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Originally Posted by torilink  no, none of this is real - in the sense that what is real is eternal. If it isn't eternal it isn't true - just part of the illusion. In the egoic illusion of "reality" everyone dies, is death evil? Is murder good or bad? Is something that isn't real bad? Is something untrue wrong? Is a phantom or shadow of an untrue past right or wrong?
The master knows there is no evil because he is aware that none of it is real, even he himself (identity) is merely a shadow of a thought.
Holding on to those concepts we believe in - such as hate, murder, revenge, oppression, holocaust, evil, justice and on and on.... only serve to continue those experiences within the dream. They exist because the ego cherishes them, but they are all still untrue. |
Torlink, I understand what you are saying and if a person has a sense of personal responsibility and empathy for others, then there is no problem. However, it could be taken by your average punter with a chip on their shoulder as a green light to pick up a gun and go on a shooting spree, for the sheer hell of it, in the belief that everything is illusion and nothing really matters.
I also question your concept of the ego which you seem to define as a kind of selfish, dysfunctional identity within a person. A murderer under questioning may have said previously that the devil made him do it. Now, he might say that his ego made him do it.
I tend to believe that the ‘you’ which you are conscious of in this moment is the only ‘you’ there is. In this moment, there is no other you (whether you call it the ego, the higher self or God). If you shoot someone, it’s not your ego doing it, it is you. If you give a million dollars to the poor, it is not your higher self doing it. It is just you.
I also question your view that something is only real if it is eternal. The commission of any act is real. It is not eternal, but it has definite consequences.