Introduction
We realize that the worldview of Simple Reality is a bit of a “hard sell” which is why we rely on so many disparate sources, both from our Western culture and from an Eastern perspective, to give our radically different paradigm credibility.
Chapter One of this book responds to the First Great Question: Where Am I?[i] Humanity is not moving toward creating a sustainable community. Our culture of social media, sports, politics and food, to name a few, occupy our lives. They distract us from the approaching darkness that we know is coming. We feel the rumble beneath our feet and hear the distant roar of winds and torrential rain.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor at Harvard Medical School Dr. John E. Mack explained that “Worldviews, and the ways of knowing that produce and sustain them, structure our perceptions and define how we experience ourselves in relation to the Universe. They determine how we relate to each other and to the Earth itself, how we find satisfaction, and how we come to terms with the ultimate questions of living and dying. For these reasons, there is no matter of greater significance than which worldview, or paradigm is ascendant in our society.”[ii]
The story we have been telling ourselves is creating our suffering. Changing our story (worldview) is the first step toward freedom, peace of mind, joy and compassion which is our natural state. It is the first step in Transcendence.
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Additional Reading:
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[i] Henry, Roy Charles. Where Am I? The First Great Question: Understanding the Importance of the Human Narrative. August 2012.
[ii] Mack, John E. “The 2008 Shift Report.” Shift: At the Frontier of Consciousness. Institute of Noetic Sciences: Petaluma, California, March-May 2008, p. 35.