Wishing To Be Blind

DHS 104



An interesting quote from Charles Robert Richet in An Autobiography of A Yogi by Yogananda Paramhansa.

"It is assumed that the phenomena which we now accept without surprise, do not excite our astonishment because they are understood. But this is not the case. If they do not surprise us it is not because they are understood, it is because they are familiar; for if that which is not understood ought to surprise us, we should be surprised at everything — the fall of a stone thrown into the air, the acorn which becomes an oak, mercury which expands when it is heated, iron attracted by a magnet, phosphorus which burns when it is rubbed...

"The science of today is a light matter; the revolutions and evolutions which it will experience in a hundred thousand years will far exceed the most daring anticipations. The truths — those surprising, amazing, unforeseen truths — which our descendants will discover, are even now all around us, staring us in the eyes, so to speak, and yet we do not see them. But it is not enough to say that we do not see them; we do not wish to see them; for as soon as an unexpected and unfamiliar fact appears, we try to fit it into the framework of the commonplaces of acquired knowledge, and we are indignant that anyone should dare to experiment further."

Granted this was written a long, long time ago, but it is still very much to the point and makes an interesting distinction between understood and familiar. Not only true in science, as he points out, it's true in the larger world as well. Why don't people get upset with all the violence, bigotry, racism, hatred, other bizarre evils out there in the world? Not because anyone understands them, no, it's because we have become familiar with them and have simply come to accept them as acceptable attributes of life. That's complete and utter nonsense, but that's what familiarity has done to us.


"...as soon as an unexpected and unfamiliar fact appears, we try to fit it into the framework of the commonplaces of acquired knowledge, and we are indignant that anyone should dare to experiment further."

So, so, true. Depending on where you live, of course, but if you were to approach an average person on the street and try to strike up a conversation about consciousness, what it would mean for the world if we all tried to understand what consciousness was, what it would mean to be fully conscious, what we could accomplish as a People if we were aware of the interrelationship of all consciousness, and topics like enlightenment, most people would tune you out, or worse, and say, "you don't know what you're talking about. Scientific experiments have been done on the brain and ..." In other words, scientists already have the answers on the brain, mind, and consciousness, so don't start with these new age gobbledy-gook theories and Buddhism.

Fundamentalism and closed-mindedness accepts no revisions of their version of the facts. They get indignant when people even try.

But anyone who is honest has to admit that we don't know all the answers. We have stories, theories, and hypotheses that explain life to the best of our abilities, using today's knowledge, but it is impossible to have any idea what knowledge is out there and right around the corner waiting to be discovered, waiting for that one open mind to stumble in it's path and accept it.

And that's all it takes to grow and expand. An open mind. A willingness to observe and to accept that we don't know it all — and never will.