[Continued from 4 July 2006]
2. In other words, once folks can annihilate ownership of the body and mind, they haven't gotten over any of their misery because they are then attached to "their pool of energy".
F.: I wonder who you know that is miserable as a result of being “attached to a pool of energy”? That may be your experience, or possibly you’re describing the experiences of other persons you've shared some Advaita ideas with? At any rate, Advaita seekers who are still miserable have obviously paused at one of the stages along the “path,” but such is not the experience of those who move beyond all attachments and attain Full Realization. What most persons attach to after they “annihilate ownership of body and mind” (the 1st and 2nd separators from reality) are the 3rd separator from reality (namely, their level-three religious or spiritual roles and their new level-three “knowledge” which their egos hate to sense is being depreciated when they are invited to question all of their learned ignorance). Those level-three roles are discussed on this site more than any others because most seekers who “find Advaita” and who maintain some interest in Advaita are stuck precisely at the religious or spiritual level. They have merely accepted a false religious role and/or a false spiritual role as an identity and have attached to certain disciplines or devotion or worship or dogma or philosophy that reinforce and defend their newest ego-states. But attachment to a “pool of energy”? Not among the fully Realized. To realize THAT Which I AM does not imply any attachment to THAT Which I AM; to the contrary, the realization is the end of attachment.
Though marred by personas and attachments, that third separator from reality (the assumption of religious/spiritual personas) cannot be skipped but it most certainly must be transitioned if Full Realization is to manifest. If that level is not transitioned, then one will remain identified with personality and will lay claim to religious and/or spiritual attributes (and all attributes are merely fiction). It is that attachment to religious personas and/or to spiritual personas (not an attachment to a “pool of energy”) that halts the movement toward Full Realization. It must be asked of those fixated at that 3rd level, however, “How can persons possibly recognize the fraud of a concept such as ‘other-worldly’ if they cannot even recognize the fraud of the concept of ‘this world’?” How can they ever come to know what is “natural and normal” if they are focused on the "paranormal"? How can they ever transcend the mystery while focused on the mythical and the mystical?
Only if one transitions beyond level three and continues to the end (the end of belief in the body-mind-personality) will the spontaneous functioning of the universal life force be understood. That force pervades everything but has no attributes, no form, no personality, no beingness, and no individuality. Understanding that, protégés can finally forfeit their beliefs about "human beings,” much less about "supreme beings." They can come to the end of personality and the remainder of the manifestation will unfold from the standpoint of impersonal consciousness only. Also abandoned at that point are the illusion of differentiation as well as notions about being “good” or “better” or “the best.” When sessions were still being conducted, hundreds and hundreds of seekers who came for the teachings were witnessed as they attached to their false roles, but none was seen to have “attached to a pool of energy.” Since attachments are being discussed, however, it should be seen why transitioning level-three attachment is required for Realization to happen; otherwise, persons fixated at that stage will believe that they were created, that there was a creator, that the creator was some kind of supreme being, that the creator has attributes, form, personality, and individuality, and that they are “better” for being so close to “Him” or to some “supreme being.”
Finally, the “misery” you mention is always a product of the “mind,” not a result of an attachment to a pool of energy. Persons e-mail with inquiries about how to still the mind, how to quiet the mind, how to control the mind, or how to sharpen the mind. No discussion of any of that happens here. Why? The mind is an illusion. One may as well move to the desert and try to still all the mirages, try to quiet all the mirages, try to control all the mirages, or try to sharpen all the mirages. No discussion of how to do anything with the “mind” happens here for nothing here will be offered that will support the continuation of belief in illusions. Here, the pointer is to see “the mind” for the mirage that it is and then to give it no more interest. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: Completion of response to #2]
