THE PARADOXICAL FORUM
SEPTEMBER 2008 / ISSUE 72
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THE THREE PRIMAL ASPECTS
SATVIC – RAJISTIC – TOMASIC
By Todd Vickers
Content Copyright 2007-2008© Vickers Publications. All Rights Reserved
I do not wish to prejudice anyone by indulging the use of three words that have their roots spiritual culture. I intend to define these words beyond the limits of esoteric jargon into beneficial examples that are both practical and observable, not only by the most common person but also the most hardened of skeptics. My intention is to expose systems of thought and to hold them up to the light of reason and in so doing inspire a love of truth and the desire to be free of destructive habits of mind. These words are only devices and are meant to serve a purpose. Nobody need be limited to any aspect of being let alone one that comes and goes with thought.
Let us begin with the definitions of these words as commonly used and then extend those definitions in an attempt to trigger observations from ones own life. Remember the words are worthwhile if they indicate something that is beneficial, once the benefit is had the words used to indicate that benefit become superfluous.
SAT means truth. Naturally one who is Satvic loves truth.
Digressing briefly, when I use the word truth I do not mean a seemingly profitable amalgamation of belief; a stew of the most appealing and comforting ideas from popular or iconoclastic sources to which one has been exposed. This is frequently how truth is viewed and it is most unfortunate. What I am indicating with the word truth is that which remains when the distortions of mind cease, for what is untrue can only exist in thought.
RAJ comes from the word Rajah and means king or dominion. The one who is Rajistic is one who is materialistic and fixated in the world of sense and thought. I will primarily extend the definition of this word. I ask that you temporarily accept my definition and then see if your own observation gives you a reason to make this definition permanent, not only because it is beneficial but also because it saves us the trouble of creating a new word.
TOMAS means ignorance or darkness. One who is Tomasic is lost in delusion.
It may seem strange to say that the distinction between these three types is not so easily made. If you were to see three people each embodying one of the aforementioned aspects sitting together and all were chewing on carrots how you will tell which one is interested in truth? The fact is that you will be referencing gestures or signs that signal you by being linked with existing beliefs; cues that you associate with truth and as such you reference only the past to judge. If you are referencing beliefs that are obviously from the past how can you distinguish from those beliefs what is true from what is false when it is in front of your face? Many people, even intelligent ones, have admired people who are deluded and have chosen to follow and imitated them as a result of these signals and cues that they associate with truth. Are not both history and current events full of such examples?
I will give you a little help here. One who is in love with truth is not identified with thought, feelings, or circumstances. They are not believing imagination about what life is or what it should be. To many this may seem somehow disassociated and aloof but in reality one who is not identified with thought and form is, in fact, the only one free to fully engage life as a sovereign being not at war within themselves. I will shine a light on this by discussing what the Rajistic and Tomasic person are doing that are similar to each other in delusion and what is the distinction between them. As the observation is put before you, it will become clearer to you that anyone who is not engaged in Rajistic or Tomasic habits will obviously be interested in truth.
What the Rajistic person and the Tomasic person have in common is they both are relating to the mind: both are dreaming. Not only are they imagining life as it should be and comparing their view of their so called life to the ideal but, also, life as it appears to them is also imagined; in other words, it is polluted with delusion.
How can anyone view life from a point of reference that does not in fact exist? If one imagines who they are from an amalgamation of thoughts from the past then they will be deluded because that cannot be who they truly are. I evidence this as a fact because one does not cease to exist when thought ceases. [The reader is encouraged to verify this fact by quieting the mind] Therefore, the sense of self that exists only in mind and thought is delusion and yet life is viewed from this delusion as a point of reference; in other words from this fictional self. This is similar to viewing where one lives from the back of a flying winged horse. You can’t really do it, but you can think it, and with the thinking comes all the feeling both pleasant, awful and otherwise that accompanies whatever images are passing in the mind.
As a result of the aforementioned delusion, what people are viewing as life is something other than life. One will view in one’s mind what one thinks life is, and what one thinks about life as if that were life itself and not simply thought. Of course, one will be comparing that imagined life with what one thinks life should be which is also another image in the mind. In the comparison there is despair because what one thinks life is and what one thinks it should be are rarely the same and even if they are it is only thought. This is how once can miss their whole life. You may also notice that this is not so different than dreaming where one imagines an unreal universe and both the self and events take place only in the mind and can induce intense emotion. It appears to me, that what takes place while dreaming is similar to what is happening while people are awake and the difference is they must interrelate and accommodate the data of the senses which of course is vastly different than sleep. Yet, have you ever had some sound penetrate your dreaming only to be incorporated into the dream after being transformed? Do you think this is not happening while you are awake only vice versa? This question springs from a subjective observation but I would ask if you notice something similar.
The difference between the Rajistic and the Tomasic person is that when life circumstances change and reveal an illusion the Rajistic person will drop the illusion because it is causing them fear, strife, or is damaging to some desire, ambition, vanity, rivalry, or love of power. The Tomasic person will not drop the illusion regardless of what life demonstrates.
Here is a rather blatant example. I know a woman who, though an accomplished professional, was able to completely deny the fact that she had dangerously high blood pressure. Her doctor told her of her condition and she convinced herself that he was exaggerating. She would test herself at different drug stores and she told herself that the machines must be broken because her blood pressure can’t be that high. When she woke up one morning blind in one eye. That got her attention and ended her denial. This is only one example and there are many that are more subtle, in fact weighty volumes could be written chronicling such absurdities.
Something I have never heard anyone say about being Rajistic is that in fantasy everyone is a monarch. People fantasize themselves to be in a kind of universe that they rule by fiat (like a monarch) because they control the fantasy and this is true if the fantasy is wonderful or horrible. In this imaginary world one can be a benign dictator or a tyrant. In such a dream world one seems privy to all kinds of information that is not accessible to ordinary mortals. For example why things are the way they are.
Not unlike real monarchs, would-be-monarchs are vulnerable to superstition motivated either through belief or convenience. The problem with daydreaming is that most people are doing this to some degree and as such they convince themselves of their authority and use the emotion they can induce with fantasy as evidence of the reality of their concepts. I have seen people decide that their partner is cheating on them or, that they are not, in this same imagined way and I have seen both be wrong regarding the actual events.
To declare what is not possible can also be Rajistic. Not so long ago many notorious intellectuals said man would never fly. They imagined their authority. If we look at a sexual fantasy we can see this quality at its finest. I have never heard of a fantasy lover that was unwilling to do what the creator wills, and even if they did, it would be because the thinker wills it. What dreamer in swoon dreams of the counterpart doing what they don’t want? It is also notable that not only is the fantasy lover an unreal image in the mind there is a self “self” participating with the lover and this is also an image in mind, and this image generates real feeling because one identifies themselves with it but that does not make that self or anything that self does anything other than thought. No self that is constructed of thought can be anything other than thought coming and going within your real self.
People declare many sweeping generalizations and beliefs as true through the aforementioned imagining, as if they had the power to know. It is as if they say, “so let it be written, so let it be done”. Not unlike the woman saying “my blood pressure can’t be that high, the machines must be wrong”. In imagination one can enjoy a sense of power that one does not actually possess. This false-power and sense of security is preferred to what is actually going on and taints what is real - as such, imagination becomes an unreal point of reference from which the events of life are viewed. The ordinary human can, like Nero, fiddle while Rome burns and the only difference is that the ordinary person will not usually be notorious for their reign is imagined. Identifying with ideas about who you are is declaring by fiat that your ideas are the reality outside of thought when, in the very nature of things, that is not possible. The thought is not the thing it represents or signifies as an image in the mind. You can’t drink tea out of the thought of a cup.
To declare that women are more sexually reserved than men, or that men are more intelligent than women is to believe by fiat because there exist many women and men that one has not met -they all actually live outside of imagination and one would have to stop referencing imagination in order to notice that fact. To declare that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that the Bible, Koran, or Gita is the word of god is to declare something as if it true simply because one feels strongly about the subject. Monarchs have been known to rule their domains as such, with varying degrees of success and failure.
The delusion remains hidden from the Rajistic person, be they a king or an average person, and this will continue as long as life circumstances do not expose the delusion. Like the woman with high blood pressure she maintained the delusion until life contradicted it and then accepted the reality. You can see that the “self” who could not have high blood pressure was imagined. The problem with this is that one relies on life to expose the delusions and that can be really slow and often life only exposes dreams one at a time. One can give their entire life and even sacrifice it for a belief; a construct of thought.
The difference between the Tomasic and the Rajistic person should be obvious now. Both will live a life affected and polluted by delusion but as life begins to destroy the self-placating illusions the Rajistic person will drop the illusion and the Tomasic person will continue to believe the stories they tell themselves until they are dead regardless of the suffering they cause themselves or others.
Even though the forms such aforementioned delusions take can be innumerable, the mechanism of how they come into being and are sustained habitually is the same. One uses thought as paint and creates on the canvas of mind who they imagine themselves to be and what their life is and means when viewed from this imagined self as a point of reference. They imagine what life should be and contrast it with how they see life from their imagined sense of self. Is it any wonder that people suffer disillusionment constantly? If you don’t wish to endure disillusionment then don’t believe illusion.
To conclude this piece, I would like to say to those receiving this to see thought for what it is and for what it is not. If you wish to be free of the governing force of thought and the subsequent suffering then begin to notice the silence behind all thought; the awareness that is unaffected by any thought, either useful or delusional. Notice that when this imagined self and imagined life, which is being measured against images of how life should be, ceases to be, you do not cease to exist. Quiet the mind and then what remains? Who are you truly? This is the invitation of this writing and speaking. This writing is freedom blowing you a kiss and extending an invitation to notice who you are. Then all that is left is to enjoy this life as it really is.
With love by
Gyan Deva aka Todd Vickers
GUIDELINES FOR QUESTIONS
Two questions per person.
Keep questions as concise as possible.
PROSE AND ANECDOTES
What people seek in a relationship is finding another who is smart enough to play a prescribed role and not fuck up the make believe dream and simultaneously dumb enough to not notice the dream is not real.
Quotes are from FRESH WATER PEARLS - by Todd Vickers
ARE YOU GETTING FREEDOM SPOKEN LIKE THIS ANYWHERE ELSE ???
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Excerpts
TRUTH LIKE FIRE
THE PARADOX OF SELF REALIZATION
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All Excerpts
By Todd Vickers
Content Copyright 2008 © Vickers Publications. All Rights Reserved
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MEETING IN E-MAIL
Excerpted from the July 2003 Forum
I have been receiving many questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, and even ominous threats via e-mail. Most of them go unanswered for three reasons: First and foremost, many of these questions have been answered in my books; to answer them individually is therefore redundant. That is why I wrote the books, and if you have questions please buy them. Second, e-mail is a tool, but like all tools it has its limitations (you don’t paint a house with a hammer). The vicarious nature of e-mail makes it a horrible way to meet intimately, particularly with one I have not (personally) met. Since there is no accountability in e-mail, the casual nature of it invites misunderstanding and absurdity. Third, I simply do not have the time to respond to countless e-mails.
Sincerely & Respectfully,
Todd
INFO
Todd travels to give talks and respond to questions. He is willing to give of his time freely but does require that you or your organization cover expenses (e.g., transportation, lodging, etc). Please provide at least two months’ advance notice. Please contact us at info@spiritparadox.com to inquire into arrangements and scheduling. If you are in Northern California and would like to visit, that is free.
Forum: Sharon Dalzell – Sharon@truthlikefire.com
Web site: Gyan Solutions
Author: Todd Vickers
Proof: Linda Caplinger
Melissa Margolis
Typing: Jill Margolis
E-mail: info@truthlikefire.com
URL: http://truthlikefire.com/
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