Human Progress

Question:

I’ve been reading several spiritual books, one written  70 years ago, and one written even earlier, by monks and they are talking  about human values being completely out of balance and we’re rushing towards disaster. Look where we are today, what would they make of now if they thought then was bad?

Munjiji:

One moment…. Well there is not one simple answer. There has been a certain collective progress. Aspects of the mind have progressed, intelligence is there more diffused than ever, the faculty of intelligence is an important element of the mind and its available more and more. Soul attunement is widespread more and more and individuals are searching for their expression. People are wishing more to contact spheres unknown to them even if it is what they call a ghost. They want to search for something, so there is this aspiration for more, not necessarily in a negative way, but in a desire for true progress, there is that now more than ever.

You Have Not  Learned Discrimination of what is Truly Useful to You

Minds are open to countless energies and are making good use of these countless opportunities and making the right choices. Unfortunately obviously there are also those ones that with the countless choices are making unwise choices because the desire body, seen so clearly by those teachers (monks), was not in the right place. We are saying that you have not learned that discrimination of what is truly useful to you and what is a distraction. So that in itself distracts you but it is also destructive at another level because its part of the evolution of the mind. Nowadays the intellect is higher and greater, but its like you are finding yourself into a big shop with countless toys and you cannot resist to play with all of them. Some of those toys are so enchanting that you are forgetting that they are toys and so although you are greatly skilled in the capacity that you have to play with those toys, you are not using this intellect for the best.

You Are Diminishing the Power of the Planet

Of course there is always the mischievous nature that is close to human being. One example is how to prove that you are cleverer than someone by doing a slight damage to another one, and from that little damage a further damage and a further damage. So that again by lack of discrimination that is the body of desire, the lack of the understanding, great destruction comes as the sense of I can play a little bit more so that I can make myself bigger, so that I diminish others. You are diminishing the power of the planet, yes indeed, this is what you are and it is very deplorable.

The Tendancy to Grasp the “Immaterial” Impermanent Things of Life

We cannot say that evolution is not there as well, that’s why we had to say at the beginning, its not easy to answer. Those ancient teachers, or all the teachers 70 years ago, they saw the tendency that the inner wisdom that each one of you possess was not being activated potently and the grasping, the needing to play with all these toys, are really mesmerising you to such an extent that you have glimpses of the highest and glimpses of the worst and often you seem not to recognise the difference between the one and the other.  So this is the unfortunate thing that is taking place but we cannot be so linear in saying that there has not been evolution. Overall many things are better now than before but of course, progress is not linear and also if you look at yourself, one day you feel very clear with your mind but your emotion may be tormented, another time you feel very clear spiritually but you feel unclear mentally. You see when you look at the complexity of the human life and what they doing and what is taking place, you have to look at all those different levels and gradients and so you cannot say that its all not uniformly progressing. There are periods where  human beings are progressing and there are levels that obviously  needs refining, there are levels that need to completely change because there is a level of abuse. There is also great generosity, a great spirit so all is in the making, all the possibilities, and yes the monks made that judgement because they saw the tendency of the grasping towards the immaterial elements of life, its the not so relevant becoming very, very relevant.

Retain Equanimity of Vision

But you see there is also grace at play and who knows what is meant to take place. The important thing is to retain that equanimity of vision that says yes something is going backwards really badly but there is also something always moving forward, because you are in duality and somehow there is always forward movement. Maybe the minds are becoming clogged with unnecessary things but maybe souls are praying more and more to be free because of the entanglement of the mind, who knows, difficult to judge unless you are a true seer for that.