As infants our education begins. Our nature includes the five senses; which are, touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Depending on our environmental upbringing, we will necessarily adapt to the surrounding before us and we learn by example what is right, what is wrong. We learn conformity, we learn about prejudice; we learn hate, envy, jealousy, and revenge. We learn by example, that the least amount of effort for a desired effect is all that’s necessary. All our knowledge and information comes from hearsay and experience without understanding.
If we grew up with a lack of parental warmth, affection and love we most likely will lack those human attributes. If we were abused we may likely be abusers. Alternatives may occur, that is, we take on opposite traits for fear of being like our parents.
As we grow from infants to teenagers to young adults let’s say 23 years processing all accumulated information which is now stored within our memory banks. Our brain is now the storehouse for all information both good and bad. Our brain is not a thinking thing. Most people including authority figures make an erroneous assumption that the brain is the mind. This is further from the truth. The mind is comprised of ideas, it thinks and it’s a nontangible thing. The brain is part of the body it’s a physical object and it’s a major function is directing all its bodily systems and keeping them working. The brain doesn’t think; however, it’s full of information which is basically recorded knowledge that is derived from hearsay information and life experiences without clear understanding. For example: as a young person you are told that you are stupid and will never amount to anything and that you are basically bad. Or, you’ll find through experiences that you are slow to learn and you were put into a low level reading class and now you’ve experienced proof that you are stupid: this demonstrates hearsay knowledge and experiences that confirm such false beliefs in which we now reflect upon and act from.
Our mental and emotional prison occurs as we identify with all the information which has been stored in our brain cells and by which we live and act from. All those painful memories, thoughts and feelings have become our prison. Freedom is begins when we acknowledge and become aware of this reality. However, there are many steps to travel before we are able to reach the summit of wisdom and our freedom. In Spinoza’s and Gurdjieff’s philosophy its teachings offers us opportunities to embrace a method of self-examination and self-observation without judgments. We become students of our nature and with help learn how to actually see objectively what is taking place in our emotions, in our thoughts, so that we can learn to act from our understanding.
Our goal is to help you grasp this knowledge so that you too will be able to see for yourself what is required so that you can understand and it’s in this understanding of self-examination we develop a new “self.” This new self can only come from our own inner intelligence which has been buried all our life and the sooner you uncover this intelligence the greater the possibility for you to lift yourself up beyond the grasp of painful memories held within the prison walls of your brain cells. I want to make it clear that this “intelligence” is different from the superficial intelligence that deals with the external world called existence; unfortunately, it doesn’t know how and is unable to examine our emotional and psychological character. The essential intelligence within us is a new kind thinking which helps us develop the new ‘Self’ and is able to look within and see the truth of our emotional and psychological problems. To openly examine the emptiness of our nature, the fear, the concern the worry about the opinions of others and our own self-judgments will eventually create within us a new sense of freedom.
This new freedom will enable us to break away from old imprisoned beliefs, premises and thoughts that were imposed upon us and which we unconsciously adopted as children. In time we’ll know what it means to be transformed, that is, our mind and heart will be inwardly filled with clarity and understanding so that we can truly know that it is possible to live a blissful, happy and fulfilled life.
Lewis
