To continue with the Teachings as offered in the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine”:
Imagine no possessions.
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger…
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.
In the book The Essence of the Teachings [ www.floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm ], the “Five Stages” from “Stage One Programming” to “Stage Five AS IF Living” are detailed. It is at the fourth stage where the attachment to possessions and de-accumulating happens, so it is that stage that the poet invites listeners to imagine. The shift that transitions persons into Stage Four Detachment from Possessions is a prerequisite for Stage Five AS IF Living to happen. That shift should not be confused with past cases where religious or spiritual leaders have encouraged people to liquidate their possessions and turn assets over to some movement. Rather, the de-accumulation might simply take the form of “less” replacing “more.”
For example, an act of de-accumulation happened with “floyd” reached a stage where the five-bedroom, two-story Tudor home that was extravagantly-furnished and that was seated on a large piece of land was exchanged for a small condo that is modestly-furnished. What preceded the shift? The abandonment of the ego-states and the accompanying egotism that all believed they needed “more” to exist and to feel fulfilled. Where “floyd” thought he possessed a home and had to work an extra job in order to maintain it, the home and the jobs actually "owned" him. The “less-ness” that accompanied Stage Four de-accumulation also resulted in less work, less maintenance, less anxiety, and less imaginary "need" as a result of fewer possessions. As the re-purification of the consciousness happened, the ego-state “The Owner” disappeared along with “The Possessor” of anything.
Imagine no possessions.
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger…
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.
In the book The Essence of the Teachings [ www.floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm ], the “Five Stages” from “Stage One Programming” to “Stage Five AS IF Living” are detailed. It is at the fourth stage where the attachment to possessions and de-accumulating happens, so it is that stage that the poet invites listeners to imagine. The shift that transitions persons into Stage Four Detachment from Possessions is a prerequisite for Stage Five AS IF Living to happen. That shift should not be confused with past cases where religious or spiritual leaders have encouraged people to liquidate their possessions and turn assets over to some movement. Rather, the de-accumulation might simply take the form of “less” replacing “more.”
For example, an act of de-accumulation happened with “floyd” reached a stage where the five-bedroom, two-story Tudor home that was extravagantly-furnished and that was seated on a large piece of land was exchanged for a small condo that is modestly-furnished. What preceded the shift? The abandonment of the ego-states and the accompanying egotism that all believed they needed “more” to exist and to feel fulfilled. Where “floyd” thought he possessed a home and had to work an extra job in order to maintain it, the home and the jobs actually "owned" him. The “less-ness” that accompanied Stage Four de-accumulation also resulted in less work, less maintenance, less anxiety, and less imaginary "need" as a result of fewer possessions. As the re-purification of the consciousness happened, the ego-state “The Owner” disappeared along with “The Possessor” of anything.
The poet invites you to imagine a different life, an AS IF life, and to imagine what that might look like if you got free of the programming and enculturation that drive the desire for accumulations. Some say, "The two happiest days involving my boat were the day I bought it and the day I sold it." The poet suggests using that perspective to test each "possession" and to see if there are cases where de-accumulating or "lessening" might apply.
Sometimes the “more” was never attained but was rejected when offered: Maharaj was offered huge sums of money to build a lavish ashram and to move there from his tiny home in the backstreets of Mumbai (called “Bombay” at that time). In that case, the accumulation never happened so “less” remained the standard; however, prior to full Realization, he did own twelve shops in Bombay. Post-realization, he owned one. The poet invites the listener to imagine what changes would happen in her/his relative existence if de-accumulation began to happen. What new levels of freedom would manifest if you had a house of a size you could pay for rather than one so monstrous that it seems to own you? He who Realizes that there is no longer anything to lose thereafter loses no sleep in worry about the supposed possessions that various personas think they “own.” Just as there is no do-er, so there is no possessor.
All persons—all false identities—are rooted in one fashion or another in a belief in the ability to “possess.” Why? Because there is first a belief in the lie that a “possessor” exists. In the planet’s cultures of accumulation, a message of "getting" is conveyed early on by programmers, a message which leads to the belief that there is a “getter”—an accumulator. “Get a good education so you can get a good job so you can get a good home and get good things to fill it and get a good spouse and get a good family and get your offspring a good education so they can get as well.” And so the programming goes. In such cultures of accumulation, a dualistic belief in separation becomes a given, the “garbage man” being worth less (“worthless”) in comparison to the CEO.
Then, ego-states begin to multiply from the belief that “The Possessor” exists. There's talk about "my car," “my house,” “my spouse,” “my children,” “my company,” ad infinitum; thus, it becomes obvious that all false identities are rooted in the concepts of “possession” and “ownership.” Yet the poet does not advise abandoning motivation to work to meet the basic need. The birds are free, but they still forage or hunt each day. Unlike persons, though, their hunting or foraging is not marked by greed or excessive “hunger for accumulations.” The pointer offered by the poet is simply that the gathering process is natural; the process of excessive accumulation is unnatural. Watch birds sharing and see that such is also natural; see that hoarding is unnatural.
All of the lyrics offered by the poet point ultimately to the de-accumulation stage that must happen before peaceful, AS IF Living can happen. He invites the listeners to consider what it would be like if they de-accumulate dualistic concepts such as “heaven vs. hell”; such as “past vs. future”; such as “our country vs. their country”; such as “things to live for vs. things to kill or die for”; such as “The Successful Possessors vs. The Losers or The Failures”; such as all identities and all desires and needs that are dreamed up by ego-states. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The Myth of “Identity Crisis”
Sometimes the “more” was never attained but was rejected when offered: Maharaj was offered huge sums of money to build a lavish ashram and to move there from his tiny home in the backstreets of Mumbai (called “Bombay” at that time). In that case, the accumulation never happened so “less” remained the standard; however, prior to full Realization, he did own twelve shops in Bombay. Post-realization, he owned one. The poet invites the listener to imagine what changes would happen in her/his relative existence if de-accumulation began to happen. What new levels of freedom would manifest if you had a house of a size you could pay for rather than one so monstrous that it seems to own you? He who Realizes that there is no longer anything to lose thereafter loses no sleep in worry about the supposed possessions that various personas think they “own.” Just as there is no do-er, so there is no possessor.
All persons—all false identities—are rooted in one fashion or another in a belief in the ability to “possess.” Why? Because there is first a belief in the lie that a “possessor” exists. In the planet’s cultures of accumulation, a message of "getting" is conveyed early on by programmers, a message which leads to the belief that there is a “getter”—an accumulator. “Get a good education so you can get a good job so you can get a good home and get good things to fill it and get a good spouse and get a good family and get your offspring a good education so they can get as well.” And so the programming goes. In such cultures of accumulation, a dualistic belief in separation becomes a given, the “garbage man” being worth less (“worthless”) in comparison to the CEO.
Then, ego-states begin to multiply from the belief that “The Possessor” exists. There's talk about "my car," “my house,” “my spouse,” “my children,” “my company,” ad infinitum; thus, it becomes obvious that all false identities are rooted in the concepts of “possession” and “ownership.” Yet the poet does not advise abandoning motivation to work to meet the basic need. The birds are free, but they still forage or hunt each day. Unlike persons, though, their hunting or foraging is not marked by greed or excessive “hunger for accumulations.” The pointer offered by the poet is simply that the gathering process is natural; the process of excessive accumulation is unnatural. Watch birds sharing and see that such is also natural; see that hoarding is unnatural.
All of the lyrics offered by the poet point ultimately to the de-accumulation stage that must happen before peaceful, AS IF Living can happen. He invites the listeners to consider what it would be like if they de-accumulate dualistic concepts such as “heaven vs. hell”; such as “past vs. future”; such as “our country vs. their country”; such as “things to live for vs. things to kill or die for”; such as “The Successful Possessors vs. The Losers or The Failures”; such as all identities and all desires and needs that are dreamed up by ego-states. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The Myth of “Identity Crisis”
