How Can Cruelty and Hatred Be Part of the Perfect Tapestry of Life?

Someone recently asked me, "How do you reconcile the whole, 'Everything is a beautiful part of the tapestry,' with all the ugliness present in the world? Is hatred, malice, vengeance not a part of the tapestry?"

In today's podcast, I talk about why we can't see the beauty, balance and oneness. I talk about what obscures our view of the miraculous nature of our universe. And I share how we can pierce that veil of ignorance and see beyond suffering, beyond expectations, and beyond the prison of polarities, of likes and dislikes, and see the infinite perfection all around us.

Please enjoy other episodes where I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.

Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/

Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter our world is a projection of our collective consciousness, the more peace we bring into our lives, the more peace we bring into this world. So let the transformation begin. When a person asks themselves, how can the immense cruelty and ugliness of our society be part of the universe's grand design? There are three fallacies of our thinking that are present in this question. The first is that subjective nature of good and bad, and how we place this characteristic, on to a circumstance or a person, which does not contain that characteristic objectively, inherently, and independently in and of itself. Because we understand that all experience is subjective, between the subject and object. Without conscious awareness, there can be no conscious experience. The second fallacy in this question stems from identifying ourselves as a separate, independent entity, instead of a deeply interconnected part of a hole. When we see ourselves as separate, we see ourselves as a fragile, vulnerable. And oftentimes, being that is in danger and frail. Instead of part of that everlasting, one life force, we see competition instead of unity. And we see enemies instead of our souls ourselves, that source from which we all came. And the third fallacy is that we live in this random, chaotic universe that makes mistakes, and is imperfect. When in reality, there is a cause and a reason for everything, even if we can't see it. as uncomfortable as it may be to hear, the fact remains that death and suffering are not a bug of this universe. But unfortunately, or fortunately, hopefully, we see fortunately, by the time we get the end of this podcast. But fortunately, it is a feature, not a bug. And if the worst thing imaginable will happen to every single one of us, then it can only be bad, if we live in a universe that is not loving is not perfect, and that all of this magical universe, with the infinite beauty and variety somehow has mischievous intentions for us. Or we must come to the truth that everything is perfect, exactly by design, by that same force that created the Milky Way in the sky above us, and the sunsets and the flowers in the animals must be perfect and must be beyond our comprehension and understanding. And if we could remove the veil of separateness, and if we could see what that underlying universal field of consciousness sees. If we could see where souls go, if we could see how all life is connected See how every part is necessary to the hole, and how the hole is necessary to every part. Then we can step back and see the wisdom in the pain and suffering that takes place in this world. But first, we have to dig into that primary fallacy, that veil of ignorance, which we all have, to some extent, which is, we see undesirable circumstances. And we label them as bad. And we become angry, frustrated, sad, because what we've worked towards is not manifesting, or because what we long for hope for and desire is being suppressed by external forces. But if we understood how everything came into being the causes that led to the world we see around us in the present moment, then everything starts to make sense. We can see that no moment, object or person exist, disconnected in this moment, or somehow creates some situation that wasn't based on infinite factors that came before it. And when we see the causes that go into the present moment, when we see when something new enters our field of consciousness, and we can also see, it's one day departure, then we don't expect things to last, we don't expect for good times to stay. And so we don't create needless suffering and stress when our beautiful objects deteriorate, or when our loved ones grow sick, or when our fellow human siblings around the world suffer at the hands of immense cruelty. Instead of confusion and frustration, we will feel empathy, and compassion. And this is the driving force towards lasting change that brings people together, instead of fueling our hatred that drives us apart. These notions of right and wrong, fall away, when we realize our connection to everything that is happening when we recognize those darker impulses within ourselves. And when we recognize that our anger only fuels our self righteousness, and fuels, further division, and prevents us from the wise skillful action needed to clearly tackle big problems on our planet. And admitting that there are instances of needless suffering in this world is important and unnecessary. First step towards helping to bring about future with less pain and suffering. But until that day comes when we have eradicated needless suffering, we can either let that pain in the world, break us down, make us depressed, and turn us fearful. Or we can use it as a guiding light that shines the path towards peace, harmony, and love. And in that way, until we reach that more perfect society, then it is the cruelty that shines our beacon for where we need to put our love and compassion not our Anger, or rage, or depression, because there is only one thing that can help people who are committing acts of cruelty, see the error of their ways, and it isn't ridicule, or mean tweets, it is showing how we are all one. And when we are all one, there is no more need for greed, or competition or domination. We can set our fear and our jealousy aside, and we can bridge our differences. And it always starts with us. Which brings me to the second fallacy. Who am I? Who Are any of us? Where did these ideas have our subjective view of perfection? come from? And where did we get the arrogance to decide that our little idea of perfection that if we could change the laws of the universe, we could design a more perfect one than the one we are experiencing? And the answer comes from that little ego in our brain, that I mean mine, I am separate, I am not like the rest of you, people. I am better, I would never treat people, I would never do that I am good. And while those stories do make our ego feel very big, we must also maintain a truthfulness with ourselves. That a it is just our ego be that in someone else's shoes in someone else's body in with someone else's brain. And with their experience, we would do the exact same thing because we are all one. If we grew up in a place that encouraged cruelty, we may be cruel. If we grew up in a poor, starving place, we may steal bread, if we were in a position to earn millions or billions of dollars, but we needed to pollute a few rivers, or harm a few animals or displace a few indigenous peoples. And we came up in the same way, as the people who are making those decisions, we very well may do the same exact thing. We all have that Buddha nature, and Hitler nature within us. And the question is, what is society? Nurturing? What are we teaching? And what can we do about the suffering? Rarely? Is that answer, getting angry, get depressed? And so the answer becomes, our responsibility is to stay peaceful, stay strong, stay present, and firm with our convictions and values. And let go completely of our expectations for how others behave because we are all living out our own karma, living out our own personal experience with these bodies, with our environment, with these brains that have these thoughts and urges and impulses that have been conditioned by society in the media, and we don't even know where we get these urges and impulses and we are all doing our best to make it through this world. And when we forget who we truly are, which is that presence behind the body and mind that lifeforce energy that animates every living being that powers, the forces that hold atoms together, then we see ourselves and everyone, then our fragile egos and our frail, vulnerable bodies no longer create any fear. Because we are eternal, timeless, infinite, we no longer see the tiger eating the gazelle, we see the gazelle giving life to the tiger, we see that the tiger cannot exist without the gazelle. And the prey cannot exist without the predator. If you were a left wing or a right wing, political person, and you somehow convinced the entire world to be on your political spectrum, then, without opposition, there is no way to tell if you are left or right, or somewhere in between. We only exist in relation to everyone and everything else. We sense cruelty, because we know kindness. We sense kindness, because we've known cruelty, every single thing we perceive is only understandable to us, because it exist within us. We are each inseparable to the whole of life. Once we can expand our consciousness, to the causes that led up to this moment, we are able to turn back the clock, and be able to see not only all of the moments that led to this one, all of the struggles and battles and good people overcoming evil to get here. We can even see how those tragic moments from the past led to positive changes in the future. The nature of our species is that when something happens, that is unsustainable, that threatens our survival, we are able to correct course, and create a better future for ourselves. This is the nature of that struggle. This is that outward stress intention of a species that we all feel inside. When something creates stress and tension within us. It is this tension that creates growth, strength and evolution. And this is our way to a more perfect society. Just like when we go to the gym, we stress our muscles. And so they can grow larger. So to every moment of struggle, every battle between good and evil, has led to this moment where we are living in the greatest time in human history, with the least amount of needless suffering with the most resources for the most people and with the most security and safety any species has ever had. The only thing we haven't figured out yet is how to translate that luxury, security and safety into joy, peace and love. Because that really brings me to the final third factor, which is whether or not we live in a perfect universe. Because what would our idea of perfection be? Well, let's take a look at a family or a person who we think in today's standards. Has it all has the perfect life. Let's say a baby is born two loving parents. Let's say they are wealthy, and they are able to provide every opportunity for this child. Well, what do we see happen a lot. We see children who are dependent, who have developed no work ethic, who are unable to feel any happiness, unless they are surrounded by their luxurious objects, or their mind altering chemicals. And they always need more and more to feel that dopamine rush. And we see people who can never sit still, who are never satisfied, and who are immensely crippled, in their maturity, and their intellect, and even their ability to withstand even the slightest inconvenience. So clearly, our idea of a perfect universe is going to be quite problematic, because we have not figured out what to do once we have that perfect society. And this is kind of like the dog chasing the truck. When that dog is chasing the male truck, it has no idea what it's going to do, if it catches that thing. What is it going to do with the male truck. And in that same way, we are always trying to create our perfect little corner of the earth, trying to make sure that no more problems can invade our little space. But the problem is, what would we do once we achieve that, and that is where the real problem comes in. Because most human beings don't know how to relax, don't know how to be at peace. And this is why we don't have world peace. We believe world peace will come from external circumstances and situations they will come from when all armies put down their weapons. But if we don't change our mindset, to be a peaceful one, even in the face of the cruelty and suffering in the world, in fact, in especially in the face of the cruelty and suffering in the world, we will never have a lasting peace. And so for the sake of the world, we must look at this suffering in the sources of suffering in the world, as our teachers as our guides, as our compass, pointing us towards enlightenment, peace, love and joy. Suffering is part of the balancing act of this universe that leads us towards growth, strength and evolution. I'll say that again. Because it was so important. We must see that if this universe had been our idea of perfect, there would be no human beings, because there would be no evolution. We cannot know where we want to go as a species. Unless we know where we have been, and what direction we wish to move away from. With no cruelty, we would have no heroes with no death, we would not cherish life, we must see that birth contains the seeds of death that springtime contains the winter within it. And it is those heroes that teach us what is possible and what to aspire to. And it is never their anger or depression but their resilience and their courage, and most importantly, their optimism that things will work out if we deal with the issues we can deal with. Let go and accept the ones we can't and Focus on what's good here. And now in front of us. It occurred to me the other day that if the news, the nightly news on TV started with all of the good stories that happened that day. The news would never get around to the negative stories. And yet, what do we see night after night? 100% or 90% negative stories. This is not our world. This is not our reality. The reality is, there is so much more laughter and love than there is hatred and cruelty. Sometimes we just need to take a news fast to remind ourselves and go out and explore this beautiful, magical, mystifying, miraculous world. Much love. You've been listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Being here and putting in this important and noble work is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and others. If you found this podcast even a little helpful. Please make sure to leave a review so it can reach others who may be in need. And remember, the path to peace starts with a single step.