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#4417 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The
Environment and Awareness
by
Colin Drake
http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
The
major factors in the degradation of the environment are
unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and
overpopulation. These are caused by those two ‘old chestnuts’
greed and lust, which unfortunately seem to be endemic to the
unenlightened human condition. It seems fairly apparent that to
overcome the environmental catastrophe that looms these two
negative factors need to be drastically curtailed, which is not
going to occur by global greenhouse agreements or local
environmental activism. For it does not matter how many ‘accords’
governments sign, or minor victories local greenies chalk up, if
humanity does not change for the better these will all be in
vain. If politicians, and nations, continue to be driven by their
own greed then the agreements will not be honored and larger
development projects will be approved, wiping away the ‘gains’
obtained by local environmental groups.
‘Raise
awareness’ I hear you say and hold the politicians
accountable … that should do it! Unfortunately, even if
corrupt politicians are slowly rooted out, their place tends to
be taken by people of similar ilk, or if this does not occur then
big business will just corrupt those ‘on the edge’ by
offering larger bribes. Politicians are also corrupted, from
their high ideals, by the greed for power. This may seem to be a
somewhat cynical view but history will bear it out. Even such
radical changes as the Russian Revolution suffered from the same
fate, as its leaders proved as corrupt, and corruptible, as those
they replaced. And as for the ‘liberated democratic’
Russia, freed by returning to capitalism and subservience to
‘market forces’, well we all know the situation there
where big business, corruption and criminal syndicates hold sway.
So
what about ‘raising awareness’? This seems to be all
that’s left … Yes, but awareness of what? If we raise
humanity’s awareness of the looming environmental crisis
this may change some people’s behavior for the better, but
will it fix the two core problems of lust and greed? For it does
not matter how much we reduce our own personal carbon foot print,
this will not solve the crisis if humanity continues to
overpopulate The Earth and if most people are still basically
greedy. Environmental activism, although useful and praiseworthy,
is still only ’trimming the branches and leaves’ rather
than attacking the root of the problem. What is needed is a
paradigm shift away from personal interest and towards acting for
the common good, which will not occur as long as we identify
ourselves as separate individual beings living in a hostile
universe.
“But
surely that’s what we are” I hear many of you say
… However, this is just an illusion caused by
misidentification, regarding ourselves as separate objects in a
universe of separate objects. For as long as we think we are
separate entities then it is very difficult to transcend personal
interest, lust and greed. The fact that this is just an illusion
can be seen by investigating the nature of our moment to moment
existence, see the appendix. When this is carried out we become
‘aware of awareness’ which the Buddha regarded as the
‘first factor of enlightenment’. The second factor he
gives is ‘investigation of the way’ which is exactly
what the appendix does, resulting in discovering that, at the
deepest level, we are awareness itself! The outcome
of this is, at this deeper level, we relate to others in a much
more loving, wholesome way, for it becomes clear that there is in
fact no separation between ourselves and others, as we share the
same constant conscious subjective presence.[1][1]
In
fact identifying with the deeper level of our being, pure
awareness, enhances our humanity immeasurably; and if this were
the common condition then all instances of man’s inhumanity
to his (or her) fellow man would be consigned to history. For,
this deeper identification leads to joy, peace, love of all
beings (in fact of the whole of existence) and true selfless
compassion. This is because at this level there is no separation
as all of manifestation is seen to be just the play of
consciousness, cosmic energy, movements in consciousness itself.[2][2] When this realization occurs then lust naturally
diminishes, as it no longer enslaves us, and greed is a thing of
the past.
This
would truly be the best of all worlds for humanity, as we all
seek joy and peace; the problem is in general that we look in the
wrong place, the external world, rather than the centre of our
own being. So to create this Utopia we need to commit to
identifying with the deeper level of pure awareness, and to
encourage those around us to do the same. The more we become
established in this level of identification the closer we come to
the peak of human existence and thus the more we enhance our true
humanity.[3][3]
So, in conclusion, I maintain that the solution to
the environmental crisis is for humanity to ‘awaken’ by
becoming aware of, and identifying with, awareness itself . After
which we live more simply, as we are not seeking for happiness in
material possessions, for we discover that happiness is truly
(and always) within. In this way our carbon footprint will be
naturally lowered and we will be more inclined to eschew
self-interest and act for the common good.
The
author, Colin Drake, is the
volunteer-coordinator of the Caldera Environment Centre
in
Colin's
books are available as ebooks for immediate download or as
paperbacks. Read excerpts and order them at http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix:
Below
follows a simple method to investigate the nature of reality
starting with one’s own moment to moment experience. You
need to let go of all pre-conceived ideas of who, or what, you
‘are’ and start from a position of ‘knowing
nothing’. The investigation need to be carried out in
a scientific, experimental, spirit. Each step should be
considered until one experiences, or ‘sees’, its
validity before moving on to the following step. That is to
say that you should ‘test’ each one by considering it
to see if it corresponds to your own direct experience. If
you reach a step where you do not find this possible, continue on
regardless in the same way, and hopefully the flow of the
investigation will make this step clear. By all means
examine each step critically but with an open mind, for if you
only look for ‘holes’ that’s all you will find!
Consider
the following statement: ‘Life, for each of us, is just a
series of moment-to-moment experiences’. These
experiences start when we are born and continue until we die,
rushing headlong after each other, so that they seem to merge
into a whole that we call ‘my life’. However, if
we stop to look we can readily see that, for each of us, every
moment is just an experience.
Any
moment of experience has only three elements: thoughts (including
all mental images), sensations (everything sensed by the body and
its sense organs) and awareness of these thoughts and sensations.
Emotions and feelings are a combination of thought and sensation.
Thoughts
and sensations are ephemeral, that is they come and go, and are
objects, i.e. ‘things’ that are perceived.
Awareness
is the constant subject, the ‘perceiver’ of thoughts
and sensations and that which is always present. Even
during sleep there is awareness of dreams and of the quality of
that sleep; and there is also awareness of sensations; if a
sensation becomes strong enough, such as a sound or uncomfortable
sensation, one will wake up.
All
thoughts and sensations appear in awareness, exist in awareness,
and subside back into awareness. Before any particular
thought or sensation there is effortless awareness of ‘what
is’: the sum of all thoughts and sensations occurring at any
given instant. During the thought or sensation in
question there is effortless awareness of it within ‘what
is’. Then when it has gone there is still effortless
awareness of ‘what is’.
So
the body/mind is experienced as a flow of ephemeral objects
appearing in this awareness, the ever present subject. For
each of us any external object or thing is experienced as a
combination of thought and sensation, i.e. you may see it,
touch it, know what it is called, and so on. The point is
that for us to be aware of anything, real or imaginary, requires
thought about and/or sensation of that thing and it is awareness
of these thoughts and sensations that constitutes our experience.
Therefore
this awareness is the constant substratum in which all things
appear to arise, exist and subside. In addition, all living
things rely on awareness of their environment to exist and their
behaviour is directly affected by this. At the level of
living cells and above this is self-evident, but it has been
shown that even electrons change their behaviour when (aware of)
being observed! Thus this awareness exists at a deeper level than
body/mind (and matter/energy[4][4])
and we are this awareness![5][5]
Awareness
can also be defined as universal consciousness when it is totally
at rest, completely still; aware of everything that is occurring
within it. Every ‘thing’ that is occurring in
consciousness is a manifestation of cosmic energy, for the string
theory[6][6] and the earlier theory of relativity show that
matter is in fact energy, which is consciousness in motion (or
motion in consciousness). For energy is synonymous with
motion and consciousness is the substratum, or deepest level, of
all existence.
Now
all motion arises in stillness, exists in stillness, is known by
its comparison with stillness, and eventually subsides back into
stillness. For example, if you walk across a room, before
you start there is stillness, as you walk the room is still and
you know you are moving relative to this stillness, and when you
stop once again there is stillness. In the same way every
‘thing’ (consciousness in motion, or motion in
consciousness) arises in awareness (consciousness at rest),
exists in awareness, is known in awareness and subsides back into
awareness. Awareness is still, but is the container of all
potential energy which is continually bubbling up into
manifestation (physical energy) and then subsiding back into
stillness. [7][7]
http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm