The purpose of our life

Is there a purpose to our life here on this Earth ? Or are we just part of Darwin's evolution ?

Should we just enjoy life while we are here on this earth ? Or should we try to achieve a higher state of consciousness ?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/32209-the-purpose-of-our-life.html

If we achieved a higher state of consciousness, would that not be just another prized possesion of our Ego ?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209

CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness by choice ?

CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness without "God's" blessing ?

Is every hour and every minute of our life not orchestrated by "God" ?

Is our life pre-programmed and we are destined to do what "God" has planned for us ? Do the scriptures not say that even the bad things we do are because we have not been "Blessed" by "God" ?

Are we just a vibration that coalesced into a human body, based on our past Karma ?

Are we condemmend to this cycle of Birth and Death, for a crime we did not commit ? Is years and years of Meditation; the only way out ?

It does not seem fair to me.

Any input or opinions would be appreciated.

 
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Dear Khalsa Ji,

I respond to you post point- wise

(i) Is there a purpose to our life here on this Earth ? Or are we just part of Darwin's evolution ?

The Answer is Yes; There are three components of every human (a) to pay for the pasr Karmas; (b) to evolve in all positive aspects of live and achieve greater spiritual heights; and (c) to act as intrument of 'The Sat' in propagating, preserving and help evolution in the creation of 'The Sat'. The weighing factors for these three componets vary for each person depending on its past Karmas.

Once the basic premise for the creation including the being was created by 'The Sat' (I am not elaborating on it here) the natural evolutionay processes take over as discribed by Darwin and others. It is driven by the free will of the beings.

(ii) Should we just enjoy life while we are here on this earth ? Or should we try to achieve a higher state of consciousness ?

The answer is do both; Basic purpose of life is to evolve spiritually; higher consciousness is the out come of this evolution.

Living on earth if in the natural process within the domain of ethics and morality if some pleasure comes your way one must enjoy it, but never develop craving for it nor be driven by it in one's life. If tasty food is served eat and relish it to the full, but do not keep memory of it or keep alking of looking for it again and again. Pleasures should not guide or drive you journy on this earth.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209

(iii) CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness by choice ?

The answer is yes . 'The Sat' has given us free will to do what ever we want to do with our lives. Only when one makes sincere decision i.e. makes a choice to evolve in that direction and puts in effort to achieve one can evolve and higer consciousness is an out come of that effort - it is not an independent parameter, it is an out come of a process.

(iv) CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness without "God's" blessing ?

The answer is No; nothing can happen without the blessings of 'The Sat'. Even the idea to evolve in that direction comes from 'The voice of 'The Sat' within the person, if and only if the person has not accumulated too much worldly dirt in its functioning brain.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209

(v) Is our life pre-programmed and we are destined to do what "God" has planned for us ?

The answer is; only our mission is preprogramed and destiny provides you the opportunity to fulfill this mission, but the free will can interfear with the journey and take the person away from the pre-programed mission.


(vi) Do the scriptures not say that even the bad things we do are because we have not been "Blessed" by "God" ?

It is the vices that take hold of the person under whose influence the bad deed are done by the individual. These vices use the itellect to persude the person to obey them and do things that are undesirable or are sins. When these accumulate in the memory of the brain, they constitute the worldly dirt, which does not allow the voice from in inner self to reach out. thus the blessing of 'The Sat' one denies one-self.

(vii) Are we just a vibration that coalesced into a human body, based on our past Karma ?

I do not use the word vibration.

In origin, we are the materialised form of Cosmic Intellegent Energy( which is 'The Sat'). This materialised form has been shaped and reshaped by our karmas of our past by the process of rebirths.

(viii) Are we condemmend to this cycle of Birth and Death, for a crime we did not commit ?

The answer is; No one is condemmed. Guru Nanak who was a very evolve high sol came to this wotld on its own help the lost humanity to evolve. we to are not compelled, we come to this world as it is the place to evolve spiritually. Justise of 'The Sat' is absolute, no one is punished for the sin it has not commited. I fact, my understanding is that 'The Sat' never punishes any one, it is our own subconscious that atracks events which look to us as punishment.

(ix) Is years and years of Meditation; the only way out ?

The answer is 'Truthfull living in accordance with the teachings of Siri Guru Granth Sahib is the way out'.

(x) It does not seem fair to me.

The answer is - fair and unfair are dualities based on the yardsticks used in assessment of our worldly life. With spiritual evolution taking place within the person, the dualities dualities get dissolve progressivly. Only 'The Sat' and 'The Sat' only remains.

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal Singh
Punjab, India

Dear Consciousness,


Since I’ve never had an occasion before to go into such kind of questions, I’d like to respond to some of these that you ask.
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Q: Is there a purpose to our life here on this Earth ? Or are we just part of Darwin's evolution ?

A: Before talking in terms of ‘purpose’, I’d like to talk about why and how we are here.
Beginning with birth, this is result of karma done in the past arisen just before the dying consciousness of the previous life. This same karma also conditions the death of this present life and in between, what is called the life-continuum. However this is not all there is, but there must also be the experience through the five senses all throughout life and these again are result of karma, but are ones from various seeds planted throughout our endless existence.

The above are “results”, which given the natural order of things, are inevitably at each instance, followed by moments of volitional impulses, in other words, the ‘reactions’. This latter is what is said to be “cause” or “karma”, although most of them are of the strength resulting simply in accumulation of habit, others however, are strong enough to result in more of the sense experience and some, in further ‘rebirth’.

Given this above, we can now talk about ‘purpose’. That our volitional actions are tainted with ignorance and attachment is the reason why the cycle of birth and death keeps spinning endlessly. Not only when they arise with bad deeds that this happens, but good deeds as well, since essentially they are also of the same stuff. Bad deeds give rise to bad results and good deeds to good, yet in the end they are all fleeting and insubstantial and hence not worth clinging to. The only activity which is the gradual breaking down of this prison cell which we otherwise keep adding bricks on to, is ‘wisdom / understanding’.

So our purpose is the development of understanding of all our experiences, and this would include distinguishing that which is cause from that which is result and those that are neither. Failing this results in our confusing one for the other or else belief in the kind of cause and effect dictated by ignorance and particular ‘view’ which we happen to incline towards at the time. In other words, we need to gradually come to understand “who we *really* are” as against “who we want to be” which when analysed comes down to the misleading stories we keep telling ourselves driven by craving for ‘being’.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209
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Q: Should we just enjoy life while we are here on this earth ? Or should we try to achieve a higher state of consciousness ?

A: Seeing the harm of craving, why would one aim at it? Seeing the value of developing wisdom, would one aim for anything else?
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Q: If we achieved a higher state of consciousness, would that not be just another prized possesion of our Ego ?

A: Attachment is always there around the corner. There is nothing which attachment cannot take as object. However when wisdom does arise regardless this be relatively weak or is strong, it is accompanied by a corresponding level of ‘detachment’. This detachment is directly opposed to the otherwise prevailing attachment. So the more this wisdom is developed, the greater the ability to recognize instances of attachment including those towards any sense of achievement in this regard.
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Q: CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness by choice ?

A: Choice is an illusion and the object of concern for those who fail to understand. The past is gone and the future hasn’t arrived, there is ever only the present moment. This moment is *conditioned already* beyond control, about this there is no doubt. Ignorance now conditions more ignorance in the future, likewise wisdom. Understanding this itself is an instance of the latter; on the other hand, a concern about future results with regard to such things is in fact an instance of the former leading to being caught in the vicious cycle even more.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209
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Q: Is our life pre-programmed ?

A: Pre-program implies denying the role of present conditions, and this is quite wrong. No one can say what sound arises next to be heard and what visible object is seen. And no one can say what accumulated tendency will give rise to the reactions following upon such experiences through the five senses. The kind of dream we have at night is often induced by the food we took or any illness we have. Getting to hear the Truth can be a condition for understanding to arise (or not) and getting to hear an un-truth can cause us to be further deluded (or not), but when and how either of this happens clearly must depend on outside conditions as well.

In other words, although it is true that we can’t get away from what we’ve accumulated including that ignorance and craving is infinitely more than any good, know that to think that it is all ‘predetermined’ is making it in fact even harder to be free of these tendencies. On the other hand, understanding the present moment, which is neither about determinism nor free-will, is an instance of actualizing that which is our purpose in life. ;-)
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Q: Are we just a vibration that coalesced into a human body, based on our past Karma ?

A: The concept of ‘vibration’ is a result of conditioning primarily by science. We have a mental picture about that which we do not understand based on what we have learnt here and there, all of which are fields of study fuelled all the way, by ignorance and craving.

Karma is volition, a *mental* reality arisen and fallen away in a trillionth of a second. Let alone being any close to the idea of ‘vibration’ which is only a concept based on the study of ‘material’ realities, this is a mental reality of which we are essentially in the dark about, and in fact is darker than dark. ;-) However we can begin by learning how our “misconception” comes to be, starting with, it is not that which is seen, heard, smelt, touched or tasted. So if we recognize our mental picture to be tainted by any of these experiences of material phenomena, know that we are in fact wrong.

Along with this we would need to differentiate between Karma which is ‘cause’, from say, seeing and hearing which are ‘results’. And then, we also need to distinguish between volition from other kind of mental realities such as feeling, perception, concentration, thinking and so on.
A very slow and gradual process, hindered often by the very ambition we are likely to have in this regard. And so we’d need to also be reminded about yet other mental realities, such as patience, courage, truthfulness and so on. ;-)
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Q: Are we condemmend to this cycle of Birth and Death, for a crime we did not commit ?

A: We get exactly what we deserve. Each deed through body, speech or mind now will bear its fruit in the future, unless of course we develop the wisdom to cut through it all and attain final liberation. If we do not take responsibility for what happens to us now, then what we do now, the responsibility for this will be denied by the ‘new being’ that we are then born as in the next and future lives. And again this would be adding fuel to the fire even more vigorously as opposed to creating the conditions whereby the final extinction of the flame can occur.
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Q: Is years and years of Meditation; the only way out ?

A: Aeons upon of aeons of development of wisdom is needed to counter the much more time spent in accumulating the ignorance and craving, given especially that the latter is basically all there is when one is born in the lower realms. But does this development of wisdom manifest as what is generally conceived of as the practice of ‘meditation’? The answer is no.

Wisdom starts with intellectually understanding that there is ever only the present moment *now*. The nature of this is “one moment of consciousness at a time arisen to experience one object and falling away instantly”. This is so whether we are in the company of people busy talking or alone in the forest. As I said earlier, attachment (and of course ignorance) is around the corner and takes on any object. So to think that one needs to do anything special in order to “understand” is to in fact not only be ignorant about the present moment, but in fact *wrong* about the Path. And this latter is a graver wrong than anything else.

In other words, better know that there is so much ignorance now and this is because little understanding has been developed, than to think in terms of future results and be driven by attachment and craving to take up some wrong practice.
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Q: It does not seem fair to me.

A: This is due to “attachment to self” a misperception of the way things are. If understanding arose instead, there is detachment and a sense of relief.

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=>Any input or opinions would be appreciated.

A: I’ve likely given more than you asked for and many here would not like my answers, if they read it. I hope however, others will find something useful in amongst all this.

Wow Amarpal Singh Ji, Thank You very Much. That was very enlightening. I will read your post several times , so that it really sinks in.

Thank You, Confused. I will read and re-read your post several times so that I get it, what you are saying. Thank You for the time and effort in writing in great detail.

I am putting some of my thoughts. But if you start thinking in terms of 'What are we?' and 'What is life?' and 'What is God?', you yourself will get answers of these questions.

Is there a purpose to our life here on this Earth? Or are we just part of Darwin's evolution?

Gods Dust: Definitely we are the part of Darwin's evolution and if we go further back in the time, we are the by-product of Big-Bang which happened roughly around 14billion years ago. Your first question i.e. "do our life have purpose or not?” has nothing to do with our evolution and existence. We all have a specific purpose in our life. And the purpose existed from the initial point of creation of universe. Big-bang had the purpose of creating universe. Our solar system, sun, constitution of earth, distance of our planet with sun, abundance of water on earth all had the purpose of creating favourable conditions for life to evolve. Evolution had the purpose of evolving a simpler form of life to highly complex and intellectual form i.e. we humans. And not only we human and other living creatures has purpose, all non-living material also has the purpose. Similarly they have life too. (I can explain you if you are interested how non-living things have life.)
Should we just enjoy life while we are here on this earth? Or should we try to achieve a higher state of consciousness?

Gods Dust: Life is not about enjoying it or achieving higher consciousness. Life is about experiencing. Experiencing whatever comes in our life, experiencing happiness, experiencing pain, experience different flavour of life. And doing what your consciousness tells you to do. (May be good may be bad it doesn't matter). Because consciousness is the voice of God. And there is nothing like higher or lower state of consciousness. In my view, higher consciousness is nothing but to understand yourself, your surroundings. And by understanding yourself, you will ultimately understand the creator of whole world i.e. God.
If we achieved a higher state of consciousness, would that not be just another prized possesion of our Ego ?
Gods Dust: No. Because when you have true consciousness, you will not consider yourself as a separate entity from God. You will feel yourself as a part of God. You will see only God, attributes attached to human i.e. anger, happiness, sadness, pleasures, pains, ego will have no existance. So there is no question of ego comes.

CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness by choice?
Gods Dust: Yes, everything we do is by choice only. Like we have a choice to move our hand or not move it. We have choice to choose our actions. But our choice will give us the desired result is not guaranteed. It is governed by many variables (more preciously energies) in our surroundings.

CAN we attain a higher state of consciousness without "God's" blessing?
Gods Dust: You have asked this question because your definition of God is like a fatherly figure that has created the universe, and now he is sitting in heaven and watching us. If we do good karma's he will bless us or if we do bad deeds he will punish. My definition of God is different. He is not a separate entity he is present everywhere. In you, in me, in all our surroundings. So to achieve true consciousness, you just need to do your actions and if conditions are favourable (other people say it as 'GODs Blessing') you can achieve it.

Is every hour and every minute of our life not orchestrated by "God" ?
Gods Dust: Again, do not treat him separate from you. He is not orchestrated our life and sitting and watching. He is living through us.
Is our life pre-programmed and we are destined to do what "God" has planned for us ? Do the scriptures not say that even the bad things we do are because we have not been "Blessed" by "God" ?
Gods Dust: God has not pre-programmed us. He has pre-programmed the whole universe. And he himself is the universe. He is present in everything. When we do good, he is present, when we do bad, he is still present. He is present in each and every action happening in the whole universe. For some those actions are good for some those actions are bad. But for him, it’s just an action.
Are we just a vibration that coalesced into a human body, based on our past Karma ?
Gods Dust: No. I do not believe in past karmas. Because for me God is present in all deeds, may be good, may be bad. Consider him as a pure energy. And we are just the minute part of this pure energy i.e. God.
Are we condemmend to this cycle of Birth and Death, for a crime we did not commit ? Is years and years of Meditation; the only way out ?
It does not seem fair to me.
Gods Dust: You are correct. It is not fair. But the question of fairness comes only if it is true. Soul, incarnation, cycle of birth and death are just concepts to explain God. If you consider God as a separate entity then many questions arise in your mind the way you have asked in this forum. And many things you will not feel fair. Secondly there were other questions like with population explosion how come total number of souls on the planet earth keeps on increasing. What happens to those souls which achieve higher consciousness and gets librated from cycle of birth and death? How come these days, doctors can calls souls from heaven when they create test-tube baby. And recently scientist has successfully conducted experiment giving life to a very simple single cell bacterium? And why who do good deeds get pains and sufferings and why who do bad karma's enjoy a luxurious life? And if we see sufferings and pain in this world, killing of innocents, natural calamities killing thousands of people, sometimes bigger questions like Does God exists comes in our mind. And many such questions.
So let's start with basic question does God exist? Today in the computer age of human race history, science has proved how the universe got created through a big bang. So one can easily argue that big bang has created universe and as a matter of chance life started on planet earth. And as per Darwins theory of evolution, life evolved through simple single cell living organism to highly complex and intellectual animal i.e. Human. But even if we consider these scientific discoveries, still the fact remains is: for that big bang to happen, there was enormous amount of pure energy that was already present. In my view that energy is nothing but the God. And as per Newton's law 'Energy can neither be created nor it can be destroyed. It can be transformed from one from to another'. If you bring science and religion together, you will get the answer that energy is nothing but God. Religion says God is immortal, shapeless, formless, etc, etc. Don't you think God's definition matched with pure energy? So we can safely assume God do exists. But it is not like an individual which we human have given him the form. We have given him attributes. Our religions has given him different names some called him Allah, some called him Wahe guru, etc. We worship him. We want him to do the justice if do good karmas (deeds) and punishes those who do bad karmas. I think our definition of God is very incorrect. Because he is not a managing director of this universe. He himself is the universe. With the big bang, he gets himself transformed from pure energy form to clouds of sub-atomic particles, which combined and form atoms. Thus God get distributed in the whole world as galaxies, starts, planets, etc. He is present everywhere. Even in each and every single particle in this world. We are like extremely minute dust of God. He exists everywhere. If person karma is good, he is present, even if person karma is bad, he is still present in the person. He is present in happiness, he is present in pain, he is present in light, he is present in dark, he is present in sufferings, he is present in pleasures.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209
Our identity and essence, is nothing but one of the numerous flavour of God. And we all are always connected to God because we are the integrated part of God himself. Only thing is God is changing is form continuously, sometime he was a pure energy, later he transformed to big bang, then to big galaxies, then to billions of stars and planets. He took form of initial single cell organism, he continuously changed to different forms, to different animals including human, plants, even dinasorouses. He keep changing it form from ice glacier, to highly hot volcanic eruptions. For big oceans to dry deserts. None of his form is constant. In each form he stays for some time and then takes a new form. And his stay is the life period of that form. Like we have some age and then we get demolish. Planets has life cycle too. Sun, stars has life period too, galaxies has life cycle as well. And ultimately universe has a life period. If we can read the latest findings in field of science, scientists have discovered black holes, which are highly concentrated form of gravitational energy. Its gravitation is so huge that even light cannot comes out of it. These are eating their surroundings by pulling all the objects in their surroundings. And one day they will eat all stars, planet, galaxies, and they will become only the pure concentrated ball of energy which is called cosmic egg from where the universe has begun. So in a way, science is now proving that our universe is also not infinite it too has some fixed life span. Only thing which is infinite is God and only thing which is constant is its changing form. There is no such thing like soul. We are like God’s dust.
What I tried to explain you in scientific way, resembles same what our Sufi Saints like Guru Nanak Ji, Kabir ji, Baba Farid Ji has explained in their banis in Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
Aval Allah noor upaaeiaa kudrat ke sab bandey ||
Ek noor te sab jag upajaiaa koun bhalae ko mande ?
logaa bharam n bhoolahu bhaaee ||
khaalik khalak.. khalak mehi khaalik poor rahiou srab thaii....

Hope my little explanations have opened some doors for your thought process. Be open to everything, read various Banis, try to understand them, even be open to other religions, learn what their scholars and saints have mentioned, do listen to science as well. And with all the material available, let your consciousness think, think more and more. And you will understand the God. You get answers to your questions. And this state of mind in your term is called as 'Higher Consciousness'.
All the best!
Do ask me if you do not understand anything or you need to discuss more.
God's dust.

Consciousness ji,


On reading my response over just now, some parts I found quite incoherent. At the time of writing, it was taking me longer than expected and so towards the end when it was time to leave, I had to rush and could not review the post carefully before sending it.

So if you don’t mind, I’d like to add here something to complement that first response.
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There is only one worthy goal in life which is, the development of understanding. Speaking in terms of the individual, it is ‘knowing who we really are’.

If we don’t know what motivates our thoughts, whatever it is that we are involved with at the time amounts to very little. Thoughts about service to humanity, helping the destitute and the oppressed, world peace and so on are of no consequence, not to speak of the less impressive “worldly” goals. If we don’t know who we are, even if we were praised and recognized for our achievements by people all over the world, we’d end up increasing much more ignorance and craving than any little good which happen to come along.

Indeed, the lofty goals that some people have, behind these are motivations that is in fact self-serving. Idealistic thoughts are usually an expression of pigheadedness. They are conceived of and taken seriously because ‘attachment to view’ gives the impression in fact, of being right. However someone who has had even a little glimpse into his own mind, he would know not to think in terms of changing the outside world, the kind of thoughts would not be entertained.

But those who do not appreciate this, to them it would seem that someone who minds his own mind (or business) is being insensitive to the needs and sufferings of other people. But this is not true. The truth is that he knows not to think with attachment and aversion which is what happens most of the time when we react to certain ‘situations’. Besides he also understands that such things as generosity and kindness and compassion must start from *now*, namely towards those around him. More importantly however, in realizing how ignorance and craving in fact comes in the way of any genuine kindness and compassion, his being aware of this opens the way for these and other kinds of good to flow unhindered.
In conclusion, he does not take upon himself to be the world’s manager, but knows rightly to watch his own mind.

Now the above may come across as yet another ‘ideal’ to follow, but no, in reality all this is very light and freeing. In other words, understanding who we are, one knows also not to have any expectations about anything. One does not overreach, however there be failure or success both are gone and is past, hence no reason to dwell upon.

More need to be said, but I don’t wish to flood you with too much information at this time. ;-)

Thank You, God's Dust. A slightly different perspective but very nice. I will certainly read what you have said over and over again , so I fully understand it. Thank You. You are unusually wise for your age.

Jasdir ji,


[QUOTE=jasdir singh;133397]The real goal of human's life is get out from the cycle of deth & birth and rid from the maze of "chaurasi",


Although in the end, this is what it is aimed at, I don’t think anyone of us is in the position to wholeheartedly make such a statement. I’ve heard people talk about not wanting to be reborn as though they really understood the insubstantial nature of existence. However if you were to pursue the matter, it would become apparent that they were in fact reacting to the unpleasant circumstances of their lives and had things been better, they’d not wish to let go of this precious life.

I think therefore that it more true to the situation that one thought instead, in terms of the need to understand “who we really are”. There is no doubt that this is the path by which wisdom is accumulated and ignorance is eradicated, hence the cycle of birth and death coming to an end. However in reality, we don’t really wish this at this stage, being that at every turn we continue to be led by craving. We always want more and more experiences (I am eating ice cream while writing this message ;-)), and so although at times there may be a glimpse as to the undesirability of the rounds of existence, I think we should take care not to make this yet another object of attachment in claiming that we are indeed ready to let go of it all.

But we can begin to understand, and this is not a lofty goal as some people think. Now there is the experience, one moment of visible object, next of thinking, next of feeling, next of cold and so on. We can very slowly begin this process of understanding ourselves by acknowledging at least that these are what goes on from moment to moment. Attachment may arise to the taste of ice cream and I know that there is accumulated attachment and this is part of who I am! Is this so difficult?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32209

Actually it is, and very much so. The fact is that there is so much ignorance and craving accumulated that the straightforward and simple suggestion continues to be ignored. Instead one is lost in ideals built around ‘self’ and excuses are made again and again not to look at what is really going on now. It is not to be expected that there will be any deep understanding / insight, but the resistance continues also towards the initial step of accepting in principle, all this......:-/