“It’s Just A Mask...”

 

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Lying is the Origin of Evil

By Paul Levy

Whether it’s fake news, alternative facts, mainstream media propaganda or our government’s lies, it is getting increasingly harder in this Orwellian world of ours to discern truth from lies. In words that are even more true today than ever before, Jung writes, “the lie reaches proportions never known before in the history of the world.”[i] Lying has gone pandemic in our world. From the spiritual point of view, lies are a murder at the level of soul. According to Buddhism, lying in one form or another—be they big or small, lies of commission or omission, to oneself or others—is the root of all evil. As the Buddhist Maharatnakuta Sutra says, “A liar lies to himself as well as to the gods. Lying is the origin of all evils.” One of the most important requirements for confronting the forces of evil is for us to stop lying to ourselves, which is the very act that helps us to cultivate the ability to discern between truth and deception.

Our culture doesn’t supply the adequate vocabulary necessary to describe, express and thereby expose evil. Evil itself has dumbed us down, as we no longer seem able to talk intelligently about the subject. Evil’s inability to be languaged is one of the things that allows it to get away with the murder that it does. Speaking of evil, Denis de Rougemont, author of The Devil’s Share writes, “It is emptying all words of their meaning, turning them inside out and reading them backwards, according to the custom of the black mass. It is inverting and ruining from within the very criteria of truth.”[ii] The sacred mass is about communion with the divine; de Rougemont points out that, as if in a black mass, the darker forces co-opt words, the medium of communication, to have the opposite of their desired effect – to cut us off from our communion with the divine, as well as separate and divide us from each other. The relationship between lying and evil is symbolically expressed by the figure of the devil, who Christ called “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) 

One way we are all geniuses is our incredible ability to deceive ourselves. When someone lies and falls into the perverse situation of believing their own lies (a form of hysteria called pseudologia phantastica), they can develop a type of charisma such that their lies, through psychic contagion, become very convincing to others. Jung writes, “Nothing has such a convincing effect as a lie one invents and believes oneself, or an evil deed or intention whose righteousness one regards as self-evident.”[iii] Lying to oneself, and then absolutely convincing oneself that one is not doing so, is an extreme form of self-deception that is to be unconsciously hiding from oneself. To quote the former dissident Vaclav Havel who eventually became the first President of the Czech Republic, “Lying can never save us from another lie.” In other words, once we step on the path of lying, lies feed on and off of themselves, weaving a never-ending web of deceit in which we become caught. 

Once we become sufficiently committed to—and possessed by—this process of hiding from ourselves, as if in the throes of an addiction, we then become compulsively driven to sustain the lie that we are perpetrating on ourselves by whatever means necessary, lest we snap out of our self-generated cycle of self-deception and have to confront the lie that we have been living. Once our self-deception becomes air-tight, however, it continually doubles-down on itself without end so as to avoid both the light and the dark. We then become an alien to our true selves.  

  

Believing our own lies is a classic version of doublethink: in trying to reduce our own cognitive dissonance, we successfully deceive ourselves, pull the wool over our own eyes (and then forgetting that we have done so), trick ourselves out of our (right) mind, literally brainwashing and hypnotizing ourselves in the process. The result is a split—and toxic—mind that has “danger” written all over it. The consciousness of the person so afflicted, as philosopher Herbert Marcuse put it, has become inured to its own falsity. 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in the classic The Brothers Karamazov, writes,

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” 

When we lie to ourselves, we lose the ability to discern truth from falsehood, both within ourselves and out in the world. This ultimately leads to a lack of self-esteem and even self-loathing, which results in losing our ability to truly love - the greatest tragedy of all. 

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We're All In This Together

by Ryan Moore

I need to know you're with me

It seems a simple choice -
succumb, or overcome?
Succeed, or fail?
Winner, or loser?

The english language is riddled with dualities,
each one of them cheapening
the fascinating variegated integrity
of creation itself.
(I.E., us.)

Many of us are force-fed these notions
and our mind, fulfilling it's function, digests them -
integrating yes/no understandings into our identity.

Are you fat, or skinny?
Stupid, or smart?
If you're not pretty you must be ugly,
and if you're not a 'have'
you must be one of the unfortunate 'have-nots.'

Are you good at dancing? Bad at sports? Can you sing, or not?
Do you have your shit together, or don't you?

Are you living up to your potential? Yes or no?

Think positive!
(Don't think negative, don't think negative, don't think negative.)

Be courageous!
(But what if I'm afraid?)

Happy people are successful!
(Great, now I'm sad and unsuccessful.)

Truth is not an either/or,
truth is terrifyingly brave
and grievously joyful.

Life is radiantly monstrous
and perfectly, perfectly fucked up.

I have been depressed for the past 24 hours,
and in my depression have found hope unconquerable -
for it has already been conquered, has already surrendered.

I would see humanity expand,
and slip loose of all the dualistic shackles
attendant to the experience
of being consciousness incarnate.

We are a phenomenon of consciousness itself, and so innately unconstrained.
We do not succumb or overcome, win or lose.

It may appear that way to those taken in by the scoreboard's simple illusion:

"Oh well, good game... we lost."

Did you?

It can be a horrifyingly ecstatic sensation, to surrender to the truths that lie beyond the boundaries of either/or.

As I commit more and more fully to abandoning myself to what is, something new seems to be happening. I sense the subtle emergence of a crystalline quality in myself, a quality that seems to suffuse everyday life with a moment-to-moment ability to be peacefully, attentively, alertly, and contemplatively present.

I don't find it easy, I find it a challenge to completely surrender the widely-held belief system which insists that there's a right way and a wrong way to do, a right way and a wrong way to be.

Often I find myself desperate for some evaluative criteria the same way I'd be desperate for air underwater - there is a similar sense of losing myself.

Often I race back to dualistic standards like a child fleeing back to mom and dad - the playground is too noisy, too confusing, too chaotic and I don't know what to do, don't know how to play, don't know what the rules are... at least with mom and dad I know if I'm doing it right or not.

When this happens, I can be pretty hard on myself - I've had a lot of practice establishing unrealistically high expectations and then berating myself when I fall short.

I find it hardest when I feel isolated.

Although I can be quite articulate here in blog-world,

in the face-to-face interactions of everyday life I'm often at a loss

when asked to speak about what I'm doing with my life.

People ask me questions like:

"What did you do today?"

or

"What are you working on?"

and I don't know how to answer. Once I tried saying:

"I'm intentionally outgrowing the dichotomy of polarity, because I'm utterly inspired by the vision of what humanity will inevitably collectively accomplish once we all do the same."

...and the conversation sort of stalled at that point.

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Unraveling the Sweater

When you were born into this world, you were undifferentiated consciousness. No concepts, no ideas, no words, just the Isness of awareness, pure and unsullied. And then someone pulled a sweater over your head that was knitted from their ideas and beliefs about the world, what they had been told was important and real and true, and they passed it on to you. And because you had little choice in the matter, you accepted this sweater, and came to believe it was a part of you and it even became the invisible backbone of your identity. Everyone wore a similar sweater, so it was clear that the sweater was a part of being a human being without exception.

If someone wore a sweater that was fairly similar to yours, there was no problem, but a different color or design sometimes was quite disturbing. It was hard not to warn anyone with unusual patterns in their sweaters of the dangers of nonconformance, and there were those who took this to an extreme whereas different sweaters had to be excluded and shunned, maybe even imprisoned or killed. A sweater, after all, is not just a sweater, it is the symbol of self, and must be true. A different sweater means something about you is incorrect, so to remain intact, one must reject whatever sweaters clash with one’s current fashion statement.

One day, as you were getting older, you noticed that the sweater had become a little tight, a little uncomfortable. So you were sent to a knitting class and learned how to sit quietly, knitting away, adding more to the sweater. Of course, you were very careful to not get too flamboyant with the design, just enough to show you had some creativity. And sometimes you would get together with others who also liked to knit and discuss how enhanced life was having discovered “the way” to knit.

Knitting was so embedded in the social structure of your life that there was little time for anything else. Everything was based on being a successful knitter, how else was anyone to tell who you were except by the sweater you wore? It was essential to keep one’s sweater in good repair and to learn how to maintain it. Everyone loved to talk about each other’s sweaters, offering compliments or criticisms as appropriate. You could always tell your enemies from your friends by their knitting techniques and yarn colors, so it was important to learn the differences and pass your knowledge on to others.

But there came a time when knitting took up so much time and energy, and questions arose as to what and who and why. Though these questions triggered great anxiety, you tried putting down the knitting needles for a bit. And for a little while, you were free from knitting and it was exhilarating! But knitting was such a habit that before you knew it, you found yourself knitting again, especially when your friends came over, since it was all anyone ever talked about. Still, you couldn’t forget that scintillating sensation of cessation, so, in secret, you began to sit without knitting, a little bit every day.

On days when your friends visited, you would pick up the knitting needles as usual, but it became apparent after awhile that you were getting a bit sloppy, dropping stitches here and there. Your friends thought perhaps you needed a refresher course, and they all had taken up with a new knitting teacher who was supposed to have the latest in techniques, especially when it came to repairing holes and tears. They encouraged you to attend these knitting workshops and at first you thought they might be right. I mean their sweaters were so beautifully done, with silver and gold thread in incredibly intricate designs. But the truth you were so reluctant to reveal was that you were tired of knitting. And you were afraid to say so, since everyone knitted something. Even ugly sweaters were better than nothing.

One day, while you sat and pondered these things, you noticed a loose thread hanging from the sleeve of your sweater. Usually, you would have taken out your needles and started furiously repairing the abnormality. But instead, you started pulling on the thread. Suddenly, the sleeve of your sweater started rapidly to unravel, at a rather frightening speed. Quickly, you took out your knitting needles and began pulling the yarn back together until one could hardly tell there had ever been a mistake. But you knew.

Now it was all you could do not to pull on that loose thread. It became like an itch under the surface of the skin. You couldn’t help it, your thoughts kept roving to the idea of no sweater and not-knitting. What would it be like to just stop? Would you be an outcast, would your friends and family leave you? Could you survive without your sweater, naked? You sat with your friends, your knitting needles idle in your hands, and many were worried that you had lost it entirely. Perhaps you would have to go to the hospital and have a surgeon repair your sweater for you, or in the worst case scenario, knit you a new sweater entirely! One friend said she would introduce you to the Swami Knityananda, who would put one of his sweaters on you and they were supposed to be just perfect, it was said no one could make a better sweater! And that his philosophy, “Knit This, Knit That”, took one to the highest levels of Knit-vana!

Well, all this talk became a bit much, and you stopped going out and you stopped inviting people over. You sat with your sweater, looking at it in the mirror, wondering at its colors and textures, its strangeness and its beauty, its ugliness and shabbiness, the whole of it. And you pulled at the loose thread. You pulled and you pulled. First one sleeve went. Then the other. You were terrified for a second, having never seen your bare arms before. But it was so freeing. So you kept pulling. And pulling. And finally the remnants of the sweater fell to the floor. And you saw your Self. The Truth of your Self. And you knew you would never be able to knit another sweater, because you knew that nakedness was sweet. And you just started laughing and laughing at the joke of it all.

One day, your friends came over and you were just sitting there, naked. At first they were outraged, then concerned, then curious. After all, you were so happy, grinning like you had an in on the biggest secret! So, as they furiously knitted away, they tentatively asked you what had happened. And with a little sparkle in your eye, you said, “It’s simple. Ask yourself “Why Knit?”

Suddenly, all the knitting needles clattered to the floor.

The Myth of Yoga or Integration

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definitions:

Yoga - System of meditation and asceticism designed to effect reunion with the universal spirit.

Integration - The combination of parts into a whole.

Common questions that one sees are 'how to integrate self-realization into one's day to day life?' or 'how to achieve yoga - union?'. However, both of these questions are based on a false premise which is that there is something separate which needs to be reunited, or combined, into the universal wholeness. Now it can be readily seen, on the experiential level, that each moment is just an experience consisting of thoughts/mental- images and sensations appearing in Awareness (I.e. we are aware of them). So that deeper than this flow of objects (thoughts/mental- images and sensations) we are this constant conscious subjective presence - Awareness. For a more detailed exposition of this see chapter two of Beyond The Separate Self or chapter one of A Light Unto Your Self.

Once this self-realization has occurred one sees that there never was any separation, as that which one truly is - pure Awareness, consciousness at rest - can never be separate from the Totality of consciousness. In the same way it can be seen that nothing is ever separate from This (consciousness) which exists in two states, at rest as pure Awareness, and in motion as cosmic energy. Every thing in existence is a configuration of this energy for modern physics has shown that matter is equivalent to energy, and the string theory posits that all matter is composed of strings of energy vibrating at different frequencies.

Now all motion arises in stillness, exists in stillness, is known by its comparison with stillness, and eventually subsides back into stillness. For example, if you walk across a room, before you start there is stillness, as you walk the room is still and you know you are moving relative to this stillness, and when you stop once again there is stillness. In the same way every 'thing' (consciousness in motion) arises in Awareness (consciousness at rest), exists in Awareness, is known in Awareness and subsides back into Awareness. Awareness is still, but is the container of all potential energy which is continually bubbling up into manifestation (physical energy) and then subsiding back into stillness.

Therefore pure Awareness, that which we truly are at the deepest level, is the substratum of all existence, the source, ground, seer and dissolution of all things. So there is, and never was, any thing that needed to be reunited, or combined, with the universal wholeness; for no separation is possible. In the same way our 'day to day existence' is never separate from This (pure Awareness) and thus no integration is necessary. For when examined living is seen to be a series of momentary experiences that seem to merge together to form something we call my life. As previously stated, it can be readily seen on the experiential level that each moment is just an experience consisting of thoughts/mental- images and sensations appearing in Awareness (i.e. we are aware of them).

So we need to be very careful when contemplating reality not to fall into the trap of assuming that we need to integrate ourselves, or achieve yoga (union), as there never was any separation. Any mode of thought that seems to posit a separate self which needs to be integrated, or united, subtly reinforces the myth of separation, and thus should be avoided or treated with care.

~ Colin Drake

Order Colin Drake's books as ebooks or in hard copy at

http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm