Do You Listen To Your Thoughts? Take measured reflection upon your Self.

....from the "BROTHER CAN'T YOU HEAR ME" Series

We are not meant to always be under tutelage in life. Rather we are on a personal journey toward truth in determining what is “phat” as in good, great, and awesome; a revelation of the soul revealing truth; not as having to like what I like or see the world as I do or think as I do to define integrous truth. Integrous truth is livable truth for yourself.

Are you aware of yourself as a human being practicing "being human?" Is being human prescribed for you rather than described by you for you? Do you know what you want in life?

To get what you desire, you must know what you desire and filter it from the objective phantasmagoria of choices and plant it into the subjective fertility within your own heartmind. This is a process of LAW that cannot not work.

At some contemplative moment in life, one must examine ones life lived and determine whether it is lived consciously or unconsciously. In this I’m meaning having a reflective positive awareness of being in control of your life, as in a preemptive approach role versus someone ceaslessly telling you how your life should be, which is a reactive role approach.

The process of "free-thinking" requires extreme discipline to seek the true of the self. One must first awaken from the "walk of sleep" that so many travel. LISTEN INSIDE. In becoming aware of one's state of being, we are freeing ourselves to seek our true self as revealed through our "being," and therein discovering our true "being as a human." You are not finding something you are not; rather, you are discovering your true nature and your true self.

At conception, a prescriptive life is readied for each of us by those expecting our birth. As a growing babe, our role at first seems like that of an actor, seeking to gain favor of his audience. We begin by patterning ourselves by the most repetitive patterns we observe. Our attention becomes focused on the most repetitive patterns, such as learning who we see most; mother; then father, and so on. We hear them speaking....say da da...say da da....say da da...and then...da da...did you hear that...he said da da...da da...he said daddy.

Over time, more complex patterns occur; speech habits, food habits, clothing habits, cultural habits, etc. They occur almost "virus-like, as if you have become exposed to something." Pause a moment to give that some focused thought.

Alternatively, a descriptive life offers an active development of who we are and what we’d like to accomplish with our life lease. We formulate the pattern. Even so, there is a longing that we can't seem to explain; it seems to come from inside ourselves; it seems like some internal communication without any form, yet we seem to understand it. It's like an internal vibration or something we can't verbalize. As we are exposed to others, we speak about this communication. Then someone tells you that the source of the communication is God. It is God telling you right from wrong.

It seems like a guidance that is always within ourselves. We don't seem to need ears to hear it. We just feel it. We don't always have the courage to talk about it openly because we feel we will be judged harshly by others. So we begin to resist the monologue communication.

As we grow into adulthood, we discover conversation about God, and we become less and less afraid, and more and more inquisitive. We discover how fearful we have become, listening to others prescribe God's nature to us. Somewhere deep inside us, the prescription does not settle well. There seems to be a sort of conflicting reality that we can't explain. We long to describe it. We want to know more knowledge. We become a blended being of prescription knowledge and description knowledge. We become students of both didactic learning and dialectic learning.

I am suggesting that if you have ever experienced internal communication similar to what I've tried unsuccessfully to adequately describe, then follow your own instincts throught your internal vibe or vibration for yourself by taking a look inside, or better said, take a listen inside ourselves for the silent knowledge source that created you. LISTEN INSIDE.

If you read the Bible, you may have heard this passage referenced - If you hear His Voice, harden not your heart. -Psalm 95:7 and 8. I trust this is a reference to an inaudible, but clearly heard voice communication. The hardening of the heart referene alludes to "not being open or welcoming or fearful." This Voice for God is Holy Spirit speaking to you directly. It is internal guidance communication available to you. I have found IT best heard in humility.

Now this is a different way of looking at life; looking inside for guidance. “When we change the way we look at things,the things we look at do change as in transform or transformation.” What we begin to discover is a transformation of our thinking by revealation through our listening. When we do that, we discover more about our self; not conflicting selves but revealed self. We begin to discover our true nature, which is our true relationship to God. This pathway has been described as a journey on the Light path - out of darkness and into The Light where Truth Stands, awaiting us. Discover It for yourself and describe It for yourself. It awaits you.

Dr. Cornell West wrote “the desired intent [of our journey] is the formation of attention that is inseparable from the self - to inculcate certain habits of critical engagement that should result in the maturation of a soul. Philosophical enlightenment means taking a look to understand how you see the world. It means moving away from the superficial to the substantive; away from the frivolous to the profound."

Paideia: In ancient Greek, the word paideia (παιδεία) means "education" or "instruction." Paideia was the process of educating humans into their true form; the real and genuine human nature.

wisdom justice freedom
Parrhesia: In the classic discipline of rhetoric, parrhesia is a figure of speech described as: to speak candidly or to ask forgiveness for so speaking. The term is borrowed from the Greek παρρησία (πᾶν "all" + ῥῆσις / ῥῆμα "utterance, speech") meaning literally "to speak everything" and by extension "to speak freely," "to speak boldly," or "boldness." It implies not only freedom of speech, but the obligation to speak the truth for the common good, even at personal risk.

Philosophical enlightenment means the recalcitrance of ones own ideologies that are so branded into ones social subconscious that to be made consciously aware of them seems almost an unconscionable act of personal treason. So many of them (ideologies) are pervasive and not created of our own volition; therefore we cannot properly engage them because we are not fully aware of them. Man cannot engage that which he is not aware.

So then if we seek to increase our own awareness and not judge before understanding is gained, then we can eradicate an ideal that doesn’t coexist well with our enlightened, mature state of self-awareness, which is a state of continuous learning. That is a very worthwhile goal indeed.

A scholar is a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. Scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. It is the responsibility of a scholar to advance publically what he has found in his private confines or research and scholarship. – John Hope Franklin


History exists in three time frames: the past, the present, and the future, though some say only two; past and present. Yet we write only in the NOW. Start writing a better tomorrow today. THE CANDLE GROUP advocates Transformative Learning which leads to thinking better, seeing better, learning better, living better, and speaking well with personal maturity, both morally and spiritually. Can we truly defend that which we don’t understand? Consider this process of what to do with knowledge:

define it defend it develop it or discard it
But above all else, direct it toward yourself before it is directed toward others.

I tend to write to unveil models which emerges out of me but not created by me; directed to myself for observation and understanding, and then to speak parrhesialy of it. It seems that this very expression in writing and then verbally, exposes me to some seemingly necessary criticism. Somehow, some value is gained in a manner that I can’t adequately explain. Perhaps it’s just the search for truth that can only be reconciled to itself, will we each find Salem/Jerusalem/City of Peace. Perhaps its ineffable and we find it when we find our self purpose.

When I listen to my thoughts, which come as epiphany that I consider to be leading filters, I am likened to a magnetic antenna receiving transmissions from a non-local source, requiring me to choose which thought to focus upon so that the non local source knows how to assist me. I suppose I could consider this as purpose-driven perspective. Regardless, as in any true learning it is asked only that we consider these following filters, [3] as excerpted from an attraction regarding philosophical study, to which I attribute in the footnotes:

Interpret fairly
[The] first responsibility is to develop an accurate reading of the original text; then your criticism can begin. Focus primarily on the adequacy of the arguments which support the stated conclusions. If you disagree, you can look for the weaknesses of that support; if you agree, you can defend it against possible attacks.

Support your thesis
Don't just state your own position; make it the conclusion of a line of
reasoning. Claim only what you can prove (or are, at least, prepared to defend), and support it with evidence and argument. Philosophy is not just a list of true opinions, but the reasoned effort to provide justification.

Consider alternatives
Be sure to explore arguments on all sides of the issue you address. Of
course you will want to emphasize the reasoning that supports your thesis, but it is also important to consider likely objections and to respond with counter-arguments. Be especially careful in your use of examples: the best positive example can only clarify meaning and lend some evidentiary confirmation, but a single counter-example disproves a general claim completely.

How about utilizing an open reading of Plato’s Republic for added perspective. There is much to be learned about our Western Civilization and its stratified developmental views and conflicts regarding the nature of the human being, the nature of justice, and the need of relationship and social order. I suggest this as a useful tool to aid in understanding ideologies as they may exist within us Westerners. EXAMINE THYSELF. A tool can be good and need not be perfect to be useful. There is no way to be perfect but there are a million ways to be good and useful and therein “phat.”

Learn to listen to yourself through your thought. Discover the source of your thinking. Seek internal guidance communication. Make a conscious attempt to share more than simply "your opinion." Opinions can be void of conscious thinking. To become or not to become is the question for your life, and it is best left up to you. This is the alluring nature of scholarship and one of the beneficial objectives of THE CANDLE GROUP, THE EUREKA SOCIETY, and THE POWERHOUSE HILL.

Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat; it makes the cat more aware. - igman’08001009
[1] igman
[2] Dr. Cornell West.
[3] http://www.philosophypages.com/sy.htm#wri – Guide to the Study of Philosophy, ©1996-2002 Garth Kemerling.