MM: The scientific debate around evolution, independent of creationists, is very interesting and will lead to great new understanding. As Einstein said: "The bigotry of the the non-believers amuses me nearly as much as the bigotry of the believes". So your point is well taken. Not all scientists are automatically free of the bigotry they accuse others of. The discussion among scientists regarding evolution is worth following.
"What is behind it all" is called "God" by theologians and the religious, and "scientific truth or law" by scientists, yet it has no name, nor can it be described, or it wouldn't be "it". All efforts are either poetry or, as scientists like to say, "elegant" formulae. The effort is a noble effort. It is said that in order to come across "it", the absolute greatest effort is needed, and when found, it becomes clear that no effort of any kind can possibly lead to "it".
Q: That sounds like "the emperor has no clothes". In fact that is what a lot of people who talk about enlightenment sound like to me. They are talking about nothing at all. Everything seems to cancel itself out. In your posts, too, often I get this feeling. It's like there is enlightenment, but then there really isn't. Effort is needed, but no effort can do the trick. What exactly is one supposed to do, then?
MM: Nothing. But that is extremely difficult for people. That's the problem. The whole effort is to regain the effortlessness we knew in childhood. Creative non-doing and all gets done without effort.
"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a very good story. The whole population is engaged in pretending, lying, denying, and endless activity and mayhem because of fear and greed, and for all kinds of exciting purposes, until a child speaks the truth. This truth stops everything that is going on.
Whatever we are trying to achieve...money, power, fame, security, and even enlightenment...if we achieve it, it will disappoint. Yet - we need to "go there" as they say, in order to find out, even if we never "get there".
Only the very wealthy truly know that money cannot buy happiness, for example. Only the enlightened ones know that there is no enlightenment. Everybody else is still hoping and desiring and therefore missing life in the eternal present.
Living life in the eternal present does not mean that "you" are enlightened. It just means Enlightenment. It means God. God is the eternal present - with or without the Big Bang - with or without "I" or "You".
Q: What would "the truth stopped everything that was going on" look like then, in our lives and in our culture?
MM: People would not fall for false promises or ideas. False ideas are everything that promises happiness for some reason, and for some moment in the future. Imagine how relaxed and happy one could simply be with "what is", simply wallowing in gratitude at every given moment- just for breathing, or for one's heart beating, the rain, or a sunset. Or even on your deathbed - for dying.
Q: But wouldn't the world come to a stand still? It would be bad for the economy, innovation, fighting bad things, if everyone were that happy and relaxed. Why not just do drugs then?
MM: The economy at the present rate of speed, and wasteful production levels is in great need of slowing down to reinvent itself. Innovation and "fighting bad things" requires wisdom. Wisdom is the opposite of speed and greed. This can only be accomplished through gratitude. We are not mature enough yet as a species, for the technologies we have invented. If we don't hurry up - with slowing down and growing in wisdom - we will self-destruct.
Drugs is another subject altogether. Drugs are simply another form of self-destruction in the pursuit of happiness.
Q: What needs to change, then?
MM: Fear and greed - and boredom, which is fear and greed in disguise - are the root of the problem. Wherever, and whenever you notice fear and greed within yourself - change it. It starts with you. The world... the whole universe... starts and ends with you.
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