From a site visitor: “You wrote that realization is not about feeling ‘at one’ with all people/persons since they are nothing more than mirages anyway. I believe that a true jnani’s primary message is the message of Love.”
F.: First, what is a “true jnani”? Next, what is “Love”? When that concept called "love" was discussed on this site during the last days of October ‘05 (and completed in December ’05 after a hiatus following an accident) site visitor Ross in Colorado noted that his suffering had diminished simply by finding out all that love is not, even while not yet knowing what “love” is. Most Advaitans know that even if proteges never know all the truth of the Functioning of the Totality of the Universe, their suffering in the relative existence will be reduced if they can at least see all of the learned ignorance that they have been taught and stop being fooled. To suggest that you (a persona) can love all other personas shows that your current mindset parallels the one referenced yesterday, so you also may as well drive the long roads of the Southwest on a hot day and say you feel at one with the mirages and love the mirages. You may as well claim that you have first-hand knowledge which proves that mirages actually love other mirages. See the duality of the subject-object position you are advocating: “I” (this “loving” self) proclaim that I "love others" (duality) and that “I” feel as if “I” and “they” are one. See the contradiction of speaking of "I and they as one." If you knew You and the True Oneness, no talk of “true jnanis” or of being “at one with persons” or “loving all others” could happen.
See, also, that for personas, the only love is the love-to-be-this or the love-to-be-that. Even when most persons exclaim, “I don’t even know who I am anymore,” they do not begin the search for Self. They merely work to create new false identities. Persons cannot truly love anyone except their false selves, have never been loved by the persons they are “in relationships with,” and will actually hate those who awake and abandon their belief in false personas. Persons delude themselves into believing that they are “getting love” and “giving love” when they are only playing the games that contribute to supporting their false identities, to enhancing their false images, and to meeting their perceived needs. They live on an imaginary stage in their relative existence where they play one role after another. Soon, they have played the roles so much that they can do it in their sleep…so they do. Eventually, they will have played the roles so much, and will have become so bored with their whole act, that they are lulled to sleep and are thus unaware of the degree of boredom and the degree of unhappiness that they are suffering.
Two properties of corrupted consciousness are that (1) it wants to continue to suffer because it wants to cling to the false identities that produce suffering and (2) it will deny it is suffering. In a recent poll in the U.S., persons claimed that they were either “very happy” or “happy for the most part.” That claim is made despite research showing the citizenry here suffers the highest depression rate on the planet. Further study of the poll reveals that 49% of those claiming to be happy make over $100,000 per year while 25% of those admitting to being unhappy make less than $30,000 per year. So what were the poll respondents mistaking “happiness” for?
F.: First, what is a “true jnani”? Next, what is “Love”? When that concept called "love" was discussed on this site during the last days of October ‘05 (and completed in December ’05 after a hiatus following an accident) site visitor Ross in Colorado noted that his suffering had diminished simply by finding out all that love is not, even while not yet knowing what “love” is. Most Advaitans know that even if proteges never know all the truth of the Functioning of the Totality of the Universe, their suffering in the relative existence will be reduced if they can at least see all of the learned ignorance that they have been taught and stop being fooled. To suggest that you (a persona) can love all other personas shows that your current mindset parallels the one referenced yesterday, so you also may as well drive the long roads of the Southwest on a hot day and say you feel at one with the mirages and love the mirages. You may as well claim that you have first-hand knowledge which proves that mirages actually love other mirages. See the duality of the subject-object position you are advocating: “I” (this “loving” self) proclaim that I "love others" (duality) and that “I” feel as if “I” and “they” are one. See the contradiction of speaking of "I and they as one." If you knew You and the True Oneness, no talk of “true jnanis” or of being “at one with persons” or “loving all others” could happen.
See, also, that for personas, the only love is the love-to-be-this or the love-to-be-that. Even when most persons exclaim, “I don’t even know who I am anymore,” they do not begin the search for Self. They merely work to create new false identities. Persons cannot truly love anyone except their false selves, have never been loved by the persons they are “in relationships with,” and will actually hate those who awake and abandon their belief in false personas. Persons delude themselves into believing that they are “getting love” and “giving love” when they are only playing the games that contribute to supporting their false identities, to enhancing their false images, and to meeting their perceived needs. They live on an imaginary stage in their relative existence where they play one role after another. Soon, they have played the roles so much that they can do it in their sleep…so they do. Eventually, they will have played the roles so much, and will have become so bored with their whole act, that they are lulled to sleep and are thus unaware of the degree of boredom and the degree of unhappiness that they are suffering.
Two properties of corrupted consciousness are that (1) it wants to continue to suffer because it wants to cling to the false identities that produce suffering and (2) it will deny it is suffering. In a recent poll in the U.S., persons claimed that they were either “very happy” or “happy for the most part.” That claim is made despite research showing the citizenry here suffers the highest depression rate on the planet. Further study of the poll reveals that 49% of those claiming to be happy make over $100,000 per year while 25% of those admitting to being unhappy make less than $30,000 per year. So what were the poll respondents mistaking “happiness” for?
I speak of universal consciousness while you speak, via corrupted consciousness, of a conceptual world. Nothing in the conceptual world is true, including “true love” or a “true jnani.” I am not in the world, and neither are You. As for “you,” (the false you or self or selves) the world is in you, in your “mind,” and that “mind” is nothing more than the aggregate of all the learned ignorance that has been programmed into you. Believing in all the learned ignorance in a culture leaves one being a fool, and being fooled always leads to misery. The first step to being free of being fooled is to admit that one is being fooled. When depressed persons claim they are happy (and when wealth is mistaken for happiness) how free can anyone truly be from being fooled, either by the culture or by the self/selves? One awakened individual suggested that you might as well search for an eagle’s nest on the bottom of the ocean as to try to find one person in a hundred thousand who is truly happy. Happiness can only follow freedom, and freedom can only follow the giving up of all personas and being free of all concepts. Now, all that having been said, I’ll repeat what I said yesterday to another person trapped in a similar mindset: this entire conceptual world and all "experiences" in it are much ado about nothing. “It don’t mean a thing,” so see it all as entertainment. Best regards, and thanks for your e—mail. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
