Th. Om - A book in answers

Socrates describes an underground, cave-like dwelling, from which a rough and steep passage leads up to the surface of the earth. The passage is a shaft, that corresponds in height and width to the cave. People who have been prisoners there all their lives live in the cave. While they are sitting, they are tied at the thighs and neck so, that they can only look forward at the cave wall and cannot turn their heads. Therefore, they can never see the exit behind their backs and know nothing of its existence. They cannot see themselves or the other prisoners either; the only thing they ever see is the wall they are facing. Their dwelling is illuminated by a fire, that burns far up in the distance behind them. The prisoners only see this light, that illuminates the wall, not its source. They see shadows on the wall.

Between the inside of the prison and the fire is a small wall, that is not high enough to block the light from the fire. Along the wall, people carry different objects back and forth, replicas of human figures and other living beings made of stone and wood. These objects protrude beyond the wall, but their bearers do not. Some porters talk to each other, others are silent.

Since the moving objects cast shadows on the cave wall, that the prisoners are facing, the cave dwellers can perceive the moving shapes as shadows. But they suspect nothing of the porters. When someone speaks, the echo echoes back from the cave wall as if the shadows were speaking. Hence the prisoners believe, that the shadows can speak. They regard the shadows as living beings and interpret everything, that happens as their actions. What happens on the wall is for them the whole of reality and is absolutely true. They develop a science of the shadows and try to determine laws in their appearance and movements and derive prognoses from them. They give praise and honor to those who make the best predictions.

Socrates now asks Glaucon to imagine what would happen if one of the prisoners were untied and forced to stand up, turn around, look at the exit and turn to the objects themselves, the shadows of which he has observed so far. That person would be painfully blinded and confused by the light. She would consider the things, that came into her field of vision to be less real than the familiar shadows. Therefore, she would need to resume her usual position, because she would be convinced, that reality could only be found on the cave wall. She would not believe contrary teachings from a benevolent liberator.

If you dragged the freed man out of the cave by force and brought him to the surface through the impassable and steep ascent, he would resist and would be even more confused, because he would be blinded by the shine of the sunlight and therefore could not see anything at first. Slowly he would have to get used to the sight of the new, whereby he could first recognize shadows, then reflections in the water and finally people and things themselves.

Looking up, he would first want to familiarize himself with the night sky, later with the daylight, and finally he would dare to look directly at the sun and perceive its nature. Then he could also understand, that it is the sun whose light creates shadows. After these experiences and insights he would have no need to return to the cave, to deal with the shadow science there and to be praised by the prisoners for it.

Should he nevertheless return to his old place, he would first have to slowly get used to the darkness of the cave. Therefore, he would do poorly for some time in the usual assessment of the shadows. The cave dwellers would conclude from this, that he had ruined his eyes above. They would laugh at him and say, that it would obviously not be worthwhile to leave the cave even for a try. If someone tried to free them and lead them upstairs, they would kill him if they could.

Summary

Before I am lynched, I will end this consideration. What is perfectly clear, anyone, who is concerned with this thought, certainly feels a kind of hopelessness, the situation seems clarified and hopeless. Yes OK. We are blind, we only see shadows. Finished. The good news: Each of us is where we are, in our life, on the right path. Completely.

We are the light

We are not only not the prisoners who only see shadows, we are also not the figures of reality who cast these shadows, but we are the cause, we are the fire. Love. It is not for nothing, that fire is the element of the Anahata Chakra - the heart chakra. This light burns within each of us and we are here to dissolve our shadows into our own light, which is the light of creation,

of Love.

Are we imprisoned up to our ears?

Wherever you look, there are limits?

"Yes," you will say now.“You're right about, that. There are limits whereever you look. The love of money, the place of birth, the education, the laws, the age, the health, even the gender. You could call it a dungeon. Well -, that is regrettable, but probably a fact, that we have to come to terms with, in terms of a general togetherness, isn't it? Or maybe you see it differently?”

Attitudes of society?

Before we get into a dispute about what these limits actually are, whether they can be viewed as freedoms, even as profits, whether they are immutable, etc. we gonna make a decisive point here. Because this is not the point. The thing, we want to look at has a lot more depth than the attitudes of society.

Is the body communicator?

It's about what you are, how you think you are. Caution! It is a trap! Because, I ask, who is looking at you? It is not your body, the bodys only a communicator and provides the appropriate tools. So - We don't want to make things more difficult than they are - it is your mind, that defines you, your body and its behavior. The body cannot think, it is only doing what it is commanded to do.

Illness is Faith?

If the external circumstances are designed in such a way, that a wrong behavior (a certain behavior) of the body fits the view of the mind on things, the body will get sick accordingly - or it will become or be healthy. It is not the body, that reacts to circum-stances, it is the mind, that commands it, the source, the cause - as far as the body is concerned. One can easily postulate, that illness, even death, is a gigantic, fatal misjudgment of the mind.

Consensus from strong algorithms?

Well - one thing should be made clear - we are not to blame for this misery. With our view of things, as people, who live in a human community, we only follow the general consensus. And what we are talking about here, is much more than just a consensus, it is a learning, that is firmly built on strong algorithms, so to speak inhaled from the beginning of humanity, that leads to this rigid point of view of things.

In vain search for trust?

Our only search in this life is for trust. In the society of algorithms and behaviors, we look for the promising ones, the ones, that should provide us with a solid base, in this game, which is about life and death, about having and not having, even about knowing and not knowing, for better attacking and defending more successfully, this life, that is all about it. And when we have a little time, in this hustle and bustle, we may turn to a God who lives in the approximate. But mostly the God, the idol, is called money.

Can there be no love in the ego structure?

So we search in this structure, which is hammered into us from the beginning, with all finesse templates which are shown on the basis of premises and captivating logic and declared to be real, imposed - to a large extent by the mature person himself - we look for impermanence in this thought, which includes disease, a destroyed earth, war and suffering - which is chaotic through and through and cannot be otherwise on its own - according to the meaning, that God may see in it.