TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Specific "reasons" cause persons to be obsessive and compulsive
• and render them unable to relax
• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling).
• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest
• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.
So, to continue:
Persons also obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #15: because persons who have been programmed, conditioned, etc. to believe the beliefs which others pass on to them, and accept those beliefs as true even though there is not one single fact to support those beliefs, are suffering from delusion and distortion and ignorance and one degree or another of insanity.
So the causes of reason #15 are:
PROGRAMMING and CONDITIONING and DOMESTICATION and ACCULTURATION and INDOCTRINATION and BRAINWASHING and DELUSION and DISTORTION and IGNORANCE and INSANITY
Most of those have been discussed. As for delusion, that is defined "a belief that is held with strong conviction despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary" and as "a belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument."
It is "typically a symptom of mental and personality disorders"; thus, delusion is "a type of serious mental illness in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is not."
Ignorance breeds ignorance. Yes, genetics can play a role, but as Maharaj pointed out, the most common form of ignorance among humans is "learned ignorance"; thus, he said, "all knowledge is ignorance."
Moreover, he clarified that "realization is but the opposite of ignorance." Wait. Realization is not some exalted happening that involves some grand, lofty, elevated deal that is strictly about some "other-worldly" consciousness or understanding? No. It is about what is going on during the AM-ness.
It is about being free of ignorance now. Later, there is no "one" to reap any benefits of being free of ignorance. That freedom is only relevant now.
Maharaj said, "The circles of ignorance may be ever-widening, yet it remains a bondage all
the same," and that bondage can manifest as a lifetime of needless workaholism in the areas of religion, spirituality and "self" improvement.
Insanity is often rooted in biological and situational / environmental factors.
I have two neighbors whose sons have both displayed clear evidence of being mentally ill. The adult-age son across the street went into his backyard with a pistol and blew his brains out. Most in the neighborhood who have dealt with the second family next door predict that the young son there will likely get a gun some day and shoot his father - and maybe the other family members as well - and then either kill himself or try to escape and die in a death-by-cop scenario.
In the first case, the mother across the street is trapped in the depths of insanity. In the second case, the father is trapped in insanity and behaves like a sociopathic, psychopathic, raging lunatic.
So, have the parents in both cases passed down some genetic defect which manifested in their offspring, or did the offspring become insane after years of living with insane parents, seeing insanity being modeled all day long every day, perceiving that insanity to be "normal," and then modeling the insane thought patterns and behavioral patterns of the parents?
That cannot be determined by witnessing alone, but both serve as an example of the pointer that insanity can be passed down genetically but can also result from living in a situation where the authorities in one's life are insane or where the authorities in one's life have created an environment in which the "normal" is never modeled and in which the "abnormal" is presented as being "normal."
Persons also obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #16: because persons are not likely to find anyone who knows what the real sources of humanity's problems are.
The cause of reason #16 is:
ARROGANCE
Some ask, "Really? But what about this and that and that other thing?"
The reply: All the reasons that you are naming do indeed have some tangential effects, but the primary reason that persons do not find anyone who knows what the real sources of humanity's problems are is because they do not seek such a one, and the reason they do not seek such a one is because
(1) they think they already know all they need to know
and / or
(2) they believe that they have a "holy book" or "special book" with infallible content that can tell them all they will ever need to know.
What is that if not arrogance?
Arrogance has been defined as "a person's sense of his or her own importance and intelligence and that shows itself in a proud and even insulting way."
Being arrogant has been defined as "being disposed to exaggerate one's own worth or importance or intelligence or vast body of knowledge" or "showing an attitude of superiority in an overbearing manner."
Yes, ignorance is involved when persons believe that their supposedly "holy" or "special" book is uniquely able to identify what is right and what is wrong and able to tell persons exactly how they should live:
"Well you need to stop behaving the way that you behave because my Bible tells me that . . . ."
or
"You need to believe what I believe because my Quran tells me that . . . ."
or
"I know we are the people that god prefers above all others because we are told in the Torah that . . . ."
or
"Well, the first 164 pages of my Big Book make damn clear that . . . ."
or
"The modern spiritual classic I AM THAT is my Bible, and it has all of the truth I need to know (unlike what appears in the later talks by Maharaj when he rejects . . . .")
He who thinks he knows all actually knows nothing and will not be open to understanding what is begging to be understood.
To be free of the effects of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and indoctrination and brainwashing and delusion and distortion and ignorance and insanity and arrogance, one must first see the presence of all of those.
This weekend, I'll be providing another service I offer as a "financial counselor," conducting a seminar for individuals who want to be restored to financial sanity. Who will come to the seminar and which of those in attendance will be most likely to succeed in their search for financial sanity?
First, those who have awakened at least enough to know that they have been totally asleep around the way they handle their money, but that alone will not be enough.
Secondly will be those who are revolted to at least some degree about the debt they have incurred and about how much work and time they have wasted because they never understood that what is far more important is how much of what you earn you keep rather than how much you earn per se.
(A person making $30,000 a year who puts away 10% of all earnings each month will be far better off thirty years later than a person who makes $1,000,000 per year but spends $1,100,000 per year).
And thirdly, the ones over the years who have really turned things around and gained financial sanity and are now enjoying the peace that comes with that sanity and that freedom from the constant pressure of worrying about money are the ones who experience some degree of disgust.
Disgust? Yes. Disgust.
Persons will tolerant the most intolerable conditions in their "relationships" or jobs or whatever if they do not reach a point of disgust.
Consider:
The last time I visited Seattle, I drove up to the University of Washington and visited with Dr. John Gottman and his wife Julie Schwartz. Dr. Gottman has been recognized as "one of the ten most influential therapists of the past quarter century."
We talked about a pointer of his that I had read about regarding the fact that, in his four decades of research, Dr. Gottman has found contempt to be the #1 predictor of divorce. He explains that contempt is poisonous because it conveys disgust, and if contempt and disgust are not addressed promptly and effectively, the die is likely cast; therefore, I asked him to "please expand upon your findings regarding disgust and the buccinator muscle."
He explained that contempt is one of the emotions that he watches for in his "Love Lab," and its presence can be revealed physically. He found that it is detectable through the "dimpler muscle," or "the buccinator muscle," which pulls a lip corner to the side and creates a distinctly "uncute" dimple, often combined with an upward eye roll.
If that twists shows up when a couple is in a session, the likelihood of a divorce may well be imminent if an effective intervention does not happen.
A partner's lip is twisted up and to the side, like this?
The end of the current story may well be about to draw to a close.
What does that have to do with being free of financial insanity?
Those who have been most successful at using the plan presented and sticking with it and bringing about a shift to financial sanity are the ones who showed some degree of disgust about their history with money or their partner's history with their money.
Those who have succeeded have been the ones who were sick and tired of the nonsense and the effects of nonsensical thinking and nonsensical behavior around finances.
Well, the same applies with those who get the understanding offered here:
They must first awaken at least enough to know that they have been totally asleep around the insane way that their IS-ness has been unfolding.
Secondly, they must become somewhat revolted about the toll of years of nonsensical thoughts and words and actions.
And thirdly, they must experience some degree of disgust which is enough to inspire them to end the kind of nonsensical existence which they have been living and to seek a means which will free them from a relative existence which has been marked and marred by the Ultimate Sickness and its symptoms of ignorance and insanity.
What blocks persons from seeing their ignorance and insanity? First, their ignorance and insanity,
and secondly,
their through-the-roof levels of arrogance.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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