a dialogue... c/o : Arjuna., c/o : The World Mind Society...

Questioner; Upon meeting another, what is the enlightened person to do in a time of corruption, when no one can be trusted…when the public, who cannot even trust themselves, are interacted with?
Master; One method is the asking of two questions.
Q; What are these two questions?
M; Ask them thus, ‘What do you stand for?”, and, “What proof within your daily life demonstrates this?” The result of this questioning will show the quality of their soul and their mind.
Q; Why these two questions in particular?
M; The first, “What do you stand for?” reveals the core intent of a person away from the usual self indulgence, greed and selfishness of society, and toward a cause-oriented life of meaning. Those who stand for nothing can never be trusted, and the reason for this should be self evident. The second merely confirms the authenticity of those who claim that they DO stand for something. Know that those who have no answer to these questions at all, are likewise corrupt pretenders, who usually act AS THOUGH they cannot understand the purpose of the inquiry.
Q; But experience shows that the conversation will merely end upon the asking of such questions, since the few who say they stand for something can rarely demonstrate the truth of such an assertion.
M; Exactly so, and this ending should tell the practitioner that such a person is unworthy of further relations. The implications of such a reaction are the cause for asking in the first place.
Q; What implications are those?
M; Just as you said at first, that this is a time of corruption where no one can be truly trusted, where greed and selfishness rule the day, and where an extreme shallowness of mind is cultivated amongst the public.
Q; Why an extreme shallowness of mind?
M; Shallowness is used as a pseudo-defense against truth, under the auspice that the ignorant or the stupid are not to be held accountable for the continuing destruction of this world. This is also the case in the general lack of questioning regarding the status quo…the coward and the scoundrel seek ever to keep things as they are, no matter how degenerate that status quo.
Q; But of course, people ARE to be held accountable for this destruction since they ARE responsible for it. I suspect also that everyone must KNOW this already, or else they would not have developed such an elaborate psychological defense system against the truth.
M; This is perceptive of you. This falseness that so pervades the public is actually mass-dishonesty and mass-insanity renamed. Lack of honesty is the source of the modern rot, it is the cancer of the human spirit, degrading it below the level of the animal, and beyond the recognition of those who hold intelligence and wisdom dear.
Q; Why and how has this come about, for an otherwise noble humanity? M; The modern corruption is the result of cumulative bad decision-making, and the wrongful intention of humanity as a collective, over the period of centuries and millennia. This is both how and why our race is currently in the miserable condition that is the 21st century.
Q; But what is the mechanism of this self-wrought degradation?
M; In essence, the casual disregard and even contempt for the truth is a matter of decision, one that is based on the ideas that, 1) humanity is the center of the universe and can therefore do no wrong, 2) that as the center of divine intentions and physical forces, to be a human and to lie, is to actually tell the truth, since “we create our own reality”, and, 3) that nothing matters in the whole universe except how we feel or want to believe. To sum up these three things in a single phrase would be to say, “insane arrogance”.
Q; How is it that EVERYONE seems to conspire in this dishonest fashion, so as to defend the society they belong to, and their willing participation in a corrupt system? Why is it that no one will simply say, “I reject society”?
M; Much of the reason for this is simple terror. Although there are a great many who know modern society for what it is…pointless, unnatural, anti-spiritual and destructive, there are few indeed who have the inner fortitude to overcome their fear of social rejection or alienation. Add to this iron-clad conditioning of the mind to blindly follow any instruction given by “authority” through education, mass media, conditioned parenting, government influence and corporate manipulation, and you have a public that will literally do anything and say anything to maintain their way of life, even when that way is a daily agony to them and all that lives in nature.
Q; What you’re saying then, is that humanity is now in such a degree of denial that not only are they ignorant of the truth, but that this ignorance is by design and (un)conscious choice.
M, Yes, quite right. Humanity has already chosen its’ course, and that is suicide through the denial of truth. There is only the extremely rare person who has both the fortitude and the intellect to dare to question the status quo. There are fewer still who would actually take meaningful action upon this knowledge to live a better way. Of those few there are but a handful or less who recognize that the old ways will mean our certain destruction as a species, and who would advocate fundamental change to others as a spiritual calling.
Q; What of those who claim to be on a spiritual path, and yet have the same contempt for the facts when spoken?...which of course leads us to my original questions, “Upon meeting another, what is the enlightened person to do in a time of corruption, when no one can be trusted… when the public, who cannot even trust themselves, are interacted with?
M; There are many who claim to be spiritual, but the question to ask them is, “Are they still a willing part of a corrupt society?”, and also, “How do they rectify this inherent contradiction?” One does not light fires in the woods in their daily lifestyle, and then claim to be for the forest on the weekend. One does not bathe in poisons, and then cheerfully claim they are, “getting clean”. I would therefore caution any who would be sincere teachers of truth, to not expect anyone to ever listen to what they have to say, not even the supposedly, “spiritual-minded”. Most of those who say they are “spiritual” are merely using this word and concept, to disguise the fact that they are not genuinely good or spiritual persons. Spirituality to them is not a cause to live by daily, it is merely yet another extension of their unchecked egotism. This world is now summarily opposed to truth in any meaningful form, especially when it challenges the materialistic way of life, and what people have taught their own children to likewise follow. What Christ found in his crucifixion was also the fate of the common thief at the hands of an evil empire. What EVERY spiritual teacher of the past has found, is that false religion takes the place of unvarnished facts. What Christ and others learn from such experience, is that mankind is not ready for the truth, and is instead actively hostile to it. The modern person is not merely willfully ignorant, they do not merely deny. The modern person is actually an enemy of the truth, just as they are an enemy to nature and anything natural, which is based upon truth. They daily crucify truth on the cross of arbitrary beliefs and egotistical posturing. Such persons are hostile to logic, to anyone who is truly honest, and who speaks fact over pleasant fictions. Such persons are an enemy to all things truly spiritual. For in the spiritual resides the implication that the modern life is not a good one, that there is meaning beyond the human desire to trivialize and create arbitrary myths. The modern person strongly resents the implication therefore, that beyond all facades they are essentially NOT good people, and that the life goals they have dedicated themselves to have no meaning other than mutual and world destruction. This too is why the modern person is often times found hacking away at nature and everything in it with contempt. For within nature too is the implication of a higher order and purpose, higher than the self indulgence of consumerism (plants and animals as merely things to be used or destroyed at a whim) and the primitive egotism of fashion, fad and gossip magazine. Q; Any form of life that is reluctant to even admit that there is such a thing as truth has gone mad, denying the example set for them by their own bodies, and by the order of nature. Any species which is hostile to truth is doomed.
M; Quite right, and this fact will be made self evident in the next few years to come. There will increasingly be no place left to hide, in trivial gossip and small talk. For those who live and speak in such a way that echoes the mad belief that, “nothing matters” or “nothing need be changed” their karma shall be that they in turn are rendered irrelevant and cast aside, by the physical needs of evolution, and the spiritual will of God.

The World Mind Society