Like Trying to Make a Mirror Out of a Brick: If You are Still Attempting Moral Suasory on Racists then You Have Missed the Point!
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Unnecessary Begging as Flattery.Racism is Black people's kryptonite. It is external phenomenon that renders most Black people incapable of helping themselves. Under its spell of anger, frustration and fear Black people are in a state of mindlessness and circular thought that has led to an "other directed" struggle - "protest" actually in cooperation with and submission to white supremacy/racism.
Instead of responding to racism Black people simply react to it. 'Toreact means you are acting unconsciously. Somebody is manipulating you. Somebody says something, does something, and you react. The real master of the situation is somebody else. Somebody comes and insults you and you react, you become angry. Somebody comes and praises you and you smile and you become happy. Both are the same. You are a slave and the other knows how to push your buttons. You are behaving like a machine. You are an automaton, not a human being yet. A plaything in the hands of others.' [MORE] and [MORE]
Anon asks, 'If marching, picketing, and protesting was an effective strategy to achieve justice — why are we still marching, picketing, and protesting FOUR DECADES later? Why is there MORE police brutality, MORE violence, MORE drugs, MORE guns in our communities, MORE black men and women in prison, MORE black children at risk, MORE family instability, MORE out-of-wedlock births, MORE single mothers, and MORE black children dropping out of high school now than before the civil rights era?' MORE]
Of course, 'Black Lives Don't Matter' to racists! And what sane person is actually pro-police brutality? Would a bodycam video have changed the mind of one racist on the all-white Eric Garner grand jury? They had every angle from several cameras, and audio! What will new "civil rights legislation" do to address racism? What kind of law can change the relationship between Black people and racist white people? Who will legislate, administer, enforce it? [racist lawmakers, prosecutors and judges?]. [In photo, in 2012 Congressman Bobby Rush was kicked off the House Floor after donning thug wear in support of Trayvon Martin. Did it produce justice? MORE]
The protests have not produced justice. In a state of complete attachment to the racial stupidity of whites, Black people are victims of their own emotions. Praying, tweeting, burning candles and posting up teddy bears fight against the power of white supremacy about as much as bodycams, newly proposed legislation or grand jury procedures. Racists are the most provocative people in the world and they know how to push our buttons. They love it - watch them watch.
If this is a "movement" it has been a movement of circular thought. There will be no political fallout from politicians ignoring the concerns of Black & Brown people about police brutality. There will be no real trouble. For instance, Ferguson/St. Louis, Mo. & NYC are dominated by Democrats. What election will be impacted by our protests? The Democrat and Republican parties are both white parties for rich white people. Stop pretending. Belief that we have this kind of illusionary power is actually submission to and/or cooperation with white supremacy. [MORE] Belief in this system and the belief in somehow changing white people has lead to suffering, it is your prison. Drop it, let pharaoh go.
If you do not understand white supremacy/racism then you will be confused by the issue of police brutality and many other things caused by white supremacy/racism. Here are a few counter-racism basics.
1) "Most white people hate black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you." [MORE] In hating, whites feel superior, they become separate and in hating they become defined. In hating they attain a certain identity. In their relations with each other white people by and large treat each other humanely. But in their relations with non-whites, whites function as psychopaths. "It is pathological for Blacks to keep attempting to use moral suasion on a people who have no morality where race is the variable." [MORE] In this system of racism/white supremacy all white people should be suspected of being racist. This does not mean all white people are racist - but most of them are and all white people benefit from the operating system of white supremacy.
2) White supremacy is racism and racism is white supremacy. There is no other kind of racism. Where is the proof? Open your door and go outside see for yourself. White supremacyis the only functioning form of racism there is- as there is no place in the world where non-whites dominate whites or are actually in control of white people or in control of important resources or any areas of people activity, such as; economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex or war. 90% of the world is non-white. Yet 'everywhere one finds Whites and Blacks in close proximity to each other, whether it is Chicago or Zimbabwe, the Whites are in control. This extraordinary universal phenomenon which defies every known statistical law of probability is rarely questioned.' [MORE]
3) Understand that racism is not primarily about personal bigotry, minor inconveniences, mean words and disrespect. Rather it is about the superior, dominate position of whites and the institutions that maintain vast unequal power and resources between whites and non-whites in order to keep Blacks subordinate.[MORE] and [MORE]. Neely Fuller explains that racism is not merely a pattern of individual and/or institutional practice; it is a universally operating "system" of white supremacy and domination in which the majority of the world's white people participate. The word "race," has little biological validity but is translated more correctly as "organization," the sole purpose of which is to maintain white domination and world control of non-whites'. [MORE]. The only purpose of "race" is to practice racism.
"There is no known code of White Supremacy that can be formally recognized as such in a single set of words or pictures. The basic code of white supremacy is the total pattern of everyday thought, speech and action of the individual white persons who practice it. All things that help to promote it are apart of the white code." [more]
As stated by Dr. Blynd "racism is a power group dynamic, i.e., a defined group cooperatively via legacy institutions exerting structured, systematic injustice and power over another group. Racism is not individualistic, but institutional, cultural, economic, political, linguistic, self perpetuating and systematic. Racism is economic discrimination by a group against another for the purpose of subjugation and/or maintaining the imbalance of power through cooperative control and oppression" [MORE]
4) White Supremacy/Racism is the cause of problems such as poverty, economic inequality, lack of economic development, unemployment, drug addiction, infant mortality, AIDS, chronic welfare dependency, lack of affordable housing, gentrification, homelessness, servant education, the unequal administration of justice, police brutality, jim crow like incarceration and much more. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing explained, "racism/white supremacy is the major and only problem facing Black and all other non-white peoples throughout the world. [MORE].
The operating system of White supremacy is thriving, refining and updating itself right now while we remain in a dream. 'People want to challenge the effect, but they don't want to challenge the cause. This is the ordinary mind, the mind which is stupid.' [PDF]
According to Amos Wilson, 'our salvation requires that we perceive White supremacy as the major social, political, economic, and spiritual problem to be resolved by Afrikan peoples, and that we ask and answer definitively the questions: What kind of culture must we construct in order to overthrow White Supremacy? What kinds of social identities, relations, arrangements, alignments, institutions, values, etc., when actualized, will allow us to attain and protect our liberty?; enhance our quality of life? What kinds of socialization practices must we institute in order to empower ourselves to become the kinds of people we must become if we are to secure our rights to be free?" [MORE] To end or neutralize racism we must end or neutralize white power. How can we neutralize this vast unequal power? What kind of consciousness do we need for this task?
Your consciousness can become an instrument of power. It is the only real power non-whites can presently obtain in this system. But right now your consciousness is a utility of white supremacy/racism. Your mind is a bull that you really have no control over. [PDF] Your mind works in service of white domination. The shit you believe is a dream.
Amos Wilson offers the following to help undeceive you "We bring the world into being through our consciousness. And through our consciousness, we create the world we live in. And notice if you change your consciousness or values and orientation, you enter into a different world. You interact with different people, people often you didn’t know existed in the world, social situations that you might not have even recognized, until you entered into a new level of consciousness.
Therefore, man’s consciousness is a creative act, and the kind of consciousness you have, will determine the kind of world you create. And consequently, when you look at the world that we live in African people, we must recognize to a great extent, it is a world of our own creation, it is a world that has been generated with a type of consciousness we’ve been permitted to be instilled in us as a people."
It is true that "racism is a power group dynamic." Power ultimately has to do with a relationship between people, and the white man’s so-called power, is to a great extent based upon the nature of the relationship he has with the Black man. We empower him by the nature of our own behavior and attitudes as a people. He can not be what he is unless we are, what we are. To a good extent, the European is our creation. If we look at our behavior, we will see that to a good extent, it is our behavior, our values, our consciousness, the kind of personalities we’ve established in ourselves, our taste, our desires and needs; that maintains the European in its position."
If we change our consciousness then our relationship with white people will never be the same. This confrontation is mental. The revolution is in your mind, against your own mind. How can you change your consciousness? Meditate. Only a meditative person can spontaneously deal with racism in the present moment. Only through meditation can you raise your consciousness. Mediation is not reading or acquiring book knowledge. You must go inward and meditate. The moment you are in a meditative state, you have consciousness, awareness.
Your meditation is your guerilla army to overthrow this mind that has been given to you in service of your own domination. Perhaps it will neutralize racism - leave it out on the periphery. Find out. Thus far throughout history, all the victims who have tried to do something about racism/white supremacy have failed. If you do not raise your consciousness then you will remain helpless to do anything about racism/white supremacy. Book knowledge and maps will not free you. You still will 'continue to live reactionarily -- always be reacting to what other people are doing, always being overwhelmed by events, and overwhelmed by the future, instead of creating events, and creating the future, and making the future.'
"So the basic problem is not how to seek the truth; you cannot seek with a dreaming mind, because whatsoever will come before you, your dreams will be imposed on it. Your dreams will be projected on it, you will interpret it. You will not be able to see as it is. You will see according to your dreams, you will falsify it. Truth IS there, because only truth can be – untruth cannot be." [MORE]
A way to raise your consciousness is through mediation. If you have had enough of the nonsense try it.
And as explained by Bhagwan Shree Rajineesh meditation also is not concentration:
Please explain how I can meditate over something without using my mind.
Meditation has nothing to do with mind; meditation simply means a state of no-mind. The functioning of the mind is the only disturbance in meditation. If you are trying to achieve meditation THROUGH mind you are bound to fail, doomed to fail. You are trying to achieve the impossible.
A Zen initiate was meditating for years and whenever he would come to his Master, whatsoever experience he would bring to the Master, the Master would simply reject: “It is all nonsense. You go back and meditate again.”
One day the Master came to the hut of the disciple – he was sitting in a Buddha posture. The Master shook him and told him, “What are you doing here? If we needed stone Buddhas we have many in the temple! Just by sitting like a stone Buddha you will not attain to meditation. Do what I have been telling you to do. Just by stilling the body, your mind is not going to disappear, because it is through the mind that you are enforcing a certain discipline on the body. Anything done by the mind is going to strengthen the mind. It is a nourishment for the mind.”
A year passed. The Master came again. The disciple was sitting almost in a kind of euphoria, enjoying the morning breeze and sun with closed eyes, thinking that he was meditating. The Master took a brick and started rubbing it on a stone in front of the disciple. It was such a disturbance that finally the disciple had to shout, “What are you doing? Are you trying to drive me crazy?”
The Master said, “I am trying to make a mirror out of this brick. If one goes on rubbing it enough I think it will become a mirror.”
The disciple laughed. He said, “I always suspected that you were a little mad – now it is proved! The brick can never become a mirror. You can go on rubbing it on the stone for lives together; the brick will remain a brick.”
The Master said, “That shows some intelligence! Then what are you doing? For years you have been trying to make meditation out of the mind; it is like trying to make a mirror out of a brick.”
And the Master threw the brick in the pond at the side of the tree the disciple was sitting under. The brick made a great splash in the pond, and the very sound of it was enough to do the miracle.
Something awakened in the disciple. A sleep was broken, a dream was shattered: he became alert. For the first time he tasted something of meditation.
And the Master immediately said, “This is it!”
It happened so unexpectedly – the disciple was taken unawares. He was not waiting for this to happen, that the Master would suddenly throw the brick into the pond, and the splash…
Basho has a beautiful haiku:
The ancient pond.
The frog jumps in.
The sound…
That’s all. The sound can awaken you.
Meditation is not a question of effort because all effort is going to be through the mind, of the mind, by the mind. How can it take you beyond the mind? You will go round and round IN the mind. You have to wake up! Mind is sleep. Mind is a constant process of dreaming, desiring, thoughts, memories.
Dinesh, you ask me: Please explain how I can meditate over something without using my mind.
Can’t you see something just with your eyes? Can’t you watch something without bringing your mind in? The birds chirping, this silence… What need is there of the mind? It is a question of watchfulness not of concentration.
But it is not only your problem; it is the problem of millions of people who become interested in meditation all over the world. They all mistake concentration for meditation. Concentration is something of the mind. It is being taught in the schools, colleges, universities. It has its uses – I am not saying it is useless. It is focusing on a certain object. In science it is needed. You have to focus your mind on a particular object totally so that you can observe deeply. You have to exclude everything else; you have to break it out of everything else.
You have to narrow down your consciousness; you almost have to make a pinpoint of it. That’s a scientific way as far as the objective world is concerned.
But as far as the subjective world is concerned it is of no help, not at all. There you are not to focus your mind on anything – on the idea of God or on some inner light, flame, love, compassion – you are not to concentrate at all; you have to be simply aware of all that is.
The man of concentration can be distracted easily; anything can become a distraction because he is trying to do something unnatural. Just a child crying, and he will be distracted; the traffic noise, and he will be distracted; an airplane passing by, and he will be distracted; a dog starts barking, and he will be distracted. Anything can distract him. And of course, when he is distracted he will feel miserable, frustrated – he has failed again. The man of meditation cannot be distracted for the simple reason that he is not concentrating in the first place.
Existence is not linear, it is simultaneous. For example, I am speaking here, the birds are chirping, the traffic noise is there, the train is passing by – all these things are happening together. You have to be simple, silent, watchful, witnessing all that is – no need to exclude anything because the excluded thing will try to distract you. If nothing is excluded, if your awareness is all-inclusive, then what can distract you? Can this bird distract you? In fact, it will enhance your silence. Nothing can distract you because you are not in a tense state.
Concentration is tension, hence the word “attention”. It comes from the same root, “tension”. Awareness is not attention; awareness is relaxation, it is rest.
So rest silently. Thoughts will pass; there is no need to he worried – what can they do? Desires will come and go. Watch them coming and going. Don’t have any evaluation. Don’t say, “This is good; this is bad.” Don’t say, “Aha! This is something great, spiritual, far out!” Some sensation in the spine – it may be just an ant crawling up and you start feeling your kundalini is rising, or just imagination – you see some light inside, which is not difficult… You can see light; you can see colors, psychedelic colors. You can experience beautiful things, but it is all imagination, howsoever colorful, howsoever beautiful.
Don’t start saying that this is good that Jesus is standing in front of you or Krishna or Buddha and that now you are starting to feel you are coming closer and closer to the ultimate realization. Buddha says, “If you meet me on the Way, kill me immediately!” He means: If I come in your meditation, don’t start feeling very good about it, because if you start feeling good about it you will start clinging to the idea – and it is only an idea. Just watch it with no preference, with no choice. If you can be choicelessly aware of everything outside and inside, meditation will happen one day. It is nothing that you have to do.
You can do only one thing and that is to learn the art of watching, watching without any judgment.
Then one day you simply relax, and in that total relaxation there is pure awareness. All thoughts disappear, all desires disappear; the mind is found no more. When mind is not found, this is meditation. A state of no-mind is meditation.
So you have been misunderstanding me. When I say “Meditate”, I mean “Watch”. If I say “Meditate on the songs of the birds”, I am simply saying “Watch”. I am not saying “Concentrate” – I am against concentration. And because I am for watchfulness you can watch anything. You can sit in the marketplace and watch people and that will be meditation. You can sit in the railway station and you can watch all kinds of noises: the trains coming and the passengers getting down and the coolies shouting and the vendors, and then the train goes away and a silence falls over the station. You simply watch, you don’t do anything.
And slowly, slowly you start relaxing, your tensions disappear. Then insight opens up like a bud opening and becoming a flower. Great fragrance is released. In that silence is truth, is bliss, is benediction. [MORE]
