It seems here that you are allowing their beliefs to reign over you, to hold power.
As I tried to explain to you, it is not just a matter of their beliefs, but actions taken based on those beliefs. Consider the written, systematic, and official program, for example, (or should I say 'pogrom') of genocide and near extinction of the American Indian at the hands of the US Cavalry, directed by a Christian nation, hell-bent on 'Manifest Destiny', wherein the populace at large firmly believed theirs was a God-mandated destiny to conquer the West. The Indian was considered both a dog and an obstacle to 'progress', and therefore, totally expendable.
You say there are two different realities. By the definition of reality, isn't there only one?
Yes, but there is the relative view and the universal view of the one reality.
Reality is based on perception, it is based on, as you have demonstrated, input interpreted by individuals. If that is reality, then it is completely relative.
Yes, that is the
relative view of reality, accessed via of the senses. The universal view is accessed via of consciousness beyond the senses. True Reality has nothing to do with one's perception of it; it exists regardless of perception.
If I put my hand on a burning stove and get burned, I can logically trace back the burn to its source. So you take a belief system which you believe has done wrong, or is in the wrong, and trace it back to its source. I follow your logic, but by your logic the reality you seek to awaken them to is still your own relative reality.
If that were true, I would be telling them that their way is wrong and my way is right, and they should adopt my way, but I have no particular way that I am asking them to be. It is not a question of 'my way' vs. 'your way'. What I am saying is: "Your way is based upon superstitious, fear-driven beliefs", and here is the evidence. I am leaving it up to them to see the problem and make a decision on their own.
You speak of a larger, more universal reality, but is there one?
Taken together, what is 'the universe' and the emptiness that contains it?
If there is, everyone should be able to experience it,
They can, since everyone is an integral part of the universe; in fact, each one of us is the universe itself. It is simply that some of us realize it, and some of us don't. Those that don't think they are separate egos acting upon the world. They have formulated a relative view of reality, which is erroneous and temporary, based upon the idea of the self, which is, paradoxically, a self-created principle. To experience the universal view of reality, one must see that the self does not actually exist: there is no
experiencer of reality; there is only experiencing itself.
...but if all input is filtered through our senses, and each individual must experience the input uniquely due to many experiences and prejudices already ingrained, then reality is filtered by the individual and becomes relative.
What is beyond the self?
How does a blind man know what beauty a sunset holds? How does a deaf on know Mozart?
By the same means that those who see and hear cannot see or hear the beauty that the blind and deaf can experience.
You seek to illustrate a reality to people you ostracized because they have done something or somehow offended you, you are already prejudice, and though it may be in reaction to their actions, you see the world differently.
When I referred to myself as being the recipient of their dogma, I was speaking for all others. There is no ostracization on my part. They are all included in the universe. It is they who ostracize by virtue of their exclusive doctrine. Pointing out that what they base their ostracization upon is not ostracization.
But because you see things differently, you feel superior, or at least that they are wrong in some way, and you seek to point that out. Your reality is relative. You seek to use history and knowledge, but unless you were present for all of the evidence, it too has been filtered through some other reality before reaching you. Time is a huge filter as well. Is it not better then to walk upon your own path instead of showing others the mis-steps in theirs?
Actually, I can do both at the same time, but 'mis-steps' is a gross understatement of the damage they are actually doing in the world.
The wrongs of history to which I am referring continue to be perpetrated upon others at this very moment. Understand that this is not a personal vendetta. I do not hate anyone. Also understand that those I address would do all they can to prevent me from walking the path of my choice. They want me to walk only their path as the One True Path, all others be dammed. You know yourself that the bottom line is that only Christians will go to Heaven; the rest are doomed to Hell.
As I said, if the extent of their beliefs were just to live and let live, I would agree totally with you and turn the page, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
Pointing out erroneous information is neither superior nor relative, unless I am attached personally to some doctrine. Pointing out something is not a doctrine that is either right nor wrong, I am neither right nor wrong in doing so. You continue to attack my pointing finger rather than to look at what I am pointing to.
Why do you think it is OK to simply allow the replication of mistakes; mistakes that are the cause of great harm, without saying anything about them?
