Life Lessons from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

  

People who were trapped in the world are the cave people who represent the ordinary human beings of the world. Shadows represent worldly things, such as money, love, fame, education, ethical and cultural norms. People tend to believe these things merely, only because of the consensus of the majority of the society. Unless and until you get out of the cave, you will never know what the outside of the cave holds. You will never explore things that the outside world consists of other than the mere shadows in the cave. 

There are people in this world, who always think out of the box. These types of people do something different from others by creating their own strengths. It is only these types of people could change the world. For instance, have a look at the lives of Martin Luther King, Mark Zuckerberg, Isaac Newton, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates etc. they have escaped from the cave and uncovered the sunshine in order to find the true reality. 

Most of the people in the contemporary societies are trapped within the self-created caves. In other words, people are knowingly trapped in the self-created caves. Their minds could be the prisoners in the cave. People might have found their comfort zones in the shadows of jobs, partners, wealth, fame, friends, culture, and expectations. Only few escape from the cave by realizing the reality. Some people willingly stay in the caves whereas some try to escape from the unreal boundaries of the self-created caves. 

There is only one solution if you need to escape from the cave. Practice mindfulness through meditation to be aware of the present moment. Then only we could concentrate on the shadows and drive out the illusions we have on the shadows. It will assist you to acquire a better understanding of the reality. Nevertheless, it needs more patience, courage, and the urge to do so. This would be more efficient to mesmerize the shadows and to escape from the cave. 

Question everything that you believed to be true. It is worth doing by questioning the assumptions you believed to be true. 

Try to escape from the cave and to find the reality 

Leaving the cave is not enough. It is more difficult to remain in the outside world. Therefore, try to remain in the world of Forms instead of going back to the world of copies. 

You could change the world only if you escaped from the cave that you have trapped in.

Try to escape from the unreal boundaries of the self-created caves. 

Practice mindfulness so that you can dispel the illusions and get a better understanding of reality.

Most of the people in the contemporary world are trapped in my boundaries which stops them from facing the reality of the world (cultural restrictions, self-created restrictions etc). Only if you escaped from the caves that you are trapped in, you will be able to see the reality and to acquire real wisdom. 

References 

Biffle, C. (2000). A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: Euthyphro, Apology,Crito, Phaedo (Death Scence), Allegory of the Cave. Mayfoeld Publishing.

Kraut, R. (Ed.). (1992). The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge University Press.

Plato. (1997). Plato: Complete Works. (J. M. Cooper, Ed., & D. S. Hutchinson, Trans.) Hackett Publishing.

Plato. (1992). Republic. (G. M. Grube, Trans.) Hackett Publishing Company.