From a site visitor yesterday: “Why do you put path and journey in quote marks? The path I’m following on my spiritual journey is very real.”
F.: On this site, all that is shared is rooted in the Original Understanding which preceded all texts, all religions, all spiritual movements, all "paths,” all "journeys,” and all teachings by teachers. Long before anyone dreamed up the term “Advaita,” there was no duality. Obviously the earliest humans (like those humans living in isolated regions today who have been free of exposure to “modern societies and cultures”) grasped the Original Understanding rather than believing in the dualistic concepts held sacred by conditioned and programmed persons. How do we know that? Because their languages—the conveyers of concepts—were free of concepts and duality. No words appear in their languages to identify such concepts as “hate,” “war,” “greed,” “contend,” “competition,” “rival,” “heaven,” “hell,” “reward,” “punishment,” “separation,” “holy,” (a word which by definition means “different from”) “bad,” “good,” “time” (much less “time eternal”), “problem,” "ownership," "accumulate," or “personality.”
For millions of years, humans just lived…and lived naturally. They did not consider themselves to be “holy” or “different from.” They did not judge their children or brand them with “good vs. bad” labels. They did not burden their children with such concepts as “reward or punishment now” or such concepts as “eternal reward or eternal punishment later.” What kind of life remained for those not encumbered with such concepts then (and for those not encumbered with such concepts today)? Hunting and foraging and gathering to meet basic survival needs took only about 2.5 hours per day. The remainder of the day was spent in socializing, swimming, playing, having sex, craft-making, etc. since humans then were free of the expensive accumulations that now require two and three jobs to maintain. Note also that humans for 13-14 million years did not find it necessary to follow a “path” that required the wearing of funny hats or the burning of anything special, much less genuflecting or bowing or hitting gongs and striking bowls or any of the other things that are done by persons who claim to be “on a path” and who are embroiled as you claim to be in your “spiritual journey.” The only path they followed was a trail that passed through the peaceful woods. Some ask, “And on what basis do you claim to know?” Simple: I Was there then, and I Am there now.
Today, among religions and spiritual movements and yes, even among philosophies such as Advaita, the Original Understanding has been lost. Some warn against the dangers of “pseudo-advaita” while sitting on a special carpet in a special robe with a special necklace and a special cup and a special haircut and a special crystal ball. "Pseudo” is accurate. Many “sages” and some “gurus” and “jnanis” will expound upon whatever they choose to expound upon and then move protégés into sadhana or bhajans or bhakti…into disciplines and devotion and worship. Some prescribe unnatural, life-long regimens of study and action and service. Not with my teacher, and not here. My teacher ran the religious and spiritual giants out of his loft quite regularly. They were not ready to hear the consciousness speak, for it would invite them to move beyond the ego-states wherein they think they know it all to a position in which they actually come to abandon all of their role-playing and come to understand the functioning of the totality…to truly understand it all. Believing they know it all, those visitors would only ignore the consciousness that spoke anyway, so they were not allowed to stay. And even those protégés who were ready to listen were only allowed to remain for a very limited number of sessions before he told them to leave. After his pointers were offered, he encouraged them to leave, to find a quiet place, to contemplate the words heard when consciousness spoke, to realize the lies, to realize the truth, and then to live AS IF in a natural fashion for the remainder of the manifestation.
Here, the focus is on that which was prior to consciousness and therefore certainly before disciplines and devotion and worship. Disciples and devotees and worshippers prefer a watered-down version of “spirituality” while believing they are partaking of the chock-full blessed waters. So it is. For those who believe they are content in what some teachers call “spiritual kindergarten,” so be it. They choose to live unnaturally and supernaturally, not living in the natural fashion that humans did for millions of years but behaving and thinking instead in the unnatural and “super-natural” fashion that controlling men dreamed up only a few thousand years ago. Among the sane, those in touch with reality, only natural living happens since they are free of all personas. For those out of touch with reality, unnatural living happens among some persons who adopt false identities; others who are out of touch with reality adopt super-natural personas. A religious "person" and a spiritual "person" are still persons...still false personas, playing their roles instead of being Real. Do you see that the "spiritual journey" you claim to be on actually prevents any chance of transitioning all personas and then living in a natural fashion? That persona may have served you well for some part of the relative existence, but to be in touch with reality, you're invited to forfeit all roles and Realize fully. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: On this site, all that is shared is rooted in the Original Understanding which preceded all texts, all religions, all spiritual movements, all "paths,” all "journeys,” and all teachings by teachers. Long before anyone dreamed up the term “Advaita,” there was no duality. Obviously the earliest humans (like those humans living in isolated regions today who have been free of exposure to “modern societies and cultures”) grasped the Original Understanding rather than believing in the dualistic concepts held sacred by conditioned and programmed persons. How do we know that? Because their languages—the conveyers of concepts—were free of concepts and duality. No words appear in their languages to identify such concepts as “hate,” “war,” “greed,” “contend,” “competition,” “rival,” “heaven,” “hell,” “reward,” “punishment,” “separation,” “holy,” (a word which by definition means “different from”) “bad,” “good,” “time” (much less “time eternal”), “problem,” "ownership," "accumulate," or “personality.”
For millions of years, humans just lived…and lived naturally. They did not consider themselves to be “holy” or “different from.” They did not judge their children or brand them with “good vs. bad” labels. They did not burden their children with such concepts as “reward or punishment now” or such concepts as “eternal reward or eternal punishment later.” What kind of life remained for those not encumbered with such concepts then (and for those not encumbered with such concepts today)? Hunting and foraging and gathering to meet basic survival needs took only about 2.5 hours per day. The remainder of the day was spent in socializing, swimming, playing, having sex, craft-making, etc. since humans then were free of the expensive accumulations that now require two and three jobs to maintain. Note also that humans for 13-14 million years did not find it necessary to follow a “path” that required the wearing of funny hats or the burning of anything special, much less genuflecting or bowing or hitting gongs and striking bowls or any of the other things that are done by persons who claim to be “on a path” and who are embroiled as you claim to be in your “spiritual journey.” The only path they followed was a trail that passed through the peaceful woods. Some ask, “And on what basis do you claim to know?” Simple: I Was there then, and I Am there now.
Today, among religions and spiritual movements and yes, even among philosophies such as Advaita, the Original Understanding has been lost. Some warn against the dangers of “pseudo-advaita” while sitting on a special carpet in a special robe with a special necklace and a special cup and a special haircut and a special crystal ball. "Pseudo” is accurate. Many “sages” and some “gurus” and “jnanis” will expound upon whatever they choose to expound upon and then move protégés into sadhana or bhajans or bhakti…into disciplines and devotion and worship. Some prescribe unnatural, life-long regimens of study and action and service. Not with my teacher, and not here. My teacher ran the religious and spiritual giants out of his loft quite regularly. They were not ready to hear the consciousness speak, for it would invite them to move beyond the ego-states wherein they think they know it all to a position in which they actually come to abandon all of their role-playing and come to understand the functioning of the totality…to truly understand it all. Believing they know it all, those visitors would only ignore the consciousness that spoke anyway, so they were not allowed to stay. And even those protégés who were ready to listen were only allowed to remain for a very limited number of sessions before he told them to leave. After his pointers were offered, he encouraged them to leave, to find a quiet place, to contemplate the words heard when consciousness spoke, to realize the lies, to realize the truth, and then to live AS IF in a natural fashion for the remainder of the manifestation.
Here, the focus is on that which was prior to consciousness and therefore certainly before disciplines and devotion and worship. Disciples and devotees and worshippers prefer a watered-down version of “spirituality” while believing they are partaking of the chock-full blessed waters. So it is. For those who believe they are content in what some teachers call “spiritual kindergarten,” so be it. They choose to live unnaturally and supernaturally, not living in the natural fashion that humans did for millions of years but behaving and thinking instead in the unnatural and “super-natural” fashion that controlling men dreamed up only a few thousand years ago. Among the sane, those in touch with reality, only natural living happens since they are free of all personas. For those out of touch with reality, unnatural living happens among some persons who adopt false identities; others who are out of touch with reality adopt super-natural personas. A religious "person" and a spiritual "person" are still persons...still false personas, playing their roles instead of being Real. Do you see that the "spiritual journey" you claim to be on actually prevents any chance of transitioning all personas and then living in a natural fashion? That persona may have served you well for some part of the relative existence, but to be in touch with reality, you're invited to forfeit all roles and Realize fully. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
