Conditioning and duality

Dear Friends,

"To say that [God] is part and parcel of His creation is like saying we are God," writes Feroz Karmally in post # 109. He refutes my contention that the creator and his creation are one. He says he cannot see how God can be part and parcel of His own creation, so he asks, "Where is the basis for what you say? Do we have one example of a creator being part of his creation?"

Now, bear with me.

Duality is all-pervasive; it is present in everything around us. Even that oft-quoted line from Shakespeare reflects this: "To be or not to be." Everyone of our daily actions is preceded by a struggle -- to come to a decision on this or that, pain or pleasure, day or night, hot or cold, left or right. . . all through life we keep on playing this game of duality.

Duality -- even the tug and pull between God and Satan -- is our own creation. In reality, there is no duality. There is only an all-pervasive Oneness. There is no day and night, since the sun never sets. There is no beginning and no end, no birth and no death. In that space there is total silence.

This silence emanates not from the mind but from the very depth of the heart wherein only one thing remains, that is love emerging from the very source of life. You may call it whatever you want, God, Atma, Soul, or consciousness which exists in every being. We are all part of that same cosmic force. Despite being a part of it, every one of us is as complete as the whole universe.

We corrupt our children with our own distorted versions of truth and God and all that jazz. The child's mind, to be sure, is in a non-dual state. The child's personality is as yet whole -- the split is eventually imposed by the adults around the child and the society in which the child lives.

This corruption, this system of contamination of minds, is called conditioning, in the sense in which I've been using that word. Ultimately, when he grows up, he is not the real one or the real self.

In order to get back one's real self one has to go inward where there is no past, no future, but there is only the present. In this state of meditation, one may get in touch with our inner being, the non-dual state where there is no conflict.

Once this insight is gained, one is awakened. This awakening is called enlightenment.

In that non-dual state where  conflict is absent, there is utter peace and freedom. But because all the literature we read, our so-called holy books and scriptures, the element of conflict is conditioned into our being. That is why I detest chapter-and-verse parrots because they think they know, but in reality they're mouthing lies. That is why I maintain that repetition of a truth is a lie.

Another thing: God and Science are not mutually exclusive, I agree. But, then, Science and Religion seldom see eye-to-eye. The way I see it, Religion is rooted in the sands of time, pegged to one spot in a time warp, whereas Science is as fluid as water and, like water, is always changing its content and shape and form as new knowledge becomes available.

Religion, unfortunately, is stubborn and godmatic (ooops, I mean dogmatic). That is why I suggest it is nonsense to claim that any one book has all the answers to the puzzle called Life. That is why I know God never wrote any book. That is why I say God exists because I do.

We each create our own universe according to our conditioning.

Rashid Mughal