Discernment of False Views
The approach to the dialectical consideration of ignorance is through the discernment of false views (or the determination of WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT). False views are incorrect conclusions which are determined from faulty reason and unsound and inaccurate observation and discernment. Sound and accurate observation and discernment are the necessary prerequisite mental conditions which must always antecede any and all subsequent correct conclusions. All correct conclusions must invariably be determined by sound and accurate observation and discernment of verified facts and established evidence.
Facts are verified and evidence is established only through direct and immediate personal experience or observation, as opposed to rash inference, theory, or belief. Belief is the effect of the mistake of confusing theoretical assumptions or hypothetical conjectures with what is really the case. Passive acceptance of that which has not sincerely been enquired into, and accordingly, rejection of that which also has not been sincerely enquired into, is the activity of delusion. Delusion is the effect of the error of believing in something which contradicts reality. Evident contradiction is the established evidence of faulty conjecture determined from unsound and inaccurate observation and discernment.
Theoreticians and dogmatists go on talking about things they know nothing of. Their beliefs are founded on hopes and conjectures of imagination, not on direct knowing experience. The exercise of reason is the only rational and dependable approach to real understanding. Faith comes by hearing and acceptance of second-hand indirect knowledge and conjecture. Faith is a consoling, hopeful conclusion determined aside from facts and without established evidence. A profession of faith or belief is therefore a confession of the lack of sound and accurate observation and discernment.
True sanity is a sound mind with sound and accurate observation and discernment. Lack of these is the effect of an aberrated mental process, mental disorder, or derangement, more commonly defined as insanity. The whole problem concerning the confusion produced by false views is rooted in an undeveloped or crippled capacity to accurately observe and discern the unreal from the real. Doubt and grief are the inevitable final result of accepting the untrue as true.
Not bothering to investigate, people fall victim to their own ignorance and resign themselves to utter foolishness. Willing slaves to inventions of an uncontrolled imagination and fanatical superstition, they reduce themselves to the lowest state of humankind and a degenerated intelligence. Something is not true simply because it is written down somewhere. Lies are easily offered and become acceptable to those who have become afraid of facts and truth because of their uninvestigated obsession with vanity. If truth comes, then lies are exposed and must collapse, and the ego-notion (upon which all vanity is based) is always built upon the foundation of falsehood, superstition, and lies.
People become confused and remain in ignorance and disagreement, not because of their sound and accurate observation and discernment, but because the cherished hopes and vain fantasies they are obsessed with and cling to are challenged by the truth. They are willing slaves and victims of their own fascinations and afraid to wake up out of their delusions for fear of losing their concocted dream.
Everyone is at liberty to have faith in and believe whatever they want to, and have the freedom to think and express their foolishness in the manner of their choosing, but their mistakes of perception and discernment can in no way effect facts and evidence which are established and evident. People will continue to live in the dark shadow of their superstitions and false beliefs, with doubt and anxiety as their only certainty until they progress to the stage where they give consideration and preference to the truth over hallucinated fictions of imagination.
False views are utterly rejectable and reprehensible. They are the source of wrong and meaningless aspirations and conduct, and are proven liable to imprison people within the most debased and grievous conditions of turmoil and suffering and depravity of the worst kinds. The eradication of delusion and the establishment of wisdom through the mastery of one’s own mind is the highest aspiration of humankind and the key to real happiness and contentment. People should not prey on others as the beasts do, nor should they follow blind opinion like automatons, nor follow along with those that make the most noise like stupid sheep do, but should develop sound and accurate observation and discernment, and with utmost vigilance and diligence hold the truth most precious.
“The truth, the right, the vast.”
(∼ Atharva Veda)
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