FROM A SITE VISITOR: Teachers sometimes speak of “impressions.” Are there not some impressions that are real or truthful in basis? Thank you for the site.
F.: Is it becoming clear why no Realized teacher—that is, no speck of re-purified consciousness—would share anything in an effort to impress you? The re-purified consciousness speaks only to un-impress you. Should you be fully un-impressed, then You will be fully aware of the only Reality-based impression.
Thus, Advaita does not suggest that you cast aside ideas and emotions and beliefs in order to acquire new beliefs. The second step on the "path" to the re-purification of the consciousness requires a commitment to allow the “mind” to dissolve if the "journey" is to continue. Ultimately, therefore, no facility remains for learning and storing and recalling “new” beliefs or concepts or ideas.
Instead, it is realized that all man-made, all religious and all spiritual knowledge is learned ignorance and that it is all to be cast aside if one is to be free. It is seen that there is no such thing as a “good idea.” It becomes understood that what follows the thought, “Hey, I have a good idea” and that what follows the words, “Hey, I have a good idea” is either insane or insane-like.
Yesterday, two persons wrote e-mails to discuss what they thought were “good ideas.” Both ideas—as is the case with all ideas—were totally insane, but nothing would have come of pointing out that fact. Those with insane thoughts and ideas haven’t a clue that their thoughts and ideas are insane, just as the 95-99% on the planet who are suffering from personality disorders believe that they are fine and that it is only the rest of the population that is crazy.
Someone once said in response to the pointer that there is no such thing as a good idea, “But I thought it would be a good idea to come to this retreat.” The reply, “WHO thought it would be a good idea? WHO is seeking to gain something 'good'? Attending a retreat should happen spontaneously as a result of being moved by the inner resource, not as a result of a ‘mind’-generated idea.
“If there is a ‘you’ who thinks it is a good idea, then there is a ‘you’ who thinks he is going to get something ‘good’ from this retreat. That desire to gain will prevent your losing everything—that is, will prevent your completion of the de-accumulation process—which is the reason for attendance.”
When that pointer was offered last week to an “employee” attending a workshop, he said, “Well, my boss thought it would be a good idea to meet with you and try to understand what you can teach me.” The reply was,
“Ultimately, one is more likely to "find" if the seeker is either (a) moved spontaneously to seek or is (b) driven by intolerable levels of pain and suffering to seek. In this session today, seeds of consciousness are being scattered. The most that is likely to happen is that a seed might take root, but that has nothing to do with ‘good ideas.’ It has everything to do with casting aside all ideas.”
Persons—driven by egotism which accompanies their adoption of varied personas—will try to impress others. Their desire to do so will require that they talk, and talk, and talk some more. As is always the case with ego and ego-states, the silence will be an abhorrence.
Find a culture where persons are constantly talking (on the cell phone, for example), and you will have found a culture that is dominated by ego. Find a culture where all else must come to a halt in order to talk about that which is much ado about nothing and you will have found a culture embroiled in its own narcissistic egoism.
There, traffic will slow or stop in order to talk, a meal will be set aside so that one can talk, and the supervision of infants will be ignored in order to talk. Driven by the ego’s need to talk, a conversation underway will be interrupted so that another conversation can get underway, and the second will be put on hold so that a third can begin. The multi-tasking that the ego performs most often involves talking and generating noise.
The ego’s propensity to be heard knows no bounds, and driven by the “mind,” persons will generate thought after thought after thought. As is the typical pattern among persons, word after word after word must follow thought after thought after thought. Such is the case when the ego would impress you.
So it is when the ego—which loves the noise and hates the silence because of the ego's desire to impress—is dominant. So it is when those persons identified with their false roles and ego-states must talk to try to create and/or sustain their images. Talk is the sustenance of personas, the food that feeds illusions, so persons (the non-Realized) will always be driven to talk in order to try to impress others.
Persons will try to impress upon others their beliefs, their worthiness, their ideas, their faith, their dogma, their politics, their spiritual practices. They will be driven by one human-generated impression after another without ever having the slightest awareness of the only impressions/impression actually based in Reality, namely, I AM THAT; I AM. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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