Spirituality and Democracy 2
Learning How to See Spiritually Begins with Envisioning Word
The final version of this article is expected Nov 26, 2025. Click here for updates. See the Index of Articles of this series.
The chaos many of us are watching or experiencing due to the present administration cannot keep our focus off higher spiritual needs for long—when we understand how these needs work. Simply put, loving the enemies of conscience removes all chaos in our mind and heart so that we can look at the situation rationally.
Review
As discussed in Spirituality and Democracy Plus One, our collective vision of democracy is developing due to recent successes in understanding the importance of knowing each other according to our symbolic form of light in Name and not our physical attributes. Our form of light is unified in the light of Word as explained in The Practical Guide. Further success here is determined by how well we understand the illusory boundaries of those of us who use limited agapé (love), polarizing rather than uniting us through political parties worldwide in the light of Word.
How to Increase Your Agapé
As we know about all love, we want to see the ones we love. In this case, however, we cannot even begin to love those of us who use limited agapé until we at least see their likeness in the light of Name, not their physical likeness. To do this, we need the eyes of great agapé to see what blindness has done to them.
The simple but profound knowledge of Word instructing us on how to increase our agapé states it this way: may your agapé abound more and more in knowledge and all perception. The Greek word for knowledge here means ‘mature knowledge’, which points to knowledge about the principle working in Name and Word’s exquisite light. It gives us understanding of all direct perception of this light, its expression in this world, and its illusory boundaries in those of us who misuse it, all perception.
The Form of Name’s Light
If you have not already read The Practical Guide, please take a moment to do so. It breaks down what it means to know who we are in the light of Name, implying that we know Name and Word in this light, God and the Word of God or Life and the Truth of Life. Both perspectives share these two truths from the knowledge of Word.
First, a person who loves knows Name; a person who does not love does not know Name, for Name is agapé.
Second, a person who does not know Name has never seen the form of Name. Word said to those who did not love, you have never seen the form of Name.
Those of us who do not love, for whatever reason, no judgment, cloud up their own minds thinking that nobody has seen Name. This is only true concerning the physical. Our identity in the light of Word is primed to learn how in the light of Name. But even some of us who do love often confuse the issue with human-based images.
Learning How to See Spiritually
The anticipation we feel when expecting to see loved ones again works from the deeper connection between loving Name and wanting to see the form of Name’s light. But just as we had to learn how to see when newborns, our eye movement interacting with light, we have to learn how to see again as the agapé light of Name.
We are using Word’s mature knowledge to understand the interaction between Name and Word in their exquisite agapé light and all perception associated with it. Interacting with them, we are learning how to see and making our agapé increase enormously as one in the same. Now a major difference in learning how to see physically and spiritually is that seeing physically does not include memory directly. Past experience of the process of physical sight does not effect the present experience. Seeing a tree yesterday does not directly effect how I see it today, even while feelings do come into play.
However, seeing spiritually is all about seeing Name and its memory, which expands all perception to include past experience of seeing Name with or without illusory boundaries in the exquisite light, as well as envisioning Name in the future and the effect these have on doing so.
Name and its memory bring forth the perception of our illusory boundaries, appearances mistaken for permeational boundaries, into the Now of Word. This restores all perception in and of the interaction of their exquisite light. For in this experience of now, the distinction of time in the world cannot veil the absence of time in their interaction. This is the now of the world conscience (suneidesis).1
With mature knowledge, seeing through the illusory boundaries of time in limited agapé gives us a full view of everyone in the timeless interaction between Name and Word. It makes our agapé abound more and more and increases our spiritual vision as one. For example, consider the ancestral illusory boundaries of time working between Israel and Palestine, engaging hatred stronger than death for each other through their limited agapé. Seeing through it in the Now of Word gives us a full view of them in the timeless interaction between Name and Word in their exquisite light working through them.
Blessing Others to See Better
Blocking our view foremost was our own misuse of the three aspects of Name’s light discussed in The Practical Guide. This prevented us from blessing those with limited agapé for who they are in Name and its memory, seeing them falsely as having something of their own. Without anything of their own, they blindly wrestle time in the Now of Word in Name’s light.
As for any of us, misusing Name’s aspects inverts our perception of each other in Name and Word’s interaction. Such inversion is symbolized by the full Hebrew word for heart spelled backwards, which, translated, is Babel or Babylon, meaning ‘chaos’. Blessing others according to how we see them in truth removes any remaining chaos in the eyes of our heart, clearing up our view of the pearl.
The eyes of our heart are inverted in the Now of Word when we do not make all others more important than ourselves before the form we see of Name and its memory. Making them more important here and in the world when possible, without being against ourselves, which is to give Name all our agapé through them, fulfills a higher spiritual need, removing all chaos from our mind, heart and spirit.
Envisioning Word is Key
Knowledge of Word, the image of Life or God depending on our beliefs, reveals that envisioning is key to having agapé by stating: “We will be like him (Word) because we will envision him just as he is.”
Envisioning Correctly
“Envision” is the correct translation here, not “see”,2 indicating that the responsibility of actively doing something, rather than the passive act of seeing, falls on us—to envision Word just as he is, which is in his oneness with Name. Until we do, we cannot be like him but instead reflect the error in how we envision him back into ourselves.
This applies to how we envision Word in everyone and give Name all our agapé through them in our singularity. If I envision Word in you correctly, I reflect the agapé in Word into myself and can love you unconditionally, allowing me to give Name all my agapé through you. I can also see whether you are correctly envisioning Word in me and loving me and Name likewise.
Once we have envisioned Word correctly and know whether others are envisioning Word in us correctly, we can begin making our agapé grow, especially if they show us only conditional agapé, no agapé, or hatred. It starts with seeing Word in them and being willing to forgive them for being blind to Word in us and thus having little or no agapé for us. But be careful not to be against yourself.
Be Not Against Yourself
In other words, forgiving others with unconditional agapé, often without ever saying a word due to their blindness, gives us the clarity of mind to truly assess words or actions against us. But without agapé even for a moment, if it is willful, otherwise, Word will take up the slack, we misjudge them for better or worse and work against ourselves. For the agapé of Name does not use our past unconditional agapé to justify any willful lack of it in the present. But if we are willing, it becomes an opportunity to learn where we may not be envisioning Word just as it is in others.
Suggested Articles:
The Eyes of Democracy (Introduction and Index of Articles)
Suneidesis, pronounced soo-NAY-day-sis, is a Greek word that joins our natural awareness with our sense of conscience. Click on the link for a detailed explanation. It is central to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive working in our awareness itself. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness of all things.
If I understand that my awareness of something as simple as a cup includes co-conscientiousness, I do not allow myself to get blinded by the cup alone but know it as part of all creation at the hands of the Creator or the universe, depending on one’s beliefs. Spiritual maturity does this naturally.
Among the four main Greek verbs translated “see”, only horaó forms nouns translated “vision”, which qualifies it to be translated “mentally see” or “envision” also. Horaó is used more often than the other three Greek verbs combined, making the New Testament a book of visions. For one of the primary reasons that Word came was to teach us how to envision (horaó) Name in order to see (blepo, main Greek word for see) Him—through envisioning Word.
Word said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see (blepo) might see (blepo) [if we learn his teaching, for this is not foremost physical healing of sight but a renewing of the mind and training of the senses], and that those who see might become blind.” (John 9:39) To the leaders of his time, Word said, “And the Father [Name] who sent me [Word], that One has borne witness concerning me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor have you envisioned (horaó) His form.” (John 5:37)
“We know that when he (Word) manifests, we will be like him because we will envision (horaó) him just as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
The idea that love—particularly agapé love—is the key to clarity in chaotic times is a powerful one. In a world where political and social turmoil often breeds division, choosing to see others through the lens of love rather than conflict is both a challenge and a necessity.
The article suggests that true vision—seeing beyond physical appearances—comes from understanding the divine (or life's deeper meaning, depending on one's beliefs). This resonates with many religious and philosophical traditions, where wisdom and peace come from humility and selfless love rather than self-centered thinking.
One of the most thought-provoking ideas is how misusing spiritual perception leads to an inverted reality—where ego distorts truth and causes inner chaos. The reference to "Babylon" as an inversion of the heart is especially striking. If love isn't properly directed outward, it turns inward, creating disorder instead of clarity.
While the article presents a strong spiritual argument, one question remains: How does this apply in everyday life? It’s one thing to understand this concept in theory, but another to put it into practice—especially when faced with real-world division and conflict. Learning to see others not as opponents, but as people shaped by their own experiences and struggles, is a lifelong process. It requires deliberate effort, patience, and self-awareness.
Ultimately, the message is clear: love brings clarity, division brings distortion. Whether one approaches this from a religious perspective or a broader humanistic view, the takeaway is the same—the more we center love in our understanding, the less chaos we allow in our lives.
We need this kind of philosophical thinking to challenge the bottom line, or we’re heading to a world of irresponsibleness. Thanks for sharing