Original Sin (1)
As mostly the case, this is being written after much hesitation …
But then I say: I’ll read it myself at a future time, after having forgotten,
And forgetfulness is only the result of a change of circumstance,
Each circumstance requiring and bringing its related memory across its timeline, we must never forget …
Religions have thrived on fear, since the early days of this known cycle of human existence …
If something is not totally in accordance with one’s wishes: they say: follow us, so god fix it, or be warned of worse to come,
If everything is OK, they say: don’t be happy, it won’t last, and pain and suffering will follow,
But people have to change their perspective:
By not seeing that the difficulties of their lives as god’s wrath or karma’s payback, and by not being quick to classify whatever comes: as good or bad …
And by not seeing that a good situation is a sign for them to be dormant, and not wanting it to change forever …
It would be most boring if it were to be permanent, and certainly most sinful,
The morality that is inspired by such a change of perspective is innately tolerant and open-minded, hence compassionate and cooperative,
Run from the taught morality of religions …
It is built on that human life is evil, and that only their religion can fix it,
But even if you followed their religions, they say: we can’t guarantee you to dodge the wrath of god completely, or the hidden debts of karma,
God rules arbitrarily and might change his mind any minute, and karma never writes any of your deeds off …; remember the donkey you hit while riding it a billion years ago? it has kicked you now to pay back the suffering … although you’re a pious and a good person …
Of course, the events of one’s life are none but the making of one’s own thoughts, emotions and deeds …
But no one should have an anxiety about every puff of wind and live in fear of the snake hiding in the bush …
Most of the times: people who have trusted universal justice: get a mitigated share of the randomness of nature, or avoid completely the harm that is aimed at them …, by their alertness and poised temperament,
As long as there’s existence in a duality there’s error, in a manner of speaking,
Error that is caused by imbalance; the imbalance that is the source of constant activity ...
It is the error that displays only the Might and Beauty of the cosmic manifest,
The error prompts people to think,
The error motivates them to strive for betterment,
The error points them to virtue,
The error invites them to wonder and admire whatever they experience, whether pleasing or unpleasing at the moment of its display and eventuation …
Is this a good or a bad thing?
This is the Original Sin that is in Christianity and other faiths in different names,
This is the low life, that is a gateway to a paradise of abundance in Islam,
This is the suffering that is argued in Buddhism and Hinduism, from which freedom can be earned upon enlightenment,
Of course, a change of perspective won’t make it go,
But in the least: it turns the learning experience enjoyable …
Because: let’s face it, back to the world of physical existence and becoming: everyone will have to come,
“There is no one of you, but incoming to it”, as a Quránic verse (19:71) puts it …
And because it makes only sense, that all the creation has to witness every new duality, within its new parameters and its sector of the Discus …
To believe that existence can be bypassed or switched off altogether, upon following a certain belief or religion: is only wishful thinking …
Worse still, if it is believed that there’s an existence of a constant bliss and total lack of need that we should all aspire to …
No one has called us from such a place to tell us that they are there …
In a duality, however high and expanded awareness is…: it has to be lived in the duality …
Bliss can be had here on earth, without stagnating in it,
If people can bring the heavens down to their earth, people will be in a higher state of existence here on earth …,
Everything indicates that the coming millennia are going to be very eventful,
After a lot of struggle and after all pagan beliefs and practices are put to a final end,
And humans have made contact with one another, in our Solar System, in our galaxy and in neighbouring ones …
Only those who have expanded their awareness to handle such a universal openness will have the “bliss” of this experience, and many will be reduced to lower humans and lower forms of life as all the Books have foretold …
Original Sin (2)
All the moral teaching that came in the Books is meant to teach mind skills …
In the end, humans are mindful beings,
Once they’ve lost that mindfulness: their humanity is reduced,
And in a reduced humanity: no virtue is sought, and natural laws take over …
Natural laws per se are virtuous for the lower forms of life,
They insure their survival justly in their circumstances …
But natural life doesn’t do what it does in the same mindful manner as humans,
If it does: its limited intelligence limits its mindfulness …
If humans were to live only for the purpose of survival: their natural understanding is enhanced by their intelligence …
This is a double-edged sword that can potentially cause their demise, when natural laws are broken by clever trickery and deception, for a quick selfish benefit …
Mindfulness suggests to humans to find a higher purpose than just natural survival,
In a most dire situation: the cosmic display and eventuation invites the mindful person to enjoy the Might and Beauty of existence …
But it is the fear that bars the joy …
The fear of cessation of existence or suffering from being subjected to external factors which are out of one’s control …
Religious piety suggests that one should give in to god’s or karma’s will, in order to pass the test and be rewarded by some form of happiness …
But this is only one small aspect of the experience …
The events of the world are an integral part of a dual existence …
How do we react to them and how do we view them: is totally our choice …
Of course, having God in mind behind every eventuality gives a sense of safety and security,
But this is only a part of the experience …
A part which deprives one from the joy of it …
Original Sin (3)
No matter how lofty we believe a purpose of life to be: happiness, enlightenment, vanishment in nothing …: it is still a belief,
Remember that beliefs are all born in the human mind,
The least that can be inferred from this is that the human mind is above all beliefs, or a maker of them …
The consequence of having a belief is certainly a cause for more karmic activity, and perhaps the birth of a new belief …
But Time will move things, regardless of people’s regard of them …
Beliefs, lofty or mean, will have to expire …
If you say that one can’t live without a belief - and how true this is - it should never escape one’s mind that beliefs are deciduous,
They come and go, like every natural phenomenon,
Just be prepared always for changing them, like you change your clothing when the seasons change …
Because, if you continue wearing your woollies in summer, you’re going to get sick from dehydration and perhaps a heat stroke …
The Books do not offer a belief, but indeed freedom from them,
It’s religions that have turned them into beliefs and invented competition and comparison around them,
Because religious authorities have been unable to discern their message …
And now their institutes are stirring up war all around the world; war which could lead to major devastation, but they’re still happy to die for their beliefs,
And when they come back in a future life, they’ll discover that their beliefs have died, but they haven’t …!
It is when the expanded mindfulness is expressed by dictionary words that the confusion happens …
So, for example: victory translate to victory over national and religious rivals …
Providence and abundance translate to wealth in money and possessions …
Right or Law translates to local interests …
Happiness translates to a technique of numbing one’s senses and tricking the mind into a state of bliss,
Worse still, if it is believed to be a paradise of food, beverage and sex,
The natural projections of virtues are being exposed at the present …
The failure of Abrahamic religions to come to consensus, and put the past behind them and cooperate for their all sake: have exposed the futility of the natural conceptions, and the need to take them to a next level,
The failure of Buddhism to create a wise culture in their countries, that can be taken as a role model: has exposed their natural understanding of enlightenment and happiness …
And although Bhutan is seen as a model state, let’s not forget that it is one culture, one religion …
I wonder how Bhutanese would feel and act, were a group of migrants from of non-Buddhist neighbouring country to seek shelter with them …
Yes, theorisation is easy, and practice is tough,
There can never be a permanently good status for anything, including for highly acclaimed states and societies …
Perhaps when change is imposed by Time, it is time to relinquish incumbency, and get ready for a new journey: happily …
Original Sin (4)
So, here is perhaps the last post of this chain,
Perhaps the most harmful pain and suffering religions can inflict on the human psyche is the burden of guilt that they throw on it …
Be guilty for god or karma to be happy with you:
Crush your soul, torture your ego, cry about being alive and well …
This is all evil, they say …
We started off this chain with a quick visit to the concept of Original Sin in Christianity …
But let’s take a look at the concept of guilt in Buddhism,
In its extreme interpretation, every time you get sick and you take antibiotics: you are causing suffering to the bacteria in your body …
Don’t do it again, don’t get sick,
If you get sick, it’s your bad karma, caused by the suffering you caused to some other being before,
Thus the vicious cycle never ends …
Perhaps if you offered your naked body to the mosquitoes, to let them have a feast happily, without the fear of being shooed or squashed:
Karma will wipe out your bad deeds with the good one …
I can’t help the sarcastic tone, because even in the best-tempered of words: the thoughts that are being expressed can’t hide their ludicrousness …
So, to point to a mindful way out of this trap, COB offers this line of reasoning:
You’d have to have faith that there is Wisdom behind/above/around this world,
If you don’t, you are a nihilist …
In which case, even the “compassion” you say you believe: has no existence …
If you are a self-confessed such person: you risk going to the opposite thesis very easily in a change of circumstance, brought upon in another life or even this very one, namely: being very selfish, with no care about the suffering of others at all …
In which case, I suggest you take a rational way out of the guilt trap, and say to yourself: yes, fine, I care about everyone, including myself …!
I should not cause harm to myself either …
The bugs that I’m killing in my body … will have to die like me anyway …,
I am conscious that I’ve favoured my life over the bugs’,
There’s Wisdom in this world, between the Hands of which I do whatever I do in awe of it,
I rest my case in it.
COB sees that the Ghita offers a way of faith that suits best our modern reasoning minds,
In that it says that every deed you carry out, if you carry it out in total selflessness, as a deed of and in and to Ishavara, your Karmic burden is absolved,
Admittedly, this is a state of consciousness that is not achievable simply by saying: “I dedicate this to Ishvara” as you embark on action,
But indeed takes a lot of devotion and concentration and learning …, until one is one with the entire world …
Religions point to the Middle Way, and that is not always an easy way to notice,
Today’s world is nations and groups of people, torn apart by violence in the name of religion, and self-harm also in the name of religion,
The Middle Way is an individual realisation
Of course, if one is in a black-and-white frame of mind: one will say: you’re condoning violence …!
The black-and-white frame of mind behind such a statement, on the opposite side, upon hearing the suggestion that taking antibiotics causes harm to the bacteria that one should be concerned about: urges one to say: you are violating nature’s and god’s basic laws …, to the point of foolishness …
But a religious person will quickly say that their rituals and meditation techniques do take care of this dilemma, by calming their mind in seeking emptiness … and that eventually karma is wiped out, and the mind vanishes in emptiness …
It is the misconception of “emptiness” that renders any rational approach to this issue totally futile …
So, here we are, living in a world created accidentally, suffering and causing suffering to others, all of which need to stop, and compassion is the only way to stop it: so it turns empty once again …
So if compassion is the only virtue that can stop this cataclysmic eventuation: it has got to be empty of everything, including the suffering that no one seems to be able to tell us how it started …
