“Not only are we blind. We are blind to our blindness.”
~ Daniel Khaneman
Imagine that you can’t see and don’t know it.
One day your eyes come on line. You can see.
The first thing you realize is that you’ve been blind.
You ask everyone why they didn’t clue you in earlier. No one knows what you’re talking about.
And so the second thing you realize is that everyone else is blind too… and unaware of it.
You are the only person who can see.
The world is so different than you thought it was… than everyone else still thinks it is. You want to tell people what you’re seeing… what they’re missing. But you don’t have the words to explain it. You can’t even explain sight. And even if you could… can a frog living in a well conceive of the ocean? Do they want to if they could?
Hold on to that thought. I’ll get back to it.
Some of us want more out of life. We want to go farther. Excellence. Mastery. Sanity. Enlightenment. Whatever. The standard cookie cutter life ain’t gonna cut it for us.
Along the way we’ll turn to others for help. Experts, teachers, coaches… whatever they call themselves, the experience is always the same. They lure us into their ministry. A place of experts, jargon, methods, and prescriptions. We lap up the jargon like a thirsty pup. Buy their prescriptions like a dope fiend looking for a fix. Put our faith in them like priests.
We’ll believe that we’ve found our place under the sun. The reality is that we’ve been conscripted into an endless search.
Whether we stay with one belief system or bounce around, the perpetual search dynamic is always the same. We practice and learn to perform techniques.
Our vague objective is to separate ourselves from the herd.
We’re not alone of course. Tons of others are doing the same. A bunch of people doing the same stuff as a bunch of other people… thinking they’re escaping the herd. That’s kinda funny… dontcha think?
It’s like a designated swim area. Buoys and lifeguards and their equipment keep us near the beach. Safely distant from the dangers outside the ropes. Unknown depths and currents and sharks… always sharks, and the terrifying loneliness of the open ocean.
Of course, it’s not too hard to keep us in the safe zone. Only a total lunatic would trade the security of the safe swim area for the nightmare beyond it. Right?
And so we all search a place that’s been searched billions of times before. Naturally, we all come up empty. When that happens we move us to another area in the safe zone that’s guaranteed to have what we’re looking for.
On and on it goes.
There are no fertile zones… no better or worse places… no sweet spot in the designated swim area. Because what we want isn’t there. It’s somewhere out beyond the buoys.
The escaping… the swimming out past the ropes… the facing terror and loneliness… the sharks, and the super real possibility of drowning… that’s the source of mastery and enlightenment.
The success rate of safe swimmers is zero because the designated swim area is designed to keep us from what we seek.
“Experts… methods… the whole ministry is a scam. A late night sales pitch. False promises based on false premises. Despite following the instructions. Doing what we’re told. Working hard. Sacrificing. We’ve never personally seen anyone escape.
Not because someone is stopping them. Because the jargon and experts and methods and prescriptions use our energy to lead us back to the group.
That realization has always been there… waiting for you to catch up.
The high priests of the ministry are no dummies. They also know that the system doesn’t work. That’s more or less how they ended up where they are.
Why do we all keep at it? Fear. It’s one thing to talk about distancing ourselves from the herd. Another to be thrown out of it. Far better to fail in accepted ways, in the shallow end… and survive.
In the Truman show there’s a scene where Ed Harris (Cristoff: creator of the Truman show) explains why Jim Carrey (Truman) hasn’t discovered the true nature of his world. “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented. It’s as simple as that.”
Returning to that earlier thought about the frog living in a well. That frog is you. Don’t feel too bad… it’s everyone.
Can you see? Do you want to?
Some part of you does. That’s why you’re here.
Look… I’m no expert. There’s no late night sales pitch here. No false promises. No methods or prescriptions for sale. Shit… I don’t even offer advice. I’m simply a finger pointing to a place.
That place is beyond. Beyond the buoys; beyond teachings and methods; beyond your safe, comfortable existence; beyond the herd; beyond everything you think you know, and into the terrors of the deep, dark, cold, sharky, lonely, terrifying, unknown.
Quick, no one’s looking. Make your break. It’s your only chance.