Follow-up from Anonymous in California: “Two things about your response. One, you indicated that you had no fear of death. I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal. Two, you once again seem to suggest that the only way to live is to live naturally. What if I LIKE to live supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes?”
F.: “Then rock and roll, but understand that I don’t suggest that “the only way to live is to live naturally.” Most will never live naturally. Next, the notion that you’re living “supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes” is impossible. Living supernaturally or unnaturally reveal that personas are at play, and persons never live naturally. Next, persons are insane and the Teaching offers to restore sanity, but few will ever want to live sanely. So it is. That said, your comments will be addressed like all others…for entertainment value only. Ha.
For those who might be interested in being restored to sanity, I will offer for consideration that the only way to live SANELY is to live naturally. Obviously, the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is not for you right now, though in truth the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is especially for you. In From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), I point out to an advaitan protégé, during a discussion about how few humans ever reach a level of true understanding, that “the variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all.” Most are not ready and most never will be. So it is. “Not ready for what?” you might ask? Most are not ready for stability. Your claim that you like to live according to three totally contradictory approaches to life is even beyond dual-mindedness. Mental instability among persons is evidenced by their acting in an unnatural and self-destructive fashion at times and by assigning at still other times either cause or blame or credit to some magical, other-world entity. Mental instability is endorsed by few but experienced by most, and mental instability cannot be compartmentalized and allowed to affect only certain aspects of one’s existence. If one is mentally unstable, that instability will impact every aspect of a person’s relative existence. Instability in “relationships” will happen, instability in financial decision-making will happen, instability of moods and emotions will happen…in fact, instability will mark every aspect of a person’s relative existence. What other lack of readiness do your comments reveal? The lack of readiness to move away from the chaos of dual-mindedness (or assumed "triple-mindedness" in your case). While waiting for their eternal reward, persons complain about their lives now, about a hectic day, a hectic week, or a hectic life, but the fact is that persons (driven by their personas) are addicted to chaos. Boredom generates a subconscious desire to stir things up; to go and do and zoom; to get the adrenals pumping. But desire generates misery and fear. Who would endorse such? Who would defend such? Persons who subconsciously want chaos will generate chaos, and no more effective means of generating chaos exists than to be driven by an unstable mind that at times buys into magical and supernatural thinking that creates emotional intoxication; than to be driven by lies and myths and faulty programming while acting deliberately only on rare occasions when a fleeting glimpse of reality happens; and to be driven at other times to live unnaturally in ways that are self-destructive. Persons—identified with their bodies and longing for their bodies to last for eternity—are not ready to abandon duality, not ready to abandon chaos, not ready to become stable, not ready to abandon the dependency that supernatural thinking generates, and not ready to abandon the self-destructive behaviors that without doubt must be impacting every aspect of their relative existence. You are not ready to abandon your emotional intoxication, and you are not ready to abandon the false identities that persons, thinking as you are thinking, always fight to preserve. Your comment makes clear that you are willing to fight to defend the roles of “religious person” and “spiritual person” and are therefore stuck at the third level of a seven-step journey. The Understanding allows all assumed roles to dissolve, allows all thinking to end as the false mind dissolves, allows for an end to all efforts to give people new or additional beliefs, and allows for the abandonment of all concepts and conditioning after realizing that it was all made up by men who were seeking power in order to control others. Generally, those who are on the Advaita "path" are seeking something different from the mental instability and chaos and zooming that they realize is not working. They have experienced the needless suffering and want to be free of that. How can the NOW be enjoyed thoroughly if the belief is that LATER will provide the ultimate deal and the time for peace and happiness? That magical thinking makes suffering in this relative existence something to be tolerated or even accepted. Why wait for a hoped-for reward later when the bliss can happen NOW? Because persons do not realize the impact that dual-mindedness is having on their relative existence. They really think that they are comfortable with a life that is being driven by three totally contradictory philosophies and do not know that when three people try to steer one car, it will always crash in the end. So it is.
F.: “Then rock and roll, but understand that I don’t suggest that “the only way to live is to live naturally.” Most will never live naturally. Next, the notion that you’re living “supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes” is impossible. Living supernaturally or unnaturally reveal that personas are at play, and persons never live naturally. Next, persons are insane and the Teaching offers to restore sanity, but few will ever want to live sanely. So it is. That said, your comments will be addressed like all others…for entertainment value only. Ha.
For those who might be interested in being restored to sanity, I will offer for consideration that the only way to live SANELY is to live naturally. Obviously, the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is not for you right now, though in truth the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is especially for you. In From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), I point out to an advaitan protégé, during a discussion about how few humans ever reach a level of true understanding, that “the variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all.” Most are not ready and most never will be. So it is. “Not ready for what?” you might ask? Most are not ready for stability. Your claim that you like to live according to three totally contradictory approaches to life is even beyond dual-mindedness. Mental instability among persons is evidenced by their acting in an unnatural and self-destructive fashion at times and by assigning at still other times either cause or blame or credit to some magical, other-world entity. Mental instability is endorsed by few but experienced by most, and mental instability cannot be compartmentalized and allowed to affect only certain aspects of one’s existence. If one is mentally unstable, that instability will impact every aspect of a person’s relative existence. Instability in “relationships” will happen, instability in financial decision-making will happen, instability of moods and emotions will happen…in fact, instability will mark every aspect of a person’s relative existence. What other lack of readiness do your comments reveal? The lack of readiness to move away from the chaos of dual-mindedness (or assumed "triple-mindedness" in your case). While waiting for their eternal reward, persons complain about their lives now, about a hectic day, a hectic week, or a hectic life, but the fact is that persons (driven by their personas) are addicted to chaos. Boredom generates a subconscious desire to stir things up; to go and do and zoom; to get the adrenals pumping. But desire generates misery and fear. Who would endorse such? Who would defend such? Persons who subconsciously want chaos will generate chaos, and no more effective means of generating chaos exists than to be driven by an unstable mind that at times buys into magical and supernatural thinking that creates emotional intoxication; than to be driven by lies and myths and faulty programming while acting deliberately only on rare occasions when a fleeting glimpse of reality happens; and to be driven at other times to live unnaturally in ways that are self-destructive. Persons—identified with their bodies and longing for their bodies to last for eternity—are not ready to abandon duality, not ready to abandon chaos, not ready to become stable, not ready to abandon the dependency that supernatural thinking generates, and not ready to abandon the self-destructive behaviors that without doubt must be impacting every aspect of their relative existence. You are not ready to abandon your emotional intoxication, and you are not ready to abandon the false identities that persons, thinking as you are thinking, always fight to preserve. Your comment makes clear that you are willing to fight to defend the roles of “religious person” and “spiritual person” and are therefore stuck at the third level of a seven-step journey. The Understanding allows all assumed roles to dissolve, allows all thinking to end as the false mind dissolves, allows for an end to all efforts to give people new or additional beliefs, and allows for the abandonment of all concepts and conditioning after realizing that it was all made up by men who were seeking power in order to control others. Generally, those who are on the Advaita "path" are seeking something different from the mental instability and chaos and zooming that they realize is not working. They have experienced the needless suffering and want to be free of that. How can the NOW be enjoyed thoroughly if the belief is that LATER will provide the ultimate deal and the time for peace and happiness? That magical thinking makes suffering in this relative existence something to be tolerated or even accepted. Why wait for a hoped-for reward later when the bliss can happen NOW? Because persons do not realize the impact that dual-mindedness is having on their relative existence. They really think that they are comfortable with a life that is being driven by three totally contradictory philosophies and do not know that when three people try to steer one car, it will always crash in the end. So it is.
On the other hand, the clear-cut directions are available should you realize the relative impact and determine to find stability and peace by taking a seven-step “journey” to reality. Should you realize someday that trying to live in the volitility of three different approaches to life might not be ideal, then the Advaita Teaching might be seen to be for you. Why accept the Advaitan invitation to cast aside ideas and beliefs and emotional intoxication? Because the consciousness, once programmed and conditioned, is impure and thus the seat of all falsehoods. Why take the steps to be free of impure consciousness? Because it is that conditioned consciousness that is the believer of false concepts, that is the thinker of distorted ideas, that is the emoter of emotions, that is the experiencer of pain and suffering, that is the believer of all false beliefs, and that is the assumer of false identities…including your religious and spiritual roles. Not knowing one’s True Identity can only result in misery and emotional intoxication. All that having been said, take no offense because at the Absolute level, there is no separation between You and Me. We are One. Any concept of “separation” is as imaginary as everything else that results from dual-mindedness. So if you want to live out this relative existence by thinking magically at time, rationally at times, and in self-destructive ways at other times, again…rock and roll. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The response to, “I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal.”
TOMORROW: The response to, “I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal.”
