Recently, a trend has been noticed: the number of e-mails being received has increased, but the questions being raised in the submissions are “clustering” around related topics. Several inquiries in the past weeks have dealt with how Advaitans should “handle loss.” Relatedly, several have repeated that common complaint among Advaitan novices who fear that the Advaita Teachings “might turn them into unfeeling robots.” (That, too, is about a fear of loss.) At the top of this page, visitors can search the keyword combination of “feeling emotion” to find past postings that differentiate between those two, but since so many questions have been raised around the concept of “loss” and “the loss of the ability to feel and thus become robotic” that the subject will be discussed.
F.: Many protégés over the years have exposed their attachment to certain ego-states by expressing their “concerns” by continually raising two questions: “What would the Realized do if a child of theirs died or was killed?” and “You’re at peace, so what would you do if you saw someone beating an elderly person?” If it is understood that the cause of all is all that has ever happened, then it should be clear that such speculation is useless. How could anyone predict what might happen in three weeks when the next three weeks of potential “causes” have not yet happened? It is impossible to predict what the Realized would do in any situation since no do-er exists and since what happens among the Realized just happens. Since spontaneous, AS IF living happens with the Realized, how could anyone possibly predict what specific behaviors might happen regarding any given incident? Whatever happens will happen spontaneously.
Next, all sense of “loss” diminishes the farther that persons move along the path to Realization. When the WHO’s disappear, WHO is left to own anything? “This is MY wife” some say. “This is MY husband,” some say. Really? Only an ego-state (a) is interested in accumulation rather than de-accumulation, only an ego-state (b) would assume ownership, and only an ego-state (c) can believe that it lost something than it once owned or controlled. Consider the insanity that would be involved in this belief: “I was driving through the desert and saw a mirage in the road ahead and upon seeing it, I claimed that it was mine. But when I drove closer to take possession of it, it was gone. Now I feel really bad about the loss.” Consider the widespread misery that is suffered across the planet on any given day as persons experience the emotional intoxication involved with the belief that they “lost” something which they believed that they “possessed.”
The Essence of the Teachings [ www.floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm ] offers an explanation of the “Five Stages” that persons move through as they shift from the earliest stage (being programming to accumulate) to the fourth stage (de-accumulating) where both the desire to possess fades away along with the illusion that there is anyone who can possess anything. For those persons who believe in the concepts of “ownership” and “loss,” the discussion will pause now to allow for reflection on the pointers above. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: Many protégés over the years have exposed their attachment to certain ego-states by expressing their “concerns” by continually raising two questions: “What would the Realized do if a child of theirs died or was killed?” and “You’re at peace, so what would you do if you saw someone beating an elderly person?” If it is understood that the cause of all is all that has ever happened, then it should be clear that such speculation is useless. How could anyone predict what might happen in three weeks when the next three weeks of potential “causes” have not yet happened? It is impossible to predict what the Realized would do in any situation since no do-er exists and since what happens among the Realized just happens. Since spontaneous, AS IF living happens with the Realized, how could anyone possibly predict what specific behaviors might happen regarding any given incident? Whatever happens will happen spontaneously.
Next, all sense of “loss” diminishes the farther that persons move along the path to Realization. When the WHO’s disappear, WHO is left to own anything? “This is MY wife” some say. “This is MY husband,” some say. Really? Only an ego-state (a) is interested in accumulation rather than de-accumulation, only an ego-state (b) would assume ownership, and only an ego-state (c) can believe that it lost something than it once owned or controlled. Consider the insanity that would be involved in this belief: “I was driving through the desert and saw a mirage in the road ahead and upon seeing it, I claimed that it was mine. But when I drove closer to take possession of it, it was gone. Now I feel really bad about the loss.” Consider the widespread misery that is suffered across the planet on any given day as persons experience the emotional intoxication involved with the belief that they “lost” something which they believed that they “possessed.”
The Essence of the Teachings [ www.floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm ] offers an explanation of the “Five Stages” that persons move through as they shift from the earliest stage (being programming to accumulate) to the fourth stage (de-accumulating) where both the desire to possess fades away along with the illusion that there is anyone who can possess anything. For those persons who believe in the concepts of “ownership” and “loss,” the discussion will pause now to allow for reflection on the pointers above. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
