TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Mahammad Ali
January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016
The book of quotes offered through this site includes a collection of non-dual pointers from hundreds and hundreds of persons not generally understood to have shared the non-dual message. Certainly, there is no concurrence with everything they ever said or did, but their non-dual pointers remain relevant for seekers.
So the case was and is with Ali as well. Yet his non-dual pointers are worth sharing for seekers to read.
While so many whites attacked him and his words, here, an immediate kinship existed with the man who was only five years older and was also raised in the South. He would have some who shared the non-dual understanding with him. I had a grandmother who shared non-dual messages with me from early on. I had a dad, her son, who at times modeled an understanding of the oneness and the empathy which it brings, so I was taught early on - while living in the segregated South in the U.S. where prejudice ruled - to treat blacks the same as anyone else. That was modeled by dad's deeds, not just his words.
I spent years in college protesting - as did Ali - the war in Vietnam. I was physically attacked twice for the effort. Ali would be attacked for years for that stand, both verbally and economically. I was friends with the only two black students on the campus and had my car tires slashed for the effort. I introduced one of those men - running back Joe Profit - to Deborah, the woman he would later marry after earning an NFL contract upon graduation. As with Ali, the results of dualistic beliefs were not just theory. They were experienced, first hand.
I could relate to Ali's willingness to rebel against those in our cold-blooded culture with its warrior mentality. I could relate to his challenging the preference of the authorities and the masses here for war over peace. It was not difficult for me to relate to the plight of the poor and non-whites and non-Christians in a mostly-white and mostly-Christian U.S.A.
Yet I witnessed a real duality in the perception of many whites regarding Ali. Tributes were paid then, but criticisms came far more often:
Tributes Now
The mayor of his hometown called Ali “a selfless giant.”
Another said: “Selflessness and bravery — those are the two things he epitomized.”
It was noted that “he raised hundreds of millions for those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and that he gave millions more to all sorts of charities.”
Criticisms Now as well as Then
This was reported: “Ali was known as an inspiring, controversial and polarizing figure.” The irony? When not engaging in his “talk trash to psyche ‘em out before a boxing match” routine, he shared non-dual pointers.
[The additional irony? Non-dual, no-polar pointers always appear to be “polarizing” to the sleepwalking and sleep talking masses.]
He was criticized as "a big mouth, always talking smack."
His reply: “A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing.”
He was criticized for not loving the country that made him rich and famous:
Wonder why? When he returned from the 1960 Olympics after winning a gold medal for the U.S. and after being given a hero’s welcome, he was barred later that very day from eating in a restaurant in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky because he was black.
He was criticized as a black activist who needed to "shut his damn mouth and start appreciating what America has done for him."
His response: “I don't have to be what you want me to be”
and
“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.”
He was criticized as being ungrateful and unpatriotic for protesting the war in Vietnam and for refusing to answer the military draft and for refusing to report for war duty and for refusing to go to Vietnam and kill people there simply because the U.S. Government had declared them "the enemy" and simply because the U.S. Government had told him to do so.
His statement: “My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me 'nigger,' they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail”
and
“No Vietnamese ever called me ‘nigger’.”
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to twenty-two million of my people, they wouldn’t have to draft me . . . I’d join tomorrow.”
“Wars of nations are fought to change maps, but wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
“I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.”
He was criticized for disagreeing with the economic policies of President Ronald Reagan and those on the far right who followed Reagan and literally worshiped him.
He was criticized for becoming a Muslim:
His reply: “The Nation of Islam's main focus is teaching . . . self-awareness.”
Other non-dual messages
“The best way to make your ‘dreams’ come true is to wake up.”
“Best friends often become strangers when egos begin to replace selflessness and love.”
“Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.”
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
“The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.”
“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams — they all have different names, but they all contain water.”
“Stop being selfish – become selfless instead.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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