Spiritual Ramblings
By David Young
Published by David Young at Smashwords
© David Young. 2010
Cover Artwork. Gandhi, Krishna and Buddha from public domain pictures on NASA Hubble telescope photo of the Sombrero Galaxy. Montage by David Young
eISBN 978-0-9870726-3-4
David Young (1943-)
1 Spiritual. 2 Religion. 3. Metaphysics. 4. Self Help. 1 Title
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Table of Contents
Cognitive Dissonance. The art of ignoring what we do not want to know.
Holding on to your Essential Essence in Difficult Times.
Victim of Fate, or Creator of Destiny.
Sorting Reality from Illusion.
Making the Improbable a certainty
Can We Reconcile our Inner and Physical Worlds
An Alternative Interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount
Spiritual Ramblings is a compilation of short articles by David Young published in various forms with the general theme of spirituality. Each is complete in itself and have been arranged in random order rather than following any linking theme.
Some of themes will be familiar to readers of my other books, some less so, but all seek to remind us all of our spiritual base. The article An Alternative Interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount formed the basis of three chapters in the book Alternative Jesus.
There is an ancient Greek philosophy that begins and ends with ‘In the first place, cause no harm. In the second place, cause no harm. In the third place causes no harm. In the various version of the ‘Witches reed’ from the ancient Wicca religion there is the line “If it harms none, do as you will.”
This is one of the corner stones of a successful spiritual path. From the very begins of philosophies there has been the concept of living in unison with everything that the incomprehensible God has created.
It is the origins of Taoism, the basis of the Pagan earth religions and the basics of Wicca. Many Eastern traditions are based on the same principles.
Today we have pollution, global warming, destruction of the environment and many other problems associated with our forgetting to be harmless.
The idea of looking after our planet and all creatures on it goes back to the ancient religions. If a person joins a rally to try to bring about changes to combat global warming they are behaving in accordance with Wicca or Pagan principles. It is possible that if the ideals of Wicca and Paganism had not been eliminated (often violently) from our society we would not have a problem with global warming; we would not have polluted our planet in the first place.
What is often missed is that the Christian and Jewish Religions start with Adam being created by God to care for this planet and all creatures on it. What happened? We discover judgment, greed and illusions of power.
Being harmless takes many forms. It manifests in our daily lives and in our relationships. It also manifests in the relationship we have with the planet we live on.
The idea that doing nothing is being harmless is not valid. In the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (the example of a man divorcing his wife) Jesus taught that we are not responsible for another’s action. But Jesus followed that by saying that if we aid, or do nothing, we are as responsible for the person’s actions as they are. Standing by and watching another commit a harmful act is as harmful as the original act.
It is a part of the spiritual path to learn when to act and when not to act. We need to learn to understand the difference between personal choice and what is harmful. Maybe someone has a life style that is different from ours. That is nothing to do with us. If it causes no harm it is nothing to do with anyone else except the person concerned, even if religious leaders or others label it sinful. If we try to impose our way of life on others we are causing harm.
If a company pumps large quantities of carbon into the atmosphere it is harmful, to our planet and to us. If a dictator in Africa drives his country into poverty and disease it is our place to act. Part of the reason for our being here is to look after the planet and all on it. Poverty is harmful.
Following a spiritual path has its obligations. Part of those obligations is to understand what is required of us. Being harmless is one of those obligations. If a person professes to be spiritual and continues to cause harm they are a hypocrite.
The spiritual path is a personal journey, but there are some things that are a part of many people looking in the same direction. One of those commonalities is the need to be harmless and to do what we can to combat harmful behaviour. What we do in the external world is as important as the internal journey.
Cognitive Dissonance. The art of ignoring what we don’t want to know.
The human race is supposed to be rational. The human race is supposed to look at all the available information and make decisions based on rational analysis. That just does not happen.
What really happens is that we live by paradigms. A paradigm is a world view. We live in societies that have a particular world view. If a person lives according to a Christian paradigm they have a different perception of the world to someone who lives according to an Islamic paradigm. There is nothing rational about either, or any other paradigm.
If we lived our rationally our paradigms would be in a constant state of flux, being continuously modified as each new piece of rational information is added. That just does not happen. What does happen is cognitive dissonance as each new piece of information is added.
Cognitive is basically perception, and dissonance is conflict. It would be helpful if psychologists spoke English. But since cognitive dissonance is the official terminology I had better stick to it.
We have a paradigm that has been created by our society, or some sub-group of our society. It is unlikely that our paradigm has any basis in the rational. There is nothing in the concept of a paradigm that dictates that it needs to be rational other than to support a paradigm that cannot be supported in any other way.
Another, less polite way of defining paradigm is groupthink, where a group thinks as one and the individual conforms to an official form of thinking. Groupthink would be used to describe the behavior of the German people in the Nazi years when the individual became an instrument of the state. We are much more polite than that so we live according to paradigms.
The result of cognitive dissonance, individually and collectively, is to be completely blind to anything that conflicts with our paradigm. If we ignore it, it will go away. We have a Western paradigm that relies heavily on an oil based society. If we ignore global warming long enough it will go away. This is an example of how rationality has no place in our paradigms.
This of course will cause conflict. There are those who want to upset our paradigm by bringing changes that may or may not be rational. Cleaning up the planet may be rational but so far the advocates of curbing carbon emissions have so far only created cognitive dissonance, not a paradigm shift.
A paradigm shift occurs when cognitive dissonance becomes too great to ignore and the old paradigm is overthrown. A paradigm shift is not rational. It is not evolutionary, it is revolutionary. It involves major conflict. Sometimes paradigm shifts are bloodless, and some times bloody, but as with physical revolutions the new dictator often becomes as despotic as the old.
A paradigm shift will throw out the good with the bad. Everything is destroyed to make way for the new. We need a shift our attitudes to pollution and other environmental attitudes. There is an urgent need to look at our contribution to conflict around the world. There are many other things that need to be done, but not everything about our present paradigm is bad.
What has this to do with spirituality? Everything.
The spiritual movement is filled with literature about the need for a paradigm shift. How a new consciousness or awakening is going to sweep away the old and make the human race bright and shiny again. This revolutionary attitude will not cure all our ills any more than the Bolsheviks bought peace and prosperity to Russia.
Many who follow a spiritual path seek or expect a moment of ‘enlightenment’, a flash of understanding that changes their paradigm for ever. If we follow this way we ignore everything we don’t want to know about until it will just not go away. Then the old is destroyed by the new. Whether or not this ‘enlightened’ state will be any better than the old paradigm is debatable. Not everything in our ‘un-enlightened’ state is bad, but it will all be destroyed.
What is the way forward? Be aware of cognitive dissonance. Be aware that we all have a habit of ignoring what we don’t want to know about. Ask yourself if you want truth or a truth you will like. The two are not always the same.
If you decide you want truth don’t dismiss something just because you don’t like it. Instead look at what it holds for you. You might decide to accept it or reject it. It is likely that you will neither accept or reject. Instead the probability is that whatever it holds of value to you will be assimilated and you paradigm becomes evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Remember the old advice that a journey begins with a single step. Each place along the way is another first step. Enlightenment is a journey of little steps, not a blinding flash of light.
As a writer on spiritual concepts cognitive dissonance has a special meaning to me. If I write close to the existing spiritual paradigm (that hasn’t shifted in thirty years, same book, different author) lots of people read what I write. If I push the boundaries cognitive dissonance kicks in and I am ignored. This can be frustrating but is all part of the process until evolutionary paradigms take over from revolutionary paradigms.
Hopefully people seeking a spiritual path can come understand that a little small step at a time outside the safety zone will not cause the sky to fall in. That small step soon becomes comfortable is assimilated into the safety zone, and it is time for the next small step.
Learning how to overcome cognitive dissonance is one of those small steps and leads to our spiritual path becoming enjoyable and evolutionary rather than filled with drama and conflict.
Can Genesis in the bible be read to mean something completely differently that the various forms of Paulian Christianity deem it to be? Yes it can, and if it is read literally the meaning is surprising.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created he them.
Genesis 127 KJV
This was long before Adam and Eve so Adam was not the first ‘man’ What was the purpose of man? To have ‘dominion’ over the earth and everything that lived on it. Basically man was God’s caretaker. It is interesting that according the Genesis that at this stage man and all the animals where vegetarian.
With man as his caretaker and everything ticking over nicely God could take a rest. But God did not leave it there, and Genesis continues with a contradiction.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 27 KJV
If man (male and female) already existed this could be God giving man a soul. We had progressed from one of the animals to having a soul.
The next section of Genesis, from chapter 2 verses 8 to 14, describes how God created the Garden of Eden. Surprisingly from such a detailed description there is no place on earth that has the physical features of the Garden of Eden. But there is one place that fits. That place is the human brain. The circular river flowing out into four lands is a match for the Circle of Willis, the blood supply to the human brain.
Man suddenly becomes Adam. No reason given or suggestion before this that man had a name. Not surprising since man was the generic name covering both male and female. It is Adam who is placed in the centre of the Garden of Eden. It could be that Adam is the name given to the newly created soul, and that the soul was placed in the centre of the human brain. This would be about the position of the ‘third eye’ of Eastern religions.
There is progression here. We start with a humanoid whose purpose is to look after the planet for God. We then progress to humanoid with a soul place at the centre of a developed brain. We are not yet at the human stage as we know it.
The next step comes with the naming of the animals.
And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the fowl of the air, and of every beast in the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.
Genesis 220 KJV
The Book of J version is much clearer than the Christian Old Testament at this point.
‘It is not good for man to be alone’, said Yahweh. ‘I will make a partner to stand beside him’ So Yahweh shaped out of the soil all the creatures of the field and birds of the air to see how he would call them. Whatever the man called became the creature’s name. Soon all wild animals had names the man gave them, all birds of the air, and creatures of the field, but the man did not his partner amongst them.
Part of Chapter 4, Book of J translated by David Rosenberg, Vintage, New York, 1990
Man was no longer one of the animals and he was lonely. But ‘man’ is the generic name. There where others, male and female, so loneliness should not have been a problem. This must have been a special loneliness.
If it was Adam that was lonely then it is the soul that was lonely. The soul needed a partner. Why would the soul need a partner?
My hypotheses is that with a single soul mans consciousness would have been external. Mans only source of reference was the animals and birds but this was not enough. The soul needed a source of reference so that it could know itself.
So woman was created from Adam’s life (an alternative translation to rib). Woman would have been an exact clone of Adam. Man now had an internal mirror. The soul called Adam would know itself because it could see Eve. The soul called woman would know itself because it could see Adam. Man was now conscious of itself from within because the soul now had a partner.
There is no mention of Eve in the whole story. Eve only appears later as a wife who became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.
So man was now internally conscious. Man now knew the meaning of ‘I’.
Therefore shall a man a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be as one flesh.
Genesis 224 KJV
Man has now moved on and left its heritage behind. Man is now unique in that it is a fully internally conscious species. They have each other but are separate from its half conscious forbearers.
In the centre of the Garden (The Human Brain) are two trees, the Tree of Life (the connection to all life), and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (judgment). The only thing we must not do is judge good and evil.
There is a reason for this. The twin soul system of internal consciousness is very elegant. It is an almost perfect system with only one weakness. If the souls start judging each other the system self destructs. As the souls start judging each other the perfect mirror is lost. There is still an internal mirror but it is a mirror of conflict and the twin souls degenerate into what we know as the soul and the ego at war with each other.
The final move is for God to move the souls out of the centre of the brain to the right hemisphere so that they do not interfere with the tree of life.
So why did the souls start to judge? My guess is that there was one thing missing. We did not have an innate sense of self. We know we existed as a separate entity but had no idea who that entity was.
There are three questions that caught us out. Who am I? How did I get Here? Why am I here?
Given these three unanswerable question it was inevitable that we should judge and invent religion, philosophy, race, creed, color, nationality and sexism in an effort to give ourselves some form of identity.
There is emphasis on busting the ego in many area of spiritual seeking. The current Buddhist fashion is busting the ego. The Buddhist are not alone here, it is a fad that has been around for a long time.
The concept of the ego is a little over one hundred years old. It came from Sigmund Freud’s work on the unconscious. Ego was one of the three entities in the unconscious that Freud used to explain human behavior.
In a spiritual context it is more usual to refer to two entities, the soul and the ego. The soul is usually good and the ego bad. There is sufficient evidence in the area of split brain theory pioneered by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga to say there are two entities in the human brain that are independently conscious. For the purposes of this article I will use the common names of the soul and the ego.
If we have a soul and an ego there is either a reason for it or it is a biological sick joke. There does seem to be a reason for the soul and the ego, and that reason is consciousness.
If we only had a soul everything we would be conscious of would be external. Consciousness requires a duality. It needs a mirror. If we only had a soul we would only have an external mirror; the world around us.
This might be the way that animals are conscious. They could see everything around them and not see themselves as separate.
The human race does see itself as separate entities. We do have an inner consciousness of self. I am me, you are you and even the closest of marriages cannot merge two people into one.
We see ourselves as unique individuals because we have an internal mirror. That is the role of the soul and the ego. They provide an internal mirror that gives us our internal consciousness. The problem is not that they exist, but that they are usually fighting each other.
If the soul and the ego were to become identical and at peace with each other we would not be aware of any internal conflict. We would know ourselves and be at peace. If we could reach this state we would not be aware of the separate entities of the soul and the ego. They would seem to be one.
This would be the perfect internal mirror. The soul would know the soul by seeing the ego. The ego would know the ego by knowing the soul, and we would know ourselves through a feeling of internal peace.
Since both are necessary for us to be human we cannot make judgments about either being good or bad.
Busting the ego will bring us peace. It will be the peace of the comatose with no awareness of self. If internal peace with internal consciousness is what is desired, the way to go is to heal the rift between the soul and the ego.
The way to start that process is to stop threatening the ego and praising the soul. They are equal and need to be treated as equals.
The core issue in following a spiritual path is healing the rift between the soul and the ego. It is a strange sort of rift because it is a rift between us and our self. It is an internal rift, and when we are doing any sort of healing work to heal past or present problems this is what we are doing. We are reconciling the soul and the ego. This is essential because until the problem has led to a outcome that is acceptable to both the soul and the ego there will be internal conflict over the issue.
The soul and the ego as the two entities found by Sperry and Gazzinega can be seen as separate personalities that can have different reactions to the same situation. Reconciling the differences between the soul and the ego is something that needs to be done every time something happens that disturbs our inner peace. When that is achieved we can find inner peace and move on.
Enlightenment is one of those concepts that is so nebulous that it means many different things to different people.
Often the concept of enlightenment involves images of an old man sitting crossed legged in a cave half way up a mountain. The old man has spent a lifetime meditating, and at this advanced age he sits motionless with a smile on his face because he has realised the secrets of the Universe.
If this is enlightenment what use is it? Is the point of following a spiritual path to become pleasantly comatose whilst the world disintegrates around you? Or do we need to bring our understanding into the world. One of the things that Jesus said is relevant here. ‘If you bring forth what is within, it will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within it will destroy you.’ Enlightenment is to be bought forth, not hidden behind a knowing smile.
The path I follow dictates that as I understand things I bring them into the world. My little bit added to all the little bits contributed by many others just might make a difference. So enlightenment is to be savoured, enjoyed and used. But what is it?
Enlightenment is not a thing, or a state or anything lasting. It is a fleeting moment. Have you ever had a problem or puzzle that has no answer? Then the light goes on with a flick of the switch. Not only do you have answer, it is the only answer that could have been. It is an answer that you don’t have to remember because it becomes one of the things that are simply known and cannot be unknown. You assimilate it into your being.
That is true enlightenment. No big event. No bands of trumpet blowing angels welcoming a new master into heaven. Just a little fleeting moment that changes you in an imperceivable way. It is a flick of a switch that shines just a little more light on life.
With each little moment of enlightenment life changes in an almost imperceivable way. The world has changed fractionally. Enlightenment is not to be kept for oneself. It cannot be because a true moment of enlightenment changes a person forever, and that change shows.
There is probably not going to be any massive event of total understanding on the spiritual path. Instead it will be a massive change over time that goes almost unnoticed because it is sum of many little moments of enlightenment that came and went.
Everyday for the last six and a half thousand years there has been war, greed, poverty, oppression and genocide. The daily lives of many people are the same on a smaller scale. The difference between world affairs and what will take part in today is often only a matter of degree.
Why does the human race live this way? The answer that is given in old religious and philosophical writings is surprisingly constant. In variably judgment comes into it. From Genesis we have ‘Do not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ The Jewish Book of J says the same. Taoist philosophy gives many warning against judgment. There are countless other examples
Is the meaning being missed because judgment can mean so many different things in the English language? Is there a special type of judgment that fouls up the way we think and behave?
Toxic Judgment
If we do not know something we make a wild guess and claim that our wild guess is true. This is toxic judgment. It is toxic because our wild guesses are not true. They are not related to reality.
If people act on their toxic judgment the results will never be what they intended. How can they be? Their judgment is only a wild guess and has no reality attached to it. The results will have nothing to do with the reality of what was intended.
The Two Types of Toxic Judgment.
The first type of toxic judgment is claiming something to be false because it cannot be proved to be true. Scientist say there is no proof of any harm in genetic engineering therefore genetic engineering is safe.
The first part of that statement is true. There is no proof that genetic is harmful is true. But any harm there is in genetic engineering has not been invented yet. Any harm that exists in any new technology does not exist until the technology is introduced so there can be no proof of harm until the harm is invented..
There was no proof that the auto industry would cause pollution because before Henry Ford that pollution did not exist. All new technologies can have major unforeseen side effects.
The second type of toxic judgmental is the reverse. It is claiming something to be true because it cannot be proved false.
Someone robs a bank and gets caught. They are tried, found guilty and thrown in jail. I see no problem with this. But often people are found guilty and thrown in jail because someone said they where thinking about robbing a bank.
How often have you been tried and found guilty for something someone said you where thinking about. This includes assigning attitudes and motivation, judging what someone wanted or where trying to do.
How often have you done the same to someone else?
The Way Forward.
There is a way out. It is both easy and hard at the same time.
Be aware of the form of information you are receiving. If something is true can it be shown to be true, or merely unable to be shown to be false? If something is false can it be shown to be false or merely unable to be shown to be true?
Come to recognize these forms of communication and avoid them, both from without and within. If a person can do this their decisions have a reasonable prospect of working as intended because they will be reality based.
Holding on to your Essential Essence in Difficult Times.
‘What is the essential essence’ has been a question asked by philosophers since the beginning of history. It is a question that has fundamental meaning but is very difficult to answer.
Descartes gave one of the most famous treaties on finding true essence. In Descartes example he used wax. Here is a candle. It is made of wax that is solid and keeps its form. The candle is lit and the wax melts and runs, but is still wax. Water can be vapour, it can be liquid and it can be solid depending on temperature, but it is still water.
In modern times we could explain physical properties in terms of chemical properties, but this is not possible for people. There are many stages which a person can go through but this is not the essence of that person. What is it that makes a person a unique and indivisible identity?
Somewhere inside us all is a little quiet voice that is different and unique. That does not mean that there are not similarities, but the mix of similarities is different for each of us. That little voice is our true essence and is there to guide us if only we can listen.
You might be with a group of people that are laughing and joking together. Someone says something and you all laugh. But your little voice says it doesn’t like what is said even though you laugh with the others. You hear sexist or racist comments and inside you cringe, but you laugh anyway.
It is not always possible to avoid these sorts of situations. You might enjoy a sport or hobby and there is a wide mix of people involved. There is often no way of controlling the people we work with. But we can listen to our inner essence and quietly move away. No need to fight a battle you cannot win. There are other ways of changing the world you live in.
If we listen and move away from situations and people our inner voice does not like and towards people we do we will find ourselves guided to people with similar essence. Not the same but similar. In this sort of situation it is much easier to listen to our inner essence. While we are busy conforming or repelling to situations we do not like it is hard to listen to who we are. We get lost in internal conflict, and internal conflict is death to essence.
Your essence is that part of you that cannot be reduced. You might lose your job in the present economic climate, although I hope you don’t. There could be conflict with loved ones in difficult times. None of these things need be catastrophic because your essence will remain. Stay calm and hear your true self.
I was moved to write this article by the acceptance speech of Barack Obama. Replace fear with hope. One of the things often common to people who are following a spiritual path is that they have known difficult times and that is how they have come to be on this path. They have found that there is more than the material world. There is the unseen that helps and guides us through communicating with our essence and has proved over and over the old saying from Pharaoh Akhenaten “This too will pass also.”
These are times for having faith in your spiritual path and trusting your essence. It is easy to have faith when times are good, but to hold on in difficult times is the real test. Be quiet, be still and listen to your essence. Replace fear with hope.
Victim of Fate, or Creator of Destiny?
Fate and Destiny are two words that often get mixed up.
Fate is what happens to people when they do nothing. Fate is the result of being a blob that gets pushed around by whatever is happening in the world around them.
Living by fate means that at school a person will fall into what ever crowd is available. They join gangs through peer group pressure. They marry because someone is available or some asks them. Children arrive by accident. And when they die they get deposited in a convenient place and their grave quickly fall into disrepair. It is like they had never been here. Fate dictates the work they do by taking whatever is available. There is no seeking what a person would like to do.
Destiny, however, is the result of making choices. For some reason there seems to be children born who just know how to make choices. When they go to school they actively seek activities that mean something to them. The groups that they belong to reflect the person they are.
If a person who follows their destiny marries they marry to form a complete union with another person. Their children become part of the union. And when they die they are remembered long after they have physically departed.
Often there is a mixture of both in a person’s life. Is something the place they are in the result of fate or was it chosen? We have all ended up in places that have been the result of taking the line of least resistance. Getting out again is often hard and painful. Fate can be very hard on a person.
The good news is that it is never too late. Anyone can decide to start making choices and take control of their destiny.
Because you are reading this little article in a place about spirituality I am going to guess that you are searching for something better. I am making that guess because that is a very common reason for being here. It is either fate or destiny that has bought you here depending on if you drifted here or came here through choice.
The thing to remember is that no matter how much you know or how much you have learnt it will remain unfulfilled until your new understanding is used to make active choices. That is how you create destiny. You choose it. Enjoy your destiny, it is much more fun than being pushed around by fate.
Everything is an illusion according to many forms of philosophy and spiritual enquiry. This line of argument goes along several paths. One is that reality is only a dream and that we are some sort of spiritual entity dreaming a script to learn lessons. Another is along the lines that the whole universe is a hologram and that substance does not exist.
The one I like is the reverse of Descartes’ ‘I think therefore I am’ This version is ‘I am because I think.’ We are nothing more than an intelligence that thinks up a reality so it can get around. That one has interesting possibilities.
The idea of the world being an illusion goes back thousands of years. It was popular amongst Roman philosophers and seems to be part of the Tao Ti Ching. I say seems to be because the Tao Ti Ching is almost an illusion in itself. Much of it can be whatever you want it to be.
Over the years the meaning of the illusion seems to have been corrupted out of all recognition to the original intent. The original meaning of the illusion was that it is the value we place on reality that is the illusion.
The idea that material possessions equals success and power is the sort of illusion the old writing referred to. A big house is a big house. That is not an illusion. The idea that the owner of the house must be special and important is the illusion.
A President of a country must be special to become President. That is an illusion. There are many ways of becoming President of a country, and few of them require anything more than being ruthless. A person’s job or profession defines their intelligence. That is an illusion. There are plenty of over educated air-heads in charge of very large corporations. Position has nothing to do with intelligence.
One of the most blatant examples of illusion is that a person’s physical body in some way defines whether or not they are sexy. And as a result lots of very important people make lots of money selling products that are supposed to make us conform to the illusion. Illusion feeds on illusion.
This is the illusion of reality that a person following a spiritual path will have to confront at some time. It is fundamental that we must go past the illusion.
This does not mean that we have to be poor, ugly, or a door mat. What it means is that the idea that physical reality has any more meaning than just being. A house is a house, a flower is a flower and a person is a person.
A persons position or wealth in no way defines there value. It is impossible to say a person is worth three billion dollars. A person’s worth cannot be defined in money. Money is only a means of exchange so does that mean that this person can be exchanged for three billion little bits of paper? In that case a person can be bought and sold. Worth no more than a slave.
Our worth depends on who we are. Who we are creates the physical world we live in. The world is just the world, what we do with it is what we create. Our worth is defined by our actions. ‘By your actions you are known’ (Jesus). Do you create love or hate? Do you create Plenty or poverty? Do you look after this planet or pollute it?
These are things that will define who you are, not the illusions created by your physical possessions or lack of them. But as soon as you place importance on yourself because of what you do the illusion returns. Worth come from within, and that is the worth worth having.
Making The Improbable a Certainty
Richard Feynman, the great quantum physicist and educator said in one of his lectures that just because something is possible does not mean it is probable. This is the same concept as my earlier article The Judgment Trap.
So often we claim something is true because it is possible, and that something is untrue because improbable. The truth is if something is true it is true no-matter improbable it is. And, in reverse untrue is untrue no-matter how probable it seems. If there is no proof either way it remains a probability.
We spend our lives looking for certainty and yet all we have is varying degrees of probability. Virtually nothing can be proved conclusively one way or the other.
In Douglas Adams’ book, Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Universe, there is a spaceship that has a propulsion unit called the ‘improbability drive’. The way it works is that, if the pilot of the spaceship wants to be somewhere, he works out the improbability of being there and feeds this calculation into the improbability drive, and he is there.
Everything in our lives is improbable. Starting from your parents and place of birth, try to use statistical analyses to work out the probability of you being where you are now. The improbability will be infinite, but here you are.
That is why you are where you are, because it is totally improbable. Suppose that you were somewhere else. That would be equally improbable. Every single thing that we are, and where we are, is infinitely improbable. We are where we are now because this is the improbability we have chosen. Lets put a number on this and say that the probability of us being where we are now is a billion to one against. How do we use the improbability of anything to make what we want a certainty?
If you see that the probability of any of the other things that could have happened happening is also one billion to one against, then the probability of any of the billion options is equal. The probability of what you want is the same as the probability of anything else. The probability of what you want is equal to the probability of what you don’t want.
Given an equal choice out of all the improbable things that could happen all we have to do is to choose what we do want to make it a certainty. It works every time provided we are not logical about it. But as soon as we are logical about it, and decide that something cannot happen because it is totally improbable, we make it impossible.
It does not matter how improbable something may seem, it has an equal probability with everything else, and all we have to do to make it actual is to choose it. The act of choosing changes the probability of that one possibility into a certainty.
Douglas Adams’ improbability drive is the same logic, or lack of it. Where you want to be is highly improbable, but so is being anywhere else. So why not choose where you want to be and be there?
Another way to look at it is as a lottery with a billion tickets. The odds of any one person winning are one billion to one against, but the odds of someone winning are a certainty. How can we tip the odds? By choosing what we want.
The problem with being on a spiritual path is not lack. We can create anything we want. The problem is learning what we really want and choosing it. It really is that simple, and that hard.
There is a conversation in Alice in Wonderland I like.
‘Where am I’ said Alice.
‘Where do you want to be’ said the rabbit
‘I don’t know’ Alice replied.
‘Then’ said the rabbit, ‘What does it matter where you are.’
That is the real problem. We can have everything we want just by choosing it, but what do we want. The purpose of our spiritual path is to find out who we are and what we want. If we can work that one out the rest is easy.
One of the most common criticisms that a person on a spiritual path will encounter is that it is not logical. Somehow this call to the higher power of logic has the power to negate anything the ‘logical’ person wants to negate.
The process is very simple. The act of calling something ‘not logical’ demands the response of proving that it is logical. The counter argument will be rejected because the reply will not be logical and therefore it is wrong.
This form of argument is a misuse of logic, and shows a lack of understanding about the nature of logic. Logic is the justification of a pre-determine prejudice.
The purpose of logic is to find a way to justifying whatever end result is required. If an engineer designs the structure of a building he/she will start at the end. How big will the building be? How much will it weigh? What will the wind loads be on the building? Will the ground it is to be built on support the building?
From this point the engineer will work backwards from the big to the detail. Eventually the engineer will arrive at the very beginning where a set of plans and specifications can be given to the builder. The builder then starts at the beginning and works forward until the building is completed.
Logic is the art of working backwards from where you want to be to find where you must start from to get to where you want to be. If something is attacked for not being logical it means nothing because the pre-determined prejudice has been defined to be somewhere else. Logic can only ‘prove’ something that has already been pre-defined.
If I wanted to prove white people where smarter than Afro-Americans that is the prejudice I would start with. If I wanted to ‘prove’ Afro-Americans where smarter than white people I would start with that as my prejudice. The starting point established by working backwards from each prejudice would be different. By using the different starting points I can prove whatever prejudice I want to prove.
Used in this way logic is very dangerous. It can be used to prove anything.
But used correctly logic is a beautiful tool. What do you what? Where do you want to be? Let that be you pre-determined prejudiced. When used in this context prejudice is not a dirty word.
From there work backwards from there to here to understand how to get from where you are to where you want to be. Working forward again from here it is logical that you will end up where you want to.
Logic used correctly can take us to Heaven. Used incorrectly it can take us to Hell. It is possibly the most powerful tool invented by the human race. It has to understood and used correctly if the outcomes we want are to materialize.
Master is a word that is used in many ways. For those seeking a spiritual path there are two legitimate meanings. Often people confuse one meaning with the other.
The first meaning of Master is that a person has achieved a level of proficiency. They are ‘Masters’ in areas such as Reiki or other forms of massage manipulation or anything requiring manual techniques. In seafaring there is the ‘Master Mariner’, who is to be respected for the level and skill they have achieved. This is the same concept.
This does not mean that a Master in this sense deserves to be credited with any higher spiritual achievements because of their manual skills. They are good at their job.
The other form of ‘Master’ is someone who has achieved a degree of spiritual progress that lifts him/her above the other seekers. This is a quality that cannot be defined. One thing that you can count on is that if someone tells you that they are a master they are not.
One of the attributes of a master that comes through from old spiritual philosophies such as Tao is that a Master is without judgement. As soon as someone makes the judgement that they are a master then they cannot be.
So how do you know if you meet a master? You probably never will. But here are some clues.
A Master teaches without teaching. Have you ever been with someone and had an intuitive understanding without them telling you? A master will know that the only learning of value will be the learning you have taught yourself.
Knowing comes from the head. Understanding comes from the heart. Understanding is felt. A Master will help you feel the answer rather than tell you the answer.
A Master does not force things to happen. A Master works with what is in the present moment. Live is to be guided not forced. Going with the flow does not mean doing nothing. It means understanding what can be done and what cannot be done.
A master understands that this moment is all there is. If there is something that needs to be done now, then do it. If it does not need to be done now, then leave it a lone. A Master never does something simply because he/she can.
A very small movement can back a big change when it multiplies. A master can change everything by seemingly doing nothing. They have done something but it was too small to notice.
The problem with recognising a master is that they are not always a Master. Teaching without teaching is something that very delicate. Sometimes it can be done and sometimes it misses. When it works you are a Master. When it doesn’t you are not. For anyone to claim that they can achieve this level all the time is arrogance. It cannot be achieved in human form. If we achieved it we would no longer be human.
All of us are Masters some of the time, none of us all the time. The best we can achieve if we aspire to follow a spiritual path is to learn to do what we can when we can, and recognise when to do nothing. And in some moments we will be Masters. That is enough for one lifetime.
This article is about a car because I am a bit of a petrol head. Like the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ it could be about anything, because it is the essence of the story that matters. I could have made this story about a lion tamer, and that would have been just as appropriate.
Suppose we find a really rare and desirable old car, something like a ‘64 Mercedes Gull-wing, at an old farm covered in dirty, bits missing and a real mess.
We buy if for next to nothing, clear out the chickens and the hay and tow it home to our garage. For the next twenty years we spend thousands of hours lovingly restoring it to its original showroom condition. It is now perfect. Now it is decision time.
Do we to sit cross legged in the corner contemplating its magnificence and beauty, and wait for it to do something? Or do we open up the garage door, start the engine and take it out to see what it can do?
I am, of course, referring to the human mind. We have spent years on the spiritual path getting our brain into good condition. You may not think of it that way but that is how it is. Progressing along a spiritual path naturally repairs our damaged minds.
The mind, in good condition, is passive, like the Mercedes in the garage. It waits for us to start the engine and tell it what we want. It then goes and gets it for us. It will guide us to anything we want. But it will wait passively until the engine is started.
There is a stage where we need to decide what we want. Not what we are told we are supposed to want, but what we really want. Then the mind will take us there.
The alternative is to sit cross legged in the corner contemplating the beauty and waiting for the mind to do something while the mind is sitting crossed legged looking back waiting to be told what to do.
The real benefit of learning to meditate and taming the mind is to bring the mind to the place where it will be calm and wait for instructions instead of going its own way with us running after it trying to minimize the damage.
As in all things spiritual there is no need to wait until we reach perfect before we start using what we have gained. We calm our minds a little bit. We can start using it a little bit. It calms some more so we can use it some more, and so on, until we reach the stage where we are using our minds to create what we want instead of our minds using us to create what we don’t want.
First the bad news. There is nothing that is going to stop the advance of physical old age. Physically we can grow old gracefully, we can use plastic surgery to pretend we are not growing old, we can grow old healthily or we can go down kicking and screaming, but we will grow physically old.
The old age that can be avoided is the old age that brings redundancy. The old age that means there is nothing more to contribute. This is a very sad form of old age because it means we are redundant, surplus to requirements.
This form of old age can be avoided, and those that follow a spiritual path have probably already learnt many of the skills necessary to avoid it. It is an essential part of the spiritual path that what we do in the physical world remains relevant.
It is essential to our inner growth that we remain relevant. The alternative is to sit cross legged in a cave meditating in the delusion that this will bring us closer to God.
We have this thing called a belief system. Many people believe we are supposed to have a belief system, we are not. The belief system is just a mess of judgments that leaves us stuck in one place.
During our formative year we are bombarded with judgments. These judgments come from our parents, from our teachers and from society in general. Some of these judgements stick and some don’t. At some point, usually around late teens or early adulthood, the judgments that have stuck congeal into a blob. That blob of judgments we dignify by calling it a belief system.
The result is that is unless we do something about it wherever we are when the belief system congeals is where we are stuck for the rest of our lives. We are stuck running on automatic according to our fixed judgements in a place that no longer exists.
The 1960’s were a lot of fun for many who were there. But those who remain stuck there have become irrelevant fossils, and they tend to start every sentence with “When I was young…. “. This is what real old age is. It is the difference between when where we are stuck and the present moment. The faster the world changes the quicker people get old, even if they live longer.
If a person is stuck in the sixty’s they are fifty years past their use by date. If they are stuck in the seventy’s they are forty years past their use by date. The way not to grow old and remain relevant in today’s world is to continuously update the use by date.
Things are not better or worse than they used to be, just different. The faster technology and the world changes the faster we grow old unless we work at staying with what is happening now. A few years not keeping up can make us out of date very quickly.
The skills that are needed to keep up are the same basic skills that are learnt in following a spiritual path, or a self help program. Let go and move on. The world is continuously changing. Keeping up is a continuous process of letting go and moving. It isn’t hard, just takes a little practice.
The prize is that you will not grow old because you will remain relevant in the world that exists today. Also you spiritual path will not end up stuck in a back water.
A closely related issue is Stasis, which will be the subject of another article.
The way to personal power is to accept powerlessness. The way to abundance is to detach from the material. If someone special is to remain in our life they need to be free to leave.
Paradox after paradox emerges from personal growth and metaphysical inquiry. At least that is the way it seems to be. The greatest paradox of all is that there is no paradox. All paradox comes from the belief that there is separation between the physical self and the spiritual self.
When we believe ourselves to be physical, and only physical, then all information is processed as a reaction to outside influences. Information that comes in about outside events is processed from a defensive stance of fear, shame and aloneness. Our reaction is to throw our response defiantly back at the world.
Where there is no separation of self, information from outside is carried through our physical being the spiritual being within. Then answers based on inner knowing come back to the physical being and we act on these answers in the outside world.
In the first case, answers are a reaction to a seemingly hostile environment, whilst in the second they come from within, as guidance rather than reaction. Is it any wonder then that, with ‘answers’ coming from opposite directions, there is an appearance of paradox?
The basic problem is that we, the human race, work back to front. Something happens outside, we make a judgement in the cognitive brain that the event is good or bad, and then apply a standard answer to the event. No free will. We just react to everything that happens with a standard right-or-wrong decision, and the consequences that follow are beyond our control.
War is an automatic consequence of judging right and wrong. So are greed, poverty and prejudice. We have no free will to change the consequence until we forget right and wrong.
If the event is seen without judgement we can then decide what consequences we want, and our inner knowing will guide us to those consequences.
The judgement of right and wrong is a barrier between the physical world and our real self. We are not our brains, we are not our belief system, we are who we are: the ghost in the machine. When our brains make judgements about right and wrong we cannot be heard. The brain simply does not allow our will to be heard in the physical world.
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