The Cave

I tend to revisit reports, essays and articles I've written awhile ago as a way of tending to my need to see how I've grown in heart and thought. In university (2012), I read Allegory of the Cave, presented by Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic (c. 514a-520a) as a comparison of the effect of education and human nature. I felt impressed to share it again as a twofold allegorical voice crying out in the wilderness "nothing is new under the sun! (Ecc. 1:9)" and "I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind but, now I see! (J.Newton)"

In his allegory, Plato carves out a picture of people chained to walls of caves, staring at blank walls, entertained only by shadows has been paralleled by modern influences such as The Matrix (1991) or A Species in Denial by Jeremy Griffith. The piece struck a nerve with me and I engaged with it in a more succinct way as to draw out a (hopefully) stark parallel. I added in the “benediction” to drive the point further. For though we were once without sight, now we can see fully in the light of the Son. And oh, how the Spirit longs to set the captives free!

The Cave

“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” Proverbs 4:19 (NIV)

Darkness.

I am the product of shifting shadows. I am the naive chained to a conjured reality. I am the prisoner mastered by the imagination. Since birth, my one and only true reality was in the flickering, manipulated images cast before my eyes and the languid sounds sliding through the dark air. My existence was filled with the suffocating practice of guessing which shadow would appear next before me. Naming them was a favourite pastime, even if they already had names, I would elaborate until I would forget and then, begin again. Over and over again, this compulsive practice filled my world. I wholly believed in that circular existence, and that every particle and motion that passed before my sightline was undeniably correct. In every such way I would deem reality to be nothing else than the images and sounds that entered my being. Yet, in the confines of my existence, I would secretly question the validity of... everything. I was looking, but not seeing, I was hearing, but not listening, I was breathing, but not living.

Fire.

I remember the Release. As the shadows repeated their monotonous regime, a silent, sudden rupture made my whole being swell and then surge outward with disgust. Like a limb numbed by a lack of blood flow and then forced to run a mile, I ripped my body from its bonds and in a dizzy reaction, fell down before a blaze of colour; hot, angry, hypnotic. My eyes burnt, my lungs closed up, my ears rang, and my brain ached. I forced myself to look at the objects that once dictated my perception of reality. Looking, seeing these statues that I once named and whose actions I wholly accepted without question, I bones and marrow, my flesh and tendons suddenly felt! The wave of truth – oh! At first, pain and disbelief choked the very essence of who I thought I was! Now, no longer ignorant or passive, no more a slave of the imagination! But, fear rushed in to steal all new consciousness - who was I? The foundation of every moment spent absorbing the shadows and the echoes (for this I now realize) was being destroyed.

Fight this new freedom or chase it down. I knew this - I had to escape the darkness! My belief vomited me out of that pit and into the dazzle and glitter of the light. At first I was unable to discern the objects whose shadows I formerly saw. I could not fathom them to be anything else other than what I had beheld since birth. With everything I once had thought real exposed as a cheat and illusion, I could not turn away from stumbling deeper into thought.

Light.

Every fibre in my body strained to hold myself together as I was dragged out of my disillusionment. I remember it was hard to breathe, the air being so imperceptible and sweet, and I was blinded by the brilliant purity of light. Nothing made sense at first; I connected the real, tangible objects such as rocks, trees, birds, and flowers, to my shadows. For many days, months, and years, I did not believe my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin. I could not allow the outside world to change my former thinking. However, I slowly made the rough and steep ascent. My mind would not stop thinking; it would not let me back down into that black hole of an existence. No, I was learning the truth! Do you know that you can see your reflection in the water? Or that the clouds are made out of vapours and the moon controls the tides?

Sun.

The sun is a star, a burning ball of fire, and a constant from which we revolve around. The sun provides food for plants, gives us our calendar, and gives us light. When the sky is aflame with colour at dawn or dusk, it is the sun’s doing. The moon shines brightly at night because it reflects the light of the sun. The sun gives us power, life, sight, warmth, and it allows me to see and know of the existence of everything else on earth. It is not like fire. I understand now. Without the sun, I would be dormant, lifeless, and staring at a stonewall as puppeteers manipulate statues in front of a fire and their voices drift through the dank air as I revert to naming the shadows. I understand now. There was nothing greater than the sun; it is the form of anything good because to it belongs the causes of all else!

The summit of my education was reached, I no longer had any need for images or unproven assumptions to assist my reasoning. The only thing left to do was to awaken the dreamers living in the darkness, still wandering in their imaginations. I shuttered to think of returning into that hole. It had stolen my formative years and victimized my sense of learning anything good in life. But, the longer I put aside this quest, the more it began to invade my being.

Cave.

The mouth of the cave gaped wide open like the eyes of a corpse, empty and cold. No sooner had the darkness engulfed me, and then I began to be confused and stumbled, I doubted and fell, my thoughts grew cloudy and I crawled like a child for some time until my imagination punched through all sense of goodness I had once and so intimately known. When the other prisoners saw me dragging myself through the darkness, they laughed and ridiculed me for taking the useless ascent out of the cave in the first place. I tried to remember the sun; I tried to remember the flowers and trees, the fire, the light. They, comfortable in their blissful ignorance, would not listen. Their laughter grew and echoed along the stonewalls, their words burnt hotter than the fire behind them, and their overwhelming abundance of obliviousness began to suffocate me. And I’m sure, if it were possible to lay hands on me who tried to release them and lead them up, would they not kill me? Would they not suffocate out of me every drop of light, every ember of out landed memory? Would they not remove every part that of conscientiousness and refashion me into the most base of creatures - a mirage, a spectre, a puff of smoke? Would they not foster acquisitions and hold my head to the rock and beat me with death? If they were I as I once was, then I certainly would have. For I once knew them. I was once them.

Benediction.

“Some people were locked up in dark prisons, confined in gloom as bleak as death. They were captives bound by iron chains and misery, all because they had rebelled against the directives of the True God and had rejected the wisdom of the Most High. So they suffered the heaviness of slave labor; when they stumbled and fell, there was no one to help them up. In their distress, they called out to the Eternal; He saves them from their misery. He rescued them from the darkness, delivered them from the deepest gloom of death; He shattered their iron chains. May they erupt with praise and give thanks to the Eternal in honour of His loyal love an all the wonders He has performed for humankind! He has broken down the bronze gates and severed the iron bars that imprisoned them. Some people became fools infected by their rebellious ways, and sickness followed because of their sins. Afflicted and weak, they refused any sort of food as they approached the gates of death. In their distress, they called out to the Eternal, and He saved them from their misery. He gave the order and healed them and rescued them from certain death.” Psalm 107:10-20 (VOICE)

#truth #reality #writing #philosophy #allegory #freedom