VALUES

Advaita is not a word most Americans know. We have heard the concept but without the word our ability to discuss our lives is hampered. It is now time to come to terms. Advaita is Sanskrit. It is the negation of division. A - Dvaita. The words undivided, unified, singular wrap around the concept of Advaita. But the principle of Advaita is quite deep with a long history justifying its inclusion in English. It points to physical matter as being in a state of differentiation and yet undifferentiated, as atoms and strings. It points to ecologies that are local, global, and transcendental, as the web of life in which we are responsible actors. It points to life itself that is interlocked and free of the physical world, as prions and viruses span the gulf from non-living to the living. It points to death as knowable and unknowable, as the cessation of the brain and the feeling of a love lost. It points to cultures as competitive but synergistic, as America. It points to the words of man for God, as the One that is called by multiple names. It is the basis of coming to terms with our selves, our actions, our loves, and our creations.

But I am not writing this to introduce you to Advaita. Rather, instead of giving lip-service to being for values, Advaita must be called upon when we look at our world and ask what are values. Whether it is that no man is an island, the golden rule, or compassion to all living beings, we all call upon advaita to guide us. In this time of turmoil, when division has beset our nation and thence spilled over into our neighbors’ worlds, we must look back at what our values are. It is not sufficient to state we are “for values.” We must identify the source of those values and learn to live them well. We are circumscribed by social relativism. This disallows serious discussion of values. We are goaded by ethnic and religious condescension. This creates strife. Yet the social relativist seeks unity in the principles of social behaviors (utilitarianism…) while the Priest, Mullah, and Monk call upon the great individuals that have championed advaita to humanity (Krishna, Lao Tse, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed). Indeed, our forefathers began this country with the advaitic principle that all men are created equal.

How does harkening back to the one source of all rivers, advaitism, lead one to act now? The other is us. Is that too obtuse? The American soldier that kills an Iraqi that wants to kill an American are, from their respect of boundaries, both locked in fratricide. The society that exploits the earth not as a responsibility but as an expendable, from lack of awareness of the eco-net, makes itself expendable. The group that kills the children of others (wars) will kill its own (abortions). The people that create laws to discriminate (amendments that regulate who can love whom) will find themselves discriminated against (and emptied of love). Those that judge shall be judged. Not because God is ready to condemn us to hell, but because we exist in an advaitic universe and as we treat others, so are we justly treated. As a friend of mine recently told me, “don’t sh— where you eat.” You may think you will get away with it but it is your children that will suffer for what you have precedented in your time here.

We have to stop playing word games (we hold values valuable…) and using nonsensical labels (liberals and conservatives) as if they define a person. .Advaita is an old word from a very old world. This is not proof of irrelevancy but rather that this is a very important construct we must throughout time re-emphasize. Today we enter a century within which one man will be capable of destroying our human world. The more we understand energy, the more efficient we become – in living and killing. If we do not confront our elementary thoughts on values, if we continue to believe pre-emptive strikes are values, if we believe that our way is better than the other guy’s way, if we ostracize our brothers and sisters for choices we would not make, if we spend more time developing careers than families, if we consume more than we contribute, if we fail to embrace the advaita of unity in diversity; we will in this century restart evolution. Even to the understanding that all churches, mosques, and temples can be sources of good and evil. Even to the understanding that all societies can be sources of good and evil. Even to the understanding that all persons can be the sources of good and evil. Even to these things we must attune and cause ourselves to embrace advaitism and in so doing look beyond religion, society, and badness in men. This must be the value that we point to when we say we are for values.

We must in this century abandon military action (thou shalt not kill) and embrace Satyagraha. We must stop using religion as a reason to kill (thou shalt not take the lords name in vain) and embrace the universality of the divine that so many sufferers find in their own religious paths. We must abandon trade that is exploitive (thou shalt not steal) and embrace truly free trade. We must abandon governments and institutions that make decisions in secret (thou shalt not bear false witness) and embrace open and free democratic nations and corporations. We must abandon the desire to out-consume each other (thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife, things, or oil) and embrace economic simplicity. We must abandon our historical ignorance (thou shalt honor thy parents) and embrace our future by understanding our past. In short we must, now more than any other time in history, value the oneness of this world. This is advaita and why we must incorporate it into our minds and hearts.