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 #64: humans have always been operating from a position of ignorance, and because when humans operate from a position of ignorance, they have no understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, and because when they have no understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, they dream up causes and because when they dream up causes they dream up supernatural Causers.
The causes behind reason #64?
IGNORANCE (AND, OFTEN, THE ENNOBLING OF IGNORANCE) along with IGNORANT PROGRAMMING, IMBECILIC CONDITIONING, UNENLIGHTENED DOMESTICATION, ILLITERATE ACCULTURATION, MORONIC BRAINWASHING AND WITLESS INDOCTRINATION
Christian Reconstructionism is a fundamentalist movement which - after nearly sixty years of disseminating their beliefs - has had a significant influence on the Christian Right in the U.S. Prominent advocates of Christian Reconstructionism have written that according to their understanding, God's law approves of the death penalty not only for murderers but also for "idolaters, active homosexuals, adulterers, practitioners of witchcraft, blasphemers, and - in some cases - even for recalcitrant [unruly or disobedient] youths."
Many among them have advocated the overthrow of the U.S. Government, the defaulting on all foreign debt, the dissolution of public schools on all levels, and rebuilding the U.S. from the ground up, using the Old Testament as the new constitution. The Tea Party is one of the more recent embodiments of the movement, as are many persons in the current administration and in the U.S. Congress.
It was those types of whom former President Obama was speaking when he said, "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."
"Education" to them is anathema unless its primary focus is on ancient Jewish law and Christian doctrine. Colleges and universities have long been scorned by those types who advise that those institutions be avoided because "their anti-religious, liberal-thinking professors corrupt our youth."
In their view, the only proper education is one that focuses on religious and moral principles and, dualistically, "makes children good and prevents them from being bad."
As a result of their influence, at least 2,000,000 children are now being "home schooled" using the standard religious-based curriculum guides and materials which are written and sold by Christian organizations. Another 5,200,000 or so students attend schools run by religions; combined, the two account for nearly 15% of all students in the U.S. and their numbers are growing.
Is this an endorsement of public education? No, but it not an endorsement of home schooling or religious education either. There is no delusion here about any educational system, and that is why ten years ago, the following was shared on this site:
In most nations, education has become an extension of religion and therefore fosters duality in the same fashion. In the U.S., church schools have reached an all-time high in number and now indoctrinate students not only with religious teachings but also with teachings that foster support of policies dreamed up by the government. The curricula in many public schools in Christian nations have been expanded to include “values units”; the programming of children to pledge allegiance to a country and to a religious deity; the conditioning of children to “respect all authority figures”; the programming of children with history lessons that are total distortions of truth; the conditioning of them to be willing as adults to follow unquestioningly all orders issued by governmental leaders and authority figures; and programming them to be willing to “fight and even die for their country or god.”
And, yes, the invitation here is to un-learn and to be un-taught, but what is to be un-learned and un-taught is the learned ignorance - the nonsense - which has been accumulated. So, is "formal education" an absolute requirement? No.
Maharaj said, "I had little formal education," but he did not disagree with a visitor who said, "University education is most useful." Maharaj replied, "No doubt, it helps you to earn a living," yet he added this: "But it does not teach you how to live." Knowing how to earn a living is one thing; knowing how to live in a way that is not driven by ignorance is quite another.
Moreover, to aim to overthrown public education because it often involves nonsense and has more than its share of problems is one thing, but to set out to replace it with a system which touts even more nonsense and which has generated more problems over the last 5,000 years than any other single source is evidence of true ignorance.
In the end, Maharaj made clear that knowledge usually amounts to "learned ignorance" and that it is wisdom which should be sought. Meanwhile, he did admit that education can be useful mainly for "earning a living," that is, for acquiring some saleable skills which can be used to pay one's bills. A key consideration he offered: "Where ignorance is not, where is the need of knowledge?"
But consider the nonsense which comes when that which one is taught has been based solely in books deemed to be "holy" or in the dogma of one religion or another. That is a key reason that humans operate from a position of ignorance and have no actual understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.
Moreover, when persons have no understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, they dream up causes and dream up "supernatural Causers."
The results of such ignorance have been illustrated by these examples:
1. When some religious fanatics flew airplanes into the Twin Towers in New York, the Christian minister Jerry Falwell said the cause was the fact that God was upset by the proliferation of "pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians in the U.S."
Christian minister Pat Robertson adumbrated the view, agreeing that the cause of the World Trade Center Towers being knocked down was . . . "homosexuals, abortion-rights supporters, and liberal civil-rights activists," all of whom displease God.
2. The path of Hurricane Katrina was determined by all-natural causes, including global rotation, global winds, trade winds moving westward from the coast of Africa, the position of a variety of high and low pressure systems, etc.
Yet the Dalai Lama - either (a) knowing nothing about why a hurricane actually follows the track it follows or (b) wanting to use the event to further his own agenda and belief system - assigned a supernatural cause to an all-natural event. Thus he claimed that "the people of New Orleans were hit by Hurricane Katrina because of their negative karma.”
Several TV evangelists in the U.S. claimed that the hurricane hit New Orleans because of God's wrath which was evoked by the fact that “New Orleans had a history of being tolerant of homosexuals.”
3. Hurricane Rita made landfall in the U.S. between Sabine Pass, Texas and Holly Beach, Louisiana after having reached wind speeds of 180 mph (290 k.p.h). A few days later, I left Texas to travel to Louisiana to conduct a 2-day retreat which some seekers there had arranged.
Along the way, I stopped at a store in a rural Louisiana town and overheard an elderly woman talking to the cashier and a group of other people who were waiting in line to pay for the water and ice and other supplies they needed because their electrical power had not yet been restored. She also claimed that, like Katrina, the hurricane was caused by a supernatural Power and said that “God is trying to tell us something, and we better listen.” And all of her neighbors nodded in agreement, one reinforcing her belief with an “Amen, Sister.”
To misunderstand cause (and to misunderstand Maharaj's pointer that "the cause of all is all") is to misunderstand what actually needs to be addressed in any given circumstance. If you have internal hemorrhaging which calls for a medical procedure to stop the bleeding but a physician misdiagnoses the cause and tells you to go home and take aspirin and rest, the hemorrhaging will only be exacerbated because aspirin has an anti-platelet effect and can result in a thinning of the blood and can thereby increase bleeding.
Additionally, to misunderstand the true cause of the problems of humanity and claim the cause of those is (a) knowing too little dogma or (2) having a sick spirit, and to misunderstand the cause of one's addictive behavior and to not know that it is rooted in personality disorders and mental illness rather than not being godly enough, then one will stay on the path or will remain involved with the journey or will continue to be engaged in the program which they are currently attached to but which will not address actual cause and cannot, therefore, provide actual solutions.
Maharaj noted that, at the heart of persons' problems and misery and suffering is their "ignorance of the true nature of things, of their causes and effects."
He said: "There is nothing that can help the world more than your putting an end to ignorance"
and
"Realization is but the opposite of ignorance."
But the obstacle to realizing? "An ignorant man is ignorant of his ignorance."
While potentially-fatal diseases and activities will generate fear and anxiety in humans when focused upon, most humans will remain totally unaware of the fact that it is ignorance which will likely be the most potentially-fatal thing that they be ever be affected by, relatively speaking. And even if one's ignorance does not prove fatal, it will nevertheless generate untold levels of misery and suffering.
Maharaj: "Creation itself is rooted in ignorance; matter itself is ignorance. Not to
know, and not to know that one does not know, is the cause of endless suffering."
As for religion and "religious education" (an oxymoron in itself), Maharaj said: "To love and worship a god is also ignorance. My home is beyond all notions, however sublime."
His ultimate message?
"I am only interested in ignorance and the freedom from ignorance. The proper role of a Guru is to dispel ignorance in the hearts and minds of his disciples."
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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