January 5

The Center for Unhindered Living

January 5

Have you ever stopped to wonder whether or not fish know they are wet? At first glance, you might say yes, how could they NOT know, since they are completely immersed in water. But that is the very reason why they don't....and the same phenomenon happens to us as well.

In order to differentiate between two things, you must be able to experience them both. and see how they contrast. The fish does not know what it means to be wet because he's never experienced being dry. He can't even attempt to contemplate the differences because he can't even imagine what being dry is like. He doesn't know dryness exists.

How many of us are walking around, and we take a very judgmental position about things we've never experienced? Many people will never even consider the fact that they might be wrong....because they can't conceive of any other stance but their own. They won't allow themselves to experience the other side of things, so they can't make a comparison. Yet they try to do so anyway, and end up making very unfair comparisons.

This happens in many different areas, but happens most often in religion. If adherents of a particular religion are totally immersed in that religion, they, like the fish, cannot make an accurate comparison of the state they are in. Indeed, no one can until they put themselves into another person's shoes by actually suspending their belief in their own position long enough to experience someone else's.

I was once a member of a particular religion, which one does not matter. We were taught that adherents of other religions were deluded, were not thinking reasonably and clearly, and would not be rewarded in the afterlife because they believed a lie. Yet we could not see that we ourselves were also deluded. Why? Because we were immersed in the delusion. Like the fish, there was no way to know that there was another legitimate way of thinking, because when you are in it, surrounded on all sides by it, you can't see through to the other side. It's like being inside a darkened room, and having someone talking to you about what light is. You can't undersand it, because the place where you are does not allow for it. In the presence of darkness, there is no light, just like in the water, there is no dryness. Being totally immersed in something precludes you from seeing the truth.

Unfortunately, a fish cannot live out of water. But we, as human beings CAN temporarily suspend our disbelief in something long enough to step outside what we are immersed in and truly experience the other side. In the Bible, it speaks of King Solomon as the wisest man that ever lived. It states that he asked God for wisdom, and it was granted. But Solomon was not just suddenly given this wisdom supernaturally, he stated that "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor." By denying himself nothing, he ws able to experience all aspects of life, and therefore was able to see the truth. He did not say, " I will only experience that which is right, and from that will make a judgment." He fully experienced all there was to experience, and only then could he make a righteous judgment.

So next time you feel incensed at something, and make a judgement that you think it is wrong, realize that you are a fish in water....and you need to step out onto dry land.