Having Faith Is Enlightenment

What I will tell you now is ancient wisdom that has been told in all the great writings of truth, but seldom understood, since it can only be understood through contemplation of what is inside of you, not inside of some book.

To know the truth one must have faith in the truth. But it is not possible to have faith by any mortal effort. Faith comes only when it is desired but not sought.

By seeking faith you lose your faith. You may pray for faith, or meditate for enlightenment. But as soon as your goal becomes faith or enlightenment then your prayer or meditation becomes useless.

Let me be clear. You can have faith by praying for it. But, if the goal of your prayer is to have faith then you have already lost faith and the prayer does you no good.

Also, you can have enlightenment by meditating. But if the goal of your meditation is to attain enlightenment then you have already lost faith and enlightenment will ellude you.

This appears as a dilemma only when you look outwards for understanding. In truth there is no dilemma. The solution is simple; have faith, be enlightened. To try is to fail. One must learn to be, and to do, without effort. This is the only way. Yet, it cannot be learned.

You must unlearn instead.

You must stop trying.

You must simply, believe, without believing in something; do, without doing, without purpose or intent. This is having faith.

Having faith is enlightenment.

(Originally written by Joseph E. Duncan III - April 4, 2011 – 9 am)

1-800-HELL

Shortly after my arrest in 2005 I had a disturbing dream that I am only now able to understand at all. I may have written it down in a journal I was keeping at the time, but I don't recall ever talking to anyone about it. The dream had an obvious interpretation that did not make any sense to me. I was afraid that if I told anyone about it that they would draw the only conclusion that the dream seemed to offer: that I belonged in Hell! It was a lucid dream, which is to say that it was vivid, with clear details, and I was fully conscious of the fact that I was in a dream and that in “reality” I was asleep in a jail cell awaiting prosecution for capital murder and kidnapping. At the time of this dream I was still struggling consciously (while awake and asleep) to sort out what had happened, and why I had surrendered to the police. A strong feeling that pervaded my thoughts and feelings at the time was a sense of having joined some mystical community that as yet remained a mystery to me. While I could distinctly feel a sense of belonging to this community, I could not otherwise identify its existence. I thought maybe that the community was purely “spiritual” with little or no real counterpart in the “physical” world. The dream I had seemed to be yet another manifestation of that sense of belonging to some mystical community. In the dream I found myself standing in the foyer of a congregation hall, like a church, but not a church. I approached the main entrance to the hall, large double doors that were wide open and through which I could see a large gathering of people apparently waiting for some ceremony to begin. I thought maybe they were waiting for me. But as I approached the entrance, two large male porters who were standing there turned and took notice of me. They seemed to recognize me immediately, but not in any positive way at all. In fact, one of them exclaimed, “How did you get here?” implying by his tone that I definitely did not belong. Then, without waiting for me to answer (I tried to explain to them that I was having a lucid dream and that I wanted to be a part of their congregation, but I never got the chance) they quickly took me by the arms and shuffled me toward a coatroom, where an attendant was waiting.

The same porter who spoke the first time indicated to the coatroom attendant that he should retain me, and then told him (and this part I remember clearly), “Call 1-800 HELL”

Then I woke up (or, rather, found myself suddenly back in my jail cell) with the clear impression that I was not wanted in that congregation.

What confused me was that these men clearly judged me, apparently without cause. Even then I understood that such judgement was not conducive to an enlightened body of people. I should have been accepted and loved, especially since I had sincerely repented my ignorance (and my “crimes”). So why was I so harshly and brashly judged?

Well, I think I have finally come to an understanding. I think that perhaps because I was still alive (i.e. had a physical body) that the condemnation to “hell” did not have to be eternal. In other words, I was being “sent back” for more work.

Actually, I'm still not sure what the dream meant. But at least I now have a plausible explanation. Maybe hell is no more than some kind of soul smetter, and my soul was yet to be fired. Or maybe that's just one definition, or purpose, of hell. I'm not going to pretend I know what hell or heaven is. But if they exist at all then they must have some reason to exist beside simple reward and punishment.

When The Music Dies: The Systematic Attack On An Offender's Social Structure

The single most common element of all antisocial and criminal behavior is a lack of appropriate social support structures. Conversely, the single most common element of all rehabilitated criminal offenders is the development of appropriate and substantial social support structures. A meta-analysis of studies on the effects of social support structures in relation to antisocial and criminal behavior shows a clear and conclusive direct relationship between the lack of social support structure and criminal behavior. This relationship is so strong that it is demonstratably possible to trigger criminal behavior by simply causing a person to experience the loss of appropriate social support. This works with even “law-abiding” and socially “well adjusted” persons, though in such cases the loss of social support must be pronounced in order to overcome the persons residually perceived social support.

In cases when a person is already susceptable to antisocial behavior (due to a clearly lacking social support structure) the opposite is true. In this case, a very small almost insignificant perceived loss of social support will cause a severe relapse.

Clearly, social support is the key to social control of antisocial and criminal behavior.

So will someone please tell me why we insist on passing laws and creating institutions that seem to have no other goal than to undermine the social support structures of people who have demonstrated a clear lack of said appropriate social support in the first place?

Systematic efforts to use social support for rehabilitation are blatantly superficial. You can't just tell an offender, “I support your positive social behavior” and expect that to fix anything. (Actually, studies show that even such superficial efforts have an effect on criminal behavior. But only superficially, which should be expected.)

(A perfect example of the difference between substantial and superficial efforts to develpoe social support structures for x-convicts can be found in the history of the Interaction Transition House in Seattle, Washington.)

Horizon of Volition

I have intentionally contradicted myself on occasion regarding my views of free will. One moment I state that it is important for us to recognize our choices and to accept responsibility for them. In fact, it was this realization that allowed me to „choose” to bring Shasta home and surrender myself to the police in Cour d'Alene in 2005. Then the next moment I strongly implied that I had no choice but to bring that little girl home and turn myself in, once I „saw the truth”. So how can I have choice and no choice at the same time? To understand we must try to realize that the concept of choice (also free will, volition, etc...) is an illusion, very much akin to the illusion of „the edge of the world” one sees when peering out at the horizon on the ocean. It's only because few of us have yet dared to venture out beyond that „horizon of volition” that this world still imagined that we live on flat intellectual surfaces, where right is always right and wrong is wrong, just as up was once always up, and down was down. The real nature of free will (i. e. the ability to choose right over wrong for instance) is as circular (or globular) as the world; perhaps even more so.

No choice we make is ever personal. First, as soon as the choice is made the entire universe is forever changed! Even the simplest choice, to step over a sidewalk crack on the way to school, for example, will cause unimaginable changes in this world alone in a relatively very short time.

Such a trivial choice, when properly extrapolated, will invariable change the entire course of history and dramatically effect every living thing on the planet in a very short order of time. The choice is not trivial at all!

Second, no personal choice is ever made in a vacuum. Whether or not you step over that crack in the sidewalk depends on your mood, which depends on the weather, and how things are for you at home, and at school, and even the color of a car parked nearby can influence your choice on a subconscious level. And all of those things depend on other choices made by you and other people.

So your choice is really no choice at all, unless! Unless you have the ability to consider every other choice that goes into your choice, and every outcome of your choice for all eternity. And only one being (by definition) has that ability.

God.

Or, „the universe”, in its known and unknowable entirety. So you see, our choices only appear limited by a horizon of volition, but the horizon is only an illusion.

(Originally written by Joseph E. Duncan III - September 11, 2010 – 7:30 pm)

Electroshock Criminology

Trying to solve the problem of crime with punishment is a lot like trying to treat mental illness with electroshock therapy. In theory it should work, and sometimes it actually does work. But, for the most part, it only makes things worse.

We know this today in regards to electroshock therapy, but how much more suffering must we inflict (and endure) before we realize it is true for crime and punishment as well?

Obsession

Psychologists frequently mischaracterize a person who has admitted to committing as sex crime as overly „obsessed with sex”.

Well, I have known many such men, and am one myself, but we aren't „obsessed” with sex any more than an avid SCUBA diver is „obsessed” with water.

Sure, many men who want to please the psych doctors readily admit to being obsessed with sex, but only in so far as they really do think about sex far more than most „normal” people do. But that doesn't necessarily mean they are obsessed with it.

Obsession implies a constant preoccupation with something; which means you cannot think of anything without thinking about whatever obsesses you. Few sex offenders actually rise to this level of sexual obsession.

For example, a SCUBA diver may think about water for more than most „normal” people do. But as long as his aquatic thoughts do not impose upon his routine thoughts then he is not obsessed. Every time he sees anything that reminds him of water, or his diving gear, he relates it to diving and may even briefly fantasize „what it would be like” in that context. But he is not „obsessed”, he is just „interested”.

But a man who is „interested” in sex instead of SCUBA diving (or sports, or clothes, or food, etc...) is considered to be obsessed for having a similar perponderance of thoughts about what is interesting to him throughout the day.

This mischaracterization accounts for a lot of misunderstanding and consequently misdiagnosis and mistreatment for „sex offenders” who are really just misguided and simply need to be educated about their own sexual nature.

I'm not suggesting that this analysis is the magic bullet cure for all sex offenders, but I am certain that it could help a lot of men re-think their problem, perhaps in terms of an ordinary addiction, rather than a debilitating obsession.

If a man is told he is obsessed there is a good chance he may actually become obsessed. I would even assert that most serious obsessions are the result of the person at some point being told (or otherwise coming to believe) that they are obsessed. I say this because I have never met an obsessed person who did not know they were obsessed (perhaps such people exist, but I would imagine them to be confined in the very bowels of some mental institution – which would explain why I have never met one).

Obsession is only one of many mischaracterizations of so-called „sex offenders” that contributes markedly the „sex offender” phenomenon (and hence allowing sex crimes to prolifenate).

(Originally written by Joseph E. Duncan III - September 5, 2010 – 10 pm

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

The answer to life's "Big Question" is: there is no answer.

That does not mean that the Big Question has no answer. It simply means that the answer is found in "no answer". This only seems enigmatic because words cannot properly express what "no answer" really means. The meaning must be realized through direct experience, which usually comes when all sensual experience is exposed as an illusion.

"No answer" does not mean there is no solution to life's struggles. It means that the solution can only be found by letting go of the question itself. The question only arises because of the illusion, and without the illusion there would be no question. Any answer other than "no answer" is just another part of the illusion as well, and hence not really an answer to anything. So if you think you know the answer, then you have bought into a lie and are still suffering from delusion.

When you finally realize that there is no answer, and truly believe it, then you will have found the answer in the "nothingness that is everything". To know you know nothing is to know everything you need to know. And to think you know anything is simply not knowing that you know nothing, which is another definition of ignorance.

If you have trouble comprehending what it is I am trying to say, it is likely because you are still clinging to the illusion of knowing something, and attempting to determine the illusory value of my words rather than experiencing them - and me - as the truth always intends, directly.

It might help (if you are interested in the truth at all) to meditate on the enigma of not knowing. This has at times been referred to as, "the sound of one hand clapping". You could begin by questioning what it means to know anything, and thus turn the illusion - with all its questions - against itself.