Barry Wright, there is something seriously wrong with your wiring, if you
equate witnessing with a lack of responsibility. Obviously your witnessing
experience was very, very limited. Otherwise you would see clearly, that the
permanent state of witnessing, DOES NOT OCCUR until one has reached a point of
spiritual maturity, to accept full responsibility for one's actions.
I accept your apology, in advance, for something you could not possibly know,
but nonetheless, have spent a couple of pages, endlessly speculating about. :-)
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote :
There are many things that still surprise me about the things that long-term
TM TBs believe and that I no longer believe, but I admit to having been
somewhat taken aback yesterday at Lawson's seemingly unquestioning acceptance
of what he was told about the nature of enlightenment. That is, that (according
to MMY) once one is enlightened, a person cannot possibly do any wrong, because
all of their actions are "run" by God, or the Laws Of Nature, or
whatever/whomever they believe is pulling the strings.
I personally consider this belief THE most negative and THE most destructive in
all of the "spiritual" mythologies that have built up around the concept of
enlightenment.
And I say this *knowing* where the belief comes from. It comes from the
subjective experience of a brain fart that makes one feel as if one is "not the
doer." THAT, plus the experience of having some dissociative "distance" from
one's thoughts and actions that one has been taught to associate with
"witnessing" have been the cause of most of the bad things that have taken
place in the history of the pursuit of enlightenment.
The fascinating thing from my point of view is that this particular brain fart
can be created in a laboratory, through the use of medications, or by
overloading the normal electrical impulses of the brain by stronger impulses,
applied to certain areas of the brain. When this happens, the subject begins to
feel as if they are "not the doer," and that something ELSE is "running
things." All because of an induced brain fart. Enlightenment traditions that
glorify this brain fart teach that this mysterious "ELSE" is God, or the
workings of the "Laws Of Nature," and thus anything the person in Brain Fart
Consciousness "finds themselves doing" while in this "not the doer" state is
the RIGHT thing, the GODLY thing, the PERFECT thing.
I -- having experienced this brain fart myself many times -- call bullshit.
Brain Fart Consciousness is Just Another State Of Attention. It is no "better"
or "higher" or "superior" than any other. People just believe it is because
they've been TAUGHT to believe that.
If they had never heard any of the myths of the enlightenment traditions, and
had just stumbled upon this brain fart themselves, they would probably consult
a psychiatrist, who would diagnose their condition as dissociation. But they
HAVE been taught that this "witnessing" brain fart is not only a form of
"Something good is happening," it's the BEST form of something good happening.
It's an indicator -- in their brainwashed minds, that is -- of enlightenment.
And why? Because, in my opinion, these people long for a state in which they
can consider themselves Not Responsible for anything they do.
The 60s comedy group The Firesign Theater used to do some great routines based
on this concept. "Park and Lock It -- Not Responsible." The whole idea is that
the person selling something or doing something is Not Responsible for whatever
happens to those buying it. People who believe in this Brain Fart Consciousness
model of enlightenment seem to feel that they can do or say ANYTHING and *get
away with it* because it's not really *them* doing it. It's God, or
enlightenment, or the Laws Of Nature. THEY are off the hook.
The thing is, I don't think either the material world OR the more sensible
world of enlightenment work that way. The person in the lab who has had this
"not the doer" brain fart induced may FEEL as if their actions are being
performed by someone/something ELSE, but THEY'RE NOT. If a subject in such an
experiment, completely convinced that they were "not the doer," chose to do
something like rob a bank or kill someone, they would be convicted in a court
of law faster than shit through a goose. And rightly. What they "feel" about
"who" or "what" is pulling the trigger is simply not in question. If it was
their finger on the trigger, THEY are responsible.
But in spiritual communities who have been conditioned to believe the SAME
myths about "what enlightenment means," people who claim to be in this
witnessing Brain Fart Consciousness do and say stuff every day that the people
around them *let them get away with*, because these toadies have been taught to
believe the same myth.
People who have claimed to be enlightened have committed crimes, have raped
people, have lied, have smuggled m