E-mail from a site visitor: “Why Advaita for you, specifically? Why for me? I read on another website that you were stuck in religious and spiritual roles for a time. Why, or how, did you move beyond that to Advaita?”
F.: First, why Advaita for you? No answer is offered. The Advaita "path" is actually for all while being for few, meaning that all need to be free of the falsehoods they believe but that most never will be. Advaita offers a “path” that leads to finding and discarding all the false in order to know the truth-that-cannot-be-stated in order that the remaning time that the consciousness is manifested might happen with peace and bliss. While many seek and search and work to find answers and to find more knowledge (also known as “learned ignorance”), in fact the peace only comes when the seeking ends. When it is seen that all knowledge is nothing more than the composite of concepts dreamed up by ignorant men who chose to try to explain what they did not truly understand, how could any further seeking happen? WHO wants that?
F.: First, why Advaita for you? No answer is offered. The Advaita "path" is actually for all while being for few, meaning that all need to be free of the falsehoods they believe but that most never will be. Advaita offers a “path” that leads to finding and discarding all the false in order to know the truth-that-cannot-be-stated in order that the remaning time that the consciousness is manifested might happen with peace and bliss. While many seek and search and work to find answers and to find more knowledge (also known as “learned ignorance”), in fact the peace only comes when the seeking ends. When it is seen that all knowledge is nothing more than the composite of concepts dreamed up by ignorant men who chose to try to explain what they did not truly understand, how could any further seeking happen? WHO wants that?
Compare the end of seeking to the end of a tiring day. When does peace come? In the void of delta-level sleep. Similarly, when the consciousness is no longer manifested, it returns to the pool of consciousness-at-rest, to the void. Whether consciousness is manifested or not manifested, it is only in the void that peace awaits. The beauty of completing the Advaita "journey" to Realization is that the void-like peace can happen NOW...and while awake. Who cares what happens when fully asleep? Only awake can the bliss be known. That is the only "time" that peace matters: NOW, while awake. Yet to know that the peace of the void awaits after the consciousness is no longer manifested allows for a more peaceful, AS IF existence. The dread of an imagined eternal punishment ends. The hoping and hoping and working and working for an eternal reward ends (and that too is peaceful since most descriptions of that "reward” sound more like additional punishment to many: “I’m to spend eternity praising some male who killed millions of humans in anger and whose ego makes him demand that he be worshipped and glorified? That kind of male ego is exactly what made the relative existence on earth so miserable in the first place. Neither the punishment nor the reward have great appeal.”) So if peace during the relative comes in the void (in the nothingness of sleep) and if peace awaits (in the nothingness of that void when unmanfested consciousness returns to its former “at-rest state”) then how might persons find that void in the NOW and experience that bliss (a) while awake rather than in deep sleep and (b) while the consciousness is manifested rather than unmanifested? The peace of the void cannot be known by persons driven to seek more rather than less.
You asked about of a time when "floyd" was stuck in religious and spiritual role-playing. That's an accurate-enough description. If you read From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) you'll understand that those two roles are the third step of the "journey." They must be played, but they also must be transcended. Why are some persons who reach the Third Level of religious and spiritual roles willing to move beyond those roles, to de-accumulate, to move further along the “Seven-Step Journey to Reality?” Because they become willing to question. Because they tire of seeking more and more and more. Because they reach a point where, in spite of all that has been accumulated, they are overwhelmed with a sense of emptiness rather than fullness. [Later, the emptiness will be the fullness.] They also become willing to question because they finally see that the fullness—being full of knowledge and surrounded with limitless “stuff”—has not worked to provide the bliss and happiness and peace they seek. Because they became wise enough to question. Because they tired of being fools.
It was said that…
those alone who understand that I, the Absolute, am beyond the states of being and non-being realize my true nature, and all others are fools.
Who likes to be fooled? Only fools. Who refuses to question what they’re ordered to accept by faith and without question? Only fools. I began questioning early on as a child, and when I began questioning again as an adult, that allowed the eventual movement “beyond” the religious and spiritual roles. [You asked how the shift beyond spiritual and religious roles happened. It happened as more and more questions were asked because more and more answers previously offered by “the experts” were seen to be false. A sampling of the type questions I asked will be offered only as examples, but later you’ll be invited to make a list of the questions you might be willing to ask.] Some of the concepts questioned, even while still in elementary school, included:
***“He loves me but He’ll burn me forever? Those two concepts are contradictory.”
***“I need to get closer to Him, but His history would inspire any sane person to keep some distance: He killed 5,000 in a day here, 120,000 in a day there, and finally just killed ‘em all except for one family. Only fools don't choose to avoid mass murderers and those who participate in genocide.”
***“All who do not believe exactly what we believe, even if they’ve never even had a chance to hear what we believe, will burn forever? Where’s the justice, much less the logic?”
***“War, murder, rape, torture, destruction, separation, child abuse, adult abuse, etc. seem terrible but they all fit into an overall Divine Plan devised by the Ultimate Power? I don’t think any of that is divine, I’m not impressed with any plan that those can be a planned part of, and I’m not impressed with any Power that is not powerful enough to stop all that or who is willing to let it continue for whatever reason. I don’t buy it.”
***“All the evil happens because He loves us enough to give us the free will to do whatever we want, and He gives us choice, and He even loves us enough that He let them kill his son? Do you think those three things show anything that can remotely be considered ‘true love'? What kind of parent would I have been to give a daughter the free will to play in the street if that's what she chose, even if it is going to hurt her or others? Do I need to allow her to be killed to prove how much I love?”
***"God doesn’t want you to drink milk” or “You can’t eat beef” or “You can eat beef, but not on Fridays” or ”You can’t eat pork” or “You must eat only vegetables." What? A particular diet is also required for eternal salvation?"
***You can’t dance with this group but you can with that one; you can’t drink with that one, but you can with the other; you can’t smoke or drink caffeine with this one but you can with that one; though you can’t smoke tobacco with that one, you can smoke marijuana with this one; you can’t drink alcohol when in this group but you must drink alcohol if worshipping with that group.”
All very confusing. All leading to the only conclusion to be drawn: “Somebody’s full of it,” which inspired years of research and investigation and seeking and finding the facts that proved, “They’re all full of it. I need to look at other religions and philosophies.” My questioning took me on that long, multi-year quest for answers among others who claimed to have the answers, but I was just as skeptical of their teachings of being recycled as a cow; of getting tons of whores, wives and virgins in heaven; of having to pull a wife through a veil to get her into heaven one day; of rolling on the floor and speaking in fabricated languages; of handling snakes; of drinking poison; of having to attend daily meetings; of submitting to castration; of giving away percentages of my money on a weekly basis; of chanting; of singing and reciting stuff in unison…ad infinitum.
The answers made no sense so the questions continued, along with the punishment received first as a child (and later punishment that was accepted as an adult) for not believing their concepts, for not having enough faith, and for daring to ask questions. The prerequisite for following the Advaita “path” to its end is a willingness to question. The "journey" begins when the first question is finally asked, when the first concept is challenged, or finally challenged again. Why Advaita for you? Maybe not at all. How much are you willing to question? Part of "my" list of what was questioned is shared above. If willing, begin your own list. What have you blindly accepted that you’ve not been willing to question? List those beliefs and then ask of each, "Who told me that? But who told them that? And who came up with that to begin with? Am I at least willing to question that one? Might they have been fooled? Might they have then fooled me? Might I now be fooling myself? Am I truly tired of being fooled?" Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 2 January 06]
It was said that…
those alone who understand that I, the Absolute, am beyond the states of being and non-being realize my true nature, and all others are fools.
Who likes to be fooled? Only fools. Who refuses to question what they’re ordered to accept by faith and without question? Only fools. I began questioning early on as a child, and when I began questioning again as an adult, that allowed the eventual movement “beyond” the religious and spiritual roles. [You asked how the shift beyond spiritual and religious roles happened. It happened as more and more questions were asked because more and more answers previously offered by “the experts” were seen to be false. A sampling of the type questions I asked will be offered only as examples, but later you’ll be invited to make a list of the questions you might be willing to ask.] Some of the concepts questioned, even while still in elementary school, included:
***“He loves me but He’ll burn me forever? Those two concepts are contradictory.”
***“I need to get closer to Him, but His history would inspire any sane person to keep some distance: He killed 5,000 in a day here, 120,000 in a day there, and finally just killed ‘em all except for one family. Only fools don't choose to avoid mass murderers and those who participate in genocide.”
***“All who do not believe exactly what we believe, even if they’ve never even had a chance to hear what we believe, will burn forever? Where’s the justice, much less the logic?”
***“War, murder, rape, torture, destruction, separation, child abuse, adult abuse, etc. seem terrible but they all fit into an overall Divine Plan devised by the Ultimate Power? I don’t think any of that is divine, I’m not impressed with any plan that those can be a planned part of, and I’m not impressed with any Power that is not powerful enough to stop all that or who is willing to let it continue for whatever reason. I don’t buy it.”
***“All the evil happens because He loves us enough to give us the free will to do whatever we want, and He gives us choice, and He even loves us enough that He let them kill his son? Do you think those three things show anything that can remotely be considered ‘true love'? What kind of parent would I have been to give a daughter the free will to play in the street if that's what she chose, even if it is going to hurt her or others? Do I need to allow her to be killed to prove how much I love?”
***"God doesn’t want you to drink milk” or “You can’t eat beef” or “You can eat beef, but not on Fridays” or ”You can’t eat pork” or “You must eat only vegetables." What? A particular diet is also required for eternal salvation?"
***You can’t dance with this group but you can with that one; you can’t drink with that one, but you can with the other; you can’t smoke or drink caffeine with this one but you can with that one; though you can’t smoke tobacco with that one, you can smoke marijuana with this one; you can’t drink alcohol when in this group but you must drink alcohol if worshipping with that group.”
All very confusing. All leading to the only conclusion to be drawn: “Somebody’s full of it,” which inspired years of research and investigation and seeking and finding the facts that proved, “They’re all full of it. I need to look at other religions and philosophies.” My questioning took me on that long, multi-year quest for answers among others who claimed to have the answers, but I was just as skeptical of their teachings of being recycled as a cow; of getting tons of whores, wives and virgins in heaven; of having to pull a wife through a veil to get her into heaven one day; of rolling on the floor and speaking in fabricated languages; of handling snakes; of drinking poison; of having to attend daily meetings; of submitting to castration; of giving away percentages of my money on a weekly basis; of chanting; of singing and reciting stuff in unison…ad infinitum.
The answers made no sense so the questions continued, along with the punishment received first as a child (and later punishment that was accepted as an adult) for not believing their concepts, for not having enough faith, and for daring to ask questions. The prerequisite for following the Advaita “path” to its end is a willingness to question. The "journey" begins when the first question is finally asked, when the first concept is challenged, or finally challenged again. Why Advaita for you? Maybe not at all. How much are you willing to question? Part of "my" list of what was questioned is shared above. If willing, begin your own list. What have you blindly accepted that you’ve not been willing to question? List those beliefs and then ask of each, "Who told me that? But who told them that? And who came up with that to begin with? Am I at least willing to question that one? Might they have been fooled? Might they have then fooled me? Might I now be fooling myself? Am I truly tired of being fooled?" Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 2 January 06]
