MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “D”

Today's Considerations

In Chapter Two (Understanding "The Child Ignorance State" or "the Child No-Knowing Stage") of the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"

this is shared:

There comes with each form or space a seed of consciousness.  One property of that seed and the manifested consciousness is conscious-of-ness, that is, the ability to be conscious of consciousness. The property of that seed allows the form to be conscious of itself, that is, of its beingness . . . its present existence . . . its Is-ness . . . its AM-ness. Another property of the seeds of consciousness and the manifested consciousness (if the mess generated by programming, conditioning, etc. is undone) is to be aware of the unicity, the Oneness; thus, over a period of approximately twenty-four months, a child senses

that it is its mother 

and senses

that its mother is it. 

As the child enters into the age bracket of 2-3 (an age span that is known in some cultures as "the Terrible Two's") a shift occurs. The shift is discussed in detail in the author's book on Programming, Conditioning, Domestication and Acculturation (The Sources of the Ultimate Sickness & The Non-Duality Treatment)

but the short version is this: during the early "zero concepts," no-mind phase referred to herein as "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," the child is merely witnessing, and the child witnesses by using both types of witnessing:

1. As its vision improves, it witnesses on a Subject-Object basis;

2. yet the child is also - for the first two years - witnessing in something very similar to the Pure Witnessing manner as well (which is all that the term “True Self” refers to: not to "The Pure Witness" and not to some "post-manifestation Self" but simply to the Pure Witnessing which happens via use of the universal consciousness as opposed to the blocked consciousness).

In other words, even though the child engages in S-O witnessing, it still senses the Oneness, as is the case with “the Realized” that come to know the Oneness and come to see the unicity while still moving through the relative and while still witnessing objects but knowing that they are not as they appear to be. (Take that as an example of the way the relative existence can happen when one uses eyesight to avoid running into objects but also knows the unity beyond the supposed multiplicity: the I AM goes on, but the I AM THAT is understood, so this is the result: Realization - which is simply a return to the former condition of being free of the effects of learned ignorance and imposed insanity - is then overlaid upon the "relative reality." That is, Reality is overlaid on reality).

So, during its first 20-24 months, a child is as close to "Pure Witnessing" as will ever happen for the entirety of the manifestation (except for the few that "Realize" – that is, that become free of learned ignorance - later on). Why? Because the child until about the age of 2 identifies with the mother, which is as close to an actual sense of Oneness as will happen with most persons. The child takes that familiar voice that was heard while the child was in the womb - and then takes the source of that voice that the child finally sees during the post-womb days - to be . . . the child itself, its self.

(The womb is anything but a quiet place, and by the end of the second trimester, a child can hear. In addition to the sounds generated by the internal organs of the mother, the child also hears the mother and others speaking, and research shows that a child - even in the womb - prefers the mother's voice to that of anyone else.) That preference for the mother's voice, and that identification with the mother, continues for the first 20+ months or so. Then, the child begins to take notice of its own body and begins to notice that its body is separate from the mother's body.A sense of ME-ness replaces the earlier sense of AM-ness, of mere Being-ness.

As a result, the child begins automatically to develop a sense of self without ever having chosen to do so. Only Subject-Object Witnessing remains because the use of the earlier form of "Pure Witnessing" (which sensed the Oneness) comes to an end. Ironically, therefore, it is that which is a natural, developmental process which sets the stage for all of the unnatural thinking and modes of living - and all of the supernatural / magical thinking and modes of living - which are to come.

Thus, a sense of duality begins - spontaneously - at that point, and everything that the child will be taught from that point on will reinforce a sense of duality and separation and distance while pushing the individual - the developing persona / personas - farther and farther away from that original sense of the Oneness.

Soon, the desires of that individuated self take preference over the wishes of the mother, and what was labeled as "mommie's little angel" turns into what will be labeled as a "Terrible Two" or a "little devil." Then an onslaught of programming and conditioning - along with heavy doses of domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination - begins as efforts are made to try to control the child; to try to teach the child what is right and wrong; to try to teach the child what is okay and what is not okay; and to try to teach the child what it must stop doing and what it should always do instead.

Among parents who are available and who are willing to exert the effort that wisdom-based child-rearing requires, all of the available parental energy and effort and attention will be geared toward trying to turn the "Terrible Two" or "little devil" back into "mommie's little angel." (Ha. Good luck. By then, the cows will have already left the barn, so to speak, and closing the door at that after-the-fact point will be an exercise in futility.)

With the masses, that game will often be played out constantly from childhood on, all the way into the child's adult years, with parents continuing to try to exert control and influence and with the child / adult seeking approval and "love" and positive feedback and affirmation (all actually the "stuff" of ego and egotism and the "stuff" which causes adult-aged humans to live in a childish mode). Yet how many ever reach that "Full Understanding"? Few. 

A visitor asked, "If Maharaj was right and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?" The reply: "In terms of that (and THAT) which is beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'." 

What was the man who asked “Why even try?” referring to? As noted, Maharaj said at one point that only 1 out of 100,000 will ever fully understand what he was offering. After years of dealing with seekers and being presented with more and more evidence of the fact that those who seemed to "get it" did not really "get it" at all, he modified his estimate and said that only one in a million would "get it." Near the end of the manifestation of that speck of conscious-energy, after even more years of witnessing how few truly understood what he was sharing, he revised his estimate and said that only one in ten million might ever Realize Fully.

Of course his numbers had no factual, research-based support; he was sharing an estimate based in the intuitive sense that came after decades of working with seekers and seeing that even the most ardent and intelligent could not genuinely grasp even the simplest non-dual understanding. And his estimates included those who came to the loft after having visited and studied with many of Maharaj's contemporaries, so the final estimate that only one in ten million would ever Realize included not only the seekers who sat with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj; the estimates also included seekers who had studied with Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, who had been taught by Sri Ranjit Maharaj, who sat with Sri Kadsiddheshwar Maharaj, who heard the teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi as well as seekers who had visited with hundreds of other sages, only to have their statements and questions heard in Maharaj's loft reveal that they did not even understand the basic, simple, foundational elements of non-duality.

(The same applies today among those seekers who are trying to use non-duality to escape, to avoid, and to dissociate from all things relative and to move mentally (and psychotically) into some FooFoo Land in the sky; moreover, that is also why sky cults (religions) as well as spiritual movements have been so popular among so many for so long: they seem to offer an escape, a way to avoid, a way to dissociate from the vicissitudes of the relative existence.

Maharaj saw that even the wisdom of those sages that was shared with seekers first-hand by him and by his contemporaries was falling on deaf ears. (Of course, Maharaj was the only one that came to see that the religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine was having no effect on the Ultimate Sickness; that came to see that the spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine was having no effect on the Sickness; and that came to understand that it is the psychological, mental roots of the Sickness which need to be addressed.)

[Occasionally, seekers will make contact here and indicate that they want to enroll in the online non-duality course or attend a non-dual retreat, but they add that they will only enroll if a "guarantee" will be given, "assuring" them that they will "get" this understanding via that course. They do not understand the laughter that follows such statements.]

Here, evidence supporting the accuracy of Maharaj's estimate manifests daily, especially when contact is made by those who are sure that they "have it," who want to show how much they know, but who then make comments or ask questions which reveal that there is no understanding at all. In so many cases that Maharaj spoke of, and in so many cases now happening here, it is as if one might report:

"I have mastered the content of the courses I have taken, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, differential equations, calculus, and statistics, and I am sure that my accumulated knowledge is beyond a master's degree level and is at the doctorate level for certain," only to have them ask the next day if 3 minus 2 really equals 1 or to report that they are certain that twenty minus ten equals twelve and that I am so wrong when I claim that it equals ten.

Maharaj saw what is being seen here more and more often, namely that

a. those assuming the role of "The Knower" are convinced that they really know

but that the actual facts are these:

b. persons cannot possibly know what they do not yet know, and

c. most persons know / understand far less than they assume that they know / understand.

More and more, the evidence suggests that most seekers who believe "they have found" are as unaware as those among “the non-Realized” masses who have never even sought. Most do not even know which of the five teachings methods - if any - their favorite teacher or favorite writer is using; and most have no clue at all about what yoga - if any - their favorite writer or teacher is offering. Yet they are sure that anything that differs from what they have heard or read and accepted must be false or "wrong."

And when the most basic pointers are not grasped, then what chance is there that the other realizations which come at the end of seeking can possibly be understood, including an understanding of:

** the beginning-less-ness

** the myth of "creation"

** manifesting

** consciousness

** unmanifesting

** awareness

** the myth of "supernatural living"

** de-accumulating

** the illusion of the "mind"

** the Reality and reality of abiding naturally

** desirelessness

** the fact that "bliss" can only be known now, not "later"

** the non-beingness

** identity-less-ness

**lightness / lightment vs. enlightenment

and

** the nothingness / the void.

So if Maharaj's estimates were spot on, then you, too, might ask: "If Maharaj was correct and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?"

To those who raise that question, the reply, again, is the same to all: "In terms of that / THAT beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. What happens post-mahasamadhi to the three parts of the earth elements-air-consciousness-triad will happen spontaneously and naturally, and there will be neither a "you" nor a "You" nor a "Special You" afterwards. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'."

Coming up:  a discussion of . . .

why the invitation to begin the "journey" along the seven-step "path" to Full Realization is extended, even if the chances of completing that "journey" are slim,

and

2. why completion of even four of the seven steps can make the effort amazingly worthwhile, relatively speaking.

To be continued

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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