TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that.
TO REVIEW:
Non-duality and non-duality-based seeking has everything to do with treating the Ultimate Sickness, a sickness which Maharaj eventually came to see has everything to do with "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" and has nothing to do with either knowing too little dogma or with having a "spiritual malady" or a "sick spiritual" or being "spirituality unfit."
To that end, Maharaj would eventually explain that "realization" is simply a process by which a person can be restored to her or his original condition by "being free of all learned ignorance," including being free of all body and mind and personality identification which is also the result of learned ignorance.
Hence . . .
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL":
The Near-Impossible Task of Breaking the Hold of Beliefs -Especially Religious and / or Spiritual Beliefs
But who (trapped in the belief that their religious institution or spiritual program or guru is already providing all of the answers they will ever need) will seek anything, much less a totally different experience?
Now, with 97% claiming an affiliation with one organized religion or another (in most cases, the one which was thrust upon them by their parents) and with millions more bragging that they "are not religious but are spiritual," what chance is there for a new experience of their own? Practically nil.
Maharaj: “Trace your misunderstandings and abandon them.” Yet who is likely to engage in such “tracing” when almost all humans - because of egotism and arrogance and because of their blind-faith-based beliefs - are convinced that those beliefs and teachings have produced no misunderstandings at all?
Who is likely to have a new and different experience with such unfounded confidence in, and dedication to, their belief systems, no matter how nonsensical and ignorant and insane their beliefs are?
Who is likely to be willing or even able to make a conscious decision to declare: “I am willing to set aside everything I think I understand; willing to admit that there is a possibility that what I have been told and what I have read might not be true; willing to admit that there might be a chance that, through no fault of my own, I have lost the ability to differentiate true from false;
willing to question everything in an objective and reasonable fashion (which likely will require guidance for a while from someone else)” willing to become educable; and willing to seek a totally new experience"?
Yet it can occasionally happen. That is the state of willingness which Andy Gugar, Jr. had to reach in order to come here for a retreat the first time we met. In the introduction to the four-book anthology entitled "The Advance Seekers' Series," Andy wrote:
“I had reached a point where I felt as if I were going to pop right out of my skin from all of the suffering and misery and anxiety and stress that had characterized my existence.
“For me, it had to get so bad that I became willing and ready - ready to give up all of the ideas and beliefs that had served me not at all and to seek the Truth that was obviously beyond all of the concepts I had ever taken to be the truth.
“Eventually, I went to a retreat at Floyd's home and left three days later having found that I was not only willing to give up all of those concepts but had become willing to give up this fear-based "Andy" that had been at the root of my problems.”
What is required to be free of the influence of the key sources of duality – religion and / or spirituality and / or “the journey which seekers are on” - all of which are generating a sense of self-importance (or “Self”-Importance)?
An understanding of this:
Maharaj: “There have been thousands of avatars and great men, and important personalities. Has a single one of them been able to do anything to change the natural course of events in the world?” Of course, his answer was, “No.”
He asked: “Who is to take care of what? I know what has come upon my original state, and there is nothing to take care of that. It is a happening that has come and will take care of itself. And whatever has happened, I have not been affected.
So, again, 'WHO' is to take care of what? I am not concerned with taking care of anything. The world has been in existence for millions of years” but, again his query was, "has anyone ever been able to do anything to change the natural course of events in the world?” Of course not.
So Maharaj made clear that no one has every made a difference as far as "changing the natural course of events in the world.” An understanding of that pointer should shake loose some of any person's sense of self-importance, but the point will almost always be debated, argued, and rejected. What other "self-importance-interrupting" facts are available?
At its most basic level, Maharaj clarified that “the you” which persons take themselves to be is actually nothing more than what he called “a composite unity.” That three-part combination involves (1) a temporarily-manifested elemental plant food body with its parts continuously coming together and coming apart;
(2) the air which circulates into and out of the space formed by those elements which are forever coming and going; and (3) the conscious-energy which also circulates into and out of the space formed by those elements. (Yes, the consciousness is also forever coming and going, so humans must eat regularly in order to replenish the supply. Only the distortions of “memory” result in a false sense of continuity.)
As for those who believe that they are important enough and talented enough and intelligent enough to “make a difference,” Maharaj’s advice was basically this:
Want to work to try to make a difference? Go ahead and give it a shot, but understand that, in the long haul, you will not make a dent in the ignorance-and-insanity-rooted problems of humanity.
He understood that he was not going to make a dent and he understood that those who came to loft were not going to make a dent and he would have understood that I am not going to make a dent and he would have understood that you will not make a dent.
Still want to give it a shot? Go ahead. Might as well, if it can happen from the position of the impartial witnessing. Lay it out without attachment to results and then have some fun with the process while dancing lightly. Whatever. But the key question remains:
If one wants to be about the business of giving people "what they need," then that begs the question, “WHO, what ego-state, believes that she or he really knows what anyone needs?”
To be continued.
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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.
THE EXPLANATION
If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.
Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."
The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").
Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.
"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you."
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
XX"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men"
and
"There is no hell."
