FREEDOM FROM SEPARATE SELF

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~Albert Einstein

If you look at the image above you may see a vase or upon further examination you can also see two faces looking at each other,but it is difficult for our eyes to see both at the same time…this concept led to the important insight that the training of our brain determined what our eyes would see first and also its tendency not to see the whole picture.It underscores how our brain organizes its visual environment based on social conditioning.

According to Gestalt Psychology the diagram of the vase is the figure and the two faces are the ground…this perception is equally true when looking at the interrelationship of our self and environment…we are inseparable in one total flowing process…there is neither a separate self nor a separate environment but instead only one total flowing process…regretably, we usually learn to focus our attention on a separate self (ego) and tend to ignore the environment…social conditioning is inclined to stress the importance of a self while encouraging us to ignore and even exploit our environment…this has become a source of serious problems not only in our alienation from Nature but also we are finding it is destructive to live in a way inconsistent with the natural intelligence of our integral environment…it is becoming clearer we are dependent on a balanced FLOW relationship with our environment or unfortunately will not survive.

Our mistaken perception of seeing our self as the primary and separate factor in our flowing relationship with the environment occurred by a false assumption through social learning which can be corrected …we may still find the clarity, possibly through science,that this assumption is false…hopefully it can lead to an understanding that our flowing harmony with the environment is necessary for our well being and survival.

“The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self”~ Albert Einstein

In the image below,can you see both the old lady and young lady ?