F.: An earlier post offered this pointer: “How often fictitious and religious and spiritual terms are used to mislabel the one, truth thing—THAT—which is real.” As evidence of that pointer, here’s part of an exchange over lunch last week with a man whom many call “well-educated” and “very knowledgeable” and “a man who has earned a doctor’s degree”:
The Ph.D.: “I must say I disagree with your Advaita teachings. As a Christian, I live by the words of Christ. I know there’s a God in heaven.”
F.: “The words of Christ are Advaita teachings, and Christ dismissed the concept of “heaven.” [Puzzled look.] He said, “Heaven and earth shall fade away” and “No one shall ever see heaven because it is…where?”
The Ph.D.: “Within.”
F.: “So if Christ was right and there’s no geographic heaven, where’s your God?”
The Ph.D.: “He’s within…within me.”
F.: “You say, ‘He.’ So there’s a ‘He,’ some kind of male, inside you?”
The Ph.D.: “Well, it’s not a male God inside me, per se. It’s more like…energy.”
F.: “OK. So you don’t disagree with the non-duality teachings and you actually disagree with the Christians’ dualistic beliefs about heaven and hell. We’re in agreement that conscious-energy is flowing through the body, so why take something as natural as energy and mislabel it with some supernatural term? Where’s that coming from?”
The Ph.D.: [Shrugs]
Persons internalize other persons and their beliefs when other persons have the power of influence over them...whether that influence involves parenting, money, or fear of abandonment. The doctor’s beliefs are rooted in the latter; others take on the beliefs and “values” of a boss and start mirroring that person out of economic fear. Other persons, even as adults, refuse to question even the most nonsensical of the beliefs that they adopted from their parents. Why? They were programmed from early on not to question those people, and they struggled for most of their existence to have those persons use the “good” label and not the “bad” label to describe them.
The “mind” and ego-states are mesmerized by their own content and knowledge and accumulations, but why use any words that inspire more beliefs in concepts that debilitate instead of using words to eliminate debilitating concepts? (A) Because most will never know what they do not know and will cling to what they think they know…no matter how insane their beliefs might be, and (B) because they are asleep but thinking they are awake; thus, they will verbalize their beliefs year after year after year, disseminating throughout the culture more acceptance of false beliefs. But actually the truth cannot be stated. That which is real has no name. Advaitans use “THAT” as a pointer only and to avoid inspiring a false belief in some “entity” or “thing” or “power” with an eternal form. Nothing that has any apparent form in the relative existence actually has a form, so certainly nothing will ever have any eternal, everlasting form.
Finally, there is no self or Self that is the same as anything else. What is "the same as everything else" is that lowest common denominator that all is: energy. The I AM can refer to the conscious-energy when manifested in a space, but the I AM THAT is also that same conscious-energy, merely not-manifested. Unmanifested, the consciousness is Absolutely pure; once manifested, the consciousness is soon bastardized via programming, conditioning and enculturation. Consciousness manifested is not unlike one physical property of a soybean in that it takes on the flavor of whatever it is placed next to. Thus, the purity of child ignorance is soon lost in most cases since the consciousness of a child will begin to reflect whatever consciousness it is placed next to. As a result, some persons become conscious of skin color and believe that represents a real difference. Some persons become conscious of national boundaries and believe that represents a real difference. Some persons become conscious of something as relative as sexual preferences and believe that constitutes a difference. Some persons become conscious of affiliations with organizations that have been dreamed up by controlling men and think that makes a difference. Some persons become conscious of religious identifications and believe those represent a real difference. Some persons become conscious of beliefs and assume that those held by “others” represent a real difference. And some few persons will realize What They Truly Are and realize that no dualities exist and no differences exist except as imagined because of perverse programming and warped consciousness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion, Part B]
Persons internalize other persons and their beliefs when other persons have the power of influence over them...whether that influence involves parenting, money, or fear of abandonment. The doctor’s beliefs are rooted in the latter; others take on the beliefs and “values” of a boss and start mirroring that person out of economic fear. Other persons, even as adults, refuse to question even the most nonsensical of the beliefs that they adopted from their parents. Why? They were programmed from early on not to question those people, and they struggled for most of their existence to have those persons use the “good” label and not the “bad” label to describe them.
The “mind” and ego-states are mesmerized by their own content and knowledge and accumulations, but why use any words that inspire more beliefs in concepts that debilitate instead of using words to eliminate debilitating concepts? (A) Because most will never know what they do not know and will cling to what they think they know…no matter how insane their beliefs might be, and (B) because they are asleep but thinking they are awake; thus, they will verbalize their beliefs year after year after year, disseminating throughout the culture more acceptance of false beliefs. But actually the truth cannot be stated. That which is real has no name. Advaitans use “THAT” as a pointer only and to avoid inspiring a false belief in some “entity” or “thing” or “power” with an eternal form. Nothing that has any apparent form in the relative existence actually has a form, so certainly nothing will ever have any eternal, everlasting form.
Finally, there is no self or Self that is the same as anything else. What is "the same as everything else" is that lowest common denominator that all is: energy. The I AM can refer to the conscious-energy when manifested in a space, but the I AM THAT is also that same conscious-energy, merely not-manifested. Unmanifested, the consciousness is Absolutely pure; once manifested, the consciousness is soon bastardized via programming, conditioning and enculturation. Consciousness manifested is not unlike one physical property of a soybean in that it takes on the flavor of whatever it is placed next to. Thus, the purity of child ignorance is soon lost in most cases since the consciousness of a child will begin to reflect whatever consciousness it is placed next to. As a result, some persons become conscious of skin color and believe that represents a real difference. Some persons become conscious of national boundaries and believe that represents a real difference. Some persons become conscious of something as relative as sexual preferences and believe that constitutes a difference. Some persons become conscious of affiliations with organizations that have been dreamed up by controlling men and think that makes a difference. Some persons become conscious of religious identifications and believe those represent a real difference. Some persons become conscious of beliefs and assume that those held by “others” represent a real difference. And some few persons will realize What They Truly Are and realize that no dualities exist and no differences exist except as imagined because of perverse programming and warped consciousness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion, Part B]
