Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Nov 01, 2013
India
Nov 01, 2013
Rather
than humbly standing an honest assessment of the self before a mirror,
many prefer to look into ‘carnival’ mirrors. These mirrors, which are
all around us, help distort the true image. In our moments of pride and
self-delusion, we often make fallacious and distorted assessments of
ourselves. One of my friends has been ascribing to a faith and going to
the sect gatherings along with her family every Sunday for the last
twenty years. She had always believed that her spiritual teacher was
very enlightened and could even perform magic. Of late she has been in
shock. When she finally gained access to her teacher’s inner circle, she
overheard his poor views on family as also a lot of loose, frivolous
talk. She has now stopped attending the gatherings. She feels that she
was living in a delusion, and in a way was spiritually abused. She terms
delusion as a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or
confrontation with facts. When we are deceived and misled, we are not
consciously aware of the delusion. My friend believes that this happened
to her because, instead of learning to handle difficult situations on
her own, she wrongly tried to avoid any afflictions or anything that
brought pain and sorrow. The reality is that we all have faced, and will
face, tragedies in our lives.
Unfortunately,
many people buy into these false ideologies of enlightenment, through
which the ‘carnival mirrors’ of such spiritual consciousness distort our
vision. This delusion comes about when we are in a state of conscious
denial; it is a distorted perception of reality. This conscious denial
is needed, to convince others that everything is fine and also to fix
blame away from us or the system. When it finally succeeds in convincing
us, we ether a state of delusion; it is a form of learned
powerlessness. More serious than denial, different than repression, it
is a warp in the thinking process, which constantly filters out
information coming from the outside. It keeps the victim trapped within
the abusive system.
If
we look closely at any spiritual, religious or philosophical tradition,
we will find shocking moments of hypocrisy. We will find gurus who
swindle money and philosophers who take advantage of their students. Why
do so many so many ‘enlightened’ teachers engage in such spectacular
acts of hypocrisy? Karl Marx offered one answer, by stating that
“religion is the opiate of the masses”; and ‘”they know not what they
do, but they are doing it.” In Marxist theory, ‘false consciousness’
means a false perception of the reality of social or economic relations.
- a state of ideological delusion. The big idea is that, without
careful examination, our beliefs about who we are can easily slide into
delusion. Our ideology can mask reality. We believe we can reach an
elevated state of spiritual consciousness and enlightenment. This
ideology conceals all those shadowy parts of ourselves, which we like to
keep at the periphery. My guess is that this is what leads so many
‘spiritual masters’ down the path of dishonesty and corruption. They become the ambassadors, and then the priests, of the ideology of enlightenment. They
begin believing that they exist at a higher spiritual plane. Soon they
lose sight of their imperfections and essential human shortcomings. At
some level, all of us have the potential to slip into this trap. The
more we think we have achieved some sort of exalted religious state, the
more we open ourselves to such delusions. It also appears that a
high proportion of persons with psychotic disorders consider spiritual
faith to be an important coping mechanism. Religious beliefs and activities are associated with better outcomes for their illnesses.
To
delude ourselves is to take on, willingly accept and fervently indulge
in a belief to the point of being totally convinced of it being a fact.
This condition is most common in spiritual believers, who proclaim their
beliefs to be the truth - carefully and cleverly avoiding using the
word ‘fact’. Their belief, masquerading as truth, is held in higher
esteem than fact; it is shown as magically endowed with some divine
omnipresence and omnipotence. Given that delusion is a symptom of
mental illness, the active cultivation of delusion, as in spiritual and
meditation practices, leads directly to the ‘institutionalized insanity
of religion’. In the case of self-declared gods, the altered state of
consciousness, commonly known as ‘enlightenment’, is a classic delusion
of grandeur. It is the grossest exaggeration of one’s personality, to
consider oneself to be at one with God - or even God himself/herself.
In the current age, with spiritual belief being fashionable, this
delusion is coveted and held in high esteem. The glamour and glitz of
having others worship you as a God is a mighty seductive lure for a
merely mortal self. The greatest delusion is the transition from self to Self - from mundane mortality to divine immortality.
‘Believers’
like my friend need a renewal of the mind. In a very real sense they
have been spiritually brainwashed; inner dishonesty is spiritually
crippling. To live a double life is soul destroying. You learn to lie to
even yourself, and develop an imaginary relationship with God. My
friend struggled greatly when the truth got too close or too real,
because it directly conflicted with the delusion she was living under.
She would feel doubt, confusion, a struggle – even conflict.
The
starting point in dealing with delusion is to begin to open up, seek
and see the truth. The truth has to be allowed to break through, to show
us how we have been deceived. We need to tear down the lies and
replace them with faith in nature’s goodness. In spiritual fantasies we
dream of achieving true enlightenment, that far off state of
consciousness in which we become perfect human beings - always
satisfied, never battered by emotions and capable of knowing and doing
the right thing at all times. These self-limiting thoughts distract us
from what we can achieve otherwise.
We
are imperfect people constantly striving to seek perfect enlightenment
in an imperfect world. While spiritual delusions lure us into thinking
that enlightenment brings about the elimination of all suffering,
spiritual realism helps us love the world as it is and make peace with
the difficult feelings we all face. Spiritual realism is just the simple
act of living deep and fully in the moment. It is a state that arises
when mental and emotional blockages dissolve and we experience the pure
awareness of just being here - now. Try and experience the reality of
this moment. We need to link our personal experiences with spiritual
wisdom, in order to find a reliable path toward a more realistic
spirituality. We need not resist or deny our natural anxieties.
Uncertainties can offer opportunities for profound peace and a forgiving
heart, returning us to the steady spiritual silence that exists beneath
the normal struggles of our everyday lives. Simple meditation can help
us experience a calm within us - not only when our eyes are closed, but
also when they are open.
Dr.
Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working
for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental
retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 25 years. He can be
contacted at rabhola@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment