Human Rights

Human Rights  » Who Screwed Up?

Who Screwed Up?

Zeus mysteriously materialized in my life a few years ago. He's

a very complex, wise-cracking, irreverent dog with some serious

attitude. However, he is arguably the most highly evolved being

I have ever encountered. His great delight is in turning my

world (and yours) inside out and upside down, with the soul

purpose of revealing forgotten knowledge. For example:

"Ever wonder how the world got to be so messed up?" Zeus asked.

The question, like most of the curve balls Zeus delights in

hurling at me, came completely out of the blue. This time I was

washing up a short stack of dishes. Cooking for one and a half

doesn't use up much of the dinnerware. "Of course I have. Every

time I watch the news or read the papers, or when I meet people

in dysfunctional relationships or note the way we pollute the

planet. It's all pain and suffering in one form or another. Who

doesn't wonder about that?"

"Interesting," Zeus continued, ignoring my answer completely, "a

planet of six and a quarter billion people unable to agree on

almost anything. They're so attached to their beliefs that

they'll fight and defend and die rather than let go of a shred."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just look at the Middle East. What a hodgepodge that's turning

out to be! You can play the polarity game and go along with the

talking heads sitting under the tree of wisdom analyzing rights

and wrongs. Or, if you choose, you can join me on one of the

tree's higher branches and watch the drunken chickens lurching

around the barnyard."

"But there's such a thing as right and wrong," I protested.

"Someone has to stand up for values."

"Everyone always has," Zeus retorted, "and that's why you guys

are waist deep in kimchee. By the way, what makes one thing

right and another thing wrong?"

"It's a matter of ethics and morals," I said. "Anyone can tell

right from wrong."

"That a fact?" Zeus baited. "You mean like differentiating

between black and white?"

"Yes . . . something like that."

"You gotta be my favorite brick," Zeus laughed. "I sometimes

think I was assigned to you because if you finally get it, the

rest of the world should have no problem. Just for once, how

about letting go of your notions about the way things should be

and focusing on the way things are? That way you won't be

distracted by your misguided boy scout urge to fix what ain't

broke.

"Ever notice that by your view of right and wrong the perfect

world would be white on white? Sounds kinda boring to me."

"Well," I answered weakly, "I suppose there are shades of gray.

Not everything is that clear cut."

"Oh, I see. Sometimes right is wrong and wrong is right?"

"Stop it! You're confusing me."

"Don't be so modest, my little human. It's you who is confusing

you. If you would but look, you'd see that from this branch

where we're perched, neither right nor wrong actually exists.

They're simply artful fabrications that bind believers more

securely to their beliefs."

"What's so wrong with beliefs?" I asked. "Without them people

have nothing to cling to--nothing to define themselves with or

give their lives purpose."

"Nothing is wrong with belief. Just as there's nothing wrong

with cinnamon or paprika. Belief is just an interesting way to

spice up the illusion, but you can't make a whole meal of it. In

fact, belief is the least effective way that humans process

information."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Look at your scientific community, for example. Someone has an

idea about the way things work, so they make it a hypothesis. If

the hypothesis survives a lot of experimentation and refinement,

it gets elevated to a theory. Every so often a theory proves

itself so universally consistent that it gets canonized into a

law. In nonscientific terms, hypothesis is akin to belief,

theory equates to thinking, and law corresponds to knowing.

These are your mind's only options. Whatever you have in that

precious little head of yours got there through one of these

three channels. And last time I looked at the collective human

condition, I tallied about 92 percent belief, 7.25 percent

thinking, and the entire balance knowing."

"You mean we're almost totally driven by belief?" I asked.

"Now you've got it," Zeus replied. "No one bothers getting

worked up about what they know. They're happy to discuss what

they think. But they'll defend, fight, and die for what they

believe. Do you know why?"

"Not a clue, doggie-san. Enlighten me."

"Who are you?" Zeus asked enigmatically.

"What do you mean, 'who am I'?" I was inexplicably annoyed by

Zeus's question. "You've lived with me for the past five years.

Nobody knows who I am better than you."

"Ah so," Zeus countered, "an emotional response. How

delightfully predictable. We have descended once again into the

dank realm of belief. Seems you slipped off the limb while I

wasn't looking. Why not climb back up the tree and tighten your

seat belt this time? If a little breeze can tip you off your

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perch, you haven't a chance with what's coming next.

"The question 'who are you' is a paradox. Nothing that views

itself as an object can ever know what it really is. Desperate

to define themselves, people plug in a litany of irrelevance:

gender, religion, country, political party, wealth, status,

appearance, mental acumen, physical strength, their tastes in

art, food and sex, morality, charitable works, and a host of

other labels that reinforce the illusion of their existence.

These are just the ID tags on their belief systems. If they

didn't buy into them, they'd have to face the possibility that

nothing is what it seems to be and--dare I say it--that who they

think they are doesn't really exist after all."

"Hey, if I don't exist, then who are you talking to?" I

demanded.

Zeus's silence was at first maddening, then uncomfortably funny.

It was only after I tittered nervously that he continued.

"There's a 'you' quite separate from your physical, mental,

emotional, and even spiritual attributes. The universe, in fact,

is nothing but an arena where that 'you' can explore the

infinite richness of Creation. I won't spoil that adventure by

telling you how it all turns out. I'll simply say that what you

really are is a point of consciousness from which to view. Your

beliefs, thoughts, and bits of knowing are merely distortive

filters that warp and cloud your vision, locking you into this

illusion so you can ride the emotional waves of being pretending

to be a human.

"Since the illusion of identity, the apparent gift of belief, is

such an precarious platform on which to base one's life, is it

so surprising that people eagerly seek any safe harbor to sit

out the storm? That's why you humans would rather fight and die

than face the quandary of nonexistence.

"From our perspective on the higher limbs of the tree, right and

wrong are laughable. Right is simply what someone sees when

looking through their own lenses. Wrong is anything that doesn't

conform to what they happen to see. The current condition of

your planet is the inevitable result.

"Pretty predictable, if you ask me. But then, who am I?"

About the author:

©2005. Jean-Claude Koven is a writer and speaker based in Rancho

Mirage, CA; Author of Going Deeper: How to Make Sense of Your

Life When Your Life Makes No Sense. Selected by both Allbooks

Reviews and USABookNews.com as the best metaphysical book of the

year. See: www.goingdeeper.org. This article may be forwarded,

distributed, posted, or published without limit, but please do

not alter the text in any way. Please notify if published.