F.: Today’s entry will offer considerations on suggestion “e” from the list posted earlier: see that everything you think you already know actually needs to be discarded and then you might find that everything you really need to know was already known at one point but has merely been forgotten.
A man from Israel asked, “Well if you don’t believe in a life that has meaning, then do you also not believe in morals and morality?”
F.: “Is it immoral to lie?”
Questioner: “Of course.”
F.: “So, we’re in 1940’s Holland, you’re in the back of my house, and the Green Police knock. I open the door, and behind them are German Nazis with a truck. The pogrom has begun and they are conducting another ‘roundup.’ They ask, ‘Do you have any Jews?’ I say, ‘No.’ Is that immoral, to lie to them?”
Q.: “No. You saved a life.”
F.: “So, several times during World War II, certain Germans tried to kill Adolph Hitler, who had defined quite clearly the meaning of his life and his purpose for being on earth at that given moment. Had the would-be assassins succeeded, would they have been behaving in an immoral fashion because they did not save his life? The answer would likely be, ‘No, because killing him would have saved more lives.’ So in one case it’s immoral to lie; in another, it’s moral. In one case it’s immoral to kill, but in another it’s moral to kill. In some ‘minds,’ it’s immoral to kill one, much less millions; in other ‘minds,’ it’s a noble purpose to kill millions. (The early Aryans who attacked Far Easterners killed millions; Columbus killed millions; the Christian inquisitioners killed millions; the Europeans who invaded ‘The New World’ killed millions; Hitler killed millions. In total, those five persons or groups killed over 183,000,000 humans. Some think all of those killers and their actions were immoral, but even today other persons or groups celebrate them all: ‘Millions were killed in settling the three ‘Americas,’ but that had good purpose and meaning since it resulted in the establishment of a godly, Christian nation in North American.’ So much for an absolute truth about the concept of ‘moral,’ and so much for any absolute truth involving the concepts of ‘purpose’ and ‘meaning.’)"
How far removed from reality, to suggest that in this relative existence, any universal, Absolute truth can be found that will apply in all cases, across the board. How far removed from reality, to suggest that any concept dreamed up by men could have any degree of truth when the only Truth that can be known cannot even be stated. And if no Absolute truth can be spoken, how could there be any truth to an illusory ego-state’s claim that “What I’m doing has meaning and purpose?” Exceptions to any belief will always present themselves.
A man from Israel asked, “Well if you don’t believe in a life that has meaning, then do you also not believe in morals and morality?”
F.: “Is it immoral to lie?”
Questioner: “Of course.”
F.: “So, we’re in 1940’s Holland, you’re in the back of my house, and the Green Police knock. I open the door, and behind them are German Nazis with a truck. The pogrom has begun and they are conducting another ‘roundup.’ They ask, ‘Do you have any Jews?’ I say, ‘No.’ Is that immoral, to lie to them?”
Q.: “No. You saved a life.”
F.: “So, several times during World War II, certain Germans tried to kill Adolph Hitler, who had defined quite clearly the meaning of his life and his purpose for being on earth at that given moment. Had the would-be assassins succeeded, would they have been behaving in an immoral fashion because they did not save his life? The answer would likely be, ‘No, because killing him would have saved more lives.’ So in one case it’s immoral to lie; in another, it’s moral. In one case it’s immoral to kill, but in another it’s moral to kill. In some ‘minds,’ it’s immoral to kill one, much less millions; in other ‘minds,’ it’s a noble purpose to kill millions. (The early Aryans who attacked Far Easterners killed millions; Columbus killed millions; the Christian inquisitioners killed millions; the Europeans who invaded ‘The New World’ killed millions; Hitler killed millions. In total, those five persons or groups killed over 183,000,000 humans. Some think all of those killers and their actions were immoral, but even today other persons or groups celebrate them all: ‘Millions were killed in settling the three ‘Americas,’ but that had good purpose and meaning since it resulted in the establishment of a godly, Christian nation in North American.’ So much for an absolute truth about the concept of ‘moral,’ and so much for any absolute truth involving the concepts of ‘purpose’ and ‘meaning.’)"
How far removed from reality, to suggest that in this relative existence, any universal, Absolute truth can be found that will apply in all cases, across the board. How far removed from reality, to suggest that any concept dreamed up by men could have any degree of truth when the only Truth that can be known cannot even be stated. And if no Absolute truth can be spoken, how could there be any truth to an illusory ego-state’s claim that “What I’m doing has meaning and purpose?” Exceptions to any belief will always present themselves.
What is often labeled “a noble purpose” might have the opposite effect in this relative existence. Why? WHO is so arrogant as to think that he knows what “others” need, long-term? And if that is not known, how could one know if a purpose has real meaning or not? One cannot, and those who claim to know what anyone needs are more absorbed in ego than any, and those absorbed in ego can only state the false. Advaita makes clear that you need nothing except freedom from ego and ego-states as well as from all of the incorrect ideas and beliefs and concepts that you’ve been taught via enculturation. Advaita offers no holy books to study forever to find more answers; Advaita does not require meetings for life; instead, the Advaita teacher will offer considerations and invite you to go into the silence, alone, and allow the forgotten truth within to be known again. Advaita never offers more knowledge but offers considerations to take into the quiet with the eventual goal of abandoning all the concepts dreamed up by controlling and egotistical men. There is nothing more you need; there is much, instead, that needs discarding. The Realized know that less is "more.” Please enter into the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
