Righteousness and Discrimination
The power of righteousness has a dark and evil side when it is not properly understood and experienced. There have been too many deeds done in the name of righteousness that have been truly in the camp of ignorance, vengeance, fear, and stupidity. Yes, stupidity, plain old, dumb old, duh!
“You must realize (the) capacity for discrimination, or you really cannot cut it in the Spiritual process.”
“I did not enter into and endure or pass through the Spiritual process by being an asshole or true believer. Doubt was my Siddhi, the kind of Siddhi I acquired through that intellectual discipline, I do not believe or communicate bullshit, nor do I suggest that you bullshit yourself. Put yourself through the hard school, and really consider it. You must realize that capacity for discrimination, or you really cannot cut it in the Spiritual process. It takes a long time to be really schooled in discrimination. There is more to discrimination than just things of the mind, ideas and so forth. Discrimination is a tool you also bring to non-ideas – to impressions and events that have nothing to do with intellect or mentality or culture or society. You ‘must bring discrimination to events that transcend the conventional or lower bodymind, that transcend the first three stages of life. I was able to use that tool in the higher stages of life. I know how important it is as an instrument for growth into the higher stages. Therefore, you must acquire a similar capability.”
“In the popular un-Enlightened mind, the ego is eternal, good, Divine, and even very God. And mind is sufficient Heaven, or else this mortal Earth-life is the ultimate goal of conscious being. Such views are not only false, they are the very substance of un-Enlightenment, fear, cruelty, and madness. There are countless numbers of angry people and angry “religious” groups willing to do great harm to anyone or any organization that does not subscribe to the popular views of salvation. And, therefore, it is not only the message of worldly people but the message of ordinary and even extraordinary religious people that must be confronted by Wisdom. The righteous egoic “bite” of “pop” religion (and “pop” politics, “pop” science, and the “pop” mind cults of psychiatric vintage) must be tempered and transformed by unrighteous love, tolerance, and intelligent understanding.”
“Vajra neurosis involves fear of being surprised, confused, or overwhelmed by outside, so one continually monitors the environment for threats. When a threat is detected, we respond by cold or hot anger –pushing the world away by creating a cold wall that holds phenomena at a distance or a hot front that repels them. Vajra is associated with abstract intellect, with mapping relationships so as to have a clear, comprehensive view of a situation. In the neurotic state, the abstracting process becomes compulsive and loses contact with phenomena. One becomes self-righteous, justifying everything in terms of one’s “system” and filtering out inconvenient facts. It also leads to intellectual frivolousness, getting caught up in word games divorced from experience, or compulsively figuring out how things fit together and what rule of conduct applies to a situation. On a bodily level it involves excessive visual and head orientation, always trying to see around the corner or behind your back, watching every corner.”
“Religious cults are nearly always antagonistic to one another-each claiming some kind of righteous superiority for its special historical revelation. And the level of participation in the limited cultures of such cults is largely a matter of uninspected beliefs, external rituals, and superficial codes of social conduct, There is nothing morally, humanly, or spiritually superior, about such “religious” consciousness.”
True Religion Is the Natural Evolutionary Process of Human Existence
“don’t believe there is stupidity, delusion, and casual ill-will manifested anywhere more than in the domains of religion and spiritual cultism. Those who would truly live as a sacrifice in God must struggle every day to maintain a level of wit and good humor in the face of ceaseless disheartening confrontations with believers and aspirants in the various traditions. There is a righteous kind of sheer and pious madness that seems almost always to infect those who should be the enlightened minds and friends of mankind.”
The False Viewpoint of Religious and Spiritual Cultism
“The Way of the Heart is not a matter of any righteous effort toward self-purification. It is a matter of freedom from that effort. Neither is it an evil or immoral life. The Way of the Heart is simply a matter of understanding what the right principle of life is from the point of view of Truth, through feeling-Contemplation of Me. On the basis of that principle, you become tolerant of others and tolerant of your own humanity.”
When right is wrong and wrong is right, when right is right and wrong is wrong discrimination is the measure.
“There is no point in becoming “concerned” about the Community. The sadhana of the Community is no more a matter of concern for what appears than personal sadhana is a matter of concern for the qualities that arise in meditation. The Community can only become schizophrenic, righteous, self-conscious, and peculiar by thinking that the realization of the Community, as I have described it, is identical to a certain exterior manifestation that is perfect, non-cultic, brilliant, and all of the rest. Then the Community will always be looking at itself to make sure its ass is not hanging out. All of that is itself cultic concern. As long as human individuals are the substance of the Community (and that is forever!) the tendency will be present in each person every hour of every day to manifest the conditions and dramas of Narcissus. The tendency will always be to assume separation and to act separatively, exclusively. So the intelligence of the Community is not properly directed toward perfection in that outward sense of conformation to a certain image. Rather, the Community must always and actually do sadhana. In other words, it must live that process in which all tendencies and concerns are broken down, from hour to hour. And that requires everyone to meet directly, to deal with one another directly, to deal with themselves directly, and always to overcome this negative destiny that is appearing in both new and old ways from day to day. That sadhana is the sign of such a Community. It is not a matter of its concern for outward perfection, but of its adherence to the real process of sadhana. In that case the outward manifestation of the Community remains free to assume always more appropriate and effective forms in every moment.”
“All concerns are a sign of the same thing. Every concern is self-watching, self-meditation rather than simply living the Condition of Satsang in which all things are realized in Truth. And it doesn’t make any difference what the particular concern is. It may seem like a very righteous and realistic one. But concern itself is the sign of Narcissus.”
“Past societies have, in their extreme moments of confrontation, destroyed themselves, as well as their opponents. This is because ego-based societies function in essentially the same manner as egoic individuals. Individual human beings kill others and themselves every day. Therefore, groups and societies, confronting one another in egoic fashion, likewise threaten one another with destruction. And, in the extreme moments of confrontation, when self-preservation achieves its peak of righteous irrationality, it is profoundly likely that nuclear war will result.
The motives of present-day society are the same as those of past societies. The only difference is that, in the present day, the technology of both communication and confrontation has become both globally extended and profound. Therefore, when globally communicated confrontation reaches its peak of irrationality, war-motives will willingly destroy the entire world, just as readily as, in the past, less technologically sophisticated war-makers have wiped their petty local warring tribes from the face of the Earth”
On Liberation from ego and egoic Society, or, Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace
“The world, even the Realm of Nature as a whole, is founded on a righteous Principle. Therefore, the world will be purified, without a doubt. The Force of the Divine pervades everything, and, therefore, It also purifies everything in one way or another. If human beings, while they have the benign capacity to enter into God-Communion, will not do so, but instead create a corrupt culture, a subhuman order, then the purification will not occur within the ordinary and benign course of natural processes. It is then no longer a matter of some Adepts saying a holy word or speaking the Truth whereupon everybody changes his or her approach to life. It would be good if as many as possible could hear the universal Teaching of Truth and respond to it. But if the Teaching alone is not sufficient, then great upheavals necessarily occur. That is how the righteous Law works. It is not just that we pay our dues for past activity. A righteous Principle is positively at work, constantly to purify and to reestablish order.”
“Religious and Spiritual cultism is, thus, a kind of infantile collective madness. (And such madness is equally shared by secular cultists, in every area of popular culture, including politics, the sciences, the arts, the communications media, and even all the agencies and institutions of conventional ‘officialdom” relative to human knowledge, belief, and behavior). Religious and Spiritual cults (and, likewise, all secular cults) breed “pharisaism” (or the petty righteousness of conventional thinking). Religious and Spiritual cults breed “Substitution” myths (or the belief that personal ego-transcendence is both generally and ultimately, impossible, hut also unnecessary, because of what “God”, or some “Master”, or even some “priest” has already done). Indeed, religious and Spiritual cults (and likewise, all secular cults) breed even every kind of intolerance, and the chronic aggressive search for exclusive social dominance and secular power. Religious and Spiritual cults are, characteristically, populated by those who are, generally, neither inclined toward nor prepared for the real right practice of religious and Spiritual discipline, but who are (and always seek to be) glamorized and consoled by mere association with the “holy” things and beliefs of the cult itself.
This error of religious and Spiritual cultism, and of ego-based culture in general, must be examined very seriously such that the error is truly rooted out, from within the cult and the culture itself (and not merely, and with equally cultic cultural righteousness, criticized from without). Cultism of every kind (both sacred and secular) must be understood to be a kind of ritualized infantilism bound to egocentric behavior, and to the embrace of “insiders” only, and to intolerance relative to all “outsiders’ The cultic tendency, both sacred and secular, causes (and has always caused) great social, cultural, and political trouble, as can even now be seen in the development of worldwide conflicts based on the exclusive (or collectively egocentric) orientation of the many grossly competitive religious traditions, political idealism’s, and national identities.”
“The childish neurosis that characterizes exoteric cultism is precisely the clinging to superficial levels of understanding (or even mere belief, without much understanding), coupled with a righteous sense of exclusive possession of Truth. And, in this “late-time” (or “dark” epoch), this frame of mind is in evidence in every area of human occupation. That frame of mind characterizes the cults of science and politics just as much as it does the cults of conventional religion.
It is time for everyone to awaken from the spell of childish, subhuman, ego-possessed, subjective (mental, emotional, and physical) obsession. It is time to grow up!”
Cultism, the childish beginners religion
“No merely human being should presume to be the Master of Man. Every one of you is equally responsible to the Single and Transcendental Master of the world, the Living Light, the Love that is hidden in the heart of Man, and that is the only Power that has been Appointed to Rule the world.
Therefore, in order to do what is Great, you must love and serve your intimates and all of mankind. Whoever expands himself will eventually be reduced to nothing. But whoever transcends himself will become as Radiant as the atom in his own heart.
Damn you self-conscious and hypocritical bastards who rule the world with heart-breaking ideas and bombs as big as Nature! You tear out the very eyes by which Man may enjoy the Vision of Transcendental Truth. You do not surrender to the Radiant Life that is the Source and Destiny of Man, and neither do you allow anyone else to breathe and feel his Way to Infinity.
Damn you righteous intellectuals and TV prophets of mediocrity! You broadcast your Word around the world in order to reduce every man, woman, and child to your own likeness. And when any one hears you, he imitates you in the streets, and thus becomes even more benighted and dangerous than you.
Damn you fake Wise Men, all of you petty intellectuals and fundamentalist religious fanatics, who pretend to read the signs of Man! You stare in fascination at your own genitals, scratching your heads. You say, “The body is nothing. Only the mind glorifies Man. Therefore, it is knowledge that gives power.” Assholes! What is greater, the mind that separates itself in order to know, or the body that is always already one with the Living Truth? What is greater, the thought that “I know” or the body that surrenders in love? Therefore, any one who gives himself bodily to the Power of Life also gives even his mind, his feeling, and his every breath. Any one who transcends all knowledge in Love, Transcendental Wisdom and Spiritual Enlightenment has truly learned all there is to learn as Man. And any one who Confesses that Man is always in bodily Communion with the Living God will remain Alive forever.
Damn you infantile psychiatrists and official analyzers of religion! You justify all the childishly self-possessed and self-indulgent motivations of mankind, but you cannot acknowledge the divine Reality that provides the foundation for the manly Sacrifice of Man. Yes, Man should survive and grow by his enjoyment, but not without self-transcending love, compassion, the will to serve others, and the enlightened disposition of higher spiritual understanding. Assholes! You do not presume to know the Truth, but you make doubt and every kind of subhuman problem into a natural Law and Obligation of Man.
Damn you sanctimonious religionists! You are enthusiastic for every Idol that words can make, but your hearts and bodies are full of city poison and all the effects of secret self-indulgence. Assholes! First be converted to the Living Spiritual Reality that every heart presumes in its deepest need. Then discipline your body and your actions with love. If you do all of this, then your minds will also confess the Truth, and that Truth will liberate mankind from all the archaic beliefs and false cults that now provide the pretentious worldly fortress of “great religions”.”
“At last he represents no truth at all. Therefore, his living coaxes everyone only to understand. His existence denies every truth, every path by which men depend on certain truths, certain experiences, certain simulations of freedom and enjoyment. He is a seducer, a madman, a hoax, a libertine, a fool, a moralist, a sayer of truths, a bearer of all experience, a righteous knave, a prince, a child, an old one, an ascetic, a god. He demonstrates the futility of all things. Therefore, he makes understanding the only possibility. And understanding makes no difference at all. Except it is reality, which was already the case.
Heartless one, Narcissus, friend, loved one, he weeps for you to understand. After all of this, why haven’t you understood? The only thing you have not done is understanding.
You have seen everything, but you do not understand. Therefore, the man of understanding leaps for joy that you have already understood. He looks at the world and sees that every one and every thing has always understood. He sees that there is only understanding. Thus, the man of understanding is constantly happy with you. He is overwhelmed with happiness. He says to you: See how there is only this world of perfect enjoyment, where every one is happy, and every thing is blissful. His heart is always tearful with the endless happiness of the world.
He has grasped it, but no one is interested. He is of interest to no one. He is fascinating. He is unnoticed. Since no one understands, how could they notice him? Because there is only understanding, he is beloved, and no one comes to see him. Because there is only truth, he is likely to become famous. Since there is only joy, he will not be remembered. Because you have already understood, you find it necessary to touch his hand. Since you love so much and are not understood, you find it possible to touch his ears. He smiles at you. You notice it. Everything has already died. This is the other world.”