TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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The Pure, Universal Consciousness,
Pure Awareness,
and a
"Proper Perspective"
“I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness.”
---Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
When this series began, this example of warped perspective was offered:
In the U.S., 2,977 people were murdered when airplanes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City on 9 / 11. That was - and remains - the most-covered news event in U.S. history; yet in the U.S., the [updated number] of people murdered in running nearly 40,000 per year.
(The most recent stats available: In 2017 alone, 39,773 in the U.S. died from gun-related injuries.) As for the coverage of those murder totals in the U.S. every year? Not so much. Perspective?)
In
the U.S., many die during the “breakup” of a marriage or relationship; during
the frequent mass shootings which occur in the U.S., especially those in schools and during other arguments; or at the hands of so-called "law enforcement."
Consider : in the first three months of this year, 312 civilians have already been shot by the police. Last year, a total of 1,021 people were killed by the police (though some investigators point out that federal reporting requirements regarding police shooting are spotty at best and that the numbers could well be much higher).
In the U.S., police, sheriffs, constables, etc. have to re-qualify between one and six times annually in a shooting range in order to carry and to use a firearm. Throughout the history of the U.S., some so-called "law enforcement officers" (or even more ironically, "peace officers") seem to prefer gun practice using live, often black targets instead of paper targets in a gun range.
As for mass shootings, ten years ago, the U.S. averaged at least one mass shorting every 64 days.
In just the first 90 days of 2021, over 170 mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. (but only those with the highest body counts received any national coverage). That means a mass shooting occurred in the first three months of 2021 at a rate of almost 2 per day.
By comparison: in Germany, there were only two mass shootings within the last five years, compared to thousands in the U.S. in the same time frame.
GUN TOTER NATION
U.S. civilians account for 393 million (or 46%) of the planet-wide total of civilian-held guns.
SO NOW, TO PERSPECTIVE
Few better examples of a widespread distorted perspective exist than the current perspectives in the U.S. regarding guns.
The dialogue on the national level is dominated by politics with the pro-gun, anti-gun-control, mostly-conservative Republican members of the U.S. Congress on one side of the debate vs. the Democratic Party on the other side who has been encouraging congress for years to take action in order to
(a) stem the sale of military-style assault rifles being bought by civilians
and to
(b) close the gap in the law which requires that all would-be purchasers of firearms undergo a criminal and mental background check if they want to buy a weapon from a gun store but allows criminals and the insane to buy weapons at weekend “gun shows” which require no background check.
[As usual in the U.S., follow the money through the U.S. Congress to see why some things happen while some things never happen. The gun manufacturing lobby gives massive sums of money to those in one particular party in order to buy their votes and to have them block any efforts by the other major party to reform gun laws.
When Trump ran for president on the Republican ticket, he received over $33,000,000.00 from the N.R.A. - the nation's largest gun lobby which always receives most of its funds not from its membership but from gun manufacturers.]
Regular visitors to this site are aware of the format of offering generalized pointers and then following those with specific examples to illustrate the current relevancy of the pointers. Constantly available on a daily basis are examples of warped perspectives, but examples of clear perspectives are far more difficult to come by.
Yet some do have a clearer perspective about the insanity of the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress’s refusal to address the gun issue being discussed today.
EXAMPLE #1:
One reporter in an editorial wrote that “there are no solutions in sight, except any number of obvious solutions that have been immediately obstructed by Republican lawmakers, such as passing laws which would expand background checks on gun buyers and passing bans on military-style assault weapons."
EXAMPLE #2:
During one presidential campaign, several prominent, pro-gun Republicans provided more evidence of their warped perspectives:
From former
Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz: “Our prayers are with
the victims, their families, and the first responders . . . .” He and his fellow party members use that statement frequently, usually after another mass shooting.
and
From former Republican Presidential Candidate Ben Carson: "My thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims . . ."
and
from former Republican Presidential Candidate Rand Paul: “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, families, and brave first responders . . . “
and
from former Republican Presidential Candidate Lindsey Graham: “Thoughts and prayers are with . . . “
and
from a high ranking Republican in the U.S.: “Please keep the victims … in your prayers”
and
from former Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee whose book was released in conjunction with one of his runs for the office of the President of the United States in which he praises guns and touts his opposition to the Democrats suggestion that the gun-related problems in the U.S. could be addressed, at least in part, legislatively:
As an example of a clear perceptive regarding what could work and what is not working, the editorial staff of the New York Daily News confronted the warped perspectives exhibited by Republicans with this headline:
That headline is relevant to a non-dual discussion of humanity’s mind-centered, typically-perverted behavior because
(A) it marks the first time ever that a major newspaper in the U.S. has ever challenged the warped perspective which prevails among the 97% on this planet who claim to be affiliated with one organized religion or another, namely, that "we must use prayer to bring about change" and that "God will answer prayers" and that “we must return to God to heal the world’s problems” and that “God is the only solution to the problems that confront humanity”
and because
(B) it parallels the shift in the focus of the message offered by Maharaj who moved away from the notion that the roots of humankind’s problems have something to do with either religious or spiritual shortcomings and have everything to do with mental issues rooted in personality identification and in the personality disorders which those bring
and explains
(C) why Maharaj advised: “Give up spirituality” and “follow your normal inclinations" and "forget spirituality."
[One ray of light: Since sharing the statistic which showed that a large majority of the people in the U.S. have always claimed to be affiliated with one organized religion or another, that number has now - for the first time since the late 1400's and the 1500's and the early 1600's - fallen to less than 50%.]
A clear perspective, in fact, shows that
(1) the emotional intoxication and the mental illnesses generated by dogma-induced fanaticism are key contributors to humanity’s currently-pervasive problems
and that
(2) human-generated problems can only be addressed via human-generated solutions.
Moreover, an objective viewing via a clear perspective, whether it involves looking at what is happening in the U.S. or what has happened all around the globe during the last 5000 years, would make clear to any wise observer that, indeed,
(3) “God isn’t fixing this” . . . or anything else.
Once again, Maharaj was spot on when he spoke - not from the standpoint of a political agenda or a religious agenda or a spiritual agenda - but "from the perspective of the universal consciousness."
To be continued
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
