COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS from Site Visitors

[I'm sharing two posts together since both site visitors wrote to describe a more peaceful AS IF existence as a result of breaking free of programming and conditioning.]

From CHERYL in Colorado, USA
“I've loved your posts. Just lately I have fallen into simply being without being bothered by the world and all its conditioning. Luckily I know quite a few people in this vein; still your writings struck me right in the heart and I look forward to reading them every morning. Thank you so much.”

F.: Hi Cheryl. Thanks for the feedback. E-mails are arriving from site visitors in Portugal, the UK, states across the US, Canada, Finland, Israel, in fact from numerous countries, and many are describing the same. Some have been "around" the Teachings for decades; some are hearing the Teaching for the first time. "Right in the heart" makes sense to me since my Cherokee grandmother introduced me to the "Crystal Cave" teaching and then Ramana spoke of the "cave of the heart." You'll possibly recall also that in my vision, the final understanding came in a cave. If you are in full consciousness of the I Amness, of that "just-being state," then you already know that any search for "bliss"can give way to what my teacher described as merely being "at peace," living the relative existence AS IF. Thx for the comment. f.

RICH in Kalamazoo, MI, USA
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your website has shown me how little I knew. [Regarding the Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality] I’ve known the first degree. I’ve also known the second. Level three is new territory for the ‘spiritual guru.’ [Regarding religious games played in level three] In the 1980’s I was baptized five times, but the same asshole kept getting out of the water as went in. Now, I’ve finally let go of the ‘religious seeker.’ I’ve known that it is another ego-made false sense of self, but other than that, I’ve skipped around like a ship without a rudder. The Be-ing I have experienced is a result of the Eleventh Step, but all that has been fleeting. What you are presenting (That) is what I’ve known to be true deep inside. Thank you for providing a road map since ‘seeker’ was fighting for his life.”

F. Hi, Rich. You're welcome. Glad you're continuing your journey rather than being fixated in that third level where religious or spiritual identities prevent a shift to full awareness. You're seeing that which is false as well as that which is real. Your mention of an “Eleventh Step” suggests your familiarity with a Twelve Step program. When I was offering the Teachings regularly, I had hundreds come from recovery groups, visiting Advaita sessions in a search for something that they knew was still missing; therefore, I'm going to devote some site space to share some pointers that have led those, and others not in any program, to clarity. Most of those participants were no longer physically intoxicated, but almost all were mentally intoxicated, spiritually intoxicated and/or emotionally intoxicated. The man who wrote the book on which those programs are based began his journey in a Christian program called “The Oxford Group,” so his book had a decidedly religious flavor even though he claimed to advocate spirituality over dogma. Secondly, his earliest words are usually the only ones that receive attention, but he eventually said that there are four levels of sobriety. An Advaitan pointer can be offered in that regard since we've discussed the fact that mental, emotional, and spiritual intoxication are rooted in illusions. Eventually, he observed that many were fixating at the spiritual/religious level and he saw that spiritual intoxication can be as dangerous as physical intoxication in the relative existence. (A man who hadn't worked for eleven months, who had pulled all his retirement funds out of his account for living expenses, and who had only a month to go before he and his family were to be evicted from his home because he was waiting for a god to provide employment said, "But…in god's time, not mine." That's what spiritual intoxication looks like.) The author of that first twelve-step book predicted that more would be disclosed in the future and he was right, so the founders added an appendix to their book to clarify what the “Spiritual Experience” was really about. After referring earlier to a "Higher Power" and to "God" with gender-specific terms such as ‘he’ and ‘him” in the first edition, more became disclosed. The key line in the appendix added to later editions rectifies the earlier, misleading male-entity references. It makes clear that most of the founders finally realized that the so-called "Higher Power" is not a god with a set of reproductive organs as based on the Zeus model. Instead, the appendix makes clear their new understanding…that the power is what they started referring to as an "inner resource." Even Christ, after receiving the Advaitic Teaching, stopped talking of heaven and hades and said that the kingdom is within. The knowing is within. That is the resource, to the degree that resources exist in the relative. No one will ever find any truth from any outside "power" or "source." The space called "floyd" might have provided steps that allowed the lies to dissolve, but the opportunity for attaining any knowledge of truth—which can never be stated and need never be stated—is already within. It is there, and it is seen once the lies, beliefs, ideas, and concepts—all of which block the corrupted consciousness from seeing the false—finally fade away. Be rid of the effects of programming, or be driven by them for the remainder of the relative existence. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Tomorrow: SIM in Owensboro, KY, USA