TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Maharaj: “It is the dance of the conscious presence.”
In the mid-1960’s, Time-Life Books commissioned an illustration for a book authored by anthropologist Clark Howell and certain editors. They came up with a foldout section entitled "The Road to Homo Sapiens":
Later there would be silhouetted versions of that illustration, and those were often referred to as “The March of Progress.”
The cover of the book Dancing Lightly
is a parody of “The March of Progress,” but it should be clear that there was a major flaw in the conclusion many drew when studying the "The Road to Homo Sapiens" or “The March of Progress” or even the cover of Dancing Lightly:
whether by implication or inference, the conclusion often drawn is that humanity’s “progress” has happened in a linear fashion, one gain after another, one leap forward after another. Nothing is farther from the reality.
There has been talk by some about humanity’s shifts from being “beast-like to refined” (a real insult to actual beasts, birds, fish, etc. which have abided naturally and far more sensibility than humans of any epoch). There has also been talk of "the point when humanity shifted from being irrational to rational" (as if that ever happened on a widespread basis.)
In fact, humanity’s shifts might best be illustrated by a swinging pendulum, revealing constant movement between the darkness and the light. That more accurate perspective would reveal humanity’s movement as a two-steps-forward, one-step-backwards journey; and as a two-steps-forward and three-steps-backwards journey; and as a two-steps-backwards and four-steps-forward journey.
Shared earlier was the fact that my daughter reacted to laws coming out of the far-right-wing controlled Texas legislature which now restrict women’s rights and the rights of gays and the rights of trans and the rights of other people all across the state whom lawmakers dualistically deem to be "less than" because they are “too different.” My daughter said, “I thought we had settled all of this.”
I explained to her that, with humans, nothing is ever settled and that each generation must step up to acquire or reacquire the basic rights which were earned by previous generations but which are almost always lost as a new generation of power-seekers and control freaks come along and try to force their beliefs on the masses.
With humans, there is no stability. There is a chaotic, ever-swinging pendulum which moves from the light to the darkness; from some degree of awareness to no awareness at all; from ages of darkness to ages of enlightenment and back to ages of darkness. Consider the various labels which historians have used to describe the “ages” of humanity:
There was "The Age of Advancement” as some humans acquired certain agricultural and science-based skills which allowed them to abandon a previously nomadic lifestyle and settle into communities.
Yet that age was followed by “The Medieval Ages” or “The Dark Ages” when humans abandoned science and returned to humankind’s earlier superstition-and-myth-based magical thinking and advocated for “a return to God only” for guidance and direction.
Then came a swing in the opposite direction with “The Age of the Renaissance” when – in places such as Florence, Italy – there was a renewed interest in science, in the arts, in medicine, in reexamining the ancient philosophy of Plato over Aristotle, and in the humanistic movement as well.
Then came a religious fanatic who mobilized the 50% or so religious fanatics who were in Florence and who had been despising the shift to science and education. That fanatic was a Dominican friar known as Girolamo Savonarola who would enter Florence and would generate levels of ignorance and insanity which nearly destroyed the city-state completely.
The differing political and social and religious-based beliefs split Florence right down the middle after Girolamo ("The Bonfires of the Vanities") Savonarola entered the city of Florence.
With a hidden agenda to overthrow the government and create a theocracy in its place (just like the agenda of many Christians in the U.S. and many Muslims around the globe nowadays), Savonarola attacked the ruling Medicis as "humanists" and "non-Christians" and chastised them for supporting science.
Like a current counterpart in the U.S., Savonarola was a demagogue of the highest order, able to incite half of the population with emotionally-intoxicating, evangelical-preacher-like-rhetoric while spreading ignorance and fanaticism.
Eventually, he was able to foster enough discontentment that the city-state became split 50 / 50 by the divisiveness of their political and social and religious-based, dualistic concepts.
He inspired a puritanical fervor, declaring passionately that Florence would become "the world center of Christianity" and "more powerful, more glorious than ever" once Christians gained total control of the city-state. During the four years that he was the religious / political ruler of Florence, the city-state sank into utter chaos as he converted it from a self-governed, independent state into a theocracy.
Post-Savonarola's influence, fifty percent of the population longed to return to being a self-governing, independent state; fifty percent preferred his plan: to live in a theocracy - a religious state where God is considered the head of the government and where a human ruler is deemed to be God's spokesperson on earth.
Rather than a written constitution serving as a guide, scriptures deemed to be "holy" are the written guide for a theocratic nation.
Just as he inspired the murder of those with differing perspectives, so too did that become his fate as he was burned at the stake in the end. The pendulum swung back in the opposite direction from the way he had moved it; thus came “The Age of Enlightenment.”
By the time Maharaj came along, the shift was back to another “Age of Darkness” which – to use his words – was an Age of “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity.” He could have called it, “The Age of the Ultimate Sickness.”
That was the case with humanity at that time and no shift to a different “Age” has happened.
Read about and witness objectively what happens in the U.S. on any given day and then the arrogant, xenophobic notion of that nation being "the greatest nation on earth" (according to most of its citizens) would be replaced with the understanding that its citizenry for the most part is being driven by the highest levels of ignorance and insanity on earth.
The pendulum around the globe is continuing to swing to the far right, deeper and deeper into the depths of darkness.
Therefore, the earlier point that the movement of humanity does not happen in a linear fashion, forever moving forward toward the light, toward more reason, toward more rationality, toward more of the non-dual understanding and True Love. That shift is called for, but it is not about to happen any time in the near future.
The call globally is for the Light, for lightness, for ending the constant battle for control and power. Those are bogus concepts, totally unattainable. Yet they are both firmly rooted in humanity’s two foremost addictions:
The primary addiction of humans is to be able to control, and the secondary addiction is to power / Power in order to be able to control.
Addiction preempts any chance to enjoy lightness because addiction always brings with it the desire to control, the belief that one can control, and the frustration when it is made clear time and again that people and places and things can be suppressed for a while, but control always fades away as the pendulum swings and the struggle for freedom is “won” again.
Yet that lasts only temporarily. The pendulum will swing the other way as those who want control reassert themselves.
So-called “social progress” comes and goes; so-called “scientific progress" comes and goes; so-called “philosophical / mental progress” comes and goes; moreover, “understanding vs. a lack of understanding” and “rationality vs. irrationality” and “logic vs. illogical” are constantly alternating conditions of humankind. And that is why lightness and darkness are forever coming and going as well.
Yes, all are invited here to join in and dance lightly, yet there is no suggestion that dancing will be guaranteed to generate a sense of lightness. Dance is lightness in motion, but The Light must precede the lightness.
Thus, the real invitation is to allow your pendulum to swing toward the Light, even though it has presently swung into the darkness on most parts of the planet.
Even during an eclipse, the darkness is never truly “total.” There is always some light available:
Thus the invitation here: find the light first, and then enjoy dancing lightly.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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