"It seems quite clear that drug policy based primarily on
interdiction and enforcement has failed," said Robert Pastor, a
Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in
the late 1970s.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox told CNN "I believe it's
time to open the debate over legalizing drugs". Fox's predecesor
and two other former leaders of Latin American nations also called
for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change
in strategy in the war on drugs.

"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices
and fears and not on results," former Colombian President Cesar
Gaviria said at a news conference in which the commission's
recommendations were presented. "In Washington there's some
consensus that the current policy is failing," Gaviria said.

Pastor said "The question is whether the United States will
be open to this new path." Hakim said one recent poll showed
that 29 percent of Americans think the best way to deal with
marijuana is to legalize it, and noted that "Mexico tried it
under Fox and the U.S. got so snippety that they had to back down".
However President Obama's inauguration in January may have changed
the calculus.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/25/argentina.drug.decriminalization/index.html

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n805/a02.html

Q: But the person does not want to be eliminated.

M: The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In
reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race
before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain
and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the watcher
in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an
apparently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only
the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'. The
teacher tells the watcher: you are not this, there is nothing of
yours in this, except the little point of "I am", which is
the bridge between the watcher and his dream. "I am this, I am
that" is dream, while pure "I am" has the stamp of
reality on it. You have tasted so many things - all come to naught.
Only the sense "I am" persisted - unchanged. Stay with the
changeless among the changeful, until you are able to go beyond.

Q: When will it happen?

M: It will happen as soon as you remove the obstacles.

Q: Which obstacles?

M: Desire for the false and fear of the true. You, as the person,
imagine that the Guru is interested in you as a person. Not at all.
To him you are a nuisance and a hindrance to be done away with. He
actually aims at your elimination as a factor in consciousness.

Q: If I am eliminated, what will remain?

M: Nothing will remain, all will remain. The sense of identity
will remain, but no longer identification with a particular body.
Being - awareness - love will shine in full splendour. Liberation is
never of the person, it is always from the person.

Q: And no trace remains of the person?

M: A vague memory remains, like the memory of a dream, or early
childhood. After all, what is there to remember? A flow of events,
mostly accidental and meaningless [false interpretations]. A sequence
of desires and fears and inane blunders. Is there anything worth
remembering? The person is but a shell imprisoning you. Break the
shell.

Q: Whom are you asking to break the shell? Who is to break the
shell?

M: Break the bonds of memory and self-identification and the shell
will break by itself. There is a centre that imparts reality to
whatever it perceives [the habit of naïve realism]. All you need is
to understand that you are the source of reality, that you give
reality instead of getting it, that you need no support and no
confirmation. Things are as they are, because you accept them as they
are. Stop accepting them and they will dissolve. Whatever you think
about with desire or fear appears before you as real. Look at it
without desire or fear and it does lose substance."

(I am
That, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

The ignorant and simple-minded, not knowing that the world is only
something seen of the mind itself, cling to multitudinousness of
external objects, cling to the notions of being and non-being,
oneness and otherness, bothness and non-bothness, existence and
non-existence, eternity and non-eternity, and think that they have a
self-nature of their own, and all of which arises from the
discriminations of the mind and is perpetuated by habit energy, and
from which they are given over to false imagination.

It is all like a mirage in which springs of water are seen as if
they were real. They are thus imagined by animals who, made thirsty
by the heat of the season, run after them. Animals not knowing that
the springs are an hallucination of their own minds, do not realise
that there are no such springs. In the same way, the ignorant and
simple-minded, their minds burning with the fires of greed, anger and
folly, finding delight in a world of multitudinous forms, their
thoughts obsessed with ideas of birth, growth and destruction, not
well understanding what is meant by existence and non-existence, and
being impressed by erroneous discriminations and speculations since
beginningless time, fall into the habit of grasping this and that and
thereby become attached to them...

Clinging to the memory of erroneous speculations and doctrines
accumulated since beginningless time, they hold fast to such ideas as
oneness and otherness, being and non-being, and their thoughts are
not at all clear as to what after all is only seen of the mind...

The ignorant and simple-minded who are favourably influenced by
the erroneous views of the philosophers do not recognise that the
views that are influencing them are only dreamlike ideas originating
in the mind itself, and consequently they are held fast by their
notions of oneness and otherness, of being and non-being. It is like
a painters canvas on which the ignorant imagine they see the
elevations and depressions of mountains and valleys...

It is neither an entity nor a non-entity, for it has both been
seen and has not been seen... It is like a wheel of fire made by a
revolving firebrand which is no wheel but which is imagined to be one
by the ignorant...

It is like a mirror reflecting colours and images as determined by
conditions but without any partiality. It is like the echo of the
wind that gives the sound of a human voice. It is like a mirage of
moving water seen in a desert. In the same way the discriminating
mind of the ignorant which has been heated by false imaginings and
speculations is stirred into mirage like waves by the winds of birth,
growth and destruction...

The ignorant and the simple-minded, committing themselves to
erroneous philosophical views become thoroughly devoted to the ideas
of oneness and otherness, but their confidence is not well grounded.
For this reason, you should cast off all discriminations leading to
notions of birth, abiding and destruction, of oneness and otherness,
of bothness and non-bothness, of being and non-being and thus getting
free of the bondage of habit-energy become able to attain reality
realisable within yourselves as Noble Wisdom...

The ignorant are given up to discrimination and the wise are not
because the ignorant cling to names, signs and ideas; as their minds
move along these channels they feed on multiplicities of objects and
fall into the notion of an ego-soul and what belongs to it; they make
discriminations of good and bad among appearances and cling to the
agreeable. As they thus cling there is a reversion to ignorance, and
karma born of greed, anger and folly, is accumulated. As the
accumulation of karma goes on they become imprisoned in a cocoon of
discrimination and are thenceforth unable to free themselves from the
round of birth and death. Because of folly they do not understand
that all things are like maya, like the reflection of the moon in
water, that there is no self-substance to be imagined as an ego-soul
and its belongings, and that all their definite ideas rise from their
false discriminations of what exists only as it is seen of the mind
itself. They do not realise that things have nothing to do with
quality and qualifying, nor with the course of birth, abiding and
destruction, and instead they assert that they are born of a creator,
of time, of atoms, of some celestial spirit. It is because the
ignorant are given up to discrimination that they move along with the
stream of appearances, but it is not so with the wise...

The error in these erroneous teachings that are generally held by
the philosophers lies in this: they do not recognise that the
objective world arises from the mind itself; they do not understand
that the whole mind-system also arises from the mind itself; but
depending upon these manifestations of the mind as being real they go
on discriminating them, like the simple-minded ones that they are,
cherishing the dualism of this and that, of being and non-being,
ignorant of the fact that there is but one common Essence...

Why? Because they have not attained an intuitive understanding of
Truth itself and therefore they have no clear insight into the
fundamentals of things... Their views are based upon erroneous
discriminations of the objective world; they are not based upon true
conceptions...

As long as these scholars remain on their philosophical ground
their demonstration must conform to logic and their textbooks, and
the memory habit of erroneous intellection will ever cling to them.
To make the matter worse, the simple-minded ones, poisoned by these
erroneous views, will declare this incorrect way of thinking taught
by the ignorant, to be the same as that presented by the All-knowing
One...

Objects in themselves are neither in existence nor in
non-existence and are quite devoid of the alternatives of being and
non-being; and should only be thought of as one thinks of the horns
of a hare, a horse or a camel, which never existed. Objects are
discriminated by the ignorant who are addicted to assertion and
negation, because their intelligence has not been acute enough to
penetrate into the truth that there is nothing but what is seen of
the mind itself...

The assertion of philosophical views concerning the elements that
make up the personality and its environing world that are
non-existent, assume the existence of an ego, a being, a soul, a
living being, a nourisher, or a spirit. This is an example of
philosophical views that are not true. It is this combination of
discrimination of imaginary marks of individuality, grouping them and
giving them a name and becoming attached to them as objects, by
reason of habit-energy that has been accumulated since beginningless
time, that one builds up erroneous views whose only basis is false
imaginations...

Word-discrimination goes on by the co-ordination of brain, chest,
nose, throat, palate, tongue, teeth and lips. Words are neither
different nor non-different from discrimination... Words are an
artificial creation... The validity of things is independent of the
validity of words.

Neither words nor sentences can exactly express meanings, for
words are only sweet sounds that are arbitrarily chosen to represent
things, they are not the things themselves, which in turn are only
manifestations of mind. Discrimination of meaning is based upon
false-imagination that these sweet sounds which we call words and
which are dependent upon whatever subjects they are supposed to stand
for, and which subjects are supposed to be self-existent, all of
which is based on error. Disciples should be on their guard against
the seductions of words and sentences and their elusive meanings, for
by them the ignorant and dull-witted become entangled and helpless as
an elephant floundering about in the deep mud.

Words and sentences are produced by the law of causation and are
mutually conditioning, they cannot express highest Reality. Moreover,
in highest Reality there are no differentiations to be discriminated
and there is nothing to be predicated in regards to it. Highest
Reality is an exalted state of bliss, it is not a state of word
discrimination and it cannot be entered into by mere statements
concerning it. The Tathagatas have a better way of teaching, namely,
through self-realisation of Noble Wisdom...

When ideas of body, property, and abode are seen, discriminated
and cherished in what after all is nothing but what is conceived of
the mind itself, and external world is perceived under the aspect of
individuality and generality which, however, are not realities and,
therefore, neither a gradual nor a spontaneous rising of things is
possible. It is only when the mind-system comes into activity and
discriminates the manifestations of mind that existence can be said
to come into view...

So long as people do not understand the true nature of the
objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They
imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become
attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of
this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is
discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion
of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on
functioning. Depending upon and attaching itself to the dualistic
habit of mind, they accept the views of the philosophers founded upon
these erroneous distinctions, of being and non-being, existence and
non-existence, and there evolves what we call false-imaginations.

But discrimination does not evolve nor is it put away because,
when all that is seen is truly recognised to be nothing but the
manifestation of mind, how can discrimination as regards being and
non-being evolve? It is for the sake of the ignorant who are addicted
to the discriminations of the multiplicity of things which are of
their own mind, that it is said that discrimination takes rise owing
to attachment to the aspect of multiplicity which is characteristic
of objects. How otherwise the ignorant and simple minded recognise
that there is nothing but what is seen of the mind itself, and how
otherwise can they gain an insight into the true nature of mind and
be able to free themselves from wrong conceptions of cause and
effect? How otherwise can they gain a clear conception of the
Bodhisattva stages, and attain a “turning about” in the deepest
seat of their consciousness, and finally attain an inner
self-realisation of Noble Wisdom which transcends the five Dharmas,
the three Self-natures, and the whole idea of a discriminated
Reality?

For this reason it is said that discriminations take rise from the
mind becoming attached to the multiplicities of things which in
themselves are not real, and that emancipation comes from thoroughly
understanding the meaning of Reality as it truly is.

False-imaginations rise from the consideration of appearances;
things are discriminated as to form, signs and shape; as to having
colour, warmth, humidity, mobility or rigidity. False-imagination
consists of becoming attached to these appearances and their names.
By attachment to objects is meant, the getting attached to inner and
outer things as if they were real. By attachment to names is meant,
the recognition in these inner and outer things of the marks of
individuation and generality, and to regard them as definitely
belonging to the names of the objects.

False-imagination teaches that because all things are bound up
with causes and conditions of habit-energy that has been accumulating
since beginningless time by not recognising that the external world
is of the mind itself, all things are comprehensible under the
aspects of individuality and generality. By reason of clinging to
these false-imaginations there is multitudinousness of appearances
which are imagined to be real but which are only imaginary...

Based upon the notion of relativity, false-imagination perceives a
variety of appearances which the discriminating mind then proceeds to
objectify and name and become attached to, and memory and
habit-energy perpetuate. Here is all that is necessary to constitute
the self-nature of false-imagination.

The various features of false imaginations can be distinguished as
follows: as regards to words, meaning, individual marks, property,
self-nature, cause, philosophical views, reasoning, birth, no-birth,
dependance, bondage and emancipation.

Discrimination of words is the becoming attached to various sounds
carrying familiar meanings. Discrimination of meaning comes when one
imagines that words rise depending on whatever subjects they express,
and which subjects are regarded as self-existent. Discrimination of
individual marks is to imagine that whatever is denoted in words
concerning the multiplicities of individual marks (which in
themselves are like a mirage) is true, and clinging tenaciously to
them, they discriminate all things according to such categories as
warmth, fluidity, motility and solidity. Discrimination of property
is to desire a state of wealth, such as gold, silver and various
precious stones.

Discrimination of self-nature is to make discriminations according
to the views of the philosophers in reference to the self-nature of
all things which they imagine and stoutly maintain to be true,
saying: “This is just what it is and it cannot be otherwise.”
Discrimination of cause is to distinguish the notion of causation in
reference to being and non-being and to imagine that there are such
things as “cause-signs”. Discrimination of philosophical views
means considering different views relating to the notions of being
and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness,
existence and non-existence, all of which are erroneous, and becoming
attached to particular views. Discrimination of reasoning means the
teaching whose reasoning is based on the grasping at the notion of
ego-substance and what belongs to it. Discrimination of birth means
getting attached to the notion that things come into existence and
pass out of existence by reason of causation. Discrimination of
no-birth is to see that causeless substances which were not, come
into existence by means of causation. Discrimination of dependance
means the mutual dependance of gold and the filaments made up of it.
Discrimination of bondage and imagination is like imagining that
there is something binding, as in the case of a man who ties a knot
and then loosens one.

These are the various features of false-imagination to which all
the ignorant and simple minded cling. Those attached to the notions
of relativity are attached to the notions of the multitudinousness of
things which arises from false-imagination. It is like seeing
varieties of objects depending on maya, but these varieties thus
revealing themselves are discriminated by the ignorant as something
other than maya itself, according to their way of thinking.

Now the truth is, maya and varieties of objects are neither
different nor not different, for the very good reason; they are the
one thing... Error is like maya also, and as maya is incapable of
producing other maya, so error itself cannot produce error; it is
discrimination and attachment that produce evil thoughts and faults.
Moreover, maya has no power of discrimination in itself... Error has
in itself no habit-energy; habit-energy only rises from
discrimination and attachment. Error in itself has no faults; faults
are due to the confused discriminations fondly cherished by the
ignorant concerning ego-soul and its mind. The wise have nothing to
do with either maya or error.

Maya however is not an unreality because it only has the
appearance of reality; all things have the nature of maya. It is not
because all things are imagined and clung to because of the
multitudinousness of individual signs, that they are like maya; it is
because they are alike unreal and as quickly appearing and
disappearing. Being attached to erroneous thoughts they confuse and
contradict themselves and others. As they do not clearly grasp the
fact that the world is no more than mind itself, they imagine and
cling to causation, work, birth and individual signs, and their
thoughts are characterised by error and false imaginations. The
teaching that all things are characterised by the self-nature of maya
and a dream is meant to make the ignorant and simple minded cast
aside the idea of self-nature in anything.

False imagination teaches that such things as light and shade,
long and short, black and white are different and are too be
discriminated; but they are not independent of each other; they are
only different aspects of the same thing, they are terms of relation
and not of reality. Conditions of existence are not of a mutually
exclusive character; in essence things are not two but one. Even
Nirvana and Samsara’s world of life and death are aspects of the
same thing, for there is no Nirvana except where there is Samsara,
and Samsara except where is Nirvana. All duality is falsely
imagined.

You and all Bodhisattvas should discipline yourselves in the
realisation and patient acceptance of the truths of the emptiness,
un-bornness, no self-naturedness, and the non-duality of all things.
This teaching is found in all the sutras of all the Buddhas and is
presented to meet the varied dispositions of beings, but it is not
the Truth itself. These teachings are only a finger pointing towards
Noble Wisdom. They are like a mirage with its springs of water which
the deer take to be real and chase after. So with the teachings in
all the sutras. They are intended for the consideration and guidance
of the discriminating minds of all people, but they are not the Truth
itself, which can only be self-realised within ones deepest
consciousness... You and all the Bodhisattvas must seek for this
inner self-realisation of Noble Wisdom, and not be captivated by
word-teachings...

What is emptiness indeed! It is a term whose very self-nature is
false-imagination, but because of ones attachment to
false-imagination we are obliged to talk of emptiness, no-birth, and
no self-nature.

All things have no distinguishing marks of individuality and
generality. Because of mutual relations and interactions things are
superficially discriminated but when they are further and more
carefully investigated and analysed they are seen to be non-existent
and nothing as to individuality and generality can be predicated of
them. Thus when individual marks can no longer be seen, ideas of
self, otherness and bothness, no longer hold good. So it must be said
that all things are empty of self-marks.

All things in their self-nature are un-born; therefore, it is said
that things are empty as to self-nature... The aggregate of elements
that makes up personality and its external world is Nirvana itself
and from the beginning there is no activity in them, therefore one
speaks of the emptiness of no-work... The aggregate being devoid of
an ego and its belongings, goes on functioning automatically as there
is mutual conjunction of causes and conditions, thus one speaks of
the emptiness of work... As the very self-nature of false-imagination
is inexpressible, so all things are unpredictable, and therefore are
empty in that sense... In the attainment of inner self-realisation of
Noble Wisdom there is no trace of habit-energy generated by erroneous
conceptions, thus one speaks of the highest emptiness of Ultimate
Reality.

When things are examined by right-knowledge there are no signs
obtainable which could characterise them with marks of individuality
and generality, therefore they are said to have no self-nature.
Because these signs of individuality and generality are both seen as
existing and yet are known to be non-existent, they are seen as going
out and yet are known not to be going out, they are never
annihilated. Why is this true? For this reason; because individual
signs that should make up the self-nature of all things are
non-existent. Again in their self-nature things are both eternal and
non-eternal...

Further, besides understanding the emptiness of all things both in
regard to substance and self-nature, it is necessary for Bodhisattvas
to clearly understand that all things are un-born. It is not asserted
that things are not born in a superficial sense, but that in a deep
sense they are not born of themselves. All that can be said is this,
that relatively speaking, there is a constant stream of becoming, a
momentary and uninterrupted change from one state of appearance to
another. When it is recognised that the world as it presents itself
is no more than an manifestation of mind, then birth is seen as
no-birth, and all existing objects, concerning which discrimination
asserts that they are and are not, are non-existent and therefore
unborn; being devoid of agent and action things are un-born... Things
are not born of being and non-being, but are simply manifestations of
mind itself, they have no reality, no self-nature...

When it is clearly understood that there is nothing in the world
but what is seen of the mind itself, discrimination no more rises,
and the wise are established in their true abode which is the realm
of quietude. The ignorant discriminate and work trying to adjust
themselves to external conditions, and are constantly perturbed in
mind; unrealities are imagined and discriminated, while realities are
not seen and ignored. It is not so with the wise...

The five Dharmas are: appearance, name, discrimination,
right-knowledge, and Reality. By appearance is meant that which
reveals itself to the senses and to the discriminating-mind and is
perceived as form, sound, odour, taste and touch. Out of these
appearances ideas are formed, such as clay, water, jar etc., by which
one says: this is such and such a thing and no other, this is its
name. When appearances are contrasted and names compared, as when we
say; this is an elephant, this is a horse, a cart, a pedestrian, a
man, a woman, or this is mind and what belongs to it, the things thus
named are said to be discriminated. As these discriminations come to
be seen as they truly are, that is, as manifestations of the mind
itself, this is right-knowledge. By it the wise cease to regard
appearances and names as realities.

When appearances and names are put away and all discrimination
ceases, that which remains is the true and essential nature of things
and, as nothing can be predicated as to the nature of essence, it is
called the “Suchness” of Reality. This universal,
undifferentiated, inscrutable “Suchness” is the only Reality but
it is variously characterised by Truth, Mind-essence, Transcendental
Intelligence, Noble Wisdom etc. This Dharma of the Imagelessness of
the Essence-nature of Ultimate Reality is the Dharma which has been
proclaimed by all the Buddhas, and when all things are understood in
full agreement with it, one is in possession of Perfect Knowledge,
and is on his way to the attainment of the Transcendental
Intelligence of the Tathagatas.

The work is broad so here are five sentences that address
different aspects:

• The allegedly physical universe is a construct of observable
  phenomena arising from a cosmic quantum computational process, and
  the stream of awareness that witnesses phenomena is a 'thread' of
  the cosmic process.

  
  

• All objects, places and events arise due to the unified
  cosmic process experiencing itself as it unfolds according to its
  nature; within that broadest context there is no separation and
  nothing is by chance.

  
  

• We are like virtual beings in a virtual reality simulation,
  where the world and the self that appear to exist are objects of
  perception reflected in memory, whilst the true Self of all manifest
  forms is the One Self, which is the unified animating process.

  
  

• Virtual reality provides a scientific / mathematical /
  computational analogy by which to understand the nature of reality;
  the cutting edge of modern science is beginning to realise this and
  will eventually be able to comprehend the ageless wisdom.

  
  

• The only obstacle to realising the true nature of ones Self
  and the cosmic Whole is naïve
  realism, which is a habit that operates at the root of the mind
  and distorts each moment of awareness; once this habit is overcome
  (by whatever means) awareness of reality shines through.

  
  

Within the latest SSE newsletter there is an article called
"Signs
of an Emerging Paradigm Shift", which is about naive
realism. The newsletter can be read at:
http://www.scientificexploration.org/explorer/explorer_22_3.pdf

The relevance of these issues for SSE is that naive realist
assumptions are the foundation of the wall of denial that is
maintained by established science. Thus by overcoming these
assumptions that wall is falling apart. This has profoundly
revolutionary consequences for the whole of civilisation, and SSE
is in a prime position to be at the vanguard of the paradigm
shift if it chooses to be.

Warning: This discussion explores an alternate paradigm
that is radically different from the established paradigm. For
many people the established paradigm is intrinsic to the familiar
world that they have known most of their lives and within which
their ego has found its comfortable and secure niche. So be
warned that this subject matter can elicit an unconscious
irrational ego defence mechanism within your mind. To keep an
open mind one must exercise self-awareness and from this much can
also be learnt.

Enter
the discussion...