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How Can The Mind Conceive The Desire

In document Letters to Gail Two (Page 188-192)

To Be An Evil In And Of Itself?

July 2, 1963 Dear Gail:

This is the discussion of the sixth problem which the neophyte must face, “How Can The Mind Conceive The Desire for a Good Thing To Be An Evil In And Of Itself?

When one steps out upon the path he hears so much about humility and humbleness, never about the universal viewpoint, nor of the cosmic consciousness. He is told that he is going to lose his ego, must be rid of this evil and accept the viewpoint of God, and that he is going to dwell in happiness throughout eternity. Such vague goals are ones I cannot conceive. Now this is what I want to point out at this stage of the letters — in the last one I spoke of Freud’s theory on Superego, Ego and Id. The Ego represents the self which has contact with the outer world, and uses reason and logic as laid down by the theologians and psychologists, economics, politics, etc., in our lives, say civilization.

The eastern religions are great on saying that we must get rid of the ego; westerners don’t pay much attention to this and as a consequence what do they do? They strive to build the ego, filling it with pride and looking to achievements in the outer world. Who is right? Neither one has the right answer, for if one starts out to get rid of the ego then he certainly would have a hard time, and if he starts building up the ego for self-preservation, then he would certainly need a terrible amount of self-confidence in face of what the superego is there for, to censor him, and give him a built-in set of guilt patterns. The id is always trying to get control and let itself manage the body in an unruly way which is

opposing the set of social laws in our society.

So we must do something about the ego. First we must learn to set aside the ego whenever we wish. This is part of our training under a master — and we must see that it can be withdrawn when necessary, and put forward for a survival unit when needed. Incidentally its survival means body survival, not survival of the Jivatma. When the mind reaches a point that it considers the desire for a good thing to be an evil in and of itself, there is time to take stock of what is occurring within the mind. Only the Jivatma can do this for it must take the universal viewpoint in looking at itself.

Remember this rule, “When the Jivatma looks at itself there is a problem existing, the problem will disappear provided it is duplicated.” I probably confused you on this. I only mean to say that a duplication of the original facsimile put together with the original will make it disappear. That’s all.

The mind often looks at a good thing, and decides that it is an Evil in and of itself. Most certainly the mind is not the final entity which can look to God itself — it can never reach the highest planes, for it is dropped at the lower half of the fourth plane. If Danda or the Law of God is used in the rule of a community, the mind would find it hard to accept because there isn’t any complications in the procedure of the law. The mind must use vias, or terminal points in order to reach its goal while the Jivatma goes directly to its source without complexes, complications or vias. If a good or a positive action arises, the mind most likely would assume that it is an evil within itself, and by this thinking most likely would bring about an evil in the positive action. An example of this was in the movie “Winter Light.” The parson could see nothing in the woman who loved him except that she wanted to possess him. Therefore he started bringing about the negative in the woman, because his attitude was

demanding that she be negative! He didn’t want it any other way. So she was forced into accepting what he was asking of her, and blended in that direction. This is a very subtle way of how the Law of Nature works. For example, once I had a woman who claimed that I would betray her, and that betrayal came about because she looked at me in that light constantly, speaking of what she had to expect of me, and finally one day I did something which she accepted as betrayal. Hence, I betrayed her — but here I’m trying to point out that the mind law is so subtle that you must look deeply in order to understand. It isn’t the question of seeing both sides of the question, but lifting one self to a level where the cosmic or universal viewpoint can see rightly.

The universal viewpoint goes something like this. If the negative forces trap one Jivatma, all Jivatmas can be trapped;

if you can look into the depths of the universal and see one Jivatma struggling to be released from this trap you are affected, and must do something to get his release even if it be prayer. Therefore the universal viewpoint is the overall viewpoint. It’s like reading a book, you have the opportunity of seeing what is going on in the story, but the individual characters do not. It’s like being God and looking at the world, caring what happens yet not being concerned for it is fiction anyway, and all is going to be well in the end for all things end well!

A few more words on the universal viewpoint. If you will notice while reading the newspapers that certain individuals are crusading for certain things. Their viewpoint is narrowed to a limited vision. Businessmen are limited to a narrow vision because they have to concentrate on a profit margin.

This is why no field of endeavor will give one the universal viewpoint except the endeavor to reach God. One narrows the point of view to concentrate on God, but once he has

received the Light of God, his viewpoint widens into the universal viewpoint. This is what Christ called the “narrow way.” Remember his quotation? “A camel can pass through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” All he was saying is that a man cannot think of materialistic things and of God too. His attention must be on one or the other and since God gives the ultimate why think of the materialistic side of life?

So back to the mind and its insight on evil in good. Since the negative force is in charge on this planet the mind must fight in order to see good in all things, and twist all things for its own advantages. Remember how St. Francis proclaimed all things as his brothers and sisters? He spoke of Brother Winter having come to visit with him; Brother Hunger wanted to stay with him, and he would treat them as his guests. When one meets with adversity then he doesn’t take this as adversity but as something good happening, instead of twisting it into an evil, it becomes a positive force. Some people have a knack of using all things as a gainful force in their lives — and this is what keeps them floating on top constantly — you cannot defeat them at all. This is done by a certain attitude which they have developed, that of not allowing the mind to defeat them.

Once you learn how to control the attitude and not allow it to change under any circumstances there will be no spiritual problem of seeing or conceiving the desire for a good thing to be an evil in and of itself. The attitude is not a pantywaist one, but that of strength in dealing with all situations regardless whether they be spiritual or of this world.

More later.

Paul

In document Letters to Gail Two (Page 188-192)