FROM A SITE VISITOR: You seem to have some genius. I am an INTJ because I want to put money in my pocket and separate myself with books, scientific \"knowledge\", and hopefully one day a career in medicine. Sometimes I despise INFJs because I think they overvalue feelings, like another carbon copy of Jesus, but INFJs are also the rarest of the types as I\'m sure you know. I unsettle people everywhere with my prana (or behavior patterns), but don\'t care to take any discples, or address their confused feelings/emotions. Do I need all my Ojas or can I smoke weed but sit in Dhyana and forget about duality? I read in Raja yoga, and believe that enlightenment is physiological. Anything would help, I want to be a leader and help reform the modern masses, but I want out of this hot world afterwards ala Theravada. Any communication will be met with deep respect. James B.
F.: Hello, James. Thx for the e-mail. As for “any communication will be met with deep respect,” maybe…or maybe not. The “J” in the Jungian/Myers Briggs system of cataloguing personality, which you have accepted as a defining label, may drive you to assign or deny value to these pointers and then close down further consideration. The “T” could drive you to discredit any invitation to tap intuitively into the “inner guru” or “inner resource” that is the avenue to Realization as you currently value far more the external knowledge that you are accumulating. (In the realm of “things metaphysical or spiritual,” that knowledge is nothing more than learned ignorance.) As mentioned yesterday, “On this site, however, the invitation is never to share what someone else said, what someone else wrote, or what someone else knew. The invitation is to find that which You know. What is it that You have always known but have forgotten?” You are being driven to accumulate knowledge rather than to know what You already know. The “I” aspect of the personality type that you've assumed might facilitate that search…or not.
That said, before other site visitors are sent off on a useless quest to investigate Myers-Briggs, let the pointer be made again that the MBTI or the Enneagram Personality Inventory or any other systems that classify personality are dealing with nothing more than an illusion—namely, personality. Ironically, that illusion does have the ability to control the behavior and thinking of most persons on the planet. Part of the insanity around personality involves persons (a) being controlled by personality while (b) believing that they have free will and are making choices. Can personality type accurately predict behavior under given circumstances since most personas behave in such predictable, “textbook” fashion according to the personality (i.e., according to methods of thinking and behaving and emoting which they developed during childhood to survive or to function in an often-bizarre environment)? Of course. But when factors other than choice determine behavior, that is imprisonment...not freedom.
Realization is about being free of the entrapment that drives persons to react and over-react to illusions. As with those mentioned yesterday who have a fear of clouds, their “bondage” is an illusion and their perception of clouds is an illusion, but "the relative existence effects" seem quite real to the sufferer. The bottom line on all of the self-analysis inspired by the study of any personality system was shared yesterday: "You do not need more knowledge. The only thing you need to be aware of about any of the nine types of personality [or the 16 M-B types] is that they drive people, that none of the personalities are you, and that all personality is to be transcended if you would be sane and happy."
As for “genius,” not at all. The consciousness that speaks via this site is the same consciousness that speaks through any space wherein the consciousness has undergone the re-purification process. As for the "book knowledge" that you prefer to accumulate and as for any plan to work in the field of medicine, that career can be marked with peace if it happens with non-attachment, but it will be marked with misery should some persona decide that he is to be “The Leader,” “The Boss,” or “The One in Control.”
As for your query regarding the “Ojas,” are you revealing more evidence of identification with the ego-states of the “The Boss” or “The One in Control”? Are you going to gain control over the brain, which should be allowed to functionally naturally? Or will you try to go a step further and try to control the “mind” when the mind is nothing more than the very seat of all delusions? [See http://www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com/ for more on the distinctions involving consciousness, brain, and mind and to see more on “the mind” itself. Also, to address "weed and Dhyana," toggle down while on that quote site and read what the original purpose of meditation was. You might find that commonly-held beliefs about "stilling the activity" of the fictional mind or about "chilling out" during those always-limited periods of samadhi miss the orginal intent of meditation completely.]
As for Raja Yoga and Theravada, of course you would prefer, at this point anyway, methods that involve analysis, likely seasoned with some reasoning and an even larger dose of investigation. Yet any effort to "cultivate the mind" is an exercise in insanity since the "mind" is that which is rooted in insanity and which generates even more insantiy. [Again, see www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com for further explication.] Who would want to cultivate weeds when the healthy garden happens after the purging of all weeds is complete? While reason applied during the investigation of self and Self might be productive (relatively speaking) all of the other “stuff” generally ends up being “much ado about nothing,” just like this very posting today.
The invitation for you, considering where you currently are on the “path,” is to see the non-dual, no-concept nature of Reality (physiological aspects notwithstanding). That requires that you first re-read your e-mail and find all of the assumed, but false, identities that are revealed therein. You must know who you are not before you will ever come to know who/what You Are. Then, if you witness objectively, you might see the duality (the self-contradiction) of asserting that “sometimes I despise INFJs because I think they overvalue feelings.” You might see that some “you” is experiencing a very strong feeling ("despising") even as you attack those who have...strong feelings. [Ain’t projection a bitch?] So now, you have either been provided with much to take into “real meditation” (wherein pointers are considered in clear fashion), or not. Best regards on your “trip,” in whichever direction it might go. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: Hello, James. Thx for the e-mail. As for “any communication will be met with deep respect,” maybe…or maybe not. The “J” in the Jungian/Myers Briggs system of cataloguing personality, which you have accepted as a defining label, may drive you to assign or deny value to these pointers and then close down further consideration. The “T” could drive you to discredit any invitation to tap intuitively into the “inner guru” or “inner resource” that is the avenue to Realization as you currently value far more the external knowledge that you are accumulating. (In the realm of “things metaphysical or spiritual,” that knowledge is nothing more than learned ignorance.) As mentioned yesterday, “On this site, however, the invitation is never to share what someone else said, what someone else wrote, or what someone else knew. The invitation is to find that which You know. What is it that You have always known but have forgotten?” You are being driven to accumulate knowledge rather than to know what You already know. The “I” aspect of the personality type that you've assumed might facilitate that search…or not.
That said, before other site visitors are sent off on a useless quest to investigate Myers-Briggs, let the pointer be made again that the MBTI or the Enneagram Personality Inventory or any other systems that classify personality are dealing with nothing more than an illusion—namely, personality. Ironically, that illusion does have the ability to control the behavior and thinking of most persons on the planet. Part of the insanity around personality involves persons (a) being controlled by personality while (b) believing that they have free will and are making choices. Can personality type accurately predict behavior under given circumstances since most personas behave in such predictable, “textbook” fashion according to the personality (i.e., according to methods of thinking and behaving and emoting which they developed during childhood to survive or to function in an often-bizarre environment)? Of course. But when factors other than choice determine behavior, that is imprisonment...not freedom.
Realization is about being free of the entrapment that drives persons to react and over-react to illusions. As with those mentioned yesterday who have a fear of clouds, their “bondage” is an illusion and their perception of clouds is an illusion, but "the relative existence effects" seem quite real to the sufferer. The bottom line on all of the self-analysis inspired by the study of any personality system was shared yesterday: "You do not need more knowledge. The only thing you need to be aware of about any of the nine types of personality [or the 16 M-B types] is that they drive people, that none of the personalities are you, and that all personality is to be transcended if you would be sane and happy."
As for “genius,” not at all. The consciousness that speaks via this site is the same consciousness that speaks through any space wherein the consciousness has undergone the re-purification process. As for the "book knowledge" that you prefer to accumulate and as for any plan to work in the field of medicine, that career can be marked with peace if it happens with non-attachment, but it will be marked with misery should some persona decide that he is to be “The Leader,” “The Boss,” or “The One in Control.”
As for your query regarding the “Ojas,” are you revealing more evidence of identification with the ego-states of the “The Boss” or “The One in Control”? Are you going to gain control over the brain, which should be allowed to functionally naturally? Or will you try to go a step further and try to control the “mind” when the mind is nothing more than the very seat of all delusions? [See http://www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com/ for more on the distinctions involving consciousness, brain, and mind and to see more on “the mind” itself. Also, to address "weed and Dhyana," toggle down while on that quote site and read what the original purpose of meditation was. You might find that commonly-held beliefs about "stilling the activity" of the fictional mind or about "chilling out" during those always-limited periods of samadhi miss the orginal intent of meditation completely.]
As for Raja Yoga and Theravada, of course you would prefer, at this point anyway, methods that involve analysis, likely seasoned with some reasoning and an even larger dose of investigation. Yet any effort to "cultivate the mind" is an exercise in insanity since the "mind" is that which is rooted in insanity and which generates even more insantiy. [Again, see www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com for further explication.] Who would want to cultivate weeds when the healthy garden happens after the purging of all weeds is complete? While reason applied during the investigation of self and Self might be productive (relatively speaking) all of the other “stuff” generally ends up being “much ado about nothing,” just like this very posting today.
The invitation for you, considering where you currently are on the “path,” is to see the non-dual, no-concept nature of Reality (physiological aspects notwithstanding). That requires that you first re-read your e-mail and find all of the assumed, but false, identities that are revealed therein. You must know who you are not before you will ever come to know who/what You Are. Then, if you witness objectively, you might see the duality (the self-contradiction) of asserting that “sometimes I despise INFJs because I think they overvalue feelings.” You might see that some “you” is experiencing a very strong feeling ("despising") even as you attack those who have...strong feelings. [Ain’t projection a bitch?] So now, you have either been provided with much to take into “real meditation” (wherein pointers are considered in clear fashion), or not. Best regards on your “trip,” in whichever direction it might go. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
