YOU CANNOT BECOME SPIRITUAL, YOU CANNOT BECOME BETTER, YOU CANNOT BECOME ANYTHING, Part One

An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers farther along the "path." During his last years, he said of I AM THAT: "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line."

COMING SOON TO AMAZON

FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS
(Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")

F.: As excerpts from the soon-to-be-released "FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS" were being shared, inquiries were received regarding a comment about "one's head being in the clouds" and about "transcending spiritual and / or religious roles" and "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge."

A visitor challenged the point that it is an insane belief that drives some seekers to "abandon a phenomenal dream state, only to reside in a supposedly 'noumenal' dream state" where they have their heads "in the clouds without having one's feet planted firmly on the ground."

Also challenged was the pointer that "those persons fail to understand that they are actually seeing no more of The Light with their heads in the clouds than the persons planted on the ground who also cannot see the sun because of the clouds."

The challenges were coming from one who believes many false beliefs, including the false belief that he "has become spiritual." He does not know that he cannot "become spiritual," cannot "become better," and, actually, cannot "become" anything.

"To become" is "to change or grow or develop into something specific and different; to enhance or improve; to be upgraded; to be better than before; to change for the better"; or, conversely, "to worsen or to get worse" or "to be downgraded" or "to deteriorate," as in:

1. "She became a much better person after she joined that group."

2. "He became more religious - even spiritual - after he married her and settled down."

3. "He was raised the right way by good parents, but he sure did deteriorate later one - really went downhill."

4. "That one lucked out and found a super spouse" or "that one had a streak of bad luck and ended up with three really rotten spouses in a row."

5. Or, as the defensive visitor who was mentioned above believes, "I have become spiritual and now I see the light; as a result of understanding non-duality, I have become a far better person than I was before"

and

6. "If you do not think Advaita Vedanta is all about becoming spiritual, then you do not know what you are talking about."

Here, it is made clear that along "the path," "religious and / or spiritual roles" (or "religious-like or spiritual-like" roles) will be assumed and played at the third of seven steps.

Typically, heads must enter the clouds in an effort to try to see things noumenal, in order to break - to some degree at least - the attachment only to things phenomenal and to be motivated to seek the light. Yet the fact remains, one cannot see any more light with his head in the clouds than a person standing on the ground, gazing skyward on a cloudy day, and also having the light blocked from view.

The problem with the assumption of those roles is that seekers typically fixate at that point - at the level that Maharaj called "kindergarten spirituality." In describing their circumstance, Krishna was not especially "kind" when discussing the ego / ego-state that is assumed at that level, suggesting that those who do not understand that Reality is beyond both beingness and non-beingness are "fools."

Thus, such supposed beingness, including "being spiritual," is a trap if one does not eventually "transcend spiritual and / or religious roles" and if one does not transcend "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge" (which are two pointers from the book "Freedom From Beliefs" which were also challenged by the visitor quoted above.)

Maharaj also made clear that those who do not transition their religious and / or spiritual role-assumption and role-playing are also just fooling themselves with their prideful but false belief about having realized and are allowing "others" to fool them as well. As a result, he said, they will never reach the fullness of the light:

"There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full Realization, and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride."

Indeed, how foolish one is to believe that he or she is being bathed in the full light of the noontime sun though actually standing in the dimness of dawn.

And how foolish one is to believe that she or he can "become something different" from That Which They Truly Are, Were, and Shall Forever Be. More on that tomorrow.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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(QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more)

The work contains quotations and pointers not only from scores of non-duality books and talks but also offers non-duality pointers that have appeared in works of non-fiction, fiction, classic literature, and movies.

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The offering of non-duality quotations and pointers by category and subject matter but from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj exclusively.

Quotations and pointers from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj that discuss nisarga yoga and nisarga living.

Quotations that other seekers / readers have indicated that they found to be significant.

A section with an arrangement of non-duality quotations and pointers by category and subject matter. The rationale: when offering non-duality quotations, some collections provide key pointers that are offered in no particular order, but here the approach is to group pointers according to subject matter so that a seeker dealing with "body identification issues" can find quotations addressing body identity while a seeker dealing with "being free of the influence of the mind" can find quotations and pointers that offer information on that topic. Other subjects in this part of the book include personality, the child ignorance or no-knowing stage, the two types of witnessing, the Absolute, the Void or the Nothingness, and many more.

Miscellaneous non-duality quotations and pointers which are relevant to Advaitins and that have been offered by philosophers and sages and seers of truth from various periods, including Plato, St. Francis of Assisi, Desiderius Erasmus, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Richard E. Lingenfelter; Robert Burton, Daniel H. Boorstin, Gary Zukav, E. Bayda, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Brad Thor, Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.; Nelson Mandela, Immanuel Kant, Bruce Lipton, Clive Cussler, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Lewis Thomas, Max Planck, Heinrich Hertz; the bands "Pink Floyd" and "The Beatles"; and others.

Non-duality pointers that have appeared in the non-fiction writings of Ralph Klein and in the works of such scientists as Barbara McClintock, Erwin Schrodinger, Fritjof Capra, Niels Bohr, David Bohm, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Also, there are selections from the works of Marvin Kaye, S.H. Sharp, Paul Krassner, Ken Kesey, Russell Brand, G.I. Gurdjieff; and a variety of examples of the non-duality messages that are contained in the body of Native American wisdom as well as non-duality pointers that can be found in the book "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (a.k.a., "the A.A. Big Book").

An offering of non-duality messages that have appeared in the fictional works of Jack Kerouac, Michael Connelly, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Abraham "Bram" Stoker and others as well as quotations with the non-duality message as offered in film with a list of over thirty movies that are based in non-duality, including The Matrix (Part One), The 13th Floor, Inception, The Truman Show, Dark City, Existenz, Avatar, and many more.

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From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
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The Final Understanding
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The Two Meditation Guides

The BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES, PART ONE
What BLISS Is and What BLISS Is Not
Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full
When Reality Is Overlaid Upon the Relative
Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness
Liberation
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(2) Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and His Evolution
(3) A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
(4) Going Crazy / Going Sane
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The BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES, PART TWO
Overcoming the Fear of Being Totally Independent
I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
The Essence of the Teachings
There Is Nothing That Is Personal (Including You and Including God)
Lessons in Non-Duality from Travels in South Africa
The Path to Freedom vs. the Path to Misery

The FREEDOM FROM THE MIND Series
Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address
PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION
The Ultimate Sickness, The Ultimate Medicine
Going Crazy / Going Sane
There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind" (There Is Only Peace If You're Out of Your Mind)
Dancing Lightly

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A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Realization [Kindle]
A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Realization [Paperback]
A Guide for Working the Twelve Steps (In the Manner Used by the Founders)
The Twelve Steps and Advaita / Non-Duality: A 21-Day Plan for a Psychic Change
Finding Real Love in An Unreal World
Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships

The NO DEATH books, NON-DUALITY IN FICTION, FINANCIAL SANITY
The Myth of Death
What Happens When I Die?
The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders (Non-Duality) [Kindle]
The Board of Directors of Wars (Non-Duality) [Kindle]
The Board of Directors of Wars (Non-Duality) [Paperback]
Living Within Your Means
How Your Personality Type Shapes Your Spending Habits

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