Evil is the Sewerage of a Contaminated Mind

S.K. With respect Charles, your writings at times frustrate me. I certainly relate to your teachings regarding belief systems. The way we set them up as our ego security posts and then continue to defend them, even unto the death. As you often point out, when one analyses the process, it seems such immature nonsense bordering on insanity. You are offering humanity a way out of conflict and for that I thank you.

However, it is when you talk of this existence, (to paraphrase your words) as a “dream sojourn” and that the world is an illusion, is what really gets my back up.

C.G. Mmm, interesting, please continue.

S.K. I’ll give you an example. A missile blows apart a building and the media immediately labels those killed and injured as a statistic under the title “collateral damage”. So much suffering and yet in your writings you seem to dismiss these events as illusions. I feel outraged at your insensitivity. In my example, the warhead on the missile and the destruction and death it has caused is surely not an illusion.

C.G. Have you investigated the source of the outrage you are feeling? You are currently projecting this outrage towards me, as if I am the cause. If I am the cause, I must also be the source – which of course is absurd. In your example, I presume the loved ones of those killed and injured are also outraged. Their outrage will, more than likely, hunger for revenge. I suspect that those who deployed the missile you speak of were acting out of outrage from a previous event. Can there be any difference between your outrage and theirs? Are you not conjoining in their cycle of conflict?

S.K. You are merely putting the problem back onto me. OK. I accept that I feel immense anger when I hear of such atrocities and I am perhaps projecting that frustration onto you. But that doesn’t answer my question. I desperately need an answer. Others can turn their heads away from such problems and get on with their lives. I feel at times disgusted at being a human being. There is so much evil in the world. I feel like shouting, “Stop the world I want to get off. I no longer want any part of it!”

C.G. Evil is the sewerage of a contaminated mind, is it not? An uncontaminated mind will cease to project evil and conflict. If anger and outrage were the answer to rid the world of the evil you speak of, then surely the world would have rid itself of such evil long ago.

S.K. Yet a child dies and you call the existence of the world a dream, an illusion? How can you dismiss suffering so blatantly?

C.G. The two questions you ask are not totally related. The phenomenal world is an illusion. (Yes) Children die needlessly. (Yes). But then you load the question with another question: How can I dismiss suffering so blatantly? I cannot dismiss suffering. I have immense compassion for all who suffer. You too, obviously feel a great deal of compassion. The difference is that, while my compassion remains constant, you choose to allow your compassion to become contaminated with anger and frustration. It is a question of perception. You see yourself as separate from the world (duality) and I know that in essence, there is only non-duality or totality. When you observe suffering in others, you inaccurately perceive the suffering as their personal grief. To your observation, they appear separate from you. When totality is realized, all suffering is personal. When a child suffers – I suffer. The child’s suffering is my suffering. When the World is in pain I am in pain. Thus I cannot dismiss suffering. Neither will suffering inflame an angry response within me. To become angry and to make others suffer in retribution will only add to one’s own suffering and to the cycle of conflict.

S.K. This wholeness you speak of is idealistic. One cannot take on the suffering of the whole World.

C.G. On the contrary, one simply cannot avoid it. The ocean of humanity and the World are one. People place protective mental barriers up against the suffering of the world because they feel that if they were to surrender and “let go”, they will become overwhelmed with a tidal wave of suffering. And of course they are correct. Eventually these barriers will come crashing down and the ego personality and individuality will be washed into the ocean of oblivion.

These false barriers can never be absolute. An 'ego manageable’ amount of suffering seeps into the consciousness – usually just enough to become frustrated and angry. For example, you may have watched the news on television and became understandably upset by the graphic ‘newsworthy’ pictures of the latest violence. All the while, in other parts of the world, millions of malnourished and impoverished children are needlessly and prematurely 'crossing over'.

Such selected or partial compassion neither helps the sufferer nor the observer. Partial compassion, as you are demonstrating by your anger, can only lead to more violence and increased suffering. To further illustrate, each side in a conflict has compassion for the suffering of their own population and their own defence forces. However because such compassion is partial, it only leads to hatred and to the escalation of the conflict.

If you truly wish to embrace suffering, be total in your acceptance and total in your surrender. Be total in your compassion. Have compassion and patience even for those who perpetrate the cycle of suffering. The soul call is always, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And I use the term ‘soul call’ with purpose. Such a petition should arise from the heart centre and evolve from compassion and patience rather than from the tolerance and judgement of the mind.

S.K. I still cannot perceive the world as an illusion. To my observation the physical world is real. I am separate from you. I am sitting here looking at you. We are two people in a real world.

C.G. The problem begins and ends with body-identity. You ‘think’ you are your body, your mind and your personality – all of which is impermanent. You ‘think’ you are a human being. You wish to escape from the world but in reality the world is within you. The body, mind and personality are impermanent and permanence cannot flow from that that is impermanent. Only that which is permanent is real and the real (being permanent) cannot die.

You, as the cognizing being, are the subject and all that you perceive is the object. It is important to understand that the object also includes your body, mind and personality - the observer, the real you, perceives these attributes also. Now the question is, can the impermanent object exist without the permanent perceiver (subject)?

Rather than trying to answer the question, simply hold on to it. Enquire deeply into its roots. You do not need an intellectual answer. An intellectual answer will be of the mind and of no use. Be earnest in your enquiry. The question alone can lead to enlightenment. Ask yourself, if you are indeed separate, where do you finish and where does the object (or the not you) begin. What or where is the periphery of your consciousness? These 'koan type' questions alone will lead you to self.

Your consciousness is limitless and beyond time and encompasses all that you perceive. I can assure you that if your consciousness did not encompass the world you would not be able to perceive the world. Consciousness is both formless and timeless. In contrast; all that you perceive including your body, mind and personality has duration. In the cinema you can become emotionally involved in a film. Yet you know that the story is an illusion. You know it is mere dancing light. The film ends and you exit the cinema. Similarly, when this earthly sojourn ends you exit the earthly cinema and realize it was all mere dancing light.

So continue to ask the question, ‘Can the impermanent phenomenal world (object) exist without the permanent perceiver (subject)?’ But don’t attempt to answer it intellectually. Awareness will emerge as you begin to break the false habitual thought that you are your body. Remain detached. You (the real 'I) can easily observe that you are separate from the body. You have observed yourself as a child. You have observed your body maturing and then growing old. You will also observe the same body withering and dying. Yet you still remain as the detached observer.

Totality or enlightenment is the promise for all souls. Once even a glimpse of totality is experienced, there will no longer be a need for the question to be asked and there will no longer be the need for an answer.

To experience totality is the blissful realization that all is one.

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