TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. [See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]
2. 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.
3. A new video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group."
4. My assistant found two paperback copies of the book co-authored with Mark Houston, A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation, an excellent gift for someone struggling with an addiction to alcohol (or to anything else, really). The book lists for $19.95 + Priority Mail shipping. To purchase, you may use the donate button at the top right of this page and include a note that the $27.60 is for the Twelve-Step book. Regrets to international visitors but this is only available within the U.S. because international shipping rates are prohibitive and time-consuming and cannot be tracked.
In the end, the "goal" of Maharaj (and in the teachings as presented by this author) were to
1. remove the ignorance that inspires attachment to religious or spiritual or philosophical concepts and exercises and accoutrements and to
2. bring to an end all thoughts and words and deeds that support unnatural / supernatural living, giving way to
3. living in an all-natural (nisargan) fashion as one's original nature.
The "later Maharaj" or "Pure Maharaj," therefore, offered less and less tolerance for those "hanging out" at the third of seven steps to Realization.
Yes, the religious or spiritual or philosophical roles have to be played for a time, but the longer Maharaj taught, the less tolerant he was of those fixating at a place on the "path" that is not even the halfway point of the "journey."
Thus, he spoke of their "kindergarten spirituality." He noted that "there are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full realization . . . ."
For all the spiritual and religious and philosophical talk in I AM THAT, the most direct pointers he offered contained less and less of the earlier "beating around the bush"; thus, he said to two visitors, "Forget spirituality."
He encouraged seekers to follow "their normal inclinations," that is, to follow their natural tendencies, to abandon all of their spiritual work and just abide naturally - not unnaturally and not supernaturally (i.e., neither "religiously" nor "spiritually" nor "philosophically").
He told visitors, "Do your normal duties" and "just give up spirituality."
And thus the pointer in this book that his message, or focus, did evolve and varied to the degree that he became more and more direct, wasting less time with "foundational and preparatory pointers" that would
(a) tolerate for a time the assumption of seekers' "new and improved and good" religious or spiritual or philosophical personas and that would sometimes gently guide seekers beyond their obsession with the religious or spiritual or philosophical step and instead
admonish them, in a far more direct manner than earlier, to
(b) be free of all that drives them to live unnaturally and to
(c) abandon their efforts to live supernaturally and to
(d) get on with the spontaneous process of merely living naturally.
At one point, Maharaj did admit that he, too, had been bogged down at the third step of seven and made clear that he was trying to spare seekers from the years or decades of being similarly bogged down. He said: "I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality, [but] finally I lost that love of the Self also. I have no more love for the Self."
Imagine how the critic quoted in Chapter One who is fixated in a spiritual giant role would be appalled by that comment and would take it as evidence that - after I AM THAT - Maharaj "declined."
Recall Maharaj's pointer that “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
When a visitor said, "The scriptures say that we have our karma and our sins and that is why we are here," Maharaj answered: "That is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized . . . , for him [or her] these stories are of no use."
When following his guru’s words rather than what came when he tapped solely into the wisdom of the universal consciousness, he did speak of karma during those early days when he was offering a Hindu / non-dual combination of the Ultimate Medicine.
Eventually he would reject all notions about the concept of karma. His pointer that the dispelling of the rumor of one’s birth most certainly dispels any rumors regarding multiple births should end any notion that he believed in reincarnation.
Again, recall that he said, “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
These questions were once asked of the author:
"So beyond all that talk of the varied phases of 'the Absolute' or 'Brahman,' the question is, 'Once that "Cosmic Self" is found, what is one to do with it'?"
and
"One should be reminded of the dog chasing a car: once it catches up with the car, what is it to do with it?"
Those two questions might be worth consideration for some seekers, not at all for others.
If seekers love their religious or spiritual or philosophical role-playing, then "early Maharaj" is more likely to appeal to them, but religious or spiritual or philosophical pointers will only trap seekers at a point that is not even halfway to Full Realization while deluding them into believing that they have Realized Fully.
Another possible consideration might be: "If seekers would actually realize fully (meaning, actually be totally free of belief in all of the learned ignorance passed down to them), then is it possible that all religious or spiritual or philosophical concepts and beliefs and ideas and teachings can actually be abandoned completely.
“And the sooner the better for those who would be totally free of delusions and distortions and ignorance and who would abide in the freedom and peace and ease and simplicity and relaxation of nisarga, natural living."
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"
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
but are states of mind, nothing more than
concepts dreamed up by men."
--Pope John Paul II
"There is no hell."
--Pope Francis, the current pope
in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,
a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.
And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?
Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?
The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)
With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.
The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.]
Here's
the direct link to the VIDEO VERSION
of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 18 MARCH 2018
If preferred, here's
the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION
of that session.
