Saturday, March 17, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Four

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: So to review, the Advaita philosophy is not about passing on knowledge but about eliminating learned ignorance. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
"All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman."
At http://www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com/, the following pointer is offered:

"Ultimately, Advaita Vedanta is the Teaching that has the 'goal' of becoming the non-teaching by way of un-teaching."

More unequivocally, Dennis Waite wrote,

“The knowledge, once it has served its purpose of pointing toward the truth, is discarded too."

Ultimately, the only "real" knowledge pointed to by the Advaita Teachings per se is Self-Knowledge. Once that awareness happens, it is never forgotten. Once that awareness happens, all else is forgotten.

Thus, no one else, other than an Advaitin, ever said, “You do not need to know more or gain more or grow. You already Are That Which You Are. The consciousness that You Are has been corrupted (or seeing truth has been hampered) as a result of lies and myths that are disguised as knowledge. Treat that condition alone. See the falsity of belief in learned ignorance and watch the (relative) effects of learned ignorance end.” No one else offered a method for addressing the corrupted consciousness that offered “the full and final treatment.” No one else said, “Realize, and then you don’t need to keep coming back.” No one else said, “Realize and You are finished with all the ‘spiritual work.’ Then, You may go and be free and enjoy natural living.”

Next, you have also drawn an erroneous conclusion from your reading of any bio information. I did not attend college, I did not acquire knowledge, I did not teach, and I did not pay bills. College attendance happened; the accumulation of information happened; teaching happened (or not, some days); and bill-paying happened (or not, some days). Furthermore, the accumulated information underwent the de-accumulation process almost immediately, post-examination. Little of it was relevant to a career in teaching, and that irrelevance was noted both as it was being presented by professors and later as it was being discarded.

Further, no “knocking” of knowledge has been happening. What has been offered is an invitation to avoid developing false pride in knowledge because that will support ego-states and egotism and thereby only stand in the way of continuing the Self-Inquiry process to completion. Too, "spiritual knowledge" and "religious knowledge" will block advancement along the remainder of the “path” to Full Realization since those “Knowers,” thinking they now know it all, will thereby miss it all. Persons assuming those two "new" identities will fixate at the third of seven steps to Full Realization.

So try this: from the third floor master bedroom window, it is possible to look down on a terrace that slopes gently to the edge of a lake. The green lawns of the terrace are landscaped with scrubbery and trees and beds of flowers. Within the next three weeks, in a bed just below that window, some wild lilies will begin to bloom. To the eye, they can have a certain appeal. To gaze at them in the silence and to appreciate their relative “beauty” is calming. Even though the curtain over the window was closed this morning, and even though the lilies have not be seen for eleven months, and even though they are not yet in bloom this season, their presence is realized.

In a few weeks, what more would you think needs to be known about those flowers to be able to appreciate their beauty, fleeting though it shall be? Nothing. Yet there is that which can prevent the flowers from ever being seen, namely, the curtain. If the curtain is opened, then the flowers will be seen and appreciated fully, at least during the brief period when the blooms manifest. Nothing new will be known about the flowers that will enhance their appearance. (A pedant residing nearby once said I should know that they are not “lilies” at all but are actually "examples of the lilium philadelphicum classification." His sharing that piece of knowledge illustrates exactly how pride in knowledge prevents the natural enjoyment of anything natural.)
New knowledge or more knowledge about the flowers will not be sought or acquired. All that will happen when the curtain is drawn back is this: whatever was blocking the seeing of the flowers will be removed and the flowers shall be seen. Witnessing the flowers shall just happen, and later the witnessing of the flowers shall end, at least until another cycle happens spontaneously. Now, how does that relate to the discussion of excessive knowledge acquisition, seeing Reality, and that which blocks persons from seeing truth? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Recent Posts and Archives

Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

Five Free eBooks

Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

II.
"THE VISION"

Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

“‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

III.
"Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

IV.
Seeking

In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

V.
"THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page