Friday, April 29, 2011

MAHARAJ: "It Is All So Simple," Part Five, The Conclusion

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An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers father along the "path." During his last years, he said of I AM THAT: "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line."

F.: To continue, consider once more:

If you are seeking happiness, merely see how simple that can be: just return to "where" you were last happy.

Short of Full Realization, the last time you felt the Pure, Unadulterated Presence (and felt awareness of awareness without the encumbrance of aware-of-ness) - was as a no-knowing, no-concept, no-duality, no-thoughts child. To understand how to move out of the fluctuations and chaos of the relative and return to the no-mind state, persons must understand exactly how they arrived "where" they are.

It differs not at all from one lost in a maze: the easiest way out is always to retrace your steps and "get out" the same way you "got in." It was explained this way in the past:

During the process by which the consciousness manifests and becomes corrupted or blocked, a series of specific steps happen, steps which leave persons identified with the physical body (and the “mind” and personas). The steps are exactly the same in every case. The end result is that persons become identified most with the body, and that is almost as far from being in touch with Reality as a person can be, short of being catatonic.

Realized Advaitin teachers have long agreed that (a) “the path” from body identification to Full Realization is made up of the same steps by which the consciousness initially moved from manifestation to body identification and that (b) the steps must be completed in the exact, reverse order if the shift from body identification to Full Realization is to happen.

No teachers, though, identified in their exact order the specific steps (1-7 in number) by which the pure consciousness manifested but soon became blocked and contaminated and unable to see truth. Nor did any catalogue the exact reverse order of which the various specks of consciousness spoke; thus, seekers seldom find the exact "path," step-by-step, that must be followed in order for the return to happen.

During satsang and retreats, questions raised by visitors consistently reveal that the words used to point to one of the seven steps in particular is always confusing, specifically, “The Child Ignorance Stage" or the "Child's No-Knowing Stage." That is a result sometimes of ego and egotism, but more often the sense of confusion is genuinely sincere.

That confusion results because the “going back” steps closely mirror the “coming in” steps except in the case of the "Child Ignorance" step. To clarify, therefore, please consider:

When the child is a few months old, it has neither the ability to judge nor the ability to criticize anything or anyone. It has been taught no lies that will become part of the content of a fiction-based “mind,” so it can neither form nor express opinions nor thoughts nor beliefs. Other than basic bodily functions, it is capable of nothing more than witnessing. It is a "looker," not a "do-er."

To say that it is “ignorant” at that point would not be an accurate assessment, so that leads to confusion. Only when it is later taught ignorance will it be ignorant. What it is at that point is a plant food body that is capable of circulating air and that provides a temporary space in which the unsullied consciousness can manifest and “look.” That’s it.

Will it know what it is seeing? No. Eventually, the programming and conditioning will strip the child of seeing anything as it truly is because lies and nonsense will be presented as truth. The child will not be able to differentiate true from false, and as it moves from what is called “childhood” into what is called “adulthood,” it will join the ranks of all adults who always misperceive everything that they think they see, if not Realized.

The pointer is that it is only the following of certain exact steps that can free the consciousness of the effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication during the “going-out” process; the Child Not-Knowing Stage is reached after finally being free (once again) of all of the content of the “mind” and of all belief in personas.

When this step is reached during the “going back journey,” therefore, it could more accurately be pointed to with the phrase, “the person no longer in ignorance stage.” Prior to reaching this step during the "going back" process, persons will have engaged in either (1) totally distorted witnessing and / or (2) subject-object witnessing, and / or (3) totally blocked witnessing, all of which results in misperception.

At this point, the earnest seeker that has completed the first steps on the "journey" will reach a point of again being “childlike” to the degree that mere witnessing happens ... without thoughts, appraisals, judgments, the drawing of conclusions, the sharing of opinions and concepts, and without spewing nonsensical, ego-and-egotism-based beliefs.

From that platform, how can arguments happen? The child has no language and cannot talk. If all concepts and beliefs have been discarded, allowing the seeker to move truly into this “person that is no longer in ignorance stage,” then there are no tools by which arguments can be built.

Having re-entered this stage, the seeker is in that place where there was no language and where there was silence (except when hunger or discomfort manifested). Since the adult can address those conditions of hunger and discomfort, the silence can return.

A sign of movement along the “path” is a shift from the Anglo's ego-inspired worship of “freedom of speech”; then, “freedom from speech” and the "freedom of silence" can manifest. “Witnessing” means “witnessing”—not "reacting to," not "controlling," not "manipulating," not "using," not "debating," not "arguing," not "pontificating," not "moving into and out of histrionic states," not "displaying extreme 'intensity'," and not "doing."

Since witnessing happens in the absence of any witnesser, then there can come once again another taste of what was - at that earlier point - the bliss of merely being. Farther along the “path,” stabilization in the beingness only can happen, but returning to the point where there was impartial witnessing that triggered no reactions allows for the first sampling again of that which Was and Is and Shall Be (and which can be right now again and for the remainder of the manifestation).

Then, it can all be so simple, if you would but be as a no-knowing child. Peace.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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Received 19 August 2010 from one that just completed the entire course:

I would like to extend deepest appreciation towards you for these teachings that you have offered. It has been most valuable towards what may not have been revealed throughout this manifestation labeled "anthony." Understanding Truth and finding words for gratitude are one as is all. Thank you again for pointing "me" to THAT and the understanding that came as well. Hopeful for future "contact"! Sincerely, Anthony M. W.

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Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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