TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
It has been shown that "The Causes of the Ultimate Sickness" become "The Symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness" to the degree that "The Causes" (distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing") result in the passing down from one generation to the next the symptoms of the Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." Then, once the symptoms manifest in one generation, then those symptoms become the cause of the Sickness being passed down to the next generation.
So the transmission of the Ultimate Sickness now involves entrapment in a cycle of nonsense and what Maharaj called "learned ignorance."
You may have heard someone report something like this: "Well, my son brought home the crud from school, he passed it on the sickness to his brother and sister, they passed the illness to me, and I passed it on to my husband. We're all sick as can be." (Never have persons shared anything that is more accurate without actually knowing just how sick they are and without knowing what the most serious Sickness is which they have contracted.)
Yes, the scenario the mother described above is the very pattern by which the Ultimate Sickness is transmitted.
Because no one can give away anything other than what one has, then entrapment in "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" will lead to those persons passing down the "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" they have to the next generation, those in that generation pass down the "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" they have to another generation, ad infinitum.
And what do distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing generate? A mind.
Now this is a key point in understanding what the Sickness is about and how it is to be treated:
Humans originally had no mind!
It was not until the human brain evolved from its original one cup size to its present 3-1/2 cup size that any human ever had a mind, that is, ever had areas of the brain where information could be stored and from which information could be retrieved.
The earliest version of "the mind" was originally "an asset" for humanity when it was filled with facts, such as when Thor witnessed Rickback fall off a cliff and break into pieces on the rocks below and then stored in the mind-part of his brain the intuitive message, “Take caution around the edges of cliffs. The potential is an event which will not contribute to the survival of the species.”
Now, however, as a result of distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing, the mind - as Maharaj made clear in multiple warnings - is "a liability."
Thus, Maharaj’s eventual focus was on what he came to see as the root source of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the mind. He had already tried and abandoned a religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine and a spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine; he had modified his stance regarding SELF-Inquiry and said:
“You do not need to find the answer to the question, ‘Who Am I?’”
and that
“It is enough to know who you are not”;
he advised seekers to stop reading the talks in the so-called "spiritual classic" I AM THAT and to listen to his later talks
and
to “just give up spirituality”
and
to abide “normally and naturally” instead.
Seeing that the problems of humanity are all centered in the mind, he said:
"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind."
“Don’t rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether.”
"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."
“The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.”
"All illness begins in the mind."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."
" . . . The mind obscures and distorts."
"Beyond the mind there is no suffering.”
[Note the distinction between “pain” on one hand and "misery and suffering" on the other: pain is rooted in the body; misery and suffering are rooted in the mind.]
His advice:
"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."
"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ."
[Here the point is that ideas, concepts, notions, perceptions, values, etc. can all be clustered into one single group or classification: beliefs; thus, it would be said here that “There is no such thing as mind. There is only a conglomeration of beliefs; moreover, those are not 'your beliefs' but are actually just 'their beliefs' which have been accepted on blind faith without any logical or reasonable or objective questioning at all.”]
Maharaj:
"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom."
So what was the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state:
"There is no such thing as a mind."
"I have no mind . . . ."
"Reach a state of zero-concepts."
"As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."
"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably."
Want to address the Ultimate Sickness properly? Then one must address the issue of the mind.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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