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The Nature of Reality

This morning (December 12, 2013) I woke up thinking that I have to write about what I no-
ticed and learned over the last years. Why? I cant tell for sure.

First of all, I want to say Im no authority in what Im going to write, its just my point of view
on certain things. I want only to write and move on.

When I was in secondary school, our head teacher used to ask three questions: Who are we?,
Where do we come from?, and Where are we heading to? Obviously no one is really expecting
answers that reflect the truth, rather educated opinions at best. Some of us have already stopped
asking ourselves these questions, while others reiterate them from time to time.

But I will ask another question: What do we do? To answer why we do whatever we do, we
can ask ourselves what have we done? To make plans, we ask the question: What will we do? It
seems to me that the most important question is not the one related to the past or the one dealing
with the future, but the question that strictly relates to the present: What do we do? The reason
does not even matter so much. If we focus too much on the past, we become depressed and if we
focus too much on the future, we become anxious. Thus, it is healthy to focus on the present.

In the Buddhist religious space, only here and now matters, because everything lies in these two
concepts. Here is the space (the physical, spiritual, social space or that of any other nature) in
which we exist, while now is the time (the physical and spiritual time) in which our lives take place.

The same Buddhist space also knows the Samsara concept, which says that the material life is
only a grand illusion. I do and I do not agree. I believe that the grandest illusion consists in pre-
cisely the fact that our mind dictates our perception, but we fail to realize it. When we believe that
certain things are real, we let the mind filter certain phenomena around us, so we can only see
what weve been taught to see. And as human beings, many times we react to what we see, without
thinking that maybe there is something else beyond the surface. When we react, we do it from an
impulse, without realizing that there is another option, that of response. If we know the difference
between reacting and responding, we also know what we should do. If we forget this difference, we
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become practically unaware of the available options that lie before us and so fatality is created due
to the paradox of our actions which, as a rule, should have been conscious; instead they have been
predicted for some time by the observers of our actions, not by us, the participants. And if an ac-
tion is predicted, this is not exactly free will. Fatalism appeared as a result, meaning that everything
is preordained, including our actions. Yes and no, I would say again. We are creating our life up to
a certain point, from which the fatum appears. Are you following me? What I am saying is that we
have both free will and fatality. Consequences are born out of our actions, arent they? I believe
that free will lets us act within the limit of our past actions consequences. I, as a human being, see
my options being limited by my own decisions and actions from the past and also other peoples
actions. Thats where everything gets complicated.

We rely on a system, which is in turn a part of the society we live in, that has been created by
people who have no immediate connection with us, yet they decide our collective fate through laws
and financial levers. They have the power to constrain us by creating necessities that have not
existed before. This is a large portion of the illusion we call human life, but surely it is not all.
This is why we have poor people and rich people in the first place. The wealthy ones realized how
the system works and they first danced to its rhythm; thenwhen they are wealthy enough (plu-
tocrats)they can start changing the system as they please. The politicians are also a part of the
system. But the thin line between simply being people and being divided into rich and poor people
has been lost throughout history as no one is really willing to share the recipe for success. No
wonder if one imagines that if it worked for them, then it would work for others, too. I am not
generalizing, I actually read once about a successful man who said that there is a different recipe
for each; I agree. A huge misunderstanding lies here. Some poor folks start to hate the rich ones
because they cannot see their available options, what they can do. And it is terrible to be blind! On
the other side, the most powerful men do not react to the reactions of those less fortunate and all
too often their actions show disrespect for the cohabitation on Earth by excessively drilling the
subterranean and submarine resources, by polluting the air, water and earth during their enriching,
and by exploiting the workforce. There are other faults, too, but I only listed those that I think are
the most important. What is fascinating to me is that they believe it to be OK. Lets give to Caesar
what belongs to Caesar: it is good for them, not for the others. But how did they bring themselves
to take wrong for good? Through excessive rationalization; the same as thieves, though their ra-
tionale may be more simplistic. Again, I do not want to generalize. There are wealthy people that
still act naturally, even humbly and honestly, respectful towards nature and people. One common
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feature is that most of them want to remain anonymous when making donations, for example; they
do not show off as some new rich do in my country. In fact, I even read a story about a man who
entered a shop dressed in very modest attire and the shop assistant wanted to throw him out the
door thinking he was poor. He proceeded to show her a wallet full of money and then he left to do
his shopping somewhere else.Isnt this ostentatious, too? He wouldnt act this way if the clerk
hasnt acted like an unreasonable person. Think of a leprechaun that has a pot of gold, not in-
tending to show it off to anyone. Yet, when the sales person judges him based on a simple ap-
pearance, he feels that showing off is a legitimate action.

So we have determined that there are a few kinds of rich people as well as we know that there
are a few kinds of poor people. Despite all these, I can understand why people are divided in us
and them from both sides of view. It is like two different worlds, with different rules (by the way,
these rules have been invented by people, too). If we stopped focusing on differences and, instead,
we would focus on our affinities, maybe the world would be a better place indeed; this especially if
plutocrats understood that we are all united not only here, on Earth, but also on other realms that
are beyond human understanding (the connections among us, too). We are all human and it seems
to me that it is essential to understand this fact.

At this point, we reach another intriguing point. Though we meet good and bad folks in fic-
tion works, we cannot say that there is such a separation in reality (or what we call reality). We
know there are good choices and bad choices, but for whom are they good or bad? I could also
debate this point, only there are no clear answers and this further shows the moral ambiguity of
the world we live in. When someone is against us it is easy, even tempting, to call him or her
bad. We can say that someone is treating us badly. Actions can be judged, not people, so we can
limit ourselves to those. Thus, another point of debate is opened: are there good people doing bad
things? Yes, but they do not always do bad things and I also do not think it is intentional. Only
bad people are intentionally and knowingly causing harm to others. The good folks can be wrongly
directed, but they stand corrected. We can leave the bad guys at Gods mercy, as they would always
insist to do things their way. Some of them are really terrible because they do not feel any remorse
in harming others; on the contrary, they think it is actually appropriate to do whatever they are
doing (again rationalization is the key). For instance, you are cheating on something and they do
not like it, so they are going to punish you severely for cheating. But they are cheating whenever it
suits them and no one is punishing them, as many are afraid to even bother the powerful. These
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are the people that make some think: The world would be a better place without them. Well
yes and no. If they did not recourse to ferocious attitudes, the world would be a better place, but
then what? After a while, people forget the past and start making the same mistakes. After all, it
seems that the so-called bad folks play a part in the balancing between good and evil, so that the
good wont be a confusing concept, but one which is quite clearly defined. Some of them are even
better critics than our friends, so that if we listen closely we can improve ourselves at what we
want. Friends only praise us because they know that is what we want to hear and so we do not
make progresses. But friends really believe we are good the way we are and do not think we can be
better than that. The others will be displeased with us, they will come up with criticism, but trying
to please them is useless as they will always be the same. The important thing is to please the critic
within and thus amaze those on our side. Of course, I do not want to imply that all critics are bad.
Some are actually well intentioned; in an ideal world, critics would be honest or would at least try
being objective and not emotional. I have criticized a few people over time and some reacted well to
it, some very badly. Each time, I have tried hard to not let myself led by emotions and to be ex-
tremely clear, but I cannot be sure of anything, which leaves way to suspicion of bias (I have never
criticized my friends, but I wonder what would have happened had I done it). In the end, I told
myself it is better not to listen to anyone regardless of their intentions. The thing is it took me
years to get to this conclusion.

But I am afraid I am actually rambling. Being a critic does not make you bad. Being bad is pos-
sible to make you tell hard words to some and criticizing can be done without throwing in hard
words (the art of communication is quite subtle). How do we define the concept of evil? A spiritual
person once said: When your actions show lack of love and respect to your neighbor, then your
actions are harming others.

I have talked about money and about the good and evil dichotomy. But why in the same place?
I have read somewhere an interesting quote: When wealth enters your life, your true relationship
with the Universe comes in the open. I do not know who said it, but it rings true to me. After all,
the Universe gives you money through people. We have seen that it does not matter whether you
are good or bad, you can be rich anyway, but it is better to be good without being a fool. It is bet-
ter to understand that the only reality that matters, with all the material illusion surrounding us, is
love. All the good in the world comes out of love. When you are rich, it is easier to help. You just
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have to take the right decisions and act accordingly. The system of values can be a strong inner
guide.

Despite all these, I have noticed something very interesting in my astrological practice. There
are people who were destined to prosperity from birth, although they were born in a poor family;
there are also people with free will, people who had an open destiny, thus choosing to have a suc-
cessful career. And now we are reaching another interesting point: can one have a successful career
without money? Artists would say yes. Of course, it depends on what we call success. An example
that comes to mind is that of an actress who was playing the lead character in a very popular TV
series, one of worldwide fame at its time. She was saying in an interview that she was not as well-
paid as people believe; she could not actually afford to hire a bodyguard to protect her from fans
that were approaching or stalking her daily.

Some are destined to be good or bad, some can choose the way they want to be. Life is much
more complex than we can imagine. Still, it is easier to explain things using the Gaussian curvature
if you can visualize it. We see the extremes on the left (those are the people with free will) and on
the right (those who do not have free will), and a bell in the middlea mix of extremes where
most people are. Even though, there is a grain of fatality even for those endowed with free will,
precisely because actions do have consequences. I will now give you a few key-words from Ancient
Greece, too, even if only for the sake of general knowledge.

Ananke represents the necessity, the constraint or the force, depending on the context. It shows
the part of destiny (and free will I would say, the two being complementary) that has been attribut-
ed to man at birth. We can see here the unseen or unforeseen circumstances taking place in many
major events of ones life. This key-word represents the concept of our and others actions conse-
quences, a system which can also be represented by a cause and effect chain, here and there linking
with other chains.

The ancient Greeks had the Moirai (or Fates) who were unraveling threads instead of chains
and were able to create canvasses out of peoples fates; their carpets were true masterpieces in light
and dark tones (the good, respectively the evil). I said they were able to, I have no idea if they
actually did it. Their mother is the goddess Ananke, who governed over fatality, destiny or necessi-
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ty and was represented holding a long spindle in her hand (curiously enough, Clotho, the youngest
of the three Fates, is holding a shorter spindle in her hand).

Searching the Internet, I found out that Victor Hugo also attributed the significance of love to
ananke, which I did not expect. But it makes sense in a way. What I see here is that ananke demar-
cates the border between the good and the evil only through its mere presence in the world, but
the visibility of the border depends on the observers position to it. That is, the farther we place
ourselves from human experiences, the clearest the line becomes, but the more you participate in
experiences, the vaguer it becomes and then love (or lack thereof in some cases) helps you not get-
ting where you are not supposed to. The same author mentioned the existence of three fundamen-
tal necessities for man: ananke of the laws, ananke of the dogmas and ananke of the things, in three
books he wrote about them. Les misrables is about the first ananke, Notre Dame de Paris is
about the second, and Les travailleurs de la mer about the third. According to Hugo, all these
form the inner destiny, the supreme ananke, the human heart. To tell you the truth, I completely
agree with him; I even saw long ago that emotions are shaping our fate. Reactions are emotional,
which makes them predictable.

In my opinion, the same principle can be applied to sexuality also, that is some people are het-
erosexual and others homosexual precisely due to the allotting of Ananke. Bisexuality appears due
to a bigger lot of freedom given by the fate. In the past, when homosexuality was forbidden, bisex-
uals were heterosexuals due to this ananke of the laws. In other words, you can never know if any
of your ancestors was, in fact, bisexual.

Heimarmene represents the origin, the social condition in which one was born and shows the
possibilities (together with impossibilities, I would add) to evolve as a person in society. For in-
stance, you cannot be a computer scientist if you were born in a South American tribe. This second
key-word represents the collective destiny of a community or a country, even of the whole planet.
The above analogy with threads does not apply here, them being individual. The colors are the
collective part (the city, country, continent, and planet), which reflect what I have just written,
with an amendment: the good and the evil can be of the same color, their nuances differ though.
For example, if the good is represented by pink, then the evil is represented by dark red; if light
blue is the color of good, then dark blue is the color of eviltake into account that these associa-
tions are rather subjective, based on the connection between the good, light and light colors as
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opposed to the evil, dark and dark colors, and have no connection with mythology; the same colors
are very poorly seen if the threads are parted (the same with the hair). The point is that there can-
not be anything collective (heimarmene) if there is nothing individual (ananke). Each individual has
to accomplish the tasks assigned to him or her so that the Universe is harmonious. As a parenthe-
sis, I would add that heimarmene meant fate, destiny in a collective sense for the Ancient Greeks; as
a name it is another deity ruling over fatality.

Before going on to the next key-word, I have to mention that, without these coordinates of a
mans life, fate cannot be predicted. At least, this happens in the astrological practice with a few
exceptions. The clairvoyants or the real mediums are able to see the future without material sup-
port. In the Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the practice of astrology was unconceivable without
knowledge about fate and necessity, either individually or collectively. The fascinating thing about
the astrologers of the past is that someif not mostof them were fatalists, not all of them as we
would expect nowadays. Of course, the free will was not denied at all, only some of them found it
hard to believe that predictions can be made along with the free will. They were right, but not
much. The greatest astrologers succeeded in making exact predictions, even when considering free
will. In fact, the fatalists had a tendency to seldom be wrong (about eight out of ten predictions
proved to be accurate), while the liberals were almost never wrong (about nine out of ten). All of
them, regardless of their philosophical inclination, were careful to add in Gods will or blessed be
God (or another name according to their religion) at the end, precisely because they knew that He
can change circumstances without them having predicted it.

Tyche is the Greek equivalent of Fortuna, both goddesses of luck. The Ancient Greeks believed
she governed the cities destinies, especially from a commercial and political viewpoint. When peo-
ple could not find the cause of a political or natural accident (such as flood, drought or frost), the
respective accident was attributed to the goddess. What surprised me is that she is an Oceanic dei-
ty. Right these days I was pondering whether she can be associated with one of the four elements
(Fire, Air, Water or Earth) and I saw she is usually represented next to the Horn of Plenty, which
seems typical for the Earth element. Now that I think about it, I believe that Fortuna is associated
with Earth while Tyche is associated with Water. But I could be wrong, so lets get back to the
actual subject of this too long article.

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Maybe some of you do not believe in luck as every man is the architect of his own fortune. Yes
and no, the same with fate. Frankly, it does not really make sense to believe there is fate, but not
to believe in luck and vice versa. Fate and luck are entwined to a degree they could be glued. Fa-
tality can be good or bad, just like luck. We think of luck as of something inherently positive, but
in fact good luck really is the whole of the favorable circumstances, so bad luck is only the negative
side of the coin named fortune, which is where we encounter negative circumstances in our lives.
Many times, these circumstances do not seem to be caused by us at all. Nevertheless, they fulfill
our needs and necessities when luck is on our side, when not we have the opposite. And almost
every time we forget to answer, we react to those. But if all the circumstances are illusions, then
the best way to carve them out is through love. Lets remember to answer circumstances with love.
And so we arrived at the last key-word; last but not least.

Daimon is the spirit or the spiritual part of our lives. What I find curious about it is that the
academically accepted meaning of this word is intellect, conscience, which made me realize that
the academic environment is a profoundly atheist one. Free will is closely related to the spirit or
daimon. It makes sense, because the man is an incarnate spirit and the origin of the incarnate spirit
is the spiritual world, where God, angels and saints reside. When we make a conscientious choice,
it can be in accordance with our spirit. Someone said that the will of God is expressed through our
will. I am sure you noticed that ones will can be in disagreement with someone elses will. In fact,
you noticed only contradictory choices, not necessarily conscientiously done, but merely based on
perceptions and emotions.

There is an individual daimon as well as a collective daimon. The individual one is considered
in some culturesto be our guardian angel, while the collective one stands over a city or country.
In the past, it was believed that daimons influence our destinies and thats probably why the Chris-
tian clerics transformed the word daimon into demon painting it in a negative color, as opposed
to angels. In reality, no spirit except for our own can influence our destiny. God can be a notable
exception, but He would rather let us grow through our own efforts and assume responsibility for
our deeds.

I suppose you also noticed that the circumstances (together with the cause and effect chain) are
part of fate and the spirit (together with choices) is part of free will. Put them one near the other
and we have a dichotomy closing a full circle: from birth to puberty, the circumstances created by
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others define the way we see the world and influence our future choices, whichin their turn
will create a different set of circumstances because of their consequences, both for us and for other
people. This is the reason why a rich Japanese man will always have a different perception of reality
than a poor American. This is the reason why we create our day by day reality, without realizing it.
If we saw what we were doing, it would be easier to change our lives. Perhaps.

I would talk it over and over, but I have to finish as time is limited. If you have any questions, I
will gladly answer them. Warm greetings.

Tzadde



Jim Warren, the original can be found here:
http://zone.wallpaper.free.fr/picture.php?/6684/category/47