In this article we are introducing a new character to our reading experience. That character’s name is Catharsis. Eventually we will be providing a listening experience as well when we produce podcasts from the many articles that will be written.
Catharsis is an interesting character for sure. He is often not always “politically correct,” and can often downright irritate people with his demeanor. Addison and Catharsis have known each other for a long time and they feel it will be quite interesting to work together in this venue. Their personalities are different and will serve to play off each other nicely to bring out various levels of the things being discussed. So, let’s give them the opportunity and see where it goes. Please give them a warm welcome. (clapping)
Addison: Greetings to those of you who happen to be reading this latest addition to the website. The topic today is acceptance. Joining me in this creative endeavor is Catharsis. Now would be an appropriate time for you to introduce yourself, Catharsis.
Catharsis: It is good to be here Addison, and thank you for inviting me along on this adventure. Hello readers! Addison and I go back a long ways. Let me scroll up to see what the topic is for today…ah, yes, acceptance. I accept to discuss acceptance. Now what else is there to discuss on this topic, Addison?
Addison: Before we actually start into the assigned topic, let me suggest some “ground rules” for these joint discussions.
Catharsis: Addison you know I don’t like rules! I play by my own tune and always have. Living within someone else’s rules always feels too claustrophobic to me.
Addison: The rules will not be that constricting and they are required to meet the FCC guidelines, as well as the site guidelines, on appropriate language used…as well as to help keep certain emotions within reasonable bounds…so as not to overly offend our readers and guests. Besides, if you do not follow the basic guidelines the administrative team will edit out certain words and may prematurely put our working relationship to an end.
Catharsis: You know me all too well, Addison. I accept the working relationship with the basic guidelines as you have submitted to me in the interest of not letting you have all the fun. With the guidelines as they are, I still have plenty of leeway to annoy, frustrate, confuse, irritate, challenge and play the Devil’s Advocate with any guests we may have on.
Addison: With that being said, let’s dive right into acceptance. Let’s define this word before we actually get into the discussion. Acceptance can be defined as the following: 1) the quality or state of being accepted or acceptable; 2) the act of accepting: the fact of being accepted: approval.
Catharsis: While I find that definition acceptable, Addison, can’t we give it a little more depth?
Addison: Sure we can. Let’s take the word accept and we get the following: to receive willingly; to give admittance or approval to; to endure without protest or reaction; to regard as proper, normal, or inevitable; to recognize as true; to regard as having a certain meaning; etc. And if we look into the thesaurus we have the following: bear with, endure, tolerate, agree to,…
Catharsis: That is much better. Now we have some room to work. What do you think about taking the first part of that accept definition “to receive willingly” and expanding on it?
Addison: That would very appropriate and acceptable to me. As you know I will be coming from the viewpoint of how this relates to the Highest Energy, the One, the Absolute, the great Oversoul, and so forth. And, knowing you we can probably count on viewpoints from other perspectives. That is what will make this a great team.
Catharsis: I knew I could count on you to take the “high ground” Addison. When we say “to receive willingly” does that mean I need to willingly accept everything that happens in my life? What if someone smacks me upside the head just for the fun of it? What if someone decides to take their 4x4 and plows through my fence to do donuts in my garden patch? Am I just supposed to just stand there and wave with a smile on my face saying “Oh, that felt good, can you get the other side of my head too while you’re at it?!” “Hey, buddy, you missed the carrots over there with your big old knobby tires!”?
Addison: You bring up a very good point, and I am sure many of our readers are probably asking that same question. As we know there are different levels of understanding and different viewpoints relative to that understanding. Ideally one “receives willingly” whatever is necessary to reach and maintain harmony with the Highest Energy. If a person is within that state he/she will not normally go around smacking people upside their heads, nor will they be doing property damage for the thrill of it.
Catharsis: That’s all fine and well, however, most people are not within that state of being. I for one will certainly not tolerate someone violating my physical being nor causing property damage for a cheap thrill. There has to be some way to protect oneself while one strives to get to that harmonious state of being.
Addison: That is why there are laws in place. They help protect people from bodily harm and help restrict chaotic human behavior. The laws help keep people civil enough so that the spiritual seekers have the opportunity to develop that higher state of being. However, as we know, laws differ from one country to another, and often differ from each other within different sections of the same country. Laws generally reflect the state of the majority of humans making them.
Catharsis: What if I do not accept the laws where I live?
Addison: Then I suggest that you attempt to work with others to change the laws for the better; to move to a place that has laws that are perceived to be more appropriate for your state of being; or learn to work publicly within your legal system while doing what you feel is necessary incognito. Of course if your state of being is in harmony with the Highest Energy you will know what to do at the appropriate time, and in a way that still allows you to live your dharma (the way conforming to one’s duty and nature). As we can see it is fairly easy to get diverted from the central topic and into related subjects. Let’s bring our core focus back “to receive willingly.”
Catharsis: Yes, you are right Addison…we can discuss almost anything here and it will be oftentimes hard to limit the discussion to the assigned topic. We will just have to keep track of these potential topics and discuss them more in depth at a later time.
Addison: Agreed.
Catharsis: What would you say are some points to consider for someone “to receive willingly?”
Addison: That you are here; that you interact within this material realm through that material form also known as your body; that during your existence within that form you will be challenged; that these challenges serve as opportunities for your growth, understanding and fuller awareness of what is; that you can receive willingly these challenges while consciously connecting with the Highest Energy; that through receiving willingly and consciously the connection with the Highest Energy you remember what you truly are and learn to harmonize with that; and while you are living out your existence here you receive willingly the knowing that all other material forms are also connected to the Highest Energy, although many of them may not realize this.
Catharsis: Wow, that seems to be heavy duty for many of our readers. Even I find it sometimes extremely challenging to do what you say so easily.
Addison: Yes, it is much more difficult to do than it is to say. However, if one takes the first steps in the process and as one makes progress with the steps, one will see “forward” movement and that in itself can serve as a wonderful incentive to carry on.
Catharsis: It seems to me that there are too many obstacles and diversions for one to even begin to discover what steps are necessary to make, let alone do them!
Addison: That is where the words of others who have made the necessary steps come in. There are authors and poets who have written sound advice and given clues on this very thing, myself included. Of course words written in ancient texts can be useful as well. However, one still has to wade through sometimes archaic, misinterpreted, misperceived, misunderstood, misplaced, and inaccurate words. That is why one needs to develop what Truth feels like to oneself. It may take a while to filter out things to get to this feeling of Truth, such as one’s own ego. When you learn what Truth feels like to you within your present understanding, it will serve as a good guide to help keep you on track to understanding this Truth in greater depth and detail.
Catharsis: Why can’t I just pull out the encyclopedia to discover this Truth you mention?
Addison: Encyclopedias can be a wonderful time-saving tool for looking up facts. A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. In other words, a fact represents something that has actual existence.
Catharsis: Then anyone can look into an encyclopedia, pick a topic, and have the truth about anything that is covered. What a wonderful time-saving tool. However, if everyone can do this then why is there so much confrontation, conflict, argument, and war taking place on Earth?
Addison: That is the trouble with facts. One person’s fact can be another person’s fallacy. Facts are only good as long as they hold true.
Catharsis: I thought you said facts were representative of actual existence! It seems to me that if facts keep on changing then they are not Truth.
Addison: One has to keep in mind that facts change because perceptions of the objective reality they represent change for the user perceiving them. Facts in an encyclopedia are a collective agreement on what the latest perception is. In other words, they are acceptable to those in authority describing the facts. However, an encyclopedia in one country may differ in its facts than one in another country. Perhaps there are encyclopedias even in the same country differing on many points of perception.
Catharsis: This sounds way too chaotic. Why can’t we just have one encyclopedia set with the latest facts listed in it?
Addison: Science strives to have a set of facts that are universal about the objective reality that scientists observe and that are repeatable by anyone using the same techniques to observe as well. However, many people choose not to agree with scientific observations and use their own oftentimes nonscientific standards as their guide for what is real or not. These latter people choose to not accept what the scientists say.
Catharsis: These latter people seem to be the same ones that used to call the Earth flat. Why do they still hold onto their beliefs when science shows that their facts no longer hold true?
Addison: Some of these beliefs are forced to change over time because most people recognize that the beliefs can no longer possibly hold true. The more people that no longer accept the previous belief system, the more the belief system is changed to become acceptable to the majority of people. Of course some never change their beliefs regardless of what anyone shows or says on the matter. There are many pockets of entrenched believers doing this.
Catharsis: It seems to me that eventually these pockets of people will die out because most of the people do not accept their ways.
Addison: This is quite possible with many of these groups of people. However, today we see another experience taking place. Science, particularly in the area of physics, actually seems to reversing the trend back to confirming many aspects of reality that many spiritual mystics have realized for millennia. Therefore many previously perceived aspects of reality are now being confirmed and are finding new acceptance among many people.
Catharsis: This is quite interesting. What seems to be the main issue here on whether to accept or not?
Addison: It really comes down to perception. One person’s perception is not necessarily the same as another’s. That is why science is so credible because it is verifiable and repeatable by anyone with the same equipment and techniques. With better equipment and techniques, man is now able to observe much more than one can with just his/her five senses.
Catharsis: Then how did these spiritual mystics see what scientists are now confirming when the mystics did not have any scientific equipment whatsoever?
Addison: These mystics used and still are using what many call their sixth sense – an internal knowing. This can be exhibited through intuition, psi (formerly ESP), out of body experiences, altered states of consciousness, etc.
Catharsis: Therefore we come to what truth feels like to the person perceiving it.
Addison: Exactly. When one goes within through certain techniques, one can perceive many aspects of reality. Unfortunately, science will never be able to confirm with their physical instruments what many perceive without them. And there lies a potential and permanent rift between the two.
Catharsis: Then why don’t the scientists attempt to use the same inner techniques used by the mystics and the mystics use the techniques of the scientists to help confirm what each other sees?
Addison: That would seem to be the most obvious solution. However, as you have many entrenched in their religious dogmas even though many aspects of them have been shown to be unreal, many scientists are just as entrenched in not having anything to do with what they can not perceive with just their five senses. So, many of both sides do not accept the other.
Catharsis: That is a real pity.