How do we figure out where our blind spots are? Good question. We can figure out where our blind spots are by recognizing where our awareness is incomplete. The edges around our blind spots are fuzzy.
Whenever you venture into an area of understanding where your inner guidance doesn’t speak or speak clearly, you have one point you can mark. You will find as you discover more of these fuzzy points they form a pattern, then aren’t disjointed. Eventually the pattern describes a form you can recognize, though you may not grasp the particulars. The edge of the world doesn’t exist in any literal sense, but there is an “edge of our world.” People seem to intuit it when they are close to “going over the edge”, no?
We can learn to recognize our edges? Yes, and respect them. I will not criticise another’s ignorance, because that would just be egotism and would be entirely useless on my part. I always bristle when I hear someone speak of another’s ignorance, because few understand the inner territory of another soul, and perhaps could not handle it well if somehow they could go there. Matter is ignorance, but ignorance does not matter. You act despite what you do not know, and it will be this way for all of us throughout our entire lives. If we live in fear of the unknown, what life can we have?
Isn’t what you describe more of tolerance? Deeper than tolerance. Tolerance is a superficial acceptance. You can be fully in the presence of your ignorance, not keep to the clear, but not abandon clarity. You can live in the fullness of your awareness, and in fact, the emotional drain of “tolerance” as most people define it need never be experienced.
It was said in the Bible, and I will have to paraphrase. Make no effort to remove the cinder from your neighbours eye without first removing the timber from your own. I imagine this would keep us very busy, even be a spiritual path all on its own.
There is a discipline, though not widely embraced, known as karma yoga. In karma yoga, rather than cleansing karma, you immerse yourself in it to the point that all the karmic influences are so great they can only be resolved in the absolute. The “Brahman” as its known in that tradition. Perhaps the one you would call fool is in fact your spiritual master? If this sounds absurd, perhaps that absurdity is the essence of wisdom?
What do you mean by “resolved in the absolute“? You have the duality of good karma and bad karma. The weight of these karmas can grow so great as to become a singularity. The Brahman is known as the “absolute.” The universal soul. Having known all things in fullness what would keep you from unity? It is sort of the reverse of renunciation. Renunciation can perhaps be described as the wisdom of ignorance. The absolute renunciate is ignorant of everything. What would keep them from unity? Ultimately, nothing does. As they say, “All paths lead to the Brahman.”
What the difference is, is congruency, clarity of soul. While you have the disagreement between self and self, then you have division, false identification, which is identified as the biggest barrier to understanding/nirvana/unity, however you prefer to speak of it.
False identification. To use modern science, it’s an error in the cognitive process of “reflection.” Also known as metacognition, awareness of your awareness. We have great depth in our awareness, and our awareness is shaped by the world which in the Hindu tradition is synonymous with Maya. Maya = illusion. Now, illusion is not evil. That worry is just another illusion, but to the degree that we mistake anything in the mind for the inner light, we are engaging in false identification.
Ignorance is an illusion? Yes. Ignorance is an illusion. So to tackle it as something to fix is to keep yourself tethered in it. Recognize the territory is not the observer. The moon is not the same as the finger that points you to it. Our ignorance or “failings” are the finger. You don’t have to keep looking at the finger. Enjoy the moon.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~