Yesterday began a discussion of the Advaita Teachings as presented by the Realized Poet Lennon. To continue:
Imagine all the people
Living for today.
The Realized are aware that “time,” “past,” and “future” are concepts that came to be believed in by persons only after the understanding of the cycles was lost and only after men dreamed up timelines. This exchange was shared in August:
VISITOR: “The 'spontaneous living in the NOW' or 'being' is a movement closer to reality?”
F.: Yes and no. Along the "path," proteges are invited to focus on the NOW in order to free them of the illusions of such concepts as "the past" and "the future" and "time." Ultimately, though, even the NOW is an illusion. To know that You Are the Absolute is to know that That Which You Are has always been and always shall be, so even the NOW ends up an illusion. The realized understand that there is no such thing as “time.” They understand the circular reality of cycles as opposed to the lie of linear "time."
But the intermediate step for protégés on the “path” is to ignore concepts such as “the past” and “the future” and focus on the NOW. That’s the invitation from the poet in the lines above. Then, he continued:
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do…
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
It has been said that there are two kinds of people: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t. The Realized don’t, having understood the unicity. The non-Realized do, believing in all their sets of dualities and dividing their imagined world by race (“the supposedly superior Anglo-Saxons as opposed to those of color”); by religion (“those who adhere to the principles of my religion and those who don’t”); by country boundaries (“the nations of good people and the nations of bad people” or "this is the greatest country in the world"); by forms of government (“the democracies as opposed to the dictatorships or monarchies”); by economic systems (“the capitalists vs. the communists or socialists”), ad infinitum.
Considering the poet’s implication about “countries,” persons can begin to understand what many Advaitans realize, namely, the role that the marking of "boundaries" and the identification of "countries" has played in generating division, conflict, and wars. Prior to the European invasion of the Americas, there were no boundaries or maps or countries on the continent. The people living on that undivided land had no words in their vocabularies for “divide” or “divisions” or “ownership.” The land existed for the use of all. When agricultural skills developed and the nomadic lifestyle began to disappear, did those peoples eventually become territorial, as do the animals in nature? Of course, but there were still no countries on the continent and no flags to defend with war, so there was no participation in world wars or in civil wars. Those concepts were imported by the European invaders who had long before divided their continent into “countries” which had, in turn, fought wars with each other for hundreds and hundreds of years because of their national divisions and their religious divisions.
Then as now, in many countries, much homage is paid to those willing to kill and die for their country. Across the globe, similar homage is paid to those willing to kill or die for their various religions. The poet invites persons to imagine another possibility: imagine there are no countries to kill or die, and imagine there are no religions to kill or die for. Of course that possibility will never happen for most persons on the planet, but have you considered what an AS IF existence could be like for You if You had no attachment to beliefs about countries or religions? What would it be like to have nothing to kill or die for?
Imagine all the people
Living for today.
The Realized are aware that “time,” “past,” and “future” are concepts that came to be believed in by persons only after the understanding of the cycles was lost and only after men dreamed up timelines. This exchange was shared in August:
VISITOR: “The 'spontaneous living in the NOW' or 'being' is a movement closer to reality?”
F.: Yes and no. Along the "path," proteges are invited to focus on the NOW in order to free them of the illusions of such concepts as "the past" and "the future" and "time." Ultimately, though, even the NOW is an illusion. To know that You Are the Absolute is to know that That Which You Are has always been and always shall be, so even the NOW ends up an illusion. The realized understand that there is no such thing as “time.” They understand the circular reality of cycles as opposed to the lie of linear "time."
But the intermediate step for protégés on the “path” is to ignore concepts such as “the past” and “the future” and focus on the NOW. That’s the invitation from the poet in the lines above. Then, he continued:
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do…
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
It has been said that there are two kinds of people: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t. The Realized don’t, having understood the unicity. The non-Realized do, believing in all their sets of dualities and dividing their imagined world by race (“the supposedly superior Anglo-Saxons as opposed to those of color”); by religion (“those who adhere to the principles of my religion and those who don’t”); by country boundaries (“the nations of good people and the nations of bad people” or "this is the greatest country in the world"); by forms of government (“the democracies as opposed to the dictatorships or monarchies”); by economic systems (“the capitalists vs. the communists or socialists”), ad infinitum.
Considering the poet’s implication about “countries,” persons can begin to understand what many Advaitans realize, namely, the role that the marking of "boundaries" and the identification of "countries" has played in generating division, conflict, and wars. Prior to the European invasion of the Americas, there were no boundaries or maps or countries on the continent. The people living on that undivided land had no words in their vocabularies for “divide” or “divisions” or “ownership.” The land existed for the use of all. When agricultural skills developed and the nomadic lifestyle began to disappear, did those peoples eventually become territorial, as do the animals in nature? Of course, but there were still no countries on the continent and no flags to defend with war, so there was no participation in world wars or in civil wars. Those concepts were imported by the European invaders who had long before divided their continent into “countries” which had, in turn, fought wars with each other for hundreds and hundreds of years because of their national divisions and their religious divisions.
Then as now, in many countries, much homage is paid to those willing to kill and die for their country. Across the globe, similar homage is paid to those willing to kill or die for their various religions. The poet invites persons to imagine another possibility: imagine there are no countries to kill or die, and imagine there are no religions to kill or die for. Of course that possibility will never happen for most persons on the planet, but have you considered what an AS IF existence could be like for You if You had no attachment to beliefs about countries or religions? What would it be like to have nothing to kill or die for?
Imagine the altered outcome if someone leading one country said, “Hey, let’s shock and awe that other country with its other religion by bombing it and invading it!” and the people said, “No. There’s nothing to kill or die for over there.” Since the masses on the whole will never Realized, what if, at least, a few of the Realized responded in that fashion by way of example and inspiration to others? Imagining that is also a part of the invitation from the poet. How erroneous the charge by some that the teachings of the Advaita philosophy have no practical application in the relative existence. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
