Love Dissolves Information

Jew and Muslim break Ramadan fast together.

By acknowledging our information overload and stepping out of it, we recover the space of sanity, the pure consciousness beyond all points of view.

I.
The Information Age will last until we discover that information is a hoax. We actually have no information about the real world: only our interpretation of it.

And when we want to know about events in a distant part of the world, we are twice removed from reality, because all we have is our interpretation of another's interpretation.

And to triple the illusion, we begin with our interpretation of events before we even seek information. Then we absorb the reports and images of those events from 'news' sources that fit our preconceived conclusions. This is why information almost never changes anyone's mind: because the mind chooses the information that fits its interpretation. This not only happens in our reading the 'news,' but on a jury in the courtroom, or even in a science lab.

The world we see is always photo-shopped and edited by the ego, which is our point of view, our opinion of how the world should look. We do not live in a real world, but in a theater of illusions produced by the mind. 'Reality' is prism'd through one point of view, one bubble in an infinite sea of possible viewpoints. We seek those whose interpretation of the world comes closest to ours, and eventually 'unfriend' those of a different view.

Information does not make us wise, it drives us insane. We don't need more information, but less. Genius simplifies. At some point, a man or woman finally allows the mind to be humbled, dissolved by pure compassion. In today's world, this contemplative act may begin with a sense of 'information overload.'

Are you weary with information? Could this feeling be the dawning of sanity? Recognition of our information overload may be the first step back, the first step within, to become the silent Witness. By acknowledging information overload and stepping out of it, we recover the space of sanity, the pure consciousness beyond all points of view.

For in truth, we are not that bubble in the sea. We are the whole ocean of consciousness, filled with all possible points of view. Our sanity never lies in clinging to a single bubble and resisting others. Our sanity lies in bursting the bubble to become water itself.

When we allow ourselves to step out of every point of view, when we stop taking sides with the Left or the Right, the Israeli or the Arab, the Christian or the Muslim, when we embrace the whole mess we live in just as it is, with a boundless heart of love, as a mother embraces her trembling baby, then there is hope for peace.

What can dissolve this multi-layered mirage of interpretations that we call the world? Only love. Love dissolves information.

Love says, 'You don't have to tell me, just gaze into my eyes, be silent, and know that we are here, now, one.' This is why, when we sit in the presence of one who has become pure love, all our questions evaporate. Our mind becomes so still and clear, like the blue sky. Then we feel a pulse from somewhere deep in the breath of our heart, far beneath this mind cluttered with its interpretations of the world.

In-form-ation forms us, and we get stuck in forms. But love is formless. Love frees us from forms. Then we can embrace the other, regardless of their story, their interpretation of events. Let us move out of The Information Age, into The Age of Love.

II.
For example, in the Middle East, no one actually knows anything but this: both sides terrorize the other. Children's bodies are mutilated, sirens fill the mind with fear, crowds flee into shelters, brain-shattering explosions stun humanity into shivering protoplasm. A nation that would uproot native people, and herd them into unspeakably crowded ghettos; then, when they act out their despair with impotent rage, would claim self-defense and bomb innocent children huddled in terror with no place to flee, such a nation could only be considered collectively insane, making itself a pariah to the world community.

At the same time, any community who would elect for its leaders a band of thugs who fire impotent yet murderous rockets at innocent civilians, quite intentionally bringing down upon their own people a retaliation of horror and unspeakable destruction, such a community has also gone collectively insane.

And we in America, who swallow our own mythical interpretation of events as 'information,' take sides in this insanity. We seek out the news sites and videos that support our side of the conflict, our interpretation of events. But taking sides only polarizes the conflict, and leads to greater violence. We too have gone insane. We actually believe that one side is innocent, justified in its violence, while the other side is the aggressor. Our political leaders and media are quite willing to pump their own power and profit by feeding us whatever images we require to fabricate our personal interpretation of the world. Thus, creating the 'information' that we choose to believe in, we are in-formed by violence, and become creatures of violence.

The only really sane words I have heard in the Gaza conflict are these, from a Palestinian fisherman. In his humble words lies the solution, because he doesn't offer any interpretation at all: just a pure witness to what is.

“Nonviolent resistance has proved ineffective. So has violent resistance. Israel has extremists and we have Hamas. They have been too extreme and Hamas has been too extreme. We both suffer.”
~Anwar Qasqeen, a Palestinian fisherman.