Today's Considerations
Yesterday, examples were set forth to illustrate the irrationality of Maharaj’s plan “A” (using a religious or religious / non-duality combination to treat the ultimate mental sickness); the irrationality of Maharaj’s plan “B” (using a spiritual or spiritual / non-duality combination to treat the ultimate mental sickness); and the rationality of Maharaj’s plan “C” (using a psychologically-based approach to treat a psychologically-and-personality-based mental sickness). How many are attached to Plan “A”? Ninety-seven percent of the people on the planet claim an affiliation with an organized religion.
How many are attached to Plan “B”? Millions more who proclaim that they are “spiritual, not religious.”
What he found by experience and witnessing was that neither Plan "A" nor "B" freed persons from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
Why? The capability of religious programming and conditioning to render persons emotional intoxicated and to inspire them to accept without question the nonsensical claims set forth in the dogma that is propagated by organized religions can be witnessed daily.
The ego involved with those claiming that their spirituality is superior to others’ religiosity is seen by some on a regular basis.
Thus, Maharaj came to see that neither Plan “A” nor Plan “B” could possibly address the Ultimate Sickness because he came to see that the Ultimate Sickness is not rooted in “too little mastery of dogma”; he also came to see that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with persons “not being spiritual enough” or “not doing enough spiritual exercises” or “not having enough faith” or “having a sick soul” or “having a spiritual malady.”
Instead, he came to see that the Ultimate Sickness is a mind problem and that mind problems are rooted in perverse programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination which lead to persons assuming – at a very early age – personalities (false identities) in order to try to cope with their totally dysfunctional surroundings.
As for Plan “C,” Maharaj said initially that “1 in 100,000” will ever be freed from the symptoms of Ultimate Sickness even through Plan “C”; later, he changed that to “1 in 1,000,000”; eventually, he amended his guesstimate to “1 in 10,000,000.” But he knew that mind and personality issues had to be addressed if seekers were ever to be restored to sanity and wellness.
He understood all along that personality is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness because it leads to the development of personality disorders which often disintegrate into full-blown neuroses and psychoses.
In spite of that understanding, Maharaj was influenced by his guru to try Plan “A” first; he was influenced by the Westerners who came later on and brought with them their interest in “things ‘spiritual’”; but after years of trying both “A” and “B” versions of the Ultimate Medicine and seeing how both failed to end the Sickness, he finally shifted fully to the use of Plan “C” to address the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental sickness, not a sickness caused by being exposed to too little dogma and not a sickness caused by too little spirituality.
He saw how both “A” and “B” were based in a premise which leads to an enormous oversimplification of what is required to treat a highly complex and convoluted Sickness. Why “complex and convoluted”?
Because the sickness can manifest is a variety of forms and in a variety of combinations, and there is no one, silver bullet that kill off the various forms of the Sickness and there is no single pill that can be taken to end the complicated, treatment-resistant “mental super bug” which infects the human mind after having been perversely programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated.
So why did he say over and over that this is so simple? Is there a fairly simple way that the Sickness can be addressed? In some cases, yes; in other cases, no. In the eBook Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teaching Can (and Cannot) Address, it is made clear that the non-dual teachings can “do the trick” for some but not for most. In cases when the Sickness has reached near-epic proportions, there might be required a combination of the non-dual understanding and professional care or professional care which includes or is followed by the non-dual teachings.
Why? Because of the various forms of mental illness which reinforce the Sickness, including these personality-based disorders which can disintegrate into neuroses and psychoses:
Attachment Personality Disorder (P.D.), the Obsessive-Compulsive P.D., the Depressive P.D., the Narcissistic P.D.; the Histrionic P.D. (generating Emotional Intoxication), the Factitious P.D., the Somatization P.D., the Avoidant P.D., the Borderline P.D., the Masochistic P.D., the Schizoid-Avoidance P.D., the Schizotypal P.D., the Passive-Aggressive P.D., the Paranoid P.D., the Dependent P.D., the Co-Dependent P.D., the Addictive P.D., the Bipolar P.D., the Antisocial / Sociopathic P. D., the Pathological P.D., the Sadistic P.D., the Schizoid P.D., and the Dissociative P.D., to name but a few.
Over the years, I have worked as a consultant with many professional counselors on every continent who contract with me to test their clients with a personality inventory test and then offer certain non-dual pointers which expose the serious consequences of having one’s thoughts and words and actions being controlled by the hidden agendas of personalities. As for the professional aspects of addressing those issues, one need but see the specialized trainings which are required of professionals to even begin to address the various disorders.
The approach used by wise professionals to address the Borderline P.D. is nothing like the approach used to address the Dependent and Co-Dependent P.D., and the approach used by wise professionals to address the Avoidant P.D. or the Schizoid-Avoidant P.D. is nothing like the approach used to address the Addictive P.D., although both generate the same thinking and talking and behavior patterns.
For those counselors using EMDR to expose and treat the past hidden traumas which drive present behaviors, there are totally separate protocols that are to be used to address each of the various disorders which are resulting in the misery and suffering that are being experienced by their clients.
So consider: how ignorant and insane would it be for a professional to try to treat thirty different personality disorders or neuroses or psychoses - which can each present in a totally different and dissimilar and diverse and unique way - with the one same method, promising that that one method can provide a blanket cure for all of a patient’s vastly different mental illnesses and disorders?
And that is the insanity of Plans “A” and “B.” Those using either of those methods will claim that it is a cure-all, the only thing needed to address a variety of grave mental and emotional disorders. They sell their treatment plan exactly the way that snake oil salesmen of bygones days marketed their product: as a panacea or miraculous remedy. The original snake oil salesmen claimed that their snake oil could cure rheumatism, skin diseases, joint pain, colds, influenza and other viral and bacterial infections, cuts, scrapes, abrasions, migraines, mental instabilities . . . you name it. The modern day snake oil salesmen claim that Plan "A" or Plan "B" is even more miraculous - even more supernatural and more magical - and can eliminate all forms of discontentment and misery and suffering and insanity in one fell swoop.
It would be exactly like a general practitioner using the one same pill to treat headaches, broken bones, internal hemorrhaging, and cancer.
How arrogant and deceptive to make such claims, but how far more self-deceptive to buy into such claims. Yet such claims are exactly what those touting Plans “A” and “B” are making. And with all of his “good intentions” early on (and for all of “floyd’s good intentions” early on) the fact is that experience and trial and error ultimately showed both the inaccuracy of the claim that religious dogma or spiritual practices can treat the Ultimate Sickness.
“Be spiritual and both your body and your mind will be healed”? Really?
Finally, a note to those who come to understand the reality of the Ultimate Sickness – that only a psychological treatment can address psychological problems. Be forewarned. Those with an agenda to escape to Foo-Foo Land; and those with a desire to ignore the "I AM" part of the summative statement of non-duality (I AM THAT; I AM); and those with the goal of reinforcing their image as “The Super Religious One” or as “The Spiritual Giant” will often go for the jugular when you share the truth about the real roots of the Ultimate Sickness and about the only version of the Ultimate Medicine which might address the Sickness.
Maharaj took the heat and moved on. The same is happening here. If you fully understand the real problem and the real solution, then you may have to take the heat if you happen to share that truth. Or you might remain in the silence and enjoy the fact that you are no longer experiencing the symptoms, no longer searching endlessly for a cure, and are now sitting back and relaxing and abiding naturally. After realizing the truth and being freed of the Ultimate Sickness's symptoms of "ignorance and stupidity and insanity [Maharaj's words], some share and some do not, and either way has been observed to be just fine.
More to the point is for each to find what it is that is really ailing him or her and for each to find the proper treatment for what is causing the ailment.
Best regards in the searching which can end all searching, in doing what is relatively important right now to restore you to sanity and which thereafter becomes totally unimportant as natural, spontaneous abidance unfolds.
