TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AM-NESS VS. THE THAT-NESS: Maharaj's Paramount Shift, Part C"
So why did Maharaj's perspective regarding the AM-ness and the THAT-ness shift thusly . . .
giving more "weight" to the AM-ness?
By abandoning the promotion of SELF-Enquiry
and
by recommending self-enquiry instead
and
by advising seekers to give up the quest to find out "Who You Truly Are" (a "THAT-ness concern")
and
by encouraging them instead to find out everything that they are not ("an AM-ness concern" involved with finding all of the false personal identifications which have been believed in and then rejecting all of those)
then the attempt was to have seekers redirect their focus from THAT to the AM-ness.
To that end, he reminded seekers that "Living is life’s only purpose."
Not being fanatical about trying to become an expert about "THAT"? No.
Not assuming "good" roles to replace all of those former "bad" roles? No.
Not about becoming able to ignore "reality" by focusing only on "Reality"? No.
He said, "The very idea of becoming this or that is unthinkable."
Can one find numerous pointers in I AM THAT which contradict that? Yes, and that is why he advised seekers to "stop reading the talks in I AM THAT. Listen to my later talks." So much of those talks dealt with SELF-Enquiry and THAT-ness. His later talks shifted away from that / THAT and focus more on the only thing which persons with some remaining speck of sanity can affect: the condition of their relative existence . . . NOW, not later.
He advised, "Live without self-concern," which includes living without SELF-concern.
His aim was also to encourage seekers to focus more on the AM-ness than the THAT-ness - more on "NOW" than "later" - when he explained that persons' memories about "the past" are all distortions (saying, "In the great mirror of consciousness images arise and disappear and only memory gives them continuity. And memory is material - destructible, perishable, transient.")
Similarly, his aim was also to encourage seekers to focus more on the AM-ness than the THAT-ness - more on "NOW" than "later" - when he made clear that their beliefs about "the future" and karma and rebirth / reincarnation were also distortions.
Thus, he invited seekers to focus only on the NOW (which is also "an AM-ness concern").
He said, "The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and now, I am’."
See? There is nothing about "the past: that can be known for sure; there is nothing about "the future" that can be known for sure. If awake, aware, and conscious right now, then what is happening in the NOW can be known for sure.
Finally, the only point to "Realization" (which Maharaj explained is just being freed from "learned ignorance") is to be in a position to overlay Reality (freedom from ignorance) on reality;
that is, to understand the original state of being free from ignorance; to return to that condition; and then to abide for the remainder of the AM-ness - the remainder of the relative existence, the remainder of the manifestation - in wisdom rather than in ignorance.
That is not about trying to change anything about "your future." It is about being free of all personality-and-ignorance-based thoughts and words and actions which are happening right NOW.
Look at Maharaj's final estimate / guesstimate of how many will grasp the above and see that the only justification for undergoing the realization process is to be freed of ignorance and to be in touch with wisdom and then to overlay that wisdom on the AM-ness
and then
you will see that for each one who "gets" that, there are ten million others who will use their version of the "realization process" to move mentally away from the relative; to escape; to dissociate; to relocate to some mental FooFoo Land; to detach from the AM-ness, from reality;
to become divorced from the relative; to separate from the IS-ness; to flee, to run away, to break out, to be distracted, to dodge, and to elude.
And when that is the case, one is not wise at all.c Why? Because it is actually both ignorant and insane to be detached from reality.
Again, the different perspective which results from truly understanding can allow seekers to shift away from what persons can never be present for (i.e., the post-manifestation THAT-ness) and can allow them to focus on the only thing which they can be present for, namely, the happenings during the NOW-ness, the state of the present AM-ness, and the condition of the IS-ness which is right NOW.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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