Saturday, October 25, 2008

COMPLETING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY AFTER TRYING THE TWELVE STEP JOURNEY, Part Two

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
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: [See the 24 October 2008 post for the entire e-mail being addressed. The main issues raised in that mail include]:


***DUI, problems at work, problems in relationships

***feeling suicidal

***being miserable most of his life

***denial and ego and minimization at the core

***did the 12-step program

***still feel there has got to be more

***still suicidal at times

***wonders if the Advaita teachings might help him move on

Signed: Anonymous

F.: Next, Anonymous, understand that your more recent experiences regarding your “self-help” efforts are typical. By whatever means, after the years of misery you admit to, you found your way to a program that—according to a $22,000,000 study some years back—only has a 3-5% “success rate” nowadays. (Teachers of the Advaitin philosophy cannot claim that any more than a fraction of seekers will ever understand these teachings either.)

[Note: The lenient standards in the multi-million study mentioned above required only five years of “sobriety” or “staying clean” to be considered a “success.” Hundreds of thousands, and maybe even millions, who have gone the route you’ve gone will profess to having undergone life-altering spiritual experiences. Many are now absorbed in a one-dimensional existence where their “program” has become their “life.”

Here, there will be no debate with them, and this issue is only addressed when one in your condition arrives and inquires about what else might be available. In your case, the facts presented suggest that some kind of change has indeed occurred; yet the facts also suggest that you have found only a part of what you are seeking, the remainder of which is beyond what you have been given so far.

The description of your own experience shows that the places where you have sought so far have not led you to find all that must be understood if you would function in the relative existence from a position of neutrality and from a platform of happiness and peace and joy.

The evidence includes the fact that you “no longer want to drink but still want to die”; includes the lingering restlessness and emptiness that drives you to feel “there’s got to be more”; and includes the statement that you “still haven’t found what you’re looking for.”

But understand that there is no competition between this philosophy and any other program or institution or organization or “self-help” programs. They do what they do, and often they do shift persons to the third step of a seven-step “journey.” They simply cannot move anyone to any of the steps beyond that third of seven.]

Yesterday, the duality of the comment that “I cannot live with myself any more” was mentioned. All sensations of feeling torn in two, feeling split, feeling divided, and feeling as if one is not whole are rooted in duality. Part of the treatment for those conditions is an understanding of the unicity.

It must be understood that the True Self is merely consciousness that has been freed of belief in all the ideas and concepts that were taught, accepted, and allowed to block the consciousness from being aware of ItSelf and that resulted in it focusing only on the false self or false selves instead.

[Note: that Self is not really a Self at all if the notion is that a “Self” must have some form or name. Take the True Self to be the Pure Consciousness—or the Re-Purified or Unblocked Consciousness or the Pure Witness, if you will—that is able to see all false beliefs first and then the truth afterwards.]

Your work with the Twelve Steps may have moved you past your earlier suicidal thoughts. Fine. Yet it has not eliminated such thoughts completely. Furthermore, that work will never move you beyond the assumption of false selves. It will, in fact, reinforce them. Moreover, a failure to move beyond the assumption of false selves will prevent the peace you seek from ever manifesting. Why?

What you have done is to merely trade old personas that were thought to be “bad” ones (such as “The Driver Under the Influence” or “The Bad Husband” or “The Unsuccessful Employee,” etc.) for personas that you have been led to believe are “good” ones ( such as, “The Spiritual Man” or “The Religious Man” or “The Sober Man”). In reality, the so-called “good personas” are as artificial as the so-called “bad personas.”

The “good ones” will block you from seeing truth as much as the “bad ones.” Either set of personas will fixate you at a point on the “path” that will prevent Full Realization, will impede a complete understanding of Self, and will preclude any chance of finding the peace which you seek.

One can never be comfortable with self…with the false self or the false selves assumed as personas. (The notion that you have become “A Spiritual Giant” will result in a sense of separation as much as any of your former, “bad” roles. Having assumed the role of "The Spiritual One," who else could possibly be as grand, once the belief is that "the summit" has been reached?)

How could you not have problems in relationships if you are constantly uncomfortable with self/selves, if you are feeling “better than,” and if your thoughts and words and deeds are being driven by one or more of the many varieties of determinism rather than by choice and logic and reason?

How could you ever understand atonement (that is, "the at-one-ment with All") if you cannot know the oneness of Self? The Twelve Steps might get you to the third of seven steps on the “journey” to Full Realization, but far more remains if you would complete the entire “journey” to Full Realization.

The fact that you have only begun to move along the “path” explains why you said in your e-mail that even after all that work…

you still “wanted to die,” felt there “has to be more,” felt that there’s “a lot you’ve missed,” felt that “something is still not right,” and feel you “haven’t found what you’ve been looking for.”

And that is also why co-author Mark wrote in A Twelve-Step Journey:

“..I had a belief system that the [twelve] steps alone would be enough. That belief system almost killed me.”

Based in the content of your e-mail, you too are clinging to some belief systems that can lead to a physical death (or to something far more miserable, namely, death-in-life). Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TODAY’S POST:

  • Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

  • TWO OTHER OFFERINGS ARE AVAILABLE:

    More and more seekers are requesting an understanding of how a personality formed in childhood is still determining and controlling everything that is thought or said or done in adulthood. Others have inquired about an opportunity to speak one-on-one about the seven-step “path” to Realization.

    Thus, two opportunities are being offered from now until Dec 15th at 50% off:

    PERSONALITY TYPING:

    Here’s what is included in the package that is available for the next two months (the service available to international visitors but these price being only for the Continental U.S.):

    A copy of the personality test (B) Priority mailing of the test (C) Analysis of the test results (D) a one-hour telephone session to discuss the results (E) the cost of the telephone conference. Cost is US$95.

    ONE-ON-ONE SATSANG VIA TELE-CONFERENCE

    For the next two months, a tele-conference to discuss any aspects of the Advaita teachings one-on-one will be offered. [Rich from the U.K. completed this package recently and was able to make a low-rate international call from his home in the U.K. to the office here in the U.S. for his conference.] The cost covers the income that cannot be earned as a result of being unavailable for regular retainer contract income during your conference time.] Cost is US$75.

    To arrange either package, >Click ARRANGE PACKAGES provide all of the information requested, and in the message box at the bottom, indicate that you want to make arrangements for the PERSONALITY TYPING or for the ONE-ON-ONE ADVAITA SESSION or both.

    Recent Posts and Archives

    Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

    WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

    ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

    ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

    ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

    Five Free eBooks

    Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
    the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

    I.
    "GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

    The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

    Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

    II.
    "THE VISION"

    Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

    “My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

    “Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

    “Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

    “‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

    III.
    "Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

    Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

    There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

    This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

    IV.
    Seeking

    In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

    In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

    He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

    V.
    "THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

    “Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

    And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

    And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

    This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

    To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page