The “Age of Transparency” is upon us and now is the time to advance the conversation beyond the longstanding stalemate between science and religion. For over a millennial, science and religion has served as the structure of our shared inner and outer experiences. But what if there is more than our inner and outer experiences? I propose that there is much more and much less than our inner and outer experiences.
In fact, quietly existing adjacent to this lifelong clash between science and religion, there has always been a mysterious nondual perspective that profoundly eclipses the inner and outer experiences. The nondual perspective is a self-verifying direct experience of the outside AS the inside. And as radical and revolutionary as the nondual perspective is, it has only been silently growing alongside of science and religion all along as an open secret. But now that the “Age of Transparency” is here, a radical revolution in our understanding of Reality is inevitable.
As this broader understanding of Reality unfolds, each individual will gain their unique insights into the nature of Reality as a ‘Whole.’ And the individual truths regarding the ‘Whole’ or the ‘Totality’ are much like the metaphor of an elephant in a darkened room. Each individual feels around in the dark to touch this vast elephant; so each individual will be describing the very same elephant no matter what particular vantage point that they are experiencing it from. However, each individual description of this same immense elephant will naturally be limited to the particular section of the elephant that they experiencing.
So the question is, now that we are in the “Age if Transparency”, how do we turn the lights on so that we may advance the conversation regarding the nature of this elephant in the room? I would like to answer this question with an open discussion where individuals can share their unique insights into the nature of Reality. As more of us share our unique experiences of the Whole, that which resonates as truthful to our own experience will illuminate the room gradually revealing the Totality as it actually is.
This particular post titled the “Elephant Project” and is intended to serve as a colonization of insights, theories and models of Reality that will advance the conversation beyond the conventional wisdom. No matter if your focus is in science, religion or philosophy; any new ideas will be welcomed since we are all in this maze together. We will not benefit by leaving anything off the table. The idea is that by colonizing our ideas and insights, a natural pattern may spontaneously emerge illuminating our Reality to be recognized for what it actually is.
If working towards a better understanding of Reality sounds of interest to you, please consider contributing your unique insights regarding the nature of Reality. Post your own models of Reality, unique experiences that effected your perception of Reality or comment on others experiences and theories to advance the conversation.
Reality to me is a 3-D image projection from my mind as well as the void. It's interacting with me as well as the void. (l learn it from the book instead of experiencing it myself)
When I didn't know the existence of the void, I think reality cannot be controlled by me and was outside of my body. (sorry for my poor English as I am a native Chinese speaking person in Hong Kong and this type of expression is really challenging for me. ）
The nondual perspective is a self-verifying direct experience of the outside AS the inside
Reality is Self-verifying, Self-affirming.
"You want, somehow or other, to maintain that the world is real. What is the standard of reality? That alone is Real which exists by itself, which reveals itself by itself, and which is eternal and unchanging" - Ramana Maharshi
"What you are looking for is what is looking" - St Francis of Assisi.
The "Age of Transparency" - Prior, so to speak, to the age of transparency is the age of ignorance i.e the so-called Kali Yuga whose number is 432. 432 x 432 {sq'd} = 186,624, the speed of Light i.e the age of transparency i.e ignorance turns to the light of Truth, the Light of Reality. This relative Life is a inversion of Self to self i.e the relatively created space-time continuum i.e image mistaken for Self.
Origin of inversion - 1545–55; from Latin inversiōn “a turning in”
ALOHA Mrs Pilahi Paki http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAPCxypSXv0
Hi Mark, thanks for the clear reply and I hope you’re getting better now with the covid issue.
I agree with you that times are changing, nowadays we can definitely talk more openly about certain topics (just to name few, meditation, yoga, eastern philosophies, etc.) that few decades ago would have been taboo or at least confined in very small circles.
This is definitely good news, but I’m not convinced that this will help that much people moving on, for two reasons: one, I suppose the friction is so high that it will take more decades (centuries?) until it will penetrate society for good. Two, people really don’t know what to do with this new available information and the concrete risk is that it gets misinterpreted (voluntarily or not) and we can see this all around us with the thousands of yoga centers, yoga courses in the fitness centers, “enlightenment 101” and zen books in every library, buddha t-shirts, etc.
As with everything, the point is not what information you have but how you use it, and honestly I don’t see any good use, but rather a waste of it.
As per my view of the nature of Reality, it has changed a lot during my life (of course) so I will share the current one, which I assume (and hope) won’t be the last. During my youth I remember having some interesting insights like how we see colors (is my green that same as yours or my green is your yellow?) or about the futility of arbitrary concepts like nationality, but I was for the most part absorbed within society and followed a regular path of study. It was at age 25 when I started working and experimenting with some light drug that I began asking myself: “it’s that it? I studied 20 years just to wake up in the morning and go to bed exhausted? Day after day for the next 40 years???” So basically I went ahead with my life by changing job every 1,5/2 years with the illusion of progressing up the corporate ladder, while I was doing it just to avoid infinite boredom. I worked barely enough not to get fired (which eventually happened).
I tried yoga, meditation, read hundreds of spiritual books, but none of them could really alleviate my inner discontent. Until just recently I first discovered Advaita Vedanta (and it made a lot of sense to me, even though I still think it has some flaws), then some advanced quantum physics concepts (mainly the holographic universe and Bohm works) and finally I stumbled into Jed McKenna who’s message totally resonated with me. I can’t understand how people say they get depressed after reading his books, they brought me to heaven! Finally someone who was telling the real truth.
Eventually, I put all the pieces together and started to form my own vision of reality, until I began to realize that reality is not what we see, that we are living in a dream and all the people around me, family and friends included, are all zombies (at worst) or charachters (at best). I know I'm a characther myself and I'm trying to be awake as much as possible to notice the parts of my life where I'm just playing a part and not being authentically me (but me who?). I think I need some more time to really understand it, not just logically but feel it and absorb this view with all myself. Of course I know that knowledge is not what makes the trick here, but I guess I lack the rights words to express it. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
And last but not least, I finally stumbled into you, I just started reading your first book and I think it’s amazing! Can’t put it down! Finally someone who can tell in plain words what the hell is all about! After so many years I now understand what meditation is for (which I thought to be a useless and self-referential thing to do)! And if you don’t mind, once I finish it (which will happen very soon) and once I will have had the time to re-read it and give some more deep thought about it, I would like to ask you some questions in the parts which aren’t very clear to me.
That’s enough for now.
Take care,
Mario
Thank you Mario. And while we can never actually 'know' anything, I will tell you why I describe our times as the "Age of Transparency". I have been using that term for almost two decades now and the further into the 2020's we get, the more I recognize it. I dont think it actually started but instead is just part of a natural cycle that waxes and wanes just like everything else.
Its only to fair to point out that when I came up with this term, the internet was just kicking in to be the informational powerhouse that it is today. Also, I was also experiencing my own personal transformative experience where all was seen as naked reality. So, I recognize that to claim an age of transparency for all is a projection of my own experience but I also recognize that this is all we are capable of. So projection or not, it is the way I view the world.
So, I will share with you just how I actually experience what I term the "Age of Transparency". Every single issue that is happening in our modern world is nothing new at all. Its all the same tensions and resulting dynamics as ever before but now everything is out in the open.
For example. it is not a new idea that the stock market is rigged but now its all out in the open. Science has always been co-opted by businessmen but now that's out in the open. The governmental bodies of our nations have never been interested in an Enlightened free society and thats all out in the open now.
The world that we find our selves in....where you are told to choose a side is the world that always existed. I happen to find this world easier than the previous world where the feeling you got was that most humans were all on the same page and if you didn't jive with the status quo then you were marginalized until you fit in. So, some of the more positive aspects of the "Age of Transparency" is the abundance of enlightening material such as Dzogchen which has been kept in tight secrecy until only recent times.
We can get into this more but I am sick with covid right now so pardon my shortness. BUt thanks so much for the questions and please feel free to ask for any clarifications etc.
Hi Mark, before starting any discussion, I think is fair to set the context around which it unravels and not to take anything for granted. So my very first question would be, how do we know we are in the, as you call it, Age of Transparency? What makes it so and when did it start? Was it even possible that it started? Thanks, Mario.