is the paradox of life.

Two-dimensional thinkers ask everyone the following question in the strongest possible way: “What side are you on? If you are not for us, you are against us.” Many wars and murders have ensued against those deemed to be against us, but no one is either totally for us or against us. We are a mixture of opposite energies; no one is only one extreme or the other. Extremes cannot exist in our world without opposite energies to balance them. We live in a world that has at least three dimensions, so the vast majority of people exist in a middle grey range that is in between the extremes of white and black.

One more fallacy worth mentioning at this time is the notion that humans are at the top of the food chain. While it is true we have weapons that can kill most of our potential prey, we are considered prey by some species. Some of the smallest organisms in the world use us as a food source. Parasites, viruses, bacteria and the like survive off our flesh both while we are alive and after burial. Who knows, maybe they think they are at the top of the food chain.

If we are alone in the wilderness with a hungry lion and have no weapon strong enough to bring it down, the lion will win most of the time. The food chain is a circle, not a straight line.

Maybe it’s time we discard our false notions so we can learn the truth about ourselves and the world in which we live. Pleasant but erroneous deceptions do us more harm than good by limiting our growth as spiritual beings.

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