Q. But what does that notion do to the idea of karma,
reincarnation and the Law of Cause and Effect? Aren't they real
either?
A. Karma and reincarnation exist only as long as there's an
illusion that there's a separate and individual "self"
who is the so-called do-er.
In other words, if you consider yourself to be the
"causer," it naturally follows that a "you"
will then be obliged to "hang around" in order to
receive the full effects of the so-called "causes" that
you've, seemingly, set into motion. Without a separated
"self" actually present to experience these phenomena,
though, the idea of karma and reincarnation is unsupportable.
How does that follow? Well, if all separation is only illusory,
then who is it that's actually being "reincarnated,"
anyway? Or, for that matter, who is it who's ever really
"died" in the first place in order to be
"reborn" again?
Q. So are you saying that all of mankind's past history is really
only a part of this great illusion, too, and that none of it ever
really happened!?
A. Well, there's only one so-called "movie" playing on
the "Cosmic Screen," and that's the very
"movie" that you believe you're experiencing at this
very moment.
When you watch a movie, for example, did the offscreen events
that are referred to by the characters really, in fact, ever take
place at all? But, you see, the dramatic story on the screen is
greatly advanced (and enhanced) by the viewer's willingness to
pretend that those offscreen events did, in fact, actually occur.
But "It" (as the movie) is always fully present in its
absolute totality...right here and right now. In short, this
really is IT !!
Q. Yes, but then what about the future? It almost sounds like
you're saying that I shouldn't try to do anything about it.
A. No, I'm not suggesting that at all. For example, if you really
feel moved to save the whales, help the poor, stop AIDs, etc.,
then go ahead and completely throw yourself into it 100%. Don't
hold anything back! The "you" that you think you are,
though, is not really the "do-er" of any of these
actions. Consequently, this "you," then, need not
concern itself with the results of these "actions" that
you're feeling so compelled to, seemingly, "do." In
Truth, by playing ALL of the so-called "parts" in the
cosmic drama, Consciousness is really "doing" it all.
Q. But are you saying that I shouldn't care how things work out?
A. Actually, I'm just suggesting that you play out your role in
the Cosmic drama with complete gusto and passion. However, you
can best remain truly detached from what shows up for you only if
you give up your idea about what "working out" looks
like. In truth, things will neither "work out" nor will
they not "work out." They will only BE whatever they
will be.
If there's any overlay of what "should" be happening on
top of what actually is happening, then it's only a manifestation
of the ego-self getting caught up in its own delusion that it
(and it alone) is the true source and the "do-er" of
these actions.
The irony here is that, even though it doesn't really matter what
you "do" in your role, it still seems to be very
important that you go ahead and, seemingly, "do" it
anyway. After all, the dance is best honored when the Dancer
(Shiva) really dances the dance!
But remember that It's all only a dazzling "play"
that's unfolding like the ever-changing colors of a cosmic
kaleidoscope. The very nature of the Consciousness that you are
is to "BE" what It is ….. by pretending to,
seemingly, "become" what It's pretending to not be.
Q. So, are you enlightened?
A. Well, if any and all divisions on the Cosmic Screen are only
illusory, then how is any individual enlightenment even possible?
In other words, what separate being is really "there"
to be enlightened (or, for that matter, to be un-enlightened) in
the first place?
- Chuck Hillig from The Way "It" Is,
published by Black Dot Publications, 2001.
Interconnectedness -- as doctrine and as experience -- is a
source of comfort and inspiration for most Buddhist activists. If
all things are related to each other, then work on behalf of one
worthy cause often supports work on behalf of other worthy
causes. Joe Gorin kept asking himself where he could contribute
most effectively; eventually he concluded that "each
struggle for justice is a part of every other one, so it makes
little difference where I go after my time in Guatemala is
over." [34] In practical terms, saving rainforests may not
help to save whales, but saving rainforests may indeed help to
protect indigenous peoples. The task for globally oriented
activists is to identify the meaningful connections.
For veteran practitioner-activists there is a steady current of
"results" in one's inner life, however external
outcomes are reckoned. When all else fails, the sense of forward
movement on the path can provide sufficient justification for
continuing one's work in the world. Alan Senauke articulates this
assuredness:
Often I feel discouraged by the overwhelming tide of violence,
nationalism, racism, and all painful divisions we create between
and among us. But the work of kind words, nonviolence, mindful
breaths, and quiet sitting has its own core of steel. [35]
Maylie Scott describes one of the ways that her presence at the
Concord Weapons Station has contributed to her spiritual
understanding:
From the first time I went out -- Christmas of 1987 -- it was
very clear to me that the community there was not really based on
results, although it was dedicated to stopping the weapons from
being exported. The site is the basis of a community witness. .
Seeing the trucks pass and knowing what's happened -- both on the
site and as a result of the weapons themselves -- you fall into a
meditative response; you recognize something. [36]
Since the boundary between "inner" and
"outer" is porous, any achievements in the inner realm
yield benefits in the outer realm. Whenever Scott or others
"recognize something," they are somehow changed; and
they further believe that in changing themselves they also
transform the world.
The sense of efficacy in the spiritual realm is not experienced
merely as a compensatory source of solace for political
frustration or failure. Spiritual power is believed to achieve
its own results in its own ways. Thus a group of Buddhist
demonstrators bearing witness at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site
recited a ritual dedication as part of a ceremony they created.
It concluded:
All merit and virtue that may have arisen through our efforts
here, we now respectfully turn over and dedicate to the healing
of this beautiful sacred land and to all beings who have been
injured or harmed by the weapons testing on this place, so that
the children of this world may live in peace free from these
profane weapons, and thus may have their chance to realize the
Buddha's Way. [37]
- excerpt from: Practicing Peace: Social Engagement in Western
Buddhism By Kenneth Kraft, published in the Journal of Buddhist
Ethics, Vol 2, 1995
In the last decade or so ethics has experienced a revolution, as
the parameters basic to ethical debate since ancient Greece have
been transformed. Until quite recently, the problem of ethics has
been what binds us human beings together: how to relate to other
people, or to society as a whole, without using or abusing each
other. Today the issue of ethical responsibility has broadened to
encompass the whole ecosphere. The crucial question has become
how to relate to all beings, not only animals and plants but also
apparently non-sentient "beings" such as tropical rain
forest systems and the ozone layer. In spite of distractions such
as the debate over "sustainable development" (an
oxymoron?), the suspicion continues to grow that what is involved
is much more than merely the need to preserve "our natural
resources." Lynn White, Jr., one of the first to consider
the philosophical implications of the ecological crisis, realized
that the issue is fundamentally a spiritual one: "Since the
roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must
also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We
must rethink and refeel our destiny." [1] It is becoming
obvious that what is required is nothing less than a fundamental
transformation in the way we have understood the relation between
ourselves and the earth.
At the heart of this issue, we are also beginning to realize, is
the self. The ecological problem seems to be the perennial
personal problem writ large: a consequence of the alienation
between myself and the world I find myself "in."
"The same dualism that reduces things to objects for
consciousness is at work in the humanism that reduces nature to
raw material for mankind." [2] In both these dualisms, the
self is understood to be the locus of awareness and therefore the
source of meaning and value. But this devalues the objective
world, including all of nature, into merely that sphere of
activity wherein the self labors to fulfill itself. The alienated
subject feels no responsibility for the objectified other and
attempts to find satisfaction through exploitative projects
which, in fact, usually increase the sense of alienation. If so,
the meaning and purpose that we seek can be attained only by
establishing a more nondual relationship with the objectified
other: in ecological terms, with the earth which is not only our
home but our mother.
The reason why we have trouble is that we have a body. When we
have no body, what trouble do we have? Therefore: he who loves
the whole world as if it were his own body Can be trusted with
the whole world. --Tao Te Ching, ch. 13
- excerpt from Loving the World as Our Own Body: The Nondualist
Ethics of Taoism, Buddhism and Deep Ecology By David Loy
In the undertow of evening I am settled around myself.
Those who have lived long enough to keep quiet
should be listened to.
In the valley between my shoulder blades I sing to my Self
where a river is running underground.
I am always kneeling.
I kneel to the one who knows but will not speak
the first word that sets these worlds in motion.
two
Every man is alone and every woman is breathing in the gulf
with schools of mullet in her tidal hair.
All night long the left hand feels in the dark for the right.
Shivabalayogi is my Guru. Carol is my wife.
This is all I know.
three
The angel of the Lord is flying again
over the Cascade Range and Hood River Valley.
Wings made of fire drop light into undergrowth.
I am a standing flame.
My fingers matchsticks all struck at once.
I am the river in the Douglas fir
the living water rising through root and trunk
taking in and giving out breath.
You are above me spread out as breath and as the prayer of
breath.
Shivabalayogi I am kneeling to you.
Carol I am kneeling to you.
Poem copyright 2001 Charlie Hopkins
Charlie Hopkins is a wallpaper hanger and devotee of Sri
Shivabalayogi Maharaj. He lives in Hood River, Oregon. All his
poems and prayers are addressed to his wife, Carol, but she
doesn't mind if others read them also. Carol is a Vedic
astrologer and counselor.
A teenager pitched a rock through my window. So now, my
occupation is gathering rocks in the adjacent lot. I never seen
so many rocks. I have gathered already two wheelbarrows of rocks.
I don't blame the teenager, I blame the rocks. Stones like to fly
and they ask children for a ride.
It has been interesting. They are so dissimilar, those rocks: So
many sizes, and colors, and textures. The lot is like a city of
rocks. Some look native to the soil, others are foreigners who
arrived long ago from God knows where. A few are very smooth and
round and hefty- good stones to throw. You can tell they came
from some river or shore. Others are jagged and evil looking,
they have the looks of killers rocks. I wish they would talk to
me, but rocks are very snobbish, they only talk to geologists, or
kids.
Kids and stones go way back. The beginning of their love affair
is lost in time. It was probably a child who threw the first rock
to an animal. And it was to this child that the stone whispered a
message now lost. A message and a promise of fruitful
partnership- of weapons, and power and cities and roads, and
kingdoms to come.
Yes, we became really human when we began fashioning rocks to
suit our needs. We shaped them and they shaped us. So when I lift
my wheelbarrow full of stones I feel like a Sumerian. And the Zen
Garden boulders left behind wink wisely in the sun.
You and I are not doers. We're really not. This is one of the
last dominoes to fall when you are trying to wake up. Arguments
against this theory abound, obfuscating the clear light of the
principle.
I am not typing these words into the computer. Well, of course I
am. Actually, "I am" is typing these words into the
computer, but "me" is not. "Me" doesn't have
a clue. " Me" is "I am" dressed up as"
Vicki the typist."
I try hard not to intellectualize what I know to be true. I get
tired of reading esoteric blah blah about enlightenment. These
fingers pointing to the moon are not typing, you might say.
Everything is typing and that is the simple truth. Everything
backs up everything and nothing is excluded.
Martian rocks and argyle socks are excellent typists when they
need to be. So are newborn pups and coffee cups. Whatever needs
to be done is done by the All. When you run out of tape wrapping
a package, the universe runs out of tape and has to go to the
store. That is why gurus talk about cultivating the higher
virtues, like thrift. Ramana Maharshi didn't waste a scrap of
food. We all know that. If he had eaten at Chili's, he would have
taken home part of his dinner in a styrofoam box.
The day I discovered that I was not the doer was when my husband
blamed me for burning dinner. "Oh, no," I chirped,
"the universe burned the dinner."
"Well, the universe doesn't have to clean it up," he
said. He frowned at the charred skillet and I knew that I had
found a real reason to believe in the theory of not being the
doer.
This may not be what you were expecting to read, but the universe
is not always a very good writer. If you are dissatisfied enough
to want to argue with me about this theory, the universe will be
happy to hear what you have to say. And by the way, the universe
likes chocolate-covered doughnuts but they tend to make it fat.
So, let's recap, shall we? There is no doer and the universe is a
trillion pounds overweight. They may find no life on Mars, but
they will find a rather large double chin. When they figure out
how to get it a health club membership, all of us will have to
go.
Yours in clear understanding,
Vicki Woodyard (on NDS)
A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain
how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He
brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives
conversed by means of farts and tap dancing.
Zog landed at night in Connectitut. He had no sooner touched down
than he saw a house on fire. He rushed into the house, farting
and tap dancing, warning the people about the terrible danger
they were in. The head of the house brained Zog with a golf club.
This perspective below in poetic pandering for possible applause
or
boo-hooks hanging overhead, is a play with the Player, a persona
honest sonnet capped with what Lal-Ded reputedly said,
"It is God who yawns and sneezes
and coughs, and now laughs.
Look, it's God doing ablutions!
God deciding to fast, God going naked
from one New Year's Eve to the next.
Will you ever understand
how near God is
to you?"
~Lalla
My ego is my pal.
We swing in Northern Cal.
From in-between the standard mean
of swinging between anything,
I swings with Niz in ego-biz,
by being everything that Love can bring
and being nothing, Wisdom winged...
Ego-Badda-Bing, Ego-Badda-boom!
To the moon pointing I,
Ridin' high on ego's sly
and comfort-fed,
fat cat falalala head...
My ego is my pal.
We sing from Northern Cal.
We slip and trip
and call out yip
we clip the edge and cantor foul,
but man oh man and wow oh wow,
We always gets that sacred cow...
A Moooove on now,
We cuts him up and stitches up
the little ego wine-filled cup...
Yup.
My ego is my pal.
We palm press with Allah.
We sit here sketching skits with Ish
a Wara wooing for Arjuna,
"Everyone is now in tune-a"
with a Luna laughing Howl.
