TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Specific "reasons" cause persons
• to be obsessive and compulsive
• and render them unable to relax
• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling).
• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest
• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.
We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest
and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.
So, to continue:
Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #61. because humans dualistically develop (a) a preference for that which is familiar and (b) a hatred for that which is unfamiliar or "different" and because humans become (c) "creatures of habit" (which always include among the non-realized an "us" vs. "them" mentality).
The causes behind reason #61?
ACCULTURATION, PERSONALITY-DRIVEN FEAR, PERSONALITY-DRIVEN ARROGANCE
Researchers in Stockholm, Sweden have uncovered many of the ways which cultural identity and prejudice are related. Their research would focus on seeking an answer to the question, "How does prejudice and cultural identity form our 'perceptive predisposition'?"
Of course "the realized" understand that warped perspectives are at the core of a false sense of separation and that domestication (what is taught in the home) and acculturation (what is taught by the society and its leaders) are key sources and top disseminators of prejudice and a false sense of "the other."
There is a forty-something-year-old neighbor whose name I do not even know but I have observed that his hatred of African-Americans has reached such a visceral level that he will approach those of us who walk through the neighborhood and he will try to engage us in a conversation about how "those people" are "ruining our nation."
The only one who will usually engage with him is the man next door who claims, as I have previously shared, that "all of the problems in the U.S. started when Lincoln freed the slaves."
One morning during a walk when both of those men tried to make a captive audience out of me by sharing their ultra-right wing hatred and trying to encourage me to join in their diatribe, I paused only long enough to say,
"I'm curious. You both think that blacks are the greatest threat to you and our nation, but tell me this: how many times have you been totally screwed over by any black person versus how many times in your lives you were totally screwed over by the whites in your families, by whites at your job site, by whites you've formed partnerships with, by whites you've lived with or been married to, and by whites who were and are your in-laws?"
I continued: "I don't know about you guys, but I cannot name even a single black who has ever screwed me over 'personally,' but if you want a list of the people who have done that, my very long list will only have whites on it. And I suspect if you were honest in looking back over your lives and making a thorough and honest inventory, your lists would be just like mine and would be a long-ass list of white people."
For the first time ever, both ranters were silent, though I'm sure that did not last because hatred inside must break out via hateful words; because arrogance inside will fight its way to the outside; and because ignorance inside will find its way outside via ignorant words which result in ignorant actions.
At the core of all hostility is the concept of "the other," and at the core of beliefs about "the others" is duality-based, separate-and-therefore-not-equal prejudice and discrimination and intolerance and injustice based in religion (or in a decision to choose not to participate in religion); in gender (with chauvinism in the U.S. reaching heights which have not been seen in decades);
in sexual orientation and / or identification; in race and color; in country of origin and nationality (with xenophobia and white supremacy and white nationalism in the U.S. reaching heights which have not been seen in decades); in age; in class and economic levels; in terms of ability vs. those with disabilities; in body type; etc.
When leaders model prejudice and judgmentalism and endorse duality-based separation, and when hatred is normalized via the fury-driven speech of politician or business leaders or via the speech of supposedly-religious leaders, then many among the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do masses will mirror that same kind of speech and it will lead to hostile actions. Why?
Because the progression is always from thought to word to deed, so acts of hatred are assured to follow hearing hate speech and / or the use of hate speech.
Then, persons will separate themselves and isolate themselves and segregate themselves and insulate themselves and will take a path that only involves "non-others" and will take journeys which only allow "non-others" to travel with them.
They will take paths which accept a few but which exclude many more, again, based on religious affiliation; on gender; on chauvinistic beliefs; on sexual orientation and / or identification; on race and color; on country of origin and nationality; on age; on class and economic levels; on terms of ability vs. those with disabilities; on body type; etc.
None of the above is "new." Such separation and distinctions have historically been commonplace because dual-minded persons have historically been commonplace.
For example, on the ship named The Titanic, passengers were separated by class:
First Class
Second / "Standard" Class
and, down in the deepest bowels of the ship,
Third Class or "Steerage."
A study of those who drowned after the ship hit an iceberg and foundered shows that the "First Class First" rule far outweighed the principle of "Women and Children First."
The distinction in the way that passengers were treated according to their social and economic class is obvious in these facts:
39% of First Class passengers perished.
58% of Standard / Second Class passengers perished.
76% of Third Class / Steerage passengers perished.
Only 39% of the wealthiest passengers perished while 58% and 76% of "the others" drowned.
Consider these numbers as well:
49 - the number of children from Second Class and Steerage who perished.
1 - the number of children from First Class who perished.
The impact of dualistic thinking is not theoretical. It has been, and continues to be, quite real in terms of the relative existence.
There is a wealthy man that does much to support this site, that does much to support other charities through foundations he has established, and that does much for those in need in his community and about the globe. He started with nothing and built his business without any hand-me-down funding.
He evidences both ownership and earnership and is most giving. He practices de-accumulation in many ways.
There are others whose paths I've crossed who are wealthy because wealth was passed down to them. They have ownership, but no earnership. The result?
They are selfish and tight-fisted and driven by the belief that "there's never enough - I want more and more." They share nothing. They practice accumulation only.
Maharaj noted, "You need some food, clothing and shelter for you and yours, but this will not create problems as long as greed is not taken for a need."
Maharaj addressed the selfishness of one visitor: "To be selfish means to covet, acquire, accumulate on behalf of the part against the whole."
He said: "All suffering is caused by selfish isolation, by insularity and greed."
He told one visitor that he "was callous" and added, "If your world is so full of suffering, do something about it; don’t add to it through greed."
He also exposed the class-based snobbery of another, saying: "You complain that people are abjectly poor, yet you do not share your riches with them. You mind the war next door, but you hardly give it a thought when it is in some far off country. The shifting fortunes of your ego determine your values; ‘I think’, ‘l want’, ‘I must’ are made into absolutes."
There is little to be said for accumulation by the realized. Maharaj made clear that if accumulation does happen, it is to be shared with those most in need.
Yet there is much said for accumulation by those born into the upper social and economic classes they are in.
Of those types, Maharaj said that many "make the classification more important than life itself."
The realized care not a whit about any cultures' hierarchies. Those at the top of those hierarchies want those below them to fight and die to preserve their status and the status quo. Those types find truth to be anathema.
Maharaj explained the reasons thusly:
"Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and the freedom from the false."
He advised one visitor to the loft: "You talk so much of reforms: economic, social, political. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer. What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless?"
Indeed.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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