Goddess KaliOne of the most interesting calendar coincidences in relation to the Mayan 2012 information, is the similarity between the start dates of the last long count cycle of the Mayan system and the Hindu’s Kali Yuga. Yuga’s are vast periods of time, epoch’s that relate to the Earths journey around a cosmological central sun. The four Yuga (Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga) together make up an entire world age between creation and destruction events, held to be around 4,320,000 years in total duration.

Most 21-12-2012 researchers are aware of the 3114BCE start date of the current long count cycle, less people are aware however that the Kali Yuga, a predicted era of moral decent and spiritual bleakness, began in the year 3102BCE. A startling similarity, a mere 12 years difference for systems on different sides of the planet. The Brahma Vaivarta Purana Sutra from ancient India depicts a period which has many of the failings visible in our modern society, such is the backdrop of the spiritual decline in the Kali Yuga.

It is however a mistake  for people to seek a link between the Mayan 2012 end-date and the closing of the Kali Yuga. Though their starts may have links the ends do not (although some suggest this is an error). The Kali Yuga is set to continue on for a vast period of time, at least 432,000 years, well eclipsing the 5126 years of the Mayan Long Count. Scholars from philosophies such as Buddhism, and from religions such as Brahmanist Hinduism, often discuss ages as being many millions of years long, entire vast Kalpa of time are addressed.

There is an excellent Buddhist parable that depicts visually an era of time described as an Aeon, far more effectively than a string of numbers. A teacher  monk explains that an eon can be likened to the great stone mountain Meru. Once every year a man passes the mountain and lightly brushed against it a strip of the finest silk. The mountain will be completely worn away by his action well before the aeon closes.

Its worth noting that the Buddhist philosophy does not tend to hold with the idea that a time of any great Universal significance will happen in our near future, every moment carries the same inherent problems and their solutions. The only significant events predicted or prophesised are the ending the vast epochs, or the extremely intermittent arising of new Buddha’s. There have been suggestions in relation to 2012, that the next Buddha will arise at this time in a rather Judeo-Christian end of days scenario. Unfortunately anyone educated in Buddhist lore will know that it is made clear that fully enlightened Buddha’s only arise millions of years apart. Buddhism is prophesised to completely disappear during the Kali Yuga, and that during that time it will be virtually impossible for seekers to find any opportunity for spiritual realisation at all by any system known now. Only when such utter darkness has shrouded the world will another being become fully realised wholly by their own efforts, without any guidance, and become the next Buddha, named Maitreya.

The most notable discussion on the Kali Yuga by Buddhist teachers actually refers to how lucky a being is to be born as a human in such a time. To quote the master wisdom teacher Pabongka Rimpoche, “Most important of all through this physical rebirth you are able to achieve the state of Vajradhara [unification of the illusory body and great bliss] within one short lifetime in this degenerate age; otherwise it would take thee countless great aeons to achieve. Thus this rebirth is worth more than one thousand billion precious jewels.”

21-12-2012 may close a cycle of time related to consciousness change within our species, after all the Mayans were highly focussed on biological and environmental cycles. It would make sense that they had tried to do the same with psychological and spiritual forces. This would be in accordance with the great Asiatic measures of Yuga and Kulpa, as they too relate to the evolution of human consciousness. This considerably shorter cycle of the Long Count would only relate to a significant change in thought process’s however, not to a sudden total self enlightenment of the human species in totality. Even if we take into account the entire Great Year of the Galactic Alignment (26,000 years max.) it is vastly less that the periods Asiatic teachers consider necessary for super-massive consciousness upgrades.

The talk of 2012 consciousness change is by needs somewhat vague, nobody knows for sure just what might happen. That said it is wise to perhaps disregard the position which suggests suddenly every person on Earth will automatically become fully enlightened spiritual beings, ready to embrace a world of spiritual concerns, peace and compassion. It is self evident that the last time a Great Year period ended we did not have this happen, nor in prior cycles. The fact is that we are still here and not fully self realised, so we know it does not tend to happen that way. Whether perhaps some certain persons were especially effected or did somehow ascend to a higher dimension remains possible, but as stated that’s not everyone on Earth.

If this cycle is important in regards to the evolution of consciousness then its more likely that the effect is far more subtle, either an evolutionary change in our neurological system, or perhaps a general refinement of the functioning of mental energies. The advantage given would perhaps make self realisation somewhat easier only because the tools, the technology of self development, gets upgraded. If you were a psychopath on 20-12-2012 it strikes me unlikely that even this cosmic-consciousness change will cause you to become a saint in under 24hrs.

Is God Dead?In the start of the great thinker (oddball) Nietzsche’s book, ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’, it is stated that ‘God is dead’. Actually this concept, if widely excepted, would make more of a change to our society then any evolutionary force imaginable to us. Currently the vast majority of the planet is operating under a system of belief that a Supreme being wrote or dictated a book of rules for them to live by, all open of course to a plethora of personal interpretation. Inclusive in these system are various promised punishments or rewards dependant on obedience to the set of rules given, the old carrot and the stick to move the donkey along routine.

This abhorrent position, as discussed here in an excellent related article, means that the vast majority of the planet is incapable of helping change the orientation of the species toward an optimum direction if it contradicts something in a book. In my own library here I have copies of many spiritual texts including those of the four major theistic traditions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hindusim. I have also many other books, plenty of them are extremely wise and have much to offer. If however I simply picked one and said I would only act if my actions were guided by that book that would doubtless lead to great problems.

Taking guidance from each book is only helpful up to a point, its my own mind and spirit that must be constant and able for the task of self realisation and environmental improvements. If before I can act I must consult a book, clearly there is something wrong with me, I should be able to do the optimum action immediately with no conscious thought whilst functioning at my optimum ability. Compassion should become my very nature at every moment and guide every action.

The best thing that could happen on 2012 might just be that people would put down their various books for a moment and take a long hard searching look within themselves. Before we rush headlong into a new period of economic and religious wars, we should surely pause for deep reflection. There are many questions I would want each to ask themselves first.

Do we really want a world split into two halves, one mainly poor, downtrodden and subverted by religious fanatics, and the other wealthy but ruthlessly controlled by New World Order dictators?

Wouldn’t our children be thankful to us for not having allowed that to happen?

Would the creative force that makes up the very fibre of all existence, that is the material of our core spirits, need to write an instruction manual for life, like some cheaply paid Ikea furniture manufacturer?

Most of the worlds great spiritual teachers have made it clear that every human has the ability to better themselves and raise themselves to the level we might call ‘saintly’. Yet each is also unique and will requires different focus, efforts, and forms of assistance from others. The only absolute equality and connection between each person is the actual energy of consciousness on which they run and from which they draw their ‘self existence’. To discover how they should then best proceed they should not ask someone else or read a certain text, first they should just try to take a period of reflection and get to grips with whom they are and what issues they need to work on.

This process means that if they then go for help or read advisory material, they can then refine from it the part useful to them in particular rather than being treated to a ‘one size fits all’ solution. That structure may work for cheap T-Shirt manufacturers, but seems woefully inefficient for the enlightenment of an eternal spiritual being constructed of pure consciousness energy.

When we allow books to instruct us in doing something wrong, perhaps even evil, we cant blame the books. If I subjugate a women or take someone as a slave I know it is wrong without picking a book up of my shelf. I don’t need to find a psalm or Sutra to know that killing and stealing are grossly unfair and cruel. Even the mundane ups and downs of my day are filled with actions that I am aware of being either optimal or substandard. I find it naïve to believe that whilst a mob stones someone to death for blasphemy or, rapes someone because they are seen as a lower caste, that the individuals are not all aware that they are in fact in the wrong. If a God were to state otherwise then it would have to be a wicked and evil entity, one to be exorcised by the might of our compassion. Whilst humans cut each other to ribbons or apply mind numbingly cruel tortures to one another, they speak about there adherence to the rules of some divine, loving and compassionate God. To me this is greatly unsettling, when we begin to call quite evil actions ‘good’, then we are in real trouble.

If I could wish for anything to happen on the 21-12-2012 it would simply be that everyone one of us for a moment dropped any external guiding principles from our minds, both religious and social rules. Then just sat quietly and analysed what it means to be alive, a human, compassionate, and a seeker of happiness. Before picking up any of the old ways they could first bring themselves up to speed and better understand these basic guiding forces. We are all here together in this great web we call life, we are all in human form, each of us desires happiness and all would be happier if everyone was compassionate.

Having realised that situation we could then observe that even when no other is doing an action that would be causing us harm, we can still lack lasting happiness. Finally there would be no ability to avoid the obvious cause of our fluctuating emotional states, that its all within us, not somewhere ‘out there’. From that point on self-realisation and enlightenment are observable phenomena just on the horizon of our self existence, finally.


“One of the most curious things in the structure of our psyche is that we all want to be told because we are the result of the propaganda of ten thousand years. We want to have our thinking confirmed and corroborated by another, whereas to ask a question is to ask it of yourself. What I say has very little value. You will forget it the moment you shut this book, or you will remember and repeat certain phrases, or you will compare what you have read here with some other book – but you will not face your own life. And that is all that matters – your life, yourself, your pettiness, your shallowness, your brutality, your violence, your greed, your ambition, your daily agony Kaliand endless sorrow – that is what you have to understand and nobody on earth or in heaven is going to save you from it but yourself.”

 

J KRISHNAMURTI
(Freedom from the Known - 121)


By Bruce Fenton

Shift of the Ages Film