Tagged: eternal being
Contradicting your own beliefs
Mathias was sharing with his friend Ananda, some deep aspects about the duality of life and “good and bad.”
Mathias: There is nothing, which is bad.
Ananda: Come on Mathias! what about a serial murderer, what about Hitler! Everyone knows that he has killed so many innocent people! He must be “evil.”
Mathias: Friend, in your religion; do you believe that you are an eternal being, a soul right?
Ananda: Right! We are eternal! I believe in that!
Mathias: Then how is it possible for Hitler to “kill” someone? In your religion you believe in the law of karma, right? Then, you know that everything is cause and effect. Wasn’t Hitler the effect of the cause? Would you ever experience something, which you do not deserve?
Friend, by calling some as “innocent” isn’t that contradicting your beliefs? And if you believe that everything is predestined, then how can you call something as “being bad” if that is the way it ought to be?
Ananda was speechless. But he wanted to test Mathias again, by playing “devil’s advocate.”
Ananda: OK. Mathias. I see your point. My belief is really contradicting itself when I label things as “good and bad.” But now… let us say that I am an atheist.
Mathias: That is another belief…
Ananda: But.. let us say that I do not believe in the afterlife or God or any of that. From my viewpoint, Hitler acted wrong. He murdered many. He caused suffering to many. He must be evil!
Mathias: In that belief when you die, everything is over. Isn’t that? Then, what difference does it make if you experience life 10 or 100 years? The end is the same. The more you live, the older you get with all the ailments of old age…to then finish in nothing…
Ananda: But the suffering that Hitler has caused to others…
Mathias: In that belief, for those people it was suffering. Yes. They experienced that in a random fashion. It was “their luck.” For Hitler it was necessary to do that, according to his beliefs. As you can see, there is always a clash between beliefs.
Ananda: But that is not fair!
Mathias: Then, change your beliefs again!
Ananda: Why is there suffering? Only because pleasure exists?
Mathias: It is growth. The consequence of previous deeds. That suffering purifies you if your consciousness is ready for a change, otherwise it is something not desired. It is what some call to “settle” your karma.
Is that settling of karma, “bad” then?
Ananda: But you can settle in other ways…
Mathias: Is that your new belief, my friend? Actions bring a consequence, which need to be experienced by the one who originated it. It is a full circle in life. That experience is not “bad,” it is necessary to grow.
When a baby is learning about life, his father will tell him: “Don’t put that in your mouth. It is bad.” The baby may think that the actual object is “bad,” and then “bad” will exist in the baby’s mind… Sometimes that belief will exist throughout his whole lifetime.
Depth of Spiritual Knowledge: Being and Non-Being
If we could truly go into this writing and nothing else, to really look at it for a little while; perhaps we could understand something to liberate ourselves from our own preconceptions, our own little beliefs, our conditioned dogmas and traditions, our own rituals and slaving thoughts.
There is “being and non-being.” What does that actually mean in BK knowledge or in any other spiritual knowledge?
There is duality. Every religion points to that in one way or another; using childish language or one for grown ups.
Being means what “is” then non-being will be “what is not.” They are not static “realities.” Those states change all the time. One will become the other. The problem is that we choose one state and reject the other. That is all. We call one state “holy” and the other “sinful.” One state cannot exist without the other.
There is day. It is 10 AM. Night is not there. That is being and non-being.
There is “soul consciousness,” because of that; there is “body consciousness.” Being and non-being.
Therefore, an eternal being, will experience non-being that. Maya. The Illusion.
In a nutshell, this is the depth of BK knowledge.
We could build upon this in many ways according to the motivation of the one who is relating this observation, this realization. I can make a religion out of this. A philosophy. A dogma. Followers are needed. Just believe. No need to understand.
When there is being and non-being; we could observe that changes come little by little. It is a gradual movement from one state into the other.
We could conveniently divide that change into 4 seasons. That is the cycle of time.
Just as Spring and Summer are related, so it is Winter and Fall. Not 4 but 2 seasons. Soul consciousness. Body consciousness. Yin and Yang.
It is the absence of heat and the presence of it; or the presence of cold and the absence of it. Being and non-being. Heat increases gradually. Cold increases gradually. Entropy.
Is heat different than cold? The gradual absence of one makes the other. They are not 2 but One.
To understand that concept deeply, so it is no longer just a concept; means to liberate ourselves from all other concepts.
Which other concepts? Omnipresent and individual God. Good and Evil. Pleasure and Pain. Anything that seems opposite. Anything that we have conveniently selected one side and rejected the other side. All of that is gone. Repressions are gone so to indulge in something is gone too. Virtues and Vices. No more dualistic concepts. See beyond. This is not for beginners.
In the gradual change of being and non-being; souls will appear in the scenario of the Drama of life. Every soul has a preordained role to play. That role will be played to help the Oneness of the Drama to change from being into non-being.
Actors of the Drama merely aid into this transformation by acknowledging a role running through them.
Therefore, an actor can believe that “he is doing things,” or he can realize that “he is an spectator of the role assigned to him.” Become a “I and mine,” or a “trustee.” Being or non-being.
Being and actor or Being an spectator. Being and non-being.
That consciousness reflects happiness or sorrow. Being and non-being. Being happy or not. Duality. Even though those states are related with a role, the soul; is beyond that duality.
Religions have created the rest of the story. Someone to worship. Someone to fear. Someone to obey. Someone to lie.
Punishment. Guilt. The sinner. Heaven and Hell.
It is just about where our consciousness is located. Being or non-being.
We are truly eternal beings not realizing our own eternity.
A wealthy man sleeping on the cold floor of conceptual fear.
That is our history.
Being and non-being.
Exploring the Depth of Living 