[See the post on 30 August 2007 for the original e-mail being addressed]
F.: If ideas and concepts and beliefs are not forfeited (and if one is not freed of the influence of old wounds and old “memories” and old programming) then changing jobs, houses, cities, circumstances, people, or anything else will have no lasting impact on changing one’s emotional state. If the seemingly endless chain of desires and expectations is not forfeited, one can get everything she/he might wish for or hope for or long for, but consistent happiness and consistent peace will not manifest. Full Realization, on the other hand, will provide a lasting impact, relatively speaking.
But Full Realization cannot happen as long as persons think that the beliefs of their parents, their teachers, their preachers, their priests, their imams, their rabbis, or their politicians are Truth. Any of “their” beliefs which have become “your” beliefs will block you from finding Truth...and peace.
Some seekers have seen the lies that are driving them by writing a thorough list of their beliefs, seeing where those beliefs really came from, and then questioning their validity. (In fact, no one’s beliefs have really come from parents or pastors or priests, etc. The most widely-held and most respected beliefs today are thousands of years old, were dreamed up by controlling men during ancient times, were passed down to the ignorant masses, and have been repeated and accepted as truth for thousands of years by billions and billions of non-Realized persons among the also-ignorant masses.)
The writing exercise can reveal to honest seekers the fact that they have no beliefs that are their own but that they have only adopted the beliefs of others. That prevents them from realizing what they have always known, within, but have forgotten. The exercise can show that there is no basis in fact for the concepts and ideas and beliefs that have been adopted from others.
The process can expose the fact that those beliefs are driving you into an unstable existence that is marked by fluctuations between being OK if alone vs. not being OK at work; between enjoying the pleasure of pleasant situations vs. suffering the misery of unpleasant situations; and between feeling spiritual at times vs. not feeling spiritual at other times.
Consider: some homes have thermostats that has been programmed to cool houses in the summer and to heat them in the winter. A thermostat is programmed to maintain temperatures within a certain, limited range. If it has not been programmed, it will not function. Its program determines what it does or what it does not do.
Similarly, persons do nothing that they have not been programmed or conditioned or enculturated to do. Unfortunately for persons, they do not choose their programming any more than a thermostat chooses its programming. As in the case of the thermostat that limits temperature ranges, the programming of persons limits the way that they function as well.
It may appear that the thermostat is making a decision when it activates or deactivates "automatically," but obviously it is not. It has no power of choice because it is programmed. That same type of programming leaves persons totally helpless even though they believe that their ideas and beliefs and concepts are a source of power and are a benefit. They think they are freely making choices.
How deceived they are. You were programmed in the way that certain key role-players in your early life choose to program you. The people who lived next door to where you grew up as a child would have likely given you a totally different program. Those of one religion will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another religion are given.
Those of one denomination will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another denomination are given. People of one political party will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another party are given.
People with one type of boss will become conditioned in a way that is completely diferent from the conditioning that people with a different type of boss will be given. And all of your conditioning and programming—not you—will determine how you emote in any given circumstance.
The invitation to you is to take all seven steps to Realization and then you will not co-dependently allow strangers or people at work or anywhere else to determine how you feel. You’ll begin to cross the path of fewer and fewer “numbskulls” at work or outside work. Eventually, there will be no “jaime" and no “you” that has any agenda that can be interfered with. You’ll be free of any identity that can imagine it has been hurt or threatened, and then you’ll function as the True Self.
Persons are separated from the awareness of That Which They Truly Are, and only awareness of That can result in peace and happiness during the manifestation. As for you, jaime, your case in not unique, so there’s no need to take any words as criticism; nor is there any need to criticize your “self” (or selves).
Your search has taken you far enough along a “path” that you have discovered the philosophy of Advaita, the understanding of which might eliminate at the root all of the frustration and anger that you think you’re experiencing at certain times. To be free, though, you'll be required to abandon all identification with “Jaime the Experiencer of Frustration and Anger” or “The Jaime Who Is Driven by Unmet Expectations and Unfulfilled Desires.” More on that tomorrow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
SEEKING “PEACE OF MIND”?
Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY?
Click LIBERATION
F.: If ideas and concepts and beliefs are not forfeited (and if one is not freed of the influence of old wounds and old “memories” and old programming) then changing jobs, houses, cities, circumstances, people, or anything else will have no lasting impact on changing one’s emotional state. If the seemingly endless chain of desires and expectations is not forfeited, one can get everything she/he might wish for or hope for or long for, but consistent happiness and consistent peace will not manifest. Full Realization, on the other hand, will provide a lasting impact, relatively speaking.
But Full Realization cannot happen as long as persons think that the beliefs of their parents, their teachers, their preachers, their priests, their imams, their rabbis, or their politicians are Truth. Any of “their” beliefs which have become “your” beliefs will block you from finding Truth...and peace.
Some seekers have seen the lies that are driving them by writing a thorough list of their beliefs, seeing where those beliefs really came from, and then questioning their validity. (In fact, no one’s beliefs have really come from parents or pastors or priests, etc. The most widely-held and most respected beliefs today are thousands of years old, were dreamed up by controlling men during ancient times, were passed down to the ignorant masses, and have been repeated and accepted as truth for thousands of years by billions and billions of non-Realized persons among the also-ignorant masses.)
The writing exercise can reveal to honest seekers the fact that they have no beliefs that are their own but that they have only adopted the beliefs of others. That prevents them from realizing what they have always known, within, but have forgotten. The exercise can show that there is no basis in fact for the concepts and ideas and beliefs that have been adopted from others.
The process can expose the fact that those beliefs are driving you into an unstable existence that is marked by fluctuations between being OK if alone vs. not being OK at work; between enjoying the pleasure of pleasant situations vs. suffering the misery of unpleasant situations; and between feeling spiritual at times vs. not feeling spiritual at other times.
Consider: some homes have thermostats that has been programmed to cool houses in the summer and to heat them in the winter. A thermostat is programmed to maintain temperatures within a certain, limited range. If it has not been programmed, it will not function. Its program determines what it does or what it does not do.
Similarly, persons do nothing that they have not been programmed or conditioned or enculturated to do. Unfortunately for persons, they do not choose their programming any more than a thermostat chooses its programming. As in the case of the thermostat that limits temperature ranges, the programming of persons limits the way that they function as well.
It may appear that the thermostat is making a decision when it activates or deactivates "automatically," but obviously it is not. It has no power of choice because it is programmed. That same type of programming leaves persons totally helpless even though they believe that their ideas and beliefs and concepts are a source of power and are a benefit. They think they are freely making choices.
How deceived they are. You were programmed in the way that certain key role-players in your early life choose to program you. The people who lived next door to where you grew up as a child would have likely given you a totally different program. Those of one religion will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another religion are given.
Those of one denomination will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another denomination are given. People of one political party will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another party are given.
People with one type of boss will become conditioned in a way that is completely diferent from the conditioning that people with a different type of boss will be given. And all of your conditioning and programming—not you—will determine how you emote in any given circumstance.
The invitation to you is to take all seven steps to Realization and then you will not co-dependently allow strangers or people at work or anywhere else to determine how you feel. You’ll begin to cross the path of fewer and fewer “numbskulls” at work or outside work. Eventually, there will be no “jaime" and no “you” that has any agenda that can be interfered with. You’ll be free of any identity that can imagine it has been hurt or threatened, and then you’ll function as the True Self.
Persons are separated from the awareness of That Which They Truly Are, and only awareness of That can result in peace and happiness during the manifestation. As for you, jaime, your case in not unique, so there’s no need to take any words as criticism; nor is there any need to criticize your “self” (or selves).
Your search has taken you far enough along a “path” that you have discovered the philosophy of Advaita, the understanding of which might eliminate at the root all of the frustration and anger that you think you’re experiencing at certain times. To be free, though, you'll be required to abandon all identification with “Jaime the Experiencer of Frustration and Anger” or “The Jaime Who Is Driven by Unmet Expectations and Unfulfilled Desires.” More on that tomorrow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
SEEKING “PEACE OF MIND”?
WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY?
WORKING ON HAVING THE COURAGE TO QUESTION ALL OF THE "SACRED COWS" IN YOUR CULTURE?
READY TO TAKE THE SEVEN-STEP “JOURNEY” TO REALITY?
Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
