Seeker: Ramji, apologies for wasting your time with my last stupid email. I was able to put it together on my own, for the most part. The thing is that as I become more clear about my own thinking, others peoples’ mind-stuff becomes very obvious. Also, there is collective ignorance that I’m noticing too, ideas about money and opinions about other groups, just a totally unconscious mess of stupidity.
I’m also chasing down the last vestiges of my do-gooder vasana, realizing that it was my own need for validation that kept me blind to the “poor me” mentality of others, not allowing me to see how they create their own problems, even though they REALLY do believe that they are victims. It’s a codependent mess, total entanglement, not a conscious decision to be seen for miles. I’m watching my person do the actions I would normally do, but at the same time asking myself, why am I doing this? Why am I doing things for others that they have the ability to do for themselves but are too unconscious about their lifestyle to realize what needs to be done?
I’m basically just like those hippie chicks who learn how to farm, then they come out to the reservation and teach us poor Indians to grow their own food. They get used up and burnt-out because all their efforts are short-lived and unappreciated. This is why I was smarting at being talked down to in spite of everything I’ve done.
Anyway, it seems like I should know all this already but I’m still catching myself getting sucked into doing things to save everyone. I told my wife, “Next time I have a good idea to go do something for someone, make sure to remind me not to.”
Why does it seem so much easier for other people’s tamas to infect your mind but sattva quarantines you?
Ramji: Good for you. Self-inquiry is working nicely. Your problem is a svadharma problem. You are so identified with your group that you don’t look after yourself. You got the point in this email when you said that you are in effect enabling their dysfunction, not relieving it. Tamasic people are mooches. They get rajasic people with self-esteem issues to do the work for them so they can keep fucking off. It’s a human thing, not an Indian thing. The woman who falls in love with the junkie who is “so beautiful” ends up working to support his habit and fuck him because it makes him feel good, etc. So tamasic people don’t do what they are supposed to do for themselves. Tamasic people are useless. We don’t associate with them, to protect ourselves. We are not masochistic saints. If you stay in that world, you need a “fuck you, tough love” attitude. Tell them what I said in this email. If they don’t like it, let them suffer. Maya is the best healer of all. She is a ruthless bitch. Eventually people really hit bottom and wake up. Tamasic people are very clever; they hover six inches from the bottom of the sewer of samsara and manage to survive with all their adharmic vasanas intact. Fuck the lot of them. Of course be polite, but just say, “I can’t help you.”
Sattva insulates you from rajas and tamas because it makes you dispassionate and aware. It gives you the big picture. No matter how much you “help” tamasic people, they remain tamasic. You shouldn’t think that the next one is helpable. It’s a syndrome, a type. They are all the same.
~ Love, Ramji