The Perfect Knowledge-Base

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Throughout the course of our daily experiences, decisions are made to solve and navigate routine challenges, without much thought. Every now and then, however, we face a Kairos (moment of truth) that causes great thought provoking angst as we, for example, reflect upon and adjust our ways to effectively deal with the struggles, sacrifices, and disappointments derived from an evolving global society. Individuals who take the time to engage in reflective thinking not only learn and grow from their moments of truth but, in-time, also acquire the critical elements to, what I call, The Perfect Knowledge-Base. The Perfect Knowledge-Base consists of a balanced spiritual, social, intellectual, and psychological understanding.

According to Paul Brunton, "Outwardly we live and have to live in the very midst of cruel struggle and grievous conflict, for we share the planet's karma; but inwardly we can live by striking contrast in an intense stillness, a consecrated peace, and a sublime security.” As we continue to evolve into a global society, The Perfect Knowledge-Base is essential to developing the "sublime security” or inner peace that is needed to keep our hearts free of trouble and fear, in spite of our daily struggles with constant change, thus, the unknown! In essence, in today’s very complicated society, maintaining The Perfect Knowledge-Base is a tremendous benefit that empowers us with that which is needed to be consistently ready, able, and willing to engage life in a manner that successfully navigates the new stresses and challenges of an evolving global society.

It is only fitting that the first stage of The Perfect Knowledge-Base is spiritual understanding, as it keeps us deeply grounded in the principals of humanity. "Spiritual [understanding] or spiritual awakening is the process by which we begin to explore our own being…” Stop! Be still! Listen to your heart and the love you have for self and others and know your truth. Put aside the seduction of mind and the glamour of this or that option and truly listen to you, yourself. You will know the essence of truth when you allow your spirit to be,” wrote Dr. Mark Pitstick, in his book, "Balanced Living: Transforming Body, Mind, and Spirit", "Toward Heaven on Earth", and "Soul Proof".

Developing a strong and active spiritual understanding is by no means an easy task as it requires a great deal of reflective thinking, a mountain of blind faith, constant reprioritization, and an unyielding commitment to positive growth from our daily experiences-good, bad, and or indifferent. Positive growth from lessons learned during daily experiences augmented with guidance from God The Creator The Most High, during those occasional moments of truth, is not only critical to maintaining a strong and active spiritual understanding but is also the pathway to the second stage of The Perfect Knowledge-Base, a strong and active social understanding.

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The benefits of reaching the second stage of The Perfect Knowledge-Base, a strong and active social understanding, allows us to use our lifelong experiences-good, bad, and or indifferent, as a tool to where, "On the basis of [our] present understanding or knowledge, [we] anticipate certain things or act in a certain way -- but the world doesn't meet with [our] expectations. So, after various other anticipations and actions, [we] adapt, develop a new understanding, and gain new knowledge,” Dr. C. George Boeree. As a result of this constant effort to reinvest in self development coupled with our spiritual understanding we can learn to exhibit, in our daily lives, solutions that address and eventually eliminate social interaction problems, build for better lives, and encourage humanity within the context of peaceful living.

"One day we must come to see that [peaceful living] is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful [living] through peaceful means,” wrote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We must seek to reach beyond the cavalier act of generic compassion and consistently exhibit "true compassion and service” as the means to creating a culture of peaceful living. Cavalier acts of generic compassion is common place in our society but it is generally reserved for family, friends, co-workers, and during times of social politeness. Acts of "true compassion and service” in regards to eliminating anti-peace barriers-hate, greed, and selfishness-however, have become less common as they require a much greater and certainly more demanding commitment to reinvesting in self and sharing of self. In order to be effective agents of peaceful living our strong and active spiritual and social understandings must be supported by the crucial third stage of The Perfect Knowledge-Base, a strong and active intellectual understanding.

A strong and active intellectual understanding provides agents for a peaceful living with the knowledge, critical thinking, and decision-making tools needed to, for example, build capacity and mobilize resources for the purpose of creating a systemic process that addresses and ultimately eliminates barriers to peaceful living. Intellectual Understanding "is the function of perceiving, posing and resolving problems. Problem finding means problem discovery-insight into what is missing in the existing picture of a situation. It is an aspect of divergent intelligence and requires initiative and creativity”, says Gregory Mitchell. It is, therefore, a precursor to finding meaning in confusion while at the same time using systemic thinking to promote creative ways to bring about peaceful living. In this case, the desired goal of a strong and active intellectual understanding would be an intellectual movement that allows agents for peaceful living to focus their intellectual efforts on galvanizing resources t o emphasize the positive virtues of using good problem-solving and decision-making skills to improve the quality of life.

The final stage of The Perfect Knowledge-Base is a strong and active psychological understanding. With all of the stresses and challenges that come with navigating the transition into an evolving global society, it is even more important for us to develop a strong and active psychological understanding because a solid mental state provides us with the emotional stability, strength, and awareness needed to effectively cope with the emotional taxation of change, thus, the unknown. "In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships," John Gottman.

If we are to survive and strive in an evolving global society; it is imperative that agents of peaceful living maintain a strong and active psychological understanding as it provides us with "…a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves,” Freedman et al. Mental and emotional emancipation from the anti-peace baggage of hate, greed, and selfishness, for example, allows us to work with one another to achieve a peaceful existence in our communities, schools, on the job, and among the diverse groups that coexist within a global society.

In sum, the process of life, it self, is truly phenomenal! However, living life at times can be pure hell, especially in our evolving global society! As such, I am, like most people, somewhat reluctant to tell individuals how to go about the business of navigating their daily struggles. On the other hand, if we are to survive and strive in an evolving global society; it’s imperative that we create a peaceful living movement that weaves The Perfect Knowledge-Base into the fabric of everyday life so that we might improve the quality of life and live as global neighbors in a saner, happier and more exciting world.