Nov 11, 2024
Nov 11, 2024
by R. D. Ashby
Perception of the world in its detail is assumed as objective in the finest literary sense, that we are detached from it. The latter notion is what enables us to move and communicate in objective terms: to both define the perception of things in objective terms of identity, and to use language as an objective tool of common understanding. All the while, this objectivity is entirely a conceptual phenomenon in each mind, which appears to make a quantum leap in its application to what each realises as objective in the perceived world.
The act of realisation: this occurs in what I will term awareness, which in turn I will define as the zone of realisation. The zone of realisation is always the present, the now. Realisation, whether of conceptual or perceptual objects, is in the now, or in the zone of now realisation.
At any given moment, my perception of the general scene, of trees and sky, of street and buildings, of people moving around, is a now realisation that I assume to be objective, not merely assume, but know to be. Knowledge implies certainty, which nicely extends into inclusion of what is strictly uncertain: for example, that I am in the shopping centre, now, buying something for dinner at home, which has yet to occur, but is inclusive in the certainty of the present act of preparing for it. Any wilful act I commence upon in the present is in now realisation of the whole action, its completion, and thus its certainty, even though, if I stop to think about it, I can never be certain of anything beyond the present.
However, life would be impossible to conduct if I prompted the certainty of each presently realised act towards a future resolution with uncertainty of outcome, so as to not act at all. Indeed, there are numerous instances where something prepared for as certain in the outcome is aborted by unfolding circumstances. The policy would appear to be to act on what is realised in present now realisation of it as a certainty, with the unvoiced implication of its uncertainty. All the same, there is a context of realised circumstances in which certainty of action is considered without question; the uncertain considered so unlikely as to be negligible. Negligibility of uncertainty after all is the definition of certainty, which is the foundation of knowledge.
In now realisation of circumstances, therefore, is realisation of certainty, within which I can judge the viability of realised actions which take on the certainty of the circumstances. For example, if I plan to buy a house, the action is now realised in the certainty of now realised circumstances that will accommodate not merely the purchase of, but the sustained dwelling in that house. Thus every action shows forth the certainty realised of the circumstances of that action, even though the outcome may be uncertain, as in placing a bet on a horse; or, indeed, in the case of buying a house, that one may fall short on the mortgage payments and lose the house. The fact remains that an action implies a now realisation of certainty of outcome, even as an alternative to its uncertainty of outcome, or the act would not be initiated from now realisation of it within the known realised circumstances.
The experience of certainty in now realisation of perceived circumstances is by nature a predictive one. It is based on present knowledge of circumstances extended logically to define the future state of circumstances. Certainty now realised is in the nature of a vision in which the future is a dimension. Since certainty defines all action, it follows all action is of the nature of a vision being fulfilled. This is borne out from the least action, say of getting up to get a glass of water from the kitchen, to the greatest, say, from the plan, of building the Hoover dam.
The experience of certainty in now realisation of perceived circumstances is an act of knowledge, and in many cases, particularly in the visions of great conquerors and empire builders in the past, from Alexander the Great to Adolf Hitler, can be so sweeping as to be encompassing of the world in now realisation of it; whose predictive quality is borne out in the resolution of events. The tendency is to endow these leaders with great visionary power, without realising that the subsequent enfolding of events is something beyond the power of their minds to enable, but as it were, fulfils it, making it seem the power of their minds over the realised circumstances.
Thus both Alexander and Hitler make sweeping conquests, and are attributed with the power to do so, as though the whole realised circumstances were covered by the predictive certainty in their minds: plainly, not the case. More realistically, we can postulate a ‘power’ over the realised circumstances that both raises and uses each leader to achieve its certain ends; or appears to for a while, since eventually, the leader’s great vision based on certainty in now realisation of realised circumstances is proved to be incapable of sustaining, and is defeated by the greater reality of circumstances thus manifested, proving the sway of a greater ‘power’ of certainty.
The invisible powers that both occasion the experience of certainty of action in individual now realisation, and enable the certainty in the realised circumstances, even to the raising to instrumentality of the individual in that certainty of outcome, seem evident, and can only be suppressed by suppression of the evidence: that it is solely the idea of a leader, say, who pops up at a given moment in history, quite by chance, and goes on to conquer the world, or nearly succeeds in doing so, whose ultimate mortality signals the commencement of the collapse of his vision, or is continued in his successors. In fact, the influence of a mind can only be extended over the whole circumstances by a power that controls them, as in the notion of the power of God granting victory in battle.
The power of certainty that manifests itself in a leader is one that assumes control over the now realised circumstances. This leads to his formulation from a position in the present of now realised circumstances to make a sweeping prediction that affects events in the future. A pre-eminent example is Jesus Christ, who preaches certainty of outcome in a now realisation of the future, which, in order for his words to be true, must be true.
The vision of Christ extends into a life beyond this one, even as it entirely encompasses this one. This can only be the case if Christ is bestowed with that perfection of knowledge, or predictive certainty, that includes all existence, which is found only in the concept of the Divinity. The power of Divinity is thus said to fulfil itself in Christ’s now realisation of predictive certainty in the future. This is trumped by his physical resurrection from the dead, which manifests that unity with the power of the Divinity that now realises the certainty of eternal life in Christ.
02-Oct-2012
More by : R. D. Ashby