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12
Hermann Kuhn
Confidence in the purpose of realty (samyag darshana) and our notion of growth the practical expression of this trust - unfolds in two stages.
- The first stage is still deeply marked by the physical reality that almost hypnotically confines our consciousness to the lower states of development4 (gunasthana). Here we experience the notion of growth mainly as the path that leads out of our hypnotic fascination with matter.
The notion is the counterweight to all the objects and environments we experience while in these states. It appears to us like a tunnel that on our way to higher levels leads through an increasingly absurd world5. Since this absurd world sometimes causes fear, we hold fast onto our path like to a lifeline.
Yet there is growing understanding of the confused happenings we observe around us. Almost automatically a feeling of loving compassion for all those who still experience this confused world without real orientation begins to arise within us. The impulse to lead these others out of their daze is another characteristic of this first stage of our notion of growth.
- Once we reach the second stage of samyag darshana we step out of the narrow tunnel the physical reality had spun around our consciousness. Our orientation shifts from leaving confining emotional and material circumstances to attaining and experiencing the fantastic reality we now feel unfolding within us.
4 see '14 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT' in THE APPLICATION
5 It is our own world that appears so unfamiliar to us, because we now perceive it from a new, distanced perspective.
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