THE WORLD YOU HATE IS IN YOU, Part Two

From a site visitor: What can Realization do to help my unrest? I become furious (or depressed) when I see such diversity in the lifestyles of people across the globe. I want fairness and equanimity, but I see none. I look at this world and I see people in war torn nations fighting for their lives and I see other people putting all their energy into killing the innocent. I see people in prosperous nations like here in the U.S. who are fighting to get into stores to buy games and toys while other people are scrounging for a morsel to eat. I’d like to see some sense to this world, but I can’t. Can Advaita help me get free of this? Steven

F.: The point having been offered that there is no “one” to be helped, it might be that the non-attachment of Realization could provide freedom from the emotional intoxication that you seem to be experiencing. [That freedom will not preclude certain feelings from happening. So it is in this state of Am-ness, even among the Realized.]

But non-attachment would not appeal to you at this point because you are so far removed from being Fully Realized. Your e-mail reveals your current “condition,” and your current condition provides an opportunity to reinforce certain Advaitan pointers that have been offered in the past:

1. Persons/personas are identified with body, mind, and personality.

2. Most who have been on the “journey” long enough to forfeit total attachment to body and/or mind become fixated at the spiritual stage, having merely replaced their former personas with that newly-adopted persona. That assumption of a new persona assures they will be as trapped in personality as persons who have never even begun to travel the “path.”

3. Those trapped in that newer role believe that they have “arrived,” believe that they have completed the "journey," and thus mistake the dawn for the noon.

4. All persons trapped in personality will suffer restlessness, discontentment, irritability, or outright misery as a result of personality, no matter how “good” they think their newest role is.

Look to your own case, Steven, to find examples of each pointer. You are trapped in personality (pointer #1). The primary persona that is driving you is the one which is likely your dominant personality type, specifically “The Perfectionist.” That role attaches you to two other roles—the personality “wings” of “The Perfectionist”—so you evidence traits of “The Peacemaker” personality and “The Helper” personality. Not being free of the dominant personality, you are automatically and immediately trapped into two other roles. That leaves you with a “split personality” (multiple personas as identities) and that induces a sensation of being broken…not whole…not One.

You illustrate pointer #2 by your belief that you know what is wrong with “the world” and pointer #3 by the implication that you could come up with a better plan because you are on a higher plane and can see all that is wrong with “the world.”

Trapped as you are in your personas and fixed at step three of a seven-step “journey” to Realization, you illustrate pointer #4: not only are you “furious and/or depressed” for most of your waking hours, you are attached to your fury and depression. Why? Because you are attached to personality, and personality always generates misery. You have become “comfortable” with the uncomfortable, comfortable with the familiar—no matter how miserable the familiar is. Now, you’re trapped in those false identities and frustrated that you can’t make the world—can’t make people—do what you think they “should do.” Having added the ego-state of “The Would-Be Controller” to the list of the personalities you’ve adopted, of course your ego-states are experiencing fury and depression. Why?

You (“The Perfectionist”) become furious because you can’t change the world and make it as perfect as you would like. Ironically, you become furious that there is no universal peace, which your “Peacemaker” personality desires. You become frustrated because your “Helper” personality can’t really effect the change that those other two roles want. And after the adrenaline rush of that fury recedes for a period, you become depressed because “The Controller” desires power, doesn’t have it, and knows that he has failed again to find a way to make the world right. The misery is intensified by the fact that you have desires, by the fact that desires are rooted in (and reinforce) illusions, and by the fact that belief in illusions guarantees frustration.

Thus, another pointer is offered: see how belief in illusion generates belief in more illusions. Then, see how more illusions generate more misery. You look at a mirage (“the world”) and believe that it is real. You do not see that it is merely a (false) image in your mind. It is a reflection, an appearance, that you are taking to be real. You think that the world is the way you see it, but other persons who see an entirely different kind of world believe as wholeheartly that their perception is real and right. So who is "right"? That which is inconstant and variable is never the real.

Your illusory ego-states (and the egotism that accompanies ego-states) convince you that you know better than others about the way the world should be. You believe that the mirage before you can be improved, so you set out to improve it. When nothing can be done to change a mirage or improve a mirage, you become frustrated and furious and, eventually, depressed. Then, your ego-states of “The Perfectionist" and "The Peacemaker" and "The Helper" and "The Controller” inspire you to ignore truth and ignore fact and ignore failure and to start your efforts all over again. Attached to personality, you will also be attached to the accompanying misery and fury and depression that accompany personality.

The misery is now as much a part of your false identity as those roles. You might begin to be free of all those illusions and the subsequent misery if you look at your seminal illusion (“the world”) and see that it’s false. Begin by understanding that you are not in the world; rather, understand that the world which you hate is in you. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE WORLD YOU HATE IS IN YOU, Part One

From a site visitor: What can Realization do to help my unrest? I become furious (or depressed) when I see such diversity in the lifestyles of people across the globe. I want fairness and equanimity, but I see none. I look at this world and I see people in war torn nations fighting for their lives and I see other people putting all their energy into killing the innocent. I see people in prosperous nations like here in the U.S. who are fighting to get into stores to buy games and toys while other people are scrounging for a morsel to eat. I’d like to see some sense to this world, but I can’t. Can Advaita help me get free of this? Steven

F.: The short answer is, “No,” the Advaita teachings cannot help you since no “you” exists to be helped. Might the experiencing of fury and depression be removed if you understood the teachings and Realization happens? That might happen. How would that process unfold? You would take pointers into the quiet, you would focus on the I AM, the consciousness would be re-purified as all is questioned and all belief in lies would end, "steven" would disappear, and for a period You would abide as the pure conscious-energy and witness purely; then, eventually You would transcend even that and abide as the Absolute. In that abidance, there would be no “you” and there would be no world for you to be “furious” over or “depressed” about. As it is, the Am-ness is the very foundation on which your misery has been built. Such is, in fact, always the case.

Consider two facets of that Am-ness: sleeping and waking. In which of those are you “free of this”—free of being conscious of the fury or depression? Obviously, the sleeping state. Why? Because the consciousness is forgotten. It is there, driving the heart and lungs, but it is as if it had vanished for a time. When the consciousness has "vanished," no fury or depression is noted. That peace which you long for happens. In the waking state, you know the Am-ness, you are absorbed in the aspects of that beingness, and—violà—fury and depression and suffering and misery are experienced.

Yes, at certain steps on the “path” to Realization, Advaitans can tout the re-purified consciousness to protégés, but that consciousness is nothing more than a launch pad from which you can be “rocketed into the Absolute” (that is, into the awareness that You Are THAT) wherein abidance can happen even during the remainder of the manifestation. From the vantage point of that launch pad, You can—to use your words—begin to “get free of this” (“this” actually being the illusion in which you currently reside). Via the Pure Witness, You would be able to see that the number of worlds is equal exactly to the number of persons on this planet. You would realize that the world you hate is in you—in your “mind”—just as the world that others love is in them…in their “minds.” No two persons have the same worldview, so each person imagines a world that is different from all of the other views of “the world” that all of the other persons think they see. That imagining, as is the case with all imaginings, is rooted in duality and delusion.

What can Realization do to “help your unrest,” to use your words? Your unrest needs no help. It is thriving quite well, all on its own. What can Realization do to "help you"? Nothing, other than to provide an opportunity for you to see that there is no “you.” Should you understand that, You will understand that the world you hate is only in you. Thus, if that “you” were to be discarded, the world you hate would simultaneously fade away. One Advaitan teacher repeated the words of many other Advaitan teachers: “Heaven and earth shall fade away.” Let the world that you are imagining fade away (along with the "you” that you are imagining) and then the fury and depression will fade away as well.

At this point, you not only hate the world, but now you hate this response as well. You want something “practical,” do you not? You want fairness. You want to change the world. You want to know how to get what you want. So the response will continue tomorrow, and you may find then that even the wanting of fairness and the wanting to change the world are just other parts of “The Play of Corrupted Consciousness” in which you have cast yourself in the leading role. Until then, the invitation is for you to take these pointers into consideration…or not. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE FUTILITY OF TRYING TO USE THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS TO UNDERSTAND LOGICAL TEACHINGS, Part Two

[Continued from 27 November 2006]

F.: How else to know that you are Realized and free?

2. You’ll see that doingness has ended. Your religious and/or spiritual programming and conditioning were rooted in doership as you were taught that you would only get their promised rewards (rewards to be enjoyed both now and later) if you attend, meet, work, serve, sacrifice, study “holy” writings, give, obsess, etc. Once Realized, it will be observed that what happens…happens, but you will certainly no longer be driven to do all of “their stuff” or to obsess over anything.

3. You’ll gravitate toward the silence, when the alternative is exposure to insanity. That will happen as a result of having been restored to sanity. In the past, you spouted insane comments, thinking that you were expressing "truth." You put yourself in places where other persons spouted insane comments, and you listened to their insanity so they would listen to yours. You needed a captive audience. Whereas going and doing and zooming and experiencing chaos in the past might have had a certain appeal, You suddenly find the silence quite comfortable in lieu of that steady stream of insane prattle or excessive noise that you exposed yourself to in the past.

4. You will stop looking for other people and other entities to trust. You will no longer have blind faith in the concepts of ancient men or the concepts of modern men; you will have no faith in their fictional concepts; you will have no faith in their fictional entities. You will be totally independent. You will know Your Self, and you will trust that Self, only. A protégé read a passage in which my teacher said he attained Realization because he had faith in his guru’s words. The protégé asked if he "had to have faith in me or my words." The answer was “No,” based on the way Realization happened in this case. There was no faith in a teacher or his words. I simply began reading his words and the content was completely logical. The Advaita teachings made sense whereas the teachings of all other “paths”—when studied objectively—were seen to be illogical and senseless.

More than anything, a vision that had come was the “spark” that ignited the gunpowder. The words of my teacher addressed “this step” to one visitor but “that step” with another. The vision that came to me showed the exact order in which the steps had to be taken to Realize. The meaning of the vision became clear and Realization happened. The teaching here is this: faith is only required when one would have you believe in teachings that are totally illogical or theological. Only with blind faith could one be convinced that the totally illogical and unsensible is logical and sensible. No faith is required to believe in that which is logical. All that is required is being de-programming and de-conditioned, being reasonable, and being restored to sanity. Run like the wind from any who say, “Just truth me” or “Just trust us.” Instead, trust the Self that remains when all lies and concepts have been purged from your corrupted consciousness.

5. You will then discard the illogical and the theological and accept only the logical.

6. Your belief in the duality of “gain vs. loss” will disappear. You’ll be free of the deception that some “you” is real and that there’s a “you” than can gain or lose. It is that very belief which is contributing to the fact that you are fixated at the third stage, if even there. You really think that if you were to Realize that you’d lose something (or not gain something). How self-ish is that?

So you both cling to that dualistic belief about gain and loss and scores of other illogical concepts. You still think there's some "you" that is going to get some payoff for all your spiritual work. You still want to do. You still prefer the noisy insanity to the sane silence. You still like the role of "Seeker" and "Sharer" and "Knower." You still like to be heard and to have a captive audience. You turn your back on freedom and remain attached to, and dependent upon, the mythical nonsense that you—and billions—have been taught. That nonsense was originally dreamed up by ignorant men thousands of years ago, men who were so foolish that they could come up with no better explanation for an eclipse than to claim that “It’s a sign from an angry god.” To continue to believe in even one of the metaphysical theories that were all dreamed up by those obtuse men is to be associated with all of the sleepwalkers nowadays who still believe in that antiquated nonsense. It will put you in the company of the masses today who think that Hurricane Katrina was also “a sign from an angry god” or, as the Dahli Lama claimed as a result of his magical thinking, an event that came about because of “the past negative karma of the people of New Orleans.” That comment shows that even the educated can ignore basic, scientific facts, can cloak truth in their theologically-based or metaphysically-based insanity, and always prefer their magical thinking that assigns "supernatural cause" to totally natural events.

Can you imagine the level of folly that dominated persons thousands of years ago? Is it seen how often persons today still live their lives according to the dictates or theories set forth by ancient, ignorant men? Do you see why the masses today, therefore, also abide in the same level of folly? Can you imagine the level of senselessness that dominates those persons today who are willing to accept as fact the inane ideas that were dreamed up during those days of such widespread madness? Is it clearer why the masses today are trapped in insanity, accepting as fact the absurdities dreamed up four or five thousand years ago?

More to the point, can you imagine the level of sanity to which you might be restored if you were to reject those lies and concepts which were the fabrications of ignorant, self-serving men—lies that replaced the Original Understanding? Realize that the truth of that Original Understanding cannot be expressed in words and cannot be taught, but know as well that it can be grasped intuitively. The invitation is to set aside all doingness and all beliefs and all concepts, to go into the quiet, and to become open to an awareness of that intuitive understanding. If it comes, then doingness will end, all that is illogical will be rejected, and an understanding of the beingness (and even of the non-beingness) will come. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE FUTILITY OF TRYING TO USE THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS TO UNDERSTAND LOGICAL TEACHINGS, Part One

From a site visitor: [Received 25 November 2006] Reading your comments and cautions to Russ today got me to thinking because I did the church thing wholeheartedly before finally leaving organized religion and searching for years and years before finding Advaita. In fact, I did a lot of things wholeheartedly in the search for “The Answers” you mention. Really, everything in that list about serving and giving money and time and effort and (definitely!) obsessing applied to me in those days, but I stop sometimes and wonder if I’m just doing some of those same things with Advaita. So how will I know that I’ve Realized, and how can I know that I’m really free of all that stuff from the past?

From another site visitor: [Also received 25 November 2006] In todays post is somthing that has been observed and it is: being obsessed w/ advaita. Its funny because it seems that "the seeker" is fighting for its illusory life...and it does not like/want to find/know THAT and be DONE WITH IT ALL! For some reason it wants to still read posts and aquire more of whatever, probaly more "learned ignorance." The movement of needing to know more is there and i see the falseness and how this leaves me totally self absorbed and self centered and leading an unmanageable life. Its like just STOP...STOP i dont need more, dont need to know more be more or act like some freakin guru, i cant stand that, doesnt feel real, only self seeking. Any suggestions on how to let this go? Thanx again for any reply. Kurt

F.: Both of you are trying to overlay on the Advaita philosophy the practices that were used to condition and to program your “minds” in religious and/or spiritual venues. That will cause you to stall at the third of seven steps to Full Realization, inspiring you to add more false identities to the list of “who you are” rather than discarding all false personas. It will motivate you to adopt an entirely new set of illusionary states-of-being which might include such “super-powered” roles as “The Sanctified Practitioner” or “The Hallowed Do-er” or “God’s Agent on the Planet” or “The Holy Worshipper” or “God’s Representative on Earth” or “The Blessed Helper” or “The Righteous but Humble Servant of the Almighty,” all puerile ego-states that receive their nourishment from suckling the milk of religion and/or spirituality. With Realization, all ego-states that are being assumed as identities are abandoned. That will be one test you can use to know if Realization has truly happened.

There’s also evidence that neither of you are yet out of your “mind.” Being led by that conglomerate of lies called “the mind” will assure that personas will continue to be assumed as identities. That, in turn, will guarantee the presence of egotism (which always accompanies the assumption of ego-states). So what is happening now with each of you? Your ego is fighting to preserve its illusory self/selves. Ego will always sustain the lie, and the sustained lie will assure that true freedom will not happen in your relative existence; therefore, your ego is overshadowing any willingness to set aside your false identities, your beliefs, your programming, your conditioning, your “hopes,” your “dreams” and the insanity of your culture. Only freed of those influences will You Realize.

Religion and spirituality both have schedules of participation; they prescribe habitual attendance at their meetings and sessions, their leaders telling you that you must be present on a daily or weekly basis. Such programming and conditioning will convince you that a lifetime of work and effort and toil and service and “growth” is required in all matters considered “metaphysical.” That, in turn, will block any honest consideration of the Advaita teachings (especially of the nisarga yoga type) which suggest that (1) a tranquil, unencumbered style of living is natural and sane and that (2) unnatural and supernatural living are both based in delusion. To try to use theological teachings to understand logical teachings can succeed no more than trying to force the proverbial square peg into the proverbial round hole.

It is as if you two are plumbers who are trying to correct a really messy problem in a bathroom by using an electrician’s tool kit. You’ve been exposed to dogma and watered down spirituality. Now, you want to try to hang onto some of the tools you were exposed to in other venues and use that paraphernalia to try to grasp the Original Understanding. (There’s no “blame” being suggested in that comment—you were programmed by the most skilled programmers on the planet. The same is true for most of the six billion people on the planet who are fanatically devoted to the dogma offered by the three religions of Abraham).

How to know when you’re free?

1. You’ll see that you truly have no motives. You’ll be free of any of the trappings of all of your past religious programming and conditioning that are rooted in motive (especially in the motive to gain some reward and to avoid some punishment, both now and forever); instead, You will be free of all motives and all hidden agendas. You will see clearly which past motive was rooted in which false role. The Realized might write, or not. The Realized might read, or not. Anything might happen, but it will happen without motive. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

SEEK NOT FOR THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE UNTIL YOU FIRST FIND THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS, Part Two

From a site visitor: I’ve been reading a lot on the web and came across the phrase the ultimate medicine. Can you tell me what that means. Russ

F.: Diagnosis of an illness must precede the prescribing of the proper medicine for treating that sickness.

The Original Understanding is prior to all knowledge, all religions, all spiritual movements, all concepts, all dogma, all ideas, all emotions, all attitudes, all theories, all philosophies, all teachings and all teachers and all gurus. Before you are offered an opportunity to find, on Your own, the answer to your question, consider these points:

1. The ultimate medicine is the remedy for the pain and misery and suffering that marks the relative existence as a result of widespread ignorance.

2. The ultimate medicine is the antidote for all that has been learned.

3. The ultimate medicine is a stimulant which sustains awakeness.

4. The ultimate medicine is the purifier that removes the miasma that clouds out the chance for awareness to happen.

5. It is the medicine that makes the beingness tolerable in spite of the pandemic of global egotism that results in differentiation and destruction and misery and suffering.

So first, understand this about the beingness just mentioned: it is that very beingness which allows misery to happen and that is, in fact, the very source of all that persons consider to be their “problems” and their “troubles.” If the beingness ends, so does the misery; however, another option is available. You can be done with the beingness even as the consciousness continues with its manifestation. Understand that THAT which I AM and which YOU ARE is beyond both the beingness and the non-beingness. The wellness that comes via the ultimate medicine is not reserved for the non-being state only. It is available NOW, if You abide NOW as THAT Which You Are (which is beyond both beingness and non-beingness).

Those who claim that they are always “happy” will dispute that pointer about the beingness, but to claim happiness is to imply that unhappiness exists, so their claim is coming from a state of duality. What of the bliss-seekers? Seek away, but the Fully Realized desire nothing, including bliss. Bliss might happen, but sadness during the beingness can just as easily be witnessed as it rises and falls, even among the Realized.

Those involved with this “play” want many things, but the Realized fully understand (a) all that they are NOT in this relative realm and also fully understand (b) all that they are NOT in the non-relative realm. To know What You Are follows knowing all that You are not; it cannot precede that understanding. These words today are not for the wet charcoal, nor are they for those who are attached to their watered-down versions of spirituality. These words are for those who have searched everywhere else, as you have Russ, and are totally ready to give it all up in order to be truly free and truly independent NOW as a result of being Fully Realized.

If you want the full dose of the ultimate medicine, then contemplate this until You Realize fully: this consciousness, this Amness, is being “experienced” by Me—by the Absolute. Why “experienced” in quote marks? Because ultimately I AM beyond any state that is experiential. Why? Because there is no “one” to experience anything. Experiences are for persons…personas. I am not any person or any persona. Ultimately, I am not this “Is-ness,” nor am I any of the roles that are played during the “Is-ness.” I am not this beingness. I am not even the non-beingness, because when this consciousness is no longer manifested, the True Selfness that currently witnesses accurately will be no more. No selfness or Selfness or Beingness or non-beingness or Supreme Beingness will be. Also, after Realizing that all of “this relative stuff” is merely a play, no action is called for, either. WHO would do anything since there is no longer any belief in the existence of a “do-er?”

Then, what happens is that the play is allowed to proceed spontaneously until the play no longer proceeds. Because the ultimate medicine had been received prior to a doctor using the words “colon cancer” to describe a condition existing within this space, his words had no impact and triggered no reaction other than, “So, what’s next?” The treatment that followed simply happened with the understanding that, if healing happens, so be it. If it does not, so be it. Having received the ultimate medicine that dissolved away the past identification with the space, then no fear of body disease or body harm was experienced. Since Realization, there have been no concerns about continuity at all since the lies told in the relative existence about body-mind-personality continuity were exposed for what they are: merely lies.

Now, since you seem to have spent more than enough time in the doingness of seeking, it might be that you’re ready to take these pointers into the quiet and contemplate their meaning. If separation, anger, arrogance, conflict, misery, greed, suffering, dis-ease, murder, disharmony, destruction, chaos, religious wars, civil wars, and political wars are merely the symptoms of the ultimate sickness, then what is the sickness behind all that? First, fnd the source of those symptoms of the ultimate sickness and then You answer the question "What is the ultimate medicine?" for Your Self. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The response to two e-mails about obsessing over Advaita and trying to overlay past religious practices or spiritual practices onto the Advaita philosophy.

SEEK NOT FOR THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE UNTIL YOU FIRST FIND THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS, Part One

From a site visitor: [Received November 23, 2006] Hey, Floyd, thank you for the information (pointers?) on your site. Your posting today really struck a cord with me. When you talked about the frustration of looking for what you called “The Answers” sounded exactly like what I’ve gone through for years. Then, months ago when I was out of the country on a business trip, I went shopping for something to read at night and found a book on Advaita Vedanta. By the time I finished reading it, I was hooked. This is the strange part--I have finally found something that makes sense, even though there is still so much that I don’t understand yet. But I know the big part of my search is over--now I just need to stay with this until I understand all of it. So, anyway, this is the question. I’ve been reading a lot on the web and came across the phrase the ultimate medicine several times. Can you tell me what that means. I really do thank you for the site. Russ.

F.: Hello, Russ. Thanks for writing. First, a caution that may or may not apply: guard against obsessing over Advaita the way that you’ve seemingly obsessed over the rest of your search. If your seeking experiences truly paralleled those described in the earlier posting, then you have likely been conditioned in those other venues to attend, meet, work, serve, sacrifice, study “holy” writings, give, obsess, etc. To Realize and grasp the Original Understanding, none of those activities will provide assistance. They are actually obstacles to Realization. Instead of engaging in all of that busy-ness, take certain Advaitan pointers into the quiet (in solitude rather than in groups) and contemplate upon their meaning.

Next, a second caution: change the direction of your focus, if you have not already done so. In the past, it seems you responded to programming and sought answers. The Advaita approach begins with questioning, not with answering. Have you truly begun to question it all, or is there still something inside Russ’s “mind” that wants answers? Any accumulating is a hindrance to Realization, including accumulating more spiritual knowledge (which is merely more learned ignorance).

If neither caveat applies, so it is, but in observance of the precautions, this is offered: rather than giving you more answers at this point, how about if you ask a question instead and then ponder that question in the silence? Instead of seeking the answer to “What is the ultimate medicine?” ask first, “What is the ultimate sickness?” What is this sickness of the planet? Would you join millions and offer some or all of the following as your answer?

“Separation, anger, arrogance, conflict, misery, greed, suffering, dis-ease, murder, disharmony, destruction, chaos, religious wars, civil wars, and political wars?”

If so, your answer would be incorrect. That inventory is not a cataloguing of the ultimate sickness. That listing merely registers the symptoms of the ultimate sickness, not the sickness itself. So, what might the ultimate sickness be that is always accompanied by those symptoms and that requires the ultimate medicine for treatment? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

SEEMING CONTRADICTIONS IN THE TEACHINGS

From a site visitor: You talked about not being ambiguous and being impeccable and unwavering, but you imply in some writings that freedom can be gained if we lose personas. Aren’t gain and loss dualities?

F.: Thanks for your question, but instead of the word “imply,” use the verb “infer” in order to be impeccable. Say, “I have inferred from your writings certain conclusions that you neither stated nor implied.”

As recently as this month the following pointer was offered:
“Lost” is in quote marks because the duality of “loss vs. gain” is a lie.

In August, the point was made that…
there is no one to apply anything or to benefit from anything or to gain anything or to lose anything.

In July, the point was made that…
the realized certainly have no desire to gain anything.

References over the last year and a half have been made to those trying to gain control, gain power, or gain benefits, but those references alluded to persons—to the non-Realized. References have also been made to those who are subsumed in their religious or spiritual ego-states, trying to gain a reward or trying to avoid a punishment. But always the main pointer offered was, “There is no one to gain anything” and that “Gain and loss are dualistic concepts to be discarded.”

Furthermore, some describe Advaita as a philosophy that is “not about gaining anything but about losing everything.” At some point along the “path,” that pointer might be valid; however, by the end of the “journey,” it is Realized that—even as there is no “one” to gain anything—there is no “one” to lose anything either. Is that an “ambiguity,” offering one pointer to one protégé but a different pointer to another protégé? Here’s the rationale: a wise teacher will not invite students to try their hands at division and multiplication before the students have mastered addition and subtraction. So it is with the presentation of "concepts that are used to remove concepts," and so it is with seeming ambiguities among Advaitan pointers.

Your query provides an opportunity to respond to similar questions that have been raised over the years regarding certain “confusing teachings.” For example, some complain that when they read the transcripts from various satsanga sessions, a teacher may have said one thing one day and something seemingly different the next. Here’s why: the same pointer offered to one protégé at one step on the “journey” would not be offered to a second protégé that is at a different step on the “journey.” If a true contradiction exists, then of course those teachings should be ignored; on the other hand, understand that some teachings that might seem to be contradictions are instead custom-designed pointers that are taking into account whether the specific protégé being responded to is at the wet charcoal stage, the dry charcoal stage or the gunpowder stage. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: Use the search engine at the top of this page to search this site for more on protégés who are in the “wet charcoal stage,” the “dry charcoal stage,” or the “gunpowder stage.”]

EGOTISM, JUDGMENT, DIFFERENTIATION, DUALITY, AND SEPARATION

From a site visitor: “Your blog today [received November 17] talked about there’s no eternal reward or punishment, I feel sorry for you. Your turning your back being saved. Your lost and your causing other people to be lost and if you do not change, you will be lost for eternity and you’ll find out that punishment forever is real.”

F.: I asked another person (who also wrote to the site to advocate the same religious concepts that you’re touting) how he even found an Advaita site. He said he was doing research on gehanna, googled “gehanna” + “christ,” found this site, spent some time searching this blog for entries on Christ, and was “appalled at the comments” he found. WHO keeps reading anything that is appalling? Moreover, WHO is appalled? And WHO is this “I” you mention who is feeling sorry for some “me”?

Truth be known, you’re only “sorry” (or fearful? or angry?) when anyone else does not believe what you believe. That’s the result of your egotism which accompanies all assumed ego-states. Ego is always about differentiation: “I am different from you” (actually meaning, “I am better than you”), or “My religion / school / state / nationality / race / sexual preferences / political party / belief systems / values / morals / ideas / and attitudes are better than yours.” Egotism, which is employed to defend and preserve false ego-states, can only disappear after false ego-states are abandoned as identities. Were you to abandon your ego-states, an opportunity could arise for you to see the lies of duality and multiplicity as well as the truth of the unicity.

But since you have not Realized and therefore do not understand that unicity, your belief in dualities such as “good vs. bad,” “right vs. wrong,” “moral vs. immoral” (and your belief that those determine “punishment or reward”) are dominating your relative existence. That inspires you to try to dominate “others” and force them to believe exactly what you believe. The Advaita suggestion to abandon all beliefs is anathema to you because of your assumption of ego-states and because of the ego defenders that are accompanying those false identities. And all of that is happening even as you think you have transcended this relative existence and have reached some metaphysical level.

During the days when “floyd” was searching every possible source for “The Answers,” many Christians like you welcomed me into their fold, greeted me with “love,” and set about the task of “saving me from hell.” Their efforts ended the moment that I began to question the discrepancies in their contradictory dogma and inconsistent conduct. Immediately their agenda changed, and instead of trying to save me from hell, they began suggesting that I should go to hell. Interesting inconsistency, yes?

Just as was the case with those persons, you too are trapped in your false identities and working to protect your religious role. You’ve also assumed the role of “The Judge” as well as the role of “The Enforcer,” using the threat of “punishment forever” to try to coerce “others” to adopt your beliefs and practices. Of all of the false identities, “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are the last to be abandoned by persons on the “journey” to Realization. Yes, they must be played along the way, but they also must eventually be cast aside if you want to reach Full Realization. As far as “saving me for eternity,” what I shall be for eternity is exactly what I have been for eternity. It is also that which I currently AM.

How could you possibly save Me since even before your Christ, I AM? I have not been created, nor can I be destroyed, so how could any “saving” apply? I AM THAT which is invincible, limitless, eternal, and unadulterated, so how could any of your adulterated ego-states do anything to help Me, save Me, preserve Me, or purify Me? I AM THAT which is Absolute purity and I AM the temporarily manifested Absolute purity. Know Me, know THAT, and then You shall know Your Self. Then You shall understand the non-beingness that is even beyond Selfness. (It is THAT of which the re-purified consciousness spoke via the space you call “Christ.”)

So why are your comments even being addressed? Because this space had the same personal experiences as you when trapped in the fictional body-mind-personality triad and when caught up in the playing of the roles that you’re playing. You have assumed the role of “Christian” and erroneously believe that you understand what Christ was talking about in the Advaita sharings that he offered during the last three years of that manifested consciousness. You are tuned in to the pre-Realization Christ who parroted the Judaic verbiage that he was programmed with as a child.

The invitation is to tune in, instead, to the consciousness that spoke via the post-Realization Christ when it offered the truth of non-duality, the truth of the I AM, the truth of heaven fading away, and the truth of the fact that no one will ever see heaven since it’s within (specifically, within your deteriorated psyche, your programmed “mind”). If you truly believe the words of your Christ, and if you admit he said that you will never see heaven and that heaven will fade away (when the manifested consciousness "fades away"), then where would you spend eternity to receive that “heavenly reward” that you anticipate? Next, understand Gehanna and be free of your belief in the fictionalized hell that evolved as a result of persons misinterpreting Gehanna. Thereafter, freed of both your imagined heaven and your fictional hell, you can be freed of judging and separating and moralizing and condemning. Then, by understanding the non-duality message of Christ, you can be freed of all of your instability, freed of the foolishness that you believe, and freed of spreading contradictory, dualistic nonsense. Of course, that’s just a suggestion, but it was your own Christ who was reported to have said that "a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Please enter the silence of contemplation.

PERSONALITY AND THE ILLUSORY WORLD

From a site visitor: [Received November 21st] Found your site a day after you started postings to Vigneshwar and got “hooked”, but I’m writing about something else. I never understood the idea that I am not in the world, that the world is in me. In one simple line you cleared that up and helped me grasp what that really means. It moved me to a new level. Thanks, John.

F.: You’re welcome, John, and welcome to the site. You provide an opportunity for an elaboration on pointers about personality identification and “the world.” A new book entitled LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization) discusses the nine dominant personas that drive persons and explains how persons can transcend those false identities and thereby be free of the debilitating effects (relatively speaking) of personality identification. Your comment about now understanding the illusion of “the world” is a reminder of the link between the nine basic personality types and the belief that persons have about “their world.” There is a 1:1 correlation between (a) the illusory beliefs and perceptions that each type has about “the world” and (b) the behavior that follows.

The Perfectionist wants to reform the world. The Helper wants to help the world or save the world. The Performer wants to use the world to reinforce his/her self-image. The Romanticist wants to idealize the dreamy or idealistic parts of their world and ignore the rest. The Investigator wants to understand the world. The Loyalist wants to be supported by the world as a reward for her/his loyalty. The Adventurer wants to use the world for entertainment. The Boss wants to control the world. And the Peacemaker wants to bring peace to the world (primarily so that he/she is not bothered).

Do you see, in addition to faulty programming and conditioning, why the population of the planet is so insane when trapped in their personality identification and in their belief in “the world”? Like Quixote jousting with windmills, those out of touch with reality think that they can reform a mirage, can help a mirage, can use a mirage to meet their desires, can get some concrete benefit from a mirage, can have a mirage support them, or can control a mirage. Such is the dream of the planet; such is the insanity of humans trapped in personality.

Those trapped in personality insanely believe that “their world” is real, believe that it is exactly as they see it, believe that their perceptions about “the world's” needs are accurate, and arrogantly believe that they can either provide what “the world” needs or can control “the world.” Of course the majority become mad and maddened. Consider how few persons will ever Realize and have peace as long as they are lost in the dream of the planet and believing they can change the world, save the world, understand the world, use the world to meet their individualized desires, control the world, or bring peace to the world.

A fictional world that only exists in the “mind” of personas is driving conduct and setting persons-against-persons as their conflicting perceptives and motives dominate them and control them. Again, it is as if someone sees a mirage in the road ahead and swerves off the road and over a cliff in order to avoid the mirage. So it is when persons are being driven by their (false) personality and are being driven by their (false) beliefs about the way the (false) world is and are being driven by their (false) desires and (false) fears that are generated as a result of their (false) perceptions about the (false) world.

The antidote for the misery and angst and suffering that is generated by personality and a belief in “the world” is Realization. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: “Your blog today [received November 17] talked about there’s no eternal reward or punishment, I feel sorry for you. Your turning your back being saved. Your lost and your causing other people to be lost and if you do not change, you will be lost for eternity and you’ll find out that punishment forever is real.”

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," The Conclusion

F.: In conclusion, re-focus on the original premise: “peace of mind” is an illusion. There is only peace if completely free of the “mind,” and freedom from identification with an illusory body, the illusory mind, and its illusory personalities can only happen if you complete the entire “journey.” In the book LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization) the following pointer is offered:

Lies are stored in the mind; truth can be accessed via the inner resource, contact with which is typically blocked by assumption of personality. When that inner awareness springs forth into the consciousness, then all beliefs about being a person in need, about being a person who needs help, and about being a person who has great ability to help others…all that will end and a lightness of being can happen for the remainder of the manifestation.

The inner resource—the inner “guru”—is the source that you must tap into and must stay in touch with if you would know peace. There is never a suggestion on this site that you, or anyone else, needs a lifetime guru or a lifetime teacher or a lifetime priest or preacher to listen to and to model for life. After being freed of the corrupted and corrupting thoughts of a deteriorated psyche, then listen to the inner guru only. Freedom only comes after total independence has been established, including freedom from dependence on persons, on imaginary powers in other worlds...on anything. Consciousness of (1) WHO You Are and (2) what is true are both within, but it's not within the “mind” and cannot be seen when clouded by the insane beliefs that are generated by a deteriorated psyche. If you need a temporary model, choose the deer (which lives naturally at all times). This pointer was offered last August:

A deer does not want to be seen and does not want to “stand out.” It will typically do what is required to blend in with its environment and “fade into the background.” A deer does not like to make noise and does not want to be heard. It can move along a thousand-yard path through the woods and tread so gently that a human fifty steps away would not hear it. A deer has no “mind” so it engages in no abnormal thinking. A deer lives naturally, not unnaturally and not supernaturally. A deer does not care about appearance, is not cruel, is not envious, does not feel entitled, is not afraid of the quiet, is not impulsive, is not religious or spiritual, is not self-contradictory or moody or unpredictable or unstable, does not overeat, does not like chaos, and does not eat fermented berries in an effort to become intoxicated and to “escape.”

Obviously, neither unnatural nor supernatural living can be natural. The Advaitan writer Thoreau who spoke of the “unity beyond the multiplicity” also spoke of persons living “lives of quiet desperation.” Now, nearly a century and a half later, the lives of the non-Realized are lives of noisy desperation and chaos. If you discard the “mind” and then function under the auspices of the brain, then you will live naturally, as the deer. You will be freed of the addiction to the chaos and to the noise and to the “mind chatter” that is typical among persons.

Finally, something that happened during a recent satsanga session might be relevant here: during a break between two sessions last Wednesday, two men were observed in what was obviously the continuation of an earlier disagreement. One, trying to manipulate the other, shifted from his aggressive approach and tried a passive-aggressive approach by saying: “You made me feel really sad when you did that.” It was obvious from the man’s earlier words that what he was really experiencing was the emotion of anger…not the feeling of sadness. He really wanted the other man to die then and there.

During the second session, a question about sadness led to the pointers being offered that (A) the non-Realized emote while the Realized feel and that (B) the non-Realized typically emote anger and fear but only the Realized can feel sadness. The man who had been so angry earlier—and then changed his tact to manipulation—spoke up quickly...and angrily. He reported that he had just experienced sadness in a conversation with another man while on break between the sessions. When it was pointed out that he had no capacity for that feeling, he was ready to end the manifestation of this consciousness.

In order to maintain his image as a Spiritual Giant, he was trying to disguise his emotion of anger by wrapping it in a cloak of sadness. He who is self-absorbed can only focus on what his false self or selves or ego-states think that they are experiencing, fearing or desiring. Ego-states constantly experience the false sensation of being interfered with or threatened, and personas that believe they are being interfered with or threatened can only experience fear or anger.

At the end, an invitation was extended to those who might be interested in staying for a guided meditation in which the vision would be presented in same manner as on the “Spirit Journey” CD. [ http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm ] After that was completed, a participant came forward to say, “I saw you wipe a small tear from each eye after you finished sharing the vision, and suddenly I think I finally understood why you said that only the Realized could feel sadness. You felt sadness around the fact that so few will ever know the Oneness described in that vision. Is that right?” The space smiled.

How often are you smiling lately? Know Who/What You Truly Are. Your “mind” is overloaded with beliefs and concepts and false images of a multiplicity. Discard it all in order to know the Oneness…the unicity. Abandon attachment to the contents of the mind by seeing that it is nothing more than a repository of illusory images. Finally, complete all seven steps of the “journey” as described in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step journey to Reality) and fear and desire will disappear. You wrote, “There is a little fear of losing whatever is learnt here,” and “I sometimes want death.” When fully Realized, no fear will drive you and no wanting will dominant you. Then the space called “Vigneshwar” might find that it is also smiling more frequently as “the aching mind” is no more.

Post-Realization, You will live naturally and abandon the preoccupation with the unnatural and supernatural “stuff” that was dreamed up by persons and that was “stuffed” into you. Then, for the remainder of the manifestation you can just be while realizing that You Are the Absolute, that You Are beyond any state of being this role or that role, and that You Are beyond any state of non-being as well. You will realize Your true nature, and You will know that anyone who tells you that You are anything different has been fooled. Yet you will not judge even those persons, knowing that you were fooled just as thoroughly as they. And if they should inquire about the steps to Realization, no “you” will exist to say anything, but the re-purified consciousness might speak…or not. Peace, True Love, and Light. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part Eight

F.: In your second e-mail, you said, “This seems to call for some exercise of the mind after all.” While the “mind” is to be discarded, the new book entitled LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization) offers nine specific “exercises” or actions that can re-purify the consciousness and free persons of the deteriorated “psyche” that drives them. The “Foreword” to the book offers this point:

Various teachers use various approaches (or various yogas) for guiding protégés to Realization and Liberation. Why? Because there are three types of learners: auditory, visual, and kinetic. Also, the three body types among humans call for different approaches for different persons. The first body type is contemplative while a second type is more active. The third type includes students or protégés who are driven to be vigorously active.

Since you mention “exercises,” you might be in the action group, so two actions will be suggested today, but continue as well to meditate upon the considerations in order to Realize, once and for all, and then cease the arduous task of constantly working to be at peace. (For persons to tell you that you must do their religious or spiritual exercises on an on-going basis for a lifetime in order to get peace or maintain peace or restore peace begs the question: “How effective is their supposed solution if it only results in a temporary condition and if its effects only last for a day or a week? Full Realization is firm, final, fixed, and finished. How could that which is uncontaminated, pure, whole, and unadulterated require “weekly restoration” or “daily maintenance”?) So, continue with these considerations as well in order to abide as the pure and whole and unadulerated Absolute:

Some say “white is the presence of all colors” and “black is the absence of all colors.” What is really happening is this: white objects reflect most of the light cast upon them; black objects also reflect, but they just don’t reflect very much of the light cast on them. The full moon is not a white object surrounded by blackness. The light is omnipresent but is only observed when reflected from the surface of the moon. So it is when persons employ their “minds”: "the world," as registered in the “minds” of personas, is merely a series of reflections that are generated by the fictional, warped “mind” and then taken by that warped “mind” to be real.

In fact, those persons are not in the world at all. The world is in them…in their imagination, in their “minds.” Understand that the “mind” is that which imagines (and imagines erroneously), so it will never see anything realistically. How could it when it is the repository of beliefs and concepts that are steeped in unreality? Just as you might look into a mirror and see a reflection of you that is not the Real You, the "mind" in that same fashion can only register reflections that are not the Real.

Persons (the non-Realized) live in the mirror, mistakenly taking their images and the reflections in “their world” to be the real. If you think the reflection in the mirror is really you, you are out of touch with reality (which amounts to being insane). Likewise, if you think that the reflections that are being registered by your “mind” are real, then you are out of touch with Reality (and therefore believing the false to be real, which is another description of insanity). The check test for insanity is this: the sane live naturally; the insane live unnaturally or supernaturally. It is natural to be sane, and it is unnatural to be insane. No wonder the “aching” you mentioned is so widespread when persons all across the planet are living unnaturally and supernaturally on a planet where only natural living is sane and normal. Vast stores of energy are being wasted as persons try to live supernaturally or as they burn themselves out by living unnaturally. Only natural, AS IF living can result in the "ache-free" living that you are longing for.

To understand further that the “mind” is an aggregate of lies that inspires belief in even more lies, realize this: if you were programmed and told that a certain object is “a steel beam,” then each time that object is before you, it will be reflected in your mind as “a steel beam.” But that is not what it is at all. That is only its wrongly-perceived appearance…nothing more than a mirage. Looking at it with the advantage of an electron microscope, you would detect a swirling mass of energy that looks nothing at all like what you were programmed to think a beam is. Use the microscope of Realization on yourself, see beyond all of the appearances and reflections, and find what Your True Self really is and what THAT is which is even beyond that True Self. Use the pure (or re-purified consciousness) as a microscope which can allow you to know that the mirages that you thought you had been observing are not at all what your “mind” had been perceiving them to be. The programmed “mind” will never see anything other than distortions and misrepresentations and images and appearances that are not even close to that which is real.

How to stop believing in those false reflections of the mind? The re-purification of the consciousness and the discarding of the “mind” happen simultaneously. The “mind” (which is taken to be real after the corrupting of consciousness) is merely the aggregate of all of the false ideas, concepts, attitudes and beliefs you've learned. Since you want exercises, here is your first:

ACTION #1: Start questioning everything you believe, everything you’ve ever been told, and all that you’ve been taught.
Then, if you require more action, continue to question it all until you truly see that it is all just so much garbage. So far, you have not been willing to throw away the garbage that you are clinging to. Why? Because your enculturation has caused you to follow the masses who assign great value and status to the “mind.” Your culture values the unreal and hasn’t a clue what the Real is. If you were to keep all of your physical garbage in your home, it would eventually result in such a degree of contamination that life could not continue. So it is with the collection of garbage called “the mind.” How else to be free of “the aching of the mind”?

ACTION #2: Admit once and for all that you do not have a “mind.”
If you still require more action, continue to admit that your “mind,” as is the case with all “minds,” is a mirage. But understand that dealing with mirages always requires a caution: just as you might swerve off a highway in order to dodge a mirage and then die in the subsequent wreck, so too can you die as a result of letting the mirage called “the mind” determine the actions you take. (Now do you see the roots of your comment about sometimes "wanting death?") The "mind" can become so filled with twisted and warped ideas that it will tell you that a part of Realization is that kind of longing (instead of realizing that Realization ends the reign of control that desires of any kind have over your relative existence).

You have a collection of ideas that have been taught to you and that you now believe are “your ideas.” There is no such thing as “your idea” or “your mind.” There is only the collection of their ideas and the passed-down content of their minds. No Realized Advaitan would ever offer you more concepts to use to replace the old ones you have. All offerings are invitations to be rid of all concepts, including those presented in order to guide you to discarding all ideas and concepts and lies that make up “the mind.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion]

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part Seven

Follow-up from Vigneshwar: Dear Floyd, With all sincerity I am reading your replies. Gratitude fills my heart. I understand now that when all the things that are somehow or other connected to the \"I\" are discarded, there is nothing else wanted. All that this consiousness seems to have offered, has got its base in the \"I\". And when this \"I\" is seen for what it is - unreal, purely fictional, then all its associated \"mind\",\"worries\", \"troubles\", \"problems of life\" are simply discarded as it is. Then what remains is simply beyond words. But the game seems to be interesting only when the firmness of this knowledge is present. There is a little fear of losing whatever is learnt here, when we interact with the world. As long as this fear remains, I understand that its not final. But this seems to call for some exercise of the mind after all. Why is there such a need to reason out the mind created all the time?

F.: Within two days, Vigneshwar, these discussions in response to your e-mails will end. You (and the other site visitors who can relate to the topic) will be invited to stop discussing, to avoid seeking any further input for a time, and to start considering earnestly, in quiet solitude, these pointers. Now, to continue: your e-mail above shows that you have missed the main pointer regarding the “mind.” You cannot “reason out the mind.” Reasonable conduct is rooted in the brain’s natural functionings; unreasonable conduct is rooted in the “mind’s” motives. “Reason” and “mind” (contrary to widespread beliefs) are mutually exclusive, just as “peace” and “mind” cannot co-exist, (also contrary to widely-held beliefs.) Thus you can’t “reason out the mind.”

“They” (your programmers and conditioners) created a problem for you, but now you are the one who is embracing the problem. A question about trying to make the mind reasonable reveals that you continue to value your mind, that you want to cling to it, that you want to hang onto that collection of beliefs and lies that your “mind” is, and that you think that if you can work hard enough, you’ll be able to improve it enough so that it will be worth keeping instead of actually being rid of it once and for all. The sane toss out all of the garbage in their homes. You merely want to clean up your garbage so that you can keep it in your home rather than discarding it all completely. As site visitor Sim in Kentucky read these postings on Friday, he struggled with the same notion (just as you are struggling to preserve the “mind” rather than being free of it entirely), so he wrote:

Would you say that you have no mind, that you have control over your mind, or that you ignore your mind?

The reply: If you were driving through Arizona and you noticed on the highway directly in front of you what is called “a mirage,” would you say that you have control over the mirage, that you're going to ignore the mirage and act it is not even being perceived, or that the mirage being perceived is actually not real?

Obviously, a mirage cannot be controlled. It is also obvious that a mirage that seems to be appearing in the road directly ahead of you cannot be ignored. That mirage will not disappear simply because you tell it to disappear; nor will you succeed at pretending that the optical illusion is not there. So it is with “the mind.” Billions of persons on the planet suffer from the incessant mind clutter—that chattering of a thousand monkeys that the “mind” generates and which results in “the aching” you mentioned. If persons could simply choose to ignore the mind, wouldn’t they do that? But it cannot be done. Others want to “control” their thoughts. If it is suggested that you not think about an elephant, an elephant immediately “comes to mind.” To think about getting rid of a thought only guarantees that the thought will remain. Your ego defense mechanisms are all being called to arms in order to convince you to protect the “mind.” Ego’s goal is to sustain all of your illusions (a gathered known as "your mind") because that is the home of all of the ego-states that you are accepting as identities. Your ego is using every trick in the book to encourage you to ignore the pointer being offered that the “mind” must go. Again, why must it go?

Your ego wants you to believe that you can gain control and power if you can just overhaul your “mind”; to the contrary, it is the “mind” that removes all ability for you to control anything, including what you think, feel, do, say, emote, ad infinitum. So much for the first two options in Sim’s e-mail. That only leaves the third option: “Would you say that you have no mind?” Of course. Isn’t that the pointer that has been offered via so many of the 500 postings on this site?

The Advaitan poet said in Romeo and Juliet, “Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, and where care lodges, sleep will never lie; but when unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.”

Meaning? If you’re old, old enough to have been around long enough to be programmed and conditioned with the insanity that is so prevalent in most cultures, then you will have developed personas that care. The Advaitan question is, WHO cares?” That is an invitation to be freed from cares by seeing that it is always some illusory ego-state that is caring if a care exists. The poet notes that if cares are present, peace/rest (sleep) will not happen. Unbruised youth are either (A) those who are so young that they have not yet been programmed with the lies of the culture or (B) those whose brains (actually "minds") have been unstuff’d. That is, ideas and lies and concepts had been stuffed into them, but they have subsequently been unstuff’d. That means that the consciousness has been re-purified because all that stuff that had been fed into them has been removed/discarded. And what is the result of being unstuff’d? Golden sleep reigns. That is, the perfect peace of deep sleep manifests, whether physically asleep or totally awake and merely witnessing the happenings of an AS IF existence. You’ve been bruised because you’ve been stuffed full of false ideas, magical concepts, mythical nonsense, and metaphysical teachings that amount to nothing more than learned ignorance. To question what you’ve been taught, to see that it’s all nonsense, to see the price that you’re paying by honoring your "mind" and thereby honoring lies, and to see the toll being exacted by honoring ego (which is driving you to value the fictitious content of the “mind”) can begin the process of being free of that debilitating content, once and for all. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part Six

Vigneshwar: Hi Floyd, Great excitement and joy in coming across your website. Can\'t tell you how much I had wanted to ask someone about this question that\'s in mind. There are moments when the unreality of all that\'s around us, including the body and mind, is clearly seen and discarded. A wonderful state comes where not-even-the-I exist. This of course, is known only after coming out of that state. Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. It’s making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious? I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind?

F.: You should now be seeing that the “remedy for the aching mind” cannot be attained by completing only part of the “journey.” You should also be seeing, if you focused on the content of the vision yesterday, what is involved with completing the entire “journey.” You were told early on that several steps were required for the consciousness to manifest and then become so totally corrupted that the e-mail above could be written. Before continuing, please re-read the content of the vision presented at:

http://floydhenderson.com/article1.htm

Now, reconsider the pointers offered on last Tuesday and see if those pointers are more meaningful in light on the content of the vision:

Here is an overview of the process that shifted You from being the Absolute to that belief you are discarding that you are a body: a natural movement occurred whereby a portion of the “energy-at-rest” that is the Absolute manifested in a space; because of unnatural programming and conditioning and enculturation and genetic influences, the purity of that consciousness began to undergo a corrupting process; the space called "Vigneshwar" merely witnessed at first; then, it might have experienced the bliss of the Child Ignorance state; next it might have experienced the assignment of spiritual roles (such as “Our precious Vigneshwar is a gift from god”); then, as a result of more faulty programming, a “mind” began to develop and became a storehouse of learned ignorance, containing all of the lies and concepts and dogma and myths and superstitions that were taught; that “mind” was eventually programmed to assume (and then believe in) dozens or scores or hundreds of other false identities in addition to that spiritual role assigned earlier; finally, identification became focused on the physical body.

So, the considerations for today include these:

Are you seeing how the pure conscious-energy manifested in an organism that would be called “Vigneshwar” and that Nature’s intent was that the organism should live naturally under the auspices of a brain and not a fictional "mind"?

Are you seeing the steps by which that pure consciousness was corrupted as it moved from merely witnessing to accepting roles and body and mind and personality as identities?

Are you seeing more clearly that you were born with a brain but not a “mind” and that “the mind” came about as lies and myths and superstitions and concepts were pumped into you in the form of learned ignorance?

Are you seeing how that programming and enculturation put you into total conflict with Nature and with all that is natural?

Are you seeing that the “aching” you are experiencing is a result of trying to live in an unnatural or supernatural fashion which is in direct opposition to your natural environment and your natural inclinations?

Are you seeing that “the aching” will always result when trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, so to speak?

Are you seeing that there is no such thing as “your mind” and that there is only “their mind” that you think is your own?

Are you seeing that “aching” is the only thing that can result when you have no freedom and when you are living a relative existence that is being controlled by the “minds” of others?

Are you seeing that the “aching” can only become more and more intense because people you haven’t seen in years are still “very present” in the form of bastardized consciousness and are controlling what you do, how you feel, and what you think?

Are you seeing that the "aching" is really a longing to be free and to be Who/What You Truly Are, rather than (1) accepting, unconsciously, the roles they assigned and (2) trying to be, unconsciously, what they want you to be?

Are you seeing that freedom (and thereby relief from the "aching") can only come if you see that it’s all BS and reject it completely, thereby being free once and for all of that mirage called “the mind”?

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part Five

Vigneshwar: Hi Floyd, Great excitement and joy in coming across your website. Can\'t tell you how much I had wanted to ask someone about this question that\'s in mind. There are moments when the unreality of all that\'s around us, including the body and mind, is clearly seen and discarded. A wonderful state comes where not-even-the-I exist. This of course, is known only after coming out of that state. Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. Its making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious? I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind?

F.: From the volume of e-mail coming in from at least a dozen different countries since Vigneshwar wrote and the responses began, it is obvious that many Advaitans seem to have been "caught up" in his story and are expressing feelings of compassion. Your inquiries in his regard are hereby passed along. To the contrary, one e-mail was received from "Claudiu" (of Romania?) who wrote to ask some questions and then to give an order about the way that the remainder of this consciousness is supposed to function for the remainder of its manifestation:

Why isn\'t silence at all? why spreading seeds that already are spreaded? why offering pointers? just live your life after it\'s said I AM and nothing else should happen but it could be offered an answer.

In response, these questions for consideration are offered to Claudiu: If you are recommending silence, why are you not keeping silent? If you oppose spreading seeds, WHO is writing to spread seeds? If you oppose giving pointers, WHO wrote to this site to give a pointer? If you have said, “I AM” and then “nothing else” should happen, then the considerations for you are:
WHO used a search engine and why is something else happening?
WHO took the actions to find this site and why is something else happening?
WHO read something on this site and why is something else happening?
WHO wrote to offer pointers and why is something else happening?
WHO is claiming that nothing else should happen when so much else is happening with you?

[No need to reply. No more response will be made to you. You can take these questions into consideration for several weeks...or not.] Such “self”-contradictory conduct reveals the presence of false selves/ego-states as well as this duality of inconsistency: “I say to do this, but I do that.” Finally, WHO thinks, if someone writes to say that, at times, they are wanting death that the only response should be this?

“Well, just say I AM. Now, there is nothing else to say and nothing else should happen, so goodbye.”

All of that is related to pointers offered today. In order to understand the remainder of the response to Vigneshwar’s inquiry, please read the content of the vision presented at:

http://floydhenderson.com/article1.htm

The question can be asked, “If the seeker should begin by focusing on I AM, if there is no ‘one’ to die, if there is no ‘one’ to be ‘saved,’ if there is no eternal reward to gain, if there is no everlasting punishment to avoid, if the elements shall merely merge with the universal pool of elements, if the breath shall merely merge with the universal pool of air, and if the energy shall merely merge with the universal pool of energy, why Realize? If no WHO is present to benefit, why Realize?” The answer is simple, “Because it is natural.” Is it true that Realization can only have a relative corollary in a relative existence? Of course. As has been reported, “I AM the Absolute. I Am beyond any states of being and beyond any state of non-being as well. Those who understand that realize My true nature. All others are fools.”

The answer to the question, “Why Realize?” can be inferred from an understanding of the content of the vision and the way that energy cycles…or not. So the suggestion for today is to contemplate upon these two considerations: “After reading the vision and seeing how seven degrees of obstruction block the ‘I’ from knowing the Reality and how the seven degrees can be transcended, how would completing that shift and understanding fully the Absolute lead to natural, AS IF living for the remainder of the manifestation?” and "How can the Realization that I AM THAT have any bearing on the I AM?" Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part Four

Vigneshwar: Hi Floyd, Great excitement and joy in coming across your website. Can\'t tell you how much I had wanted to ask someone about this question that\'s in mind. There are moments when the unreality of all that\'s around us, including the body and mind, is clearly seen and discarded. A wonderful state comes where not-even-the-I exist. This of course, is known only after coming out of that state. Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. Its making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious? I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind? Vigneshwar

F.: Today, Vigneshwar and other site visitors, the response will be in regards to these words: “I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind?”

Understand that there is no such thing as “peace of mind,” only peace when freed of "mind." Understand that there is no “mind-treatment” that can relieve the “aching mind.” You cannot treat a mirage in the desert and make it feel better. You can only see that it is a mirage and be done with mistaking it for something that is real. Reflect again on Tuesday’s pointer:

The deer lives naturally and peacefully because it is functioning under the auspices of its brain.

You were born with a brain but not with a “mind,” so only functioning under the auspices of a brain is natural. Functioning under the influence of a “mind” will only result in unnatural or supernatural living, and the illusions and duality of living with a “mind” and the duality of living unnaturally or supernaturally will generate the relative existence “aching” that you reference. There can be “freedom from mind” if you question all that you have been told and cast aside illusory ideas and concepts and dogma and beliefs. You must be out of your mind for the “aching” to stop.

Some persons reach a point where they ask, “What is all this about…this insane, relative existence?” or “This whole world is insane. Why not just be free of it once and for all?” or “There’s too much ‘aching’ and pain and suffering to go on. Why not destroy the body and release the energy and be done with it?” They have not yet begun the “journey.”

Some who have begun the “journey” reach a point where they say, “I sometimes want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong.” That reveals a total misunderstanding of what the ‘journey” is about, what the relative existence can be like post-Realization, and how Realization results in being in touch with reality—that is, being restored to sanity and having the ability to live naturally for the remainder of the period that the consciousness is manifested.

Tomorrow’s focus, therefore, will be on explaining how Full Realization provides the skill for living an AS IF existence that is free of “aching.” [In preparation for those who have not read all of the postings on this site and who do not understand fully what “AS IF living” refers to, please use the search engine at the top of this page, type in as and if in the space provided, and then click “search this blog.”] Then, focus on the turn your existence could take if you were no longer handicapped by the presence of that storehouse of man-made lies and damaged psyche and self-deceptions called “the mind.” Next, focus on this pointer: At the moment when Realization is strong, death is not feared but it is not wanted either. Realization results in the dissolution of all fear and all desire; therefore, you are mistaking an illusion for "realization." Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Parts Two and Three

[From yesterday] Hi Floyd, Great excitement and joy in coming across your website. Can\'t tell you how much I had wanted to ask someone about this question that\'s in mind. There are moments when the unreality of all that\'s around us, including the body and mind, is clearly seen and discarded. A wonderful state comes where not-even-the-I exist. This of course, is known only after coming out of that state. Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. Its making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious? I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind? Vigneshwar

F.: Today, Vigneshwar, the response to the content of your e-mail received yesterday will continue and will contain the postings for two days…to be explained later. Begin by considering these words that you wrote: “Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. Its making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious?”

1. Re-consider the pointer about “the mind” that was offered in the posting yesterday and see if it is understood: natural living happens only under the auspices of the brain. Misery and unnatural living and supernatural living happen under the auspices of the “mind.” The deer lives naturally and peacefully because it is functioning under the auspices of its brain. It has no handicap of a “mind” that you and billions are dealing with. Once a “mind” forms, the influence of its content supersedes that of the brain; after that, unnatural and/or supernatural living happens. The Advaitan poet said in his play entitled Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” All duality is rooted in the thinking “mind,” so “peace of mind” cannot happen. The “mind” must be eliminated. How? By questioning its content and realizing that all of its beliefs and ideas amount to nothing more than learned ignorance and lies.

2. If you use the search engine at the top of this page and search “want” or “desire,” you will see another contributing factor to the anxiety that you are experiencing: as long as “the mind” or “you” wants anything, anxiety will be all that you will experience. The very act of “wanting” results in the emotion of anxiety because desire is always accompanied by fear. The fear is that you won’t “get” what you want or that you’ll “lose” what you have. From your position on the “path” between steps 2 and 3 of the seven-step “journey,” you may have gathered a small glimpse of what might be—but the glimpse was enough to trigger what can develop into an addiction. As with all those suffering from untreated addictions, “death” takes on an unnatural appeal. Do not be fooled. You Are already That Which You Seek.

Also, you are already on the “path” to knowing, but you have two necessities for continuing effectively: (1) You must change course and that means you must fire the captain of your ship. Whoever has influenced you on your “journey” in a way that leaves you with the impression that “wanting death” is natural or any part of the teachings, that person is to be avoided, immediately and completely. (2) You’ll also require certain pointers to guide you through the remaining steps in order to fixate in an awareness of this fact: you are already “there” in that “place” which you have found so appealing on past occasions and are seeking permanently. You need but remove the obstacles that obstruct you from seeing that and from fixating “there.”

3. The “mind” has no desire to “stay put” in that state or any other state of inactivity or rest. The “mind,” being attached to ego-states, is driven by ego-desires. The dual desires of the ego (as mentioned in a post last week) are, first, the search, the going, the doing, the zooming, and secondly, the maintenance of the roles that are assumed while searching or seeking.

4. Do not buy into a phony bill of goods. Many will speak to you of their fixation in the samadhi state. You will then experience anxiety because they tell you that they are fixated “there” and that you can be too; yet, you’re not. Next, you “work” at “attaining bliss” and holding onto that emotion, but when your efforts fail, you become anxious. Living an AS IF existence post-Realization does not involve being in a 24/7 trance or experiencing rapturous absorption 24/7. [For those who want to write to tell me that the understanding of samadhi is flawed, save your energy and focus it instead on some new considerations, or not. Both the samadhi state and the living AS IF state have been experienced.] If your goal is to stay in a trance, then you are, in effect, suggesting that you’re willing to forgo the I AM existence and adhere only to the I AM THAT. You would be ignoring the basis of the teachings.

If you have acquaintances in a 24/7 trance, so be it. Some have been witnessed here who are in that state as a result of drug inducement, and they have enablers who allow them to remain there until the body can function no longer. So it is. But neither a trance-state nor “death” is a prerequisite for that which you are seeking. On 4 November ’06, this pointer was offered:

Acceptance of The Void, the Oblivion, the Nothingness is not about being “detached.” It is about non-attachment. Detachment does result in the robotic state of having no feelings, which you understandably want to avoid. Non-attachment involves feeling...but feeling without attachment to the feeling, without attachment to any circumstances, and without attachment to any false identifications (which leads to emotional intoxication).

Do not misinterpret the intent of the teachings. To be non-attached to the body and to be restored to being in touch with reality and to be free of a fear of death does not result in longing for death but results in living abundantly for the remainder of the manifestation.

So what other possibilities are available? Rather than being immobilized in a trance-state or in a coffin or on a funeral pyre, post-Realization you can engage in gainful employment, can play, can delight in a tasty meal, can dance with exuberance, can share a hearty laugh or participate in a sorrowful cry that begins at the depths of your being and surfaces in the tears that run down the face. Realized, you can feel joy and you can feel sadness, but you will merely witness either without becoming emotionally-intoxicated.

To “sometimes want death” is evidence of emotional intoxication, and emotional intoxication always indicates the presence of ego-states being assumed as identities. Do not limit your understanding of that which You Are, and do not accept limitations regarding that which the I Amness can enjoy. Yet that can only be enjoyed if you are not duped by those who would sell you a measure of numbness which they are presenting as so-called “spirituality” and which they have packaged and wrapped in the attractive casings of mysticism. Realized, You can still feel without emoting, and neither “death” nor “death-in-life” need be. In fact, to be in touch with reality—to be restored to sanity—leads to a natural, instinctive will to survive without any attachment or fear about not surviving. The bird that is startled in the woods by a hiker flies away to preserve the consciousness. Yes, it experiences temporarily a form of fear that nature uses to assure an extension to the manifestation of the space and an extension of the manifestation of the consciousness, but no bird or fish or mammal—all living naturally—wants death.

Consider: what happened with the space called “floyd” post-Realization was that teaching happened without a teacher. A paycheck came without doing but from merely being. If teaching happened, okay. If teaching was interrupted and did not happen on any given day, okay. Would that not be close enough for you to the samadhi state while also enjoying the natural fullness of the remainder of the I AM, AS IF existence?

Another part of the reason that you are experiencing such turmoil or instability is that you are not fixating in that “place” where You want to be…to just BE. Another reason is because you seem to think that such a “place” for fixation is separate and apart from the “place” where you are now. That’s duality. Split not the I AM and the I AM THAT. Complete the “journey” and you will abide as the pure consciousness as well as the Absolute, and that is “not two.”

As for your “peace of mind,” know that the manifested consciousness is organic energy, so it will be in motion constantly. But that motion can be a natural, enjoyable “brain-thing” or it can be a miserable, ghastly “mind thing.” As a child, you did not experience the degree of movement that you are now experiencing because the consciousness then was not as corrupted as it is now. To be free of the corrupted consciousness, the remaining steps must be completed. For now, that is enough for you to ponder for the next forty-eight hours. More responses to the content of your e-mail will be offered Thursday morning, not Wednesday morning. [This consciousness has been called forth from the silence and has consented to offer satsanga in Austin, Texas, so no posting will happen on Wednesday.] Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE ILLUSION OF "PEACE OF MIND" and COMPLETING THE "JOURNEY," Part One

Hi Floyd,
Great excitement and joy in coming across your website. Can\'t tell you how much I had wanted to ask someone about this question that\'s in mind. There are moments when the unreality of all that\'s around us, including the body and mind, is clearly seen and discarded. A wonderful state comes where not-even-the-I exist. This of course, is known only after coming out of that state. Now, the mind wants to repeat this again and stay put in that state. Its making all conscious efforts possible to get back to where it came from. Now, why is it very anxious? I sometimes, want death also to occur at the moment when this realization is strong. Afraid a bit that i might again forget to be THAT, like forgetting my TRUE SELF. What\'s the remedy for the aching mind? Vigneshwar

F.: Hello, Vigneshwar. Welcome to the site and thanks for writing. Several e-mails were ahead of yours in the queue, but when yours was received this morning, its content caused the consciousness to move it to the head of the line.

Everything in your letter has been addressed in previous postings on this site, so the typical suggestion would be to offer some keywords for you to search, using the engine at the top of this page. [That is still a recommendation, but an immediate reply is still warranted since you’re new to the site.]

The first half of your mail describes a common cycle of experiences among those who are in the process of “getting it” but who have not yet “gotten it.” What do those colloquialisms refer to? To understand what “it” is and how it was “lost” and how to “get it back,” understand this: Realization happens in seven, clear-cut steps that are the exact reverse of the seven steps that separate programmed humans from the Absolute and a state of pure consciousness to a state of corrupted consciousness in which they identify with the body and "mind" and multiple personas.

Here is an overview of the process that shifted You from being the Absolute to that belief you are discarding that you are a body: a natural movement occurred whereby a portion of the “energy-at-rest” that is the Absolute manifested in a space; because of unnatural programming and conditioning and enculturation and genetic influences, the purity of that consciousness began to undergo a corrupting process; the space called "Vigneshwar" merely witnessed at first; then, it might have experienced the bliss of the Child Ignorance state; next it might have experienced the assignment of spiritual roles (such as “Our precious Vigneshwar is a gift from god”); then, as a result of more faulty programming, a “mind” began to develop and became a storehouse of learned ignorance, containing all of the lies and concepts and dogma and myths and superstitions that were taught; that “mind” was eventually programmed to assume (and then believe in) dozens or scores or hundreds of other false identities in addition to that spiritual role assigned earlier; finally, identification became focused on the physical body.

If lost in the dark wilderness, retrace your steps. Follow in reverse the path that moved you into that darkness. You have begun that process and you’re moving back toward the light. You are taking some steps forward and a few backwards and then a few more forward. That is okay. Do not judge your “self” for the fluctuations in consciousness that will continue until you fixate in the Absolute.

So, to clarify the earlier pointer that you are “getting it” but have not yet having “gotten it,” “it” refers to the totally re-purified consciousness. “Lost” is in quote marks because the duality of “loss vs. gain” is a lie. Consciousness is organic energy when manifested, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, neither gained nor lost. You need not gain anything for the peace you seek to manifest. You need but take all seven steps from the “I” to Realization. And for that peace to manifest, understand that the “death” that you mention must occur; however, the “death” that must happen is not the “death” of the physical body. It is the death of the illusions of body and “mind” and all personas that are assumed to define who you are when they actually define who you are not.

Take no action between now and tomorrow’s posting except to consider this, if you will: you report that the “mind” wants to stay in the peace of that understanding and that you want to stabilize in the bliss of understanding that you are not the mind or the body. That will never be a desire that can be fulfilled, Vigneshwar. You are saying that you want peace of mind when the fact is, it is the “mind” that is the source of all disharmony and chaos. That makes clear where you are on the “path”: you are “stuck” on the second level, moving away from identifying solely with the body but trapped in the “mind” stage (and possibly moving in and out of the third level where religious or spiritual personas are assumed as "new" identities). There are four more steps beyond that, after which that stability which you seek can happen.

Freedom from the delusions and machinations and chaos of that “mind” can happen. You were born with a brain but not with a mind. People shoot themselves in the head to stop the incessant chattering of the mind as well as the chaotic pain that accompanies that uncontrollable movement. That need not happen. The "mind" can disappear and the brain can stay for the remainder of the manifestation of the consciousness. You have found a site where your position on the "path" can be idenitfied, along with the remaining steps to take to complete the "journey." More will be revealed tomorrow. Please stay tuned. For now, please enter into the silence of contemplation as you consider these points.