What we don't know can hurt us. We not only need to correct our false knowledge; we also need more self-knowledge. This means to understand ourselves in the current condition we are in, and also what conditions we can forge ourselves into.
A core part of understanding ourselves includes knowing what is happening in our psyche or consciousness, what qualities of consciousness we have, how they function, and how we express our consciousness. This self-knowledge can empower us to correct our mistakes, make better choices and get onto better paths and ways of living. We can continually remake ourselves, if we so desire, and in turn remake the world we live in.
Our actions together create the human world that exists. If we change our actions, we can change the way our lives are and how the whole human world operates. Admitting wrong and the mistakes we are currently making is required first. We need to learn from our mistakes, or be doomed to keep repeating them. Ignoring our mistakes and wrong choices means we will continue to behave and create the world on the divergent path from a better alternative.
Failure to admit wrong is not wisdom, instead it keeps up living in foolishness as fools. The false paths we walk on continue to be walked on. This ignorance, denial and rejection of our wrongs and falsities keeps us powerless to stop these negative patterns from recurring into the future. We keep perpetuating our own suffering, both for ourselves and for others on a collective scale. This will go on as long as we choose to remain ignorant. Seeking the truth of what is false and what is wrong is required so that we can recognize it, let it go, stop doing it, and instead do what is right, good and true.
This is how we heal ourselves and the world around us. It’s not so much doing new things, but stopping to do the current or existing behaviors that don’t serve our individual and collective betterment. This requires learning new things, but also letting go of and removing the wrong things in us, removing the falsity within that drives us and has us walking on falser paths and ways of living.
So what do we value? Asking the average person what they value the most in life, or the top 3 things they value the most, and the answers will usually revolve around family, friends, health, happiness, religion, and even money itself for some. Where does truth fit in their lives in terms of value and importance?
This is a key problem for what we spend our time on and pay attention to. We are focused on having fun and enjoying life. In the meantime, we fail to perceive the negative expressions and wrongs that surround us, that infect and become ingrained in our way of life. Our focus isn’t on revealing the darkness in order to do something about it. Our focus isn’t on getting to the root cause of the darkness in society and in ourselves. And so, the negative manifestations in the world remain as we go along our personal lives seeking pleasure and happiness.
Understanding reality more accurately requires reflection and contemplation. It requires deeper thought. Yet, our way of life is often focused on other things which leaves little time for the deeper thinking. We are left using the definition of reality that is provided to us by the conditioning that surrounds us. This is from people around us, and all the media we consume. This perception of reality is imposed on us if we are thoughtless and unthinking to reflect on it deeper. Our vision of reality is made blurry. They speak, we listen, and adopt the conclusions they set forth rather than questioning, doubting and investigating ourselves. We expect to be fed answers rather than try to find them ourselves.
We have failed to value truth highly – or at a significant level of importance – in our lives. We have lost the understanding that truth is valuable and that it determines the quality of our experience. This devaluation and insignificance attributed to truth is the reason we are in our collective condition. You might think there’s nothing wrong with where you live -- that your life is fine and dandy, that you are well off, and that there the serious problems are elsewhere -- but you would be wrong.