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We,The People, are not happy
The idea that humans are prisoners inside the limits of their brains isn’t new. Plato talked about this 2,300 years ago in his famous allegory of the cave. He was interested in how education shapes our lives. We only have to replace “education” with “consciousness” to make his story fit into our 21st century.
Plato imagined people who spent all their life in a cave. All they could do was to watch shadows on the wall in front of them. The shadows were their ‘reality’. One day, one of them was set free and could turn around. He saw a fire behind him and objects moving in front of the fire. He realized that what he saw on the wall was only a shadow. It was not real.
He tried to explain what he found to his fellow men but in vain. They were prisoners of their limited consciousness. When he was allowed to leave the cave, he discovered the outside world. He discovered a new reality, a new freedom and a new consciousness.
9 - Plato's allegory of the cave
Today, scientists say that we are confined to 5% of the material world. We look at our world like the people in the cave looked at their wall. It is our limited reality. We must get up and walk out of our cave. That will not be easy. The cavepeople did not accept the idea of a new reality. They resisted change and so do we. Our newspapers did not come out with big titles like “Let’s break our chains” or “Give me my 95% or give me death”. It will take some time before we can digest the idea that a door has opened to a new freedom.
Let us add another chapter to Plato’s allegory:
Plato makes his explorer go back to his cave to help his fellow men. That is very commendable, but let’s try another ending. Let’s assume that our explorer decides to stay outside the cave. You can guess what happens. He meets a woman and falls in love. He becomes conscious of new feelings and a new reality. The woman made him conscious of feeling he could not have imagined. He discovers that his first cave was inside a bigger cave, itself inside another bigger cave. We could say that he was climbing a staircase and every step widened his horizon.
One day, the woman asks him: “Are you conscious of love or is it love that makes you conscious?” This is not an easy question. It seems to him that consciousness and love come together. It is by experiencing love that we become conscious of it. As long as you have not experienced love you remain in your cave.
Let’s add a second chapter.
The next step is ‘platonic’ love. That means a feeling of love that does not need help from another human being. It is detached from the material world. It is the love of the whole universe! This love penetrates the world like the wind goes through a tree - without getting attached to it.
To live a human life is to water some seeds that already exist deep in our soul, such as freedom, consciousness, love. It is by developing them that we become conscious of a new reality.
What Plato did not tell us is that we have a problem. We water everything: Not only the seeds but also the weeds. Everything can grow in our garden - the good and the bad.
