An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: You witness feelings rise and fall. How long can your feelings last, for example, if you lose a friend? Would the feelings simply rise for a minute, a day, a week, etc.? Where do you draw the line?
F.: [Continued from yesterday—please read yesterday’s post before reading this] Sunday’s post ended with this pointer: "Until Realized, understand that processing will be required by persons. Post-Realization, You are not subject to the pain and misery of dealing with relativistic happenings that are erroneously taken to be real, so no processing is required."
How can that be? Offense and resentment and anger are “mind” activities. “Processing” is a “mind” activity. The Realized are mind-less. Note the differences between Case #1 and Case #2 as reported yesterday.
How is it in the relative that the effects of a truly life-threatening incident can be shaken off so quickly that one can face death and then move on across a field and enter the nearby town, check into a motel, enjoy a hot shower after weeks in the forest, delight in an excellent home-style meal, read a book, and then fall soundly asleep?
And why is it in the relative that a non-life-threatening incident can be mistaken for a life-threatening, life-ending event—the effects of which cannot be shaken off quickly? Why, if someone playing a co-dependent phony role informs a mate that they no longer want to play that role any longer, can one believe he/she is facing death, cannot enjoy anything anymore, cannot eat, cannot sit still long enough to read a book, and cannot fall asleep soundly?
There is but one reason, and the reason goes to the heart of the Advaitin teachings which can free seekers—via the Nisarga (“natural”) yoga pointers offered here—from entrapment in body-mind-personality identification and all of the misery and suffering and instability and chaos that such identification generates. Note the difference when false identities are at play and when they are not:
The incident with the bear involved no ego-states and no false identities, so there was an almost-immediate return to normalcy after a potentially life-threatening incident. It was asked during one seminar, “But weren’t you involved in body identification? Isn’t that why you were so afraid?”
No. The deer that graze here on occasion in the front yard move away when approached by a human that might present a physical threat. Are the deer identified with their bodies? No. The “Amness” naturally takes actions to perpetuate the manifestation. It is an all-natural process.
As in the case with the bear, the brain of the deer determines if a threat is continuing or has ended, so both the deer which encounter humans and the human which encountered a bear simply “moved on” with no ill effects. The mind-less, no-desire, no-need, no-agenda deer can have humans cross its path and then leave without triggering emotional intoxication, a desire to kill, or a desire to die.
By contrast, when a spouse leaves a mindful, longing, needy, agenda-driven mate, the incident will involve body identification, mind identification, and multiple personality identification. Those false identifications will convince a person that he/she is being threatened, often inspiring a twisted belief that they must strike to survive.
Hence, 59% of all women killed in the U.S. are killed during a “breakup.” In the case involving an encounter with the bear, no ego was involved, so the bear went in peace and “floyd” went in peace. In instances with a spouse or mate that leaves, such will not be the case with persons trapped in ego.
If emotional intoxication and insane thoughts and hostile words and destructive deeds accompany a “breakup,” then it is ego-states and egotism that are involved. On one side, ego-states generate egotism, and egotism makes possible a false sense of offense, a sense of being “better than,” a sense of “needing more and better,” and a belief that “I am too good for you.”
With both parties involved in a breakup, lost as they are in the dream of the relative “world,” ego-states will generate egotism and the result will be an initial ability to focus only on a mis-perception of “loss”; on having suffered a “great offense for having been used”; on a tendency to deny and thus desire that a fictional play might go on, even after the lies in which that play had been based should have been obvious; and on fears rooted in the false belief that self/selves were being decimated in one fell swoop (when, in fact, only the playing of a plethora of stage characters was ending).
Some will admit that their efforts to process have gone on for years without results. They admit that the resentment and anger and judgment continue. They will admit that the desire to annihilate reaches a sociopathic level at times, indicating the level of psychic unhealthiness and the level of egotism at play. Welcome to the "world of the mind."
If Advaita teachings are understood, then it is also understood that You have no personal attributes, thereby allowing all of those threatened personas/ego-states to be burned away in the intensive light of awareness.
It can be seen that “The Spouse” was simply a speck of consciousness that had been corrupted via programming and conditioning, blocked from seeing Truth and thus blocked from liberation, enlightenment, and Realization. The answer to “WHO thinks he/she deserves more and better?” will likely never be found by most.
Should Realization allow a person to see all of the false, to find the (false) identity of the WHO which thought she/he “didn’t deserve this or that,” and to see clearly all of the lies, then the way will be paved for seeing the Truth; then, wherefore “processing,” wherefore “hating,” wherefore “resenting”?
In the absence of Realization, those still trapped in the lie that they are persons with personal attributes will find continuous opportunities for processing. Again, the longer the time required by persons to process, the more evidence there is of psychic unhealthiness and the presence of ego-states as identities and the egotism that accompanies those personas.
So, here is a “self”-test that you can use to determine your own “personal status”: consider a piece of information you considered disturbing, one received via the senses (something you heard or something someone did, for example) that caused you to be offended, angry, hurt, or resentful. How long did you hold onto that, really thinking that the action or words were an actual threat? Are you still holding onto it now?
Have you re-lived the troubling action or those offensive words over and over? Is your “mind” revisiting the action or the words again and again? Has that rehashing generated anxiety and frustration and anger and resentment (which always come when a perceived slight is re-lived by persons)?
As far as resentment is concerned, have you re-sent the troublesome words or the offensive action throughout your system, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, year after year? Even if non-Realized, prompt processing can prevent “re-sent-ment” until the “one” who can feel offended finally disappears as an identity. How quickly are you processing?
Finally, is there any sense at all that the steps to Full Realization might be indicated? Is the cycling between occasions of happiness, offense, unhappiness, processing, happiness, and then more offense now contraindicated? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
WHILE THE PREFERRED, TRADITIONAL METHOD FOR OFFERING/RECEIVING ADVAITA POINTERS INVOLVES SITTING ONE-ON-ONE WITH A TEACHER, SOME HAVE BEEN ABLE TO COMPLETE THE SEVEN STEPS TO REALIZATION WITH THIS GUIDE:
Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
