F.: When seekers diverge from the actual "path" that has been "traveled" for thousands of years and that has moved persons from identification with the false "I" (or "I's,") and to an understanding of the Absolute and the prior Void, then they will also diverge from the sole method and process that has led to Realization for five times as many years as even the oldest organized religion has existed.
To understand if a system can "work" to free one completely, one must know what "freedom" means and must then know what the agenda is of the persons offering the system. The options for seekers are near countless:
1. There are five versions of Advaita or Vedanta or Advaita Vedanta presently being offered in one form or another, but there have sprung up so many individualized versions that any effort nowadays to try to describe exactly what the teachings are like would be similar to the blindfolded men trying to describe exactly what an elephant looks like while each is only touching a single, very different part from the parts that the others are touching.
[Not the subdividing and separating that now marks a teaching that originally dispelled any and all notions about subdivisions and separation.]
2. There are religions, thousands having come and gone, but 97% of the persons on the planet now claim affiliation with one of 19 major religions that have been subdivided into 270 other large religious groups, which have been further subdivided (there being, for example, some 34,000 Christian groups alone).
[Not the subdividing and separating that now marks a variety of dogma-based belief systems, some talking of multiple gods and goddesses, some talking of "God" and some talking of their "God of Abraham," though the followers of that God have also separated and subdivided into Jews and Christians and Muslims ... all of whom have been busily pre-occupied with the task of killing each other for 1300 to 2000 years.]
3. Then there are the "new" movements that number in the thousands as one author / lecturer / big name teacher after another takes some version of an earlier system and adds an element that will give the distorted and bastardized message guaranteed mass appeal (elements that usually promise power, control, and / or eternal continuity).
4. Then there are the thousands of support groups and step groups that claim to be spiritual. They are all actually offering some version of a religion, their assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.
See why "near countless" was used? So seekers might become attached to one of the thousands of systems available to try to find that which they cannot even really identify as "the one thing being sought." In almost every case, though, they will not find "that which they are seeking but cannot identify" so they will move from religion to religion, or from one subdivision to another within their religion (which is really not "their" religion at all but is the religion of their parents, grandparents, etc.)
And in almost every case, they identify their meeting places as being special (that is, "unlike other places") and as being "holy" (that is, "different from") or as being "spiritual" places. Again, the game is to give their place credibility by its "uniqueness" and by the use therein of "special literature"-based teachings and "special ceremonies" or "special practices."
So in almost every case, rather than sharing their own "experience," most turn to a book they deem to be their "Holy Book" or their "Holy Scriptures" or their "Big Book" and quote from that as a basis of authority by which they can offer opinions about experiences they have never had and about supposed truths which they assert cannot be questioned (usually under penalty of suffering now as well as pain and suffering forevermore).
Recall that during the discussion of "The Final Understanding," this exchange was shared:
Visitor: "The scriptures say that we have our karma and ours sins and that is why we are here."
Maharaj: "That is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized the Self-Knowledge 'I Am,' for him these stories are of no use."
If one reaches a point where she / he no longer blindly adheres to the system adopted from parents, grandparents, etc., etc., etc., then seeking might begin. But what use seeking that does not specifically identify "that which I am now focused on seeking"?
What use seeking if it is not realized that one is seeking the Ultimate Medicine that can be used to treat the Ultimate Sickness? And why would persons seek the Ultimate Medicine - which is not offered in any church, temple, synagogue, support group, step group, or any so-called "religious" venue or so-called "spiritual" venue" - if they have not been properly diagnosed and if they have not come to understand that they are displaying all of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness?
And what is with anyone treating anything while admitting up front that his / her treatment plan is so ineffective that you will have to keep coming back, year after year, month after month, week after week, and - according to some groups - once a day, for your entire lifetime?
Why would anyone settle for a treatment plan that promises nothing more than a "daily reprieve" rather than moving on along the "path" and seeking a means by which a permanent solution can be offered?
Why would anyone stay with a doctor who obviously does not want to cure you and send you on your way but obviously wants to hook you and keep you coming back?
TOMORROW: A review of the symptoms as alluded to regularly on this site and the means for permanently eradicating the symptoms and thereafter being truly free.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
