The Noose Around Our Necks (Part Two)
The reason why resistance to evil fails to overcome evil, but merely entrenches it, is because it seeks to impose change from without. People cannot be compelled to change their nature. They can, however, be impelled to do so, when they have come to see the error of their ways.
The idea that the world would somehow be a safer place without nuclear weapons remains a fallacy as long as people harbour destructive thoughts within their minds. To attack individuals, nations, and governments for the weapons they possess, is to set in train a process which inevitably leads to the utilisation of those weapons.
Peace can never be won by force. Peace is not simply the absence of war, or a state of suspended hostilities. It is a condition of active harmony resident in the human heart. The way to achieve outer peace is to cultivate inner harmony, by removing those thoughts and desires that are the true source of discord.
Those who truly wish to work for peace serve it best by attending to the pacification of their unruly hearts and minds.
Yet modern humanity has little appetite for these lofty admonitions. When the full horror and extent of evil, depravity and violence assault us daily we feel it is futile to talk of individual minds. For what is one individual able to accomplish in the face of so much evil?
The knowledge that outer salvation is the result of inner transformation may be welcome news, but we have no patience with such strategy. We invariably look for massive solutions to counter massive problems. Instinctively, we look to governments and powerful leaders to impose solutions.
We fail to recognise that solutions imposed can never resolve human problems. The overall global condition is the outward manifestation of the inner state of all of its individuals. If there is ever to be a return to peaceful co-existence, it can only be the result of inner harmony within the hearts of every individual. There is no other way.
As Maharaj advises, “First of all you must attend to the way you feel, think and live. Unless there is order in yourself there can be no order in the world.” 15
He goes on to add, “Everybody makes the same mistake, refusing the means, but wanting the ends. You want peace and harmony in the world but refuse to have them in yourself.” 16
The Sages speak unanimously to this need. We simply cannot reform our world until we are prepared to reform ourselves. For until we do so we merely broadcast our iniquities and launch them upon the universe. We are like the violinist who complains of a discordant orchestra, but who refuses to tune his own violin which is contributing to the noise.
Yet the power of a transformed mind is enormous. It inevitably brings social reform in its train. As Ramana Maharshi has remarked, “Self-reform automatically brings about social reform. Confine yourself to self-reform. Social reform will take care of itself.” 17
According to Paramahansa Yogananda, “Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower in civic virtue, inner reforms leading naturally to outer ones. A man who has reformed himself will reform thousands.” 18
Until a person has achieved this inner reformation, however, any outward effort must inevitably add to the world’s burden of sorrow.
Our difficulty lies in the fact that we have become conditioned into thinking that we live in an objective world as revealed by our senses, and that the outward circumstances of the universe bear no relation to such ephemeral things as thoughts and emotions.
Because we fail to find a link between the one and the other, we believe that the execution of outward change must necessarily rest upon the foundation of temporal power.
Almost without exception, those people who are striving to improve the world today do so from a platform of political or military power. Inevitably, great competition exists to obtain power, and having acquired it, to hold on to it. It remains our fervent belief that it is only through the exercise of power that we will be able to influence circumstances for the better.
Those who exercise power consistently fail in their endeavours. Having failed to reform themselves first, they are doomed in their efforts to reform the world, however noble their aspirations. Peace, happiness and harmony can never be the result of a political system, however exalted its principles, if it is practised by those who would impose their ideas on others or use the power of their office to do so.
We continue to be lured by the glamour of reform. We remain convinced that everything can be changed for the better in life, if those who are responsible for the problems of the world can only be persuaded to change their behaviour in ways which conform to our own ideas. Unfortunately, our efforts merely conspire to make things worse.
We might use as an example the question of abortion. There are many millions of people in the world today who are convinced that the practice of abortion is wrong, and that the presence of this practice in society is an evil that contributes to the sorry condition of our planet.
Many base their views on the conviction that abortion is a crime of violence against the unborn child, and that as such it is a direct contravention of the divine commandment not to kill. Buttressed by their beliefs, these advocates of the right to life feel compelled to do whatever they can to rid the world of this sin.
Unfortunately, these self-appointed apostles of righteousness find themselves confronted by an equally militant group of people who hold an opposing point of view. To these people, the denial of their basic right to govern their lives according to the dictates of their conscience, is regarded as a flagrant attack on their inherent freedom.
This is something that they insist needs to be resisted with the utmost vehemence if the very tenets of democracy are to be sustained. Here we see the classic confrontation that is such a pervading feature of the modern world.
The sad fact is that neither party serves the cause of justice, peace or truth. Both groups merely contribute to a heightened state of conflict by actively resisting the actions of the other. By seeking to compel their adversaries to submit, they march resolutely along the road of violence that leads only to the valley of desolation.
The very nature of their conflict is bound to spawn violence and subject society to greater tribulation. The unfortunate fact is that there can be no moral virtue in either point of view. It matters not whether we claim to speak from the Throne of God. The moment we seek to impose our views on others, we ourselves become the perpetrators of evil.
The truth is that the sins that we see manifest in the behaviour of others, are the sins that we ourselves have projected upon them. It is our own racism, prejudice and ignorance that we see reflected in the behaviour of others.
The pro-life crusaders march with slogans written in human blood. Their reforming zeal is a direct reflection of those stains that exist in their own minds. It is not the behaviour of others that is a threat to society or to peace, but the ugliness and ignorance of our own minds.
“You cannot change the image,” says Maharaj, “without changing the face. First realize that your world is but a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right – mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically. You talk so much of reforms: economic, social, political. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer. What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless?” 19
The world is full of “righteous” people who claim to see clearly the faults of others, and who devote their earnest efforts towards pressurizing them to change. For these people, borne aloft on a fever of enthusiasm, any tactics or strategies are considered to be justified so long as their primary motives are held to be pure.
When the very methods adopted serve to promote conflict, there is no motive that can be called pure. Their efforts must inevitably reap a harvest of violence, suffering and sorrow. This is particularly evident today among those who claim to fight discrimination, whether it be by race or creed or sex.
In their desire both to signify their revulsion for this evil, and to punish those who practise discrimination, they join marches, sign petitions, organise boycotts and contribute money and other resources, in order to bring this discrimination to an end. They sincerely believe their motives to be laudable and their efforts to be justified by their call of conscience.
They remain mired in ignorance and their efforts do nothing for the cause of human liberation. By bringing more pressure to bear on those who practise discrimination, they themselves merely exercise another form of discrimination. They are no better than those they attack.
The reason why these people become so aggressive when confronted by oppression, and why they are driven to attack it so vehemently, is because the seeds of discrimination reside within their own consciousnesses. Rather than acknowledge and overcome this discrimination at its source, within themselves, they choose instead to rail against the evils that they see reflected in the actions of others.
They are the true hypocrites rejected by the Christ. Jesus warned his followers:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3)
The danger of superimposing subjective shortcomings on others was also echoed by the Buddha.
“If a man sees the sins of others and forever thinks of their faults, his own sins increase for ever and far off is he from the end of his faults.” 20
The world has reached a sorry state when the lieutenants of the Church stand in the vanguard of those who judge others, and who call for the retribution of society on those they condemn. While they claim to fight under the banner of Christ, they clearly feel little need to be bound by his words.
When Jesus walked the dusty plains of Galilee and Judea, the Jews were dominated by a foreign state that wielded absolute power and was absolutely ruthless in its suppression of all those who challenged it. The Jews had no “human rights” that were recognised by the Romans. They had no democratic vote through which to express their feelings.
Those who had the courage to defy the rule of imperial Rome were subjected to barbaric forms of torture and execution. Yet despite these harrowing social circumstances, Jesus did not lead marches, promote insurrection or defy temporal authority. Instead, he chose to attack the source of evil in the heart of man, rather than its outer manifestation of visible oppression.
In fact, on the one occasion recorded in the gospels when Jesus was confronted with the problem of state oppression, he used the opportunity to stress the need for personal reform, rather than indulge in the folly of social resistance.
“There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, ‘Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans, because they suffered these things? I tell you, nay; but unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-3)
A large section of the Christian Church today honours Jesus in the breach, preferring instead to attack the outward appearances of evil. Thus, we see the growth of militant Christianity, supporting political movements that claim to be inspired by true Christian sentiments.
These advocates of “freedom” and “justice” are themselves the instigators of oppression. They are the false prophets whom Jesus warned about, “who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
The pulpits of the church resonate with calls for social action, insisting that the practice of Christianity has no virtue unless it champions the rights of all those who are afflicted, and strives for the creation of a just society on earth.
But when Jesus was brought before Pilate to account for his teachings, he replied, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews.” (John 18:36)
As the American naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote:
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil, to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.” 21
The world stands tortured today by those who wish it well and do it ill. Thoreau saw very clearly the evil that lurks behind the mask of those who are inspired by the urge to do good to others.
“There is no odor”, he wrote in his epic essay Walden, “so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion. If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life”. 22
Nisargadatta Maharaj agrees. “When you deceive yourself that you work for the good of all, it makes matters worse, for you should not be guided by your own ideas of what is good for others. A man who knows what is good for others is dangerous.” 23
The problem of “doing good” is that it presupposes that one knows what is good for others. All too often this simply means compelling people to do what we think is best. But the problems we seek to alleviate are the evils of our own minds that are superimposed upon society.
Whatever action we take merely contributes to the problem. It does nothing to alter the underlying stain. “When you go to them with your desires and fears,” Maharaj points out, “you merely add to their sorrows. Be free first of suffering yourself and then only hope of helping others.” 24
Not only have we fallen into the trap of believing that peace can be imposed upon the world, rather than springing forth naturally from the hearts of peaceful people, but we have become obsessed today with the idea of combating evil. We see evidence of evil on every side and we imagine that to overcome it we must automatically resist.
The fact that our well-meant efforts to assuage evil have led to an unparalleled explosion of evil across the face of this planet does not deter us. We believe that it is simply necessary to redouble our efforts. Guided by the gospel of Edmund Burke, we remain utterly convinced that if good men do nothing, evil will be certain to triumph. We feel compelled to act.
But the irony is that Burke’s axiom is entirely misrepresented. The “good men” who go to war in defence of peace are simply “evil men” masquerading in sheep’s clothing. The cause of peace and justice is not advanced by the actions of well-intentioned men and women who are ignorant of their own inner violence.
In truth, if these “good” men and women could only be persuaded to do nothing, it would not be evil that would triumph, but peace, harmony, goodness and virtue. The world cries out today for people to stop “doing good”.
The paradoxical truth that has been taught through the centuries by enlightened seers is that peace and justice are the fruits of “inaction”, not of action. The way to overcome evil is not by resisting it, but by not resisting it. We may liken evil to the roiling waters of a stormy lake.
When the waters of the lake are rough with turbulence, our efforts to suppress evil are like the legendary attempts of King Canute, who tried to beat the waves into submission. Every act of striking the water merely adds to its turbulence. We can never restore calm by beating the waves. However, if we do nothing, the waves will subside of their own accord.
As Lao Tse states in the Tao Te Ching, “Who is there who can make the muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become clear of itself.” 25
“It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it knows how to overcome,” 26
“Perfect virtue is inactive, having no need to act.” 27
In counselling others, he entreated: “Practise inaction, occupy yourself with doing nothing. Practise inaction, and there is nothing that cannot be done. Leave all things to take their natural course, and do not interfere.” 28
Lao Tse‘s compatriot Confucius also spoke of the virtues of inaction. “The wise take delight in water; Manhood-at-its-best delights in mountains. The wise are active; Manhood-at-its-best is quiet.” 29
The “wise” man of today assesses a problem by means of intellect, and initiates actions that are designed to counteract the problem. The underlying difficulty, however, is that it is the mind of the “wise” man that is itself the problem, and therefore any course of action simply contaminates that situation.
The Sage, by contrast, does not initiate action as a result of deliberate thought. The Sage, being at one with all of creation, serves the deepest needs of creation by the mere resonance of Being, as we see from the following conversation.
Question: “How does the gnani (enlightened being) proceed when he needs something to be done? Does he make plans, decide about details and execute them?
Maharaj: “A gnani understands a situation fully and knows at once what needs to be done. That is all. The rest happens by itself, and to a large extent unconsciously. The gnani’s identity with all that is so complete, that as he responds to the universe, so does the universe respond to him. He is supremely confident that once a situation has been cognized, events will move in adequate response.
The ordinary man is personally concerned. He counts his risks and chances, while the gnani remains aloof, sure that all will happen as it must; and it does not matter much what happens, for ultimately the return to balance and harmony is inevitable. The heart of things is at peace.” 30
Being rooted in Transcendent Peace the Sage’s actions automatically serve to restore this peace, even though there is no conscious effort to do so. The “inaction” spoken of by the Sage must not be thought of as idleness, nor is it the “absence of action”.
“Inaction”, as it is referred to in the Hindu classics, is action without motive. The Sage acts without the express intention of influencing affairs for the better. As we read in the Ashtavakra Gita:
“The mind of the freed Sage is unmarred by trouble or pleasure; it is inactive, static and desireless and also free from doubts. The mind of the Sage is free from effort whether meditating or acting. His actions and meditations are not prompted by personal motives.” 31
As Krishnamurti was fond of saying, the mind of a liberated Sage is characterised by “effortless and choiceless awareness.”
The Sage does not seek to impose his will. In a world dominated by purpose and motivated by action, it may seem impossible to imagine action without a motive. Motiveless action, or inaction, is however the inevitable fruit of self-sacrifice. It was that sacrifice which allowed the Christ to say, “not my will be done, but thine be done.” (Luke 22: 42)
A person who has sacrificed his or her personal self becomes transformed within. It is a transformation that is charged with power. This inner transformation leads mysteriously, but naturally, to outer transformation, without the least effort or motivation to do so.
Whatever effort is consciously expended to induce peace or happiness in the world is bound to fail. Peace is not the reward of effort. It is the perfume that radiates from the mere presence of the flower of inaction. It is through “not acting” that this inner transformation occurs, and which leads inevitably to outer reform. As Maharaj advises:
“Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own. Stop imagining yourself being or doing this or that and the realization that you are the source and heart of all will dawn upon you. With this will come great love which is not choice or predilection, nor attachment, but a power which makes all things love-worthy and lovable.” 32
Ramana Maharshi warned that it was the discrimination between right and wrong that was the true origin of sin. “One’s own sin is reflected outside and the individual in ignorance superimposes it upon another. The best course for one is to reach the state in which such discrimination does not arise. Moreover, however much you may advise them, your hearers may not rectify themselves. Be in the right yourself and remain silent. Your silence will have more effect than your words or deeds.” 33
Again, when asked the best way in which to work for world peace, the Maharshi replied:
“What is the world? What is peace and who is the worker? Peace is the absence of disturbance. The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts in the individual, who is only the ego arising up from Pure Consciousness. To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide as Pure Consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself, there is peace all about.” 34
Continued in Part Three
References:
15 “I Am That”, Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, translated by Maurice Frydman, Book I, Chetana, Bombay, 1973, p. 267.
16 Ibid, Book I, p. 282.
17 “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi”, Recorded by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1968, p. 241.
18 Paramahansa Yogananda, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, Self Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, 1977, pp. 560-561.
19 “I Am That”, Book I, op.cit., p. 148.
20 “The Dhammapada”, op.cit., pp. 71-72.
21 Henry Thoreau, “Essays, Journals and Poems”, edited by Dean Flower, Fawcett, Greenwich, 1975, p. 233.
22 Ibid, p. 231.
23 “I Am That”, Book I, op.cit., p. 104.
24 Ibid, Book II, p. 22.
25“The Sayings of Lao Tzu”, op.cit., p. 33.
26 Ibid, pp. 24-25.
27 Ibid, p. 27.
28 Ibid, p. 35.
29 “The Sayings of Confucius”, translated by James Ware, Mentor, New York, 1955, pp. 47-48.
30 “I Am That”, Book II, op.cit., pp. 301-302.
31 “Ashtavakra Gita”, translated by H.P. Shastri, Shanti Sadan, London, 1961, p. 44.
32 “I Am That”, Book I, op.cit., pp. 3-4.
33“Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi”, op.cit., p. 429.
34 Ibid, p. 428.
