Today's Considerations
[Continued from yesterday]
Eastern sages have long understood that (a) the bane of humanity is inauthenticity and that (b) inauthenticity is rooted in personality identification. Inauthentic identities – those sages understood – all have their own agendas around fears and desires and it those hidden agendas which determine (unconsciously) every thought that is thought, every word that is said, and, consequently, every deed that is done. So what can we suggest to address that problem, those sages asked? What plan can we develop to address personality identification and inauthenticity and the problems which they generate?
The plan that was dreamed up was to begin a search for what they identified as “The Real
You”; to begin a quest for the “Real Self” . . . the “Authentic Self” . . . the “Supreme
Self” . . . whatever. Then they gave a name to the process which could be used for
that quest: “The Self-Inquiry Process.”
Then they explained that “The Self-Inquiry Process” begins with a question, asking, “Who Am I,
really?” For many, the quest lasted for their entire lifetime - often
without ever finding the answer. That is still the case today. Why?
Maharaj undertook “The Process” and
worked at it for years. He also endorsed “The Process” for years, recommending
that seekers engage in spiritual exercises on a regular basis in order to
facilitate the completion of “The Process” and bring it to a happy conclusion. Yet he finally
reached a point when he saw that the problems of humanity center in the mind
and that “The Process” (which he, too, had used and endorsed) did nothing to address
the real problem of humanity (which is a mental problem) and that, to the contrary,
“The Process” more often than not aggravates the problems of personality identification and inauthenticity by encouraging the assumption of supposedly “new and improved”
identities (or a truly “Super” or “Grand” or Supreme” Identity)
and
exacerbates persons’ mental problems by inspiring escapism,
dissociation, and delusion (allowing many to conclude that they are totally in
touch with Reality but leaving them totally out of touch
with reality . . . with the relative existence . . . with the AM-ness because they become focused solely
on the THAT-ness).
Once he understood that the actual basis of the Ultimate
Sickness was not religious or spiritual but was mental, he began trying to
un-do and un-teach what he had done (as a result of “totally good intentions” that
were nevertheless rooted in totally bogus understandings / total misunderstandings).
So he advised:
Stop reading I AM THAT and listen to my present talks.
No God created you. You created God.
Give up spirituality.
Self-Inquiry is not essential . . . you do not need to find the answer to “Who Am I, really?” . . . it is enough to know who you are not. Why?
Stop reading I AM THAT and listen to my present talks.
No God created you. You created God.
Give up spirituality.
Self-Inquiry is not essential . . . you do not need to find the answer to “Who Am I, really?” . . . it is enough to know who you are not. Why?
Because of the shifts identified in those statements:
I am no longer interested in “The Self” (so he was no longer interested in “the Process” either).
Return to the normal.
Just abide naturally.
I am no longer interested in “The Self” (so he was no longer interested in “the Process” either).
Return to the normal.
Just abide naturally.
He had earlier given up the notion that religion might be
able to address the Ultimate Sickness.
Then he gave up the notion that spirituality could address the
Ultimate Sickness.
Then he gave up the notion that Self-Inquiry was essential
to treating the Ultimate Sickness.
And all of the shifts and the evolution in methodology used came
about because he was able to see what was not working and because he was not
attached to any identity such as “The Infallible Super Teacher"; therefore, he was not
blocked from giving up on what was not working and then try something else; he
was able to admit that - as a long-time dispenser of a variety of versions of
the Ultimate Medicine - that what he had prescribed had not effectively treated any
of the infected seekers who came his way and who continued to suffer from the Ultimate Sickness;
he came to understand that was a fact because he came to
understand that he had totally misdiagnosed the actual root source of his patients’ illness; he
came to see that their illness did not come about because they had accumulated
too little dogma or too little faith in a god or gods or goddesses or because
they were not engaging in enough spiritual exercises or because they had not
used “The Process” properly in order to find “The Authentic Self” or “The
Supreme Self”; and he came to understand that concepts and beliefs regarding dogma and
faith and spirituality and some grand sense of SELF-NESS only piled more
garbage onto the already-huge garbage heap of the mind.
Consider this when you hear the claim made that "the problems of the world are caused by the fact that persons understand
too little dogma and are not involved enough to religion":
Today, 6,911,500,000 out
of 7,125,000,000 people on the planet claim a religious affiliation. Would the
problems of the planet end if only the other 3% would get on the religion
bandwagon? Or is the case that 6.9 billion+ persons are being assigned more false identities
by their religions than by any other single source and that billions are, therefore, being driven by ignorant, myth-and-superstition-based belief systems which were dreamed up by ignorant, insane, would-be-controlling persons?
Of the other 3%, an ever-increasing number of those are claiming
to be “spiritual, not religious.” How many of those are being assigned new
identities or are assuming new identities?
Add those two together and see what the greatest sources of personality
identification and inauthenticity really are.
There are an average of 12.5 million people on the planet
who are claim “I am a doctor.”
There are about the same number of people on the planet who
claim “I am a lawyer.”
There are an average of 65 million people on the planet who claim “I am a military person.”
All of those professions, and all others, generate thousands
of false identities, yet even those numbers in the millions pale in comparison
to the total number of persons on the planet. Thus:
Nothing influences persons as much as religion and / or spirituality. Millions claim to be "this"; millions of others claim to be "that." But billions claim to be religious or spiritual. Millions are driven by "this" or "that" identity or belief, but billions are driven by the agendas of their religious or spiritual identities and beliefs. Nothing else compares to the impact resulting from the fact that 7 billion persons are being controlled by their religious and / or spiritual
belief systems and identities (or, for some, by “A Supreme Identity”).
And how’s that been working? Have those beliefs reduced even an iota the enormously-high
levels of the Ultimate Sickness or the enormously-high levels of the symptoms
of that Sickness (identified by Maharaj as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity")?
Or have those belief systems contributed to the enormously-high levels of the Ultimate
Sickness and "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"?
My daughter was recently working with a doctor whose methods
were not addressing her issue. She did not unconsciously decide that she was
going to give the doctor “just one more year to make me well, dammit, or I’m
outta here"). No. She changed doctors and methodology promptly. The change is bringing the results she sought.
I have people contact me who have spent twenty and twenty-five
and thirty years in a self-help group or recovery program who have heard only as a
slight dull whisper the inner resource which is actually screaming at the top of its lungs:
“It ain’t working, fool! Try something else. Hello?! Can you hear me!? I’m in here, not
out there.” Yet they are not really coming here for a change, for something else. They are merely looking
for a slightly-different version of the same-old-same-old that might be “fine-tuned a little bit better”
in order for them to finally get some results.
Only a warped mind could inspire one to say, "There's got to be more than this" but then continue to look for that "more" in the same place they have been looking for years without having found it there.
Few who are in such groups who are claiming that they have
been "restored to sanity” can look objectively at their continuing
self-destructive, self-defeating behaviors (which are merely of a different
variety from their former self-destructive and self-defeating behaviors but are
still nevertheless as destructive and defeating) and then honestly admit, "You know what? No such restoration has actually occurred at all."
To continue to be self-destructive when not under the influence is more insane that having been self-destructive when under the influence. The fact: "the influence" was not a drug or alcohol or any other substance. The influence was the nonsense in the mind - including the personality identifications and personality disorders and the neuroses and psychoses they led to - and until all of that goes, no restoration has happened. How can that conclusion be drawn? It's simple: one cannot be a little sane; either one is, or one is not.
With over seven billion people on the planet who are devoted
to their dogma or to their spiritual practices or to their “Authentic Self,” their
inauthenticity remains but has merely assumed a new form, taking on a new set
of personas as identities - in fact, as “really good” identities or as a really “Special Identity."
Maharaj finally began guiding seekers through the un-teaching
and un-learning process, inviting them to give up all of the learned ignorance they had
learned (much of it learned from him during the early days when he was misdiagnosing
the actual source of the Ultimate Sickness). The same is happening here now.
What about you? Are you still searching for gold in the same
old mine that has proved for years or for decades or even for a half century to be an empty
hole? Is there any delusional belief such as this:
"Well, at least I've found some
gold in this empty mine. I was completely broke when I came here, but at least I'm not totally broke anymore." Really? You might want to get a second opinion about that from someone other than your fellows whose thinking remains as unclear as yours. (Just a suggestion.)
Or is it possible that Maharaj was right when he noted that
it is only an empty mind that can lead to freedom and peace? That there is no
ultimate understanding? That there is no “Ultimate Self”? But that there is an Ultimate
Sickness which is calling for the proper version of the Ultimate Medicine which he
finally found but which most never will?
Authenticity comes when false identities go. Being "Self"-absorbed
is as far removed from sanity as being "self"-absorbed. ALL identification much
go for ignorance and insanity and being out of touch with reality to finally
come to an end.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE:
The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in
this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]
