It is quite humbling to realize that if I had lived the life of the person whom I consider evil, I'd probably be up to the same (or similar) stuff I call out evil.
If one can access the deeper subtler realities and laws of nature accessible to us all (without the needs of any special external apparatus) through our pure minds, then one sees the world outside as a mere reflection of the one inside.
This is not to say that one should give up all external, physical, vocal action and focus on the mind alone, but it is to say that once the mind starts realizing its nature, all resulting actions nudge the world towards greater wisdom and self-realization.
Then instead of planting seeds of hate (ignorance), the same set of actions come from a place of unselfish compassionate love.
Great! vu2tve. Reading Caitlin's excellent newsletter, I was thinking in the same vein - of the words of the Buddha. Of seeing things as they are - Right view is the first noble truth of the Eight Fold Path. Also of the Kalama Sutra where Buddha says to be sceptical of everything, to go beyond tradition, opinion and belief.
The hiarchy fallacy that claim we are just animals or rats in a cage or maze with no ability to use the gift of intelligence to overcome base instincts is also a design of propaganda.
We use the observed animal world struggle for survival to justify our own cruelty and lusts and exploitation of other beings.
On one hand we claim superiority to the animals but when convenient we site them as example why we can't change and think our way into better systems and behavior..
We have a mind and refuse to use it for the best potential of human advances and thought going beyond our base instincts.. But that would mean crafting a more equitable prosperous world for all instead of a few opulent psycopaths running civilization into the ground and living off all our backs and creating the sniviling obsequious toads that support the system as it is so they too benefit by all its abuses.
The problem is not that one particular thing, person, group, country, empire, etc. is bad or evil. The issue at hand is essentially delusion.
Buddha called it out 2500 years ago - Moha, Avijja, Delusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moha_(Buddhism)
It is quite humbling to realize that if I had lived the life of the person whom I consider evil, I'd probably be up to the same (or similar) stuff I call out evil.
If one can access the deeper subtler realities and laws of nature accessible to us all (without the needs of any special external apparatus) through our pure minds, then one sees the world outside as a mere reflection of the one inside.
This is not to say that one should give up all external, physical, vocal action and focus on the mind alone, but it is to say that once the mind starts realizing its nature, all resulting actions nudge the world towards greater wisdom and self-realization.
Then instead of planting seeds of hate (ignorance), the same set of actions come from a place of unselfish compassionate love.
Great! vu2tve. Reading Caitlin's excellent newsletter, I was thinking in the same vein - of the words of the Buddha. Of seeing things as they are - Right view is the first noble truth of the Eight Fold Path. Also of the Kalama Sutra where Buddha says to be sceptical of everything, to go beyond tradition, opinion and belief.
The hiarchy fallacy that claim we are just animals or rats in a cage or maze with no ability to use the gift of intelligence to overcome base instincts is also a design of propaganda.
We use the observed animal world struggle for survival to justify our own cruelty and lusts and exploitation of other beings.
On one hand we claim superiority to the animals but when convenient we site them as example why we can't change and think our way into better systems and behavior..
We have a mind and refuse to use it for the best potential of human advances and thought going beyond our base instincts.. But that would mean crafting a more equitable prosperous world for all instead of a few opulent psycopaths running civilization into the ground and living off all our backs and creating the sniviling obsequious toads that support the system as it is so they too benefit by all its abuses.