Anarchistbanjo's World

There comes a time for some of us when we self identify more strongly with our soul or Observer self or individual awareness then we do with our physical body. This was the goal of the great religions, for the individual self awareness or ego to identify itself as soul or nonphysical and immortal. This is what was meant by the phrase “to be born again”. This stage of ego development had clearly defined characteristics that were unmistakable. For the person who had achieved this state of development they no longer felt the burden of an earthly existence. They no longer fought against earthly things, because those earthly things no longer had power over them. They were not disturbed by the inconveniences of life, because they only lived in the spirit world feasting on spiritual food. They were preoccupied with thought and spiritual things. They gulped down food like animals hardly knowing or caring what they ate or drank. They were always living in their heads.

Compare this view of life to that of the rational atheists. The rational atheists struggled mightily against the forces of nature and the hardships of the physical world. Their entire life centered around surviving and living as comfortably as possible. They made great strides in the evolution of humanity and its ability to adapt to changing physical circumstances. It was only at the last minute that they recognized the power of the mind and turned their backs on the physical world as well. But life that is turned away from the physical world no longer draws any nourishment from nature and is therefore no longer life, but thinking!

But try as they might, the thinking of the rational atheists was not the same as the lofty spiritual and imaginative thinking of the social enforcers. What the rational atheists sought was the true life and the true enjoyment of life! What they thought of was the importance of good health, beauty, wealth and social pleasures.

But what the rational atheists sought for the most, now called the Stoics, was wisdom and life with a practical philosophy. They wanted a calm and placid unmoving life, one that ran smoothly without fear and without excitement. That was the best that the Stoic could come up with, since they could not get rid of the world even though they spent their entire lives rebelling against it. The furthest they got was to deaden their senses and become numb to life. Yet this doctrine of repelling the world and asserting oneself against the world was not a doctrine of spirit. They could not attain the level of separation from the earth that the social enforcers enjoyed.

It was the social enforcers, now called the skeptics, that truly made the break away from the physical world. They felt that any connection to worldly things was worthless and that earthly emotions and thoughts held no truth. The world was neither bad nor good, neither beautiful nor ugly, but only what man makes of it. There was no longer any truth to be recognized. It was all contradictory. What one person called good another called bad and the only way out of the paradox was to leave the deceptive world behind and pay no attention to it.