THE VARIABLE MIND, Part One

After truly understanding what the illusory "mind" is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end.

Karen from Oregon, U.S.A.: I read some of your earlier postings saying that meditation should be nothing more than taking the time to sit quietly in order to consider a teacher’s pointers. I disagree. I am excited about the fact that I’m going to an ashram in India in October to attend a workshop on “Meditation Practices That End the Motion of the Mind.” When I return, I’ll be able to calm my mind at will. Why would you teach something that dissuades people from acquiring that skill?

F.: You are going to India, intent upon acquiring more knowledge, when the fact is that it is all the knowledge that you’ve already acquired that is producing the misery that you’re seeking treatment for. As far as your "disagreeing" with me, another site visitor shared this point from Dresden James: “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker [will seem] a raving lunatic.” To disagree with the Teachings, when they are first heard by any programmed and conditioned person, is the most common response. Most are asleep and reject any invitation to wake up. As far as seeking in India, that region was once a place when the understanding was firmly fixed among a greater percentage of the population than in any other place. Today, just as many sleepwalkers reside in India as anywhere else. Some there are offering to sale you The Secret to a Motionless Mind. In truth, the prerequisite for the stillness you seek lies in understanding what “the mind” is…and is not. After truly understanding what the illusory “mind” is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end. That having been said, you are still going to go to India, you are still going to spend thousands of dollars, you will likely return, and then you will experience the temporary nature of the treatment plan that you are going to try to buy in India. The Teaching, conversely, deals only with the permanent.

Consciousness moves as long as it is manifested. Impure consciousness races and zooms and chatters and clatters. What can end now is the “mind” itself...that well of impure consciousness that you are drinking from all day long, every day. It is the product of that well that you are drowning in all day long, every day. You were “born” with a brain, not with a mind. The mind is the repository of all the myths, superstitions, lies, and incorrect beliefs that they gave you and that you now adopt and defend as if the concepts were originally your own. So the proper question is not why I would teach something that would dissuade your going to India. The question is, “Why would you spend money to go to India to try to acquire that which is unattainable? Why would you go to another country to find that which is within?” Yes, a samadhi state can be reached, but how much of a 24/7 relative existence can happen from a samadhi state? "But I feel better during the day after I reach that state before leaving the house each morning," some argue. Again, that is temporary and fleeting. Even post-India you will experience the world as a persona, driven by that impure consciousness called "your variable mind." In India, you will likely strengthen the persona of "the Spiritual Giant." You seek the "no-thought" state, but all persons live 24/7 in a state of being asleep but thinking they are awake. They think-think-think all day without realizing anything at all, and that is the condition you are seeking to treat. In effect, however, you will be treating the symptom rather than the actual sickness, which is the impure consciousness called your "mind." Thus, other questions that could be asked include:
(1) “Who wants to cling to the mind—but stop its motion—rather than abandon 'the mind' after realizing that it is a repository of contaminants?”
(2) “Who is ‘excited,’ and might that be evidence of emotional or spiritual intoxication?"
(3) “Who is willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to buy a plan that puts you out of touch with reality rather than fully in touch with reality?”
(4) “Who wants power...specifically the power to control ‘your mind’ when it’s not even yours anyway?”
(5) “Who does not know that the mind stops when all ideas and beliefs dissolve in the light of awareness of the fact that those ideas and beliefs are all false?”
(6) “Who thinks that she cannot find reality (and therefore peace) where she is but can find it if she alters her geographic location?” [To be continued 1 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.

WHEN THE UNDERSTANDING COMES

"I know something is clearer because a feeling of being totally unburdened for the first time in decades has come, and stayed."

--Douglas

From site visitor Douglas: “So, I ordered a copy of From the I to the Absolute and I read it straight through in one sitting. (I know—OCD.) I saw that what I really needed to do was to follow directions and to read a section and then pause and go into the silence to consider each pointer. After some sections, I “got it” after five minutes of consideration. Other points took hours and some took days, but either way, I moved through the book that second time. Now, my request is this: please tell me if this understanding is correct. It is easy to know I Am when everything is—when my family is, when my wife is, when my kids are, when my house is, when my job is, I Am. But the more difficult understanding is in finally knowing without doubt that when nothing is, I still Am. I know something is clearer because a feeling of being totally unburdened for the first time in decades has come, and stayed. Is that understanding correct? Thanks, Douglas from…nowhere!”

Dear Douglas from nowhere,

You may soon have protégés seeking you out for the Teaching! (You will not seek them. In fact, you may want to avoid them, but the teaching might happen anyway.) The reason that you feel “totally unburdened” is because this understanding has come: when all this “objective world stuff” disappears, You still Are. Freedom from the influence of personas has come with the realization that even without family, wife, kids, house or job, You would still be You...and You will remain. That understanding allows for full enjoyment of family, wife, kids, house or job, if they remain. If they remain, all involving them merely happens…spontaneously. If they do not remain, then You would still be. Pretty dang cool, huh? How neat it is when all knowledge is liquidated. Instantaneously, a lack of concern about this or concern about that manifests as well. (Who would be left to care?) Then, with no agenda, the closest that any human will come to True Love can happen. Why? Your relative existence will be freed of the concepts of “good” and “evil” and you’ll not judge and separate. You’ll not feel that desperate attachment to co-dependents that make each ego-state seem real. Instead, the unicity—that unbroken and unbreakable connectedness—will be known. So, is the understanding correct? Indeed it is. Now, go and work, work, work no more. Ha. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

NATURAL LIVING VS. SUPERNATURAL OR UNNATURAL LIVING, Part Two

Earlier, Anonymous in CA wrote, “I have [no fear of death] because my religion and spirituality insure I’ll have life eternal afterwards.”

F.: First, If you were continuing to be “Anonymous” because you are no longer identifying with that body and mind and personality that was given a name by “parents,” cool. But since you’re talking about dogma and spirituality and a body-mind-personality triad that can live eternally, it’s clear that you are still limiting your identity to that illusory triad alone.

Anyone who believes in the eternal continuity of the body-mind-personality trio should have no fear, but what about religion’s “good vs. bad” and spirituality’s “right vs. wrong” or “assets vs. liabilities” or “moral vs. immoral”? Are you so certain that you’re so “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” that the “eternal life” you anticipate will be the type you really want? Are you so good that you can be assured you'll get the “reward” and not get the “punishment”? Of course you are, or you wouldn’t claim a lack of fear. Your ego, resulting from your false-identity-ego-states, has convinced you of how “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” that you are, making you quite different from the "others" who won't be allowed to join you as you eternally glorify and worship and praise your male god, 24-7, as you float about and sing exaltations to him. (Some "reward," huh? Ha.) But how free of fear would you be if you realized that your temporary body cannot re-form after death, that your temporary mind cannot re-group, and that your multiple personalities and roles will end? Now THAT’S real peace and THAT’S a real lack of fear when it is realized that none of that will remain—that no continuity of body-mind-personality can happen—but peace and calm still remain anyway, even in light of the facts. In the false belief that your body and mind will be forever and in the false belief that you are “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities,” you claim this lack of fear, but could you be as free of fear if you realized the truth? In fact, that is when true peace comes: when the false is seen, when the truth is realized, when the Understanding comes, and when the functioning of the Totality is known. This relative existence became marked by independence and true freedom as the quest for being “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” ended. So, too—in the awareness of the Oneness—did all dualities of “good vs. bad” and “right vs. wrong” and “assets vs. liabilities” and “moral vs. immoral” dissolve. Thus, judging others (and thereby creating a false sense of separation) also dissolved. Then, the peace of living spontaneously happens, and it happens without fear, second-by-second. Otherwise, entrapment in the religious and spiritual roles (the third step on the “Seven-Step Journey to Reality”) prevents the dissolution of ego as those two ego-states convince persons that they have arrived and need seek nothing else. From that stage, personas focus on “helping” “others” to be like them, behave like them, think like them, and emote like them. That way, religious and spiritual ego-states believe, the world will be a better place when everyone believes and thinks and feels and behaves like you, right? Do you not see that that is the very belief system that has resulted in the annihilation of millions of humans in the planet's religious wars (which are yet under way at this instant?) Yet so it is. Having tried being out of touch with reality and being in touch with reality, the understanding now is that being fixed in reality—being in touch with reality and therefore sane—provides true peace and freedom from ego-states, from a variable mind, from emotional intoxication, from trying to give people more beliefs and more concepts, and from trying to change persons to be like those trapped in their ego-states. Few persons will ever want true stability and freedom from chaos and ego. So it is. Ultimately, all the discussion of freedom will be dropped in the end since the light of realization will reveal that there was no one to be in bondage anyway. Only a persona can imagine bondage and thus race about in a continuous search for liberation. Liberation comes with realization, not with effort or work or disciplines.

In the end, however, who cares either way? Ha. It’s all “entertainment” from this viewpoint, including the imagined dualities of “heaven or hell” and of “eternal punishment or reward” for a continuous body-mind-personality. Each manifested space is “born” with a brain but not with a mind. Return to the natural state of living under the auspices of the brain (and its intuitive, sixth sense guidance) and abandon the unnatural state of living with a chattering, restless mind (which is nothing more than a repository of their concepts that you now take to be your own). My pointers invite you to use your brain and let dissolve the mind…the corrupted consciousness. Use of a mind will result in misunderstanding and in magical, supernatural thinking and in the belief in ideas that are lies. Use of the brain would make clear the facts: dust, when returned to dust, cannot re-form into a body; a mind cannot re-group after that point you call “death”; and your personality (or multiple personalities) cannot last. Yet do not let even those words trouble you. (If truly without fear, no words can bother you since no ego-state would be present to seemingly experience an illusion of being attacked by these challenging words.) Know too that these words are not for average persons. The average person will never get beyond body identification and the always-accompanying-fixation with trying to guarantee the perservation of the physical body for eternity. So it is. In the meantime, I offer the reminder today that I offered yesterday: take no offense because at the Absolute level, there is no separation between You and Me. We are One. Any concept of “separation” is as imaginary as everything else that results from dual-mindedness, and that includes being separated into two groups after death...some going to the "good room" and others being sent to the "bad room." Please enter the silence of contemplation.

NATURAL LIVING VS. SUPERNATURAL OR UNNATURAL LIVING, Part One

Follow-up from Anonymous in California: “Two things about your response. One, you indicated that you had no fear of death. I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal. Two, you once again seem to suggest that the only way to live is to live naturally. What if I LIKE to live supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes?”

F.: “Then rock and roll, but understand that I don’t suggest that “the only way to live is to live naturally.” Most will never live naturally. Next, the notion that you’re living “supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes” is impossible. Living supernaturally or unnaturally reveal that personas are at play, and persons never live naturally. Next, persons are insane and the Teaching offers to restore sanity, but few will ever want to live sanely. So it is. That said, your comments will be addressed like all others…for entertainment value only. Ha.

For those who might be interested in being restored to sanity, I will offer for consideration that the only way to live SANELY is to live naturally. Obviously, the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is not for you right now, though in truth the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is especially for you. In From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), I point out to an advaitan protégé, during a discussion about how few humans ever reach a level of true understanding, that “the variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all.” Most are not ready and most never will be. So it is. “Not ready for what?” you might ask? Most are not ready for stability. Your claim that you like to live according to three totally contradictory approaches to life is even beyond dual-mindedness. Mental instability among persons is evidenced by their acting in an unnatural and self-destructive fashion at times and by assigning at still other times either cause or blame or credit to some magical, other-world entity. Mental instability is endorsed by few but experienced by most, and mental instability cannot be compartmentalized and allowed to affect only certain aspects of one’s existence. If one is mentally unstable, that instability will impact every aspect of a person’s relative existence. Instability in “relationships” will happen, instability in financial decision-making will happen, instability of moods and emotions will happen…in fact, instability will mark every aspect of a person’s relative existence. What other lack of readiness do your comments reveal? The lack of readiness to move away from the chaos of dual-mindedness (or assumed "triple-mindedness" in your case). While waiting for their eternal reward, persons complain about their lives now, about a hectic day, a hectic week, or a hectic life, but the fact is that persons (driven by their personas) are addicted to chaos. Boredom generates a subconscious desire to stir things up; to go and do and zoom; to get the adrenals pumping. But desire generates misery and fear. Who would endorse such? Who would defend such? Persons who subconsciously want chaos will generate chaos, and no more effective means of generating chaos exists than to be driven by an unstable mind that at times buys into magical and supernatural thinking that creates emotional intoxication; than to be driven by lies and myths and faulty programming while acting deliberately only on rare occasions when a fleeting glimpse of reality happens; and to be driven at other times to live unnaturally in ways that are self-destructive. Persons—identified with their bodies and longing for their bodies to last for eternity—are not ready to abandon duality, not ready to abandon chaos, not ready to become stable, not ready to abandon the dependency that supernatural thinking generates, and not ready to abandon the self-destructive behaviors that without doubt must be impacting every aspect of their relative existence. You are not ready to abandon your emotional intoxication, and you are not ready to abandon the false identities that persons, thinking as you are thinking, always fight to preserve. Your comment makes clear that you are willing to fight to defend the roles of “religious person” and “spiritual person” and are therefore stuck at the third level of a seven-step journey. The Understanding allows all assumed roles to dissolve, allows all thinking to end as the false mind dissolves, allows for an end to all efforts to give people new or additional beliefs, and allows for the abandonment of all concepts and conditioning after realizing that it was all made up by men who were seeking power in order to control others. Generally, those who are on the Advaita "path" are seeking something different from the mental instability and chaos and zooming that they realize is not working. They have experienced the needless suffering and want to be free of that. How can the NOW be enjoyed thoroughly if the belief is that LATER will provide the ultimate deal and the time for peace and happiness? That magical thinking makes suffering in this relative existence something to be tolerated or even accepted. Why wait for a hoped-for reward later when the bliss can happen NOW? Because persons do not realize the impact that dual-mindedness is having on their relative existence. They really think that they are comfortable with a life that is being driven by three totally contradictory philosophies and do not know that when three people try to steer one car, it will always crash in the end. So it is.

On the other hand, the clear-cut directions are available should you realize the relative impact and determine to find stability and peace by taking a seven-step “journey” to reality. Should you realize someday that trying to live in the volitility of three different approaches to life might not be ideal, then the Advaita Teaching might be seen to be for you. Why accept the Advaitan invitation to cast aside ideas and beliefs and emotional intoxication? Because the consciousness, once programmed and conditioned, is impure and thus the seat of all falsehoods. Why take the steps to be free of impure consciousness? Because it is that conditioned consciousness that is the believer of false concepts, that is the thinker of distorted ideas, that is the emoter of emotions, that is the experiencer of pain and suffering, that is the believer of all false beliefs, and that is the assumer of false identities…including your religious and spiritual roles. Not knowing one’s True Identity can only result in misery and emotional intoxication. All that having been said, take no offense because at the Absolute level, there is no separation between You and Me. We are One. Any concept of “separation” is as imaginary as everything else that results from dual-mindedness. So if you want to live out this relative existence by thinking magically at time, rationally at times, and in self-destructive ways at other times, again…rock and roll. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The response to, “I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal.”

Witnessing Hurricane Rita vs. Reacting with Emotional Intoxication to Hurricane Rita

"In reality, nothing about last week in Houston was atypical of the lives most people live while under the influence of the drama-drug."

E-mail from "Anonymous in California": "If everything is ‘relative,’ why should anything matter? Why should I care about anything, including natural or supernatural or unnatural living? What would it have mattered if Hurricane Rita had ended the manifestation called ‘Floyd’ or if it didn’t? You know: who cares?"

F.: Not I, be assured, Anonymous. ("Everything" by the way, is not relative, but I'll save that for another day.) Please consider: does the energy released from the sun care if it (a) reflects off the earth’s moon rather than (b) manifests in a plant on earth? Of course not, but if conscious-energy does manifest in a plant on earth and subsequently manifests in a food-body, it would function naturally until it unmanifests if it could avoid faulty programming and enculturation. Since You—the conscious energy—are currently manifested in a space on earth, if sane (in touch with reality) you will also function naturally until the consciousness unmanifests. If, on the other hand, you don’t behave sanely and naturally because of faulty programming, so it is. For years, the space called ‘Floyd’ lived unnaturally and lived supernaturally, so natural living resulted after having tried all three and after finding that the first two produced desires, fears and emotional intoxication. Natural living, conversely, preempts all of those and allows for peace and calm as a result of being stabilized in reality. For those addicted to chaos, peace and calm are the last thing they desire. They are programmed to prefer instability. So it is. It so happens that the space called ‘floyd’ now enjoys a relative existence that is free of emotional intoxication and chaos, eliminated via realization. You mentioned Hurricane Rita, so maybe you have seen what persons in this south Texas area experienced with Rita: two days before landfall, I watched a fist-fight break out at the pumps at a Chevron station. Inside, I watched a man and woman fight over the last bag of ice in the freezer. (She "won.") You may have seen some three million people experiencing the frustration and anger of averaging two miles an hour on the freeways leading out of Houston. That was because we were originally in the bull’s eye of the predicted path. Prior to realization, I’d have been in the fist-fight and the bag-of-ice-fight and I’ve have been sitting idle but angry in the ninety-mile-long line of traffic on the interstate. In 1983, prior to realization, "Floyd" experienced Hurricane Alicia and the extensive damage to home and property. Emotionally-intoxicated persons—when they hear someone in the theater yell “Fire!”—will panic and race for the exits…trampling many in the rush or being trampled themselves. The realized will calmly wait, rather than react, and after the dust clears they will calmly walk out over the strewn bodies. As I sat by and watched neighbors pack their cars with their "valuables" and then hurry off to wait, I knew two other possibilities existed: (1) the course of Rita could change its path and I could stay put and avoid the panic and emotional intoxication and anger and frustration and chaos of the evacuees, or (2) the path would continue toward Galveston and Houston and then toward the lake where I live and I would cruise away along the open highways just before the storm arrived. My car would not stall from over-heating or run out of gas while idling. Either way, I would not—and in the end, did not—experience the storm, as all persons certainly did. Yes, 65-m.p.h. winds rocked the home. Yes, the over-sized sliding doors had to be opened at 3 AM to prevent the suction from pulling them out of their tracks. Yes, the towels had to be manned in order to catch the rain that began to blow onto the wooden floors as a result of having to leave the doors ajar for a time. But no "I" experienced the storm. Realization and witnessing do not prevent sane and sound steps from happening; rather, realization and witnessing alone allow sane and sound steps to happen. Ultimately, though, the truth is pointed to in your question, “Who cares?” The bottom line for Me was, and is, this: as long as I Am manifested in this space, I enjoy this relative existence far more the way it happened during Rita as opposed to the way it happened in the past for "Floyd" and as opposed to the way it was experienced by the millions of persons around Me last week. In reality, nothing about last week in Houston was atypical of the lives most people live while under the influence of the drama-drug: 95% live lives of anxious desperation, reacting and over-reacting as a result of being driven by body identification and personas. They are actors on stage who are so consumed by their play-acting that they have come to believe that their drama and their assumed personas are "the real." Conversely, 5% witness whatever happens or not, and take whatever steps are taken or not, from a rational state of calm. So it is. Which group are you fixated in? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #54 from Volume One will be posted:

#54 [modified]

"Sadly, he ignored her reality and fell in love with her image, an image which mirrored a reflection of him at the time; the same proved true of her." (p. 25, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: How many times have you seen something or someone and formed an impression? How many times did that impression prove to be a lie, once you studied that thing or person more closely? How much of what you see every day is really nothing more than an image and is nothing close to what is real? To grasp this is fundamental to making progress through all seven steps to reality. If you have not already, will you try now to grasp it? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #50 from Volume One will be posted:

#50 [modified]

Just because one might know does not require that one must therefore teach. “Understand rather than be understood,” St. Francis wrote. (p. 24, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)

Consideration: If you saw an adult man freak out when a fly flew past his ear, wouldn’t you find that strange? Might you even judge him for his silly behavior? But what if you understood his action and its subconscious origins? What if you knew that he behaves that way because forty years before as a child he was stung on the head by several dozen wasps, and when he hears that buzzing it triggers a memory of the pain and that is what he is reacting to, not to a fly? Would you feel differently about him and what you saw...if you understood? Do you have a clue what is in the mind or body of "others" that you might be tending to judge? Do they have a clue about what might be driving them? Do you have a clue of all the influences that are driving you? If you took time to understand, would you feel differently about that person? About yourself? About Your SELF? Would you consider the wide variety of causes that contribute to others’ behaviors? How about the limitless causes that contribute to your behaviors? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #49 from Volume One will be posted:

#49 [modified]

Once, when asked if he believed life existed on other planets, he shared G. B. Shaw’s answer, which he took to be the truth: “Of course there’s life on other planets—they’re using earth as their insane asylum.” (p. 24, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: How many times a day do you shout or think, “He’s freakin’ nuts!” or, “She’s totally crazy!” You’re probably right, but you cannot change them. This culture has done what it does and you cannot undo a culture-wide effect; however, you can take actions that can undo the personal effects that the culture has had on you. Have you ever stopped to consider that all the ideas and emotions and beliefs that you were given might be wrong…might, in fact, be at the very heart of the insanity that dominates this culture? Would you be willing to revisit your ideas and see where they came from and see if it is logical and sane to hold onto those old ideas that have been handed down from past generations? The people who have handed down the ideas and beliefs that drive persons were poorly educated and filled with superstitious or magical explanations for totally natural occurrences in this universe. Does it make any sense for anyone to cling to old superstitious or magical or supernatural explanations for things when more recent facts and pure reason discount all those old ideas and beliefs and explanations? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #48 from Volume One will be posted:

#48

"How many, he wondered, sleepwalk through life, imagining they are awake? He certainly had that experience for many years of his life." (p. 23, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: She’s talking on a cell phone while racing along the freeway at 70 mph. He’s passing her at 80 mph as he reads a map opened up across his steering wheel. She’s bumping into things in the house, backing into things in the parking lot, and losing or dropping things all along the way. He’s saying things he heard that he never even stopped to evaluate to see if they even make sense. She’s operating the register at the store but hit a wrong key and now you’re waiting for a manager to answer the phone call for help. They are all racing through life on auto-pilot, but the auto-pilot is obviously not functioning properly and they are crashing. People are walking in their sleep, talking in their sleep, working in their sleep, and driving in their sleep. They cannot hear a sane thought because of the chatter of a thousand monkeys in their head. Part of the solution you're involved with now: developing the habit of being still so that everything in life is not a quick, instantaneous reaction. Thoreau went to the woods to “live deliberately.” What did he mean? He meant that everything he did, he did deliberately and not by accident. How is your accident frequency rate? Do you feel scattered? Shattered? Is it possible that this series of meditative actions that you are taking might help? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #44 from Volume One will be posted:

#44

Jim, unlike Donna, had not divorced, failing to heed the counsel offered by friends, relatives, and even his personal therapist. He lived a clandestine life, sleeping with the enemy, drinking from a poison-laced cup, and having no clue at all of the advancement of the death of his spirit, closing in at an accelerating speed. Her bitter tea was killing his chi, and he didn’t have a clue. (p. 23, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: A life-energy force circulates through all living organisms. Electrical impulses course throughout your frame. Electrical impulses fire off at the synapses in your brain as evidence of the electrical-energy-nature of consciousness. Ideas galore came to me at one point—ideas for meditative writings, for fictional romance and mysteries, for self-help books, for personal growth books, for books on improving finances, but I was in an environment where the flow of my chi was being restricted. And most importantly, I did not hate a job or a relationship; instead, I had done the same thing for so many years that I was dying inside of boredom and didn’t even know it. Boredom can be depressing, and feeling depressed blocks the flow of positive energy. “Spiritual energy” is merely the energy which allows us to be in “healthy spirit.” Moving away from that which was killing the chi allowed the positive energy to fill the empty space inside that had been eroded away by waves of boredom. The creative juices began to flow. Do you need to move away from something? Do you need to move toward something? How’s your chi? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #38 from Volume One will be posted:

#38

Certainly, he represented only a fraction of what-was-not-approved-of overall: the neighbors’ too infrequent mowing of their lawns; drivers; people with bad morals; abortion clinics; Madonna (the new one); women in tennis skirts; liberal universities; liberal thinkers; democrats; over-educated people; non-conformists; noise, especially noisy birds, noisy frogs, noisy dogs, noisy children, noisy cars, noisy neighbors…. (p. 21, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Is it possible that some people who seem to want merely to protect their space, their little corner of the world, are really coming from a place of ego and judgment? Is it possible that ego always wants to separate and criticize? Is it possible that ego always draws battle lines behind which a “we-vs.-they” mentality thrives? Is it possible that people so bothered by noises or inconveniences have a level of irritability that is rooted in something far deeper than the surface things they complain about? What could actually be at the root of such irritability? What might the antidote for that root-cause be? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #35 from Volume One will be posted:

#35

…They gave to him the freedom to retire early and to live comfortably enough . . . “enough” in his mind now being made up of “less” rather than “more.” (p. 21, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: How much is enough? In this culture, we have an opportunity to shift through five stages. Most will never even reach the third stage. The first stage is the programming stage where we are trained to accumulate (birth-20). The next stage occurs as we go forth under the influence of that programming and try to accumulate (ages 20-40). Most seem to go to the grave in that stage. Others might enter into the third stage of Self-Inquiry, asking, “Who Am I, Really? Or “What is this all about?” As they find answers and come to know what is Real, they enter stage four and de-accumulate. They unload their burden of all the stuff accumulated and all the costs of hanging onto it and maintaining it. Then, they can enter into the fifth stage, the Living AS IF Stage. They can live AS IF any of this is real or important, but they know it’s not. Their days are spent in the flow…unencumbered, and thus free. What stage are you in? Would you like to shift? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #33 from Volume One will be posted:

#33 [modified]

"How many years had he searched for the key that would open his mind, release ‘them’ and their beliefs once and for all, and thus experience freedom from his chattering brain? How much energy had he expended? How many miles had he traveled? He tired even thinking about it, like a wayfarer wandering a desert for decades and still nowhere yet near any particular destination." (p. 20, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: I knew a person who had to take a tour of the house to find the keys to the car before almost every trip. More often than not, the keys were found on her person. In another case, a biologist once spent his day from 8 in the morning until past 7 in the evening in a field, chasing a particularly rare and nimble butterfly. Totally unsuccessful and completely exhausted at the end of the day, he collapsed onto the ground, his net falling from his hands. His head fell between his legs. Suddenly, he turned and looked on his shoulder to see that the butterfly had landed there. The keys were right there. The butterfly was right there. Is there something you are chasing, something that you are working so hard to try to get, that it is leaving you exhausted? Is it possible that you really already have everything you need? Is it possible that it is right there, already? Vedanta means "beyond the texts" and invites the student to end looking outside and to find the truth that is right there...within. Advaita means "not two." There are not two powers, one located "out there somewhere" and the one located within. Only the inner resource has any credibility, and that is only for the duration of this manifestation. No outer resource exists. The inner resource is available to those who complete a seven-step "journey." Is it possible that the final thing you need is to merely see the fact that you need nothing more? Is it possible that whatever else you might require is already as close as the butterfly on that shoulder? Spiritual seekers can become spiritual workaholics, making great effort to find that which is already within. Are you exhausted from trying to tap into all those “outer resources” you been told about? Are you worn out from seeking power, and trying to use power, in order to control? Do you know the ease and comfort of tapping into the only resource that should be given any credibility, namely, the inner resource--the awareness of which comes after taking the seven steps to Reality? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #32 from Volume One will be posted:

#32

So a Man-In-A-Robe had proclaimed to Kirk, “Kirk, I now pronounce that you are ‘husband,’” and Kirk said, “OK,” and assumed the role and acted the role; then another Man-In-A-Robe proclaimed to Kirk, “Kirk, I now pronounce that you are ‘not husband,’” and Kirk said, “OK” and assumed that role and acted the role. Trapped by their labels, constricted by their beliefs, he was. And as long as Kirk played their game and assumed their roles, his imprisonment within his own mind would continue while allowing them the freedom to come and go through his thoughts as they pleased. (p. 20, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Are you allowing a culture to tell you how to live? Are you allowing a culture to convince you to live supernaturally or unnaturally rather than naturally? Is the way humans have lived for the last 5000 years natural, or would the way that humans lived for 14 million years prior to the last 5000 years be the way that was truly natural? Humankind lived millions of years without roles or ego-states or false personas before a group of men began defining roles and prescribing the behavior that each person playing those roles should follow. For today’s exercise, please begin with pen and paper in hand. List all of the roles that you play in your life, such as student, child, adult, spouse, parent, employee, shopper, owner, helper, contributor, member, etc. Are those “who you are,” or are those more about “what you do”? If so, then would you set aside those assumed identities and then answer, “What Are You, Really? Who Are You, Really?” (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #31 from Volume One will be posted:

#31 [modified]

"The limbs of the trees swayed gracefully, the screaming ducks and a screaming boy raced wildly, but the heron stood firm and tranquil amidst it all. 'Living peacefully in the eye of the hurricane,' Kirk thought." (p. 20, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: When a hurricane swept across southern Texas in 1983, I noticed the trees in my yard began leaning in one direction. I walked outside when the storm seemed to have passed, but the respite was brief. When the winds came again, the trees moved upright at first and then began to lean in the opposite direction. I realized that I had been standing in the eye of the hurricane. In such a storm, the eye is a relatively small place in comparison to all the rest of the affected area surrounding it. To find the eye among the vast storm surrounding it is not easy in the relative world, but it can happen. Knowing that it's possible to shift away from the storms of this life and to stand in that place of peace that few occupy...might that encourage you to seek that spot? What would the remainder of the relative existence be like to set up "residence" there? Residence there can only be set up by taking all seven steps required for realization. After taking those seven steps, persons—the personas—dissolve. The dualities of “good” and “bad” and "right" and “wrong” (which dominate persons and which drive all illusions of separation) dissolve. Preoccupation with the continuity of the body-mind-personality disappears. All roles—even religious and spiritual personas—are transitioned as one returns to the purer consciousness which is like that of a child in ignorance. Freed of the influence of the last of the ego-states to go, persons will become free of all roles and all of the game-playing that go with them. Even “The Witness” is transitioned when the “True SELF” is known and then Pure Witnessing of the Oneness is seen. "Atonement" is understood to be nothing more than an awareness of the "at-one-ment." Then, the beingness and the non-beingness are understood, the Absolute is known, the functioning of the totality is understood, and the peaceful AS IF living manifests. That allows the remainder of the relative existence to happen in the calm eye of the storm. Having seen the lies and having found the truthful answer to the question, "Who Am I?" you will never fool yourself again and You will never be fooled by anyone ever again. Does that sound like something worth taking seven steps in order to find? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW AND NEXT WEEK: The winding roads and open vistas of the Hill Country are calling my motorcycle, so I suppose I'll go along for the ride. I’ll be pre-posting the entries on the site, so please check the dates to find the reading for each particular day in the upcoming week.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #30 from Volume One will be posted:

#30 [modified]

"As the heron flew, Kirk noticed that each movement of his wings seemed to produce far more forward motion and lift than their gentle and graceful flapping would have figured to provide. And just as gently did they brake the narrow body to a halt, allowing it to lower itself delicately onto the fine point at the top of its targeted pole." (p. 19, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: The observant can witness that life in the relative existence happens for the realized just as it happens with that heron. Have you noticed that some seem to move along farther with less effort than some who get nowhere in spite of all their endeavors? Does your perspective about this relative existence place you in the group that flows along effortlessly? Have you The Understanding that has stabilized you among the realized that move farther along more easily than others who are exerting themselves and lacking ease and comfort? Have you "put on the brakes" as the heron did, slowed down the pace, and still accomplished all that need be accomplished? If so, then realization has happened. If not, would you be willing to take the steps that can place you with that group of people who exert themselves less? How might you reach that state if you are not in it now? Are you aware that the seven steps to reality, as presented in From the I to the Absolute, must all be completed for realization to happen? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in thequiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #21 from Volume One will be posted:

#21

"Beyond that, both practiced merely being, with only an occasional break for doing." (p. 17, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: In a relative world where most must work a full week in order to meet expenses, is enjoying the beingness and avoiding the doingness even a remote possibility? “Isn’t that just a pipe dream?” some ask. Certainly there are things that seemingly must be "done." Goethe suggested that happiness comes not from doing the things people like to do but from loving the things they have to do. That having been said about persons, it's irrelevant to the realized. With the realized, all merely happens from a state of beingness. At the end of a career, "I" felt unhappy in a job that "I" was trying to do. Interference with the efforts came in multiple ways throughout the day that prevented "my" doing "my" job the way "I" believed it should be done. After realization, a shift in perspective occurred and the job simply began to happen...or not...and that was witnessed from a state of peace with no attachment to outcome, with no effort to control, and with no desire for more to power to be able to control. With no realization, life is chaotic as personas elevate their "selves" to super status and stay frustrated over unmet desires and nagging fears. For example, if one accepts the role of “Teacher” as an identity, then the next progression of an ego-state identity is to elevate that "self" immediately to the status of “Super Teacher.” And what does “Super Teacher” need to exist? Super Students. Let a few students mess with the wonderful lesson so diligently prepared by Super Teacher—let them interfere with what The Teacher is trying to do to exist—and a war will break out in the classroom. But if one is not working at teaching but merely shows up and allows teaching to happen, then from that state of beingness, peace prevails. One is not coming at tasks from a state-of-being-something that is intent on doing something. And on the days when hundreds of interruptions come at a job site, if one is merely being, then frustration does not manifest. Being content with “letting happen what happens...or not,” the realized feel fine if teaching happens or even if teaching doesn’t happen as a result of things that cannot be controlled. Wouldn't more peace have to result when all functioning happens from a position of beingness rather than doingness? Even if it seems impossible, would you consider that since it has happened for others that it might be possible that it could happen for you? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #20 from Volume One will be posted:

#20

"They only took the next natural action based on whatever the world might present before them, both merely acting as if—as if any of this is real or important." (p. 17, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: What happens to those who realize What They Really Are? Do they become philosophers or hummers or trance-seekers, sitting in special robes on special blankets, surrounded by special bells and special crystal? Do they live out the remainder of the manifestation with their heads in the clouds? Do they lose touch with reality and go off to starve in the woods? Not those who reach the highest level of sanity, which is simply the seeing of reality. They live AS IF, AS IF any of this is real or important, AS IF any of this really matters in the long run. With that new perspective, the trivial does not become the colossal; nor does the totally insignificant become the hugely significant. Many who live in the shadows of the valleys do so because they made the mountains surrounding them out of molehills. Those who see Reality live very much in touch with the trappings of this existence while remaining absolutely free of being jerked about mentally or emotionally by the vicissitudes of nature and humanity. They are not jerked around by the assigning of cause or blame for each and every happening to a concept dreamed up by men. For You, is life happening AS IF...or otherwise? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

DAILY MEDITATION: Power and Control...or Bliss?

The illusion of having "power now" can be taken to be real, but only the "bliss of now" can actually happen.

In yesterday's post, an excerpt from the SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One referred to the master and secondary addictions of persons: the desire to control and therefore the desire to have the power to accomplish that control. Such a mindset gives desirability to the illusion of the "power of now." Is it possible, however, that what "the Now" really offers is not power but is the bliss that so many seek? Consider three examples. A man fights all week with the boss and on the way to a party on Friday night is preoccupied with the fight and with the troubling prospect of a future without employment. His mind is toggling between the fight in the past and a bleak, imagined future. A few drinks later, he's forgotten the past and the future and is firmly fixed in the moment. That same Friday, two food addicts are complaining in the restaurant about their week and about the slow service. When the food arrives, silence dominates except for the near-erotic sounds that accompany their tasting of the food. Another couple, worn out from their trying week, opt to spend their Friday evening in bed, having sex and ultimately enjoying their synchronized orgasms. What do those people have in common? All had racing, variable minds that were focusing on negatives in "the past" or on potential negatives in "their futures." But at a point, the "bliss of now" happened for each. Their various actions stopped their variable minds, the past and future were ignored, and they were truly brought to the now, to the present moment. Alcohol did the trick for the man at the party. Savory food did it for two others. At the moment of their simultaneous orgasms, the other couple had no past, no future, and were not even mindful (mind-full) of the present. All were out of their minds, so they were completely absorbed into the moment. That Present Moment, that Eternal Now, happens only when the mind stops once and for all. All five people in the examples had problems on their minds, and all wished for some power to control their situations that made them feel enslaved and powerless. But when they were drawn completely into the present moment, they knew no problem so they had no desire for power or control. They knew the bliss as they lost a sense even of time. In that "no time" place, even a sense of "now" disappeared. The power and control that persons seek shall never be real for it cannot be permanent. The fixations with the illusions of past and future are obviously never real. Even the sense of "now" fades away as the variable mind fades away. All addictions are intended to create a change that allows persons to escape from the past and from the future and to experience happiness now. Addictions fail since they provide a short-term fix. The real fix is realization. The thinking mind is burned away with the light of awareness, and in the absence of the thinking mind, the bliss happens. It need not happen as rarely as an alcoholic high, as infrequently as the opportunity to taste a gourmet's preparation, as occasionally as simultaneous orgasms. It can happen coutinuously when persons realize and are finally, once and for all, out of their minds. "Is realization about the abandonment of the pleasures of wine, food, and sex?" Hardly. It is about abandoning illusions. It is about abandonment of the frustrating instabilities and the constant shiftings of the false mind. It is about finding a permanent "solution" to what ails persons. Are you settling for temporary respites? Are you willing to take all seven of the steps outlined earlier in From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) in order to fixate in that state of bliss? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #13 from Volume One will be posted:

#13[modified]

"His upper-floor condo, perched at the highest point on this piece of lakeside land, also allowed him each morning to look from a back window of the master bedroom at the harbor and lake below, at the skies above, and at the distant forest in between those two." (p. 16, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Do you pay attention to what is happening "in nature?" Many try to live supernaturally, trying to control everything in life by manipulating, or tapping into, a power. Operating within that belief system, persons think they can control whether it rains or not; some think they can improve their financial conditions by appealing to a power rather than working; in fact, persons have imagined for thousands of years that they can manipulate power in order to control their world and everyone and everything in it. The master addiction of persons is an addiction to the desire to control—a desire rooted in fears. The secondary addiction is a desire for power in order to be able to control. All misery among persons is rooted in desires or fears which drive them to seek something supernatural to provide what they desire and to alleviate what they fear. Believing that their supernatural power comes through at some times but not at all times, more fear is triggered by the nagging inconsistency. That is why supernatural living is marked with the instability of such dualities as being high and low, as having faith and doubt, as having happiness and misery. Frustrated, many others try to live unnaturally, doing to others and themselves things that are most unnatural in their effort to escape the sensations of emotional intoxication and discontentment and restlessness that accompany inconsistency and insanity. Only the realized live naturally, and examples of natural living are now mostly limited to the non-human things observable in "nature." If you have ever watched a deer being startled while feeding in a clearing, you have seen a perfect example of natural living. After being disturbed, the deer will move to the safety of another area and will continue feeding within minutes. It will hold no grudge; it will not attack a human for getting into its space; it will not gather other deer and fight you to the death over land; it will not stay upset for the rest of a day or the rest of a lifetime because of unmet desires or lingering fears; it will not egotistically try to establish dominion over all others or over their land by killing thousands or millions of "others." Can you think of times when you have waited for supernatural intervention to solve a problem that you could have addressed on your own, resulting in spiritual intoxication and immobilization? What was the cost of waiting rather than taking action? Has supernatural living resulted in the magical thinking that says that hurricanes are not natural events but are "instruments of punishment being used by an angry entity"? Are there things you really could do for yourself that you haven’t because you've been waiting for something supernatural to do it for you? Are there things you did for yourself that you credited to something supernatural? Can you think of times when you have behaved unnaturally out of the frustration of unmet desires or lingering fears, harming yourself physically with substances or with self-destructive behaviors? What was the cost? Is it possible that living naturally might be the only sane way to function in the relative existence? Is it possible that living naturally and being sane is the way to be in touch with "the great reality"? Could you begin living more naturally in the fashion of non-thinking life-forms? (from SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One) Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #7 from Volume One will be posted:

#7

[Regarding the Advaita "journey"]: Finally, there is no counsel to seek, no dues to pay, no organizations or groups to join. You do not belong to anything, thus You are free. Living should not be something one must ‘work at.’ (p. 261, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Have you ever weighed the power of the words used to condition people? Have you recognized how words have the power to generate a thought-life? Have you ever considered the benefit that you might gain from pausing long enough to really examine what is being said and what those words reveal? How often do persons simply repeat what they hear, ignoring the meaning behind their words? For example, let’s consider the word “belong.” What do you think the effect might be if you say you belong to this or you belong to that? That you belong to this person or you belong to that person? That you belong to this group or that you belong to that organization? Is it possible that heightened awareness of words being used could reveal their full impact? Might that inspire a "journey" to become free of the effects of the concepts and beliefs being expressed via words? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #6 from Volume One will be posted:

#6

“…This perfect couple with their perfect view overlooking the park.” (p. 12, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Have you ever experienced the hurt that accompanies the breaking of a relationship, [as most persons are guaranteed to experience]? Do you think that your pain might have been greater because you thought that another person was “perfect” for you and because you believed that the two of you were in a “perfect place” during your time together? Looking back at all the details of that relationship, was it actually perfect? Were you in a perfect place? Looking back now, was the loss actually as great as you imagined? Today, we have these moments to consider the power of perception. Would you be willing to look at your perceptions in all areas, to truly study objectively your ideas and emotions and beliefs? Do you think that a shift in perspective might free your mind and body of a pain that is stored there, one that was based in not-totally-accurate perceptions because of certain ideas or emotions or beliefs you were given by others in the past? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

A SITE VISITOR’S AWAKENING: Consciousness Being Purified

[We will return to the meditations being posted, but we pause again today to allow the forum to function. The following message was received recently from Richard in Kalamazoo MI, USA who began in May to consider the pointers in the postings on this site. He subsequently gave permission for us to share his comments]

Richard: As I sit in a cemetery and observe all the foolishness of acreage wasted on the illusions of body, I am reminded of a mind/body that my false sense of self called "wife." Her body quit functioning a year and a half ago. At that time, I knew what was left behind but had a magical belief about where "she" was now. Yet, her dogs knew. I thought they would lie beside her and mourn; instead, they took one sniff, realized what was not there, and ignored the body from that point on. At the funeral planning, I took no part in the where on this planet her remains would be deposited. Yes, even at that time I knew it didn't matter, but it was important to her daughter that she be placed next to a “father” in Iowa, 1000 miles away. I hadn't the energy to debate, so I paid for it. I have yet to visit that site, and may or may not. As "husband" refused to die, the self became depressed and lethargic to the point of spending each day prone on the couch, trying to quiet the restless scanning of the mind. Two months at a trauma recovery center helped to the degree that I was again a "functioning human being.” This teaching came just in time. "Spiritual man" was in line for another roller coaster ride, totally unaware that he didn't even exist. Now, I observe my friends who all have a strong sense of mind identity and spirit identity and who speak and behave from that point. I am experiencing a feeling of peace, and yet aloneness here and now. Duality seems to be magnified, as I seem to be alone in this [advaita] "journey." I am seeing the false in their monologues and—no longer being a "spiritual guru"—I have little or nothing to say when it comes my turn to speak. I have not thought of the mind/body Diane in weeks now, and upon realization of this, I felt a twinge of guilt, for what the mind made up was that I was not honoring her memory. Advaita "Meditation Part Three" [August 30th posting] and "Meditation Part Four" [August 31st posting] came online within days and my resistance to new ideas dropped. I no longer am "spiritual guru." I read the postings and just sat in contemplation. I have found that I had tried to hold onto "their" old ideas but the result was nil. Today, an "old idea" I define as one I held prior to "now." A promise was made to me in a 12-step program, which has only come true with the Advaitic teaching. I have ceased fighting. Thx, Rich

F.: You mirrored a portion of my sleepwalking experiences exactly. Formerly, I was a "husband" who also "lost" wife. From that ego-state, I, too, felt that the greater the degree of pain and misery that I could display, the greater I would be demonstrating the degree of love I had and the degree of hurt that I was suffering. Some advised me to love her forever. Others advised that I should be true to my inner emotions and hate her forever. The Advaita understanding provided a third alternative: complete the Advaita "journey" to realization and a position of neutrality will manifest. So it has...and can with all who follow the path to the end. Next, you describe accompanying sensations as former identities are dissolving. As old identities that seemed to create a sense of oneness fade away, a new opportunity is presented: the opportunity to know the True Oneness and allow the peace of that sense of At-one-ment to replace any past notion of oneness that is now seen to have been an illusion, based in the false personas being played out in a group. The members are playing their roles and repeating their dialogue according to script, and now you have the opportunity to witness that without judgment or attachment or reaction. Finally, if you read “Meditation Part Eight” [September 4th], any remorse over a newly-felt sense of "aloneness" might fade. Emotional intoxication is based in illusory personas, but feelings can be witnessed as they rise and fall. To repress feelings is as unhealthy in the relative existence as experiencing emotional intoxication. Now, to the reference to feeling the “aloneness.” The requirement to walk the path alone for a time should be clear. Why? Because most persons will never walk the path. To wait for others to join you for a walk together will likely prevent any journey from ever beginning. Feel whatever is felt until the sense of aloneness evolves into a sense of al-one-ness. Feel what must be felt and witness what must be witnessed until the last illusion-generated concept disappears. At that instant, emotional intoxication shall also disappear, never to return again, and the accompanying sense of peace will be...enough. Thx for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

MAGICAL THINKING: An Observation from a Site Visitor

[A break from posting excerpts from the SELF-Transformation Meditation Guides will be taken in order to respond to an e-mail from Marco B. of Rome, Italy, visiting in New York]

Marco: Thank yu for site. I visit freinds in New york go back to Roma next week. Now I unnerstand magical thinking you writ about…I m see in news that someoner called “miracle” that Jesus statue not hit by trees. Before I begin to read site, I believe same, not now. Folle. [Translation: folly or insanity?] Marco B.

F: Thanks for the note, Marco. I take it that you’re referring to the news reports that are showing a statue behind the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana—a sculpture of Jesus with arms raised, surrounded now by limbs of trees that fell around the figure but that didn't strike it directly during Hurricane Katrina. I am going to post your comments because they're relevant to recent entries about the “magical thinking” that comes with supernatural, rather than natural, living. Magical thinking can credit a micro-managing, other-world entity with caring enough about a statue to take charge of falling trees to assure they do not harm a piece of granite while at the same time ignoring the fact that the same entity didn’t interfere to prevent falling trees from killing humans during the same storm or to prevent levees from breaching and killing thousands and leaving millions homeless. In the book Spiritual Sobriety: Recovering What Religions Lost, a similar example is offered in a quote taken from an Advaita-themed novel: He marveled as his wife concluded that a little girl who fell into a flooded river, eventually rescued a mile downstream, was “saved by the Hand of God that pushed her to shore.” The look she gave Kirk amounted to a look wishing to kill when he inquired, “Well, where was ‘His’ hand when she fell in? If ‘He’s’ gonna interfere with ‘His’ hand, why not interfere to prevent her falling into the water in the first place? You know, push her back rather than push her out a mile downstream. [from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders] That would be a "miracle." Giant hands appearing that prevented water from spilling forth through breaks in a levee would be a "miracle." On the journey, students such as you who are beginning to question the faulty programming and to challenge generally-held beliefs can look at such examples and use them as evidence of the magical thinking that you are beginning to be free of. Later, you’ll witness what you called “folle/folly” and it won’t even register in the purified consciousness long enough to write an e-mail about it. Please advise when that happens. Thanks again for writing. For today, it might be asked, "Do any vestiges of magical thinking remain that have not yet been purged? How much of the seven-step path to the 'no-idea, no-concept, no-emotional intoxication, no-belief, no-magical thinking reality' has been traveled?" Please enter the silence of contemplation.

A subsequent observation was received this morning from Marie in LA, a site visitor who read today's post and sent her questions. Since this site is intended to be a forum, her observations shall be added:

Marie: Could the use of the term "miracle" to label trees missing a statue also reveal the level of narcissism that is common among persons who take an ego-state as an identity? Doesn't the belief that an icon can have any significance at all reveal the duality of the image vs. reality dilemma that is inherent in magical thinking which always gives more credence to an image than to the real?

F.: Yes. In the inverted "world of duality," intelligence is anathema, muddled thinking...the friend; reality is spurned, the dream...embraced. So it is. Thanks for your observations.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan reader is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #5 from Volume One will be posted:

#5

‘Perfect’ means ‘whole’ or ‘complete,’ so that perfect freedom is just complete freedom, freedom from ALL dependencies—including dependency on celestial entities or mystical teachings or mythical holdovers from ignorant, superstitious times in the past. (p. 261, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Suppose one has dependencies on things of this world or on things that could be labeled “other-worldly.” If you still do not feel “whole” or “complete” in spite of all those dependencies and in spite of all the months or years of depending on other things, you might be blaming yourself for “not working hard enough” or “not working the deal with enough faith.” Would you have the courage to consider that you have worked hard enough and that you have had enough faith and that there are actually some entirely different steps you could take? Would you have the courage to consider another alternative? When one man told me that he was convinced that God would not do for him what he could do for himself, I noted that my father also loved me enough that he wanted me to feel complete and whole and independent. He also encouraged me to go forth and use the skills I had and to become totally independent rather than develop a dependency on him. Are there some things or people that you have been depending on? Have you calculated the costs of dependency—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, or in other ways? What would your life look like to you if you did all the things for yourself that you could do…without dependency? Have you ever stopped to truly consider all of the amazing things you could do for yourself? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 7 September 2005]