FROM A SITE VISITOR: My friend Ricardo told me to write to you. I just want peace. I just want to be happy. Help. William (Guillermo)
F.: Hello Guillermo. Since you are obviously just beginning the search for peace and happiness, understand that some come to the Advaita philosophy with high expectations. They are searching for immediate joy and bliss when that bar might be set too high for beginners. Realize that, ultimately, peace and happiness during the relative existence cannot happen unless it is first understood that all happenings are “Much ado about nothing.” Meaning? Meaning that if you observe all events with a clear perspective, you'll see how the trivial is elevated to the status of "significant" by persons. Then, seeing how trivial it all really is, you might be able to assume a position of neutrality around all happenings. Then, you might at least attain a sense of contentment before pursuing joy and bliss.
F.: Hello Guillermo. Since you are obviously just beginning the search for peace and happiness, understand that some come to the Advaita philosophy with high expectations. They are searching for immediate joy and bliss when that bar might be set too high for beginners. Realize that, ultimately, peace and happiness during the relative existence cannot happen unless it is first understood that all happenings are “Much ado about nothing.” Meaning? Meaning that if you observe all events with a clear perspective, you'll see how the trivial is elevated to the status of "significant" by persons. Then, seeing how trivial it all really is, you might be able to assume a position of neutrality around all happenings. Then, you might at least attain a sense of contentment before pursuing joy and bliss.
If it is understood that the entire manifestation of consciousness is much ado about nothing, then those obstacles which interrupt peace cannot materialize, obstacles such as belief in dualistic concepts, attachment, caring, judging, involvement, emotional intoxication, desiring, fearing, needing, etc.
What does much ado about nothing look like? It looks as if important happenings are occurring, happenings that require a dualistic stance, either for or against. But those happenings are really just the various parts of a fable; however, the elements of a fictional story can only be reviewed objectively if one functions as a non-attached witness. Then, by reviewing the elements of the fiction from a “distance,” one can see clearly how it all amounted to nothing. Here are the elements in one tale with a 60-year span. It will show how much ado can be made about nothing when persons think the events in their relative existence amount to something important. This particular fictional tale included such elements as:
A young girl abandoned after her mother died in childbirth; that girl later kidnapped by a relative; a young man watching his brother being cut in half by a train; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; Germany and Japan are declared “the enemy”; war declared; separation as a result of a war; two bombs dropped; returning home; prosperity; pregnancy; birth; another pregnancy; another birth; parents were pleased; parents were angry; teachers were pleased; teachers were angry; children were whipped with paddles; palms were beaten with rulers; national crime rates went down; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
Germany and Japan are then declared “our friends” and communists are declared “the enemy”; bomb shelters were built; drills in schools, crawling under desks, and putting books over heads; making friends at school; fighting with friends at school; Cuba was declared “an enemy”; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
a lack of prosperity; crime went up; a tonsillectomy; an appendectomy; a toe severed by a lawn mover; a rare snow; intense heat; punishment for not being “good”; exposure to religious Occidentals and their nonsensical beliefs; fear when the promise of eternal fire and damnation were introduced; accepting “salvation” to please, but knowing it was hogwash; dating; championships won; graduation; college; another graduation; employment; bosses were pleased; bosses were displeased; Vietnam was declared “an enemy”; another war; being drafted; another war ended; graduate school; a Master’s Degree and another graduation; low-paying employment; a meeting; “love”; a marriage; Vietnam was then declared “a friend” and “trading partner”; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
too many lovers; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; high-paying employment; a Bush declares an Ortega “a friend”; plaques and certificates of achievement and paid vacations awarded at annual banquets; pregnancy; birth; a healthy child; a sick child; swings in the economy; low income; high income; a Rumsfeld meets a Saddam and declares him “our friend”; an apartment in Tuscany; months at a time in Europe; dream jobs that became nightmares; fortunes lost; fortunes earned again; huge homes purchased and filled with “stuff”; friendships with neighbors; fights with neighbors; pets bought; pets buried; repairmen scheduled; pipes OK; pipes burst; more contractors dealt with; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
vast accumulations; wealth; hurricanes came, trees fell, property “destroyed”; property rebuilt; property taxes increased; evaluations protested; fortunes lost; dream relationships became nightmares; hearing the word “cancer”; a spouse who got into her car and drove away the day before the scheduled surgery for cancer, never to return; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
arranging a funeral for a parent who preferred burial; Republican rule; nations to the south were declared “the enemy”; glasnost; Communists are then declared “a friend” and “a trading partner”; a parent’s stroke; more invasions and war; a declaration that “We must fight them in Central America or we’ll fight them here”; secret U.S. death squads; meeting a U.S. sniper using drugs to try to suppress the guilt of assassinating 46 innocent civilians in Central America (including a teacher and a priest) who were declared “the enemy” by the U.S. for anti-U.S. speeches; illegal arms deals; Democratic rule; huge surplus in national treasury; Republican rule; a Bush declares an Ortega is now “an enemy”; two poorly-designed towers fall; a Rumsfeld and others who had declared a Saddam to be "a friend" said he is “an enemy”; another war; national treasury surplus gone, replaced by huge national debt; a declaration that “We must fight them in the Middle East or we’ll fight them here”; nations to the south again declared “the enemy”; now, the health care providers no longer say “cancer,” but last week one said for the first time, “diabetes”; but ultimately, it’s all much ado about nothing.
To review those happenings from the perspective of the objective witness, Guillermo, is to see the insanity of all of the duality that robbed the players in that "Drama of the Lie" of peace and happiness: good and bad, satisfied and dissatisfied, pleased and displeased, reward and punishment, war and peace, enemy and friend, friend and enemy, rich and poor, sick and well, marriage and divorce, good times and bad times, chaos and stability, knowing who "the enemy" was then not knowing who "the enemy" was. Everything thought to be bad would eventually be thought to be good and everything thought to be good would eventually be thought to be bad. In fact, it was all dualistic fiction, all dualistic nonsense, all ego-based silliness, all ego-driven BS.
Then, searching began; seeking; doing; going; zooming; next, finding; understanding; awareness; and relaxing; and ultimately, it was Realized that it was, indeed, all much ado about nothing…all nothing more than a lot of sound and fury. Only when the addiction to the sound and the fury ends can the joy and bliss of the silence begin.
Those who believe in timelines would say those events covered “six decades in the life of one man.” The re-purified consciousness sees nothing more than the elements of a fable…a series of happenings all based in idiocy. Again, the words of the Advaitin William Shakespeare apply: “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Signifying…nothing. The invitation is to look at all of the elements in that fictional fable and see that they cover only 60 years of happenings on one planet that is spinning away in a universe that has a 14-billion year history. The invitation is too look at all those happenings and to note how “very important” they were all considered to be when they were happening. The invitation is also to see that the happenings amounted only to so much sound and fury…with no importance or truth or reality involved at all.
To understand that whatever persons take to be “something” or “something really important” is actually just much ado about nothing allows the nothingness to be understood. When the nothingness is understood, then That Which Truly Is Everything can be understood. When the functioning of the totality is understood, all things false are abandoned and peace just happens.
Relatedly, the Advaitin poet also wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts,” and “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage.” And then? "Out, out, brief candle."
Enjoy the play, Guillermo, but know that the play is a play. Then and only then will you not be deluded and made miserable by the dualities of the relative existence. Then and only then can the peace you long for manifest and remain for the duration of the manifestation of the consciousness. For now, this likely sounds senseless to you. Borrow the books Ricardo bought from the site and begin the readings in the order he can show you. Best regards on the "journey." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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