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

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

All fighting and shooting and bombing and war on the planet is rooted in insane minds that are driven by the differing beliefs which are stored therein and which are highly valued by non-Realized persons who are all driven by the bogus content of their minds.

Often, those beliefs are even deemed to be sacred by "The Believers" who soon upgrade that false identity to "The Super Believers" and "The Proud Believers" and "The Right Believers" who must battle with "The Wrong Believers" or "The Infidels" or "The Sinners" or "The Evil Ones."

Furthermore, all among the non-Realized would impose those beliefs on others, and, because of that, nearly half of the persons in the U.S. still hold colonialism in high esteem:

"It has always been the white man's burden. We must bring civilization to the uncivilized, and we must bring home their natural resources because they do not know how to make proper use of them." And in "Christian" nations, the added belief is that "we must go to the four corners of the earth and baptize every living person in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

In the U.S., the claim is that "we are not 'nation-builders'" yet the military forces of the nation are constantly being used around the planet in an effort to re-build nations "in our own image." A presidential candidate said, "I do not think our armed forces should be used for nation building," but then as president, that is exactly what he used the armed forces for. Then a dualistic "us vs. them" claim was made: "THEY hate US for our freedoms."

Really? Or for taking theirs while using the "good" motives of colonialistic ambitions as justification? How easy it is for a nation to dismiss its attackers as people who are "evil" after the nation has gone about the globe trying to impose on "others" its beliefs about what the right economic system is and about what the right political governing system is: "You should be capitalists, like us. You should be a democracy, like us."

What are some of the tools used for years in an effort to impose those beliefs on "others"? Clandestine activities, invasions, bombings, and the continuous, on-going occupation of lands all around the globe. Now, what are some of the tools used by "others" to impose their beliefs instead? Clandestine activities and bombings. And the difference in the members of two groups is actually ... nil. There is no difference in their core beliefs.

The members of both group are sure that they are fighting for what is "good" even as the members of both groups also believe that those they are fighting are "evil." See ? Beliefs. Believers. Projection. Seeing in "others" what one cannot see in self.

To ignore a history of global abuses and to reduce the reason "they don't like us" to a single cause (namely, that they are "evil") is the height of both arrogance and ignorance as well.

So the arrogance of insanity kicks in when some strike back and their striking back is blamed on a single cause: "They are evil." And what do those "evil" people want? They want to impose their religious beliefs on "others," and with every member of every religion, the belief is that there can be no greater "good" for people, for the planet, and for the world than having their beliefs shared with - or imposed upon - "others."

And the same applies beyond religious beliefs and includes political beliefs, economic beliefs, and every other kind of belief: "Our beliefs are good, yours are not; our way is the right way; your way is the wrong way."

As noted earlier, when the ground rules you set include a belief that you must go around the globe and baptize everyone and make them Christians, where is any justification for criticizing those who want to go around the globe and make everyone a member of their religion? What is good for the goose is good for the gander, and only the ignorant and insane and arrogant believe that they have the right to do whatever they want while believing that others do not have the right to do whatever they want.

Instead of admitting the insanity of such illogical and unreasonable hypocrisy, the non-Realized (via the use of the psychological projection discussed earlier) hate in others what they hate in themselves. Then, they begin to assign a single, ideological cause for why "they" are wrong while using an ideologically-based justification for why "we" are right.

Is it any wonder that persons around the globe can no longer distinguish reality from appearance and cannot differentiate true from false? Is it any wonder that the ignorant identify "evil" as the cause of anything that happens that they do not approve of, even as they identify as "good" their motive for doing the very same thing?

Yesterday, this was shared:

In an existence in which everything is relative, in which change is the only constant, and in which there are no absolutes, what (other than colossal egotism, self-satisfied arrogance, and total blindness) would make persons think they know—for a fact—exactly what is “good” and exactly what is “bad”? And what (other than colossal egotism, self-satisfied arrogance, and total blindness) could convince people that the lone basis of all things considered to be "evil in the world" involves a single-dimension, totally simple cause, namely, not worshipping the right god (i.e., their god) and being led instead by the god of darkness or those nebulous "forces of evil in the universe."

Maharaj said, to the contrary, that "things happen without [any single] cause and reason ..., " and to believe that everything that happens as a result of the machinations of the highly complicated and totally distorted "minds" of persons can be boiled down to a single cause is also insane and / or ignorant.

Consider the pointers in this exchange:

A questioner reflected on Maharaj having said that events are causeless and that no [single] cause can be assigned to any particular happening. Then, trying to understand "the causelessness of things" [that is, that there is no single cause] he asked:

Q: But what is your own experience?

M: Everything is uncaused. The world has no cause.

Q: I am not enquiring about the causes that led to the creation of the world. Who has seen the creation of the world? It may even be without a beginning, always existing. I take the world to exist — somehow. It contains so many things. Surely, each must have a cause, or several causes.

M: Once you create for yourself a world in time and space, governed by causality, you are bound to search for and find causes for everything. You put the question and impose an answer.

Q: My question is very simple: I see all kinds of things and I understand that each must have a cause, or a number of causes. You say they are uncaused — from your point of view. But to you, nothing has being and, therefore, the question of causation does not arise. Yet you seem to admit the existence of things, but deny them causation. This is what I cannot grasp. Once you accept the existence of things, why reject their causes?

M: I see only consciousness, and know everything to be but consciousness, as you know the picture on the cinema screen to be but light.

Q: Still, the movements of light have a cause.

M: The light does not move at all. You know very well that the movement is illusory, a sequence of interceptions and colourings in the film. What moves is the film — which is the mind.

Q: This does not make the picture causeless. The film is there, and the actors with the technicians, the director, the producer, the various manufacturers. The world is governed by causality. Everything is inter-linked.

M: Of course, everything is inter-linked. And therefore everything has numberless causes. The entire universe contributes to the least thing. A thing is as it is, because the world is as it is. You see, you deal in gold ornaments and I — in gold. Between the different ornaments there is no causal relation. When you re-melt an ornament to make another, there is no causal relation between the two. The common factor is the gold. But you cannot say gold is the cause. It cannot be called a cause, for it causes nothing by itself. It is reflected in the mind as ‘I am’, as the ornament’s particular name and shape. Yet all is only gold. In the same way reality makes everything possible and yet nothing that makes a thing what it is, its name and form, comes from reality.

He continued:

M: Do you want to know all the causes of each event? Is it possible?

Q: I know it is not possible! All I want to know is if there are causes for everything and the causes can be influenced, thereby affecting the events? Every morning I pick up the newspaper and read with dismay that the world’s sorrows — poverty, hatred and wars — continue unabated. My questions are concerning the fact of sorrow, the cause, the remedy. Your insistence on causelessness removes all hope of the world ever changing.

Later:

M: Having given reality to the picture on the screen, you love its people and suffer for them and seek to save them. It is just not so. You must begin with yourself. There is no other way. Work, of course. There is no harm in working.

and

M: To take appearance for reality is ... the cause of all calamities. You are the all-pervading, eternal and infinitely creative awareness ....

and

M: You pray to save one, while thousands die. And if all stop dying, there will be no space on earth.

Q: I am not afraid of death. My concern is with sorrow and suffering. My God is a simple God and rather helpless. He has no power to compel us to be wise. He can only stand and wait.

M: If you and your God are both helpless, does it not imply that the world is accidental? And if it is, the only thing you can do is to go beyond it.

Thus the question raised earlier:

If, indeed, the god that most believe in is willing to "stand and wait" (and any objective observation would show that would surely have to be the case) then if the god that is being worshipped is unwilling or unmotivated to take action, why would his 'Followers' / 'The Believers' not also follow that example and stand and wait and witness only?

Because they are insane. How else to explain the lack of logic behind, "He is my example, but I do the exact opposite of what he does"?

And the insanity manifests as well when the governments and societies and factions around the globe pour their resources into their ideology-based obsession with "stamping out evil" but do almost nothing to try to stamp out ignorance and insanity.

And that is why (a) only a handful a day show up in places like the loft where it is made clear that insanity is the issue and that you will only be for NOW while (b) billions show up in the other venues that teach evil is the issue and you must be free of it so that you can be ... FOREVER. Of course the latter message is the one that will be the most popular; thus, things will continue as they are. So it is, but so in need not be.

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