Lehal Library

The direct implication here is quite astonishing: that circumstances, if they can condition and determine, have a life and a power of their own -- and which, so to speak, are independent of those individuals incorporated into the circumstances. When individuals become incorporated INTO circumstances, then they function as factors WITHIN the circumstances. And, indeed, the realization of this appears when anyone says "I got caught up in circumstances" -- which is the same as saying that one got sucked into them. This concept is exceedingly difficult for Westerners to entertain -- because the concept of complete individuality is paramount in the West and greatly elevated above the concept on on-going circumstances with life and power of their own. Indeed, Westerners, especially during the modern epoch, felt they could "control circumstances" with the vague idea that they would no longer get sucked into them. Thus, the first definition of "circumstance" was no longer needed -- and which is why it has been forgotten. Individuals condition circumstances, not the other way round. What I am of course seeking to establish is that all of us swim in an ocean of on-going circumstances equally as do the fish swim in an ocean of water. If the fish was asked to describe its environment, it would point out everything except the water -- because it is so omnipresent as to be unnoticeable.