The crazy world we live in… May 7, 2008
Posted by Visionary in Life, Philosphy, belief, ethics, morality, politics, religion.Tags: belief, ethics, Life, morality, philosophy, politics, religion
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If you have time, please read the story and then answer the survey question at the bottom of the post. Feel free to comment in the usual way too of course.
Once upon a time there was a good and wise king who ruled from a beautiful castle on a hill overlooking all his lands. The king was loved by his people and often praised for his wise and fair judgments. The people were content and happy and the king pleased that he was appreciated for his dedication to his people.
Then one-day tragedy struck! The well in the village at the bottom of the hill became poisoned. How it happened is a mystery to this day but the effect of it was this. Within 24 hours, each and every person who drank from the well was driven quite completely mad. By the evening the whole town had drunk from the well. The castle however, had it’s own spring so the king living at the top of the hill did not drink from the well in the village.
Within a week there were dark rumblings of discontent. The villagers began to mutter and curse. No one could quite understand what had happened but over night the good kings wisdom seemed to have fled him. His judgements were seen as the ravings of a lunatic and the people derided him for the injustices he had started to perpetrate upon his loyal and faithful people.
The king soon noticed the difference in his people and was saddened by what he saw. He simply could not understand why his people had started to hate him; after all he was doing the same as he had always done for them. He was a good man though and he determined to get to the bottom of the problem. So one day, he dressed as a villager and went among his people in the village as one of them to hear what they had to say. Perhaps if he could understand why they were unhappy with him he could do something about it.
It was a very hot day and so before the day was out the king found himself at the poisoned well in the village satisfying his thirst with plenty of cold fresh water.
The next day there was joy in the kingdom. No one knew what had happened or why it had occurred but the most important thing, everyone agreed, was that the good king had regained his sanity and was once more making wise judgements that made his people happy. That night there were huge celebrations in the kingdom to give thanks for the return of the wise king to his loving people.
When I first heard this story, it had a very big impact on me and I saw it’s potential for helping people to get things into perspective. Over the years I have shared this story with people who I think may benefit from the moral of the tale. To my surprise there were 2 quite distinct interpretations of this tale. Out of interest and for the sake of discussion, I would appreciate your feedback to see what you think?
Such an oxymoron. It’s all a matter of perception – and perception is always false. Whether the king was good or not good is not really the issue. What’s at issue is how majority can change perception so easily. When in Rome do as the Romans do. The bible speaks of this when it tells us to follow the law of the land. God’s law and the law of the land are oftentime in conflict; thus what do we do? I would hope that I would seek the truth within me and follow my true heart-Seek and you shall find. http://cordieb.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/a-spiritual-riddle-by-cordieb/
Peace, Light and Love, CordieB.
thanks to Cordie & SanityFound for your input here but sadly this didn’t seem to generate the interest I hoped it might. Especially since I went to all the trouble of getting a special little poll widget for us to play with
I agree with you about perception Cordie and I loved your riddle. I wasnt interested in the morality of the king either. I was more interested in whether people thought it was good news that the king wasn’t on his own any more or bad news that the last sane person had just gone mad too.
I was genuinely surprised the first time someone told me they though it was a happy ending because the king wasn’t alone anymore. Tehy obviously thought their sanity was a price worth paying for acceptance by their peers.
Personally, I viewed it as tragic that the last hope for the kingdom had just been lost. I guess it reflects how much we care about what others think about us and what price we are prepared to pay for acceptance.
I would love to hear why you both went for ‘other’ ?
Since I don’t see good and bad as I used to, I simply felt that his perception of goodnness and fairness was simply that, his perception. Some think capital punishment is fair, others think it’s never good. Same could be said of abortion, suicide, even buying a 1 carat diamond ring when there are many who were killed for that diamond in Africa. How do you know that he was the last sane person; he could have perhaps been the only insane person left as well. Just as more people thinking it does not make it real, less people thinking it does not make any more real. So, my friend, that is why I chose other. You are so deep and you have such a yearning to learn and share – I really like that about you. Keep up the provocative posts – don’t let that ego stop you from posting these remarkable inquiries of the mind. Also, I know of one other provocative blogger who blows my mind so often – I hope you don’t mind if I paste her url – http://sueannedwards.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/discernment-the-3rd-labor-of-hercules-the-apples-of-hesperides/
This is Sue Ann, she’s my self-appointed teacher. She would never call herself a teacher or a guru or any of those names, as she knows we all have our own journey. But I am delighted to have met her in blogspere. Hope you can visit. Peace, Light and Love, CordieB.
Once again great post, don’t fear re the poll for people often are fearful about something they are not certain about. As Cordie has said my choice of other is for the mere fact that perhaps the people who drank from the well did not go insane, they were only called insane for it was different, perhaps it was the well of truth and they started fighting for the truth. Perhaps the King was the last sane person alive, then it is sad for he joined conformity for the sake of keeping himself safe
It is all in the perception there is always good and bad – Cordie said it perfectly and that was my reason for selecting other. I could not honestly select happy or sad ending for it is both…
Hope that answers your question
Gosh, Now see, I don’t see it is either a happy or sad ending…. or an ending at all.
Did it say that the insanity drove them all to death? Even a happy one? NO. It just said the king drank from the well and they all rejoiced.
Who says what sanity is? There were days when anyone who disagreed with christian teachings were considered heretics and insane and put to death. Sanity is definately about perception.
I think its insane to throw yourself out of airplanes, jump a motorcycle/car/bicycle over huge obsticles, or ride on a hanglider. But there are plenty of people who do these things daily who disagree with me.
And…. really what is the point in being only one sane person in amongst the insane? What a lonely, isolated place it would be. What a tortured life you would live. And if everyone else is insane, then insanity becomes nomal, and sanity then becomes abnormal. The roles reverse. Maybe it wasn’t about peer pressure at all, but about his being afraid to be alone. We are not put on this earth to be alone. Without a mate, we die. Its as simple as that.
Get what you are saying… adds more meaning to the name I use
sanity found is insanity in reality there is no true definition for it is all man made in any case!
As for motorcycles/cars/bicycles over huge obstacles that to me is madness – jumping off a cliff in a hanglider was a thrill and absolutely beautiful, the peace up there is incredible while you soar above the world – would do it again
Greetings.
I found you by following a link that was linking to me. (smiling)
I found it interesting when I looked up the root words for “perception” and “conception”. Essentially to “conceive” means the creative use of our imagination. To “perceive” means to force upon.
And that’s the basic point…do we insist on forcing our perceptions upon others and our world at large? Do we need agreement and validation for our perspectives? What I ‘got’ out of the story was an emotional need for conformity, which tells me no perception had the substance of Truth behind it, for the essence of Truth is True and needs no outside support. Of course, this “Truth” of which I speak, is a CONcept, not a PREcept and there-in, lies the difference…
It has been my experience that some of the things I illuminate are so obvious, once pointed out, that many times people would rather consider me crazy, instead of themselves as just dumb. So it is an option I volunteer, just so people’s ideas about themselves are loving.
It is more important to me for a person to feel Loved then me to feel like I’m ‘right’.
Namaste
Thank you all for commenting, you have all given me something valuable to ponder and you’ve shone some light into the my dark blind spots that I hadn’t noticed before.
At the time I first read the story, I guess I perceived what fitted my life at that time. I did feel alone and unusual and often questioned if it was me that was insane because of the different way I saw things. There was a lot of pressure from parents, peers and society to conform and I felt like I had to chose whether or not to drink from the same well as everyone around me knowing that it would change who I was. In that respect Sue Ann’s comments about the emotional need for conformity shed some light for me.
I really get all your points about sanity/insanity being a subjective judgement and seeing it from this point of view for the first time brings me peace.
From my new more free and peaceful perspective, my subjective view of insanity (which I still find hard to shake- hehe) is “to continue to repeat the same course of action expecting a different result – knowing that the chosen course of action will end in self destruction”.
So if you jump from a plane that is a calculated risk just like every other thing we do in life. It may be an unnecessary risk in some people’s opinion but ultimately, you are not expecting it to end in self destruction because you reasonably assume that the parachute will prevent your demise.
However, if you chose to jump with out a parachute expecting bounce when you hit the ground and get up and do it again, I would have to question your sanity.
I guess what I’ doing is defining sanity as doing what’s best for you and insanity as repeatedly doing what’s bad for you. There is no mention in the story about what the people were doing before and after they drank from the well so it is impossible to say which state of mind was sane and which was not even using my definition of sanity/insanity.
Perception seems to be coming up a lot in various people’s blogs and posts so I would like to write something about that from a scientific point of view. I find things easier to understand and visualize from a scientific point of view. I know that ultimately science is just another belief system and no more valid than any other. But it’s nice when you can bring all different belief systems together and see that they are all ultimately trying to describe the same things, just in different ways. Sadly, I’m starting a summer job this week so won’t have much time to write.
This was fun and I learned something new that I need to meditate on, so thanks again to all that replied.
Love V
With all this talk of sanity and insanity I think its time I follow my anointed name and change it to YodaFound!
Luck with the summer job
I admit my cluelessness when it comes to discussions on ’sanity’ and ‘insanity’. It confuses me and makes me feel nausea inside but I know that’s simply my experience of it.
Because to me, nothing in our World’s thinking patterns and the patterns we have all been taught are sane at all. Sanity, to me, is what we end up with, when we successfully add one idea to another without forming any conflicts or contradictions in the process.
What is of Spirit Unifies. The Light of Illumination reveals the walls of our own personal hells, where Love has not entered. Our Divinity is discovered, recognized and realized by and through embracing “the darkness” that is within us; all the hurts and the wounds of Love upon condition.
A gated ‘heaven’ is a idealized reality of exclusivity. I can’t both reject and embrace at the same time. It doesn’t make any sense, a limited unlimited, an impotent omnipotence. But it’s the fuel us fossilized fools have been running on.
If I sow prejudice, I will reap it. If I sow judgment, I will reap it. If, by the beliefs in my mind and feelings in my heart, I generate a negative field around myself, a negative pole is bound to show up. It’s the way Quantum Mechanics operates.
UNconditional Love is a tone of Unity. Unity embraces both negative as well as positive. Happy day, sad day, a day is still a day. Every moment is a Present, a Gift. But most of us have just been taught to be appreciative and grateful for the ‘positive’ ones. Expanding our coping skills to include versatility and flexibility would definitely help our overall sense of well being.
Thank You for being so welcoming!
To me, the first part of the story is analogous to the general plot of the Bible. God in heaven, his people below. Paradise. They ate the apple, and then knew good and evil. The relationship between people and God has been fractured ever since. Until God came to Earth as Jesus.
But in the Bible, He didn’t become one of them like the king in the story did. He provided a way to restore their relationship with God. Jesus stuck to his moral absolutes. The king embraced moral relativism. Those who choose Jesus’ way will ultimately enjoy paradise with Him.
An important difference is the people were never instructed not to drink the water and the water didn’t represent evil. So I guess instead of this being about moral relativism, it’s about sanity relativism.
Interesting to ponder.
Thanks Don I appreciate your great input. I never thought of it like that before so thanks for letting me see it in another way.
Love V
Hi Visionary – I followed the link from Sue Ann’s blog. I don’t suppose there’s any one ‘right answer’ but I voted for ‘happy ending’ and it looks like we’re winning – hooray!
I took this as analogy for enlightenment or awakening, perhaps because that’s what most fascinates me. It seems to me that when the people drank from the well, they became enlightened. They saw things for the first time as they really are. They *appeared* to be mad from the old, unenlightened perspective, but *only* from the old perspective – and after all, the narrator who told us they were mad didn’t drink from the well! In their new awakened state, the unenlightened king no longer seemed so sensible, for they could now see the fallacy of his ways. They were therefore overjoyed when the king drank from the well and joined them in their new state of consciousness. Happy ending.
You might suggest an alternative explanation: that they did indeed all go mad and the king joined them in their madness. Yet they thought that the king was making wise decisions again. That’s not the way mad people react to other mad people. They tend to think that all the others are mad – it’s only them that’s sane. You only need to look around at the world to see this in action. It’s the general attitude people have to each other!
Very interesting indeed… loved the story… my perspective may be dim, I find it to be a happy ending… ignorance is bliss
Hi enreal and welcome.
I agree with you, ignorance is bliss and how I have prayed and worked for ignorance. Unfortunately for me, I have been cursed with the ability to see hence my chosen name Visionary. So ignorance has not been a choice. I have tried very hard to ignore what I can seen but its proved impossible. Especially as what I have seen many years before unfolds daily.
I have been stuck in a dilema for many years. Whether to try to educate others unwilling as they are to see what I can see and ruin their blissfull ignorance but potentially allow them to save themselves or to leave everyone to blissfully fiddle while rome burns.
Being a parent has helped me to come to terms with my vision though. My responsibility to my kids is to keep them safe in their blissfull ignorance so that they can enjoy their play safely. As long as I watch out for them and see the risks they cant, then act to moderate the danger to my kids all will be well. As an example, my 8 year old boy is still blissfully ignorant of traffic despite numerous warnings and attempts at education. Ignorance wont prevent the car he doesnt see from hitting him. I can keep an eye out for him now but ultimatley though he will have to take responsibility for himself as I wont always be here for him.
Ignorance is bliss but awareness gives us the power to act. Awareness also brings responsibility, it’s the price to pay for eating from the tree of knowledge. It’s a tough choice and I posted the story to get some feed back about other points of view on the dilema.
Thanks for participating.
Love V
@Enreal. Your words never cease to amaze me. I’d never quite understood the term, Ignorance is bliss. I do now. Peace, Angel Enreal!
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Wonton.
Reading the comments after this post made me think about the nature of perception and awareness. Each person’s perception of reality is different, so what is real or unreal, sane or insane must surely then also be different for each individual.
Ultimately, we can never ‘know’ what is real and this is surely why some of us believe we know nothing. How do awareness and perception relate to each other?
V, when you talk about bringing awareness to others, do you believe you impose your perception of reality on them? Our perceptions mean that we can only teach what we know, even if we are teaching awareness because we frame it within our own personal reality.
This is not to say that none of us should try to bring awareness to, or teach, others. Only that we too should be aware we could be either the king on the hill or the people of the town.
You hit the jack pot for me, Frosty X
Hi Frosty and welcome to my Blog
I find this such a sad story. That in trying to understand what had changed in the village the King ended up changing too, like someone who stands alone with their beliefs all their life just to be turned and tormented so much that in the end their beliefs waver, or they bury them so that they will ‘fit’ in.
Sometimes its not so much a question of sanity but a question of belonging, as someone who has never belonged I can emphasise with wanting to belong, but at what cost. What cost will it take for me to dance in the light, to share in the light it seems that I have to dance under someone else light, instead of being able to shine through my own darkness.
Maybe I am melancholy at the moment, but I found this very sad.