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]
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]
