TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Another different perspective which manifests among the wise is in regards to the use of meditation during "the awakening, enlightenment, liberation, realization process":
Most persons live their lives in a go-do-zoom mode. In the U.S., the majority only pause for two weeks, one time a year, and even during that vacation time, their insides are still churning away.
In western Europe, the trend is to vacation for a month, often in August, but the insides are also churning away, even in those cases. In other "industrialized" or "more developed" nations, the same churning happens.
There are a few cultures remaining where the relative existence unfolds at a reasonable pace, but the go-do-zoomers from other cultures are encroaching on those quieter cultures and disturbing their peace as well.
It has been noted that at one time, as Westerners were touting "freedom of speech," many Easterners were paying homage to "freedom from speech."
Now, much of the East has been pulled into the Westerners' go-do-zoom vortex as well.
Thus, most persons on the planet never meditate.
The "teachers" or "guides" of those who consider themselves to be on some sort of "path" or "journey" often make meditation a requirement, but that never happens the way it was originally intended and now the practice is seldom abandoned entirely (as it was in the past after realization came and when the quiet was not sought out for ten minutes a day or twenty minutes a day); instead, the silence merely happened, and it continued throughout each day for most of the waking hours of many among "the realized."
There was no "setting aside some time each day to be quiet." "The quietness manifested spontaneously and automatically. Do the naturally-abiding deer set aside a certain period and call it "quiet time," or do they just naturally remain quiet?
I suggest to seekers regarding continuous quiet vs. a brief fifteen-minute block of quietness, "Try it. You might like it, and if you don't, I assure you that most people who have to be around you will."
(I have watched hundreds over the years who are stuck at the third step where religious and spiritual ego-states are assumed and played. I have seen such types set up a rigid regimen and refuse to leave the house without having sat for fifteen minutes in the morning and "meditated." Some hummed during that period, but most sat in the quiet though they seldom quieted the mind.
Then they set off for work, running late because they delayed their departure for fifteen minutes.
Then, within a short distance from the house when they began feeling the stress of running later and being caught up in traffic and having to deal with other drivers who they deemed to be "total idiots," whatever peaceful effects they claimed that their fifteen minutes of meditation had provided suddenly disappear. Some confessed that, in that circumstance, they began raging, screaming at other drivers who cannot possibly hear them, shoot some "the finger," and then arrived at work in a more uncomfortable state than the one they had been in prior to their meditation time.)
That said, certain relevant pointers on the subject from the book A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga
will be shared:
The invitation offered via this series is to understand that "the fully realized" are no different from anyone who visits this site. That includes "the actually realized"; "the non-realized" who are seeking; "the non-realized" masses who are not seeking; and those claiming realization who think they have completed the entire "journey" but have not.
(Again, of the latter, Maharaj said that they mistakenly think that they are being bathed fully in the noonday sun when they are really only standing in the dim light of the dawn. So it is.)
The only possible difference among all of those in the groups mentioned above is in perspective, so certain perspectives here that might differ from perspectives held by "others" are being shared for consideration and - possibly - further enlightenment.
Next, another perspective here that differs from those held by most - including seekers as well as non-seekers - involves meditation. The actual contrast is between what meditation was originally about vs. what it is about nowadays after the process has been totally bastardized.
The discussion of the use (and misuse) of meditation bothers many, especially those who have assumed the persona of being "A Very Spiritual Person," the evidence of which includes the fact that they practice meditation regularly (and then regularly tell people how faithfully they practice meditation in an effort to support their false persona).
The suggestion is that if you have a regular meditation practice that you love because it is a key element of "your regular spiritual exercises," then you probably will not like the different perspective offered here. If you love being in what is supposedly a "super-conscious state,” don’t read this. If you love going into a trance, don’t read this. If you love the emotional surge of repeatedly experiencing "the rapture," don’t read this.
For the rest who are not emotionally-intoxicated and who are capable of objectively taking pointers into consideration, then you might be interested.
The fact is that many claiming realization, and most involved in the search, have so distorted the original intent of the meditative process that no early teacher of non-duality would even recognize what is called “meditation" today.
If you are involved in a regular meditative practice, are you fully awake, completely aware, and totally conscious in order to focus on pointers offered by "a realized teacher," or do you have other motives and goals?
If the latter, you might list the motives and goals and then ask, “Who wants to gain more than the understanding of the teachings and who wants something other than natural living for the remainder of the relative existence?”
Admittedly, the "personal" meditative practices here during the early stages of the "journey" were like all of the other elements which amounted to nothing more than spiritual workaholism. With unbounded effort and obsessive practice, meditation was done in the same present day fashion that many others may have equaled but that few surpassed.
After literally thousands of “meditative experiences,” realization still did not come. All the bells and whistles and meditative aids and practices were eventually seen to be for nil because no guides or guidebooks suggested that the original purpose of meditation was only . . . to take pointers into consideration.
With no one offering sound pointers anyway, there was no chance at all of practicing meditation as originally intended; instead, the instructions of most who had written meditative guides were being followed, so what was sought was not an understanding of key pointers that could lead to full realization.
Instead, what was sought was the “no-mind state”; what was being attempted was trying to force the “mind” to stop racing; what was sought was some “super-conscious state”; what was also sought in morning meditation was some kind of “spiritual experience” that would result in a peace that would last throughout the day; what was sought at other times was to have an overwhelming, “emotionally-rapturous experience.”
[If you read yesterday's post, you might now have the valuelessness of "experiences" in perspective.]
Yet there was always eventual failure, never consistently reaching "my" ultimate goal. There was no permanent success at forcing the "mind” to alter to "my will” or to be quiet and to be at peace. There was no success at bending the "mind" to "the will of some Unseen Power" or into alignment with "The Will of the Universe" (as if either of those were real).
To test how capable or incapable persons actually are at controlling their own mind and thoughts, protégés here are invited to conduct an experiment. Starting right now, be sure that you do not picture a monkey hanging by one arm from the limb of a tree in a jungle. Anything else that comes to mind is fine, but continue the exercise and, at all cost, do NOT picture a monkey hanging from a limb.
Moreover, do not see its fist closed tightly around the limb of a jungle tree, the other arm hanging loosely by its side, the monkey swaying back and forth in the air. Are you NOT picturing a monkey? Avoid at all costs the image of a monkey arising in your mind.
DON’T see a monkey hanging, a monkey swinging from a limb, a monkey screeching out its monkey sounds.
Uh oh. It is suspected that you’re picturing a monkey. Please stop it. Force yourself, if you must, not to picture that monkey that is still hanging from a limb, still swinging back and forth, its free arm swaying at its side. DON’T picture a monkey.
So how did you do with that experiment at controlling "your mind" and "your thoughts"? Has it been suggested to you by someone that you have the ability to control "your mind"? Has it been suggested that an entity in another realm can control "your mind" and change it to "your" advantage?
Has it been suggested that the only thing that can restore you to sanity is an Unseen, Higher Power, usually conceptualized as an all-powerful male?
Has it been a goal of "yours" to be able to calm "your mind"? Have fifteen to sixty minutes of meditative work per day proved effective at freeing you of a troublesome, variable mind during all of your remaining waking hours? If not, might another purpose of meditation exist, and might that purpose actually free you of the illusion of mind, once and for all?
A dilemma exists for most who begin dabbling with meditation: how can a person force an over-active “mind” to be still? As with the monkey experiment, the very act of trying to “calm a mind” accelerates its movement even more.
“Set a timer,” some advise. Fine, but when the timer sounds and the person continues with the activities of the day, those activities are still being conducted under the auspices of an ever-in-motion "mind";
thus, no lasting peace will happen.
The early sages assigned meditation with a specific intention, and reaching the “no-mind” state was not the intent. Meditation was actually intended to wake people up, not put them to sleep. Every entry in the Daily Meditation Guides offered here - as well as every posting on this site - all end with an invitation to enter the silence and then contemplate the point / pointers offered.
At no time in the last twenty-two years has it ever been suggested that a student or visitor or guest or participant at a session “go into a trance,” “seek a super-conscious state as a regular habit,” or “experience the rapture.” Exercises conducted in the quiet along the “journey” are tools, yes, but when a homeowner’s house is built, he puts away his tools and then simply enjoys the new place he’s in. So it should be with the tool called "meditation" as well.
(By the way, is some turbulence now being experienced around this discussion of meditation? If so, who - what ego-state - is bothered? When a "spiritual practice" is questioned, only a spiritual persona can react and be “bothered,” revealing that one is "stuck" at the third of seven steps on "the path."
It has been asked: “But Floyd, didn’t you tell me that during your days of regular meditation that you slowed your heart rate by seventeen beats per minute? That’s got to be healthy.” Of course it’s healthy. The same still happens . . . during rest.)
Meditation is a tool for those on a “journey,” enabling seekers who are receiving pointers from "a realized teacher" to sit in the quiet, to remain fully awake, to consider the pointers offered, to come to a different understanding, and to allow a totally different perspective to manifest. The tool is to be used to lead to realization (which Maharaj defined simply as "freedom from learned ignorance").
So, meditation was originally assigned with one specific purpose. The one specific intent was to provide a seeker with an invitation to be quiet, to stop all talking, and to take the opportunity to consider pointers offered by the teacher, pointers which can eventually remove from personas the false belief in the illusion of person … persona … personality . . . self.
After realization, who could have any remaining goal? All "who's" end.
Originally, only one purpose of meditation was intended: not to reach a "state without thought" but to consider a pointer offered until that point was understood.
Consideration and understanding, not “motionless consciousness,” was the intent. Realization is marked by the recognized presence of the re-purified consciousness which facilitates in bringing about an awareness of awareness, an awareness of one's Original Nature, and an ability to abide as that / THAT for the remainder of the manifestation.
Realization is never about giving persons the ability to control or suppress the movements of contaminated or blocked consciousness or the ability to control or suppress the movements of a contaminated "mind." When modern-day meditative practices have either of those as a desire or goal, then the presence of personality and role-assumption is revealed.
The original intent of entering into a period of meditation was to be fully awake, fully conscious, and fully aware, not to numb out the "mind" - which can never be numbed permanently anyway; however, the "mind" can be eliminated permanently. How?
By permanently casting out the bogus content of the "mind." (How? By casting aside all beliefs which "they" have taught you); thus, the pointer offered here is this:
There is no such thing as "peace of mind"; there is only peace if you are out of your "mind."
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. 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.]
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.
