We have now come to the initial step of the ultimate level to which the progression of this writing has so far been inexorably leading, which step perhaps can best be set forth in the form of an overall question:
Assuming that the Great Swindle is a REALITY of the human condition, and is asGreat as this writing has pointed out that it is - one that operates on a massive scale, is deeply and firmly entrenched in both our individual minds and in our social institutions, and one that appears to be hopelessly convoluted and complex as a result of its deceptive power - isn't it really just wishful fantasizing (and therefore foolish) for any one of us as an individual (especially you ) to CHOOSE to BELIEVE that he (you?) can -
And, the ultimate and direct answer to these ultimate questions is quite simply and honestly - Yes and No.
Yes, if you BELIEVE it. No, if you don't.
A paradoxical, nonsensical answer?
Not REALLY.
If this answer appears paradoxical and silly to you, that's only because - well, there is a Swindle going on. You are right this moment being Swindled away from seeing REALITY into seeing, instead, a "reality" of paradox and nonsense.
Let's take a closer look so as to get past the paradox.
The resolution of whether one will or will not ultimately BELIEVE what the thrust of this writing is so insistently about, comes down, in essence, to this:
[1] If, in its final calculation, the rational mind finds itself able - because it finds it credible - to BELIEVE the actuality and impact of the Great Swindle;
the Great Swindle can (and will) be de-fueled, and thus brought to a halt, within that mind. (On the other hand, of course, if that rational mind can't find the requisite credibility as to the actuality and impact of the Great Swindle; or, if even having found it, CHOOSES not to BELIEVE it; or, if even having CHOSEN to BELIEVE it, CHOOSES not to act on that BELIEF ... the Great Swindle will not be de-fueled and will continue chugging right along, in, and around, that mind.).
And, if more and more minds come to a similar result, there is at least the potential for a similar de-fueling of the Great Swindle on a broader and broader scale within the social institutions of which those minds are a part.
We must now make a clear distinction between arresting the 'Sting' of the Great Swindle at its Personal and Institutional levels.
Although these two levels are intrinsically and inextricably intertwined in the operation of the overall Swindle, one is far more REALISTICALLY reversible than the other, and that same one must first be reversed on a large enough scale before the other can even have a hope of being reversed.
In short, arrest and reversal of the Personal 'Sting' of the Swindle can (and will) be achieved by and within any individual who CHOOSES to do so. And such a reversal can (and will) be a significant benefit for and within that individual, in and of itself, irrespective of what may or may not happen regarding the more problematical Institutional 'Sting'.
Arrest and reversal of the Institutional 'Sting', not being totally within any particular individual's control, is therefore, by its very nature, far more problematical and uncertain as to its potential achievement, and if so, to what extent. (We all KNOW this).
So, in this ultimate discussion of arresting the Swindle, we are going to address each level of the 'Sting' separately (at least to the extent the subject will allow) so as to avoid one from being discouraged away from arresting his own Personal 'Sting' because of the complexities and uncertainties surounding the arrest of the Institutional 'Sting.
Arrest of the Personal 'Sting' is entirely attainable without arrest of the Institutional 'Sting, and, indeed, must precede any possibility of arrest of the Institutional 'Sting'. And not vice versa. To get this backward, or in any way view it otherwise, is yet one more aspect of the Great Swindle itself.
With that being said (and hopefully understood), let's take this littany of 'Credibility', BELIEF by CHOICE, and CHOOSING to act, one step at a time, first things first, beginning with credibility as to the 'Sting' of the Swindle at the personal, individual level.
Can a rational and educated mind find sufficient credibility in the actuality and impact of the Great Swindle so as to be able to actually BELIEVE in that actuality and impact?
And, if so - How ?
We shall now provide a direct answer to these two questions.
The first step in doing this is to clear away one final Grand Distractor that we have saved for special consideration in this final chapter.
There are two views prevalent today about the ultimate nature of our 'rational' and 'non-rational' aspects, as the species of beings that we are.
The 'rational' view holds that our intellect is what separates us from the lower animals, and is the 'higher' and 'better' part of our nature. To the extent we are not 'rational', we are operating on our 'lower' (animal) level, and that 'lower' level within us is the source of all our difficulties.
The 'non-rational' view holds that our intellect is essentially a result, or the source, of our ego, and as such, is ultimately a vain and arrogant deceiver which blinds us to what is actually our 'higher' (and 'better') aspect - that of the non-rational inner 'spirit'.
While they each come to diametrically opposing conclusions as to the fundamental issue they are dealing with, the key point to note in this is that they both agree as to the framing of that fundamental issue.
They both agree that the rational and non-rational aspects of our nature are inconsistent and at odds (indeed even at war) with one another, and that one or the other must predominate, or even totally displace, the other in order for us to fulfill ourselves as the beings we are.
That is the KEY point!
One view leads to non-rational 'mysticism', and, when unbridled by at least a modicum of rationality, to ir rational superstition and the 'Sting' of the Swindle of the Shaman.
The other view leads to the scientific method and, when unbridled by at least a modicum of ego-tempering humility, to atheism (and other forms of Erroneous "knowing" and Conceit of Self), which is nothing other than the more recent 'flip-side' of the same 'Sting'.
The FACT is, our rational and non-rational aspects are not inherently at war with one another, or even inconsistent with one another.
As with our 'maleness' and 'femaleness', they are polarities within us; they complement one another; they are both equally necessary; and neither is somehow 'better' or 'higher' than the other. [Also see: Fundamental Polarities (Complementary Opposites)]
This is a critical juncture in terms of everything this writing is about.
One must first recognize and accept that the war between the rational and non-rational parts of ourselves is an artificial war. It exists only because we BELIEVE they are at odds with one another.
In order to better understand (and thereby be better able to BELIEVE) this, it is helpful to recount how we came to this pass.
During most of our earlier history, the non-rational side (unbridled to the extent of too often being ir rational) did, in fact, predominate, because the means simply weren't at hand by which to fully disseminate the content and benefits of the rational side. Therefore, the balance between the two was for a long time one-sided and unequal.
And, as a result of the relative imbalance between the rational and non-rational, the institution of the Shaman developed, and its 'Sting' became firmly entrenched in our culture, and therefore, in our minds.
During the past few centuries, and especially during the last one hundred years or so, the means for establishing and widely disseminating the rational side have finally come into existence.
And, as a result of centuries of being the 'underdog', and of the resistance of the Shamanic 'Sting' (which had become accustomed to being the 'top dog'), Man's rationality had to come out 'swinging' in order to even be able to reach its fair place in the middle ground of the field of life.
And, because the rational side did have to come on 'strong' in order to establish its rightful place as a balance to the non-rational, it did so. (And, in some ways, it still seemingly has to do so in order to counter balance the tidal weight of the entrenched Shamanic 'Sting').
And that struggle between the rational and non-rational levels within us is still where we're pretty much at today - a seemingly antagonistic struggle.
But, at this point in our development, it is time for the rational part of our nature to TRULY fulfill its proper role, and do what the non-rational part of us cannot do - be rational about the situation.
And, the TRULY rational thing to do is call off the war between the rational (intellectual) and the non-rational (Intuitive) qualities within us.
Because, the war is not actually between our rational and non-rational selves. It is the result of Self-Deceptively fragmented modes of thought (the Great Swindle) which, in the heat of their short-sighted mutual struggle, perceive antagonistic differences where, in REALITY, there are complementary polarities .
To state it directly and clearly, the 'rational' and 'non-rational' aspects within us are inherent within us as the beings we are, are each a fundamental aspect of what we are, and are each equal and mutually complementary aspects of what we are. They can (and preferably should?) work together harmoniously within us, and need not (and preferably should not?) work antagonistically against one another. If they are working antagonistically rather than harmoniously, there is only one reason for that - there is a Swindle going on.
Once one can see the polarities of 'rational' and 'non-rational', he is then in a position to also see that they are, in essence, simply a reflection of the even more fundamental polarities of the SELF and the "self" (of which this writing is so much about), and, thus, the validity of that more fundamental polarity.
And, once one can see the REALITY of the SELF - "self" polarities within him, he is then in a position to find sufficient credibility in everything else that has been, and will be, said here, to be able to BELIEVE all of it.
(If one cannot now see polarities here, he likely won't be able to BELIEVE any of this. If so, all we can say at this point is, from our perspective, he is still caught up in the very Swindle this whole writing has been about, and there is nothing more to say other than what we already have.
Beyond that, mere words can only suggest to the rational ["self"] level that it seek the guidance and assistance of the non-rational [SELF] level in attaining the necessary understanding, by way of Attuniment, so as to be able to BELIEVE, as further discussed below.)
Which now brings us to the second half of the issue of credibility - answering the question, 'How do we go about doing this?'
At this point in this writing, we have now, hopefully, established four fundamental elements:
[1]. The Great Swindle is a REALITY of the human condition on this planet.
[2]. The Great Swindle is the cause, and the only cause, of every unhappy personal and societal circumstance we encounter in our world today.
[3]. The Great Swindle is fueled by Self-Deception resulting from IGNORANCE.
[4]. It is a TRUTH that our views of REALITY are in FACT based upon BELIEFS which we have CHOSEN.
If we have actually established these things, then we have now accomplished the first half of the major purpose of this writing by answering the question - 'Can a rational mind actually, and without embarrassment, BELIEVE the Swindle exists?', with an affirmative, 'Yes!'
The next big question is 'Can it be stopped, and if so, How '?
The direct and simple answer is, since the cause of the Swindle is our own BELIEFS about "reality", based upon our own Self-Deceptive (and therefore erroneous and often dysfunctional) views of REALITY, replace those views with a view that is non-Deceptive (or at least non-dysfunctional) and therefore non-Swindlous.
In doing so it is highly useful to re-state and fully clarify a concept we have been hammering at throughout this writing.
We have been consistently singling out the victim, you and I as individuals, as being the actual 'culprits' (even 'King-Pin') in the Great Swindle.
However, to state the case in such a way is not entirely accurate.
The FACT is that while we, the victims, are the primary human 'culprits' in the Great Swindle, we are not the direct culprits either.
We are, as with a contagious disease, the carriers of the actual culprits.
The REAL 'culprits' in the Great Swindle are not human beings at all, but the Self-Deceptive and fallacious modes of thinking that reside in the minds of human beings.
We, ourselves, are not the culprits. None of us.
Self-Deceptive and fallacious BELIEFS are the culprits.
Yet, we, each of us as individuals, take on these fallacious BELIEFs, and thereby give them life and make them "real" in so doing.
Why would we do this?
And, in taking on these fallacious BELIEFs, we are, in FACT, CHOOSING to do so - whether we're fully consciously aware of our CHOICE making or not.
It is something that arose, and still arises, as a direct, and quite understandable and forgivable, result of our IGNORANCE.
Although each, and all, of us on occasion may very well CHOOSE to be Self-Deceptive (because it can sometimes be comforting to do so), none of us has ever freely chosen to be Self-Deceptive, and none of us do that now. To the extent any of us remain Self-Deceptive, we do so as a result of the very same IGNORANCE, and its sub-cohort FEAR, which caused the Self-Deceptions to arise in the first place.
It is not as though we are set upon this Earth with a free and unfettered CHOICE between Self-Deception and Self-REALITY, and out of some perverse 'failing' within us, we choose to be Self-Deceptive and thereby self-destructive.
We do, indeed, have within us our 'free will' POWER of CHOICE. We are born with it. But, it is neither accurate nor fair to say that such Power is unfettered. Our equally in-born IGNORANCE, and its close companion FEAR, are very powerful factors pushing us very strongly in the direction of Self-Deception.
In the final analysis, it is our 'free will' POWER of CHOICE that will liberate us from the bondage of our Self-Deception. But in order for it to do that for us, we must first acknowledge the full force of IGNORANCE and FEAR, and give that 'Devil' its due.
So, the first step we must take is to commit to forgiving ourselves (and one another) for succumbing to the force of those powerful factors, to whatever extent we have, and do, succumb to them. They are a part of the circumstance of humanity.
To whatever extent we expend our time and lives looking at ourselves (and one another) trying to figure out which of us is, and is not, more or less to 'blame', or 'guilty', of being a Victim/King-Pin of the Great Swindle, is to simply sustain and re-ignite the Swindle in the doing, and distract our attention away from where the true battleground is, and always has been.
Instead, what will be required is for each of us to agree to focus our attention, and to keep it focused, on the one TRUE culprit - IGNORANCE.
We can do this if we will view IGNORANCE and FEAR as being no different than old age and disease - things to which we are all susceptible, and not things for which to pass judgment on ourselves (or one another) or to condemn ourselves (or anyone else).
If any one of us, including ourselves, is being IGNORANT or FEARful in any way, or exhibiting symptoms of them, let's simply recognize that we are all susceptible to them (and try to help one another through, and past, them).
If we take this approach, we will be taking the first major step toward eliminating the Great Swindle, and all the problems it has created for us.
Because, finally, and for the first time in history, we will be focusing our attention and energies on the TRUE cause of all our problems, without being distracted into also focusing on one another, or God, or fate, or the Devil as being the cause, and therefore spinning our wheels in the process.
And in doing this, it is also highly useful - even crucial - to, once again, re-emphasize yet another fundamental point made throughout this writing.
The crucial factor in derailing the Swindle is for us to use our recent knowledge. However, in so doing, it is equally critical for us to remain ever on guard against our own tendency to become arrogant and Conceitful about our possession of that knowledge, and thereby cross over the line into Erroneous "knowing", and thus to re-ignite the Swindle in our very attempt to quench it.
Our knowledge, actual KNOWLEDGE, is sufficient to save us, providing we remain humble about it. Let's accept it for what it is, apply it to our benefit, and be thankful that we have it and the good sense to make good use of it. But let's not make more out of it than it TRULY is, and thereby create a new monster, a new Swindle, out of the very tool we are using to eliminate the old one.
And, in order for us to attain, and maintain, this necessary humility in our dealing with our expanding KNOWLEDGE, it will be essential for us to understand how it is that we each can, and will, see things differently, and yet still each be correct at the same time.
Each of us can, and do, have differing perceptions of REALITY. Yet, each of our perceptions can still be equally correct as to the essentials of that REALITY (which is all that matters if our goal is to de-fuel the Great Swindle).
The FACT is we each may (and likely will) quite easily differ with one another as to the specifics of what we see as being the surface qualities of REALITY.
But as to the essentials of REALITY, we can all be equally correct despite our differences.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Providing one or more of our views is not being so seriously distorted by Self-Deception as to not be able to perceive those essentials at all. This writing is about those essentials .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There are some very good reasons why we can see it differently, and yet all be equally correct at the same time.
The first two have to do with how we go about perceiving things, and the limitations on our perceptive abilities.
Each of us has a unique vantage point from which we perceive reality.
With regard to our geographical location, the culture in which we were raised and live, our level of education and inner development, our intelligence, the era in which we live, our own chronological age, our sex, and many other factors, none of us is exactly the same as anyone else.
Yet, the total bundle of all these factors establishes the vantage point from which we perceive reality.
It is as if we are all standing, shoulder to shoulder, around the base of a mountain, and we are all looking at that mountain.
But, each of us has a different and unique view of it.
The view of those standing directly next to one another is only slightly different.
The further distant we are from one another in the chain of us around the base of the mountain, the greater the difference in our view of it is. Those standing on opposite sides of the mountain don't have the same view of it at all.
Yet, it is still the same mountain we are all looking at.
And, while none of us may agree on the specifics of what the mountain looks like, we can all agree on three essential things.
It is a mountain.
It is the same mountain.
And, it is there .
We differ in our views. But we are all equally correct in our views. And, if we will but allow ourselves to see it, we can also all agree as to these essentials .
As we stand there looking at the mountain from our unique vantage point, even what we do perceive we don't perceive clearly, nor fully accurately.
We can only perceive through our perceptive senses, and, our perceptive senses, being a part of us, are less than perfect.
Our eyes and ears play tricks on us. And so do the perceptors by which we perceive ultimate reality. Our reality perceptors are less than perfect simply because they are a part of we fallible human beings, and because they are distorted by our IGNORANCE and FEAR.
Those resulting distortions are as different and unique for each of us as are the views we perceive from our individual vantage points.
It is as though one of us is looking at the mountain through a pair of bifocals with a crack in the upper portion of the right lens; another is looking at it through a pair of bifocals with a crack in the lower portion of the left lens; and yet another is looking at it through a pair of sun glasses of which the right lens is wrinkled; and so on and on.
So, even if we could somehow manage to look at the mountain from the same, exact vantage point - which we can't - no two of us would, even then, see exactly the same thing. The unique distortions in our perceptive lenses would cause each of us to 'see' something slightly different.
Yet, once again, the distortion isn't so bad for most of us that we can't at least agree on the essentials - it is a mountain; it is the same mountain; and it is there .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* At least that's true for most of us. Some of our lenses are so fogged over by IGNORANCE and FEAR we can't even see beyond the ends of our own noses, and can't see the mountain at all; which is truly unfortunate.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -And, even after all that, there is yet another reason why we can seem to have differing views of reality, and still all be correct at the same time.
That reason is language.
As useful a tool as language is, it is still, in some very critical aspects, extremely limited in what it can do for us. Yet, language is a primary means - although not the only means - by which we communicate with one another.
In discussing our views of ultimate reality, we often have no option but to use language. Unfortunately, the very essence of the topic we are discussing - ultimate REALITY - is beyond the ability of language to accurately, directly and fully communicate.
When the mountain being discussed is the nature of ultimate REALITY, the words simply don't exist by which one can fully and clearly communicate what he 'sees' to another.
So, even if we could all stand in the same vantage point, and eliminate the defects in our perceptors, we still could not accurately communicate with one another what it is we see, by way of language.
The most that anyone can justifiably hope for from the use of language, at least when discussing ultimate REALITY, is that his words will create a symbol or an allegory for what he sees, and that such symbol or allegory will strike a responsive chord within his listener as to what it is he sees.
All the enlightened spiritual teachers of the past have used symbol and allegory to communicate their message. They all spoke in parables. And this problem with language is why. There was simply no other way they could do it. (Unfortunately, many people have taken their symbols and allegory literally, and have missed the point of their message entirely as a result).
In the Orient there is a saying which states this point quite eloquently (and allegorically):
(There is an attempt to convey an important message by way of allegory and symbol. Don't become entranced by the allegory and miss the message).
And with respect to the Personal 'Sting' of the Swindle, and its operation within each of us as individuals, that is truly as much as mere words, speaking on a rational level, can do to assist one in becoming able to BELIEVE what is being said here.
[As to reversal of the Institutional 'Sting', see discussion of credibility on that subject].
As to one who is now at least able to BELIEVE, it is now time to address whether he will CHOOSE to BELIEVE, and then to act on that BELIEF, and why he would even want to.
We are now going to present a non-Swindlous view of REALITY, which we BELIEVE to be fully credible, for your consideration for CHOOSING to BELIEVE as well.
(Hopefully, at this point of this writing, you are now at least able to BELIEVE the reality view to be presented here. As to whether you will CHOOSE to BELIEVE it, is entirely up to you).
We can no more prove what we are going to say as being literal FACT, than can any of the scientific theories we discussed in The Grand Distractors be proven as FACT (nor any other view of ultimate REALITY you might CHOOSE to BELIEVE).
As to why you should CHOOSE to BELIEVE our view of reality, and thereby make it REAL for yourself, we simply submit the following observations for your consideration.
The view we are about to present is just as valid - and in our mind more valid - as any other view, including whatever view you may now currently accept (likely without having examined the issues as carefully as we have now done in this writing).
If you have a choice - and that is the whole point of this writing - you do have a CHOICE - which view would you prefer ?
The view presented here, which will uplift you and free you from the Great Swindle (and, in due time, perhaps even free the entire world from the Swindle)?
Or, a view which, by your CHOOSING to continue accepting it, debilitates and imprisons you within the shackles of the Swindle?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* A reading of Bach's short novelette, ILLUSIONS, may help to clarify this issue of choice by preference
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Now to establish a view of the reality of what we are as human beings, which view can, and if accepted will, liberate us as individuals from our personal, individual bondage to IGNORANCE and thereby eliminate our personal, individual participation in the Great Swindle as Victim/King-Pin.
(The following is one of any number of possible views based upon the concepts and teachings of the Circle of Esse. The concepts and teacings of The Circle are drawn from the words and lives of all the most enlightened and INTUITIVELY inspired members of our species who have ever walked this planet, including, but not limited to, Jesus, Gautamma, Confucius, Einstein, Sartre and others. They are a distillation, an amalgam, a symbiosis of the messages of all these people, whose messages were all, in essence, the same).
If the reader will keep in mind the considerations we have just discussed as he proceeds through the remainder of this presentation, we are confident that he will find that his own perceptions of REALITY - the 'mountain' - and its essential nature, are not too far different from what we will present here - at least in essentials .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Just look to your own inner lights, and not to what someone else (including us) tells you, or to what
someone else has told you that some 'holy' scripture "really" says, and you will see it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
And now, with these preliminaries out of the way, and recognizing full well the inadequacy of language to fully and truly accomplish our purpose here (but having no other means of communication available between us), we shall now cast our allegories and symbols upon the waters of the reader's mind and trust that they will find a place of resonance at the deeper levels therein.