Michael-Illusory -- Is It?

[Guest guest]

Dear Michael,

 

<<

michael (Michael Johnson)

 

 

Dear Tim:

 

Where does morality fit in with the

idea of " non-doership " ?

 

If I am not the doer

am I responsible for my choices?

 

If I am not responsible for my choices

will I make bad choices. By bad choices

I mean choices which result in suffering

for me or others.

 

Sincerely,

 

Michael

 

>>

 

 

 

 

KKT: To avoid this embarrassing

inconvenience, the Buddhists

" invent " the theory of two levels

of Truth: relative and absolute.

 

 

Peace,

 

KKT

[Guest guest]

Hi Michael,

 

Nisargadatta, Michael Johnson <michael@p...> wrote:

> Dear Tim:

>

> Where does morality fit in with the

> idea of " non-doership " ?

 

Not a simple matter to resolve, because " non-doership " falls outside

the area of ethics and morality. There's a good discussion of this

on Jerry's NondualitySalon website.. lemme find the page...

 

Starting here:

 

http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada/faq.htm#q12

 

> If I am not the doer

> am I responsible for my choices?

 

No you would not be. There is not a " you " making choices at all.

However, that would clearly not absolve you from " responsibility for

actions " in the context of society.

 

If conditioning " controls " actions (and that conditioning is " from "

society -- basically it *is* society) then responsibility takes care

of itself too.

 

There's just no need to feel guilty about past actions... can you go

back and undo them? If you can't, then it serves no purpose to feel

guilty.

 

The feeling of guilt, if " swept under the carpet, " may in fact make a

person *more* prone to " bad choices " later (but that's just a matter

of opinion).

 

> If I am not responsible for my choices

> will I make bad choices. By bad choices

> I mean choices which result in suffering

> for me or others.

 

It isn't a matter of things " changing " from you being responsible to

you being not-responsible, only realizing that actions happen, but

without a doer (and it has always been that way). There's no

particular reason why your actions would change -- only the need to

feel guilty or feel bad (as though it solves anything or changes

anything) is finished.

 

Namaste,

 

Tim