Advaita Vedanta: CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: "Evil?" Or Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity? Part Sixteen in the Series

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

F.: Note the "clues" referenced in part of the article shared yesterday:

"HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Lone Star College Cy-Fair campus is back open while investigators are working to figure out why a student slashed 14 people there on Tuesday [9 April 2013]. Investigators are piecing together a motive behind the attack at the school on Barker Cypress, and there are new clues that the suspect may be mentally unstable.

Mentally unstable? Not "evil"? Not "a pagan"? Not "born bad"? Not "immoral"? Not "sinful"? Maybe just "mentally unstable"? Yet that possibility is not even a remote consideration for most persons. So why do the majority of the persons in the U.S. believe that the cause of "evil" things is "evil people" and the cause of "evil people" is "Satan" or "a lack of religion" or "too little spirituality"?

Because of programming and conditioning and ignorance and persona assumption, so those non-Realized persons will never be ready for the truth, much less The Truth. Thus Maharaj taught: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."

See, seeking this understanding cannot even begin unless one has transitioned the over-simplified, religious and spiritual beliefs that involve "how to be virtuous" and that involve deciding who is "evil" and who is not and that involve defining "sin"; and determining how best to impose and maintain "Biblical standards" or "Christian ideals" or "Qur'anic values" or "Judaeo principles" or "moral standards" or "global ethics rooted in spirituality."

But consider: what if Maharaj's pointer is spot on, and what if there is a chain of causation that includes inestimable, almost-always-hidden factors, none of which are "evil"? In that case, there are some actual, concrete, tangible, specific steps that can be taken - relatively speaking - that can sometimes address the ignorance-and-insanity-based issues that the masses mistake as issues rooted in "evil."

So what do those issues involve? Some of the elements in the chain of causation that generate what persons label "evil doings" or "wicked people" include ignorance, stupidity, and insanity as well as personality assumption, personality defects, and personality-defects-gone-wild, leading to psychic disintegration and full-blown neuroses and psychoses.

The book "FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey To Reality)"

contains the transcripts from the last organized satsang sessions that were held here. (See below for more details if interested.)

In that book, there is a chapter entitled "REALIZATION: No Single Cause," and the chapter include the exchange that unfolded with four seekers when an everyday occurrence was used to illustrate the way that what most persons take to be "a single cause" is not that at all:

Floyd: “Upon realization, another duality disappears: the credit-blame duality. The realized know that assigning credit to one source or assigning blame to one source is to ignore the reality of an infinite chain of happenings. Here’s a simple example that might be relevant. Last week, driving along the road that leads out here, the rear tire of a car ahead of me threw a pebble against my windshield and cracked it. You’ve all probably had a similar experience? [Nods in agreement] What caused that?”

Questioner 1: “The rear tire of the car ahead of you.”

Q.2: “Actually, the driver of the car was responsible. I think people who do that should have to pay for the cost of the repair.”

F.: “I’m glad you said that since your comment will let us see how wrong that type thinking is and let me offer the pointer about ‘cause’.” [Participant displays a mock frown. Laughter from group] As I passed that car and drove farther along the road, I caught up with a truck that was hauling gravel … and spilling it all along the roadway. The pebbles in the road, one of which was thrown into my windshield earlier, most likely came from that truck. Now who’s to blame for my cracked windshield?”

Q.2: “The driver of the dump truck.”

Q.3: “The manager of the hauling company who allowed the truck to haul gravel without a cover over the top to prevent slippage.”

F.: “The manager? Or could it have been the owner of the hauling company who was too cheap to provide covers or too negligent to be certain that covers were being used?”

Q.4: “I’ll play along: it was the fault of the highway patrol that is not efficient enough to pull over those creating hazards on the road.” [Laughter from group]

F.: “Or the legislators who misappropriated funds to their pet projects and underfunded the highway patrol? [More laughs] Okay, enough. You get the picture. A series of events evolved in a way that, at a particular moment, a particular set of circumstances also evolved that resulted in a broken windshield on my vehicle. And if we wanted to play this game a little longer, you’ve already shown that we could trace the cause back millions of years to the circumstances that resulted in a boulder being broken down into pebbles, one of which millions of years later struck my windshield. But billions of years before that, an atom appeared in a vacuum, maybe even spit forth from an adjacent universe. And that atom split and then split again and then formed a mutated atom and those two collided and … bang … that collision caused a chain reaction that resulted in our boulder being formed billions of years later. And then millions of years after that, the boulder atrophied into huge stones and then rocks and then pebbles, and because of that happening and because of a truck and an owner and a manager and a driver and a construction project and an inefficient highway patrol and a driver and a car ahead of me, my windshield broke. Ha. Look at the billions of events that had to occur over a period of billions of years in order for my windshield to be damaged. Yet arrogantly, persons want to claim that they know exactly what's causing any particular happening. Persons want to tell you the one cause that they think is behind whatever is happening. They want to credit one thing or one entity or one power. Or they want to blame one thing or one entity or one power.”

Q.: We’re back to the pointer you offered before.”

F.: “Specifically?”

Q.: “About over-simplifying the ‘cause’ of anything. You said something like ‘the cause of everything is everything that’s happened before’.”

Q.2: “And you said that if we don’t realize that, we'll buy into the ancient myths about a single causer and a single creator of matter and energy. And you said that if one can imagine infinity beyond this manifestation, then one should be able to know the infinity before this manifestation.”

F.: “Well, that’s not quite the way I put it, but your version is accurate enough. The point is just as you said: the cause of all is all that has ever happened. Forget seeking a prime cause.”

The invitation here is always to see things as they are, including things relative (that is, things involving the AM-ness) and including things Absolute (that is, things involving the THAT-ness).

It has been noted that those who claim that "nothing is real" are in error and that - among the non-Realized masses - the simple fact is this instead: things are never as they appear. When the understanding of the functioning of the totality manifests, then not only are things noumenal understood but things phenomenal are also understood.

Therefore, the invitation regarding things phenomenal - including insane acts that persons mistakenly label as "evil acts" and including insane persons who are mistakenly labeled as "evil people" - is this:

if there is a relative goal to address effects and events and actions, that cannot happen accurately and effectively unless the entire chain of causation that led to any given effect or event or action is understood, and to assign blame or cause to one single thing will always prevent the actual chain of causes from being understood.

And what is the most common assignment of cause that is completely erroneous? The assignment of a supernatural cause to a totally and solely natural event ...

1. ... as was the case when the Dalai Lama blamed the 2005 flooding of New Orleans, Louisiana on "the negative karma of the people in New Orleans" while the Christian minister John Hagee said God caused the damage in order to stop a gay pride parade that was scheduled in that city;

2. ... as was the case when, after Hurricane Rita had caused widespread damage along the Gulf Coast in the U.S., a woman was heard to say, "God is trying to tell us something";

3. ... as was the case when Christian preacher Jerry Falwell said that the cause of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11 was God who was angry with "the American Civil Liberties Union, feminists, gays and lesbians";

4. ... as was the case when the Christian minister Pat Roberston said that the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti was because the people there had made "a pact with the devil";

5. ... as was the case when Jerry Newcombe (a spokesman for the evangelical group Truth in Action) said that the theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado happened because God wanted to send a message to mourners that some of their loved ones were going to hell while a U.S. Republican Representative from Texas said he believed that the shootings happened because Christianity is under attack.

Never is what Maharaj called "stupidity verging on insanity" more on display then when persons assign blame for natural events on a supernatural cause or when persons suggest that the cause behind "evil" events is the presence of "Satan-driven evil in the world" or "paganism" or "bad people as opposed to good people" or "immorality" or "a lack of virtue" or "sin" or "non-believers."

Again, Maharaj noted: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."

To understand accurately the chains of causation and then to find a relative means for addressing relative issues, one must first abandon all magical / supernatural / religion / spiritual thinking, including thoughts about "Satan";

and thoughts about "an angry God that uses destructive events to send messages"; and thoughts about who is "a pagan" and who is not; and thoughts about the duality of "good vs. evil"; and thoughts about "immorality"; and thoughts about "sin";

and one of the most ignorant of all thoughts, namely, that if one becomes religious or spiritual, that will cure severe mental and emotional and personality disorders as well as neuroses and psychoses.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Questions?
Submit them to:

Comments?
Just hang on to those please.

A Non-Duality Online Course is currently available at a reduced rate. See above for details.

[Received from Mac, 10/17/12]:

"Glad to see the online teaching offered at a discount. Hopefully, more who are ready will be able to take the course. For me, the course was the beginning of the unlearning that led to the trip to the lake for a retreat and the understanding."

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part One

A "movement" or "shift" happened here that added another parallel to the many parallels in terms of the phenomenal "experiences" and the noumenal revelations that "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" share in common. (Many visitors over the years have said that they also shared the same parallels with "Maharaj" and "Floyd" as well.) In the case of "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd": 1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";
11. both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making 12. both had wives who were unhappy when the de-accumulation stage was entered and both had wives who became unhappy about their husbands' focus on non-duality and who blamed their unhappiness on no longer having a religious husband (The facts be known, in both cases the unhappiness involved the fact that their husbands were no longer interested in - or willing - to work 80+ hours per week and that their husbands were no longer interested in accumulating wealth and possessions and providing the rich lifestyle to which their wives had grown accustomed) 13. both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce) 15. both accelerated their seeking;

16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more 19. both began sharing the teachings 20. for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.

21. Both saw that many who heard the teachings are not going to understand (Maharaj reporting that "only 1 in 100,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 22. both soon saw that even more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj modifying his "guesstimate" and reporting that "only 1 in 1,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 23. eventually both saw that even far more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj eventually concluding that "only 1 in 10,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding). And the failings were not the fault of seekers. A "one -in-ten-million" estimate is proof that satsang was not working for most seekers, and the evidence here lately is proof of the same.

Both "Maharaj" and "Floyd" invited seekers to focus on the exact, step-wise "path." Yes, during satsang, "Maharaj" sometimes alluded to the steps while discussing them in no particular order - but he never once laid out the steps in the exact order in which they had to be completed. That was not his teachings style or approach.

Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.

Looking objectively at the results here when using an "electronic loft" satsang method of sharing has not produced the intended outcome nearly as often as any of the three "face-to-face" methods used with seekers by which they have been led through the seven steps in order. Here, the body is growing older, of course. Mahasamadhi could be taken today, or it could be taken in twenty years.

Obviously, that cannot be known. But the decision here has been made that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the ways that have been seen over the last 20+ years to be the most effective methods.

Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required. It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces." It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two

In "Part One," examples were given of seekers that were led to Realization not by satsang but by following the various protocols outlined farther down this page which provide the understanding in the step-wise, orderly, required fashion which moves seekers along a "path" that is as prescribed by Maharaj ... "going back" in the "reverse order" by which the consciousness manifested and became blocked.

However, conversations with some that just read the majority of the books have revealed that they certainly seem to have grasped the understanding and Realized as well. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what has "not worked" as well - changes are being made. There are seven specific steps that happen when awareness-energy is "pulled" into a cycle of manifestation. When that energy manifests as conscious-energy, that formerly pure and unadulterated energy becomes "corrupted" (or "blocked" from seeing clearly) via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. Soon, there is a belief in the not-Real as a result of seven degrees of separation from an understanding of the Real. Using the method that was also employed by his contemporaries - a method which focused on offering non-duality pointers via satsang - Maharaj addressed questions in the order in which they were received. He might receive a question from a seeker at the third step and his reply would include what amounted to an invitation to move to the fourth step. The next question might come from a seeker at the first step, and the reply would include an invitation to move to the second step. The information offered to the second seeker would seemingly contradict what was offered to the first seeker, so visitors who have come here for decades have asked questions which showed how confused they were by the fact that Maharaj's statements to each visitor in his loft were "level-appropriate" yet were provided in no precise order, resulting in what seemed to be an inconsistent message. So the process overall was confusing in that seekers were told to follow the "path back" in the same way that they "came in," except in reverse order, but pointers were not given in a specific, step-wise order at all. Maharaj did recognize the seven steps that are taught here, but by offering the teachings in an order that was dictated by the order in which questions were received from seekers who were at different steps on the "path," the result was this: a pointer about moving beyond the fourth step might be followed by a pointer about moving beyond the first step, and that pointer might be followed by a pointer about how to move beyond the sixth step. The same was done on this site for seven years. The result is a collection of 1,800 or so essays discussing almost every non-duality topic that can be discussed, and the search button on the top right side of this page will now allow seekers with a question about a specific topic to find an explanation. That method, however, will never provide the manner in which the seven steps on the "path" must be transmitted and received in order to Realize Fully. An objective study of the history here of more than twenty years of offering non-duality pointers reveals this: seekers that were given pointers in the exact order in which they needed to receive them were the ones that Realized.

They read the books, then they completed the online course and / or completed seven Skype or telephone sessions or came here for a retreat (or watched the downloadable DVD version of an actual retreat, available below).

Some found that which they were seeking by reading the author's book that deal with non-duality subject matter. Via all of those venues, the steps are taught in their proper order. The essays available on this site will remain for those interested in searching for a discussion of a particular non-duality topic without charge, but the focus here until mahasamadhi is taken is going to be on offering the teachings in the step-wise fashion that has been seen to work.

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FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to the Absolute