Welcome to Day 37 of our 40-Day Retreat.
Yesterday we began with the subject of the field. That we are not just individuals isolated, but we are part of a vast field that we may call “creation”, a physical field, a field of subtle energy, a field of causal energy, and the field of consciousness. So we are multi-dimensional beings. We said that if we look at ourselves we will see how the Universe is.
Duality in the Field
Today I want to continue speaking about the field. This, I think, is a very important subject worthy of our contemplation. It is the subject of duality in the field. Duality in the field says that you are not only going to find positive in this field, but you are also going to find negative in the field. It is not that negative just appears out of nowhere, as a stranger, as an alien. It is that the negative is part of the field.
Dissolution is part of Nature
We tend to want to deny negative as being some ungodly force that just stalked on creation, but no, negative is part of creation. It is very difficult for people to really understand this subject because they are quick to denounce negative. But the field has negative as part of its nature. One may think of dissolution in the Universe as being negative when things age and things are destroyed. But if you look carefully, if the physical Universe didn’t age, if you didn’t have people aging and dying, what would happen if we continued to overpopulate? If we allowed different species of life, different lower animals to take over, what will happen?
We need to see that there is a wisdom in the Universe, that dissolution and aging are part of its nature. It’s very interesting, for example, that we human beings would defend ourselves from the viruses and all the microbes that cause disease, and they are really our enemies. Yes, they are our enemies in the fight for survival. But they have a right to exist, just like any other life form in the Universe. They have a right to exist; they were given birth in the Universe. They too are trying to survive. So if you were to look through the eyes of one of these little creatures, you will think you are born in a Universe and you have a right to exist, and you are just doing your work.
Let us take the lion, for example, that is a carnivore and it has to kill to survive. When we keep pets or herds of cattle or goats or whatever it might be, and the lion encroaches and takes its prey, it is in its effort to survive. So the lion becomes a dreaded enemy, but it is fighting for its own survival. How many times in documentaries you see how one life form must feed on another to survive.
Then we ask, “Where is the morality in this, that a lion would eat a little buffalo now growing up? Or the wolf will eat the little bird that is now trying to survive, or the lion will eat the little elephant that can’t run fast enough?” You look at the morality when the little elephant has been mauled and you think, “Poor little creature.” But who thinks of the “Poor hungry lion?” So they have only to stand back and say, “This is nature at work.” Of course, we need to defend our lives in the world. It’s a fight for survival, so we have to find all kinds of mechanisms to defend ourselves to survive from the deadly viruses and the predators that are deadly when it’s a play of the Universe. It’s the work of the Universe. It is the nature of the Universe.
Negative energies in the Universe
Negative energies in the Universe also exist. In peoples’ quest for power, for example, they are blinded. They don’t see human beings as human beings. They see human beings as a threat to their power and they will easily eliminate the human being. We begin to destroy our own kind in the thirst and the greed for power.
Can we get rid of these negative forces and negative energies from our world? We can minimize them. We can even suppress them but ultimately they are going to rise again. It’s the nature of life. There’s a saying that within each saint is the past of a sinner and within each sinner there is the potential of a saint. Within them both forces exist. It’s what we choose to embrace.
There are choices that we can make in the Universe that make us destructive, like criminal activities, for example. When we destroy others for our own ego satisfaction, gratification, quest for power, we embrace destructive forces. We see it in offices, in homes, or in relationships where we want control. We tend to dominate, to be aggressive, to destroy, simply to express our ego in dominance. And we can become very violent and can justify our violence in our own self-righteous ways, that we are right.
We argue about property, we fight over possessions. We manifest destructive forces and some of it we justify, that we have a right to this and a right to that. We do not see the sacredness of human life anymore.
Benevolent and negative forces exist - What is your choice?
You can see in the human heart, that negative is there, and in the same measure, goodness is there. You see people, how they give freely and they build and create wonderful spaces that are energized with goodness. You see in the human heart, emotional and mental being, there are destructive forces, and there are benevolent or good forces. It is for us to choose. We call one “good” and we call one “bad.” It is our interpretation, but these exist. These are the forces of life. And in the same way they are in the individual, they extend in the collective field that we call the “Universe.”
There are negative forces in the Universe. It is the sum total of all the evil energy, all the destructive energy, and there are benevolent forces in the Universe, just like within ourselves. And they are the sum total of all the good forces in the Universe, so which do we choose to embrace? It is our choice. We can create a kingdom of goodness and a world of happiness, and surely it will exist because evil will be suppressed. It will be in the shadow.
Cosmic cycles – from negative to positive “Yugas”
Surely the goodness will reign, but at some point negative, by its own force in suppression, will rise. When it does, it will begin its ascendancy. The Hindus in the theory of cosmic ages say it very clearly. It is beautiful to look at how they think, that we have ages, cosmic ages, and we move from the negative gradually to the very positive. These cosmic ages are called “Yugas”. We move progressively from Kaliyug which is a dark age of destruction, with destructive forces at work in the ascendancy. Then a kind of progression or evolution begins, and we move to Dwapara and then Tretha age, and then to Satyug.
Dwapara
This is the beginning of change where there are a lot of progressive activities, like how we have the industrial revolution.
Tretha
This where the mental age comes in and there are a lot of positive mental forces in creative mode.
Satyug
Then this leads to a period of happiness and joy that is called “Satyug.” When Satyug is in ascendancy there is happiness everywhere. There are benevolent energies as though all the good souls in the Universe are being reincarnated during that period and there is a wonderful energy field in the Universe. But in the philosophy or the teaching of the yugas, kalyug is going to come back. So after a certain time of the satyug, the tiny germ (if I were to call it “germ or virus”) of kalyug is going to enter, because it exists in the Universe.
All these negative forces that are in suppression, they’re finding a little thread and then, like a virus in a system they begin to work themselves in the system. They begin to go again in ascendancy until the whole thing becomes contaminated, then the progressions start again.
Aging in the human experience
If we look at aging in the human experience, should we call aging a bad thing when we grow old and wrinkled, and the body gets weaker and frail, and the eyes can hardly see and the voice can hardly speak and the back becomes bent? Is it a bad thing? It’s life. The body is going to be destroyed. But for us who live in the body, what we can do is choose to stay happy in the internal state. We can choose to shine goodness through these beautiful eyes. We can love the body; take care of it as it ages so that the body can die out of wear and tear and not degeneration. With an improper lifestyle the body degenerates: diabetes, hypertension, and all the degenerative diseases come into the body and the body ages even more and it dies prematurely. You see it in human beings. They die at 60, 70 or 80, when the human being was designed to live 120 or 130 years.
Using a field of protection
If we keep our lifestyle in the best way, however, and if the genes are good, we can actually experience the body having a slow wear and tear, and suddenly stop. So, if we look at the Universe, we will see that negative energies are part of the Universe and it’s for us to accept that it’s part of the territory and learn to work with it. To work with the good, that we may experience the good and protect ourselves. The field of goodness protects us from the evil field but not to deny the evil field. It exists in the Universe. People will be destructive; they will be mean to you. You can’t trust everyone. No matter how loving they speak, you cannot trust.
You constantly have to be aware in the Universe that negative is real. Destruction is real. “I need to protect myself.” When you live in an environment like this, it’s a protective environment because there is an energy field of goodness. When you meditate and you think good thoughts, you are creating an individual energy field that protects you. When you align yourself to spiritual entities or spiritual beings that are more powerful, you are holding yourself in protection. This is the way that you can protect yourself. Negative energy in the Universe is real, and we need to respect it and learn how to defend ourselves from it.
It’s like the Tsunami. Tsunami will continue to exist; it’s an act of nature. But we, human beings, now need to design, using our creativity, devices that can tell us when this disaster is going to happen. We cannot stop the Tsunami, we cannot stop the volcano, we cannot stop the earthquake, but we can design instruments to know when it’s going to happen, to predict, and so we can move away. The Universe has both negative and positive, but we need to protect ourselves.
The ultimate protection – the spiritual space
Of course the ultimate protection is learning to go into the spiritual space. That’s where your greatest power lies. It is important to know that we live in a dual field and we need to have respect for the energies in this field and to embrace that which is positive.
Post-meditation words:
Although our world is also filled with destructive forces, it’s a beautiful world. If only we can go to a deeper space inside where we can appreciate that. Even when we are challenged by the negative of the world, it drives us towards becoming more positive. When we see negative, then we want to embrace the positive even more. If we look deeply, we can also see the negative in our world as a blessing; as it drives us to achieve the best; as it drives us to uncover our fullest potential, as beings of goodness and light.
Have a wonderful day everyone.
