Thursday, July 07, 2022

CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: “Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?

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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.

Crimi’s case allows another point to be offered in this series that is asking, “Is the cause evil or is it ignorance, stupidity, and / or insanity?

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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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.

THE EXPLANATION


If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

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"

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 


"Heaven and earth shall fade away."

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 


"Heaven and hell are not geographic places

but are states of mind, nothing more than

concepts dreamed up by men."

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell."

--Pope Francis, the current pope

in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record

teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.] 

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