From a site visitor: “After discussions with you and a good bit of reading before then, I am still right where I started - fearful. Almost as fearful as when I would sit in the doctor’s office, waiting to take my 3-month checkup for bladder cancer and get so scared I would almost hyperventilate and pass out. My mind on one hand tells me logically not to imagine the worse and all that but I guess my mind on the other hand unleashes fears that probably came from my dad. And you know what, as I observe others, it doesn‘t get better with age. It gets worse. People age 80 worry more about health than when they were young. I will admit, though, I do not want to give up duality in the sense that I like to enjoy things, feel good about winning at the slots, good about maybe some good work, etc. One thing I have learned that has stuck is that I am not my body or my mind. I do know that. And I do know we act and react because of what has been put into our minds. I just can‘t break the hold of the mind.”
[Each part shall be addressed]
VISITOR: “I am still right where I started - fearful.”
F.: Of course. You still have not abandoned the belief that you are your body. You still want eternal continuity for a temporary arrangement of elements.
F.: Of course. You still have not abandoned the belief that you are your body. You still want eternal continuity for a temporary arrangement of elements.
VISITOR: “I would almost hyperventilate and pass out. My mind on one hand tells me logically not to imagine the worse and all that but I guess my mind on the other hand unleashes fears that probably came form my dad.”
F.: The fears do not come from your dad. They came from him, from your mom, and from an entire culture that has filled you with false beliefs about an afterlife of potential punishment as well as attachment to the body that generates wants, desires and fears. Because they taught you to believe in the "good vs. bad" duality and its impact on your fate in "a next life," you've believed in the acceptance-unacceptable duality in "this life." That belief system has generated a lifetime of fear of not being good enough in your career, of not being acceptable to bosses who could end your career and cause you to lose your job and money and accumulations, of not having enough to support a six-person family, and of tension as you worked to be considered “acceptable” and worked to avoid being “rejected.” Those fears in this relative existence you have then projected onto some "future existence," which is all distortion.
VISITOR: “And you know what, as I observe others, it doesn‘t get better with age. It gets worse.”
F.: Of course it "doesn't get better" when trapped in illusory fears. The longer persons are trapped in their personas, are thinking they have been “bad,” and are focused on their limited body identification, then the more miserable they become as they dread what they take to be their pending eternal punishment. For other persons who are trapped in their personas, are thinking they have been “good,” and are focused on their limited body identification, then the more they long for death and their pending eternal reward. Both groups are living in distortion. Neither is willing to detach and witness whatever happens as it happens, and neither is able to live in an AS IF fashion because they have bought into the nonsense being taught in their culture.
VISITOR: “I will admit, though, I do not want to give up duality in the sense that I like to enjoy things, feel good about winning at the slots, good about maybe some good work, etc.”
F.: You've obviously missed the point entirely. Being free of duality is only about giving up lies and nonsense and wrong-thinking. A dual-minded man is unstable in all ways. The insanity of this culture cannot be compartmentalized. Insane in one area is insane in all areas. Being in touch with reality requires the "giving up" of nothing but your belief in distorted concepts and their subsequent fears.
VISITOR: “One thing I have learned that has stuck is that I am not my body or my mind. I do know that.”
F.: Everything else in your e-mail contradicts that claim. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion]
COMING SOON: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF INSANITY: Why the Teachings Must Evolve
COMING SOON: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF INSANITY: Why the Teachings Must Evolve
