Evolution and Compassion

< versão Portuguesa>

Since time immemorial Men has searched within for a sense of personal meaning and understanding of reality. Over the last century that search seems to have focused almost exclusively in the outer material world, but as time is the greatest of teachers, to those who pay attention, slowly we see that people start to understand that such answers are to be found within ourselves, and not in mathematical rules about the material world.

Already 2500 years ago the Buddha has said that the way to happiness and freedom is: "Practice Virtue, Abandon evil doing, Tame your Mind", and, "your ego-self is illusory and attachment to yourself is the root of all problems" - and in fact this is considered the very essence, heart and life force of the spiritual path and not just in Buddhism.

Today these teachings I feel are of crucial importance, in a world that is increasingly selfish, materialist and that measures success by how much a person can 'build', 'accumulate', 'do' or 'develop' in terms of materials, wealth, fame, reputation and such things. Our society, as a whole, is fundamentally trapped in an impossible contradiction, and is profoundly ill, suffering from an illness of the spirit that is leading to self-destruction. There is a great contradiction that remains strong and driving our culture. It is the contradiction between those ideas of success and development and outer growth on one side, and the desire for peace, well-being and happiness on the other. The strife for material wealth or some form of 'outer' success on one side, and finding peace and happiness, are in opposite directions.  This leads to continued conflict always. Inner conflict and outer conflict. As we live in a world of limited resources, the outer success of one, is the loss and failure of another. There is no way around that, and so we keep going, in conflict and problems.

The greatest success really, is the success of finding contentment and inner-peace.

As I defended on another text (Infinite Windows), I believe that the only healthy and natural solution is to return and reclaim mankind's spiritual nature. Not as an ideal, empty words, repeated cliches or sweet facebook posts, but as an actual way of life. 

Fundamentally, and this is hard to avoid, the problem is this mind, this distracted, contradictory, unaware and disturbed mind that is fully involved with itself. This mind that does not know its authentic true condition, and is lost in a projection of a conditioned 'self-identity'. It is from here that attachment, anger, hatred, greed etc arise. This 'me-mind' that in its illness even believes itself to be more intelligent than nature itself.

 It is natural to think - "but well I have so many problems in my life already that are so hard to handle, how can I worry about the world and this bigger issues?". However, if we observe a little, it becomes clear that my problems, in general, are not so much different from the problems other people have. In general, more or less, mankind shares the same condition and similar problems all over.  If we observe and understand this, it will be very helpful in allowing us to raise our head and look around, take a breath and understand that fundamentally we are all under the same sky. If we really go to the root of all the problems, we resolve not just our problems, but help others also at the same time. This understanding is the birth of real compassion.

For those interested seriously in taking part in this journey of evolution, personal evolution, global evolution,  towards a situation of living where all of us have less problems, then this surely must be the way to start - and we must start with ourselves! We cannot change the world by direct action on it, that would be an act of violence! But we cannot also 'force' our own mind to change forcefully, that would also be an act of violence and it rarely works anyway, the way is evolution by first understanding, then direct realization and inner experience. We can only evolve, and as we evolve, share and show that example. In this way as each individual heals itself, the world will gradually heal itself.

We can find in this world many different spiritual traditions of great value, and each person will feel drawn in some direction. However from the point of view of my own personal activity and experience, and without any intention of diminishing the value of other spiritual traditions, I feel that there is no better way to take this journey than by embracing the path of non-duality. There are many manifestations of this type of journey into the view of non-duality and different expressions of it. In particular, and here regarding my own experience, for example by learning, developing and applying the ancient spiritual teachings of Atiyoga or Dzogchen. These are supreme ways to truly cut straight through at the root of our own delusions, fears, clingings and the illusory nature of this 'Me'. Through the total pure presence of Atiyoga, we can truly evolve into fully conscious and present human beings, and we can stop being part of the problems and start being part of the solution. When we integrate this direct non-dual presence which reveals fully our true condition, integrating wisdom into all aspects of life, then our life becomes meaningful. Meaningful not because we build great material wealth or temporary achievements, but meaningful because we will have come to heal ourselves from the illness of selfish-ego-clinging, free from the illness of wasting our life away in pointless distractions,  and instead we become part of an evolution for all beings. This is a meaningful life.

with love , Aja Das