Three Disciplines to Certain Enlightenment
Sat Dec 07, 2013
You live at a time and in a world of chaos and constant deception. It is said to be lost in darkness. Lost in its own masquerade, “seeking but not finding, yet certain of understanding anyway”. But there is a path of escape from that world of confounded efforts and clouded, stuborn minds. There are three exercises that can each be practiced for short periods until the cloudy uncertainty in life is dissolved after which the mind and body gains clarity, harmony, and health. If enough people bother to do it, the same occurs to all of society, including those who didn’t even try.
- Say nothing that is not certainly true.
- Attempt nothing that is not certain to be accomplished.
- Want for nothing that is not certainly wise.
Each of those exercises requires a reasonable environment and are not dictating eternal morals but rather merely temporary exercises with which to clear the confusion away so that the mind can then choose its own priorities and morality if any at all.
Although to a degree all three must always be of some concern, it is important to do them in order and generally each will be a little more difficult to maintain than the prior. If attempted out of order, it isn’t likely that anything will be accomplished other than perhaps a different type of confusion, a different color of dark cloud.
The religions attempted number 3 without accomplishing 1 or 2.
Science attempts number 2 without accomplishing 1 or 3.
One cannot tell a compass where magnetic North is supposed to be. One must altruistically build the compass (do the exercises in order) and let the compass THEN tell where North really is despite whatever one had previously imagined.
As your mind is right now, can you answer these questions with 100% confidence?
- How can anyone determine what is necessarily absolutely true?
- How can anyone ensure with 100% certainty that any attempt he makes will succeed?
- How can anyone guide their desires to only what is 100% certain to be wise?
Until you do the exercises, you very probably can’t answer any of those correctly. And you certainly can’t know that you are answering them correctly without the exercises. Once you have done the exercises and gained a very clear understanding of each concern, you can then comment on the wisdom of doing them. Until then, you can’t honestly say that you actually know anything concerning the wisdom of doing them. And please note that (3), is not saying that one should merely want to be wise, but rather that one should want only for what is wise to want for, or more simply, one should not want for foolish things.
The religions preach presumed wisdom from prophets. Science preaches presumed truth from perceptions.
Rational Metaphysics offers a means for determining what is or isn’t true or wise without the need of preachers nor prophets, personal revelations, nor even experience (although all of those can be helpful). But your own personal exercises are still required. You must still be a “disciple” of the method for discovering on your own what is or isn’t true or wise.
What is the first thing that one could expect to be able to be said with absolute certainty of being accurate?
“I don’t know.”
That is one thing a person can be 100% certain of. Yet it’s the first thing people seem to forget. They might or might not quickly come up with other things that could be said with absolute certainty