The Foundation Of All Violence and Posturing

In the early medieval period, to Christian philosophers at the monastery of St. Victor in Paris had names for these three ways of seeing, and these names had a great influence on Scholars and seekers in the western tradition. Hugh of St. Victor (1078 - 1141) and Richard of St. Victot (1223 - 1173) wrote that humanity was given three different sets of eyes, each building on the previous one. The first eye was the eye of the flesh (thought or sight), the second was the eye of reason (meditation or reflection), and the third eye was the eye of true understanding (contemplation).

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the separation and loss of these three necessary offices that the basis of much of the short-sightedness and religious crises of the Western World. Lacking such wisdom, it is very difficult for churches, government, and leaders to move deyond ego. The desire for control, and public posture. Everything divides into opposition such as liberal versus conservative, with vested interest pulling against one another. Truth is no longer possible at this level of conversation.  Even theology becomes more a quest for power than a search for God and mystery.

One wonders how far are spiritual and political leaders can genuinely lead us without some degree of mystical seeing and action. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that "us-and-them" seeing, and the dualistic thinking that results, is the foundation of almost all this content and violence in the world."

(Richard Rohr. The Naked Now)