By Reza Ganjavi
An old friend, a great author and philosopher, Dr. James Christian told me last night: "I don't need the world. Basically the world is trashy". I really agree with that. It is sometimes disgusting to see how many people live, think and feel - the vanity, gossip, jealousy, hatred, and brutality which hide behind all sorts of masks such as spirituality.
Is the word "friend", like "god" and "love" overused, misused? You know, possessiveness is not "love". Many people have been killed in the name of "god". Unfortunately stabbing each other in the back is so common and so few faces you see is really what you get - you know, the old trick of "divide and conquer", is that friendship? Are there any "Brahmins" left? I know a very few. (Using the word Brahmin symbolically). I never think in terms of moral principles - right action is in the moment - but there are a couple of codes of honor that have shown up lately in my life 1) I do not go out with a married woman [8 Jan 2004: Note: to "go out" in American English generally means having sex...] . 2) I do not ask a person what he thinks about another person (unless it is for a practical reference). What do I care how you think of another? Conclusions and images about people are stupid anyway, because a person can change - like a river. But I guess in the mental prison most people live in, to justify their imprisonment, "misery wants company"... and someone outside the prison -- "well that cannot be true!!" they say... If someone talks to me behind your back, it is common sense that he would talk to you behind my back. An old Persian saying goes: they asked the great sage Loghman who he learnt politeness from? Loghman said: “The impolite ones".
<SNIP> I only get the motivation to type something if I am very inspired, or ridiculed, or want to share something great (gotta say I am more often ridiculed than inspired at the general state of humanity, how people think and live, the prejudice, jealousy, fanaticism, and all. But always inspired by nature, sweet smiles of dear friends, and music lovers). I don't claim to be wise or learned or anything - just see what is and describe it, though my glasses may be conditioned at times. These are written with minimal "tact", and as frank as possible, which may be disturbing to some people, but some readers like the style. Writing for me is like art: therapeutic, an emptying, a meditation, an inquiry, an unfoldment. I think the world would be a better place if people were more frank and communicated more freely without fear. I welcome your feedback, and the more specific, the more useful it would be.
John Lennon wrote: "People say I'm crazy, doing what I'm doing, well they give me all kinds of warning, to save me from ruin..." Is not achievement a human conditioning? A kindergarten teacher friend observed that adults worry about kids when the kid is not doing anything - but for example just sitting quietly. I've often questioned the role of toys - because the kid grows up and still wants to always be occupied and that leads to all sorts of problems such as various forms of escapes. We grow up and condemn a person who is not running after money/position/acceptance/love/spiritual achievement as wasting his time.
Is it OK to shout (not literally) from happiness - or does one have to worry that Mr. X and Mr. Y will be jealous and send you hatred? "What has he done to deserve this? He must be lying or trying to say he is special, enlightened - so I'll just discard what he says altogether and I can go on my merry way." The fact is that we never know exactly what another has gone through and how he is living. Is not comparison another one of our conditionings - since childhood, in school...? Have you seen how comparison brings antagonism, jealousy, hatred? I have seen kids literally get destroyed by comparison. Jealousy is very deep rooted and can unconsciously shape much of people's attitudes and behavior. Can we wipe out hatred from our bodies/hearts for good? (Yes!) Can we eradicate, uproot sorrow at its source (process of thought/time)?
A "meditation": Can an effect search for its own cause? Or is it that all it can see is that it is an effect - and also a cause for the next effect which may ask a similar question. As I sit quietly the 3rd eye gathers amazing energy. Without this non-doing, all action seem vain, as Jim Morrison puts it like "riders-on-a-storm; dog-without-a-bone". That otherness in the air makes one leave everything behind and to be still - by now the room is in full order - and that maybe a factor for the coming of the other - a prepared ground - an open window. This morning also, that silence was the ruler of the universe. Stillness comes naturally as the brain perceives love and immensity - there is no choice in it - but the decision was made, rather the insight came, that I want to end the unessential, to end suffering. Do I need to know my source to know my job? Did I come here to do a job or is doing a job part of being here?