FROM A SITE VISITOR: Witnessing the aryan celebration of veterans day here at the livelihood, a defense contractor. A thought arises that there should be a change of livelihood, to something less supportive of war, but the teaching is that there is no duality, no right or wrong livelihood. The work can be done, now, without buying into the culture. Is there clarification? Mac
F.: Hello again, Mac. Your query deals with two aspects of the teachings that can be discussed. One is the dualistic practice of trying to separate…such as separating one day from others and suggesting it is “different” and “more special than” other days, or separating certain lands from others, or separating some writings from others.
All of that deals with taking an illusion and either upgrading it or downgrading it, as in the statement that “Most books are just regular books, but this book is ‘holy’” (“holy” actually meaning “different”). The second aspect deals with what happens post-Realization. Can things stay the same? Must things change? First, to upgrading and downgrading illusions.
The non-Realized are never free of their belief in duality and their perceived sense of separation. To believe, “I am different from this or that or them” makes for an easy transition to the belief that “This is different from and more special than that.”
Such upgrading and downgrading of illusions will get you some “holy people” (and "non-holy people," of course) as well as “holy lands” and “holy days” (holidays). Last year in December, a presentation was made to a group of men who were in lockdown, unable to be with their families because those men were being offered treatment for their addictions.
The level of complaining was high because they were not going to spend a “special day” in the way they desired. Their disparagement continued until each was asked to explain where he was last year at that time and what he was doing during the previous “holiday season.” A few recalled incarceration at various locations, including treatment centers, police stations, and prisons.
Additionally, at least half couldn’t remember where they were the year before. Furthermore, when they were asked what the results might be if their families were given a vote about whether or not to have them at home for the holidays, most fell very quiet, knowing the truth about the outcome of such a vote.
A few finally became honest enough to admit that their memory of how wonderful past holidays were might be a bit distorted. Some admitted that they had always found the period from Thanksgiving through New Year’s to be so stressful that they were miserable throughout most of that “season” every year. Many admitted to annual raging over the simple fact that the lights for their tree never worked from one year to the next.
So much for “Happy Holidays.” Upgrades, like downgrades, are always in the “mind,” and the fact that people could never see the truth in the past assures that their present “memories” of past events will be equally flawed.
Yet none of their days were as miserable as having to pass the day called “Christmas Day” in a non-typical manner because it was “special” and “different” from all other days…in their “minds.” Such is the misery of mental upgrading and downgrading. Do you see how pain is of the body but that misery and suffering are of the “mind” and generate emotional intoxication as is the case with "Christmas Day" and “Veterans Day” and "Memorial Day" and "Armed Forces Day"?
So consider any typical day that is now given “greater than and different than” status. The ego will upgrade typical days and label them as special day, as holidays, and that in turn can trigger emotional intoxication.
Religious groups have been at war for centuries over what they believe to be “holy land.” It’s all just dirt, but once upgraded to the class of “special dirt,” the deaths of billions have followed, and that says nothing of the fixation that the Armageddonites now have with that same land and what conflict that obsession will continue to spawn.
Those reporting the weather on television will tell you that it is not just going to be a day, but they will upgrade or downgrade their assessment. They will tell you it is going to be a “good day” or a “bad day,” a bad one according to their perspective being one that brings life-giving rain.
Wars have been fought for millennia because books have been upgraded to “holy books,” and with the belief that “their holy book is not right like our holy book is.” Fighting must follow, and that leads to formation of a warrior class.
Now, to your specific issue: the debate here is not about the need for a standing army, nor the dualism generated by the military, nor the unjustified misuse of military force, nor the fact that 25% of the homeless people in the U.S. are Viet Nam veterans, nor the fact that 70% of those are drug addicts and/or alcoholics receiving no treatment, nor the fact that those maimed as a result of their “service” will eventually be ignored for the most part except on “special days.”
Nor will there be a debate about the side effects of combat including the millions of older and more recent vets who are suffering from untreated PTSD, nor the fact that the number of women and men in uniform who committed suicide in the past year reached a record number, nor the fact that many discharged vets behave for decades afterwards as if life itself is a war and that they must forever be hypervigilant and combative in of all their interactions.
All of that and more is addressed thoroughly in the anti-war, non-duality novel The Board of Directors of Wars. The reality is, though, that the “we support our troops” crowd has much work to do before they can convert their militaristic mantra from a falsehood to a fact. Why? Because their “support” usually amounts to nothing beyond purchasing a bumper sticker or giving lip service only on the few "special days" set aside for lip servicing.
The issue you raise does, however, revolve around the fact that (dualistically) a day has been upgraded to a “special” day and persons who served in the military have been upgraded to a status that is "better than" the status of those who have not “served their country” as “honorably.”
Note how persons who assume the role of “The Veteran” or “The Super Veteran” are led by ego to cling to a military role that was played ten or twenty or thirty or forty years before and that remains their primary source of “respect.” And how the ego desires respect.
Note, too, the way that those people were dualistically “differentiated” from the non-military via their re-programming and re-conditioning: those in the military have always worn different clothing, have added special hats, and have attached ribbons and medals to differentiate themselves as well.
Note how they dualistically differentiate themselves from “others” with their special manner of rigid walking and stiff marching. Note how readily they accept the programming to keep a seriousness and strained look on their faces, squinting their eyes and pursing their lips and tucking their chins, making sure they will be very different from non-military people.
Relax and take it easy? Never. As this nation dualistically (a) designates many “special” days each year to celebrate its warrior class and (b) gives “special” names to some days to express the culture’s pride in persons who are already prideful, it can be asked exactly how all of that reinforcement of role-playing reduces the chance for such persons to Realize and thereafter to possibly come to enjoy calmness over chaos, tranquility to fighting, relaxation over rigidity, and peace in place of avid participation in optional wars.
An objective consideration can reveal that this upgrading and downgrading of illusions, as well as imaginary differentiations, will provide additional examples of the way that acculturation reinforces role assumption and egotism and that further blocks any chance for most persons to ever cast aside all of their false identities that generate self-importance and a sense of separation and a notion of being “different from” and “better than.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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