HUMAN BLINDNESS
When we hear, read or talk about “blindness,” we are usually
referring to, or meaning, the state or condition of being unable to see because
of injury, disease, or a congenital condition; ignorance; or the lack of
perception, awareness, or judgment. But although this definition makes a lot of
sense when seeing or hearing it for the first time, blindness’s breadth and
scope can be much comprehensive if we were able to understand the types of
human blindness and what they really mean. Let’s start by distinguishing
between the three types of human blindness: physical, intellectual and
spiritual.
Physical blindness is the first form of blindness,
the least important form of the three, but the one that we prize the most due
to the human reliance on sight as the dominant sense. As described above, it has
to do with the state or condition of being unable to see physically for any
reason. We are built to collect information primarily with our eyes, so even
reduced vision quality can create a negative effect on the recipient. Our
eyes aren’t just performing a sensorial task, they are the main portal through
which our brain can tell us about our world, learn new things, and make
wonderful and/or terrible memories.
Intellectual blindness is the second form of
blindness. This form of blindness affects most human beings and has to do with
ignorance or the lack of clarity. Physically, human beings are inferior to many
other creatures. That’s a fact! We are not as fast as a cheetah, strong as an
elephant, big as a gorilla, tall as a giraffe, stable as a mule, etc. In fact,
we cannot jump proportionally as high as a flea; reproduce as fast as a rabbit;
work as hard as a bee; etc. In this sense, we are inferior to them, and they
are better than us physically. However, what really sets us apart is our intelligence.
Our human brain has developed relatively fast compared to other species. Our
mind, the ability to rationalize, learn, visualize, think, memorize, etc., has
put us up front.
But the same thing that sets us apart is the thing that is
blinding us. Although we know ignorance as the lack of knowledge or
information, ignorance goes far beyond this definition. Yes, you can say that a
person that is illiterate or without education is ignorant or that a person who
is lacking of certain information is ignorant on that specific topic. But this
ignorance, the ignorance of the illiterate or the ones with lack of information
is a very relative ignorance and insignificant. These people called ignorant
still can be very smart in their own way and environment and can be wonderful
human beings. They just do not have much education and/or information.
The ignorance that we really have to be careful with, the
real intellectual blindness, the real ignorance, is the one where people do
have knowledge and information but do not have clarity. They are blinded by
their own education, knowledge, beliefs, values, judgements and prejudices. It
is an ignorance based on intelligence. In other words, it is when their own
intelligence is working against them and is blinding them. This blindness is
not happening to just few but to most people all the time. And it is worse and
very dangerous, in those that have power, money, or are backed up by a group,
sect, denomination, community, nation, etc. In fact, we see this all the time
in politics, religions, races, etc. It is not ignorant people who have committed
the worst atrocities in our history. To the contrary, it is educated, smart
people with no clarity, intellectually blinded by their own political,
religious, or other agendas.
Normally, we can say with certainty that most people strive
to do the right thing, seek a life of integrity, and wish to do no harm. But
being well-intended does not prevent them from being intellectually blinded.
We see this daily in our conversations, the news, TV, media, etc. We see
doctors, scientists, educated people completely blinded by their own education;
politicians by their own party and personal aspirations; religious people by
their own beliefs; and even nations by their own nationalistic agendas. Even
common people’s conversations, debates or discussions are blinded by personal
beliefs, values, judgements and prejudices in spite of the facts presented in
these dialogs. “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere
ignorance and conscientious stupidity," says Martin Luther King, Jr.
in his book Strength to Love.
Finally, the third and most severe form of blindness is the spiritual
blindness. This form of blindness has to do with our lack of perception and
awareness, with living asleep, with our inability to wake up; and is a
consequence of the intellectual blindness. Although most human beings believe
that they have some type of a spiritual component (i.e., soul, spirit,
consciousness, essence, Self, or ...), they live and die relying on their
physicality, on their bodies, minds, and senses. They spend their lives being busy
or entertained; accumulating money, materials things, knowledge, relationships,
etc.; and/or pursuing selfish goals like fame, status, image, etc. This
reliance on these material aspects of their being is so ingrained that they are
not able to break the material barriers that are required to transcend to a
more spiritual or energetic dimension.
If we are confined by the chains of physicality, if we are
intellectually blinded, we will never be able to explore our full potential,
our individual potential as a human being. To do so, we must break the chains
that bind us to the physical and intellectual (wake up and realize that we are
a lot more than just physical matter) and start the spiritual journey (slowly
and gradually increase our level of clarity, perception and awareness). Only then, will
we be free to strive for our full potential, for boundless opportunities, for
our true essence. Oneness can only be achieved by breaking free from the
chains of blindness!
In
summary, although physical blindness can be a great loss, it is nothing
compared to the intellectual and spiritual blindness. What good is it to see
when we are intellectually and spiritually blind! In fact, losing the
ability to see can be a springboard to opening one’s eyes, minds, and hearts to
the intellectual and spiritual dimensions. But we do not have to lose our
vision to do so. We can open them by just waking up and realizing that we
are not material beings with a spiritual component, but spiritual beings with a
material component (a body and a mind) to have this human experience. If we are
able to realize this, if we are able to transcend physicality and our intellectual and spiritual blindness, then the
possibilities are endless as you tap into your full potential, as you exist as
one, as you become one with the universe, as you become the one.
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Author: Maurice Correa
Website: pathtoone.com
Blog: p2oblog.blogspot.com
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