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Truth and The Clog of Beliefs, Dogma, and Conclusions
- Oliver Mbamara
Recently, I purchased new furniture for my living room. Setting it up would take some time and involve some dedication on my part. The furniture was huge with so many parts to be put together piece-by-piece. In fact it was like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Regardless of my time constraint, I took it as a challenge and an exercise to go through the setting up process. Besides, my hands and my mind could use the break away from writing and do something creative in another area – carpentry. Anticipating the task involved, I had taken a day off from work.
Midway into the setting up process, I was looking for an item. I had seen it earlier but did know because I had then turned the item upside down with the item mark “M” on it reading like “W” to my perception. I was worried because a missing item meant I would not be able to complete the setting up of the furniture the same day. Anxious, I called the warehouse that stocks the items for the store that sold the furniture to me. The warehouse was willing to send me a replacement item but it would take another week or thereabout for the shipment to reach me. At that point, my worry became a serious concern.
I had already dismantled my old furniture and my living room was no longer in an orderly condition. Waiting for a week meant that my living room would be in a mess for another week. It meant that I would not use the furniture for another week. It meant that I would have to take another day off from work to complete the setting up of the furniture. It was not funny but somehow I managed to relax and slot in a love-song tape in the stereo system. As it played, I returned to the scattered items on my living room floor and fiddled with the items pointlessly. At some point, I picked up the item on which I had earlier observed the mark “M.” Somehow I got the nudge to turn it upside down and I did. Behold, there was the solution. What had appeared to me like the item mark “W” all the while turned out to be the item mark “M” actually. The item I thought was missing was actually before me all the while. So it is with truth, reality, dogma, and conclusions in life.
Many of us come face to face with reality and the truth everyday in life yet we turn it upside down and see something else. Our perception makes us believe that the upturned version of what we are seeing is indeed the truth while our dogmatic stand on issues hardly gives us room to objectively open our minds and hearts in our analysis of every day concepts. So, while the truth knocks on our doorstep waiting to be received, we are eager in our worry to go looking outside and away from where we are. We look past our friends, our relatives, our colleagues, our partners, our neighbors, etc., and expect to see God’s hand, voice, face, or love in some distant fairyland on a “holy” ground in a “holy” day.
From childhood, many of us imbibed such traits as anxiety, pride, and dogmatism (although some of us have carried them over from past lives). We have gotten so accustomed to our ways that anything to the contrary would appear wrong or odd to us. Faced with trying situations that challenge our belief or concepts of life, our pride comes to the fore and we do all we can to defend what we believe even when in our minds we have reasonable doubts about the veracity of such beliefs. Incidentally, falsehood cannot sustain falsehood for too long, while only the truth would set such an individual free from the torment of sticking to a concept suspected to be false. In most cases the individual is the only one who could advise himself about the limitations of his conclusions. This is because one could fool others sometimes but one would never fool or lie to oneself.
It is not unusual for a person born and raised in a given environment to have the perception of that environment about life. This is the same reason why no man should impose his beliefs or conclusions on another. However, there comes a time in a person’s life when the desire of Soul to regain Its Divine identity would demand some objective assessment of one’s beliefs and conclusions, directly or indirectly.
Interestingly, the solution of overcoming dogma and emerging in reality could be rather very simple although the simplicity may make it even more complex sometimes. Most times after man has tried to overcome the incidents of life on his own based on some misconceived conclusions or beliefs he gives up his effort. If he panics or remains adamant to his previous belief or conclusion, he could act to harm or hurt others and subject himself to additional life-balancing and payments for his deeds. If he concedes the situation and acknowledges his limitation by putting aside his pride and letting go, he often finds that a force (Spirit) beyond his erstwhile recognition would take charge and fix things better than he would ever have imagined. He finds that with an open and objective mind the shell would be removed from his eyes and he would see the truth state of things. He would hear the voice of God in the singing of the birds, and even in the chatter of children. He would see the light of God in the rising sun of the morning, and even on the face of his pet.
It is often amazing how much we learn when we pause for a while, put our purported wisdom aside, and calmly let things be while ready to accept the truth with an objective mind. The man who is ready for the reality of truth will find it in many ways and through many channels while the man who is stuck with his dogma or conclusion will have to work out his situation first and no amount of seeking would find the truth until the walls of dogma are broken and his conclusions are no longer prejudicial. For only then will he see that the truth has always been before him while he has been looking at it turned upside down.
Truth And The Clog
On our door, truth daily knocks
Waiting to be received into our fold
Though on the face it stares us right
We turn it around and see falsehood.
Narrowed by views so dogmatic,
Conquered by careless conclusions,
Prejudging with prejudicial points
We clog reality from revelation.
Looking beyond our daily lives,
We seek God, his face, and love.
Hoping to find in some holy place
What we ignored in our neighbors.
Yet comes the time in the life of man,
When Soul wakes to Its true Self,
Breaking off shackles of illusion,
Dropping the clog of the little self.
©Oliver O. Mbamara,
2004
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Oliver Mbamara is an Administrative Law Judge with the State of New York.
He is also a filmmaker and a Published Poet and playwright. For more on Oliver, please visit
www.olivermbamara.com
For background/research reference on this
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