Do We Live In A Cave? by Kenny Toh,
January 2004
I was
introduced to the concept of “being in the cave” during a philosophy café
session at Gone Fishing. The opening question was, “Are we living in a cave?” I
had no idea then what that was all about, until the philosopher explained that
it was one of Plato’s most famous allegories.
After
the session, I concluded that we all live in our own caves whose boundaries are
determined by our beliefs. The stronger our beliefs, the sturdier the walls of
our caves. The stronger we hold on to our beliefs, the more our caves prohibit
us from seeing what is going on outside. Caves are neither good nor bad. They
simply exist over us. Our caves provide us shelter against the uncertainties of
life. We need these walls of beliefs to function as human beings. We interpret
reality in the context of our beliefs, right in our very own caves. The size of
the opening that allows light to come shining through and possibly alter our
experience of reality, is proportionate to how open we keep our mind.
I once
tried to share with some friends the set of beliefs with which I had developed
the Gone Fishing philosophy. I noticed that the rate of success in getting them
to understand the philosophy was determined largely by my ability to get them to
step out of their own caves, even for a brief moment, and take a peep into mine.
There were those who stepped in to explore with interest, and those who stood
firmly in their own caves and reacted defensively, as if I was trying to impose
my beliefs onto them so as to tear down the walls that defined their caves.
Sometimes, I fault myself for failing to appear un-imposing. But as I kept my
approach of sharing by doing it consistently with different people, and got
varying responses, I learnt that my success in sharing lay in the ability to
adapt to different types of people. There are those who seek to understand, and
ask question to clarify their doubts. There are those who selectively hear only
what is agreeable and consistent with their existing beliefs, such that the
walls of their caves can be further fortified. There are those who outwardly
disagree with your views, until you can convince them they are wrong about that.
It soon dawned on me that, no matter what I do, I can at best only invite others
into my cave. They need to be both willing and able to step in. That willingness
is a function of their attitude towards discovering something new, and hence the
size of the opening of their caves. Their ability is a function of their
strength to break free from their attachment to their existing beliefs
momentarily, so as to create room for the possibility of exposure to new ideas
and beliefs. The more we hang on to our beliefs, the more we are chained down by
them, and the harder it is for us to venture out of our caves to experience
something new, to learn and to grow.
Most people are just unwilling to believe what they do not yet understand. They
need to understand first, before believing. Ironically, it is the
unwillingness to believe that often prohibits understanding. The lack of
understanding leads to disbelief. As an avid seeker of wisdom and meanings, I
think a great approach would be to visit as many different caves as possible,
and make adjustments to the walls of one's cave where relevant. Step
into another’s cave and believe first, so as to understand. Upon
understanding, decide whether the walls of my cave need alteration.