From a site visitor: “When looking for me, I find that all there is are thoughts or feelings but these walls (mostly a feeling) seem to satisfy me as to who I am. Where do I go from here?”
F.: If you were truly satisfied as to who you are—and if you were truly satisfied, period—then you would have nowhere “to go” and nothing more to do; however, the fact that your search has been so intense, has gone on for so long, and is still continuing to this day suggests that might not be the case. That which seems to satisfy never satisfies. Wanting and searching always reveal to the objective observer that some sense of lacking exists, and no one with any sense of lacking is satisfied. Early humans wanted and searched for food only when they did not feel full (were not “full-filled”) or for as long as they were still hungry for something. The same is true among persons today. Those dissociated from their actual circumstance can claim—and actually believe—that they are happy and satisfied, but they’re in denial or delusion. (They will also deny that fact as well.)
Now, to end this discussion and then allow you the opportunity to take all these pointers into quiet consideration until you truly grasp their meaning (or not), your final questions shall be addressed:
a) Is it the questioning of all thoughts that is needed? I seem to think that because there is so much focus on questioning "thoughts" that it takes you away from reality.
F.: The focus is to realize that all thoughts arise in the “mind” and to know what the “mind” really is. Once you know what the “mind” is, your love of “your mind” and your pride in all its accumulated spiritual knowledge (which is only learned ignorance) will end. So, too, ends the belief that “your mind” knows more than “others” and that “your mind” is right more often than “theirs.” Why do persons resist admitting that the “mind” is nothing more than a cesspit of concepts? That happens because of one—or a combination of—five reasons, all of which have ego at their core: (1) they want to show everyone what they have accumulated, or (2) they believe that everybody should be impressed with what they have amassed, or (3) they are merely impressing their self or (4) they use their "spiritual growth time" as a way to isolate or escape or (5) they are convinced that the “mind” defines who they are as much as the body defines who they are. If number five is the case, then it is clear that they have not completed the first two steps of the “journey” which will allow body identification and mind identification to end. The realized de-accumulate. Never will anything be written on this site that suggests you need to get more of anything, including more spiritual knowledge. Nothing on this site needs to be "learned." All pointers are available to suggest you un-learn and then be done with the site contents as well. Persons do not need to “get more.” They need to “get rid of” and then know the joy of less instead of the joylessness that they’ve grow accustomed to. Every concept used on this site is offered to help protégés get rid of all concepts. Once that is done, the concepts used on this site are to be discarded as well. Every concept is a lie.
To review, the “mind” is your problem. It will make you no fun to be around. It will isolate you from “others.” It will make you arrogant. It will drive you to suffer from analysis, analysis, and more analysis. It will deny you even a minute’s peace with its incessant chatter. Lose it. Of all the religions, spiritual movements, programs, self-help plans, philosophies, and ideologies, Advaita Vedanta is always the last one tried because no more is needed after Realization. Accumulation ends and de-accumulation happens. The effects of past programming end and de-programming is completed. The conditioned consciousness is de-conditioned or re-purified. Advaita is the only approach that offers the total solution. It is the only one that invites you to “get rid of” rather than “get more of.” It is the only one with the teaching that suggests you abandon all teachings. It is the only one that invites you to relax and take it easy…and really means it.
The belief that one’s “mind” is a storehouse of essential valuables rather than a storehouse of man-made lies and false concepts is rooted in the ego part of the ego-states that persons assume as false identities. Progress along the “path” happens when you stop giving any credibility to “your mind” (which is really “their mind”). The deer—which lives peacefully and naturally rather than unnaturally or supernaturally—is able to do so because it has no mind. It does have a brain and pure consciousness; therefore, it still accomplishes its daily tasks—it does what it does to survive—without any of the ego-inspired mental handicaps which make it impossible for persons to live in harmony…whether alone, in a family situation, in a workplace, in a city, in a nation, or on this planet. Many spiritual persons claim to be satisfied by reaching the "no-mind state" for a period of time during a meditation session. You mention in question “c” below a “temporary solution.” To reach a no-mind state during a meditation session is a temporary solution, and such a brief respite, ultimately, is irrelevant. The goal is to be rid of "the mind" once and for all and thereafter reside in the no-mind state for the remainder of the time that the consciousness is manifested. That is the second step of the seven steps that provide the permanent solution.
b) Or is it the "letting go" of all thoughts that is needed? I seem to think that this is a temporary solution because if there are still some burning issues that need to be faced what has really happened is you have just put them aside and ignored them.
F.: When one is restored to sanity via realization, one can still “take care of business.” The first humans were realized without having to seek realization; that is, their consciousness had not been corrupted by man-made concepts or self-serving conditioning by “leaders” with agendas; nevertheless, they still worked to provide shelter and they still hunted and foraged to provide nourishment. They also played. The point is, realization does not require that anyone stop caring for the body and brain during the period of manifestation. It does not suggest that “burning issues” be “put aside or ignored.” Realization makes it possible to face all that must be faced in the relative existence without suffering emotional intoxication around those “issues,” to use your term.
For example, even the realized might understand the value of finding out whether their body type is a 4, a 5, or an 8. Only one-third of the earth’s population will thrive on a vegetarian diet. If the other two-thirds follow a vegetarian food plan, they will suffer a crash of their sympathetic and their parasympathetic systems as well as a crash of many of the organs that must function properly in order for both physical and mental well-being to happen. Yet persons listen to “holy” or “wise” or “spiritual” leaders who tell them what they can eat and what they cannot eat in order to be “pure.” Governments propagate just as much nonsense by recommending a “combination or balanced food plan” which is, in reality, only ideal for one-third of the earth’s population. Religious leaders prescribe food plans that will supposedly please a god that will otherwise be angered over one’s consumption of pork, or beef, or beef instead of fish on a certain day, ad infinitum. Others will recommend fasting as a "holy" exercise. You wrote that you also have chosen to follow a limited food plan. There is a one-out-of-three chance that your choice is the right one for your body type. So it is.
Too, some might have trauma “issues,” and they might find that their relative existence would be improved by addressing those issues with a professional. Realization simply allows all of that to happen without (a) any persona thinking he/she has to have power in order to have control over people, places and things and without (b) any triggering of emotional intoxication. Work, too, can continue to happen (or not) without suffering the emotional intoxication that personas suffer when they want power in order to be able to control. The point is, realization does not impose limitations but instead removes all limitations, especially the limitation of personality. But what is the greatest limitation? The insanity of being out of touch with reality. In that case, persons do not address “issues,” do not know what their specific body needs are for optimal functioning, and will allow “leaders” to dictate what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. (Talk about “temporary solutions,” about “avoiding” what should not be avoided, about not “facing” the truth that should be faced, and about not being free!)
c) Or is it neither questioning or letting go but rather understanding what your relationship to the thoughts that appear in your mind is in the first place?
F.: You cannot “let go of” that which you do not first question. Pavlovian dogs fell for the trick because they had “faith” as a result of conditioning. (Of course, all “faith” and the resulting refusal to question results from programming and conditioning.) The dogs’ faith—as faith always does—deprived them of the ability to question, so they were trapped in the insanity of their conditioning; therefore, they salivated in response to a sound (unnatural) rather than to a smell (natural). Persons live in a similar fashion—unnaturally or supernaturally—as a result of faith, conditioning, and a refusal to question their belief systems (which are not really their own at all). In order to let go of the influence that the bogus “mind” holds over persons, questioning it all must come first. If that does not happen, then persons will continue to live the way the masses live: controlled by conditioning, believing they are making choices while choosing nothing, and acting and reacting in unnatural or supernatural ways that are being driven in a manner that differs not at all from Pavlov’s trainees.
Yet ego will stop the process dead in its tracks (usually at step three of seven) because egotistical persons (those who believe that ego-states really define who they are) believe that their beliefs are right and that any opposing views are wrong. It’s all nothing more than ideas and concepts dreamed up by controlling men over the ages, so it’s all false. The “relationship” you asked about between a false you and your thoughts (which are their thoughts, not yours at all) is that the false thoughts sustain the false “you,” the false personas. If you find the Real You, you’ll not quote others and you'll not think what others have thought. You will come to know again what You always knew but forgot because of programming and conditioning. There is no relationship between the Real You—which can know truth—and the bogus thoughts that are generated by corrupted consciousness. Since “the mind” is false, then the thoughts that “appear in your mind” are false. Again, the only “relationship” possible in the scenario you are asking about is “bogus selves : bogus thoughts.”
So, these posting should have revealed the reason that so many spiritual seekers who usually fixate at the third of seven steps will never find that which they are seeking (or will struggle for years in the search for that which they are seeking): they never completed the first two steps of a seven-step “journey.” They are still identified with body and are still trapped in the false roles that their “minds” have convinced them are their identities. That is where the masses are trapped and will stay trapped. They love their “minds” and the content thereof, even as they want to quiet or take control of the “mind.” Neither of those is possible. All misery begins when the illusory body-mind-personality triad is taken as an identity. All misery continues as long as any credibility is given to spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) that has been acquired from “others”—especially when those “others” claim to have acquired great religious revelations or deep spiritual truths that you need to add to your knowledge base. The Advaita teachings, conversely, will never suggest that you need to know more but invite you instead to flush away the fictional "mind" and all you think you know. Rather than trying to inspire protégés to accept more beliefs, the Realized will suggest that you get rid of all the ideas and dogma and beliefs and emotionalism and attitudes that you have accumulated. All of that "stuff" in combination is the "mind," and the "mind" will always generate restlessness as a result of the clutter. The specific invitation to all religious persons and spiritual persons who are stuck in either of those personas is to turn back to the beginning of the “path” and start at the actual starting point. If those first two steps are completed, then such roles as “The Deeply-Religious Person” or “The Spiritual Giant” can be abandoned, one can transition those two ego-states, and can then take the final four steps that separate persons from Reality. Best regards. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: “My wife has been visited at night by her deceased father who brings positive messages to her. It seems to me that those sighting dismiss your notion that there is no body or any form in an afterlife.”
F.: If you were truly satisfied as to who you are—and if you were truly satisfied, period—then you would have nowhere “to go” and nothing more to do; however, the fact that your search has been so intense, has gone on for so long, and is still continuing to this day suggests that might not be the case. That which seems to satisfy never satisfies. Wanting and searching always reveal to the objective observer that some sense of lacking exists, and no one with any sense of lacking is satisfied. Early humans wanted and searched for food only when they did not feel full (were not “full-filled”) or for as long as they were still hungry for something. The same is true among persons today. Those dissociated from their actual circumstance can claim—and actually believe—that they are happy and satisfied, but they’re in denial or delusion. (They will also deny that fact as well.)
Now, to end this discussion and then allow you the opportunity to take all these pointers into quiet consideration until you truly grasp their meaning (or not), your final questions shall be addressed:
a) Is it the questioning of all thoughts that is needed? I seem to think that because there is so much focus on questioning "thoughts" that it takes you away from reality.
F.: The focus is to realize that all thoughts arise in the “mind” and to know what the “mind” really is. Once you know what the “mind” is, your love of “your mind” and your pride in all its accumulated spiritual knowledge (which is only learned ignorance) will end. So, too, ends the belief that “your mind” knows more than “others” and that “your mind” is right more often than “theirs.” Why do persons resist admitting that the “mind” is nothing more than a cesspit of concepts? That happens because of one—or a combination of—five reasons, all of which have ego at their core: (1) they want to show everyone what they have accumulated, or (2) they believe that everybody should be impressed with what they have amassed, or (3) they are merely impressing their self or (4) they use their "spiritual growth time" as a way to isolate or escape or (5) they are convinced that the “mind” defines who they are as much as the body defines who they are. If number five is the case, then it is clear that they have not completed the first two steps of the “journey” which will allow body identification and mind identification to end. The realized de-accumulate. Never will anything be written on this site that suggests you need to get more of anything, including more spiritual knowledge. Nothing on this site needs to be "learned." All pointers are available to suggest you un-learn and then be done with the site contents as well. Persons do not need to “get more.” They need to “get rid of” and then know the joy of less instead of the joylessness that they’ve grow accustomed to. Every concept used on this site is offered to help protégés get rid of all concepts. Once that is done, the concepts used on this site are to be discarded as well. Every concept is a lie.
To review, the “mind” is your problem. It will make you no fun to be around. It will isolate you from “others.” It will make you arrogant. It will drive you to suffer from analysis, analysis, and more analysis. It will deny you even a minute’s peace with its incessant chatter. Lose it. Of all the religions, spiritual movements, programs, self-help plans, philosophies, and ideologies, Advaita Vedanta is always the last one tried because no more is needed after Realization. Accumulation ends and de-accumulation happens. The effects of past programming end and de-programming is completed. The conditioned consciousness is de-conditioned or re-purified. Advaita is the only approach that offers the total solution. It is the only one that invites you to “get rid of” rather than “get more of.” It is the only one with the teaching that suggests you abandon all teachings. It is the only one that invites you to relax and take it easy…and really means it.
The belief that one’s “mind” is a storehouse of essential valuables rather than a storehouse of man-made lies and false concepts is rooted in the ego part of the ego-states that persons assume as false identities. Progress along the “path” happens when you stop giving any credibility to “your mind” (which is really “their mind”). The deer—which lives peacefully and naturally rather than unnaturally or supernaturally—is able to do so because it has no mind. It does have a brain and pure consciousness; therefore, it still accomplishes its daily tasks—it does what it does to survive—without any of the ego-inspired mental handicaps which make it impossible for persons to live in harmony…whether alone, in a family situation, in a workplace, in a city, in a nation, or on this planet. Many spiritual persons claim to be satisfied by reaching the "no-mind state" for a period of time during a meditation session. You mention in question “c” below a “temporary solution.” To reach a no-mind state during a meditation session is a temporary solution, and such a brief respite, ultimately, is irrelevant. The goal is to be rid of "the mind" once and for all and thereafter reside in the no-mind state for the remainder of the time that the consciousness is manifested. That is the second step of the seven steps that provide the permanent solution.
b) Or is it the "letting go" of all thoughts that is needed? I seem to think that this is a temporary solution because if there are still some burning issues that need to be faced what has really happened is you have just put them aside and ignored them.
F.: When one is restored to sanity via realization, one can still “take care of business.” The first humans were realized without having to seek realization; that is, their consciousness had not been corrupted by man-made concepts or self-serving conditioning by “leaders” with agendas; nevertheless, they still worked to provide shelter and they still hunted and foraged to provide nourishment. They also played. The point is, realization does not require that anyone stop caring for the body and brain during the period of manifestation. It does not suggest that “burning issues” be “put aside or ignored.” Realization makes it possible to face all that must be faced in the relative existence without suffering emotional intoxication around those “issues,” to use your term.
For example, even the realized might understand the value of finding out whether their body type is a 4, a 5, or an 8. Only one-third of the earth’s population will thrive on a vegetarian diet. If the other two-thirds follow a vegetarian food plan, they will suffer a crash of their sympathetic and their parasympathetic systems as well as a crash of many of the organs that must function properly in order for both physical and mental well-being to happen. Yet persons listen to “holy” or “wise” or “spiritual” leaders who tell them what they can eat and what they cannot eat in order to be “pure.” Governments propagate just as much nonsense by recommending a “combination or balanced food plan” which is, in reality, only ideal for one-third of the earth’s population. Religious leaders prescribe food plans that will supposedly please a god that will otherwise be angered over one’s consumption of pork, or beef, or beef instead of fish on a certain day, ad infinitum. Others will recommend fasting as a "holy" exercise. You wrote that you also have chosen to follow a limited food plan. There is a one-out-of-three chance that your choice is the right one for your body type. So it is.
Too, some might have trauma “issues,” and they might find that their relative existence would be improved by addressing those issues with a professional. Realization simply allows all of that to happen without (a) any persona thinking he/she has to have power in order to have control over people, places and things and without (b) any triggering of emotional intoxication. Work, too, can continue to happen (or not) without suffering the emotional intoxication that personas suffer when they want power in order to be able to control. The point is, realization does not impose limitations but instead removes all limitations, especially the limitation of personality. But what is the greatest limitation? The insanity of being out of touch with reality. In that case, persons do not address “issues,” do not know what their specific body needs are for optimal functioning, and will allow “leaders” to dictate what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. (Talk about “temporary solutions,” about “avoiding” what should not be avoided, about not “facing” the truth that should be faced, and about not being free!)
c) Or is it neither questioning or letting go but rather understanding what your relationship to the thoughts that appear in your mind is in the first place?
F.: You cannot “let go of” that which you do not first question. Pavlovian dogs fell for the trick because they had “faith” as a result of conditioning. (Of course, all “faith” and the resulting refusal to question results from programming and conditioning.) The dogs’ faith—as faith always does—deprived them of the ability to question, so they were trapped in the insanity of their conditioning; therefore, they salivated in response to a sound (unnatural) rather than to a smell (natural). Persons live in a similar fashion—unnaturally or supernaturally—as a result of faith, conditioning, and a refusal to question their belief systems (which are not really their own at all). In order to let go of the influence that the bogus “mind” holds over persons, questioning it all must come first. If that does not happen, then persons will continue to live the way the masses live: controlled by conditioning, believing they are making choices while choosing nothing, and acting and reacting in unnatural or supernatural ways that are being driven in a manner that differs not at all from Pavlov’s trainees.
Yet ego will stop the process dead in its tracks (usually at step three of seven) because egotistical persons (those who believe that ego-states really define who they are) believe that their beliefs are right and that any opposing views are wrong. It’s all nothing more than ideas and concepts dreamed up by controlling men over the ages, so it’s all false. The “relationship” you asked about between a false you and your thoughts (which are their thoughts, not yours at all) is that the false thoughts sustain the false “you,” the false personas. If you find the Real You, you’ll not quote others and you'll not think what others have thought. You will come to know again what You always knew but forgot because of programming and conditioning. There is no relationship between the Real You—which can know truth—and the bogus thoughts that are generated by corrupted consciousness. Since “the mind” is false, then the thoughts that “appear in your mind” are false. Again, the only “relationship” possible in the scenario you are asking about is “bogus selves : bogus thoughts.”
So, these posting should have revealed the reason that so many spiritual seekers who usually fixate at the third of seven steps will never find that which they are seeking (or will struggle for years in the search for that which they are seeking): they never completed the first two steps of a seven-step “journey.” They are still identified with body and are still trapped in the false roles that their “minds” have convinced them are their identities. That is where the masses are trapped and will stay trapped. They love their “minds” and the content thereof, even as they want to quiet or take control of the “mind.” Neither of those is possible. All misery begins when the illusory body-mind-personality triad is taken as an identity. All misery continues as long as any credibility is given to spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) that has been acquired from “others”—especially when those “others” claim to have acquired great religious revelations or deep spiritual truths that you need to add to your knowledge base. The Advaita teachings, conversely, will never suggest that you need to know more but invite you instead to flush away the fictional "mind" and all you think you know. Rather than trying to inspire protégés to accept more beliefs, the Realized will suggest that you get rid of all the ideas and dogma and beliefs and emotionalism and attitudes that you have accumulated. All of that "stuff" in combination is the "mind," and the "mind" will always generate restlessness as a result of the clutter. The specific invitation to all religious persons and spiritual persons who are stuck in either of those personas is to turn back to the beginning of the “path” and start at the actual starting point. If those first two steps are completed, then such roles as “The Deeply-Religious Person” or “The Spiritual Giant” can be abandoned, one can transition those two ego-states, and can then take the final four steps that separate persons from Reality. Best regards. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: “My wife has been visited at night by her deceased father who brings positive messages to her. It seems to me that those sighting dismiss your notion that there is no body or any form in an afterlife.”
