Preparing the Mind to Avoid the Two Graves of Revenge
The Chamber of Reflection, shown in the accompanying figure, is used in some forms of Freemasonry and other initiatic traditions. Initiants use it to clear their minds and broaden their horizons before the initiation. It serves to prepare the mind for the ceremony of initiation. Afterwards, initiants can use the Chamber of Reflection to help to continue broaden their horizons and to reflect on issues and concerns. I used it in my book Thrive in the Age of Knowledge as a vehicle to help readers to reflect on the points in the book.
The mind is a funny thing, though. What we bring into the Chamber of Reflection shapes and influences what we take out. Without going too far down the rabbit hole, Anil Seth in Reality is what you make of it has a layman’s approach to perceptions and what the brain does in a piece in the Boston Globe. Reality is what you make of it is a good title. If we bring poison into the Chamber, it will fill our perceptions with poison. Our reality will be based on poisonous perceptions. And that is the recipe for the revenge and the two graves we want to avoid.
I suppose this happened with the witch hunts in Europe and Salem, MA. People who wanted power convinced themselves, or at least they convinced others, they could identify witches. They gained power and notoriety for themselves and convinced whole towns and countries there was a plague of witches. This apparently happened in the US with Satanic Ritual Abuse, as I discussed in Re-constructing History, Part 9: Is the Education Institution a Cult? Poisonous thoughts, lust for power, and thirst for revenge twists perceptions and make us do crazy things.
And that is exactly what is happening with the social justice movement and many of the people and organizations protesting against it.
Going back to Do Not Dig Two Graves, John Rawls’ concept of social justice, it relies on reciprocity, which relies on understanding. But as Schopenhauer suggests, the field of one’s vision limits their understanding of the world. To truly understand other perspectives and seek effective solutions rather than revenge, we need to engage in dialog and then reflect upon it. I suspect this is what Gandi, Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela, and other peacemakers did. Dr. King’s dream was not for blacks to overcome whites, but for a society that goes beyond race.
They brought peace and reconciliation into their reflections rather than hate and desire for revenge.
A few nuggets from the “I have a dream” speech help to illustrate the point.
“But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends — so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.””
There is no hate or call for revenge in this speech. The same can be said for Mandela and Gandi. All three saw the need to reform a society rather than burn it down. Dr. King was forthright in his assessment that America needs to extend its dream rather than destroy it.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Funny how you rarely, if ever, hear the social justice warriors today speak of Dr. King.
But as we contemplate solutions and reforms, let us remember him and take his spirit into our own Chambers of Reflection. Let us enter them with open minds and hearts. In this way, we engage in critical thinking and understand our perceptions and biases. And we seek to broaden our horizons and better understand the perceptions and biases of others, particularly those on the other side of the issue.
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