>>> So where does GW Bush's dharma as a child of privilege fit into
>>> all this? If a demonstrably enlightened dictator took over the
>>> USA, that might be nice while he is alive, but will all his
>>> descendents be enlightened? The divine right of kings falls
>>> apart by the next generation, regardless of how saintly King
>>> Arthor himself may be.
Exactly. The "tragedy of knowledge" in action.
>> All true, but IMO the problem is one step further back.
>> The problem with believing that what the world needs
>> is an "enlightened dictator" is that it's a FANTASY.
>> It's a lot like believing in Sat Yuga. It's putting
>> all one's eggs in a future basket that does not exist,
>> has never existed, and will never exist except as a
>> hope in the minds of people who don't live in the Now.
>
> The Once and Future Ying?
Maybe. This is a source of endless fascination for
me, this longing in spiritual traditions for either
the future ("Everything will be rosy when <supply
your own 'when' here>") or the past ("If only things
were as rosy as they were <again, supply your own
'when' here>"). It seems completely contradictory
to the experience of living in the Now that has been
presented as one of the primary characteristics of
life in enlightenment.
WAS there ever a Sat Yuga? A time when everything
was rosy and everybody was enlightened? A lot of
people seem to think so. Me, I'm not convinced. I
think it's the spiritual counterpart of the Neocon
longing for the 1950s, where everything was black
and white and you knew who your enemies were and
women stayed barefoot and pregnant and never talked
back.
And as such, it's not really about a dream for a
"better world." It IS that, of course, but at the
same time it's a rejection of the *current* world,
a kind of attachment to the way things "should" be,
as opposed to an acceptance of and appreciation for
Things As They Are.
Back in the bad old days of the computer revolution,
IBM made a name for itself by "selling futures."
Their salespeople talked up the bright, rosy future
of the *next* generation of computers so well that
customers bought the current crappy generation of
computers and lived with them, convinced that things
would be better Real Soon Now. Things were never
better.
I think that there is a similar trend in spiritual
communities. If the students are not realizing their
own enlightenment speedily, right here, right Now,
even the best of teachers tend to start "selling
futures," telling them how rosy things will be when
they ARE enlightened, and to just hang in there,
because everything will be better Real Soon Now.
I don't know about you guys, but I've had spiritual
teachers telling me how things are gonna be better
Real Soon Now for over forty years. As far as I can
tell, things in the world have gotten worse, not better.
But neither 'better' nor 'worse' has ANYTHING to do
with enlightenment. Enlightenment, as I understand it,
revolves around that magic word that keeps coming up
in Tom's writing here -- appreciation. If one is
capable of appreciating one's own eternal nature,
eternity is present in every moment, right here,
right Now.
I'm just throwing out ideas here for discussion. I'm
just fascinated by this trend to "sell futures," and
I'm starting to wonder if the very fact that a spiritual
teaching talks more about how rosy things will be 'when'
("selling futures") may mean that that tradition has no
enlightenment to offer right here, right Now.
Unc
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