[Continued from previous posts]
From a site visitor:
4. Energy, conscious energy unmanifested, energy currently manifested in a 500-lb gorilla...I don't see how I can tag any of those as "my energy" and on the other hand none of those are not me.
F.: Agreed, there’s no “my energy” because there’s no “one” to possess energy or anything else. So…? You say that you “don’t see how you can tag”? Fine. The Fully Realized never “tag” anything; instead, the Realized discard all tags and labels and suggest that their protégés do the same. As far as “tagging” things along the way as protégés transition one level after the other, thorns are used to remove thorns. Concepts are used to remove concepts. Then all thorns or concepts or “tags” are discarded. There are steps that must be taken to move from LA to NY, but once in NY the steps aren’t given another thought. Along the way, however, all of the steps must be considered and they must be followed in an exact sequence in order to reach the destination.
With Full Realization, no concepts remain. Sit back, relax, and take it easy. There’s no “purpose” to seek, no “mission” to accomplish, no “meaning” to try to uncover. Can employment continue for most, post-Realization? Of course. Can employment end for some? Of course. Post-Realization, whatever happens simply happens spontaneously, just as the postings on this Advaita site merely happen. Someday, they will not happen. Neither means a thing. Currently, as postings happen spontaneously, they might provide a fleeting moment of what some can take as “entertainment.” Meanwhile, those “moving toward a destination” might as well employ the map with its clear-cut directions that you referenced in your e-mail. That is all that FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE [ http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/ ] is: a set of clear-cut directions along a “path” to nowhere while undertaking a “journey” to nowhere. “But floyd, I want to find MySelf,” some protest. “I want it all!”
Why settle for that? Instead, find the Void. Rather than “having it all,” go for “The Grand Prize”: the nothing. Only persons want it all and by the time they hear of Advaita, they have already engaged in religious or spiritual role—playing to try to get it all…now and forevermore. In the framework of their “spiritual experiences,” they actually experience more and more encumbrances: some share how spiritual they are by recounting instances of “crying tears of great joy during a meditation session”; some think they are very highly developed after comparing their “more poignant experiences” with those mediocre experiences of others; they claim to feel great calm, having finally reached so advanced a state of spirituality that they are confident that they have guaranteed not only perpetual continuity but also eternal reward for their bodies. That is why all spiritual work that is claimed to be about metaphysical issues is really only about physical issues: it’s never about anything but the body. It’s always about making sure that the body avoids pain now (and forever) and receives rewards now (and forever). In the end, what they take to be their spiritual self or religious self is just a new mental ego-state that produces emotional intoxication.
Those assuming religious and spiritual roles differ not at all from other persons still identified with the body. Their talking suggests that they are concerned with the quintessence when they are really concerned with the food essence—the body. They want to perpetuate their name and form rather than understanding the space, so they pray for the health of their bodies. They also pray for the health of other bodies. They pray that donor organs will become available, calling for other bodies to end so their bodies can continue. They pray for the hands of surgeons to be skilled so their bodies can prosper. They pray that the terminally ill will live so their bodies will continue. Some pray to go to a heaven that provides a harem of women to satisfy their bodies. They pray that their bodies will be safe during war even as they pray for success in destroying other bodies. They pray for forgiveness so their bodies will not be tortured for eternity. Body…body…body. Religion and spirituality are all about the body even as their followers claim they’re interested in issues beyond the body. They believe that they have reached the third level when they have not left the first. Call that “tagging” or call it understanding the levels that must be transitioned. Either way, persons cannot complete the “journey” to being in touch with Reality if they haven’t a clue where they are along the “path” and how far out of touch with Reality they are. The first step on the “path,” therefore, must be marked, and that first step involves understanding that the body is being mistaken as an identity and that such a misperception must be abandoned.
When body identification ends, no body or form is taken to be real since no body or form is present to make assessments about body or form. When the second level—the “mind”—is transitioned, then "body" does not remain and the only “mind” that remains is that part that is yet identifying with religious or spiritual roles. As the delusional belief in form or “mind” fades, the space can begin to be understood, but the other role-obstacles remain: in the stillness of the absence of the physical body and the absence of a “mind” that was constantly concerned with issues of physicality, persons begin to consider the “metaphysical” and thereby adopt those religious or spiritual roles. Assumption of those roles regenerates interest in the “mind” and in gathering spiritual knowledge and in the eternal preservation of the body. Ultimately, therefore, those roles are a setback on the "journey," but they are a necessary stop along the way. That's the irony. When those roles are finally abandoned (and they—along with Self—are always the last to go) then the Void or Nothingness or space can be understood and the true stillness of de-programmed consciousness can happen. Otherwise, personas that have assumed religious or spiritual personalities will know no more stillness than any other persons who are also preoccupied with the fate of the body and the desire for body continuity. Transitioning those roles allows preoccupation with form to end and allows preoccupation with “mind stuff” to end. With the dissolution of the illusion of form, only space remains, and with the dissolution of the “mind,” the understanding that you are the space happens. The focus on the “I Am” can end even as the “I-Amness” remains.
Meanwhile, most will never undertake the “journey” at all, much less care about using a “map” or finding a “guide.” Persons are blindly on a “full-speed ahead” course. So it is, and ultimately, neither taking the journey nor avoiding the journey, nor using a map nor not using a map, matters even an iota. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: Agreed, there’s no “my energy” because there’s no “one” to possess energy or anything else. So…? You say that you “don’t see how you can tag”? Fine. The Fully Realized never “tag” anything; instead, the Realized discard all tags and labels and suggest that their protégés do the same. As far as “tagging” things along the way as protégés transition one level after the other, thorns are used to remove thorns. Concepts are used to remove concepts. Then all thorns or concepts or “tags” are discarded. There are steps that must be taken to move from LA to NY, but once in NY the steps aren’t given another thought. Along the way, however, all of the steps must be considered and they must be followed in an exact sequence in order to reach the destination.
With Full Realization, no concepts remain. Sit back, relax, and take it easy. There’s no “purpose” to seek, no “mission” to accomplish, no “meaning” to try to uncover. Can employment continue for most, post-Realization? Of course. Can employment end for some? Of course. Post-Realization, whatever happens simply happens spontaneously, just as the postings on this Advaita site merely happen. Someday, they will not happen. Neither means a thing. Currently, as postings happen spontaneously, they might provide a fleeting moment of what some can take as “entertainment.” Meanwhile, those “moving toward a destination” might as well employ the map with its clear-cut directions that you referenced in your e-mail. That is all that FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE [ http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/ ] is: a set of clear-cut directions along a “path” to nowhere while undertaking a “journey” to nowhere. “But floyd, I want to find MySelf,” some protest. “I want it all!”
Why settle for that? Instead, find the Void. Rather than “having it all,” go for “The Grand Prize”: the nothing. Only persons want it all and by the time they hear of Advaita, they have already engaged in religious or spiritual role—playing to try to get it all…now and forevermore. In the framework of their “spiritual experiences,” they actually experience more and more encumbrances: some share how spiritual they are by recounting instances of “crying tears of great joy during a meditation session”; some think they are very highly developed after comparing their “more poignant experiences” with those mediocre experiences of others; they claim to feel great calm, having finally reached so advanced a state of spirituality that they are confident that they have guaranteed not only perpetual continuity but also eternal reward for their bodies. That is why all spiritual work that is claimed to be about metaphysical issues is really only about physical issues: it’s never about anything but the body. It’s always about making sure that the body avoids pain now (and forever) and receives rewards now (and forever). In the end, what they take to be their spiritual self or religious self is just a new mental ego-state that produces emotional intoxication.
Those assuming religious and spiritual roles differ not at all from other persons still identified with the body. Their talking suggests that they are concerned with the quintessence when they are really concerned with the food essence—the body. They want to perpetuate their name and form rather than understanding the space, so they pray for the health of their bodies. They also pray for the health of other bodies. They pray that donor organs will become available, calling for other bodies to end so their bodies can continue. They pray for the hands of surgeons to be skilled so their bodies can prosper. They pray that the terminally ill will live so their bodies will continue. Some pray to go to a heaven that provides a harem of women to satisfy their bodies. They pray that their bodies will be safe during war even as they pray for success in destroying other bodies. They pray for forgiveness so their bodies will not be tortured for eternity. Body…body…body. Religion and spirituality are all about the body even as their followers claim they’re interested in issues beyond the body. They believe that they have reached the third level when they have not left the first. Call that “tagging” or call it understanding the levels that must be transitioned. Either way, persons cannot complete the “journey” to being in touch with Reality if they haven’t a clue where they are along the “path” and how far out of touch with Reality they are. The first step on the “path,” therefore, must be marked, and that first step involves understanding that the body is being mistaken as an identity and that such a misperception must be abandoned.
When body identification ends, no body or form is taken to be real since no body or form is present to make assessments about body or form. When the second level—the “mind”—is transitioned, then "body" does not remain and the only “mind” that remains is that part that is yet identifying with religious or spiritual roles. As the delusional belief in form or “mind” fades, the space can begin to be understood, but the other role-obstacles remain: in the stillness of the absence of the physical body and the absence of a “mind” that was constantly concerned with issues of physicality, persons begin to consider the “metaphysical” and thereby adopt those religious or spiritual roles. Assumption of those roles regenerates interest in the “mind” and in gathering spiritual knowledge and in the eternal preservation of the body. Ultimately, therefore, those roles are a setback on the "journey," but they are a necessary stop along the way. That's the irony. When those roles are finally abandoned (and they—along with Self—are always the last to go) then the Void or Nothingness or space can be understood and the true stillness of de-programmed consciousness can happen. Otherwise, personas that have assumed religious or spiritual personalities will know no more stillness than any other persons who are also preoccupied with the fate of the body and the desire for body continuity. Transitioning those roles allows preoccupation with form to end and allows preoccupation with “mind stuff” to end. With the dissolution of the illusion of form, only space remains, and with the dissolution of the “mind,” the understanding that you are the space happens. The focus on the “I Am” can end even as the “I-Amness” remains.
Meanwhile, most will never undertake the “journey” at all, much less care about using a “map” or finding a “guide.” Persons are blindly on a “full-speed ahead” course. So it is, and ultimately, neither taking the journey nor avoiding the journey, nor using a map nor not using a map, matters even an iota. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[Tomorrow, the response to the following: “You wrote: ‘But once Realization happens, the ‘I Am’ is seen for its worthlessness.’ If you’re saying the consciousness is worthless, I don’t get that at all.”]
