From a site visitor: What can Realization do to help my unrest? I become furious (or depressed) when I see such diversity in the lifestyles of people across the globe. I want fairness and equanimity, but I see none. I look at this world and I see people in war torn nations fighting for their lives and I see other people putting all their energy into killing the innocent. I see people in prosperous nations like here in the U.S. who are fighting to get into stores to buy games and toys while other people are scrounging for a morsel to eat. I’d like to see some sense to this world, but I can’t. Can Advaita help me get free of this? Steven
F.: Now, to “fairness and equanimity.” Taken in context, it seems you actually mean “fairness and equality” or “fairness and equity.” (Maybe you did mean that you want “fairness and composure,” composure certainly being called for since you’re experiencing fury and depression, but that makes no sense in context. Thus, discussion of “fairness” shall be the focus for now.) Fairness is a concept rooted in magical, supernatural thinking. It is not evidenced in nature. Some persons will claim that when humans aren’t being treated fairly, there’s a link between the way they’re being treated and their “bad behavior.” Others will focus on the exceptions and try to explain why “good” things happen to “bad people” or why “bad” things happen to “good people." Some cling to the Jewish or Judaeo-Christian tradition that you're supposed to suffer now but that you will get a reward later. Still other magical thinkers will tell you that all treatment which appears to be unfair is really based in centuries of negative karmic energy. There is no limit to the nonsense that can be dreamed up by people who ignore the fact that everything that happens is a result of everything else that has ever happened up to that point.
You also are ignoring infinite causation and want to identity a specific cause of "the world's" problem and come up with a solution to assure that fairness and equality become the ruling concepts of “the world,” as you see it. Yet look to nature and see that such is never the case anywhere on the planet and see that members of all species live very different "lifestyles" without so much as a hint of equality.
F.: Now, to “fairness and equanimity.” Taken in context, it seems you actually mean “fairness and equality” or “fairness and equity.” (Maybe you did mean that you want “fairness and composure,” composure certainly being called for since you’re experiencing fury and depression, but that makes no sense in context. Thus, discussion of “fairness” shall be the focus for now.) Fairness is a concept rooted in magical, supernatural thinking. It is not evidenced in nature. Some persons will claim that when humans aren’t being treated fairly, there’s a link between the way they’re being treated and their “bad behavior.” Others will focus on the exceptions and try to explain why “good” things happen to “bad people” or why “bad” things happen to “good people." Some cling to the Jewish or Judaeo-Christian tradition that you're supposed to suffer now but that you will get a reward later. Still other magical thinkers will tell you that all treatment which appears to be unfair is really based in centuries of negative karmic energy. There is no limit to the nonsense that can be dreamed up by people who ignore the fact that everything that happens is a result of everything else that has ever happened up to that point.
You also are ignoring infinite causation and want to identity a specific cause of "the world's" problem and come up with a solution to assure that fairness and equality become the ruling concepts of “the world,” as you see it. Yet look to nature and see that such is never the case anywhere on the planet and see that members of all species live very different "lifestyles" without so much as a hint of equality.
Take this as an example: imagine that two quail fornicate and an egg hatches and their fledgling matures into a full-grown quail in a region when berries, seeds, fruits and insects are plentiful. Their offspring lives a “full” and “free” life, eating and mating and flying and playing and re-producing…going wherever it wants, whenever it wants. It lives the natural lifespan for quail and succumbs to a natural death. In a second case, two other quail fornicate and an egg hatches and their fledgling finds itself in captivity where its wings are clipped and it does not lives a “full and free life.” It is imprisoned and fattened for slaughter. It is eventually taken to an area when “hunters” are waiting. When the quail is flushed from the brush, it can rise only high enough to become a target. It is blasted into bits by the birdshot exploding forth from a shotgun.
Where is the equity in the lifestyles of those two quail? Where is the fairness? Can one form or space in which the consciousness manifests ever be guaranteed equity of lifestyle with all similar forms? Of course not. So WHO has written to complain about "the world," and WHO believes that it could even be remotely possible for every member of every species to live on par with every other member of that species?
Where is the equity in the lifestyles of those two quail? Where is the fairness? Can one form or space in which the consciousness manifests ever be guaranteed equity of lifestyle with all similar forms? Of course not. So WHO has written to complain about "the world," and WHO believes that it could even be remotely possible for every member of every species to live on par with every other member of that species?
The primary pointer for you, however, is this: neither the quail that lived freely nor the quail that was imprisoned were ever troubled by any sense of “unfairness” the way you are. (In fact, you may be dealing with some unresolved instances where you think you were treated unfairly. Is it possible that your expressions of concern about people being treated unfairly are really more about self-concern than about concern about all of humanity?) The difference in the imprisoned quail and persons is that the caged quail was never trapped in an ego-state, so the one that roamed about and lived free and died of natural causes was no more “happy” than the one that was captive and raised for slaughter. The quail raised in captivity never experienced fury or depression and was no less happy than its counterpart that lived free; both, for the time that the consciousness was manifested, were just being.
So face it: a bird with a brain that weighed less than a gram functioned without any degree of “fairness” in its relative existence, but it functioned with more stability and peace (and equanimity) than you with your 1300-gram brain. What conclusion can you draw from that?! See that your “mind” is crammed with learned ignorance and with unrealistic concerns about “a world” that is merely a figment of your imagination. The quail lived realistically; you are living in a dream, which is quickly becoming your nightmare.
The situation with both the quail—and with all humans and all other “life-forms” as well—is this: energy cycled via a physical form, via a physical matrix. Among all of those forms, only humans accept ego-states as identities and are then driven by egotism and illusions. If you were as free of false identities as the quail, then you would be as non-attached to concepts as were both of those birds. You would be as stable and as content as both of those birds were, no matter what the circumstances. You would have no concept of “a world” and what needs doing. You would have no concepts about “the world” at all, so you would just be. As it is now, you experience fury and depression. Not even the imprisoned, ignorant quail (which lived a life much like that of the Ignorant Child and the Witness) experienced any of the angst that marks your relative existence. Find the WHO (or WHO's) that drive "Steven" and that prevent him from relaxing and taking it easy. Be rid of the WHO's that are driving you; then, you too can live as well as an ignorant quail. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
So face it: a bird with a brain that weighed less than a gram functioned without any degree of “fairness” in its relative existence, but it functioned with more stability and peace (and equanimity) than you with your 1300-gram brain. What conclusion can you draw from that?! See that your “mind” is crammed with learned ignorance and with unrealistic concerns about “a world” that is merely a figment of your imagination. The quail lived realistically; you are living in a dream, which is quickly becoming your nightmare.
The situation with both the quail—and with all humans and all other “life-forms” as well—is this: energy cycled via a physical form, via a physical matrix. Among all of those forms, only humans accept ego-states as identities and are then driven by egotism and illusions. If you were as free of false identities as the quail, then you would be as non-attached to concepts as were both of those birds. You would be as stable and as content as both of those birds were, no matter what the circumstances. You would have no concept of “a world” and what needs doing. You would have no concepts about “the world” at all, so you would just be. As it is now, you experience fury and depression. Not even the imprisoned, ignorant quail (which lived a life much like that of the Ignorant Child and the Witness) experienced any of the angst that marks your relative existence. Find the WHO (or WHO's) that drive "Steven" and that prevent him from relaxing and taking it easy. Be rid of the WHO's that are driving you; then, you too can live as well as an ignorant quail. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
