(The Bhagavad Gita says, “Let not the wise unsettle the minds of the ignorant,” which means that a person can’t see what they can’t see so there is no use trying to convince them of a different point of view. Enlightenment sickness is only a problem if you don’t know you have it.)
Jennie: As for the tenor of our last Skype chat, I honestly thought that we were having fun mocking and joking about politics and the Trump thing in general until I discovered you were taking it seriously.
James: I was joking on one level but sometimes joking masks serious issues. Although we’ve known each other for ten years as Vedanta people, I realized I don’t know you that well because we never met in person, just through emails and occasional Skype chats. We occasionally talked about politics in a friendly way acknowledging our different points of view but our conversations left me with the feeling that you actually admired Donald Trump and I wondered how you squared it with your interest in Vedanta and the values espoused by the teaching.
The Bhagavad Gita, which is the essence of the Vedas, is not only a scripture on liberation, it is a scripture on dharma. The first verse of the Gita says, “Kurukshetre dharmashetre yuyutsava,” which means “The field of battle (inwardly and outwardly) is the field of dharma.” To be frank I don’t see how your support and apparent admiration of Trump, the man, fits with dharma. Also your views about certain politicians did not seem based on facts. I was a little shocked at how much contempt you showed for the mainstream media, liberals, etc.
I won’t beat around the bush, Jennie. Do you admire him? If you do, I find it hard to understand, since by any objective standard, he is a very adharmic person. He’s self-centered, spiteful, vain, etc. He ranks in the 90th percentile of the Gita’s values to be eschewed by spiritual people. He likes toadies, sycophants and dictators. Of course, nobody is all good or all bad; they say he love his children.
I was surprised by this statement of yours, “Do you really think that left leaning liberals, 50% of the voters, are any different? They promote Wokeness, Cancel culture, de-platforming and inhibiting free speech. You have to be willfully blind to not see where that stems from. You don`t have to believe me, of course. It`s easy enough to find out who you`re not allowed to criticize in practical terms should one be willing to put in the effort.”
James: It’s not a matter of belief, Jennie. It’s a matter of common sense observation. It stems from ignorance, which is definitely alive and well on both sides of the political spectrum. I don’t know who “allows” you to criticize anyone or anything except yourself. The way I think doesn’t have anything to do with liberal or conservative points of view. Like everyone, I have both conservative and liberal tendencies. I’m not a political person, although I have an interest in political ideas. My satsang focused on the question of the importance of values in one’s relationship to oneself and others. It was not a political argument.
Trump is only a thought in one’s mind. Neither you or I have direct access to what he actually thinks about himself or his values. We can draw inferences but inference is not a valid means of knowledge for truth. It can be used to support or attack an idea. However, in so far as a spiritual person influences others and wants to be free of bias it is important that his or her admiration goes only to sources that are worthy of it. And in so far as one’s attitudes affect the composure or lack thereof of one’s mind, it is important for me to understand you. I hope I’m right to think that it’s equally important that you understand yourself.
Self inquiry isn’t about inquiry into the Self since it is not knowable as objects are known. It is about inquiry into the jiva, the ahamkara. I’ve just finished a book of commentaries in a somewhat different style on Ramana Maharahi’s Upanishad, Sat Darshanam, in which he says the inquiry into the world and Isvara is not useful because there is no way to determine the nature of mithya/Maya since it is never the same from one moment to another. So he says to look at your jiva, what you think and believe and do since the ahamkara—the “I-sense—is nearest and dearest object to you, Awareness. I hope you will read it with an open mind but I have my doubts now. It’s on the website but I’ve attached it to this email too.
I don’t know what you think of the Q-anon conspiracy phenomenon but it’s hard for me not to notice certain similarities in your thinking, if it can be called that. I couldn’t teach a Q-anon person even if they asked, unless they explicitly stated that their superstitions were causing them stress and they were willing to think differently about the nature of reality. They seem to inhabit a fantasy world which they somehow conflate with freedom. Yes, you are free to think whatever you want but at the same time you are required to live in a world with people whose views need to be supported by evidence. Perhaps you missed the whole distinction between pratibhasika satyam, the subjective reality, and vyvaharika satyam, the objective transactional reality.
In any case, the Vedanta says that If the world is a mess, it is also a wonderful place. Upside/downside. One has a choice about how one sees things. I know you spend a lot of time on Facebook, which only really works if you somehow suspend disbelief because of the anonymity factor. You cannot objectively investigate the person who is making statements because you don’t know if it a real person or an avatar. You may enter that world of opinions with a certain degree of objectivity but after a long time it is quite possible that little by little your objectivity recedes as you get involved in the idea that you are in a real relationship with a real person, perhaps because you feel like you are with like-minded people who are a part of something “bigger.” Fear is always an easy way to bond with someone else. Fear-oriented people often think they are quite smart. Nobody is going to pull the wool over my eyes.
Jennie: You said one should love Trump because he is “Ishwara`s wrecking ball.” If Trump is Ishwara`s wrecking ball, then Ishwara is using Trump to wreck that which needs wrecking. You can`t have it both ways by removing personal and universal values out of the way to press your agenda. The “he loves his children” is a cheap straw man argument alluding to Hitler, a lazy throw away by your standards, sorry to say.
James: I think you misunderstood. I said that (in so far as Isvara 2 is both dharma and adharma) Trump was Isvara’s wrecking ball. But that was not the import of my statement. I’m looking at this from an individual’s point of view. He makes it very clear that he wants to destroy the bureaucracy, which checks his statist tendencies. It’s pretty clear that he has the Louis Quatorze mentality, “L’etat, ces’t moi,” which may have worked in France a few centuries back but it doesn’t seem like America is quite ready for it. We will see; the election is only a few days away.
As I said above I’m not pressing the agenda that you think I’m pressing. The issue for me is the value of values in the context of Vedanta. It is impossible to admire the Trump thought if you are a dispassionate person, or an aspiring inquirer. Arjuna, a confused but virtuous person, is Krishna’s wrecking ball, Jennie. He is meant to be Isvara’s instrument and destroy adharma. When his confusion goes, he does his job.
The Gita makes it very clear that if an adharmi is the leader of a social entity the society will collapse. He says that when you have such a leader corruption filters down to even the women, who instill values in the children. Look at the evangelicals, who profess love of Christ, yet support an un-Christlike person. Trump turns the other cheek? He’s 90% rajas and tamas, 10% sattva. A man that brags about grabbing women’s pussies, cheats on his wife, lies shamelessly, stiffs people in business, ridicules people with disabilities, takes credit for things that he isn’t responsible for, treats his political adversaries with contempt, looks down on foreigners and people of color, doesn’t respect education and science, etc. etc. is not a good person. So I want to know if you admire him and if not why you support him?” If you do, how do you square it with your personal values because as far as I know you are really good person. The only explanation is that you are not aware of the connection between your admiration and support and your professed interest in Vedanta, which you’ve been involved with for a long time.
Jeannie: As we speak, Trump has not yet lost the election. There’s just the small matter of the electoral fraud allegations that are now starting to be investigated in earnest. Usual left wing adharmic activity, but on this occasion, the investigation is going right to the top as enough credible evidence…yes, evidence…has already been collated with more coming in all the time. Thank god for the constitution ! No wonder the left wants to alter it.
James: It seems you really did swallow the Kool Aid. Of course he lost the election. And you will say that he really didn’t because the deep state cooked the books and the mainstream media was in on the deal, etc. etc.
Jeannie: The shit is hitting the fan big time and let’s just see what the outcome will be. Certainly it isn`t what the corrupt media say it is. It ain`t over until that fat lady called Ishwara sings and your gloating is premature, sorry to say. Keep that popcorn handy, James! Lol …
James: The problem with that state of mind is that nothing is ever resolved. There is always another shoe to drop tomorrow that will justify the hate, the anxiety. It’s like the people who think that Vedanta is theory and practice. They know the truth but they are waiting for Isvara to confirm it with some sort of final epiphany. The truth is simple. It is always present. It resolves everything. There is no solution here, one way or the other. That’s what mithya means. In any case, what shit? The shit in your mind? The shit has been hitting the fan since human beings appeared on the face of the earth. If life’s a mess, it’s equally wonderful.
Just for fun let’s look at my well-balanced upside/downside of present facts. The economy is picking up steam; topped 30,000 without the benefit of The Donald. Wall Street and most foreign leaders are warming to Biden. The entertainment media is booming. People are working hard taking care of their families and those that aren’t want to work. Personal debit is dropping. Covid deaths are going down, although they will probably go back up. A vaccine is in the offing. Culture wars are safe cold wars to fight; nobody dies and both sides get to enjoy feeling they are “right” and winning. We are so rich we can afford to be really stupid in every possible way. Destroy the environment? Check. Cancel Obamacare? Whee! Luxuries have become necessities. How cool is that? The right wing haters have plenty of left wingers to hate and vice versa. Cancel culture is alive and well. The Twitterverse is twittering. The Republican party is coddling the biggest loser in the history of the republic in so far as he has a strong constituency which they plan to leverage next election cycle in their attempt to disenfranchise democratic voters and “own the libtards.” It is secretly negotiating with Chinese to franchise and import their the brainwashing apparatus in Uighurland and stock it with liberals. 🙂 There’s some good fake news!!! Perhaps I should sell it to the lefties. Trump is happy because his party isn’t insisting he put on his big boy pants and take his loser status like a man. The conspiracy nuts are happy because they think that Trump purposely lost the election so he can work in secret behind the scenes to make America great again untroubled by the nasty mainstream media, which doesn’t appreciate this selfless service. The LGBT crowd and Hispanics are learning to love Trump. There’s an upside! The Dems have figured out that since demographics are on their side, all they need to win elections is to quit sipping lattes in their limousines and get out the vote, avoid the word “deplorable” in public and support a decent person for president etc. The Trump thing woke them up. Game on! Pot is legal. Internet porn is booming. College football is packing stadiums. I can Zoom Vedanta nearly as effectively as I did in person, avoid the travel and expense, stay home and clean up my karma, all under the guise of Covid fear. The list goes on. I’m a bit concerned about the Q-Anon crowd which is starting to worry. Q isn’t posting. Where’s our fearless leader to tell us how to think? Were we conned?” But Q…who is just ignorance…will come up with another big whopper and they will be (temporarily) happy once more. Jesus, Jeannie, look on the bright side. Since you’ve written me off, I suggest you take Monty Python for your guru and chant, “Life’s a piece of shit when you look at it. Look on the bright side of life!” Your guy and his acolytes are just as big a joke as the Bernie Bros. Lighten up. Your guy lost fair and square and you can’t face it. You weren’t robbed. You robbed yourself by backing the wrong horse. It’s always a benign universe. Life is grand and God is great. You just read too much media. Fear only goes so far.
Jeannie: There are still a few remnants of dharma alive, it seems. (She meant that the big conspiracy was about to be exposed because the system provides for recounts which would “prove” that Trump was “robbed” and he would get another fou+r years)
James: That’s exactly right. However, nobody but Isvara owns it, not the liberals or the conservatives. They are unwitting pawns in Isvara’s lila. The society is a picture of the human mind, in which both conservative and liberal forces play ceaselessly. A free person supports the dharmic side of the mind, not the adharmic side because he or she has nothing to gain by breaking the rules and wants to present a happy face to the world because only love makes the world great.
Jeannie: Yes indeed, regardless of the election’s ultimate outcome. we’re going to need that dharma to stay alive as the party is only just beginning. I hope for Shiningworld`s sake, it is not caught out on the wrong side of history. It would be such a pity to be compromised by political views ..shipwreck in port. I hope I`m wrong. We`ll soon enough see.
James: You’re definitely wrong, Jeannie. I thought you understood what we are about. ShiningWorld isn’t on any side of history. It is unborn, out of time, an eternal idea. Nothing has changed. Inquiry applies to What Is. Politics came to ShiningWorld, not from it. We observe it from the Self’s platform. Assuming you are still reading, it might be helpful to remind yourself that Isvara chose a noble person to get rid of Duryodhana, the poster child for adharmis. Can you see Trump driving Arjuna’s chariot into battle?
Love,
James
Note: Jeannie wrote back saying she would answer my question, which is that she supported Trump because he was the best of a bad lot, evidently not realizing that non-support is always an option. She did not answer the admiration question, because there was no way she could justify her love of dharma and Vedanta on one hand and her love of Trump on the other. People with grievances often feel shy to express them because whiners are generally not revered in society because there are always blessings, which ensure social cohesion, to count.
I think they love Trump not for his whining but for his shamelessness. He’s authentic. Even though he lies compulsively, he says what he feels, which seems to be more important than what he feels, which is anger, insecurity, smallness, prejudice, etc, which everyone feels to some degree. He dares to say what his minions are too “civilized” to say. He gives them a “voice.” It’s a pity that it’s not an uplifting, noble, compassionate voice. I felt sad for her because she is a good person. However, her value for dharma was only partially assimilated. When reality offered a voice to express an ancient hurt, a cloud was cast over the mind and she couldn’t see what she couldn’t see.
