I read a quote today, apparently from Mother Teresa. The quote is as follows "you will never find me at an anti-war rally, show me a peace rally and I shall be there everytime." It really got me thinking. These are entirely my thoughts and if they offend you in any way shape or form, I sincerely apologize. I believe that by seeing things as 'evil' we are giving them the power, so to speak. Since reality is perceptive, do our perceptions of good and evil that we assign to so many occurrences in life further empower these evil 'entities/ideas'? It's almost like, I think therefore I am. We think 'evil' or 'good', therefore, it is. This made a lot of sense to me seeing how our minds have such an enormous impact on how this universe functions. As a test of 'duality manifestation' I'm going to consciously no longer perceive 'good/evil', only what is, and see if I notice any differences in my mood/the way people around me act/the way people act toward me/the way events play out based on my emotions and response. And most importantly, see if my tendency to judge 'positive/negative , good/evil' changes (as I do this quite a bit). What are your thoughts on this, blades? Share any and all comments about duality that you like.
great post. i agree. it's a choice which side we empower. good luck with your quest. i have a hard time with this stuff. i let evil in a lot, but i am trying my best.
I agree. You can only be afraid of something if you let that fear manifest through your thoughts. That being said I'm afraid of spiders, thats my one fear I will never shake. I think it has something to do with past-life regression, those motherfuckers just creep me the fuck out.
Eh, evil/bad exists, doesnt matter if you refrain from making distinctions or ignore it, it still occurs, thats just reality. Its the reason we have police, ignoring it isnt going to correct the problem.
Every quality you can think seems to have an opposite. Heat has cold, light has dark, love has hate, courage has fear. But they're really just different degrees of the same thing. I am agreeing with you that it is your perception, but saying that neither exist or that there is actually a break between the two extremes, I believe, is an improper judgement on reality. Better to view everything as good or having the potential for good then? "“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” "Uuuuunitttttyyyyyy"- Dave Chapelle
I know what you mean - I live with many of them in a basement flat. But, making such statements is not a good idea. You shouldn't know this, as it puts you into a limiting state of mind. It is still an irrational fear that doesn't need to be there. So, while irrational fear is not an easy one to work with, you must still do so. This is what I did: Rather than react to any spider I see, I started to give them a little space. I made my bedroom out of bounds, and remove, or do what I need to do to, to keep it that way. But, I allow them to be elsewhere, so that if I see one in the hallway, I let it be there. I accept its presence and walk away, without allowing the feeling of knowing it's there to make me do something. Each time I do this successfully, I take a step towards letting go of the fear. Different spiders, different rooms, different days. Slowly but surely accept them as much as I can. Why? Because they are there. They have a right to life as I do. I am as much in their home as they are in mine. I have power over them because I am a big ugly human. I don't have to choose to always exercise that power. The more conscious and aware I become, the easier it is to live with them. Now here's the interesting thing. As if they get a sense of what I'm doing, I start to see them less and less in my bedroom, and only where I've already felt comfortable having them be. We start to live in some kind of harmony. I feel better, they don't have to go, and the world is a better place to live in. apologies for going off-topic.
Evil/bad only exists because someone thinks it is evil/bad. Evil/bad is not in everyone's reality, that's just the media telling you it is, or some experience you've had making you conclude this. The police are there to enforce the laws WE make. To protect and to serve. That doesn't mean that as they go about protecting and serving, who they need to protect us from isn't real and doesn't need them to do this, but why they do this is subject to what they're told they have to do. They might be told that anyone smoking cannabis in public is to be arrested. Anyone demonstrating/protesting at a certain place about a certain thing should be stopped. Not everyone will agree with this, but anyone they deem as doing so will be arrested just as if they were a real menace to society. Some even think those they do as evil/bad.
None needed, this post actually made me smile. I'll put this into practice and see if Spidey and I can live in harmony. Really insightful post. I was thinking more on this last night. What if duality is just an illusion? To keep us distracted from the whole our minds divide the whole into two opposite parts. Like you said, Heat and cold, are they not just different degrees of temperature? Light and dark, different waves of the light spectrum, apart of the spectrum all the same. If something is an illusion, does it still exist? This subject is touchy because everybody has their own views and perspectives. That is what I'm trying to achieve though, different perspectives of the now. Do share any and all comments. Another 'duality illusion' I just thought of is Yin and Yang, they appear to be seperate but they are both apart of the same whole. And when realizing this whole they become harmony, and unity.
Some things are innately "bad/harmful/etc." to us, our emotions indicate this. Things such as rape, physical violence and harm, theft, etc. If you dont believe that bad/good morals exist, thats fine...I happen to believe differently.
One man's bad/evil is another man's good and acceptable. Yes, as a society, we all tend to agree on what those things are. The examples you gave: rape, physical violence, etc, are not something most want to experience, but that doesn't make them evil acts done by evil people per se. Most societies say that using cannabis is wrong (certainly for recreational use). Many claim taking any drug is evil, and those who sell drugs are evil doers. Do you think this? I don't. But we know many do. Evil/bad is still in the eye of the beholder, even if many eyes agree that this or that is bad. But there are people who commit acts of bad because they believe they are not bad. Cannabis is a good example.
Simply put. I accept the things I cannot change. I realized long ago that you can't change people, and regardless of how much you beg and plea and try, in the end people are going to be who they want to be and do what they want to do. You just have to accept this and see that these 'bad' people are all apart of the one that we're all bound to.
Well, i'm saying that there are objective morals bad/good. Our emotions indicate that things such as stealing, murder, rape are wrong/bad.
My thoughts exactly, All we can really do is measure a limited part of space and give it a name, or measure span of time and give it a name. But we can't actually make a separation. We have our judgements and our biases, but the only one it makes a difference for is us, the universe will go on as it always has. I think an interesting point of view is the stoics, who say to make your desires fit the world, not the world to your desires. But the extreme they take it to seems to me like total annihilation, a complete emptying of yourself. I think the truth of becoming at peace with the universe lies somewhere in the middle. It's like nirvana isn't just being thrown into the melting pot of the universe it's having the individuality spread out to embrace the unified whole, which you already see yourself as an undetachable unit of. I try not to see the world as antagonistic, though it can sometimes seem so. We take offense to personal slights because we don't know led up to the incident. We let our desire for personal aggrandization take charge of us and we commit the same offenses as the people we are judging. I'm not saying we should not live our lives out to their fullest, but we should remember always there are more important things in this world than the bustle of the market place. Sometimes you have to step out of it to consider it truthfully, sometimes, when you have responsibilites and duties to uphold, it would be selfish to do so. It is a hard line to walk but there is a good message in the yin and yang, because the way I see it there are two sides to a coin. Living totally engrossed in the rat race is unsatisfying, living too much in contemplation and isolation also is. But everyone is different and only they know the balance that is right for them. As far as morals go, a person who commits a crime we call heinous may have very well been living up to the best of their nature, there is no way of knowing. This isn't to say we don't have a right to restrain that person for the sake of protecting ourselves, just like we have a right to restrain a wild animal.