Saturday, May 17, 2008

THE “HEAVEN-HELL” DEBATE: How Religion Has Always Generated Dualistic Beliefs, Part Two

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An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hey Floyd, I love your site!! Well, I was programmed by catholicism and I'm still having trouble realizing that there is no heaven/hell... I still have a fear that I may create my own hell or that there might be a hell.. How can I deprogram myself from this fear?

F.: There is no difference in the end results of (A) being programmed by the dogma of the three sky cults which evolved from the words of Abraham and (B) being programmed in any other cult. It matters not if the cult is a Jim Jones cult, the Heaven’s Gate cult, the Warren Jeffs cult, other Mormon cults, or the Christian and Jewish and Muslim cults.

Further, no difference exists in being programmed by one of those cults or by any one of the millions of cultures that dot the globe (which are also cults, that is, cultures.) All of those cults have one basic ingredient in common: their leaders and members claim that they know the truth and speak the truth.

In fact, if they knew the truth, they would understand that it can be known but cannot be stated. That, Alex, is why you were told it does not matter what I—this speck of consciousness—am “positive of.” Understand that the key to not realizing is rooted in what “you” think you are positive of while the key to Realizing is rooted in what You Are truly positive of.

To realize that no cult, religion, philosophy, book, or ideology can state the Truth is to be free of clinging to contradictory (dualistic) beliefs that make no sense but that are held in esteem.

To suggest to someone who has been programmed with belief systems that those systems are all nonsense will usually have no more effect than yelling at Pavlov’s dogs to “stop all that drooling! It’s a bell, not meat!”

There is no such thing as any “holy book” or “holy man” that can state the Truth for you, and that includes any and all books deemed “special” or “holy.” And that applies to the various “forms” that Advaita Vedanta and/or Advaita have taken. Thus, it is apropos to address at this point an e-mail received on Friday:

FROM A SITE VISITOR: According to (my limited understanding of) the Gita, I do not act, but rather God acts through me. I am simply a vessel or conduit for God. If I do something evil - and I know that distinctions between good and evil are problematic so let's use an extreme example - such as kill a child, did God act through me and do something evil? Thanks in advance for your answer. I will now enter my own silence and continue to ponder this question, as I have already been doing for a while. Roger.

The traditional method is to ask your question, receive a pointer or pointers, and then take those into consideration. The “mind” that came up with the question can never come up with the answer. If the teacher happens to move you beyond “mind” (and body and personality) then the True Self might eventually know the Truth.

Further, consider the dualities in your e-mail: God and you; evil and good; do-ers (of evil) and non-doers (of evil); and kill/die and live. Already it should be clear that none of the above can be “true” since all concepts—rooted as they are in duality—are false.

And what of the content of yesterday’s post, suggesting that the “I am” should never be followed by any identifier? “I am a vessel or conduit for God”? Really? A rather lofty identity, n’est-ce pas? Where is the neither this nor that?

If it makes no sense to suggest that there is a God that acts through saints as well as sinners; through Eisenhower as well as Hitler; through Hussein as well as Bush (or Bush as well as Hussein)—and it doesn’t—then why not discard that concept which should be seem immediately as nonsense?

Hang the Gita and hang the Bible and the Koran and Christ and Mohammed and Moses and floyd and roger and focus on the key issue, which has nothing at all to do with finding out what they knew (or know) and everything to do with finding out what You know. Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:

  • Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT
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  • Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY
  • and

  • Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
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  • Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
  • and

  • Click LIBERATION
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