THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Five

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: While change is inevitable, attachment to the doingness of traditional rituals makes persons hate change (especially when it ends the continuation of their traditional celebrations). The insanity is that persons attached to traditions hate change in a universe that is perpetually changing. To hate when change happens (in a universe where change is constantly happening) guarantees misery and suffering. It is their attachment to traditions that sets persons up for that hatred of change and the misery that comes when the practicing of their traditions inevitably ends. Such attachment to illusory traditions is insane and inspires more insanity (as in “I’m suicidal—can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”) Yet persons value their traditions because they reassure persons that their belief in the myth of continuity is actually real. While persons have little ability to adjust to change or to accept the inevitability of change, non-attachment among the Realized allows for peaceful adjustments to be made to the ever-changing conditions in the relative existence.

Abidance as the Abolute removes the misery that is generated by all attachments and by the insanity of loving traditions and habits while hating sitiuations that call for adaptation. Change is inevitable, so all habits and all traditional practices shall eventually end. When they end for the Realized, they are witnessed. When they end for persons, overwhelming misery and suffering and depression and even suicide follow. Wherefore any “value” to attaching to traditions?

Non-attachment also removes the illusion that there is a “you” that is doing the same thing in the same way with the same persons year-after-year-after year. Non-attachment removes the distortion that such repetition of traditional doings can, and will, go on in the same way forever. Removal of such illusion and distortion can preclude the suffering and misery that comes to persons when their illusions and distortions are inevitably revealed to have been nothing more than deceptions. It can also preclude the suffering and misery that will inevitably come when persons experience any “sense of loss” (which they always dread but which they cannot avoid unless they Realize).

Freed of delusion and programming and the conditioning that results in blind devotion to things that are done simply because “these are the traditional things that we’ve always done,” the Realized avoid such reinforcement of false identities and ego-states and avoid living under the influence of dualistic concepts. Freed from attachment to traditions and “the past,” the Realized never express the misery-generating, dualistic ideas that persons experience, as revealed in such statements as…

“This was once the best time of the year—now, it’s the worst time of the year,” or

“We loved the holidays—now we hate the holidays,” or

“My country is the greatest country on earth—better than all those others—and we reinforce that belief by honoring our national traditions,” or

“The people who are willing to kill for my country are better than the people in this culture who will not kill others who have been labeled as ‘enemies’ and therefore we honor our armed forces with our traditional celebrations,” or

“Those of us who honor our religious traditions are better than those who don’t, and we are also better than we would be if we did not observe these traditional practices,” or

“Those of us who honor our nation’s traditions are good patriots and those who don’t honor our traditions are traitors or cowards or unpatriotic,” or

“I’m suicidal—can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”

Now, you are invited to revisit your question: “But isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?” That is an invitation to find the truth, either for your “self” or for Your Self or for both. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Upcoming topics: “NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH” and “ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE”]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Four

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: Being fully awake and fully aware assures that nothing happens in an unconscious, hypnotic, or sheeplike manner. All of the behaviors associated with observing traditions are conducted in a sheeplike fashion by people attached to a fictionalized “past.” The observances were originally dreamed up by controlling men who used them to influence the unquestioning and ignorant masses. As with all “leaders” who want to program and to condition persons to believe and behave in certain ways, repetition is required. Pavlov’s dogs were not conditioned in one session, and persons cannot be conditioned by doing one thing for one time.

Instead, the event or activity must be repeated over and over in order for the masses to buy into the dualistic lies behind the traditions: this group of citizen-fighters are special; this savior is better than that one; this day honoring this person or group is different from the other days on the calendar; this woman never had sexual relations but she still got pregnant; this is the right time to genuflect, to bow, to raise a candle, to smell a scent, to sprinkle some water, to chant a chant in unison, to cut down a tree, to spend huge sums of money, to ring a bell, to sing special songs containing false messages that further enculturate, ad infinitum.

The honoring of traditions keeps persons out of touch with the NOW and links them instead with a counterfeit “past.” Since “the past” is an illusion—along with memories and reminiscences and recollections about the past—the blind performance of traditional rituals keeps persons trapped in the illusions they value as a result of having been enculturated. “Why would you say that my memories are illusions?” it was recently asked. Persons are unaware of what is happening right NOW, so they certainly were not capable of seeing accurately what was happening "then." To behave in ways that honor past illusions is to remain trapped in the illusions.

The Realized are awake and can no longer be influenced by the programming and conditioning that drive persons to believe that traditions have “value.” The Realized have no false notions about “their own value” (WHO would be capable of “having” that value?) so they certainly give no value to arbitrary dates on an arbitrary calendar or to fiction-based events that were dreamed up by men with hidden agendas who wanted their beliefs to be widely accepted and regularly reinforced via the repetition of traditional celebrations.

By being free of ego and programming, which contribute to the assigning of “value” to traditions, the Realized are freed of the duality of “good and bad” and “better and worse” and “the highs that persons suffer when desires are met vs. the lows they experience when other desires are not met.” The Realized are freed of being driven by a false sense of need and dependency and role-playing and are also free of any false sense of continuity. They are freed of being deluded by leaders (including political and religious and business leaders) who are controlling the masses by encouraging participation in traditional celebrations. They are freed from doing what the masses do in their blind, repetitious fashion in a night-of-the-living-dead, zombie-type manner.

That, in turn, frees them of (1) being controlled by ego-states and leaders and frees them of (2) all the doings that persons do in order to insure that their illusory body and illusory mind and illusory personality and illusory ego-states will be allowed to pass eternity in a “good” place rather than in a “bad” place. It also frees them of (3) the chaos and emotional intoxication that result from experiencing extreme highs which are always followed by extreme lows. Freed thusly from such dualistic concepts and conduct, the Realized cannot fear and are not driven to do anything. Anything can happen, but no belief is held that one thing or another has to happen in order for happiness to manifest. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: the conclusion]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Three

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: The traditions that generate extremely high levels of emotional intoxication are the ones which are believed to be “holy” or “sacred” traditions. Of course, all traditions inspire unnatural conduct since they are based in false beliefs and supernatural (magical) thinking. Studied closely and objectively, they are usually downright insane, rooted as they are in myths and lies. The observance of traditions inspires unnatural and sheep-like behavior among humans, requiring them to wear matching hats or clothes, to chant the same words in unison, to genuflect in unison, and to repeat creeds that have been verbalized so often that they move persons into a near-hypnotic state as the creeds are chanted. Whereas the indicated treatment for the sleepwalking masses is an awakening, little puts persons to sleep so much as their unconscious actions that are associated with their “honoring of traditions.” Little creates more sense of duality and differentiation than practices which reinforce the notion that certain days are more important than others, that certain nations are better than others, and that one’s cultural or religious practices make sense while those of other cultures or religions do not.

Celebrate a child’s “date of birth” for a few years in a row and the child is soon convinced that he was born and that he is his body, even without being told that he was born or that he is his body. Celebrate the birth of a child that was reported to have been born of a virgin often enough and billions of persons will eventually be convinced not only that impregnation by an angel is possible but also that a virgin birth is an actual possibility. Traditions celebrated often enough will foster widespread belief in insane concepts that are being pushed onto the masses by those seeking to gain power and control over the masses. Objective study would reveal that all traditions are just inventions of imagination or practices that have evolved from myths or perverted values, inventions usually dreamed up by men with ulterior motives who would control behavior and who would influence beliefs and who would use cutural practices to solidify and justify and perpetuate their agendas.

Further, all traditions (including family traditions, community traditions, national traditions, military traditions, religious traditions, etc.) are tools of the ego. Ego always prefers to escape reality, being non-real itself. By redirecting the focus onto “the past” and onto “traditions from the past,” ego can try to abide in the past and escape its miserable present. Because the ego is never satisfied and is therefore always miserable, it uses its “mind”-games and its “mind”-tricks to delude self into focusing on the unreal (on “the past” and/or on “the future”) in an effort to escape NOW.

Ego also loves the reinforcement that ego-states receive via the “honoring of traditions”: “The Family Man” or “The Family Woman” are reinforced by doing the same “family things” repeatedly; “The Proud American,” “The Proud Brit,” “The Proud German,” etc. are ego-states that are reinforced by honoring patriotic national traditions; “the Great Religious Person” or “the Spiritual Giant” are reinforced by practicing regularly their daily or weekly or monthly or annual traditional practices.

Ego loves the tradition of chanting with others a pledge each day, loves the tradition of reciting statements of devotion to their country each day, loves the tradition of singing “holy” songs and citing creeds in unison each week, loves the tradition of honoring certain groups each year, and loves the tradition of doing spiritual and religious things together at the same time every day, every week, every month and every year. They believe themselves to be so much “better” for participating in all those traditional doings. Are you beginning to see how the “honoring of traditions” and the formation of habits that are practiced blindly actually inspire persons to believe in the concept of separation, actually promote dualistic thinking, and actually result in persons assuming multiple ego-states as false identities? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Two

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: Persons come to love their traditions because such repetition of the same activities makes them “feel good,” and the reason that they are made to “feel good” is because they are subconsciously receiving a (false) message of continuity, convincing them to believe that

1. “all of these traditional activities that are happening over and over are proof that I am lasting” and that

2. “what is happening again and again, year after year, is proof that we are lasting” and that

3. “the way things were in the past is the way they are in the present and therefore they are reliable indicators of the way that things shall be in the future. We’re one big happy family, and we’ll be that way for eternity.”

Of course, that’s all delusion, but persons thrive on delusion. Delusion is the very food that feeds that body of distorted beliefs and fictional concepts called “the mind.”

"Honoring traditions" further reinforces the false belief that “the way things were and are shall never change, so I will never have to face the fear of change or the fear of the unknown or the fear of ‘loss’.” It also plants the erroneous belief that “my desire that things will never change, that I will never have to face the unknown, and that I will always be spared from any sense of ‘loss’ will be met.” Only when the inevitable change or sense of “loss” finally comes does it also become clear that persons have been set up to suffer tremendous misery. Why? By believing that they are do-ers, and by believing that they are that which is doing all of those “traditional things,” they are reinforcing their false sense of stability and continuity in the present as well as convincing themselves that, in the future after they "die," they will "live" in bliss for eternity.

However, as they play their psychological games and try to attain their desires and avoid their fears, persons suffer the roller-coaster effects of highs and lows, of chaos and emotional intoxication. “The highs” (of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Hunnakah, Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Hajj, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Dussehra, Diwali, Ganesh, Chaturthi and all of the other holidays ad infinitum) are always followed by “the lows” as persons return to their routine days that are not as “holy” or as “wonderful.” With far less to do, doingness gives way to occasions of having to face mere beingness, and persons—obsessed with going and doing and zooming—cannot tolerate just being. So the search begins again for the next thing that can generate another emotional high.

The higher that their emotional intoxication takes persons, the greater is their inevitable fall. The greater the delusion, the greater the shock will be to persons when the inevitable happens. The greater the delusion, the far greater the inability of persons to see reality becomes. For those who prefer illusion, the illusions of a "past" and the illusion of traditions will also be preferred, but notice how they contribute to duality. When a few days are considered “better,” that only makes all of the other days seem “worse.” Some desires might be met, but the impact is even greater than usual when others are not met.

All of that instability creates emotional chaos, and emotional chaos can only result in misery. Are you beginning to see the difference in objectively witnessing all that happens rather than thinking you are a do-er and a participant? Traditions are obviously rooted in the past, and the past is an illusion. What “value,” to use your word, could be assigned to any illusion? Do mirages in the desert have some “value”?

More to the point, are you seeing how the “honoring of traditions” gives validity to the false illusion of a “past” wherein those conceptual traditions are rooted? Are you beginning to see the Reality of NOW vs. the illusions of concepts called "our traditions from the past”? WHO wants to focus on “the past,” which is nothing more than an illusion… nothing more than a conglomeration of “memories” which are just false perceptions and distortions rooted in a false “past”? Are you also seeing that those illusions are being brought forward into the present in order to support the false beliefs of "eternal continuity" and of “an eternal future” for a body-mind-personality?

If you were to Realize that NOW is all there is, might you not be able to enjoy the NOW far more by focusing on the present rather than on “traditional acts” which are rooted in “the past”? Are you seeing the self-deception and emotional intoxication involved in “honoring traditions” that are rooted in an illusory “past”? Are you seeing that persons feel driven to repeat those links with their (illusory) “past” in order to convince themselves that continuity is a real possibility (an illusion), in order to convince themselves that they’ll be able to feel “good” in an eternal “future” (another illusion), and in order to convince themselves that their body-mind—personality will exist and will be rewarded eternally (another illusion)? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part One

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way “because they have always been done that way” is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: First and foremost, WHO can value traditions or anything else? Answer that and then the remainder of this response can be seen as entertainment only.

The “honoring of traditions” has certainly been given high standing in most cultures for many centuries if not for millenia. Of course, concepts and beliefs and dogma and ideas have also been given high ratings in most cultures for many centuries if not for millenia. Too, the body and “mind” have been given high standing in many cultures for many centuries and for many millenia. So, where’s the rub?

Here’s the rub (in a syllogistic format):

1. Traditions are observed in an attempt to buttress the illusion of continuity.

2. The illusion of continuity is the basic desire of all persons, and non-continuity is the basic fear of all persons.

3. Desire and fear rob persons of peace and generate distortion as well as misery and suffering and unnatural behavior.

Ergo, the “honoring of traditions” will always eventually generate misery and suffering.

Is that a false conclusion or even an overstatement? Recall the man in the postings about Christmas who said, “Can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?” An e-mail the previous day from the man revealed that he was suicidal. He thought his suffering was happening because that was going to be the first Christmas in years when he would not be able to do the traditional things he had done repeatedly in the past with his family. Recall the woman who said, “Before my husband died, this was the best time of the year. Since, it’s become the worst.” Recall the woman who said, “We loved the holidays until our son was killed ten years ago by a drunk driver. Now, we hate these days and just struggle to try to survive every year.” The “holiday season” is only “the most wonderful time of the year” for those persons who are establishing and practicing traditions. It is “the most horrible time of the year” for those persons who were conditioned by establishing and honoring their traditions. They were being "set up" all along for the suffering that would come when, inevitably, those traditions could no longer be practiced. Now, they pass their days in the misery of a "death-in-life" existence and in the duality and chaos of their relative existence cycles of "highs" and "lows."

Desiring as they do “The Big Continuity” (an everlasting body and mind and personality that will experience bliss for eternity), persons subsequently desire thousands of “Little Continuities” to reinforce their belief that continuity is an actual possibility. But the belief can also reinforce their fears that (1) continuity might not be possible or that (2) continuity is possible but that theirs will involve eternal punishment rather than eternal bliss. The belief can lull partners into a sleep state where they believe that “all is going so well with us” when the fact is that (a) one or both are miserable or (b) one or both are in denial about how unbelievably bored they are or about how miserable and depressed they are with their "death-in-life" relative existence. Forget joy and bliss for persons. You would do well to find even one in two-hundred thousand who is truly happy and truly at peace. Divorce rates and murder rates among partners confirm that as fact.

So what do those “Little Continuities” look like? They look like constantly-repeated habits or like continually-practiced traditions that are observed daily, weekly or annually. Persons can look at school pictures taken in the first grade and pictures taken in the twelfth grade and believe that they are seeing the one, same body. They can then believe that the same body has continued to last for a dozen years, reinforcing their false sense of self. Persons can go to the same restaurant on the same night of each week and be recognized by the same greeter and served by the same waiter as they order their same entrées. (“Will you be having the usual tonight?”) If persons on the same week of the same summer month go to the same resort in the same countryside and think that they are seeing the same river, their sense of continuity can be reinforced.

If every Hunnakah they take out the same menorah or if every Ramadan they make the same pilgrimage and enter the same edifice, their preformance of those traditional doings is reinforcing a false sense of continuity as well as a false sense that the do-er (and all of the do-er’s roles) are lasting and in tact. If every Christmas season, persons set out the same decorations that they have seen for five years or seen for a decade or seen for many decades, the “doing” of their traditions is reinforcing their false belief in continuity, their false belief that their roles are real, the false beliefs that all is well with those roles, and the false belief that their bodies and minds and roles and relationships will remain in tact for eternity.

(Some might ask at this point, "Why can't all that be done without attachment and without assuming false roles?" The answer is, "It can." Some might ask, "If the Realized pass the remainder of the manifestation by living in an AS IF fashion, why can't those events just happen as a part of that?" The answer is, "They can. The Realized don't buy into memories and false perceptions and distortions. They do not assume that the false is the real, so they do not become conditioned and set up for misery and suffering when things change, as they inevitably will. They witness whatever happens, period. They can even witness feelings rise and fall as things happens, but they do not become emotionally intoxicated, so they do not experience suffering and misery.")

So all of that “sameness” discussed above only reinforces a false sense of continuity. It also stockpiles a huge mass of “memories” which are nothing more than “mental collections based in illusion.” So you are now invited to reconsider your own question: “Isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?" How would you answer that now? If totally conditioned, you will still believe, "Yes." If awakening to the lie of continuity, you might reconsider. If seeing the actual effects of being programmed to believe in "sameness" when the truth of the universe involves cycling and change and entropy and atrophy, you might acquire an appreciation for non-attachment, especially non-attachment to false roles and false memories and distorted perceptions and false beliefs about "the way things were" when they were not that way at all. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

UPGRADING ILLUSIONS AND DOWNGRADING ILLUSIONS, Part Four, The Conclusion

Parts of an e-mail from a site visitor are being addressed. [You may see the entire letter in the 23 December 2006 posting.] Today, the responses continue:

V.: What did Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd Henderson do to me? Why did they erase me and themselves in the process?

F.: So, Vigneshwar, you are still taking certain mirages to be real. Question: How would you witness a mirage accurately? The answer: with understanding. The awake and aware know that a mirage is merely an appearance in light. Once you see that a mirage is a mirage, you will never again attempt to upgrade an illusion or undertake to downgrade an illusion.

To review, when an assumed identity wants to pay “reverence” to a “guru” or “priest” or “preacher” or “spiritual advisor,” it is trying to upgrade not only the illusion of “guru” or “priest” or “preacher” or "spiritual advisor" but also the illusion of self. When one looks at a picture of “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,” what should really be seen? Nothing other than a grouping of elements with a nervous system that was used by consciousness for a limited period of manifestation. When one looks at a picture of “Floyd Henderson,” what should really be seen? Nothing other than a grouping of elements with a nervous system that is currently being used by consciousness for a limited period of manifestation. That’s all that happened “with Maharaj” and that’s all that is happening “with Floyd Henderson.”

To say that Maharaj was a “great teacher” or an “enlightened guru” is merely an effort to upgrade that which was nothing more than an instance where conscious-energy manifested for a period by using a space of elements with a functioning nervous system. Wherefore any “reverence” for dust-to-dust, for ash-to-ash, for a space that happened because an orgasm occurred during an act of friction between two people who would be called “his parents”? Their pleasure became his pain. In the same way, the pleasures of two people became your pain—that “hurt” you mentioned in your e-mail, along with many other pains—and set the stage for them to delude you with beliefs that were blindly handed down to them and that they, in turn, blindly passed on to you. The simple thing that really happened is this:

I—the manifest consciousness—used the nervous system of a plant; I later used the nervous systems of two humans who were called “mother” and “father.” I am presently using the nervous system of a space called “floyd.” Were I to have “reverence” for Maharaj, why would I not also have reverence for a puddle of mud or a pile of ash or for any other temporary combination of elements? Maharaj was nothing more nor less than that which I Am and that which, for a temporary period, also used those same types of groupings and nervous systems. The same applies to You. Since reverence is a concept, no reverence is held for anyone or anything. I Am energy; you are energy. Do you show reverence to the energy that rests behind a plug in your wall, that moves into your computer, and that allows its programming to work? Of course not.

Just as the energy will vacate that computer someday, and just as the elements that make up that computer will return to their original state someday, so it is with what is called "Floyd." When I Am no longer manifested, the nervous system that I am temporarily using will no longer have a space in which to function; also, no space will be available for circulating the air or the energy. The elements will merge again with the universal pool of elements, the breath will merge again into the surrounding pool of oxygen, and the energy will merge again into that pool of energy from which it manifested.

V.: Of course, these questions are asked by the "assumed" existence. Mind likes fairy tales and it wants a nice and finishing story that tells the "why" of all this. You may choose to answer me or not. But not showing reverence is not something that's acceptable to a "me" that's still present. Please help me comprehend things in the right perspective. How should the One who told me all this, to be viewed?

F.: As for a “nice end” to the story, there is no end to the story of cyclings. There is only an “end” to a particular space that was nothing more than a temporarily-organized set of elements. Furthermore, there is no end to the elements, to the breath, or to the energy. That which will not experience such continuity is the body-mind-personality triad. Be free of those three illusions and You can merely be for the remainder of the manifestation.

As it is, with your talk of “reverence” and “a lord” or “a guru” or “a Maharaj” or “a Floyd,” you are still trying to upgrade the illusion. See the efforts to upgrade or to downgrade illusions for what they are:

1. “The guru” is an illusory interpretation that you are applying to a space using a nervous system; you are upgrading that illusion to something worthy of reverence.

2. Buildings are illusions; temples and churches and mosques and synagogues are upgrades of that illusion.

3. Talk is a lie; preaching and praying and bhajans or singing of hymns are upgrades of that illusion.

4. “This world” is an illusion, so the “next world of rewards” is an upgrade of that basic illusion and the “next world of punishment” is a downgrade of that basic illusion.

5. To believe that “I am this body and mind and personality” is an illusion; the belief that one can come back as a higher being is an upgrade of that illusion; the belief that one can come back as a lower being is a downgrade of that illusion.

6. Spouses and lovers and children are illusions; “my wonderful spouse” or “my wonderful lover” and “my brilliant children” are upgrades to the illusion, just as “My former spouse is a bitch (or a bastard)” is a downgrade of a former spousal image.

7. The do-er is an illusion; doing noble or worthy or reverent or helpful things is an effort to upgrade the illusion.

8. The body-mind-personality is an illusion; to believe that the triad can be "a worshipper," "a devotee," "a religious person," "a spiritual person," a "better person than before," ad infinitum is a result of trying to upgrade the illusion. Some have asked, “But in the absence of religion or spirituality, what is going to hold the potential beasts called ‘humans’ in check and prevent them from doing ‘bad’ or ‘immoral’ things?” First, when mere beingness is happening, then doing “bad” or “immoral” things cannot happen. Second, does religion or spirituality really hold persons in check worldwide, or do both the historical evidence and the current evidence clearly show that it more often results in bestial conduct instead, relatively speaking?

You should now see your pattern, which is the pattern of all persons prior to Full Realization: you are being driven in your efforts to upgrade or to downgrade illusions. However, to try to eliminate—one at a time—each of the thousands of upgrades and each of the thousands of downgrades (all of which have been dreamed up by men) could never be accomplished even in a thousand years; instead, see the primary illusion; then, all of the secondary illusions involving upgrades and downgrades shall fade away. Then You will know that no one erased You. What was “erased” was only a mirage called “you” that had been seeking to upgrade all his wistful illusions in a quest that was quixotic to the core. An art restorer can strip away the layers of paint that have been added to a canvas and that prevent persons from seeing what had originally been observable. Similarly, Realization can erase away the layers of concepts and lies and tales and dogma which have been added to form a collection of learned ignorance and which are blocking the view of Your True Self and the Absolute as well. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

UPGRADING ILLUSIONS AND DOWNGRADING ILLUSIONS, Part Three

Parts of an e-mail from a site visitor are being addressed. [You may see the entire letter in the 23 December 2006 posting.] Today, the responses continue:

V.: Now, looking back and thinking them [his prayers] as sources of deception cannot be true.

F.: Of course they are sources of deception, and they lead to acts of deception. How could they not, since they flow from the earlier deceptions that you were taught by parents or by men in temples or by others who held influence over you? Understand that praying is the process of talking to something that was dreamed up by controlling men and used by persons with dependent personalities. Prayers are a source of self-deception, and the deception believed in by those who pray is that an imaginary external power in “another world” is real, is at their beck and call, and is available for them to use to control “their world” (which is itself imaginary). Go into any desert where a mirage appears on any hot day and talk to it. It will be as likely to deliver an answer or assistance as any other image that is taken to be real. Since the truth can be known but cannot stated, all talk is illusion. Praying, “holy talk,” is just an upgrade of the talk illusion.

As reported earlier, talking to imaginary beings, as well as supposedly hearing the voices of imaginary beings, is classified as “psychosis” by mental health professionals. Technically, “psychosis” is defined as “the inability to differentiate symbols and images from reality.” Does that mean that some six billion persons on planet earth are psychotic, to one degree or another? Absolutely. The “Seven-Step Journey to Reality” is the process (1) whereby psychotics (who don’t have a clue as to Who/What They Truly Are) can be freed of the belief that symbols and images are real and (2) whereby they can then be restored to sanity and (3) whereby they can be in touch with reality. Sheep that act like sheep are just behaving naturally. Persons who act like sheep are behaving unnaturally (or supernaturally).

V.: After seeing the "me" as imagined entity, even reverence to the Guru who told me all this, is questioned. This is really hurting. What do I do with the Guru now? With what thought should I view my Guru from now on.

F.: Consider specifically the concepts of (A) “reverence,” (B) “hurting,” and (C) “guru”:

(A) REVERENCE: All reverence should be questioned, along with all other concepts and delusion-based practices. Paying “reverence” to anything is merely an effort to upgrade an illusion.

(B) HURTING: Again, WHO is hurting? The ego that was fooled? It 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.” Not being fooled anymore should not result in feeling “hurt” but in feeling “relieved,” yet a temporary sense of “lost” or of “an injured ego” is often experienced by persons when they first see how thoroughly they were fooled via enculturation.

Compare that to children in “Christian nations” who learn that there is no Santa Claus and that their parents are outright liars. They also feel “hurt” when they finally discover the truth. Adults should be better equipped than children to handle the truth, but they are not. Why? Because programming and conditioning make adult persons behave and think and feel just like children. Neither children nor adults enjoy the shaking that is required to wake them. Most prefer to sleep, and (as a result of that preference) the relative existence becomes a miserable, stress-filled, exhausting existence or a boring, “death-in-life” existence.

(C) GURU: As for what to do about “a guru,” when this space was diagnosed with cancerous colon polyps, a physician was visited and his directions were followed. Once the polyps were removed and stopped returning, why would this space need to continue visiting that physician? Why would any thought about him be required? Full Realization results in the no-thought state that follows the discarding of “the mind” that generated thoughts. Freedom is freedom from any dependency, be it a dependency on a god or be it a co-dependency on a spouse, on a guru, or on any symbol or image that the contaminated consciousness takes to be real even though it is not. All “persons” or “humans” are illusions. A “guru” is just an upgrade of that illusion. The “inner guru” is that which is available to free you from your belief in illusions.

V.: What did Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd Henderson do to me? Why did they erase me and themselves in the process?

F.: This question could only be addressed if that “me” had ever existed. A mirage cannot be “erased” since it never existed. Next, Maharaj never did anything and Henderson has done nothing. Via those spaces, consciousness spoke and consciousness speaks. In both cases, the consciousness has pointed toward the inner guru, toward that alone which can “erase” the illusion of “self.” As far as any experiences that one or more ego-states thought they were having but can’t now have, fret not. Merely see that what was thought to have been happening was not happening at all; also, see that the experiences that ego-states took to be real or enjoyable actually took a very heavy toll. Some adults in the U.S. during this “season” will look back on their childhood and say of their illusion about a Santa Claus, “Well, it was a great illusion while it lasted, so let’s delude our children the same way.” Would you be willing to consider this alternate view?

How “great” is an illusion that conditions persons to believe in an external, loving, super-powerful being and simultaneously conditions them to become dependent upon it?

The lie that some parents tell children is that there is a “kind, loving man whom you cannot see but who loves you and cares for you and will bestow gifts upon you if believe in him and if you tell him what you want or need and if are good.” When parents are eventually confronted about their Santa lie, they say, “There really is a kind, loving man whom you cannot see but who loves you and cares for you and will bestow gifts upon you if believe in him and if you tell him what you want or need and if are good. The only part of what we told you that was not totally true was that his name is not Santa—it is ‘God’.”

This discussion is relevant even for non-Christians who do not tell the Santa tale. Why? In ancient cultures where the Santa lie was not told, the Jupiter tale was told, the Zeus tale was told, the Apollo tale was told, the Thor tale was told. Later, the Brahma tale would be told, the Vishnu tale would be told, the Ram or Rama tale would be told. More recently, the god of Abraham tale is being told, including the Moses tale, the Christ tale, and the Mohammed tale. What are the results of hearing and believing these tales that condition persons? The tales condition persons to believe that there are kind, loving super-powerful male-gods and/or super-powerful female-gods or one male-god whom you cannot see but who will take care of you if you will become dependent on them/him. Persons come to believe that gifts will be bestowed upon them if they believe in him/them and if they tell him/them what they want or need and if they are "good." Another result is the belief that “my version of the tale is ‘right’ and your version is ‘wrong’.” Belief in that concept of differentiation and in the accompanying tales of duality have resulted in more wars and death than all other factors combined, except “natural death.”

Those tales then set persons up for the rest of their lives to believe in fantasies, to believe in magical tales, to be dependent, to expect someone or something else to take care of them, and to expect that they’re entitled to be taken care of if they don’t question the existence of things dreamed up and if their conduct is aligned with other persons’ definition of what is “good.”

With an awareness of those relative existence effects of conditioning, might a different perspective come regarding the belief, “Well, it was a great illusion while it lasted, so let’s delude our children the same way”? Might you be willing to question objectively the advantage (or the disadvantage) of being told lies and tales, whether the adults telling those lies and tales know that they are not true or whether they actually believe the lies themselves? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

UPGRADING ILLUSIONS AND DOWNGRADING ILLUSIONS, Part Two

Parts of an e-mail from a site visitor were addressed yesterday. [See the 23 December 2006 posting to read the entire letter.] Today, the responses continue:

V. Then I feel a bit hurt, because I want to believe that its only these prayers that had delivered me to this witnessing state.

F.: First, never use the word “I” unless it is understood that the “I” that is speaking is the energy-consciousness. That is not the case here since energy cannot be hurt, energy cannot have a belief, energy cannot pray, and energy cannot be delivered. If the consciousness were truly purified and if witnessing were truly happening, none of those declarations would have been made. Thus, since it is not consciousness speaking, WHO is it that feels hurt? WHO is it that wants any belief when Full Realization follows the discarding of all beliefs?

Secondly, to the mention of prayers. The Advaita philosophy uses thorns to remove thorns—concepts to remove concepts—but prayer is an attempt to use a mirage to remove mirages (whether the mirage being used is called the Zeus mirage, the Thor mirage, the Vishnu mirage, the Siva mirage, the Rama mirage, the god of Abraham mirage, or any other label applied to the mirages that persons have taken to be real over the ages). All of the beliefs and concepts and dogma programmed into people, and all the practices and actions and doingness that result from conditioning and enculturation, are the mirages. Also among the mirages are the gods and supernatural powers that have been dreamed up by men and that are now believed to be real by most persons on the planet.

To pray to an image to remove all images would be tantamount to asking a mirage in Arizona to eliminate all the mirages in New Mexico, and to take that action would be tantamount to being insane. What of those who claim, “It does help. I feel better when I go to temple, church, synagogue, the place where we hold our spiritual meetings, etc.” Temporary respites can happen when a new ego-state of “the religious person” or “the spiritual person” is adopted by “the protégé” who is mourning (or as “the husband” who “lost” “wife” is mourning or as “the parent” who “lost” a “child” is mourning or as “the devotee” who is worshipping is doing his worshipping). Yet that which is temporary is not real, so the respite will not last. The "leaders" (an upgrade of the illusion) in those buildings admit as much, reminding you that you must come back “in a week” or “within 24 hours” or “within a matter of hours.” A truly Realized “Advaitan teacher” would never suggest such nonsense, knowing that when You abide as the Absolute, your “position” is not temporary but is permanently fixed.

Understanding that what you thought you were praying to (which is really nothing more than an imagined entity that was conceived of by persons who want power in order to be able to control their imaginary world) will then allow an understanding of the next pointer: when you pray, you are actually just talking to yourself—to some false self. Next, realize that if you hear an answer, it is only coming from the agenda of another of those false selves that you have internalized. Furthermore, understand that when persons don’t realize that the voice which they think they’re hearing is simply coming from within, that is the result of a mental condition that professionals—academically trained to detect and to treat mental disorders—will diagnose as “psychosis.” For example, in the U.S. in those days before fundamentalists took control of the government, there were institutions where those claiming to hear voices would be locked away and treated for their mental disorder. (That assured their safety and the safety of the public at large.) But when a "president" (an upgrade of the illusion) claimed to have heard a voice telling him to bomb and invade another sovereign nation, he—and millions of other persons—actually believed that “the voice” he claimed to hear was coming from outside his head rather than from within his distorted “mind.” Because of his being allowed to roam about freely and govern, the safety of the public at large has been compromised. Are you seeing the relative existence toll that is paid when praying persons live in delusion rather than in touch with Reality?

Some believe that religion is the “opiate of the masses.” (They are downgrading the illusion.) Others believe that religion or spirituality is that which keeps the dark side of humans in check and is, therefore, a “wonderful institution that is saving the world.” (They are upgrading the illusion.) Even among the latter, however, there is a drawback to “holy” or “religious” or “spiritual” or “born-again” persons who dualistically think that they are (a) praying to a god and (b) hearing a god answering them and (c) having a god that is telling them what they need to do in order to be “good” or “right.” The downside (relatively speaking) is this: if you believe that you are among the “good” people who can hear voices that guide you and them to do what you consider to be “good” things, then you must also accept the consequences when other persons believe that the voice of a god is telling them to do what you consider to be “bad” things. Further, you also must accept the relative existence results when other persons claim to be hearing voices that inspire them to do “things that they think are ‘good’ but that you or other persons think are ‘bad’.”

Once you and others buy into the belief that there’s a god or gods that answer prayers, then there can be no regulation of the variety of answers that people will claim to hear and no regulation of the insane behaviors that follow. One man visiting a session years ago reported that two decades earlier his god had told him to kill his wife, so he “served his sixteen years in prison with neither remorse nor regret. Ultimately,” he continued, “there is only god’s will.” That man would be considered insane by the same persons who support a political leader’s decision to start a war and kill thousands because he had talked with the Father above and received guidance from God to bomb and invade.

There is a saying in the U.S.: “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.” If you think a god is telling you what to do, you must accept the results when other persons have your very same belief. Adolph Hitler, for example, was a Christian Catholic from Austria leading a nation of Christian Lutherans in Germany who went about the task of killing Jews and political dissidents and homosexuals. Their justification for killing homosexuals and Jews? The “holy scriptures” in the first part of their “holy book” does order the murder of homosexuals. Also, the second part of their "holy scriptures" makes clear that the Jews killed their Christ, so they claimed. Thus, their genocide was made legitimate by their religious beliefs. Do you now understand “the prayer trap” more clearly? The number of insane happenings that result when persons are trapped in the insanity of their dualistic and magical thinking is almost unlimited; therefore, the level of insanity on the planet is almost unlimited as well. Realization is the treatment, the antidote, for the widespread insanity. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

UPGRADING ILLUSIONS AND DOWNGRADING ILLUSIONS, Part One

From a site visitor: Dear Floyd, Thanks for the reply. I am going through the website. A few things arose this morning and there was this urge to pose them to you. The worshiping of the "I Am" has just started and its being worshiped with the name of Lord Rama. Now, upon entering in to the witnessing state all of a sudden, it tells me "The worshiper is imaginary, he is not real. Now, who is worshiping who? Who wants continuity and who wants to get the answers? Its no use. GoodBye". In this state, the mind starts to interpret and talk in this way... "They have all been deceiving me since ages. Every temple looks now, like a source of deception where something that's imagined prays to something that's imagined to be powerful.". Then I feel a bit hurt, because I want to believe that its only these prayers that had delivered me to this witnessing state. Now, looking back and thinking them as sources of deception cannot be true. After seeing the "me" as imagined entity, even reverence to the Guru who told me all this, is questioned. This is really hurting. What do I do with the Guru now? With what thought should I view my Guru from now on. What did Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd Henderson do to me? Why did they erase me and themselves in the process? Of course, these questions are asked by the "assumed" existence. Mind likes fairy tales and it wants a nice and finishing story that tells the "why" of all this. You may choose to answer me or not. But not showing reverence is not something that's acceptable to a "me" that's still present. Please help me comprehend things in the right perspective. How should the One who told me all this, to be viewed? Vigneshwar

F.: Hello, again, Vigneshwar. Maharaj offered one point repeatedly: “you” and “this world” are both an illusion, and all subsequent fictional, magical (i.e., supernatural) concepts that have been dreamed up by men are merely upgrades or downgrades of that basic illusion. For example, while the U.S. culture does not have a monopoly on buying into image and phoniness, it certainly places a premium on both, so for many women, breast augmentation is a popular upgrade of their basic body illusion. On the other hand, a scar would be considered a downgrade of their basic body illusion. For some men, working out in a gym for six hours per day produces an upgrade (in their body-identified “minds”) while losing an arm in an accident would be considered a downgrade. See how that works? Perchance, as each part of your e-mail is addressed, you will also be able to see a connection between (1) the insanity of upgrading or downgrading illusions and (2) the thoughts that are being generated by your “thinking mind”:

V.: The worshiping of the "I Am" has just started and its being worshiped with the name of Lord Rama. Now, upon entering in to the witnessing state all of a sudden, it tells me "The worshiper is imaginary, he is not real. Now, who is worshiping who? Who wants continuity and who wants to get the answers? Its no use. GoodBye".

F.: Worshipping Lord Rama in the past was an effort to upgrade the illusion of “Vigneshwar,” transforming him from a mere “human being” to some kind of “spiritual being.” Conversely, the re-purifying consciousness that is merely witnessing realizes the manner in which the fully re-purified consciousness would respond to delusions about “worshippers,” “Lords,” “imaginings,” “false WHO’s,” and “body-mind-personality desires for continuity.”

V.: In this state, the mind starts to interpret and talk in this way... "They have all been deceiving me since ages. Every temple looks now, like a source of deception where something that's imagined prays to something that's imagined to be powerful."

F.: First, “the mind” that you mention, which is a conglomeration of lies and the seat of all delusion, cannot “interpret” accurately and cannot “see deception.” It is the re-purifying consciousness that so notes the deception, not “the mind.” Secondly, as for the “temple” that you mention, you know that the use of an electron microscope reveals that steel beams and mortar and bricks are not what they appear to be to the naked eye, so (A) all buildings are illusions. To label buildings with such dualistic terms as “temple” or “church” or “mosque” or “synagogue” is (B) an upgrade of “the basic building” illusion and suggests that some buildings are “more special than others” or “different from other buildings." To separate buildings by suggesting “this one is not holy but that one is” is delusion based in duality. The same applies (as pointed out last week) when persons take the illusion of "days" and upgrade them so that certain days are assigned the status of being "holy."

The same also applies when persons, as pointed out yesterday, upgrade themselves (their false selves) by suggesting “I am different from you”—actually meaning, “I am better than you.” That’s an upgrade of an illusion, as is saying that “my religion or nationality or race or political party or beliefs or dogma or concepts regarding an afterlife are better than yours.” It’s all nonsense, based in persons accepting the primary illusion of self and then (a) upgrading that image or in (b) judging others and threatening them with punishment (that is, with downgrading) if they don’t accept certain beliefs, religious dogma, spiritual teachings or any of the other nonsensical concepts that persons foolishly accept as truth. What complete folly it would be for persons in Arizona to claim, "Our mirages are better than the mirages that appear in New Mexico," yet that is the same kind of folly that persons engage in constantly. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

ADDRESSING THE ILLUSION OF “HOLIDAY UNHAPPINESS” VIA ADVAITA TEACHINGS, The Conclusion

[The postings this week are responding to several e-mails like the one re-posted yesterday. Those persons are suffering because “other persons”—persons who had been playing the co-dependent counterpart to their assumed roles—are no longer playing their part. As a result, these persons feel as if they are dying since the games they were playing can no longer be played the way they were in the past. It is that “past” that they are now clinging to because they love their past illusions and because they find the current opportunity to get real to be anathema.]

Many persons claim that the cause of their unhappiness involves others, the season, or the holiday. Those have nothing to do with the actual root causes which are being discussed this week:

C. Sleeping Aids in the Form of Memories: Memories are “mental collections based in illusion.” The “memories” that allow persons to experience the most misery are those involving the most assumed identities and the most misperceptions. Why? “Things” were never the way that a false self thought they were, and they were never the way that any person imagined them to be. Bliss happens consistently only if in touch with reality. “Memories” are “mind” illusions that prevent being in touch with Reality.

D. Sleeping Aids in the Form of Dreams and Hopes: Hoping is about the future; dreaming is about the past or the future. Both past and future are illusions, and no one occupied with the past or the future has ever been happy in the present. Hoping and dreaming deal with the wishes and wants and desires of ego-states that always need someone else to support their assumed identities. That creates co-dependency, dependency robs persons of freedom, and people who have no freedom cannot possibly be happy.

E. Sleeping Aids in the Form of Imitation: Your culture inspires imitation; imitation inspires ego; and ego is the false “I,” the assumed false identities that persons adopt as they imitate the false identities assumed by other persons. Those of you who wrote e-mails describing your “seasonal suffering” all want to imitate those around you who still “have” their family and are still doing family things. Imitation inspires looking at others and comparing your circumstances to theirs, supporting your belief in the false concepts of “differentiation” and “loss.”

FACTOR #4: EGO-INSPIRED DIFFERENTIATION
Persons trapped in ego always differentiate. During the week, “Mondays are horrible” and “Tuesdays are a little better” and “Wednesday is Hump Day” and then two days later is “T.G.I.F.” Notice how that mental differentiating of one day from another affects moods and generates emotional reaction. Persons hand over control of how they feel throughout the week merely by the ego’s differentiating. Imagine the impact when that differentiation is expanded to an “annual basis”: to separate one day from the other 364 per year (and to suggest that one day is different from others and is “special” or “holy”) is illusion, but after years of programming and conditioning, non-attachment does not come easily. All misery and suffering and conflict is rooted in the concept of separation and duality, and differentiation is perpetuated by ego. Ego is always about differentiation: “I am different from you” (meaning, “I am better than you”), or “My religion / school / state / nationality / race / sexual preferences / political party / ideas / beliefs / concepts / dogma / spiritual teachings / perspectives / and attitudes are better than yours.” Conversely, another ego-state can manifest and assume “The Victim” role and differentiate by saying, “You have it better than I have it, but I deserve to have it better than you.” That is what is happening with those of you who have recently written about your “seasonal sadness.”

FACTOR #5: DENYING THE INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE IN THE RELATIVE
Misery always results when the agendas of personas prevent them from accepting the inevitability of change in the relative existence. How insane would it be to refuse to accept the law of gravity? Seeing the truth of certain laws can prevent attachment to illusion:

(a) The Law of Dynamics
Persons want body continuity, mind continuity, personality continuity, situation continuity, relationship continuity, etc. By nature, all except that which You Truly Are is limited and finite. The Law of Thermodynamics says that everything in the relative—including situations and relationships—is dynamic and changing. Elements that happen to come together cannot stay together permanently.

(b) The Law of Entropy
The Law of Entropy says that elements disorganize and organize and disorganize again. The Second Law of Thermodynamics proves that disorganization increases constantly. The law says that everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, and wears out all by itself. It is a law of nature. Apply the Law of Thermodynamics to relationships and see that nothing can stay the way it is (or, actually, only the way persons mistakenly thought that it was). Look objectively at the stages that most relationships go through (from stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to spouse/partner to enemy to mortal enemy) and see that everything in the relative deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, and wears out…all by itself. Basic elements remanin, but no relative combinings are permanent.

(c) The Law of Atrophy
The Law of Atrophy, or The Law of Reduction, says that all shall waste away, wither, or deteriorate. That includes plants, animals, human bodies, and…many relationships. Look again at the typical pattern in human relationships and see this law working in that sequence of deterioration from stranger to lover to enemy. And stranger and lover and enemy were nothing more than roles being assumed and played by co-dependent persons. Yet you still believe that mirages are real. You are as attached to the adult lies about “the season” as children are attached to the lie you told them about Santa. You see others playing their roles and showing a phony image that seems most desirable to you, but you are not seeing what is happening behind closed doors on a day-to-day basis. How is that known? Because you weren’t even able to see what was happening behind your own closed doors. That which they are showing you is an image, and that which you are trying to cling to was an image.

Those who are miserable during “the holiday season” are yet trapped in false identities and they are mourning the fact that they can no longer play a phony role but are facing the opportunity to get real. Neither this season nor any holiday has anything to do with the actual roots of your unhappiness. Persons are so soundly asleep that something as shocking as your current experiences are required to awake you, but most persons hate shock and most persons have no desire to awake from their dreams. If you who have written are among those, so it is. If you want to end these experiences and enjoy the remainder of the manifestation via Realization, a simple seven-step path awaits. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

ADDRESSING THE ILLUSION OF “HOLIDAY UNHAPPINESS” VIA ADVAITA TEACHINGS, Part Three

The postings this week are responding to several e-mails that have been received that are in the same vein as this one:

Received 12-24-05 from a site visitor: “Tomorrow is Christmas and I’m going to be alone. My wife divorced me and got custody of our child. Both of my parents died during the breakup, my health has gone south, and problems at work are constant. My ‘ex’ married another man and he and the ‘ex’ and my child are now living in the home I bought. They are participating in all of the same events that were traditional for my family for many years. She took away my house, retirement funds, cash, other investments, but most of all my family and my child. She’s plugged another man into the slot I once filled with her and my daughter. I suspect you’ll want to offer some Advaita pointer that might relieve me of the hurt and anger, but the pain is overwhelming and after months of trying to detach by using the postings on your site, I need something else. In fact, having written that, I really don’t know why I’m even writing to you because more of the same that has not worked cannot help. But I knew no one else that I could talk to about all this so openly who might understand. Can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”

F.: Tomorrow, the discussion of the “sleeping aids” will continue. Today, the talk is more frank, dealing directly with the topical issues of “Christmas” and “this season” and the manner in which you are falsely linking the cause for your unhappiness to a season and to circumstance. In fact, there is no such linkage. [No apology will be offered to site visitors from around the globe who live in nations that do not celebrate this same holiday since the invitation is to all persons to be free of the insanity of enculturation that allows seasons or celebrations to affect mood and to supposedly contribute to “unhappiness.”] The cleansing of the corrupted consciousness that was called “floyd” began in earnest when certain facts were seen and allowed to replace the myths and mirages that had been accepted as truth, so today some facts about this illusion you call “Christmas” will be shared since you’re erroneously linking the intensification of your unhappiness to a particular date on a calendar.

Persons are more willing to discuss the increased level of stress during the “holiday season” as they complain about all that they have to do and how little time they have to do it in; however, the fact is that a recent study revealed that 75% of the population in the U.S. admitted to experiencing stress every day of the entire year. (Persons on other “developed” parts of the planet experience the same high levels, but persons in some “less developed” countries experience far less stress. So much for “development.”)

The images you’re thinking that you’re seeing (of “other wonderful families enjoying their wonderful Christmas” while your “previously wonderful family” can’t do the same) is all illusion. More insane is that billions of persons allow their “leaders” to use a calendar as a tool for upgrading their illusions. Among Christians, their illusion-filled, stress-filled days are given an upgrade with more illusion and more stress during their “holy days.” The miserable person who e-mailed on the 24th of December was guaranteed to be even more miserable on the 25th since the corrupted consciousness had been programmed and conditioned to believe that one day can be different from (more “holy” than) the next.

Look at the facts if you want to stop allowing them to delude you and if you want to stop empowering them to exercise the control that they currently have over how you feel: you believe that Christ was born on December 25th instead of during the fall season, which was the actual tax collection time in those days. December 25th was selected as the birthday celebration date because of its association with the solstice and because December 25th was already a pagan holiday of celebration on the old Roman astronomical calendar. The tree, the yule log, the mistletoe and the candles on a tree (now lights) were all accoutrements used in ceremonies by pagans who practiced human sacrifice. In the same way that you regularly re-enact with your communion service the ancient pagan practice of killing virgins and passing their hearts through the crowd so the worshippers could eat the body and the blood and appease an angry god, so you also regularly re-enact the great pagan ritual of December 25th. Is your conduct not calling into consciousness the blind fashion in which sheep live?

Like sheep blindly following their leader off a cliff, you have been practicing a pagan ritual and thinking it “holy.” You have been celebrating a “virgin” birth (which was not the first on record but was the 23rd such claim, 22 prior religions having already proclaimed that their saviors were born virginally rather than vaginally). You told your children a lie about a Santa and then you shattered their hopes and dreams in that regard a few years later when you admitted that you were a liar. Is it not time to shatter your dreams, to stop the insanity, and to get real? Is it not time to disconnect your moods from your Gregorian calendar of timelines and then live out this relative existence in an AS IF fashion by being in touch with the truth of cycles rather than by believing the dualistic lies about separate days, separate months, separate years and separate events? Is it not time to get in touch with Reality and stop lying to “self” and “others”? Is it not time to know the peace of being in touch with reality as opposed to being emotionally intoxicated by the lies of your culture? Realize that there is no Christ, no Mohammed, no Moses and no "you" that is a body-mind-personality triad. See all the illusions, disregard them as you would a mirage, and know That Which You Truly Are. Only then can you be free of the lies, and only freed from belief in lies can You be free of your relative existence unhappiness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

ADDRESSING THE ILLUSION OF “HOLIDAY UNHAPPINESS” VIA ADVAITA TEACHINGS, Part Two

Today’s post continues the discussion of the actual factors that perpetuate unhappiness. The factors driving unhappiness are neither holiday-specific nor event-specific, so its counterpart—happiness—is not based in one day of the week over another, on a particular season, on a certain holiday, on being or not being with a certain person, or on any of the other factors that humans love to blame for their unhappiness or to credit with their happiness.

F.: One irony associated with ego-states is this: in a universe where cycling (where the recurring sequences of organization-deterioration-disorganization) make discontinuity the only constant, ego-states still want to deny the inevitability of cycles and impermanence. Magical (supernatural) thinking among personas leads them to desire permanence and to believe delusionally that continuity is possible, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. A part of the Original Understanding has been lost, namely, the part that made clear that cycling is inevitable and that nothing perceived by the eye can be continuous. Once, almost all knew the truth of cycles; now, almost all believe in religion’s timeline of birth, life, death, judgment and continuity of a body-mind-personality that will experience punishment or reward eternally. Yet personas abhor change and cling to the lies of continuity that are at the core of all dogma. The masses have gone to sleep, and their sleep aids perpetuate their condition of being unawake and unaware.

FACTOR #3: USING “SLEEPING AIDS”
"Sleeping aids" are used by persons unconsciously as a result of programming and conditioning. The "aids"—actually deterrents to awakening—keep persons asleep and prevent them from being awake, aware, and conscious. Most will never know Reality. They will say, “I can’t really take much reality. I can only take a small dose at a time. I have to escape from reality and fantasize and daydream.” Most are being kept asleep by using certain “sleeping aids”:

(a) Sleeping aids in the form of ego-states: To assume "lost" roles as actual identities (such as, “husband” or “boyfriend,” “lover,” “parent,” “homeowner,” “victim,” “son,” “employee,” etc.) is illusion, but the misery they can generate will seem real enough if not awake to that. The result is that persons can talk about "this person" or "that person" that they are “missing,” but what they are really missing is a false identity that they can no longer play. It not nearly as much about "others" as it is about self. Personas, being artificial contrivances, thrive on the artificial, on their phony play-acting. Rather than becoming sick of the game-playing of their culture, they embrace it. In that lila mode, their concerns are always far more about the false self or selves that no longer “exist” because the co-dependent counterpart to those roles is no longer available to sustain those false identities.

(b) Sleeping aids in the form of assigning blame and accepting blame: The moment that humans experience fear or anger or unhappiness, they prefer to assign blame by pointing at one thing, one person, one group of people, or one something for a single cause. The fact is, however, that all is caused by all. Everything is the result of all that has happened before, not by a single cause involving a single event. In that regard, this consideration is offered:

No matter what your current age, no one else has made you angry or fearful or sad or unhappy since you were between the ages of 6 and 12. Everything that has anything to do with your current angers, fears, or sadness was already firmly placed within your psyche before your teen years or slightly thereafter. That period called "childhood" is the scourge of the relative existence. It is the time during which the seeds of consciousness are cast into darkness by being buried beneath the seeds of insanity. The result is this: neither people nor circumstances have anything to do with your anger or unhappiness today, but people and circumstances can trigger emotions that are based in the residue of your "past" and that are associated with the various roles that you play in an effort to define who you are.

In an exchange during a session years ago when the “The Seven-Step Journey to Reality” was being discussed, a man disagreed with that pointer. He was certain that his unhappiness was based in a circumstance similar to that described in the e-mail posted yesterday by the man who was “alone” last Christmas. Further discussion revealed the fact that, during his high school days, his mother was clinically depressed and regularly threatened suicide. That contributed to the formation of his “mind,” and his unconsciousness belief became this: "The worst thing I could experience in life is abandonment by a woman that I love." Freedom began to come as he realized that he and his personas were not merely experiencing the recent case of his wife leaving him. He saw that he was re-experiencing the hundreds of instances of childhood fear when he went home each day, afraid that he would find his mother dead and be left “alone.”

Via Realization, persons can become free of the “internal condition” that is driven by the beliefs and concepts that make up that comglomeration of lies called “the mind”; then, nothing outside of persons can trigger those internally-held beliefs or concepts that rob persons of their peace and happiness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

NOTE: There are professionals who are trained and skilled at assisting persons who are suffering from the residue of trauma events, residue that is stored at a cellular level throughout the physical body.

ADDRESSING THE ILLUSION OF “HOLIDAY UNHAPPINESS” VIA ADVAITA TEACHINGS, Part One

PLEASE NOTE: During satsangas over the years, concerns have routinely been raised during Novembers and Decembers and Januarys regarding the misery or pain or suffering that intensifies during what some call “The Holiday Season.” Those kinds of topical questions have always been addressed because the earliest postings in June of 2005 suggested that application of the Advaita teachings during the relative existence is certainly a possibility. Last year, the questions were not addressed until the end of December, but the intensification has already begun again this year (as revealed in e-mails being received about that topic); therefore, portions of the comments offered last year will be presented again, along with some additional considerations. The following was received last year and is an almost exact duplicate of several received recently:

Received 12-24-05 from a site visitor: “Tomorrow is Christmas and I’m going to be alone. My wife divorced me and got custody of our child. Both of my parents died during the breakup, my health has gone south, and problems at work are constant. My ‘ex’ married another man and he and the ‘ex’ and my child are now living in the home I bought. They are participating in all of the same events that were traditional for my family for many years. She took away my house, retirement funds, cash, other investments, but most of all my family and my child. She’s plugged another man into the slot I once filled with her and my daughter. I suspect you’ll want to offer some Advaita pointer that might relieve me of the hurt and anger, but the pain is overwhelming and after months of trying to detach by using the postings on your site, I need something else. In fact, having written that, I really don’t know why I’m even writing to you because more of the same that has not worked cannot help. But I knew no one else that I could talk to about all this so openly who might understand. Can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”

F.: Although there is some evidence to suggest that Seasonal Affective Disorder can manifest during periods of restricted light, there is no such thing as “holiday unhappiness.” What persons think is making them unhappy is not what is making them unhappy at all. To be free of the unhappiness that you’re perceiving, consider the fact that weeds are not removed from a garden by cutting their tops. They must be extracted at the root. Similarly, to be happy, one must see what is really at the root of unhappiness in order to be rid of it at its source. No effort is being made to minimize what those who have written are feeling, but hearing more of your culture’s hackneyed clichés and banal euphemisms will never truly alleviate, once and for all, your misery around this relative existence issue. So, here is your first consideration:

What if whatever is troubling you has nothing to do with holidays or with what people have done or said or with who is in your life or with who is not in your life? What if the source of your unhappiness has more to do with what you are unaware of than what you think you’re aware of? What if, in fact, your unhappiness is rooted in one or more of several specific factors that make persons unhappy, factors that have nothing to do with "others," with the day of the week, with the time of year, with who is with whom, with who is not with whom, with where anyone is sleeping, or with what “things” have been taken away? What if the root of the misery involves the warped consciousness that subsequently warps the way in which the relative existence is experienced by personas?

The factors that perpetuate unhappiness are rooted in the emotional intoxication that results from programming, conditioning, enculturation, and language as well as from the propensity that personas have for imitation.

FACTOR #1: PREFERRING DECEPTION
Those trapped in their personas prefer being deceived rather than facing facts that are contrary to the agendas of their false identities. If you want to know why marriages failed, don’t look at the last days. Look at the first days and find why the parties really married (because even then hidden agendas were at play). Next, look at events that happened long before the divorce, because problems were manifesting long before they finally registered. Why? Because self-deception was at work. For the writer above as well as for those “former husbands” who wrote recently, the ego-state of “husband” would be happier if “the ex” were still with you and deceiving you, telling you that she loves even when you know that she does not. The Actualized Self tolerates no lies, but the false self is sustained by false words and false beliefs. Find the root of your preference for being deceived and for your aversion to knowing the truth. WHO wants to keep living the lie?

FACTOR #2: PREFERRING DISTORTED PERCEPTIONS
The word “holidays” is a compression of the original term “holy days.” The word “holy” originally meant “different from.” “Different from” is a concept of duality, and belief in dualities always results in a sense of separation. In the 12 July 2006 posting, the following pointer was offered:

Those who use the word [holy] still refer to its original meaning [of "different from"] because, even as they speak of “unity,” their beliefs are rooted in the concepts of “separate,” “better than,” and “different from others”—all dualistic concepts. “Holy” land is different from other land? Any geologist can prove that’s a lie, so the perceived difference is in “the mind” only, and the “mind” is only given credibility by the contaminated consciousness.

But look at the conflicts that have been fought for two thousand years by those persons who all want control over land that they think is "holy." And look at the internal conflicts that you are facing as a result of mentally assigning the label "most holy" or "different" to a certain day. That distorted perception is one of the roots of your misery.

Another distorted perception is revealed in comments such as these two heard recently: (1) “Before my husband died, this was the best time of the year. Since, it’s become the worst,” and (2) “We loved the holidays until our son was killed ten years ago by a drunk driver. Now, we hate these days and just struggle to try to survive every year.” The extremes of the duality of “worst” and “best” is a lie. Things were seldom as “good” as recorded in memories and the present is never as “bad” as current perceptions. The extremes of “love” and “hate” are also dualistic, mental traps, and those persons whose language is steeped in duality will experience the extremes of emotional intoxication that their language constantly affirms and re-affirms.

In one regard, though, the way that persons behave during the season does reveal a "holy" [i.e., "different"] set of relative existence experiences by personas: in the U.S., a large percentage of all suicides each year occur around the holidays. Anxiety and conflict are heightened as persons are driven even more than usual by the desires and fears of their ego-states. The plot of the play that they’re acting in is marked by an increase in physical demands and an increase in financial stressors as well. That is all rooted in the distorted perception that false identities are real. Once assumed to be real, those ego-states require that certain specific and traditional actions be repeated every year in order for the ego-states to experience the sense of continuity that all ego-states desire (and fear losing). And all of that is rooted in the delusions and misperceptions of the dualistic belief in separation which convinces persons that certain days are different from, and better than, other days or weeks or seasons. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE LILA...THE PLAY

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Just read something today and almost realized something about the "now" that you said years ago, about how life is like watching a movie. I was struck with the realization that we are not moving linear with or through time during our lives but are in one place the "now", and life is moving by us. Of course, there is that great tendency to want to sneak a peak at the past and future.

F.: Also remember that the only reason to watch the movie is for entertainment’s sake. If you want to reflect on what happens during some past scenes of the movie, go ahead (as long as you are aware of the fact that the past was just an imaginary part of the fictional play/movie and was not real). If you want to guess at the outcome, guess away about the future (but be aware of how futile that is and how it will distract you from what is happening on screen now and how you’ll likely miss out on what is real NOW).

Also, as a reminder, note how the witnessing of the movie can be done without any awareness of the body and can actually help you forget things like the body, body pain, “mind games,” and personas when non-attached witnessing is happening. You can actually be out of your mind during the witnessing too, enjoying a no-brainer movie which requires no thinking on your part. Just sit back and watch and relax and enjoy. That exercise can remind you of what witnessing and Pure Witnessing are really all about. During those moments when you’re merely witnessing the drama on the screen, not involved with it, not attached to outcome, not aware of body or “mind,” you are free. You have left behind “the world.” You are no longer taking seriously that flight of the imagination that is called “the world.” At that moment, you aren’t concerned with "the world," with “relations,” with work, or with anything as long as you remain fully engaged in witnessing only.

In that dark void, the light that is striking you is just a reflection off the screen, so even though certain images on the screen are being registered, you can be in touch with reality and know that it’s just a play on film, just a movie, just a movement of reflected images that are not at all what they appear to be. The actors on the screen look very real, but if you touch the screen—as you touch Reality—You realize that the actors aren’t real, that their words are scripted by others, that they are not the characters they are playing, and that they are nothing more than artificial representations.

When the lights come on, the fantasy (which allowed you to believe for a time that the actors and what they were doing was real) ends as well. Once the movie ends, the screen goes blank. The energy that was operating the equipment that allowed the false images to be seen still remains, but the chimera produced by the imagination ends.

Ultimately, You are the light in which all in this relative existence appears. The Realized know it’s not real; those trapped in personas take all of the nonsense that they think they are seeing to be what is real. The question is, then, are you spending a few hours a week witnessing the movie for the illusion that it is, or are You steadfastly in touch with Reality…24/7? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

“I AM SPECIAL” vs. “I AM,” Part Two

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 14 Dec 2006] Today, you said that spiritual role-playing is nothing more than one step in becoming fully Realized. I believe that I am a spiritual creature having a human experience. Being a spiritual creature is not a step on the way to some higher level—it is the highest level.

F.: Believing in the concept of “creature” reveals that you also believe in the concept of creator. Since you likely have a conception of that creator, you could also likely share that god’s qualities, characteristics, or features. Do you not understand that anything that supposedly has attributes must exist along a timeline continuum rather than cycling as that which has no continuity? Do you not understand that anything existing along a timeline and exhibiting traits must be finite, not infinite? So, there could not have possibly been any creator or god existing prior to an act of fornication that eventually brought “your” body into being.

[It has been said, “Floyd, millions of people can’t be wrong about God and the role he plays in the birth of each child.” Correct. In fact, it is billions who are wrong. In one poll, 87% of Jews, Christians and Muslims said that their god is involved in each instance of pregnancy. It has been estimated that no more than 5% will ever Realize fully. Even that number might be high in light of the fact that most adults don’t even know how babies are made.]

Now, to that body which you take as part of your identity. Whatever remains after that body disappears had to be prior to that event. Since there was no spiritual being before, there will be no spiritual being after. Since there was no creation before, there will be no creator after. And since there was no creation or creator, That Which You Are is not a “spiritual creature.” Nor is That Which You Are a human, either. What was prior to that body was consciousness and elements and oxygen, but not a body and not a celestial body-maker. And since there was no “mind” or personality before you were programmed, there will be no mind or personality after. Therefore, if you would abide as the Absolute NOW, you must be rid of all body and “mind” and personality and spiritual persona identification…NOW. Then, an understanding of the functioning of the totality can happen. At that point, nothing is beyond comprehension when the consciousness is pure, whereas all that is believed prior to the re-purification of the consciousness is nonsense. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

“I AM SPECIAL” vs. “I AM,” Part One

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 14 Dec 2006] Today, you said that spiritual role-playing is nothing more than one step in becoming fully Realized. I believe that I am a spiritual creature having a human experience. Being a spiritual creature is not a step on the way to some higher level—it is the highest level.

F.: The ego (the false “I”) always wants to believe that it is different and, therefore, special. Living out the relative existence under the auspices of warped consciousness, which partitions you into dozens or scores of false identities, there is always a longing for a sense of wholeness. In the search for that sense of wholeness, the ego always looks externally because all ego-states require a co-dependent counterpart to play a role in sustaining each assumed identity. (“Husband” must have “wife” to exist.). Evolving out of that scenario and the assumed identity of "spiritual creature" is the concept of an external “supreme being” that can create a “spiritual being/human being combo” (a very “special creation” indeed). Do you see how trapped in ego you really are, wanting to appear to be so different and special and spiritual?

First, you are speaking of a duality: creature and human. That alone proves that your belief is a lie. Secondly, that phrase has been making the spiritual-speaker-circuit for many years, so it's not original; thus, you’re not really stating a belief that you have as much as you are parroting what someone else said. As long as you are parroting others, you cannot come to know what can only be known via the inner resource. You know what someone else knows, but what do you know? Third, you are standing in the dim light of dawn but are convinced that you are in the brightness of the noonday sun. Fourth, you are deluded, as is the case with all persons whose false identities are generated and sustained by their beliefs (which are really the beliefs of others adopted by them).

You are not fixed in the I Am but follow that phrase with a label. And of course the label you've selected is one with “noble” connotations, so attachment to that role as an identity comes easily. Few are willing to admit “I am a thief,” “I am a low-life,” “I am an ass,” or “I am totally delusional as a result of programming.” Those have “negative” connotations. In contrast see how billions of persons happily proclaim, as you do, “I am a spiritual creature,” “I am that which is the highest level,” “I am religious,” “I am a Christian” (or “Muslim” or “Jew” or “Advaitan”), “I am a child of god,” “I am god’s agent on earth,” and/or “I am many wonderful things,” ad infinitum.

To be a creature is to say you were created. To say you were created is to say that there is a creator. But since neither energy nor matter can be created (nor destroyed), WHO is proclaiming there is a creator and WHO is claiming that he/she was a creation of that creator? [Again, connotations play their role in establishing and maintaining your egotism: if your body is a combination of elements that came together because two persons fornicated—and if your “mind” is a collection of garbage that they programmed into you but that you nevertheless value highly—that would not be so “special,” would it? But for you to have been "created" by a super-powerful extraterrestrial god rather than resulting from an act of friction by two earthly fornicators gives you a most exclusive and highly distinguished status, does it not?]

As for your experience, only an ego-state can believe it is experiencing anything. THAT which you truly are is beyond all experience. As the consciousness purifies, the subject-object witness gives way to the Pure Witness that sees the unicity and sees no subjects or objects. Also having seen the Absolute for what it is, the True Self knows what it is and knows it is not a spiritual creature or a human. And that knowing can only happen while the consciousness is manifest. There is no mechanism in that Absolute state by which anything can be known, understood, or stated. THAT cannot even be accurately described—scientists coming the closest to having an ability to define it—so for you to describe yourself as some spiritual creature that will survive, in tact, post-manifestation is delusional. There is no “yourself” or “self” or “Self” in that vast pool of potential energy or “energy-at-rest,” so no "spiritual self" can exist either. It is a false role "here," and to think it will be a role played out "there" is delusion and duality. Presence—and awareness of presence—are limited to the relative only. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE END OF NISARGA YOGA?

From a site visitor: i found your site after a long search. i read I AM THAT but it left me confused. I googled a term the editor used \"Nisarga Yoga\" to search for information to help me understand more, but none of the so-called \"Nisarga\" sites were really discussing what Maharaj talked about. Then on the fourth page of the google listings i found your site. It seems closer to what he said and cleared up some of the statements i didn\"t understand until now. i guess my question is, is \"Nisarga Yoga\" dying out? Are there other books or sites that offer \"pure\" Nisarga Yoga?

F.: Your conclusion seems accurate that these exact discussions have become a rarity. In fact, many have revealed that the continuity of the lineage (and message) as Maharaj "intended" has been broken. Now, reports show that only a personal message and a relative agenda is being delivered in a cloak of Nisarga Yoga. That debate will not be entered into here, but the veracity of that charge has been witnessed. As a result, many are claiming to be disheartened and discouraged. In fact, if that disheartenment or discouragement moves those seekers away from worship of a guru or away from an attachment to any outer resource, then the result will be an opportunity for those seekers to return to the true “path” that must be followed if they would Realize fully.

Nowadays, the only close neighbor to Nisarga Yoga in its purest form might be found among some adherents to the Jnana Yoga approach, but even that’s a stretch; otherwise, Bhakti seems now to dominate with all its talk of "worship of a god" and "connecting with a god" in order to get desires and hopes fulfilled and to gain some things thought to be positive and to avoid other things thought negative. Such teachings support duality, not non-duality. Then there is Raja and Karma and Kundalini and Hatha Yoga, and all the others. Even “Power Yoga” is now offered. More nonsensical concepts are being generated than are being eliminated, yet has that not been the case for thousands of years? The Original Understanding is being ignored while much of the focus today has been shifted to doingness even as the talk is about beingness. Talk of the non-beingness happens almost not at all. So it is.

With this turn of events, some like you have asked, “Is this the generation that will witness the end of the Nisarga approach, the end of the understanding as accessed via that approach?” The answer is “No.” Why? Because these alone—among all the teachings—are accessed via the inner resource, via the inner guru, not via any "holy" text or outer source. Dependence on a guru is still dependence. This approach is about being totally free of all concepts and about being totally free of all of the dependencies that concepts generate. For those seeking the truth, the inner resource will be available until the dissolution of this universe, and it will survive after that dissolution as well. In the meantime, some seekers will travel the world and climb to the tops of many mountains in their effort to associate with "famous Advaitans," but those futile efforts will not prevent other seekers from finding internally that which so many persons are seeking externally. Please enter the silence of contemplation.