Thursday, March 31, 2022
6:30 a.m. And just like that, we have burned through a quarter of the year 2022. It’s always surprising. And when we were kids, the time between October and Christmas was about ten years, every year. More like ten minutes, now.
I don’t intend for us to discuss Christmas today, but mentioning that long wait reminds me how we used to pore over the Sears Christmas catalog, a thick glossy dream-book of things we knew we’d never have but like to imagine having.
Which reminds me of the elaborate model train layouts I would draw – intricate loops ad complications of imaginary train tracks. Used to draw them everywhere. I don’t suppose trains have any allure for kids today, and they can hardly draw routes of imaginary airlines. I wonder what they do draw.
Now, I woke up thinking of Messenger and our reactions to things, sparked by yesterday’s discussion in our Intuitive Linked Communication group. I don’t know where we’re going to go with it (do I ever?) but I got the sense that that is the topic du jour. You’re on, gentlemen.
You noticed that you never explicitly set your switches yesterday and it didn’t make any difference. We remind you, this is about mindfulness, not rote, so there’s no need to make a superstition of a helpful habit.
No, I understand that. After a while, the habit of concentrating in a given place at a given time of day in a given circumstance will carry us. And I also know the other half of the equation, that it never hurts to remind ourselves.
So to the topic, Who is responsible for what happens to you? You have already come the first step.
That it’s a meaningless question, yes. Whether something is “our fault” or the fault of the universe, or fate, or other people, whatever, is strictly speaking only a matter of opinion. It is to say, “From this viewpoint, things look this way.” Other viewpoints result in other judgments. Who is to say that one is right and another wrong?
Who indeed? And sometimes “right” and “wrong” shade into “good” and “evil,” and you recognize that you are right back in the results of eating that apple.
Well, every child knows that things are his parents’ fault, if only in the sense that they might have done things differently, resulting in a different outcome, so I think we should just sit around and blame Adam and Eve and that dammed snake. That relieves us of responsibility.
Follow the stray thought.
Well, writing that, it did occur to me to wonder what the tellers (and then the writers) of the story in Genesis meant by saying that the snake lost its legs and from then on had to crawl. (Or am I misremembering the story?) Surely there is a meaning there, and I doubt it amounts to, “So there, you little bastard, take that!”
Go re-read the story sometime and it will be easier for us to comment.
All right. Was that “stray thought” planted, in fact? Oh never mind, that too is a useless question.
We smile.
Yeah, I know: “You’re learning.”
Now as to the storyline this morning. Yes, one lesson is that assigning blame is useless in itself, and is anyway a matter of viewpoint. But it is also a useful indicator, or, let’s say, can be used as such. It is worthwhile for each of you to recognize your own tendency (which would otherwise be invisible to you, being pre-conscious) to ascribe responsibility either to yourself, or to the universe, or to malign forces, or to the accidents of life, or to other people. Any of these attributions will have its advantages and disadvantages, and the way to maximize the former and minimize the latter is to remember that any judgment is necessarily provisional and partial: That is, it necessarily is true only so far, and only from one way of seeing things. Remembering that, will save you a lot of grief and anxiety and anger.
It seems to me that if we carry that to its logical conclusion, nothing can be blamed on anybody.
Certainly true.
Is it? But what of individual responsibility?
Paraphrased, you are asking, But what about guilt? What about scapegoats? What about victims and villains?
Well, that’s striking. I see your point. But then what are we left with?
“Pay attention, Arjuna. You don’t want to participate in this war because you don’t believe in it, but it is part of the pattern of the moment, and you are part of the pattern of this moment. You have to participate in life, and according to your station.”
I suppose I’ll have to re-read the Mahabharata. [The Bhagavad-Gita, specifically.] I never really understood that point. It seemed to me that Arjuna was right.
Do, and we can discuss that too. One could almost make a generalization to the effect that true scriptures are never understood until after they have had their effect.
In leading us to a new viewpoint, you mean? I wish I still had that book I had once that compared the scriptures of seven religions. If I knew the title, I’d try to buy it second-hand.
Now, consider everyone’s attention on the Russian-Ukrainian skirmish presently being fought. What use are people’s opinions of causes and effects, when so many causes are obscure or illusory or deliberately deceptive, and so many players are off-stage, and so many seemingly uninvolved players are using the conflict for their own purposes, hoping to gain advantage?
But that’s always the case.
Yes, it is. Shouldn’t that make people slower to judge?
Well, let’s drop back 80 years, to 1940. Russia invaded Finland and took over the three Baltic republics that had broken away from the Russian empire at the time of the 1917 revolution. We know now that Hitler had agreed to it, and we knew even at the time that England and France had not opposed it, mainly because there was nothing they could have done, and of course because the Germans had just overrun France and defeated it in a matter of weeks. Stalin later defended his actions as dictated by military necessity, which was probably true as well, but basically was a lie overing his usual rapacity.
Point your question.
Even though the behind-the-scenes factors weren’t known, couldn’t the actions themselves be judged?
Certainly. Only – which judgment do you prefer? Every way you look at the situation, it will cast a different light. Was it Russian imperialism? Soviet imperialism? Recapture of territories lost only because of a momentary failure of state power? Proactive self-defense? Choose what you wish to identify with, and the right and wrongs of the situation will announce themselves, loud and clear and incontestable. Only, don’t try to persuade anyone of a different outlook.
Well, the rights and wrongs of the situation were probably clear enough to the Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians! Not to mention the Finns.
Whoever said otherwise? But just as every story has at least two sides, so everything in life looks different depending on the assumptions you bring to it.
So Arjuna, if he had been in the Russian army in 1940 – or today – would be advised to participate in good conscience because life had placed him there?
In good conscience or bad, it remains true that life would have placed him there. And it remains true that it is unsafe for the part to think it is wider, more moral, than the whole. Life knows what it’s doing. Can you say the same?
This is pretty confusing.
No, it isn’t confusing. What it is, is uncomfortable. You understand our point very well, you just don’t like it.
I’m holding on to confusing. It’s true, I don’t like your conclusion, but I also can’t quite see how it follows.
That isn’t what you mean.
No. I can see how it follows logically, but I can’t feel it as true. It seems to me it’s missing something.
Very good. So it is, and we an go into it next time if you wish. This will take us farther into the question of the vast impersonal forces and how they manifest within 3D, and why.
So, today’s theme?
“Blame and viewpoint”?
Maye. I think I can find something better. We’ll see as I transcribe. Meanwhile, thanks for all this.