Original Innocence
The previous post included a single sentence that deserves exploration, as it isn't what any of us usually recognize as true. The sentence I'm referencing is, “The criminals are essentially innocent, because they have no idea they're experiencing their thoughts about reality.”
I would expect that many readers find that statement troubling, and some will even react strongly in opposition to it. An individual that clearly and openly causes damage and destruction to others is quite obviously not “innocent” in any commonly accepted use of the term. Yet, once one discovers a new level of consciousness for themselves, among the assorted elevated feelings that accompanies the realization is a measure of humility, the recognition that our own past actions from a lower level were not always the most helpful to others. Thankfully, most of us aren't living at a level that causes us to react to our personal reality to the point where we engage in criminal behavior, but who among us hasn't had moments when we reacted ourselves, and did or said hurtful things? Has anyone out there lived a life entirely absent of regrets regarding our own behavior in our interactions with other human beings?
I do think it's important to emphasize that I'm not suggesting we should focus on our own regrets. Pay attention to one regret for any period of time, and it's a near certainty that your personal mind will deliver up another fairly soon. Before we know it, we're immersed in an entire line of thought where we're passing judgment on ourselves for all of the rotten things we've done, and inevitably lowering our spirits, not raising them. Remember, whatever our past may contain, it exists only as thought in the moment. The action we're regretting no longer exists except as a thought, but the unpleasant feeling will definitely exist in the moment for as long as we pay attention to the thought. The moment we let the thought go, the feeling evaporates, like magic. The moment the regret returns to mind, the feeling instantly returns right along with it. Five minutes ago, before you started entertaining regrets, you weren't experiencing the feelings either, were you?
Great. Now everyone is entertaining assorted regrets they've accumulated over time, experiencing shifting mood swings as a result, and that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to point out that since almost no one realizes they're operating on a level of consciousness at every moment, everyone is essentially innocent, including you. Once you begin to see your own innocence, it becomes much easier to see other's, and this is just one of countless illustrations of how reality appears to change once we've discovered a higher level of consciousness, even momentarily.
As I mentioned earlier, the recognition of our own innocence leads to a measure of humility. Humility is not synonymous with shame. Humility involves a warm, positive feeling, while shame involves a highly uncomfortable feeling. Humility has a universal aspect to it, a sense of a shared misunderstanding, while shame is personal and involves judgment. The latter is related to and generated by the personal mind, the ego. The former originates in the universal mind.
Is it possible to always see innocence? Not in my experience. I do not live as an enlightened sage. I frequently witness behaviors that I find unacceptable – the reactivity happening everywhere in respect to the pandemic and the election are current and especially stark examples. Likely as a result of my own personal experience of a wide range of levels of consciousness, though, I do understand that universal innocence is true. So even if I'm unable to see innocence in behavior at any given moment, the knowledge alone serves as a check on my own reactivity that will arise to varying degrees from whatever level I find myself in any given moment. I may suggest someone needs to calm down to allow for clearer, more responsive thinking, but I won't attack them for being victimized by their own thinking,
As Parmenides' goddess reminds us, that's just the human condition, reacting to a reality “that mortals fabricate, twin-heads, knowing nothing. For helplessness in their chests is what steers their wandering minds as they are carried along in a daze, deaf and blind at the same time”.
Helplessness in their chests. Innocently.