As promised in the previous blog, today's blog is on another central element contained within The Visitor. The good news is this concept of willful blindness is a little easier to grasp than the theme of Duality and the Singularity (see previous blog).
Although this theme of willful blindness is easier to understand, what may surprise some readers is how frequently this theme plays out in only 90 pages. That said, the reader should start to be familiar that within The Visitor, due to it's reliance on poetic parables, such central themes can be invoked numerous times in less words than say...these blogs.
In the prologue on page viii of The Visitor we see the first hints at the context being set up to discuss willful blindness. Shared, but maybe not emphasized to the same degree, is the strong
suggestion that deep within us, in the silence of our souls, we know intuitively the differences between what is right and what is wrong.
The contextual set up in this sentence prior to the story beginning is the idea that we know...intuitively (or instinctively) things which we don't necessarily have to be taught, but rather we possess a knowledge, (although we might not be conscious of it), even if we ignore it rather than look within ourselves to raise it to the forefront of our everyday knowledge. But it is there, (and it is universal - see other parts of The Visitor regarding the theme of universality).
Page 1 of The Visitor is actually where the theme plays out this theme with a warning from the narrator, where he basically says, before you continue reading, the Visitor would warn you:
You cannot unsee what you have seen
Nor unhear what you have heard.
Turn around now and take your leave
Or you too will own each word.
This is a literal warning to the reader. You can only claim (and at best it's a "claim") ignorance (i.e., innocence) if you are not aware of "the rules, or the law, or social mores" etc. This is a familiar claim, played out in the innocence of children and in the courtrooms. The defence of "I didn't know!" The tricky part is sometimes this is true, and other times it is more of a "willful blindness" rather than a true "ignorance". Hence the opening warning...once you "know" the plea of innocence is gone and all that is really left as a defence is "willful blindness". Disagreement does not provide a defence. You may disagree that driving 150km/h is not dangerous, but if you know the posted speed limit is 50 you may find your defence of personal opinion or disagreement with the rule/law may not be successful. Truth cares little for personal opinion. You might believe a bottle marked poison is harmless, but that personal belief may provide little comfort if you consume the contents.
To be willfully blind is to allow yourself to be blind towards your actions, inactions, reactions and to defend your actions, inactions or reactions in order to limit or decrease your guilty or culpability. But it goes farther than that. To decide not to read a safety manual, even though there are warnings and pleas to "Read First" is another form of willful blindness. To not want to know, or to be too lazy to know, or to not care to know are all forms of willful blindness.
Therefore the warning on page 1. Once you are aware, you are aware. You can still try and claim willful blindness, but in actuality, and in truth, your defence is only that - a "claim" that has no bearing on the truth or fact of what you do know...regardless how loud your pleas of "innocence, not knowing, not understanding, or not being aware" are defended. Therefore, what you become of aware of, (by continuing on reading), has the power to ensure your ignorance, your not understanding; your veil of innocence and ignorance; is lifted.
You become responsible and accountable.
The Visitor shares many times the idea that even if you don't care to listen to him, you are already aware, as are we all;
- Pg 12 the Visitor shares the idea that not only do you know, but you try hard to forget you know, to the point of "staying blind" - and what he really is sharing is just what he has learned from you.
Though you try hard to forget
And stay blind to what you see,
What I share is just my debt;
To give you back the you in me.
- Pg 13 The Visitor illustrates this point further when he asks who he is to share the message that you already own (know) and longs to find its way back home (to you, from whence it came). These secrets (buried knowledge/awareness) you know well and deeply (within your heart); the fact that you stay blind to the message is the concept of "Willful Blindness".
Who am I to deliver?
This message which you own
Which you freely shared with me
And longs like you - to find its home?
The secrets that you know too well
The message in your heart
If there were time, then time could tell
If this is the end, or just the start.
- Further yet on page 15 - the Visitor makes it even more clear he has no answers to give you that you do not already know, and that the "truths" already reside in you. At best, he shares reminders of what you know within your own heart...even as you turn a deaf ear (Willful Blindness).
What answers can I give to you
Which stir not in your soul?
What truths can I reveal to you
You don’t already know?
I can only share reminders of
What’s written in your heart,
Even as you turn deaf ear,
The end is but a start.
- Page 20, we here the same theme from the Visitor:
The answer to your query
Already lives within your heart.
- Page 29 is another example that the answers already lie within you when the Visitor says to look in to your own heart to see if you are worthy to be an instrument of giving what you have received. To plead ignorance to this is again just another example of Willful Blindness:
Do not tell your stories, of those undeserving
To justify your charity or greed.
Rather, look in your heart to see if you’re worthy
To be an instrument of giving; what you have received.
- One more example (but not the last instance) just to share how this theme is repeated you can find on pg 47 where the Visitor says, that when searching inside (speaking to your soul) you will not always hear what you want to hear (the truth) but to listen and not be tempted to be Willfully Blind by turning a deaf ear (ignoring what you know is right).
n speaking to your soul, it will not always say
What your ears are yearning to hear.
Do not be tempted by sweet words that sway
And blindly turn deaf your soul’s ear.
I could go on with more examples illustrating this concept of Willful Blindness discussed in The Visitor but it perhaps will mean more if you find the other examples yourself. Afterall, as quoted in The Visitor in the poetic parable on Knowledge, the truth is already within you, there for you to find...a journey only you can take.
He does not impede learning by insisting he’s right
But leads you to truth from within.
He fears not the darkness nor turns from the light
Takes note of the good while ignoring the sin.
He strips you from reason to reveal the truth
For these visions he sees are not yours.
He guides you to knowledge that lives within you
And leaves you - to open the doors.
Until the next blog where I will outline another central theme contained within The Visitor; one that may be a bit more entertaining if not for the shock value - "Unconditional Love???"
Journey in Love
MIchael Paul