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

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

There's a comment that goes something like this: "If you accept the praise of the town, be prepared to accept the scorn of the village." It points quite well at the state of the relative, namely, that all is in a state of flux and inconsistency and that all is marked by duality.

It also points to the state of the planet today where the Borderline Personality Disorder runs rampant: "I love you today. I will hate you tomorrow. I hate you ... don't leave me."

There is another comment which suggests that "you will always eventually have to pay the piper" and another that talks about "what is good for the goose is good for the gander."

Another suggests, "You might want a pit bull to protect you and yours, but do not be surprised when your infant is mistaken for dinner."

As long as there is manifested consciousness, there will be movements, shifts, impermanency in the relative. All things are coming together and coming apart, and those who believe in an over-simplified version of causation will believe the following:

1. "I can intervene and cause effects to be different"

and

2. "I can control things and bring about different results that are more desirable"

and

3. "I can make my own personal world better."

What does all that mean in terms of the relative existence and in terms of false beliefs?

A man came here and made the claim that his first wife had fooled him, that - from the way she had presented herself - he thought she was a "good and moral" woman. "But eventually," he said, "she had an affair with another man and left me for him."

He went on to say that he was determined that, when he married again, it was going to be to "a truly upright and moral woman with high standards." As a result of that goal, he decided that he would join a large church and only date women who were active in the church and who were nothing like the first wife whom he had "met in a bar."

Per his plan, he found a woman that certainly seemed to be a "good" and "moral" and "upright" woman with "high standards," those words being the ones he used to describe her when he came to announce his plans to marry.

The result: it took less than a year of marriage for her to check him out thoroughly and to begin using on him that moral yardstick of hers (which he has decided originally was one of the things that made her so wonderful). She began using it more and more frequently to measure his worth, and she used her high standards to evaluate him, and she found that he was falling short in many areas.

First came some fairly pleasant instances that began with "We need to talk," during which his shortcomings were discussed calmly, along with suggestions for change and improvement. Eventually, those sessions were followed with sessions in which her directions became somewhat less pleasant in tone and far more straightforward while cataloguing his shortcomings, in noting the ways he was not meeting her "high moral standards"-based expectations, and listing the changes that better start taking place immediately.

In the end, much like the ironic case of the parents who had bought a pit bull for protection - only to have the pit bull become the only real source of danger - the irony was that the man's seeking and finding someone with higher moral standards than those of his first wife led to his finding exactly that, only to have those moral standards used to judge him and to find him lacking in all ways.

Recently in the U.S., a couple of bombers were in the news. Things were moving along swimmingly until one recast himself as "The One Who Is Good and Moral, The One Who in Truly Upright, The One With High Standards in a Nation Full of Evil and Immoral People With No Decency at All and with No Standards at All."

In a nation such as the U.S. where so many seek to be valued as a result of their religious principles and their strict adherence to their dogma and beliefs in order to receive "the praise of the town," they are never ready to allow others to express and act on their "scorn for the village" that is based in their religious principles and their strict adherence to their dogma and beliefs. Why? Because their religion is not the "right" one or the "best one."

They do not want to admit that "If they accept the praise of the town, they must also be prepared to accept the scorn of the village." Their egotism and arrogance that support their religious roles cannot accept that "what is good for the goose is good for the gander."

If you accept that the cause of "the ills of the world" is "evil" and that your beliefs alone are the ones that can remove that evil and that the beliefs of others contribute to evil, then the rules of the game have been set forth; therefore, there is no justification for criticizing "others" when they play by the very rules that you set forth.

In the relative, all non-Realized persons accept as truth that they and their beliefs are the ones that are are "good" and "upright" and "moral." In the relative, what is deemed to be "good" and "upright" and "moral" - and what is deemed to be "bad" and "indecent" and immoral" - all depend on perspective, and perspective is rooted in programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.

Persons have no right to despair the warped perspectives of "others" that are rooted in their programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination when their own warped perspectives are also rooted in programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.

Yet in the realm of ego-states and egotism, the only thing really acceptable to the non-Realized is "another version of me":

"Enmesh with me." "Mirror me." Be like me." The man who came here proclaimed that he was going to intervene and cause the effects in his second marriage to be different, and he thought he could control things and bring about different results that would be more desirable, and he thought that he was going to make his world a better place by finding someone with high standards. Yet he was shocked by the actual results of his plan.

The same applies to the majority of the persons in this nation who were shocked that dogma could convey to two brothers a sense that they were really good and moral and upright and that "others" were evil and immoral and indecent.

Yet what dogma-based conclusions were drawn about the brothers after the bombing? They were "evil personified." "They are evil, but good will prevail." "The good people in this nation far outnumber the evil people in the world."

The tools of the ego, which ego-states use to defend and protect and sustain and enhance themselves, include denial and putting a spin on the facts. It is not unlike the man who went with his wife for marital counseling. Her complaint? He was "sexually promiscuous and unfaithful" and "has had at least four affairs with other women that I know of."

His reply: "Those were NOT acts of promiscuity or unfaithfulness and they were not sexual affairs. In all four cases, I only had oral sex with them, never real sex."

When one nation bombs another and kills over 100,000 of its citizens, and when one-half of the people in the attacking nation still claim that the war was justified even though the premise for the war was proved to be false, how could any logical and sane and reasonable person suggest that an act of retaliation for that act, a retaliation that includes an attack on our "innocent civilians," is horrible

but

claim at the same time that the attack against "the innocent civilians" of the nation bombed and invaded was justifiable, fine, and even - what history will show - a really good move?

See? Denial. Spin. Ego-state-sustaining arrogance. And the same applied in the case of the man whose second marriage was going to be really good for the simple reason that he was going to marry a really good woman with the highest of religious principles.

The marriage lasted just over a year before it was determine that he was actually, to use a term that was once aimed in this direction, "A New Age Agent of Satan."

Now all of the above deals with the relative, and in the relative, all is in flux; therefore, if one's desire is to be with someone who has shown that he or she is "ethical" and "idealistic," then expect their close cousins - namely, "being judgmental" and "critical" and "dogmatic" - to be invited along for the ride as well.

In that example, the "praise of the town" (that is, a woman praised for being so "good") was accompanied by "the scorn of the village" (which came with judging and a knack for critiquing and a firm and unshakeable conviction that morals and ideals are not relative but are firmly-fixed absolutes.)

In the end, the ego-state of "The Wife" and "The Good Religious Woman" self-promoted themselves. Those identities were upgraded to "The Super Wife" and "The Super Religious Woman," and in the process of upgrading, there will always be the accompanying act of downgrading, so "The Husband" became "The Bad Husband" and "The Not-Religious-Enough Husband."

He, later: "You know, Floyd, I see now that those people in that church all have the opinion that they are better than everyone else because of their high standards, and when they decide that someone is worst than them, it's almost like they want to attack them and punish them, even destroy them."

F.: "You think?"

In Boston, two brothers had the opinion that they were better than everyone else here because of their high standards, and when they decided that everyone here was worst than them, they wanted to attack them and punish them, even destroy them.

The brothers had upgraded themselves to "The Ones Who Are Good and Moral and Truly Upright, The Ones With High Standards." As a result, those "others" who were citizens of a nation where a different religion was dominant and who seemingly accepted their government's bombing of other nations had - in the "minds" of the brothers - formed "A Nation Full of Evil and Immoral People With No Decency at All and with No Standards at All."

Insanity is at play when persons hate persons who behave exactly as they do. Psychological projection can be a real bugger, yes? And projection is not a form of evil. It is a psychological phenomenon, defined as such:

"Projection is a psychological process by which someone denies some aspect of their own behavior or attitudes and assumes instead that everyone else is doing or thinking so instead. It is usually seen as the externalisation of a person's negative traits, placing blame on an outside force such as the environment, a government, a society, or other people."

The notion that "I am going to be protected from future hurt by getting a woman who is as tenacious as a bulldog when it comes to sticking to her high standards" actually blinded a fellow to the possibility that those standards might be applied to him and that he might end up being chewed up and spit out.

So when the notion is that one's dogma in the only one that contains the right beliefs and is the only means for eliminating evil - while also being convinced that the beliefs of all of those "other people" are the source of evil in the world - why should it come as a surprise when the "high standards" assumed by "others" might be applied to them and that they might end up being chewed up and spit out?

It is ignorance and stupidity and insanity - not "evil" - that allows persons to say:

"The way we behave is okay, but it is not okay for you to behave that way."

"Our beliefs are right so, of course, it is okay when we act on them (even if that involves killing others), but it not okay when you act on your beliefs (especially if that involve killing us)."

"Our religion and what we do in the name of our religion is sacrosanct and above the law, but your religion and what you do in the name of your religion is not sacrosanct and is not above the law."

"We are the good people, and you are the evil people."

"It is okay for us to be driven by our beliefs because they produce good, but it not okay for you to be driven by your beliefs because they produce evil."

The relevant facts:

If you accept the praise of the town, be prepared to accept the scorn of the village

and

What is good for the goose is good for the gander

and

Be prepared to pay the piper if you dance, especially if you dance on "others."

Meanwhile there is all of this duality-based nonsense: "You." "Us." "Versus." "Good." "Evil." "Others." "Them." "Moral." "Upright." "Decent." "Immoral." "Indecent." "Sinful." "Virtuous."

Welcome to the products of dualistic beliefs. Welcome to the insanity and chaos of duality that always accompany those products.

As a fellow called "Jesus" said after he was exposed to the non-duality teachings and began to share them: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." Not, "A dual-minded person is evil in all ways"? No. Unstable. Mentally and emotionally unstable.

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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* * * * * * *

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WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:

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