ANNOUNCEMENTS
[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, "Unlearning with Floyd Henderson."
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2. Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the green text after today's post for the full meaning and implications of that.
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CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS:
“Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?
A
visitor asked a valid question regarding certain comments from Maharaj about
causation, one dealing with these pointers:
“No thing in existence has a particular cause.”
and
“To speak of causality as a universal law is wrong.”
To clarify:
In the first case, Maharaj is not denying the scientifically-established
principle of cause and effect. What he is denying in that comment is that a
single “particular” cause can be assigned to a particular happening.
In the second case, again, he is not denying the scientifically-established
principle of cause and effect. He is explaining that it can never be concluded
accurately that if “B” happens, it will have been caused by “A” every
time.
So much for the single cause of “evil,” and so much for the belief that there
is a universe that is so orderly that different events all seem to be similar,
or even the same, that those events are definitely rooted in the one, same
specific and singular cause every time.
Currently in the U.S., in the wake of over 300 mass shooting since January 1, the “latest face of evil” is being flashed across news screens at a regular pace. (By the way, for the first time ever, the #1 factor of childhood deaths - medical illnesses - has been replaced with “mass shootings in schools.”
One of the latest “faces of evil” is that of Robert "Bobby" E. Crimi III, 21.
The answer in this case is, yes, it’s “ignorance, stupidity, and / or insanity” but not singularly on the perpetrator of a mass shooting but on a second key influence, in this case his father.
The local police knew Crimi after two calls to his house, the second one involving a caller saying Crimi said he was “going to kill everyone” using a knife from his collection. Once there, his father minimized the event and said it was an overreaction.
He prevented the police from taking any further action other than to confiscate 16 knives, a dagger and a Samurai type blade from Crimi’s closet.
Later than night, his father called the police, demanding that the knives be returned because they were his, not his son’s. The police returned the weapons that night.
Illinois requires that a person under age must acquire a gun purchase license from the authorities with a parent co-signing and testifying that the child is not a threat. Crimi asked his father to co-sign and the father did so.
So Crimi, at the age of 19, bought two rifles and three other firearms after the visit from the police, able to do so because his father sponsored the card for the son who had recently threatened to kill the entire family.
So the father had the knives returned within hours after the threat to use them to kill the entire family, sponsored his son and made it possible for him to buy firearms two years earlier than state law normally allowed, and thus enabled his son in the killing of 7 and the wounding of over 30.
Thus, this
pointer regarding the “evil” vs. “ignorance, stupidity, and / or insanity debate:
not only can the ignorance, stupidity, and / or insanity of a perpetrator be at
play but a second key influencer being driven by ignorance, stupidity, and / or
insanity (in this case the father) can encourage a perpetrator’s actions.
Next, some love to speak about what “the universe” did for them or love to talk
about “the message sent by the universe.” That is nonsense that is spoken to
support an ego-state and to enhance a “public image.”
Maharaj is making clear that there is no “universe” that has laws that guarantee
that if “A” happens, “B” is most assuredly going to follow every time. There is
no such order in the universe, and there is most certainly no “Order-er” in the
universe.
In fact, the universe is in a state of flux, even a state of chaos if you will.
Per the Second Law of Thermodynamics, things are constantly coming together and
constantly coming apart. Explosions are happening constantly throughout the
universe. Planet earth is in flux as well, and mutations are not the exception
but are the evolutionary rule.
For example, the “ancestors” of humans are first and foremost plants. That is
still the case. But look back to the first forms that crawled from the ooze and
began to develop lungs and see that what is now called a “human” had the
appearance of something far more like a crustacean.
Next, realize that Maharaj's points will be misunderstood unless one knows that
the yoga he used changed over the years; knows that his comments are
level-appropriate (so he will give one seeker one pointer and another seeker at
a different place on the “path” a different pointer); and knows that his
comments should not be taken out of context.
To that end, consider the following exchange and note the points that Marahaj
was offering, in their original context:
Questioner: On several occasions the question was raised as to whether the
universe is subject to the law of causation, or does it exist and function
outside the law. You seem to hold the view that it is uncaused, that
everything, however small, is uncaused, arising and disappearing for no known
reason whatsoever.
Maharaj: Causation means succession in time of events in space, the space being
physical or mental. Time, space, causation are mental categories, arising and
subsiding with the mind.
[See, it is the fiction-filled “mind” that assigns “evil” as the single cause
of anything that persons conclude is not “good” or “moral” or “right” according
to their belief systems.]
Q: As long as the mind operates, causation is a valid law.
M: Like everything mental, the so-called law of causation contradicts itself.
No thing in existence has a particular cause; the entire universe contributes
to the existence of even the smallest thing; nothing could be as it is without
the universe being what it is.
[Again, understand that the phrase “the entire universe contributes to the
existence of even the smallest thing” points to the fact that “here there was
originally a void, the nothingness; then a single atom appeared, split, split
again, and split again and “set the ball rolling.”
Everything can be traced to one thing, and that is the basis of the non-dual pointer dealing with the unicity; however, that does not mean that “the universe” or a “Creator” is consciously directing anything and it does not means that the universe or a Creator is causing things to happen as part of a long-range plan.
Indeed,
if that were the case, the plan would be most a most unimpressive plan to
anyone looking at its results objectively.]
M: When the source and ground of everything is the only cause of everything, to
speak of causality as a universal law is wrong. The universe is not bound by
its content, because its potentialities are infinite; besides, it is a
manifestation or expression of a principle fundamentally and totally
free.
Q: Yes, one can see that ultimately to speak of one thing being the only cause
of another thing is altogether wrong. Yet, in actual life we invariably
initiate action with a view to a result.
M: Yes, there is a lot of such activity going on, because of ignorance. Would
people know that nothing can happen unless the entire universe makes it happen,
they would achieve much more with less expenditure of energy.
Q: If everything is an expression of the totality of causes, how can we talk of
a purposeful action towards an achievement?
M: The very urge to achieve is also an expression of the total universe. It
merely shows that the energy potential has risen at a particular point. It is
the illusion of time that makes you talk of causality. When the past and the
future are seen in the timeless now, as parts of a common pattern, the idea of
cause-effect loses its validity and creative freedom takes its place.
[Of course, that pointer deals with thing relative.]
Q: Yet, I cannot see how anything comes to be without a cause.
M: When I say a thing is without a cause, I mean it can be without a particular
cause. Your own mother was not needed to give you birth; you could have been
born from some other woman. But you could not have been born without the sun
and the earth.
It is desires which “create” / dream up] the world in which we live, that is,
one’s “perceived, personal” world. The real world is beyond the mind’s ken; we
see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right
and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond
the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes.
Q: What do you mean by holes? And how to find them?
M: Look at the net and its many contradictions. You do and undo at every step.
You want peace, love, happiness, and work hard to create pain, hatred and war.
You want longevity and overeat, you want friendship and exploit. See your net
as made of such contradictions and remove them — your very seeing them will
make them go.
You want peace, love, happiness, and work hard to create pain, hatred and war.
You want longevity and overeat, you want friendship and exploit. Is that not
the precise description of what ignorance, stupidity, and insanity look like in
practice?
Q: Since my seeing the contradiction makes it go, is there no causal link
between my seeing and its going?
M: Causality, even as a concept, does not apply to chaos.
Q: To what extent is desire a causal factor?
M: One of the many. For everything there are innumerable causal factors. But
the source of all that is, is the Infinite Possibility, the Supreme Reality,
which is in you and which throws its power and light and love on every
experience. But, this source is not a cause and no cause is a source. Because
of that, I say everything is uncaused. You may try to trace how a thing
happens, but you cannot find out why a thing is as it is. A thing is as it is
because the universe is as it is.
[Again, the use of “uncaused” there is to make clear that there is no single
cause of anything, there is no “Causer” in this universe, and there is no
universe that is consciously directing events.]
To be continued.
Please enter into 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."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
