Today's Considerations
Today, let the focus be on what Maharaj had to say about illusions.
While Maharaj’s perceptions were eventually rooted solely in the universal
consciousness, that is the case with only a few humans on the planet. He said: “Perception, imagination, expectation, anticipation, illusion
-- all are based on memory. There are hardly any border lines between them.
They just merge into each other. All are responses of memory.”
The problem with memory? If what is perceived and stored in memory
was perceived when all was being witnessed by way of a warped perspective, then
memories of everything perceived will be warped, illusory, and delusional.
Maharaj said: “When the psyche is raw, undeveloped, quite
primitive, it is subject to gross illusions.”
For example, a child understands nothing that is seen early
on. That misperceiving will continue into adulthood in almost every case because
whatever the child did not understand was explained to her or him by the adults around them . . . who were also misperceiving everything.
One cannot give away what one does not have (such as clear perspectives which are almost universally absent); one can only pass on what one does have, and what most humans have to pass on are their totally warped perspectives about everything.
Ignorance in not “home-grown” by one individual at a time. Ignorance
is passed along on a mass scale as families and cultures pass along their false
beliefs by way of domestication and acculturation.
Maharaj said: “Why do you worry about the world before taking
care of yourself? You want to save the world, don't you? Can you save the world
before saving yourself? And what means being saved? Saved from what? From illusion.
Salvation is to see things as they are. I really do not see myself related to anybody
and anything. Not even to a self, whatever that self may be. I remain forever -
undefined.”
Consider: in November of 1918, World War I ended with
assurances that “that was the war to end all wars.” By 1933, Germany was undertaking military preparations which would lead to World War II - called “the
most deadly war ever.” The United Nations was formed after WWII to "assure that
such wars would never happen again." They were finally going to save the world.
Their results? Since 1945, there have been 248 major armed conflicts
(201 of which the United States started or encouraged) along with thousands of other armed conflicts, each with a significant number of casualties.
[The U.S. involved in 81% of all major conflicts? Of course. Get yourself a nation
founded on the historical principles and beliefs and attitudes which have long been exhibited
by Aryan-WASP-Hun-types and you’re going to have a warlike nation with a population
of persons with a warrior-mentality. Fear of future attacks and revenge for past and current attacks
will dominate the minds of those in such populations, so right now, 60% of all persons in the U.S.
are reporting that their greatest fear is “being killed during a terrorist attack."]
Again, Maharaj: “What means 'being saved'? Saved from what?
From illusion. Salvation is to see things as they are.”
And again: “The way things really are the U.S. – contrary to
the prevailing illusions about who is killing whom in the greatest numbers - guarantees that one who is killed in an attack is
far more likely to be killed by a white Christian whom they know than by a
darker-skinned Muslim whom they do not know.
The illusory “Boogeyman” under the bed should remain in the province of childhood only, but when persons by the age of six develop fear-and-desire-based
personas which control their every thought and word and deed and generate fears and desires, then children
will take all of their childish, illusory fears into adulthood and then collect even more new ones.
Neither fewer arms nor more arms will prevent that which
the majority of persons currently fear. As for those who are arming themselves to prepare
for a pending personal attack on them, consider:
When robbers enter a bank with
guns drawn, intent on robbing it, who is killed first? The unarmed persons standing in
line at a teller’s window, or the persons who draws a gun – the guard?
Persons are allowing their illusions to make them mentally
and emotionally and physically ill. Maharaj was spot on: what most need to be
saved from first and foremost is themselves, their false selves, which generate
illness-inducing fear and anxiety and worry and concern and angst.
Yet those are the traits of Personality Type Sixes, and 50% of
the people on the planet are Type Sixes. It's really easy to reach a 60% fear-based population when 50% of them are already in that state, no matter what is happening. Such types would be better served if they armed
themselves with truth by way of a healthy dose of professional counseling than by
arming themselves with guns that are going to make them the first target chosen
during a shooting.
Thus Maharaj said: “After all, it is the mind that creates illusion
and it is the mind that gets free of it. Words may aggravate illusion (when
spoken from the perspective of a fear-based personality identification) and
words may also help dispel it” (if spoken from the perspective of the universal
consciousness).
How then to be rid of the problems generated by unfounded
fears and anxiety and angst?
Maharaj: “You cannot be rid of problems without abandoning illusions.”
How frequently does the scourge of illusions manifest? According
to Maharaj, illusions are “forever” happening: “Onto the screen of the mind destiny forever projects
its pictures, memories of former projections; thus illusion constantly
renews itself.”
How to break the pattern?
Maharaj: “When all illusions are understood and abandoned,
you reach the error-free and perfect state in which all distinctions between
the personal and the universal are no more.”
He encouraged seekers to find a “new perspective” or, as labeled
here, a “different perspective.”
Yet he admitted: “There is bound to be a conflict between
the old and the new, but if you put yourself resolutely on the side of the new,
the strife will soon come to an end and you will realise the effortless state
of being oneself, of not being deceived by desires and fears born of illusion."
Maharaj explained the challenge for humanity which is trapped in the chaos of
its near-ever-present, internal conflict which duality will guarantee:
“You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love,
happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war."
Universal hatred prevails, resulting as it does from being totally out of touch
with the universal understanding which can come only via the clear perspective
of the universal consciousness.
Maharaj: “Selfishness is always destructive. Desire and
fear, both are self-centred states. Between desire and fear anger arises; with
anger, hatred; with hatred, passion for destruction. War is hatred in action,
organised and equipped with all the instruments of death.”
It’s so easy for humans to find somebody to hate. When they
have a shortage, they can tune into the self-serving talks offered up by incensed, pontificating politicians
who are appealing to incensed voters who are being given whole new sets of persons to
hate.
Meanwhile, Maharaj recommended Love: “Wisdom is knowing that
I am nothing; Love is knowing that I am everything" (and everybody).
Last night, Jordan Smith sang about finding somebody to
love. If interested, here’s his performance which might offer at least a short
(four-minute and ten-second) respite from all of the hateful rhetoric which presently
dominates the airways in so many nations. Should you choose to do so, enjoy Jordan's musical performance. And
today, may you find somebody to love instead of someone new to hate:
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE:
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