GOD, PERSPECTIVE AND IGNORANCE

As of late, I have had a deep rooted conviction to share my thoughts on the power and ignorance of perspective....

So what exactly is perspective? Perspective is our outlook of the world and our definition and understanding of reality. As you can imagine, based on different experiences and learnt behaviors collected throughout our personal lives, we all have different perspectives and because we have different perspectives, we experience different realities. When you take a moment to do some critical thinking on this subject, you will come to realize that all perspectives are limited and inevitably ignorant.

Let me explain this in more detail; When we are babies our minds are like clay, very pliable and impressionable, this results in our perspectives being shaped with literally no effort on our part. We start to create an outlook of reality based on the direct or indirect teachings of those who surround us (who too have limited perspectives).

What this means is if your parental figure is a pessimist, always talking about how hard life is, how nothing ever seems to work out and is constantly dwelling on negativity, chances are extremely high that you too will share this perspective and reality. This of course is just an example but the concept is accurate. Please understand that parents or parental figures don't do this consciously or intentionally, but rather because they too have a limited perspective and are ignorant to the benefits of stepping outside of their perspective.

The other key to our minds development is personal experience. For example, lets say two people have a miscommunication or misunderstanding, this being the result of failure to gain or respect the other persons perspective, and lets say they end up having a physical confrontation, this will leave a lasting impression on the mind and shape their perspectives in future interactions, influencing them to adopt prejudices and false beliefs that only help create an ignorant perspective and false reality.

As we get older our mind is primed through different systems (more limited perspectives). These systems are ALL very mechanical and binding. They not only enforce (often subtly) rules, limits, and the acceptance of dependency, passivity and mediocrity but they also discourage freedom of choice and the use of imagination. Four of these powerhouses are the religious, government, media and school systems. Once we begin to take the serious initiative to research these man-made constructs, we begin to understand that these systems do a much better job of keeping us ignorant than properly educated and we can begin to take steps to free ourselves from mental enslavement.

God, the universe, Mother nature, the absolute, Allah, energy, spirit or whatever you want to call that which is beyond a name, is the creator. Creation knows no structure because it is beyond structure, it knows no limit, it knows no perspective, it is the highest form of freedom and imagination, it is the potential of all things, it is ALL perspectives. People seem to forget that we did not create God in our limited perspective, this amazing thing created us and it is beyond our comprehension because it is beyond our perspective.

So then the question is, how do we expand our perspective resulting in a new reality? We do this by turning to the great minds who came before us, the FREE thinkers who were misunderstood because their perspectives were beyond the mechanical outlook of an ignorant society. People like Socrates, Gandhi, Galileo, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Shakespeare, Da Vinci, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Einstein, and many other historical figures who people know of but very few truly understand.

When we study these amazing minds, we find very distinct similarities in their outlooks. There is a clear understanding shared amongst them that perspective, especially that shared by the majority of society, is limited and ignorant.
  

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - Marcus Aurelius
 

"I say there is no darkness but ignorance." - Shakespeare
 

"Ignorance is the root and stem of all evil." - Plato
 

"Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives." - Maya Angelou
 

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." - Albert Einstein

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance." - Dalai Lama
 

"We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything." - Thomas Edison
 

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved." - Charles Darwin
 

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates
 

"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true." - Buddha
 

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's own ignorance." - Confucius
 

"Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?" - Benjamin Franklin
 

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." - Mark Twain
 

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." - Leonardo Da Vinci
 

"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Furthermore because we do not see from all perspectives and are plagued by a certain level of ignorance, they do not believe in limitation, but rather they believe in the power of thought, possibility and imagination:
 

"All things are possible to those that believe." - Jesus Christ
 

"It always seems impossible until its done." - Nelson Mandela
 

"To find yourself, think for yourself." - Socrates
 

"imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited only to what we know and understand at this present moment, imagination embraces the entire world, and all that there ever will be to know and understand." - Einstein
 

"Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.” - Tony Robbins
 

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." - Muhammad Ali
  
"Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools." - Napoleon Bonaparte
 

“We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do.” - Dale Carnegie
 

"We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
 

"The energy of the mind is the essence of life." - Aristotle
 

"There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge." - Napoleon Hill
 

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso
 

"When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow - you are not understanding yourself." - Bruce Lee
 

"Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought." - Alexander Graham Bell
 

"Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible." - George Washington Carver
 

The most important discovery we find from their teachings, is that we can tap into a deeper resource, a place that will expand our perspective, a place that is connected to ALL perspectives!
 

"Our creator is the same and never changes despite the names given Him by people here and in all parts of the world. Even if we gave Him no name at all, He would still be there, within us, waiting to give us good on this earth." - George Washington Carver
 

"I like to see you move with the rhythm; I Like to see when you're dancing from within" - Bob Marley
 

"The kingdom of God is within you." - Jesus
 

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." - Buddha
 

"Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought." - Napoleon Hill
 

"Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig." - Marcus Aurelius
 

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." - Lao Tzu
 

"But we are born to be happy, to be abundantly supplied with every good thing, to have fun in living, to consciously unite with the Divine Power that is around us and within us, and to grow and expand forever." - Ernest Holmes
 

"Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone." - Gandhi
 

"Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know." - Shakespeare
 

"I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being." - Confucius
 

"The highest revelation is that God is in every man." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

"We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves." - Galileo
 

"That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God." - Einstein

You see my friends we ALL have limited perspectives and our ignorance has indirectly created a world in which over 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night, the wealthiest 2 percent own more than half of all global household assets, 2.6 billion people around the world lack basic sanitation. According to the most recent "Global Wealth Report" by Credit Suisse, the wealthiest 0.5% control over 35% of the wealth of the world! More than 3 billion people, close to half the world's population, live on less than 2 dollars a day and there are 400 million children in the world today that have no access to safe water. I hate to bring up what may be perceived as negativity but the key to change lies in each of us, in us expanding our perspectives and freeing our minds. I refuse to stand aside well a minority of corrupt power addicts destroy this beautiful world!

Ultimately, even what I have shared with you today, is only my perspective, however, I am sharing from much personal experience, countless hours of different fields of study and inquiries on those great minds who came before me. These combined have created my perspective and each day I seek to learn more. As the brilliant Sir J.C. Bose once said ,"We must remember that all inquiries should have as their goal the attainment of knowledge in its entirety." In order to achieve this goal we must stand together and share our perspectives and be made aware of our ignorance.

We all want love, respect, happiness, peace, etc. and we can have all of these things if we let go of our ignorance and come together expanding our perspective and the reality of a better future! I understand it's hard to believe that we can change the world because this is what we have come to know but don't allow your perspective to be your enemy, make it your friend! Believe! To change the world we must start with ourselves...... I vow to spread hope, love, peace and empowerment. I vow to be aware of my ignorance and work with my fellow beings, looking to understand their perspective and expand my own rather than judging them out of my limited perception. I ask you to make this pledge as well. Together we will stand in the name of love and Truth and the more people we bring together in the name of our cause the greater will be its effects!

There have been so many great minds that have given their lives to humanity, let us not allow them to of died in vein! Please stand with me in the name of Truth!

By Gavin Nascimento


"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." - Gandhi