There is a section of Answers From Silence on the topic of intolerance. It says that all viewpoints are limited in some way.
Every day you hear about people who can’t understand or relate to others who have a conflicting viewpoint.
Perhaps as a result, most public discourse now consists of taking a position and defending it against another person’s position.
This is might work if only there weren’t an essential flaw in taking a position. Any position can be challenged and undermined by contradictory information.
The world constantly changes. New information is always arriving. Holding a position might require that you ignore new information.
Also, holding a “good” position in opposition to another person’s “bad” position only makes you into their reflection.
As Answers From Silence says, “The only ‘right’ thing is the whole thing.”
Perhaps people want to hold to a changeless viewpoint because at some level they sense that there does exist a realm of changelessness and they want to exist there.
In that case, what they really want is enlightenment.
Establish yourself in the realm of changelessness, and you will inherit a viewpoint that originates from an experience of timelessness and unboundedness.
Except that it isn’t exactly like a viewpoint. It is more like an actual view. Like one you might see from a mountaintop.
In this analogy, opposing viewpoints would be like an argument between two mountain climbers who are trying to predict what it will look like when they reach the top of the mountain.
Only arriving there answers the question.
And then silence reigns.
—JC
Jeffrey, your seamless transitions in this blog post are totally captivating. But I did chuckle at your enlightenment-oriented interpretation of today’s polarized political debates.
To me, it seems like “Essence of Kali Yuga.”
You are familiar with this term, right? I would find it fascinating if you did a comment or two, or even a blog post or two, about what it is like for you, living during this time.
Defining Kali Yuga for your blog readers, that might include the fact that lies are accepted as fact, and that liars appear to triumph.
Mountaintop viewing of today’s political discourse, with the stench of Kali Yuga permeating it — does that detract from the sweetness of life for you at all?
So, why not?
Dear Rose:
Yes, indeed, I am familiar with the term “Kali Yuga”, meaning a historical period (yuga) characterized by ignorance of spiritual truths and, resulting from that, a predominance of negative phenomena (kali). Many interpreters of Vedic knowledge indicate that we are in that period now.
What is it like for me living during this time, and does it detract from the sweetness of life?
It isn’t like anything at all, and nothing detracts from the sweetness of life.
There are only two things, self and phenomena. And phenomena have nothing to do with self. Nothing at all, ever.
How could they? Phenomena are ever-changing and self is changeless. The ever-changing can have no impact on the changeless.
And the changeless is supreme. In Answers From Silence, I ask my Enlightened Self, “Are you asking that I turn my mind onto this dimension permanently?” The answer is, “This permanent dimension does not depend on you. But you depend on it.”
Kali Yuga, political discourse, stench—all are just phenomena. Also in Answers From Silence, “The sun doesn’t cease to exist when the clouds blow over.”