Month: August 2013

From Skepticism and  Doubt: A Misuse of Power, excerpt of a discussion with John de Ruiter

John: Skepticism and doubt is a misuse of power. You can always ground your self by breaking something. Anybody can break something. As soon as they break something, they’re grounded in themselves. Whereas for someone to go about not breaking anything, whatever they do, they’re only contributing or building something to do with goodness. That’s really extraordinary and it’s really difficult. It requires so much. It requires a lot of character.

If you’re going to be building something, you’ll be moving past your self. If you’re not given to building something and contributing to goodness, then you’ll ground your self and you’ll give your self meaning by having the power to take something down. So then you’ll bicker or complain or doubt or find fault, and then you always have your own ground and that always makes you higher than that which you’re speaking about. So you have your instant account of moving past your self, moving past someone else by just being higher than them and speaking down.

Q1: Feeling superior…

Q2: Is that a sophisticated way also of being safe? Not taking responsibility for what you know.

John: If you’re loyal to skepticism and doubt, you’re separate then from everything that you’re looking at, and within short order you are alone in the universe. People don’t view it that way because they don’t follow through the natural process that skepticism is. So it’s all worked out as actually having some kind of virtue.
Q1: Without carrying it through to its logical end.

John: People masquerade their skepticism with care. And they’ll even say “I’m concerned about this and that” and it’s not concern. It’s an escape from real knowledge and using concern to cover up the trail.

Q1: To pose as concerned.

John: And then use power and be comfortable in your self by even thinking that you’re doing something good.

Q2: If that’s a strong and heavy pattern, is there anything to be done actually with it? So that’s why in a way there’s not much value in actually dealing with the skepticism? It’s actually about coming from something deeper?

John: It’s about meeting someone instead of dealing with their skepticism. If you deal just with someone’s skepticism then you’ll be feeding into what they’re feeding into. If you’re not able to meet with someone then you’re not able to help them with their skepticism, because the bottom line with skepticism is it doesn’t want help.

Q2: That’s clear. But then if that pattern is rare, then rather than dealing with the pattern, it’s only about what you said at the beginning: giving your heart only to what you know.

John: Giving your heart only to what you actually know the truth of.

Excerpt from the talk Ending Suffering, by James Wood:

“Questioner: Would an awakened person get upset about poverty in their neighborhood and organize a food bank to make it better for the neighborhood or just let it be what it is?

James: Like social activism?

Q: Yeah, like you see a problem and you do something to make it better or just accept that it’s the way it is?

James: Well, you can radically accept it.

When I say “acceptance,” I don’t mean a superficial resignation. You accept the existence of social ills: poverty, hunger, disease, and so on. You can still do something about those things, but if you angrily say Poverty shouldn’t be happening! and then go out and start killing people you think are responsible — there’s always an enemy, and it doesn’t work.

But the enemy is the self. So you’re working on that, and if there’s a food bank in your neighborhood and if it’s part of the flow of your life and you feel drawn to it — sure, why not? But there will probably be less ego in it, right?

Let’s face it: There are people who do charity work in order to make themselves look more compassionate — which isn’t compassion at all.

The way I define compassion, which is really at the heart of this work, is an awareness of others’ suffering coupled with a willingness to do something about it. It’s a willingness. I mean, you can’t feed everyone. Right?

The thing is, I don’t hear you talking about actual things going on for you personally, so it’s a little bit abstract. To go deeper, it would have to be something that you’re facing.

But generally speaking, radical acceptance is not an impediment to that kind of activity, and you’ll probably be drawn to the ones that will actually do some good. And some don’t, or don’t do as much. And I think that’s part of it. That’s part of it.

So when you accept things as they are — the way I’m talking about it — you become acutely aware of suffering in the world — but less and less do you feel that suffering shouldn’t be happening — because suffering is caused by an attachment to the thought that what is shouldn’t be.”

“The only thing you fear is the unreality that you yourself have invented.”   ~ Byron Katie