DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part Four

[Continued from yesterday]
V.: Even though its intellectually understood that the one who is fearing his own absence is a non-existent entity, the fear is still there.

F.: Again, the words reveal that it is not the re-purified consciousness that is speaking but—by your use of the word “intellectually”—you reveal more of your “mind” stuff. That comment comes from the second step level. Though this is a seven-step "journey," you continue to hover around steps one and two...around body and mind identification. You likely visit step three at times (assuming a spiritual and/or religious persona) but you are unable to transition that persona and continue the "journey" to its completion. Why? As with all ego-states and false identities, "The Spiritual One" loves his role, and he especially loves that role since his entire culture dualistically agrees that it is a "good" role...not a "bad" role.

To see how out of touch with reality that “I” is—the “I” who is speaking—restate your comment with accuracy: Even if a mirage could intellectually understand that it is fearing its own absence when the sun sets, and even if the mirage knows that it’s just a mirage, the fear being felt by the mirage would still be there. If in touch with Reality, it would be understood that a mirage is a mirage and that a mirage can know nothing. It would be seen that it would be totally insane to believe that any fear being generated by a mirage is real.

It would be seen that it is totally insane for a relative existence to happen in the style of a mime…pretending that he’s trapped in a box that does not even exist. It would be seen that it would be totally insane for the mime to play “The Mime Role” for so long that he eventually begins to believe that he really is trapped and that the box he’s in is real. It would be so simple for the non-insane to see the conditioned mime’s self-delusion and insanity. What is complicated is the maze of lies called the “mind.” It is the attachment that persons have to the fictional "mind" that prevents the insane from seeing that they are insane and prevents them from understanding that their insanity is sustained by their unquestioning faith and their naive belief in what persons have told them. Seeing all of Reality is simple. Seeing all of the lies is more challenging. Understand that Reality is observable from within but that lies all come from without.

V.: How to overcome and find the courage to be what one truely always is?

F.: For some, seeing the price of not knowing What One Truly Is can inspire an undertaking of, or completion of, the entire “journey.” Some finally tire of the silly games, of the unmet desires, of the imaginary (but seemingly real) fears, of the instability of their cycles of being happy and unhappy, of the mental and emotional pain and suffering. However, since persons have been conditioned to have a high tolerance for pain (and have been conditioned to walk about in their sleep and generate even more pain), few ever attain freedom from the programming and conditioning and enculturation and corruption of the consciousness. Thus, they will walk about the planet in their dreams, they will play their phony roles in The Drama of the Lie, they will generate chaos by emoting, and they will prefer the sleep-like stupor of boredom in order not to have to feel anything associated within the insane “world” that they imagine is real.

Therefore, they just stay in their pain or their stupor, even as they deny their pain or their stupor. For most, the “path” can only be followed when clearly marked. Yes, a guide can point the way, but so many who claim “The Guide Role” have never completed the “journey” and believe at dawn that they are standing beneath the noonday sun. The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE marks the way clearly by identifying the seven steps, in their exact order, that are required for Realization to happen. Only via step-by-step instructions can persons avoid the thousands of useless steps now being taken, steps which are nothing more than distractions and which bog persons down with doingness. All that doingness merely reinforces the false sense of a “do-er,” resulting in this closed loop: the imaginary do-er believes in his/her doingness, then his/her doingness reinforces the illusion of a do-er. Being trapped in that cycle inspires persons to run about in a circle and thus prevents completion of the “journey” that requires the following of the direct "path."

V.: The notorious Ego even tries to make use of this understanding that \"one never exists\".

F.: The irony of the ego is this: as long as the “I”—the “ego”—is taken to be real, the influence of that illusion (which is generated by the corrupted consciousness) will prevent the re-purification of the consciousness. The ego’s quest is to convince the false self—and all other false selves—that it is that which is real. Thus, any effort to tell a “Husband”—who is dependent on “Wife” for his very existence—that he is not a “Husband” at all is a consideration that will be spurned like a mangy cur. The invitation is to see that a mirage can have no power over the sane nor any influence among the sane; however, if one swerves his car off the road and over a cliff to avoid a mirage in the road ahead, the effect of the mirage in the relative existence will certainly seem real enough and powerful enough and influential enough to a programmed bystander. Conversely, the Realized will see a mirage for the mirage that it is and will sail along peacefully down the road, unaffected at all by the illusions that seem to appear before the eyes and that are taken by the non-Realized to be real.

V.: (please excuse me, badly feeling the need of question-answer sessions and physical presence of someone who is stabilized in the Absolute)

F.: No excuse need be requested or extended in reply. This type of happening is what happens on this site and is what shall continue until the consciousness is no longer manifested or no longer speaks. On the other hand, if you still don't "get it" after this set of free pointers, spring for the cost of the guidebook. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS: Out of town. Please visit the archives.

DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part Three

[Continued from yesterday]

V.: I am afraid of my own Absence in the world.

F.: WHO is saying that? What mirage (what quantity of contaminated consciousness) is expressing that delusion? Only the re-purified consciousness can speak truth, and the “I” in that comment is not the re-purified consciousness that is speaking. When I say that I was present for the beginning of this universe (and for the beginning and the end of all other universes), do you think that the “I” which is reporting that fact is the same “I” that is speaking in your statement regarding “Absence?” No. The “I” expressing a fear of absence (of death) is the “I” that is stuck at the first step (body identification) of a seven-step “journey” that has not even begun, according to that statement. It is an "I" which believes that it was born, so of course it believes that it can die.

If you do not yet understand what is present, how could your thoughts or your emotional intoxication around the concept of “absence” have any validity? What, other than body and mind and personality identity, would hope for any continuity or be afraid of any lack of continuity? The irony is, I have perpetual continuity which cannot end while the false “I” of personas—identified with body and mind—wish for a continuity which cannot exist. Thus, they (and "you" at this point) are trapped in fears and desires while I cannot be trapped or limited at all.

V.: I feel comfortable in my presence because of desires. How to feel comfortable about my own absence? When I feel embarassed, I might find it comfortable to disappear, but when the environment around me is so loving and beautiful, I want my presence to go on. I find it difficult to shift my identity to some level where knowingness no longer comes with us.

F.: Actually, you feel uncomfortable in your (misidentified) presence because of your desires, but more to the point, WHO believes in the false foundations from which fears arise? WHO believes in the false foundations from which desires arise? WHO has failed to see that a “loving and beautiful” environment cannot co-exist with illusory fears and typically unmet desires? And WHO is talking about “loving and beautiful,” two concepts that deal with the relative and with dualities? In the illusory relative “world,” the one who is believed to be loving today can be the one who is hateful tomorrow, and the laws of thermodynamics assure that what is considered beautiful by persons today will soon be considered ugly according to the relativistic values of those same persons. Moreover, your comments show your attachment to the relative world and its relative values and its relative concepts such as “loving” and “beautiful.” You believe that you live in this limited environment instead of understanding THAT which cannot be limited to any environment.

V.: I am 24/7 trying to please someone who does not exist - the \"I Am\".

F.: Not just the I AM. Stay trapped in your body-mind-personality identity and you will spend the entire manifestation attempting to please not only the corrupted consciousness and your assumed roles but also many other personas who are trapped in duality and false identities, including a withholding parent or an unavailable parent or judgmental parents; including those playing spiritual personas; including those assuming a girlfriend role or a spouse role (and who will assume “The Parent” role in order to control you as if you are “The Child”); including those playing “The Employer” role (and also acting like a “Parent”), ad infinitum. If you believe in your roles and if you believe in their roles, then the prison you find yourself in will not have one wall that must be broken through in order to be free but will consist of hundreds or thousands of layers of walls. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part Two

[Continued from yesterday]
F.: Advaita provides a direct (seven-step) route to being in touch with reality, yet you are taking a detour and wandering about through the fictitious “mind” which supports persons’ beliefs in that which is unreal. Dawdling about through “the mind,” you are taking thousands of unnecessary steps rather than following the direct “path.” The “mind” is a conspirator that is posing as your lover, and that deceptive lover is whispering into your ear certain directions that will cause you to stray from the direct path. Those directions will put you on a course that leads only to fellow connivers—to the ego-states that await you in the dark and that wish to imprison you in the darkness forever. The "mind" is the instrument that supports your personality with thoughts, and those thoughts are the instruments that will forever prevent "peace of mind"; in fact, there is no such thing as "peace of mind." There is only peace if freed of the "mind" (as well as body and personality identifications). Deceptions—if taken to be truth—will always lead to misery and destruction, relatively speaking.

Therefore, see “the mind” as a nothing more than an amalgamation of illusions and then be done with it, once and for all. It is nothing more than a multi-faceted mirage. You are traversing a desert called “life” and seeing one mirage after another and taking each to be real. How could a mirage "practice" anything? What should the mind do? you ask. Restate your query accurately and ask, “What should a mirage do?” Then ask, “What could a mirage do?” Your identification with a mirage leaves you believing that a mirage can do something, that a mirage can show you something, and that a mirage can actually guide you out of the desert. You think that if a mirage does certain things, it will improve itself or will help “you.” You also believe that if a mirage improves, it can also help other mirages. That which you seek is beyond body, mind and personality, so how could any of those three possibly facilitate the search? They cannot. You have become lost on an ocean voyage because of a faulty compass, yet you want to continue to use that same compass to guide you to your intended destination. It cannot.

V.: So.. is it something like, the very act of \"looking\" and \"understanding\" that everything is false is tantamount to all the practice needed? This is what makes it difficult. Because the very nature of transactions of the world makes me feel lonely if I am not involved.

F.: What that comment reveals is more of the confusion that results from duality. It shows that (1) you still want to consider yourself a do-er yet on some other level you know that (2) witnessing and seeing clearly is as much “practice” as is required. Next, who told you that Realization eliminates “involvement,” if by “involvement” you refer to AS IF living? These responses could be considered involvement, though all that is actually happening is that questions have been asked and answers have followed AS IF anything in the relative is real. Responses seem to be moving from one party to another, yet all that is happening is that consciousness is speaking AS IF any of this matters. To a prejudiced witness, it might appear as if some involvement is happening, but no attachment to outcome exists. The point is, AS IF living can happen post-Realization and relative-existence “involvement” can happen even as You realize that no “Involver” exists.

A company recently paid “floyd” for a study of the personalities being assumed by its staff and by some of its clients. The study revealed the relative impact that personality was having on interactions and communication and effectiveness. The persona inventory happened, the explanations happened, the payment happened, and now that payment will allow the payment of other bills to happen. Yet in all of those happenings, no “Inventory Taker” was assumed to be real, no “Interpreter of Data” was assumed to be real, no “Payer” or “Payee” was assumed to be real, and no “Money Earner” was assumed to be real.

It all merely happened, and because it was happening from the AS IF stance, no concern was experienced when some were driven by egotism to want to reject the findings that exposed certain negative, relative-existence, personality traits and that exposed widespread Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder among the group. Similarly, should an organization or individual offer to pay “vigneshwar” to become “involved” in a company’s happening, that can happen. If Realized, it will happen without attachment and, therefore, without any “Experiencer of Emotional Intoxication” and without any false perception of “doership.” Understand that and you will understand that the “involvement” you desire is another relative concept that is being desired by an identity that is also nothing more than a concept. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part One

FROM A SITE VISITOR: When we say that, constant practice and remembrance is needed to stay firm in who we really are, it must mean that, all along, it should be a practice to be undertaken by something that is not ultimately \"me\". Its the mind that has to engage in practice and not \"me\". And When we say mind should practice, what exactly should the mind do? Is it that the mind should always look at it\'s own falsity and completely understand that its a false entity that\'s at work? So.. is it something like, the very act of \"looking\" and \"understanding\" that everything is false is tantamount to all the practice needed? This is what makes it difficult. Because the very nature of transactions of the world makes me feel lonely if I am not involved. I am afraid of my own Absence in the world. I feel comfortable in my presence because of desires. How to feel comfortable about my own absence? When I feel embarassed, I might find it comfortable to disappear, but when the environment around me is so loving and beautiful, I want my presence to go on. I find it difficult to shift my identity to some level where knowingness no longer comes with us. I am 24/7 trying to please someone who does not exist - the \"I Am\". Even though its intellectually understood that the one who is fearing his own absence is a non-existent entity, the fear is still there. How to overcome and find the courage to be what one truely always is? The notorious Ego even tries to make use of this understanding that \"one never exists\". Yours, Vigneshwar again (please excuse me, badly feeling the need of question-answer sessions and physical presence of someone who is stabilized in the Absolute)

F.: Hello again, Vigneshwar. Your comments and questions will be responded to in sections:

V.: When we say that, constant practice and remembrance is needed to stay firm in who we really are, it must mean that, all along, it should be a practice to be undertaken by something that is not ultimately \"me\".

F.: First, if You know Who/What You Truly Are, why would You have to practice to remember that? To the contrary, You cannot forget it; therefore, the proper invitation is to move along the “path” to full awareness and then be done with the “doing” and the “do-er” (rather than fixating at a point prior to Full Realization and "doing practices" there). The shift from identification with the “I” to Realizing the Absolute happens in seven steps. On that “path,” focusing on the I-Amness in order to be free of the I am this lies or the I am that lies might happen for a period, but it is not required for the entire remainder of the manifestation. This pointer was offered in September of ’06 regarding “practices”:

Pray all the prayers that you think you need to pray; knell, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate as much as you think you need to kneel, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate; read all the “holy” books that you think you need to read; visit all the “sacred” sites or “sacred” men that you think you need to visit; chant or hum every chant or hum you think you need to chant or hum; ring every bell you think you need to ring; and burn every stick of incense that you think you need to burn. But when you are done with all of that, realize that you—and all persons who are fixated in a stage and are playing their religious or spiritual roles—are mistaking the dawn for the noon. Realize that praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning (and every other external thing you try to use to be more spiritual or to try to demonstrate how spiritual you are) will actually block you from finding the truth which can only be found within after certain pointers are taken into quiet and solitary consideration.

Similarly, practice until you don’t practice; practice until no “one” remains to practice. As for your comment it must mean that, all along, it should be a practice to be undertaken by something that is not ultimately \"me\", that is correct at a certain point on the “path.” After Full Realization, it is realized that there is no “Practicer,” there is no “one” who can practice anything, and there is no “do-er” who could do practices.

Next, do not mistake a pointer offered to a protégé at one particular point on “the path” as a pointer that is relevant for all protégés at all other points on the “path.” The reason that so many have trouble with grasping the simple teachings is that the teachings often seem contradictory. They are not. It is merely that a protégé at one point on the “path” will be invited to consider one pointer while a protégé at a different point will be invited to consider a totally different pointer. Each pointer is only relevant for a particular protégé that is at a particular point on the "path." Finally, if a practice is undertaken by something that is not ultimately \"me\," then wouldn’t the practice have to be just as bogus as any not you that thinks it’s a do-er and is doing the practice?

V.: Its the mind that has to engage in practice and not \"me\". And When we say mind should practice, what exactly should the mind do? Is it that the mind should always look at it\'s own falsity and completely understand that its a false entity that\'s at work?

F.: You are still speaking from the “mind” level (which is only the second of seven steps on the "journey"). You still believe that you have a “mind” and that your "mind" is valuable. It is not. It will never serve your "cause." It will, instead, prevent you from ever reaching Full Realization. The space called “vigneshwar” has a brain. Be content with the brain functioning as designed but be rid of the fiction-filled “mind.” That which you call “your mind” is actually nothing more than an accumulation of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of delusions, lies, and concepts. See each of those as nothing more than a distortion dreamed up by persons. Then, if those individual distortions are illusion, why would they be considered "real" or "true" simply because they are viewed collectively as "a mind"? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

MISTAKING THE MID-POINT OF THE “JOURNEY” FOR THE END OF THE “JOURNEY,” Part Two (The Conclusion)

F.: Most persons will never understand that “the spiritual state” is not the end of “the path” but is a step nearer the middle of “the path” to Full Realization. Thus, many claim that they have reached the vijnana state (of “spiritual knowledge”) and subsequently claim that they are, therefore, “jnanis” (or “knowers”). The fact is that all persons who claim to be religious or spiritual believe also that (1) they know something that others do not know and that (2) others need to know what they know. Yet to assume an identity of “The Religious Person” or “The Spiritual Giant” or “The Knower” is to assume an identity that is not the Self and that leaves persons far removed from truly Realizing the Self (as well as all that is beyond the Self, including the non-beingness and the Absolute). The completion of the "journey" to Full Realization happens after the burdensome weight of spiritual knowledge--and of all learned ignorance--has been discarded.

Of course “jnani” and the other identities mentioned above are nothing more than time-bound, body-bound, “mind”-induced personas or assumed identities, dealing—by definition—with knowledge. Talk of spiritual knowledge has its place, but that happens at the “dry charcoal stage,” not at the “gunpowder stage.” Full Realization is marked by an awareness that is beyond all knowledge and which is, therefore, beyond all spiritual knowledge as well. Upon Full Realization, it is seen that all spiritual knowledge was nothing more than a part of that massive accumulation of learned ignorance which burdens persons with the heaviness of their “something-ness” rather than the lightness of the “nothingness.” To fixate at that knowing stage—at the so-called "spiritual stage"—prevents abidance as the Pure Consciousness and prevents eventual abidance as the Absolute. Therefore, the final step of the “journey” is not marked by the gaining of spiritual knowledge but by an understanding of the functioning of the totality that happens in the absence of any “Understander” or any “Knower” or any “Spiritual Person” or any other “good” identity that is being assumed in order to replace former “bad” identities.

The Original Understanding happened when the consciousness functioned on a pure, intuitive level rather than on a “thinking-mind”-level or a "knowing level" that came after the development of language (which allowed the programming and the conditioning and the corrupting of consciousness to happen). Truth is pointed to when the re-purified consciousness speaks, not when self-proclaimed jnanis or "priests" or "holy men" speak. To say “I am a jnani” is as much a lie as any other instance in which the I am is followed by a word or phrase, such as “I am a spouse” or “I am a human” or “I am a holy man.” (Should this talk be disturbing to those who consider themselves jnanis or to those who claim to love a jnani, then that very disturbance itself reinforces the accuracy of the pointer. WHO is disturbed?) The jnani level can happen near the mid-point of “the path” (where spiritual knowledge leads to spiritual role-playing); however, every level or step along “the way” must be transitioned—and every label and assumed identity must be discarded—if abidance as the Absolute is to happen.

Finally, it is that same dualistic trap of adopting new (and hypothetically “good”) personas, such as “The Knower” or “The Spiritual One,” that causes (1) so many to fixate at the third step—at the so-called “spiritual level”—of what is really a seven-step “journey” and that also causes (2) so many who have not Realized fully to think that they are jnanis and which also causes (3) so many to believe that they have finished a “journey” that is not even halfway complete. The dawn should not be mistaken for high noon.

From the trap of that assumption of the jnani or "spiritual person" role, a man e-mailed last week to say that he “had gained a new-found power during recent years” and that he “wanted to share his spiritual experience with other people” and that he wanted to know “how to get started at teaching Advaita” so that he could “help” other people. The reply that he received was not the answer that he sought:

You have mistaken the dawn for the noon, so you should abandon your plan (which is rooted in nothing more than ego-states and the corrupted consciousness) and complete your own “journey” before trying to guide “others” along a “path” that you have not yet traveled. Then, such questions as yours will not be asked, and whatever happens will happen spontaneously without any motives or attachment or beliefs, including your beliefs about “power” and “sharing” and “others” and “helping” and—especially—the idea that someone can teach you to teach something which you have not yet understood YourSelf. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: More discussion with Vigneshwar regarding “do-ers,” “the mind,” and other such mirages.

MISTAKING THE MID-POINT OF THE “JOURNEY” FOR THE END OF THE “JOURNEY,” Part One

F.: The point was offered yesterday that…

…personality is rooted in body identification and “mind” conditioning which personalize the consciousness…which (falsely) “individualize the consciousness,” so to speak. The de-personalization process, therefore, must go back to its roots to be cut off there: being free of the misidentification with the body and “mind” must happen before one can be freed from the misidentification with personas. After the end of identification with body-mind-personality happens, the Child Ignorance state is re-entered and the consciousness will be aware that it Is. The witness will observe that manifest principle and will accept no false identities as real.

Along the “path” to Realization, if the consciousness remains fixed in the awareness of its Is-ness, the shift to the objective witnessing level can happen next. From that “platform,” You realize that You must be something that is even apart from the re-purifying consciousness. Why?

What is it that knows the consciousness, that consciousness which had been bastardized starting shortly after its manifestation? It is the re-purifying consciousness that knows. [Notice that it the “re-purifying consciousness” at that point, not the “re-purified consciousness.” As a result, many at the “re-purifying” stage believe that they are at the “re-purified” stage, causing many to mistake the dawn for high noon.] From that “platform” by which the consciousness can be witnessed, it becomes clear that the witnessing element must be apart from that which it is witnessing. During this subject-object stage of objective witnessing, the consciousness becomes aware that it is something other than that formerly corrupted, now re-purifying, consciousness. From there, it can seek to know exactly what it Is.

At that point, the "almost re-purified" consciousness can come to know the True Witness (also known as, the Pure Witness or the True Self). Subject-object witnessing fades aways as the Pure Witness comes to know both itSelf and the unicity. Once the consciousness is further re-purified after a period of abiding in the Is-ness—that is, after a period of abiding in the awareness of the relative-existence veracity of the I-Amness only—it can come to know from that platform the Absolute. Having transcended identification with the manifest consciousness, conditions then become ripe for transitioning to the full awareness state. From there, abidance as the Am-ness transitions into abidance as the Absolute.

Finally, another misunderstanding occurs when persons come to believe that the awareness state is a spiritual state. For clarity, the question should be asked, “WHO, at that point, is spiritual?” In fact, “The Spiritual Person” was a role that had to be played (but subsequently had to be abandoned) before a full shift into the Child Ignorance state happened. Later, the Child Ignorance state can transition into the two witnessing states. It should be seen, therefore, how far removed the spiritual state is from the awareness state and why so many who adopt a spiritual persona as some sort of a “grand finale” mistake the mid-point of the “journey” for the culmination of the "journey." Ensnared as they are in that spiritual ego-state, persons generate as much separation (and reinforce as much belief in duality) as persons fixated in their identification with the “I.” A false identity is a false identity...by any name. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES VALIDATE ADVAITA AND CONFIRM WIDESPREAD INSANITY, Part Two

[Continuation of yesterday’s post]
F.: Yesterday, a man was mentioned who had assumed many roles and who had internalized many personality types. In spite of having founded a business that generated millions of dollars in profits for several decades, he confessed that he had experienced at least 46 years of off-again, on-again happiness. He explained how, eventually, his relative existence had become marked by far more chaos and unhappiness, though he had never realized that was the case. He began to make a connection between that unhappiness and the fact that he had spent a lifetime trying to be what he was not, being trapped in personality, and being driven by the roles that he was playing and the images that he was trying to maintain.

His disintegration into a Type Three had driven him to adopt a false image and to exhaust himself in a four-decade quest to maintain it. He saw how the Type Three’s drive to be considered “valuable and worthy” had been adopted because of his life-long quest to gain approval from a non-approving father. He saw how he had been driven to create and operate a mega-successful business in order to impress and to gain the approval which he hadn’t been given as a child. He saw how all of that game-playing with his father and the belief in the duality of "good vs. bad" had driven him to continue to try to play the role of “The Good Child,” even up to his present age of fifty-one.

Assuming his employment position to be another component of his identity, he played the phony Type Eight roles of “The Aggressive Boss” and “The Super-Successful Businessman.” The man's Personality Type Five wing left him unable to act at times, suffering the paralysis-analysis that is inspired by that personality type. His Personality Type Seven wing sent him off on destructive adventures in an effort to escape the misery of assuming all those roles and identities that he was not. His Type Six personality inspired loyalty to things and people and institutions that deserved no loyalty, including a very disturbed father who has been trapped for his entire relative existence in the insanity of his dualistic beliefs.

After an hour-and-a-half discussion of all the things that he is not but that he has spent a lifetime trying to be, and after a presentation of some of the basics of the Advaita teachings, the first signs of a shift began: rather than remaining in "The Victim" persona as a result of no longer having control of his company, of no longer having anyone to play the counterpart to his “Husband” identity, of still not getting approval from his father, and of no longer having his false images to support, he seemed ready to discard the misery of personality and to begin the “journey” to finding the True Self.

He has much to discard, but the personality test that he took showed him in black and white numbers—charted on a specific scale of 1 to 32—exactly how driven he has been by personality…by his multiple, assumed personas. He saw why he has “felt torn” and “in pieces” for his entire relative existence. He saw why no sense of Oneness or wholeness had ever happened, as highly identified with his multiple personalities as he has been.

So Maharaj was correct: the illness of the planet is rooted in personality, and the treatment involves understanding the steps that can remove the delusions of personality via Full Realization. Indeed, “enlightenment” or “Self-Actualization” or “Full Realization” are merely terms that point toward that condition which follows the re-purification of the bastardized consciousness. Yet personality is rooted in body identification and “mind” conditioning which personalize the consciousness…which (falsely) “individualize the consciousness,” so to speak. The de-personalization process, therefore, must go back to its roots to be cut off there: being free of the misidentification with the body and “mind” must happen before one can be freed from the misidentification with personas. After the end of identification with body-mind-personality happens, the Child Ignorance state is re-entered and the consciousness will be aware that it Is. The witness will observe that manifest principle and will accept no false identities as real.

The man mentioned above attained, during a relatively short visit, a glimpse of what AS IF living can be like for the remainder of the manifestation if freed of personality…if free of the relative existence effects of that widespread mental illness of Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder. Another area of science has finally caught up with the Advaita teachings. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The Delusion of Believing That a Journey Half-Completed Has Been Fully Completed

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES VALIDATE ADVAITA AND CONFIRM WIDESPREAD INSANITY, Part One

F.: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that science would one day advance to the point that it would prove the validity of the Advaita philosophy. [See http://floydhenderson.com/article2.htm ] Advances in the fields of botany, physics, astrophysics, astronomy, biology, microbiology, physiology, chemistry, biochemistry, and thermodynamics have each added scientific proof of the validity of the Advaita teachings. Now, the science of Abnormal Psychology and the science of psychiatry are providing more proof of the validity of Advaita teachings, specifically regarding one of the predominant mental illnesses that Advaita addresses, namely, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) which is also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

[Other mental illnesses addressed by the Advaita teachings include schizoaffective disorder and the associated auditory hallucinations whereby persons think they are hearing voices from other-world entities; minor depression; major depression; magical thinking; delusional disorders; anxiety disorders; and mood disorders. NOTE: Many disorders formerly thought to be “mental disorders only” are now known to have physiological components as well. For thousands of years, the Original Understanding sufficed to address all mental-emotional illness. Today, with the bastardization of the food supply, a holistic approach is required for many.]

Yesterday, this pointer was offered:

It is insane to think you are something that you are not, and it is insane not to know Who/What You Truly Are.

One widespread mental illness among persons on the planet involves the assumption of “alters” (that is, the assumption of “alter-egos” or the assumption of personas as identities). That results in the mental illness of MPD/DID. That mental illness, which affects more than 95% of the earth’s population according to some researcher estimates, could dissolve in most cases via Realization. That research proves that over 5.7 billion mentally-ill persons are walking about the planet and will never reach the state of sanity that follows Realization.

Recently, a company paid to have an analysis conducted of its staff and some of its clients, determining their personality type via enneagram testing and then showing them the assumed personas that have been adopted by those persons. The results were typical: 97% showed evidence of MPD/DID, and seeing the relative-existence problems that those persons were experiencing provided scientific evidence of the chaos and instability that the non-Realized experience on a daily basis as a result of (multiple) personality identification.

Consider one person who tested as a Type Six, predominantly. His beliefs and behaviors also showed that he was being driven by his Type Five wing and his Type Seven wing. Too, because of the stress he was experiencing, his psyche had disintegrated into the unhealthy levels of a Type Three, so he showed high scores in that area. Then, because he owned a large company, he tested high in the negative traits of the Type Eight Boss personality that he had internalized.

Now at the age of 51, the effects of personality have taken their toll: he is in treatment for substance abuse, his board of directors just removed him from his position with the company that he founded, he is estranged from his parents and children, and his wife has filed for divorce. The relative chaos that has come from not knowing Who/What He Truly Is—and trying to be all things to all people—has finally become apparent, even to him. How about you? Can you relate to one who is playing multiple roles? Can you relate to one who is trying to be all things to all the people? Can you relate to one who has no understanding of Who/What He Truly Is? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

UNHAPPINESS AND THE ILLUSIONS OF POWER AND CONTROL, Part Three

F.: These considerations were offered yesterday:

How can one who knows no truth about anything understand when the truth about everything is stated? How can one ever know what he does not know? How can one be free of what he thinks he knows as “fact” when that which he thinks he knows is actually fiction?

Only persons totally controlled by their programming and enculturation and conditioning will give a percentage of all earnings away in order to try to gain power; only persons in fear or wanting all of their desires to be met will blindly accept as sensible the nonsense they are taught by some self-proclaimed authorities; only people programmed to think magically will die on command for a cause which they believe will please a source of power that they want at their beck and call. While persons claim that “being in touch with power brings peace and happiness,” the facts do not support their claims. Yet millions follow the fraudulent teachings of their religious or spiritual leaders in the hope that they can gain power and control, in the hope that their fears can be allayed, in the hope that their desires will be met, and in the hope that their bodies, minds, and personalities will last forever.

The surest sign of a fraudulent teacher is that he says he is expounding knowledge and that you need to add to your collection of concepts the additional concepts that he wants you to learn. A fraud will advise you to keep the knowledge he presents in your “mind” and to live according to the precepts that he presents. To the contrary, the surest sign that a Realistic view is being offered is that the invitation is to consider that all concepts and beliefs and dogma are nonsense. The Realized will explain that all concepts and beliefs and dogma are contaminants that bastardize the consciousness. The Realized will explain that if you would re-purify the consciousness, you must question all religious or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., learned ignorance) that has been taught, all beliefs that have been acquired as well as all ideas that has been taught, and then consider discarding it all.

The desire to acquire power in order to acquire control fades away as the belief that there is any “one” who can “gain” power and control fades away. Realization makes clear that the entire manifestation is nothing more than a mishap, just an “accident.” Upon seeing that this manifestation of consciousness is the source from which all foolishness springs, then all related foolishness can dissolve, including the belief that having power and control will guarantee that one can always be happy.

When the relative existence is seen to be nothing more than fiction, then relative existence power is seen to be fictional as well. When the archetypal gods and goddesses are seen to be fiction, then “other world” power is seen to be fictional as well. Only when both of those concepts of power are seen to be nothing more than fictional concepts can one relax and take it easy, freed of belief in the dualities of reward that must be earned vs. punishment that must be avoided, freed of belief in the duality of powerless vs. powerful, and freed of the duality of thinking one can make things happen vs. merely witnessing that which happens. Being free of belief in dualities moves the consciousness toward a state of re-purification.

Whereas the fraudulent “mind” and the fictional personality/personalities would have you acquire more, the re-purified consciousness will allow happiness to happen as a result of less…less desire, less fear, less emotional intoxication as a result of the childish preoccupation with gaining rewards and avoiding punishment, less period. The re-purified consciousness will lead to de-accumulating, to understanding the bliss of the nothingness, to touching the validity of the void, and to being free of the insanity of the relative existence. The veil of personality that blocks the ability to see Reality will be lifted and only then can persons be freed of the effects of their insanity.

Their insanity? Yes. It is insane to think you are something that you are not, and it is insane not to know Who/What You Truly Are. But sanity can be restored. Then, the misery of desiring everything—and trying to be everything—will give way to the enjoyment of the peace of the nothingness. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: More on Multiple Personality Disorder and the Insanity of Persons Not Knowing Who/What They Truly Are

UNHAPPINESS AND THE ILLUSIONS OF POWER AND CONTROL, Part Two

F.: Excessive change in the relative existence results in a sense of chaos among those who take that illusory existence to be real. Persons—always dominated by desires, fears, turmoil, and the resulting chaos of shifting moods—will experience happiness sometimes and unhappiness at other times. If the chaos happens to abate for a brief period and events stabilize for a time in their lives, persons become bored with that state and will soon generate more of the chaos that they become addicted to. A few will reach a point where they ask, “What can be done to interrupt the constant flux and mood shifts and find peace?” Consider:

If the process of “consciousness re-purification” reaches the 4th and 5th steps in the seven-step “journey” to Reality, then witnessing will happen. If witnessing happens, the constant flux and chaos will end and stability without boredom will begin to mark the relative existence. (When the WHO’s disappear, who would generate chaos? Who would hate the quiet that persons find boring or unsettling?) It will be seen that all is merely happening—independent of any illusions of the “mind” and its corrupted, illusory “thoughts,” independent of the body and the desires and fears that are generated by body identification, and independent of the illusions of personality. Realization notwithstanding, nothing can be done to obtain peace. Peace happens after witnessing happens. Why?

One factor involves the body’s fear of its time-bound nature. The “mind” (and the personalities that it generates as identities) desire to be eternal…not time-bound. When witnessing happens, the illusions of time (and therefore being time-bound) dissolve. The Realized know that time is a concept, so belief in time dissolves. When belief in time dissolves, the time-related fears and the time-related desires of body-mind-personality dissolve. Another result of Realization is this: the belief in the illusion of birth disappears, so the illusion of “experiences” that generate the false sense of being happy or being unhappy also disappear. Free of the concept of birth, persons become freed from fears about death and desires about continuity.

It should be seen, therefore, that all unhappiness and all of the cycling into and out of that state, is rooted in not being able to differentiate true from false. Another related result of Realization is this: all personas having dissolved, persons will no longer function under the false belief that there is anything to gain (having realized that if no one was born, there is no one to gain). The Realized also no longer function under the false belief that there is anything to lose, aware that no one was born so there is no one to lose anything. Too, the Realized, knowing that no one was born, no longer function under the false belief that there is anyone who will die.

Why will so few ever understand this and then be freed from their bondage? Because (1) re-purified consciousness is rare, because (2) even if re-purified, the consciousness might not speak but might rest in the silence, and because (3) even if the re-purified consciousness does speaks, the hearing among persons is filtered through the body, the “mind,” and the personality; therefore, even if the speaking is internalized, the essence of the teachings is usually diluted.

When persons (whose consciousness has been conditioned) are addressed by that consciousness which has been freed of the effects of conditioning, persons will still filter the message through their learned ignorance filter, through their programmed filter, through their arrogance filter, through their conditioned filter, through their dream filter, through their multiple personality filter, and through their culture filter. Thus, the message which they think they have received is not at all the message that was offered.

The Original Understanding was and is amazingly simple, but multiple levels of filtration inspire most persons to complicate the message. As a result, they also complicate their relative existence as well. The message being taught in most cultures now is that simplification and de-accumulation are “out” and the complications of accumulation are to be accepted as “the norm.” Thus, the ability to differentiate true from false has been lost among persons, so they are walking about in their dreams while believing that they are awake. They are playing their roles in the "Drama of the Lie" while believing that they are not in a play and that they are not playing roles at all.

How can one who knows no truth about anything understand when the truth about everything is stated? How can one ever know what he does not know? How can one be free of what he thinks he knows as “fact” when that which he thinks he knows is actually fiction? Of course, there is a way. The way is a "path" which requires no practices but which requires seeing the seven steps that separate persons from Reality and that block the ability to differentiate true from false. Practices fixate persons in newly-assumed roles; the steps allow the illusory personas to dissolve and allow the re-purified consciousness to fixate in abidance as the Absolute. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

UNHAPPINESS AND THE ILLUSIONS OF POWER AND CONTROL, Part One

F.: Because persons take their world to be real, they seek power in order to be able to control happenings in "their world." They will not only seek (a) what they have been programmed to believe is “relative existence power” by playing the games of their cultures but most will also seek (b) an external power in the form of a deity that can be called upon to increase the power available for their use in their relative existence. Their assumed ego-states bring egotism, egotism generates a desire to be able to control, and the desire to control fosters the perceived need for power, power, and more power. Trapped in a state of wanting in which—by definition—there is never enough, who could possibly be content?

In fact, no one has any power. It is another illusory concept. All that happens in the relative existence happens as a result of all that has happened in the relative existence, so power and control are illusions. That leaves egotistical persons—addicted as they are to power and control—in a constant state of flux. At times the power they assume they have seems to work for them so they claim they are happy, but at other times it fails miserably so they are miserable. They begin to experience increasing levels of anxiety and anger and frustration as they find that “other persons” and “the “world” never consistently conform to their will.

Why will that frustration and flux continue, plaguing their existence with their swings between happiness and unhappiness? To have power to control events that are rooted in all prior events would require that one have the power to change past events. That being impossible, the only peace that can come in the relative existence comes when desires for power and control are abandoned and witnessing happens. Those clinging to their beliefs that their desire to control can be attained through the accumulation of power are living in delusion. And those living in delusion can never experience any consistency. Consistency is associated only with the Absolute; the only consistency in the relative is…inconsistency.

Prior to re-purifying the consciousness in order that objective witnessing (and then pure witnessing) can happen, persons identify with the doership of body-mind-personality. Body, mind and personality desire certain things. If the desires are met, temporary happiness is experienced. If the desires are not met, unhappiness happens. Therefore, because of unmet desires, one would be hard-pressed to find one in a million who is truly and consistently happy. Fears are also a contributing factor to the experiencing of unhappiness among persons. If fears are avoided, temporary happiness (or relief) might happen. If that which is feared happens, then unhappiness follows. Therefore, because of both fears and desires, one would be hard-pressed to find one in a million who is truly and consistently happy since that conceptual state called “happiness” will continue to come and go. Only the Absolute is spared such chaos. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

PRACTICES VS. STEPS

F.: Persons who begin a “path” to “improvement” or to “spiritual development” or to “actualization, realization, or enlightenment” often want a guru or teacher to prescribe a set of practices that they can do in order to improve or develop or actualize or realize or become enlightened. All of those desires for practices reveal (a) body identification and (b) a belief that there is a “do-er” that can do those practices. All of those desires also reveal (c) the belief that there is “someone” who can improve or develop or actualize or realize or become enlightened. It should be seen, therefore, that all practices are ultimately useless since no "do-er" or "one" exists. Practices are ultimately nothing more than another exercise in futility of the type that personas love.

The programming among “the religious” or “the spiritual” is to “attend,” “serve,” “give,” “help,” and “be helped.” All of that results in distractions that prevent persons from seeing that they are already “where” they are trying to get to and that they are already “that which they seek.”

If actualization or Realization or enlightenment happens, it is in spite of, rather than because of, all of the activities and the practices and the use of accoutrements. In FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, the step-by-step “path” to Realization is provided not by prescribing practices that are to be done along the way. (Since there is no do-er, to suggest that there are things that must be done would have to be a lie.)

Instead, the process that unfolds is a step-by-step discussion of the seven degrees of separation from Reality that occur from manifestation to body identification. That shift is a result of the corrupting of the consciousness that happens in stages. There is nothing that can be "done" to reverse the corruption except to see how persons “end up in” the body-mind-personality delusion. To see how that happens incrementally is to see how to reverse the process and purify the consciousness.

Compare the re-purification process to the approach that could be used in a laboratory to re-purify a contaminated liquid. Imagine that a pure liquid existed and then seven contaminates were added: salt was added, dirt was added, oil was added, poison was added, soap was added, lint was added, and rocks were added. No one process could return that liquid to its originally pure state. The lint and oil might be siphoned from the surface, but the other contaminates would remain. The liquid might be filtered into another container in order to leave the rocks behind, but the soapy, salty taste would remain, along with the poison. Seven purifying steps must be taken to eliminate the effects of each of the seven contaminating steps. No repetitive practices are required. All that is required is to address each step that contaminated the liquid with a step that can eliminate each type of contamination. To re-purify the liquid requires action. Realization happens in an even simpler fashion with no action required other than to see the steps that contaminated the consciousness and then discard each of the contaminating elements.

In the Realization process, no doingness is required. All that is required is to see each of the seven steps that resulted in the bastardization of the consciousness and then reverse the process. That happens simply by understanding the seven steps that resulted in the contamination of the consciousness and by understanding the seven steps that separate persons from awareness...an awareness that can only be attained via elimination of all of the contaminates that block the consciousness from knowing the Original Understanding, the True Self, and the Absolute. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

BONDAGE VS. FREEDOM

From a site visitor: Your book…From the I to the absolute…why not stay in the I?

F.: A question in response to your question: “Why stay in the I?” Indeed, neither matters, the “I” being completely relative as it is. Here’s an additional consideration as well: “Why stay in bondage during the relative existence, especially if you can walk free?”

Of those persons walking about on the planet, most would claim that they are free, yet they are not. They are trapped in the bondage of ego and thus experience all of the suffering and misery that comes with any delusion. Trapped in their egos and egotism, they experience thousands of slights each year, slights which leave them irritated or discontented or furious or maniacal or psychopathic.

The ego is the “I”—specifically, the false “I”—and trapped in the “I,” one cannot be further removed from knowing the Absolute or further removed from being at peace. The nine personality types—the most basic of all false “I’s”—are merely ego states. They are the false “I’s” that are assumed as identities and that force persons to live in the bondage of being driven, powerless to make choices while believing that they are choosing.

Type Ones can believe that they can reform the world when there is no world to be reformed.

Type Two’s will be obsessed with helping when there are no WHO’s to be helped and no do-ers to undertake that helping.

Type Three’s will create images and spend the entire manifestation trying to maintain their images.

Four’s will be frustrated in the search for Self that few will ever complete.

Five’s will be paralyzed with their entrapment in analysis.

Sixes will be imprisoned in their unquestioning loyalty to "the authorities" in their culture (especially big government, big religion, and big business, which are the generators and guardians of lies and programming and conditioning).

Seven’s will know no peace, trapped as they are in their constant efforts to escape.

Eights will never rest, trying to gain control and power.

Nine’s will never know Self so they will never know peace, constantly taking on the traits of the other eight types that they encounter (mirroring "others" in their effort to try to please everyone).

Such is the existence of personas that are imprisoned in their “minds,” that identify with the false “I,” and that fight to support their false identities. So again, why stay in the insanity and delusion of the “I”? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

BECOMING FREE OF PERSONALITY HAPPENS BY DEGREE UNTIL FULL AWARENESS EXPLODES INTO CONSCIOUSNESS

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I’m new to Advaita but have come across a lot about the body-mind-personality you mentioned Saturday. Will you explain in more detail about why I shouldn’t want to have a personality? I mean, the way we’re raised in my country, everything is about making friends with people who have a good personality. Thank you.

[For a full explanation, tour the archives by searching the terms “good” and “personality” in order to find why both are relative existence fiction. For now, some considerations will be offered.]

F.: In an encapsulation, personality is about that which is acquired and that which is false whereas advaita is about that which cannot be acquired but which simply IS, that which has always been, and that which is not false.

The enneagram defines the nine specific and most basic personality types—the nine personas that have been assumed by persons for hundreds (if not thousands) of years and that each person most identifies with as her/his one dominant type. Thousands of other personalities are subsequently assumed as a result of enculturation, programming, and conditioning, but all persons first and foremost exhibit one specific type. As role assumption spreads, more and more personalities are assumed. The result is the widespread insanity among the masses who suffer as a result of their multiple personality disorders.

To know one’s primary personality type is to stop assuming all other personality types. To stop assuming other personality types in to limit the number of personas that are being assumed and played.

To limit the number of personas that are being assumed and played is to limit identification with false selves. To limit identification with false selves is to end that sense of feeling split or torn that comes with assuming multiple personalities.

To end the sense of feeling split into many pieces or feeling torn apart will provide the opportunity to sense the Oneness, the unicity, and the Realness that is beyond all personality. To stop identifying with false selves—to stop believing that one is any persona—is to be afforded the opportunity to transcend body-mind-personality identification. That transcendence provides the opportunity to continue the seven-step “journey” to Realizing the True Self and that which is beyond.

To first be in touch with the True Self is the only way to eventually be in touch with Reality. To be in touch with Reality is to be sane. To be sane is to be free of fears and desires. To be free of fears and desires is to be at peace in the awareness that What each Truly Is is THAT Which Is beyond beingness and non-beingness as well. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [PLEASE NOTE: Will be out of town for several days to share the Advaita teachings with a few groups that have requested that. Please visit the archives.]

THE SAMADHI STATE VS. THE ABSOLUTE STATE

From a site visitor: Found your site a while back have enjoyed going through the archives. I do question remarks made in November about the value of the samadhi state which I find of great value. Care to explain further?

F.: First, WHO finds anything of value? Next, WHO do you think exists at this site that can care? Are you assuming that there’s a Floyd who is posting considerations and who can care about anything? There is no Floyd, and to that I can testify accurately because I witnessed his death. Witness your own and be similarly free. You’re invited to ponder the pointers behind those questions.

That said, protégés on the “journey” might find the practice to be a tool that can help them shift from identification with selfness to identification with the Selfhood, yet that still involves identification. The Fully Realized are identity-free.

Next, how could the Fully Realized, abiding as the Absolute, “go into” the samadhi state or “come out of” samadhi state? Abidance is as the Absolute state, period. For any “going” or “coming” to happen, a go-er and a comer (that is, a do-er) must be present. Among the Fully Realized, doership does not apply. Furthermore, for one to claim he is “in” the Absolute state and also “in” and “out” of the samadhi state is duality. The beauty of Full Realization is that all duality ends as fixed abidance as the Absolute happens…absolutely. Ultimately, why settle for only smelling the goods that are baked occasionally in the kitchen when you can taste the sweetness of the goods first hand as they are baked every day for as long as the manifestation continues?

[NOTE: If you want to find information from prior postings that deal with samadhi in more detail, go to the top of this page and in the white area at the top left corner, type in the word samadhi and press the Enter key. All of the articles that mention samadhi will be brought forth. Then, go to the top of your tool bar, click on Edit, click on Find, type in samadhi again and click Find Next. You’ll be taken to the place in each posting where samadhi is discussed.]

Now, review the pointers that are offered and then please enter the silence of contemplation.

PERSONAS PLAYING THEIR CHILD ROLES AND THEIR PARENT ROLES DOMINATE THE PLANET, Part Three

From a site visitor: I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and agree with it all. My parents did not raise us to believe in a god, and I’ve often wondered why so many billions have failed to see a point you’ve made about how the god or gods that they worship just evolved from all of the old pagans gods that Abraham rolled into one. So my question is, how can so many people who are supposedly so educated still believe these myths you talk about?

[Continued from yesterday when this consideration was offered: Realize that for 5000 years, persons have been taught the same concept over and over: the concept that “there is a superpower in another world that is available for you to use to your advantage in this world.”]

F.: See why that concept of the existence of a magical power that can intervene in their behalf would appeal to people who struggle with the problems of meeting their basic survival needs, with the problems in their societies, with the problems in personal relationships, with problems evolving from imagined but seemingly real fears, with problems evolving from desires, ad infinitum. To wish for, hope for, dream about, and/or desire such power, and to be programmed to believe that access to such a care-taking power is available, results in billions of persons who are childishly dependent. It also results in billions of arrogant persons, assuming “good” ego-states as identities and playing their “good” roles in order to assure direct and continuing access to a superpower. They actually come to believe that they can control that superpower with their prayers and petitions and therefore imagine that they, too, are superpowerful when in "spiritual contact" with that other-world entity.

When you look at that multi-millenia scenario, is it any wonder that six billion people claim to be the “good and obedient children” of a protective, superpowerful “Father”? Is it any wonder that, fixated in their childish ways as they are, that they are willing to die for their cause…for their superpower? Is it any wonder that they are like adolescents, feeling completely invincible and perfectly willing to die at any second as a result of their illusory belief that eternal continuity of body-mind-personality awaits in another world?

Is it any wonder that they worship their superpower, sacrifice for their superpower, kill for their superpower, pray to their superpower, and beg their superpower for things they want? Is it any wonder that persons, living in their ego-states, dream up all kinds of fears and desires and then dream up a conceptualized superpower that will protect them from what they fear and that will give them what they desire? Is it any wonder that they become egomaniacs as a result of believing that they are "better" than "others" because they’re in relationship with the "correct" superpower? Is it any wonder that—in a fight to prove their version of the superpower is right and that others’ versions of the superpower are wrong—that they’ve been killing each other for thousands of years as a result of their debate? Is it any wonder—since persons operate from such a childish mindset—that they can’t get along and that fighting and war dominate the planet? Should it be any surprise that at no time--since the dreaming up of those concepts that persons fight about--has there ever been a moment when peace prevailed planetwide?

Is it any wonder that programmed persons think magically and supernaturally, as children always do? Is it any wonder that 99% of the earth’s population has abandoned a natural style of living and are trying to live within the unnatural constraints of their supernatural religious or spiritual programming? Is it any wonder that the most ignorant of tales that were dreamed up thousand of years ago by controlling men (and bought into by the most ignorant masses) is still being bought into by the ignorant masses today? Is it any wonder that male persons who identify with their bodies will kill others and themselves in order to gain an eternity in an imaginary place where their body desires, so they believe, will be fulfilled? Is it any wonder that two billion people believe that when they die they will sprout wings and become half-bird and half-human and will float about in some geographic place in the sky and spend eternity in the presence of their male god/superpower? Is it any wonder that 86% of the population of the U.S. believe that invisible, half-bird/half-human beings are floating about and watching over them?

You should see by now that “being educated” has nothing to do with the question you posed. When it comes to dogma and spiritual beliefs, only learned ignorance exists, so millions of highly educated persons continue to accept unquestioningly the magical beliefs that were programmed into them as children; therefore, they will automatically think and behave in a childish fashion.

You should also see why Maharaj estimated that only one in a million will ever break free of the bondage of the “mind” and complete the “journey” to total liberation from the insanity of programming and conditioning and enculturation and from the insanity of believing that the body-mind-personality triad can exist forever in some other “good” place if only they are “good” in this place (or if they confess and ask for forgiveness when they are “bad” in this place). Once all of the dualistic concepts of the planet are programmed into children, most of them will think and behave as children, no matter their age, for the remainder of the manifestation. So it is. To understand that 99% of the earth's population is fixated at the child stage might afford you an opportunity to be more understanding when you witness all of their childish behavior, or it might lead the re-purified consciousness to offer each--one at a time--an invitation to awaken from the dream and Realize. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

PERSONAS PLAYING THEIR CHILD ROLES AND THEIR PARENT ROLES DOMINATE THE PLANET, Part Two

From a site visitor: I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and agree with it all. My parents did not raise us to believe in a god, and I’ve often wondered why so many billions have failed to see a point you’ve made about how the god or gods that they worship just evolved from all of the old pagans gods that Abraham rolled into one. So my question is, how can so many people who are supposedly so educated still believe these myths you talk about?

F.: Children love stories about Superman and Superwoman and Spiderman as well as tales about other benevolent beings that might come to their rescue. Considering the insanity among the persons of the planet (which is the pool from which parents are drawn) most children "need" rescuing…from insanity, ignorance, programming, and conditioning. A story about a Santa Claus is readily accepted by children as truth. A story about Santa’s metaphysical-realm counterpart (“God”) is just as readily accepted by children. Why?

Persons—of both child age and adult age—generally prefer an easier way than they’re having in their insane cultures and in their insane imaginary "world." They have been programmed and conditioned to believe that they have a chance to get something for nothing (and to have an easier path through this relative existence) if they "have faith" or if they worship a diety or if they give a 10% offering with a promise of a “ten-fold return”; therefore, it’s easy for children (and later on for those children when they reach an adult age) to continue to believe what was programmed into them at a young age. The result is that billions of adults are walking about the planet with childish beliefs and childish ways of thinking that result in childish comments such as:

“I am the child; God is the Father.”

“I get guidance from an all-knowing Supreme Being.” (Therefore, the ego concludes, I can also be an all-knowing being).

“I have a very strong Father—a most-powerful entity that will take care of me, and not just for now but for all eternity” (supporting the ego’s desire for continuity).

Soon, a sense of entitlement manifests with the belief that “I deserve to be taken care of.”

Eventually, the magical thinking takes over and the “Peter Pan mentality” sets in: “To get what I want or think I need, all I have to do is ask…and believe.”

The outcome of all their belief in all that nonsense is a planet that is populated with, as you mentioned, “…so many people who are supposedly so educated” but who still believe in ancient myths and superstitions and gods as well as in a new god that is merely all of the old gods rolled into one and then cloaked in new wrappings and presented to the world in a two-testament “holy” book or in the other "holy" books that are used by various religions and spiritual movements.

Pavlov’s dogs were programmed in a matter of weeks and then became total fools, living unnaturally and salivating at the sound of a bell rather than at the smell of meat. Realize that the current population of the planet is the end result of at least 5000 years of such conditioning. Realize that for 5000 years, persons have been taught the same concept over and over: the concept that “there is a superpower in another world that is available for you to use to your advantage in this world.” See how trillions have been fooled for millenia and then you should be able to understand how it can be stated accurately that, contrary to popular belief, (1) I Am beyond any states of being and non-being and that (2) those who understand that realize My true nature and all the rest are fools. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

PERSONAS PLAYING THEIR CHILD ROLES AND THEIR PARENT ROLES DOMINATE THE PLANET, Part One

From a site visitor: I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and agree with it all. My parents did not raise us to believe in a god, and I’ve often wondered why so many billions have failed to see a point you’ve made about how the god or gods that they worship just evolved from all of the old pagans gods that Abraham rolled into one. So my question is, how can so many people who are supposedly so educated still believe these myths you talk about?

F.: The programming process is not delayed until persons are adults...and well-educated...and able to separate fact from fiction. It begins during childhood when the mind is impressionable, when parents are “like gods” to children, and when the child who is being programmed can be punished and threatened for questioning the nonsense or for “a lack of faith.”

When an Advaitan invites a protégé to question concepts and beliefs and ideas, that is an invitation to engage in an adult mode activity; however, it is an activity that is seldom undertaken as a result of child dominance, even among adult-aged persons across the planet. If you’re familiar with transactional analysis, the answer to your question becomes clearer. TA shows how persons all speak (and therefore think) from the standpoint of an Adult, a Parent, or a Child. On this planet, most function in a Parent or Child role and from a Parent or Child persona frame of “mind.”

For example, an Adult might ask, “Have you finished that report yet?” From the Child level, the response might be, “Get off my back. Stop bothering me!” A Parent might say, “I just can’t trust you to do anything I ask you to do.”

So what does that have to do with your question? All persons/personas operate from the Child or the Parent level. One out of a million might get free of personality and Realize fully and then function in an Adult, AS IF fashion. The rest will be trapped in their Parent persona or their Child persona. Note the effect of that in the way that persons talk:

A Child will say, “I’m not going to discuss this anymore,” so when the validity of a person’s beliefs come into question, a person will react as a Child and refuse to consider anything to the contrary of the beliefs that were programmed into the child.

The Child will say, “I was bad, but now I’m being good” or “I don’t have to look for a job—God takes care of me” or “I’m doing this religious or spiritual work to gain rewards and to avoid punishment, and you should do the same.” The Parent will say “Keep up that kind of behavior and you’ll spend eternity in hell.”

So, the answer to your question about why so many still believe their myths? First, the planet is inhabited by billions who have never progressed beyond the Child level, making them susceptible to the magical thinking that supernatural beliefs require. There is also a "payoff" for the personas that are playing their Child and Parent roles and that supports their role-playing. More influential is that fact that those living in a Child role and with a Child "mind" cannot develop into mature Adults who have the ability to be independent and who can break free of the programming and begin questioning all of the nonsense that they have been taught. It’s all learned ignorance, but to them it is the basis of their “system of values.” Egotism dominates when personas are fighting for their existence, so for persons to question the validity of the Child and Parent roles that they are playing is rare. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE CHILD IGNORANCE STEP MUST PRECEDE THE WITNESSING STEP WHEN TAKING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY TO REALIZATION, Part Three

[Please note: Out of town the 9th and 10th. Please visit the archives.]

From a site visitor: [Received 05 January 2007] Would you talk more about that Child Ignorance you mentioned to Luca today? Thank you.

F.: Yesterday, the cycling of the conscious-energy was described up to the point when…

…in those early days of manifestation, I witnessed. At that point, only a full stomach and dry clothing were required for bliss to happen. All was still fairly simply at that point.

Now, to continue with the process of consciousness manifesting and being corrupted, see that the experiencing of that bliss is always short-lived. That simple state of I-Amness (wherein there was only an “awareness of being”) would soon be followed by learned ignorance as the consciousness would be subjected to parental programming and conditioning. It would also be subjected to programming in schools, in the culture, and in churches by those whose tool kits included lies and distortions and illusions and by those whose agenda included using those tools to try to control behavior by controlling thoughts and beliefs.

The foundation for all eventual difficulties had thus been laid, and once the programming was forced upon the consciousness, it triggered the shift away from that Child Ignorance stage and the shift towards misery and suffering as body, mind, and personality identification replaced objective witnessing and peaceful beingness. The mental and emotional misery and suffering that would soon come would be rooted in the learned ignorance. The physical miseries and sufferings would eventually happen as accidents, age, a contaminated food supply, and the laws of thermodynamics began to exert their effects on the elemental body. The misery and suffering continued as "the world" was taken to be real, which resulted in the experiencing of stress and trauma as dealing with the widespread mental and emotional illness among persons took its toll.

For those persons who are so arrogant as to proclaim they have never experienced misery and suffering and never will, the invitation is to…be patient. Should the manifestation of the consciousness continue for a long-enough period, both shall be visited upon you…upon you, the corrupted consciousness. (That misery and suffering shall be visited equally upon those who think their religion or spirituality has made them “good” or “better” as well as upon those who they label as “the bad people” or “the ones who are worse than us.”)

To return to that earlier, blissful state, see everything that has been accumulated between (a) those earliest stages of witnessing and Child Ignorance and (b) this very moment. All of that accumulation is what must be discarded in order to lighten the load and move freely through the remainder of the manifestation. Such lightness of being happens only if abidance as the Absolute happens, even as the consciousness is yet manifested. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE CHILD IGNORANCE STEP MUST PRECEDE THE WITNESSING STEP WHEN TAKING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY TO REALIZATION, Part Two

From a site visitor: [Received 05 January 2007] Would you talk more about that Child Ignorance you mentioned to Luca today? Thank you.

F.: In order to understand the way that consciousness becomes corrupted, in order to understand the way that consciousness can be re-purified, and in order to understand the functioning of the totality, you must understand the cycles that are repeated over and over. You must realize that (a) conscious-energy can cycle into and out of manifestation and that (b) if it manifests via the space called “humans” it will undergo seven steps of corruption that separate it from being in touch with reality and that separate it from knowing THAT Which It Truly Is. The bastardization of the consciousness among persons will be so complete that they not only do not know Who/What They Truly Are but will eventually believe that they are what they are not.

Here is the way that one cycle of manifesting began: first, there was that period when I did not know that I was. Prior to manifestation, this energy that I Am was within that vast and unadulterated pool of unmanifested energy wherein I was not conscious of myself. (How could I be? There was no self or Self or being that afforded an opportunity for Me to be aware of Me…or of anything.) Spontaneously, the conscious-energy manifested in a plant that was consumed by those who would come to be called “my parents.” As pointed out last Thursday,

On this planet, the fount from which the Is-ness “springs” is in every vegetable and in every grain of wheat and in every leaf on every tree and in every piece of grass.

That act by “my parents” of consuming a plant in which I had manifested was followed by various cell formations within the space called “their bodies.” Two of those cells were a sperm cell and an egg. An act of friction set off a chain of spontaneous events whereby consciousness (and eventually “self”-consciousness) would be forced upon this space called “floyd.” It was not asked for, it was not sought, and no sacred contract was arranged in advance of the manifestation. (Only after the total bastardization of the consciousness can a person become so ignorant as to dream up such nonsense or can a person become so ignorant as to believe such nonsense as that.)

Eventually, even as an infant, I became aware of my presence. I knew I existed without being told that I exist, just as the consciousness labeled “a bird” knows it exists and will flee from perceived threats in order to sustain the manifestation. (Similarly, a loud noise in my presence would cause me to jump in an automatic fashion, already having being “wired” in a natural way to take action to try to sustain the consciousness.)

However, no words had yet been taught at that point so no thoughts happened at that point so no concepts has been acquired and accepted as “truth” at that point. In those early days of manifestation, I witnessed. At that point, only a full stomach and dry clothing were required for bliss to happen. All was still fairly simply at that point. To return to the Child Ignorance stage is to return to that stage of simplicity wherein such contentment can happen again, but to reach that stage requires reproducing the exact conditions that existed at that time, namely, being free of concepts and beliefs. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE CHILD IGNORANCE STEP MUST PRECEDE THE WITNESSING STEP WHEN TAKING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY TO REALIZATION, Part One

From a site visitor: [Received 05 January 2007] Would you talk more about that Child Ignorance you mentioned to Luca today? Thank you.

F.: The manifestation and corruption of consciousness results in seven degrees of separation from Reality and leads to persons identifying with the false “I.” In order to once again be in touch with Reality, the same seven steps must be taken, but in reverse order. Ultimately, all beliefs and concepts must be abandoned as one discards both body identification and “mind”/personality identification.

Freedom from “mind”/personality identification begins when the focus is on the I AM, but no further movement toward reality can happen unless every instance of following “I am” with a word is abandoned. That means not only must the belief end that “I am this body” or “I am a spouse” or “I am an employee,” ad infinitum. It also means that “I am…a religious person” and “I am…spiritual” must also be abandoned because those are also nothing more than “mind”-generated personas/personalities/roles. On the “path,” they are usually the last two personas/ego-states/false identities to “go,” but their abandonment makes way for the shift to the Child Ignorance stage.

With that abandonment and the return to the Child Ignorance level where freedom from concepts happened then and can happen now, all beliefs and concepts can fall aside readily. The re-purifying consciousness is returned to that stage which was prior to programming and conditioning. At that Child Ignorance stage, the manifestation of consciousness had happened but that stage was prior to the bastardization of the consciousness…prior to programming and conditioning and the teaching of concepts.

As the reverse order process to Realization is followed step-by-step, the Child Ignorance level is the transitional stage between freedom from beliefs in concepts and the (newly-recovered) ability that You--at the unprogrammed child level--had: the ability to merely witness without judging, without drawing conclusions, without becoming emotionally attached to power, without trying to use power to control others and the world and the future, and without trying to influence outcomes. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

TAKE THE SEVEN STEPS TO REALIZATION IN THEIR EXACT ORDER

From a site visitor: Caio floyd, Here is not the first time I wrote also a long time ago. For December was much travel so now reading your new writes with help of friend who englishes better and tells it in my language. Something other teachers and you say is now the better understand how “parents pleasures becomes my pain.” Now the better seeing is they fool us--I don’t blame--somebody fool them (that is mainly found to the church Cattolico here in Italia). Parents and church Cattolico both fool to me and to my brothers and to my sisters, but am more seeing progreaming and condition you talk about in book I buy. Now the know is--for to be free must be free of at all they taught. If other information serve me I beg you to do me that to know. Grazie infinite, Luca

F.: Caio, Luca. Yes, the content of your earlier letter remains fresh. Thanks for writing again. Possibly when I am in Tuscany this coming summer, a visit might be arranged with you and your friend who englishes better than you. [Just a joke. Your meanings come through clearly enough.]

When you wrote last, the response was sent to you off site since you mentioned that your struggle with Catholicism was “private” at the time and you did not want the issues discussed on the web. (By the way, the influence of Catholicism in Italy can be overwhelming, but religion's impact is worldwide. You could have been exposed to their programming anywhere on the planet.) Now, it seems that you have transcended that stage and may be flirting with the witnessing stage, so the response will be posted on the site. As far as your request for additional information that might now be relevant, the following is offered:

1. Do not lose sight of the fact that (a) yes, what you have believed can—in considerable measure—be attributed to the programming and conditioning you received via your parents and via “organized” religion, but (b) focus on the fact that what You Truly Are has nothing to do with any parent or any beliefs or any concepts espoused by any institution. That Which You Are simply happened to manifest spontaneously (and temporarily). That’s all that happened.

2. Having transitioned your religious and/or spiritual personas—so it seems—the call now is for you to focus on the Child Ignorance stage and then the witnessing stage.

3. Do not attempt to skip the Child Ignorance stage and move directly to the witnessing stage. First, belief in every concept must be abandoned—not just the ones received from parents or from organized religion. You have followed, so far, the “path” as detailed in the book you bought, so stay that course and complete the steps in order. (Regarding your leaving religion behind, even the Advaitan Christ abandoned the inconsistent message of organized religion and the inconsistent practices of its adherents, and it was only by abandoning organized religion that he thereafter found the Advaita teachings and passed those along to those who would listen during the last years of that manifestation.)

4. Freed of concepts, your witnessing will be objective and automatic. Focus on the fact that the witness—that re-purifying consciousness that observes in a subject-object fashion—is different from all things that are supposedly being witnessed and from all the doings that are supposedly being observed. Function as the eagle in the vision, flying above it all and realizing that nothing is really as it appears.

Once the witnessing is seen to be happening automatically and spontanoeusly, write again to the site; then, pointers will be offered on transitioning beyond the objective witness to abiding as the Pure Witness. From that stage, the shift to abiding as the Absolute can happen.

Best regards for now. (The address of the apartment used in Italy will be sent to you before that trip in order that a visit might be arranged.) Peace and Light. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

I AM & I AM THAT: "TEMPORARY" AS OPPOSED TO "PERMANENT," BUT NOT TWO

From a site visitor: So, based on what you wrote yesterday [see 03 January ‘07] you don’t think you’re the consciousness? I’ve read other entries where you said you were—or something to that effect, I think. Am I wrong about that or does that mean you were answering a question to somebody who was “wet charcoal”? Russ

F.: Hello, Russ. Thx for the question. First, do not think it necessary to distinguish the I AM from the I AM THAT. Focus on the "not two" instead. I can say accurately that I AM and I can say accurately that I AM THAT. But one is temporary and one is permanent, so ask, "What Is THAT Which I Am...ultimately and permanently?" See the comparison: "H2O" need not be distinguished from the "raindrop" except to know that the raindrop appears to be something other than what it is at its core while "H2O" is the term that points toward the real which cannot be observed. Note too that the raindrop is a temporary space or form, much like the manifested consciousness.

As far as what is said to a person at any given step along the "path," understand that when someone speaks or writes, the re-purified consciousness can determine very quickly where that person is on the “path.” [If you read transcripts of talks with Maharaj, you’ll notice that he allowed questioners to speak freely for a few minutes, using that method in order to allow them to fix their “location” on the “path.” Then he would “tailor” a response based on (1) what the protégé was able to comprehend at that point or based on (2) what the visitor required in order to be able to move on to the next “step.”]

When persons write to the site, their words reveal in a matter of sentences that they haven’t begun the “journey” or that they are fixated at the third level, etc. It is not until the point when the Pure Witnessing (True Self) stage is reached that the understanding of what you have asked about is attained: at that point, the re-purified consciousness knows that it is not even the consciousness, ultimately. It understands the functioning of the totality. It knows that there is a form of energy with the potential to manifest, and that the energy has the potential “to be aware of” (if manifested in a space with a nervous system).

It also understands that the energy prior to manifestation—prior to consciousness—is an Absolutely pure, unadulterated form of energy; therefore, I understand that I AM THAT, not “this” energy with its current formatting. Ultimately, I am that Absolute state, that Absolute THAT-ness, not this temporary I-Amness. In THAT state, the I AM consciousness was absent prior to manifestation and will be absent post-manifestation. Abiding as the Absolute NOW, and not even as pure or re-purified consciousness, all of the attributes of the unmanifested energy can be known NOW. NOW is, in fact, the only instant in which that/THAT can be understood, known, or “enjoyed.” Why? Because there will be no body or “mind” or personality surviving the relative existence to be aware of THAT...or of anything else.

Understand, too, that the Absolute is not a region, a geographic place, a special part of “the heavens,” or any limited location. It is endless, infinite, and omnipresent. On this planet, the fount from which the Is-ness “springs” is in every vegetable and in every grain of wheat and in every leaf on every tree and in every piece of grass.

When someone pronounces someday that “floyd” is dead, there will be nothing different in that happening than when a bug strikes the windshield of a car traveling at a high rate of speed: consciousness will immediately be “released” from both spaces—be it “floyd” or be it a “bug.” In either case, manifested consciousness was merely using a nervous system that facilitated the continuation of manifestation up to—and ending at—that moment. That’s it: dust-to-dust, air-to-air, and energy-to-the-field-of-energy. It will be immediately “released” at some point—either in the case of a “dead floyd” or a “smashed bug”—into that pool of universal energy “at-rest” that is omnipresent. Emancipated thusly, the energy is absorbed instantaneously “therein” or “within” or “with,” not unlike what happens when a drop of rain falls into an ocean. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE

From a site visitor: Why do you say that only “abiding as the Abolute” can bring peace. I read that peace comes if you focus on the “I Am.”

[Note: the sharing today is for those protégés at the later steps of the “journey.” These pointers which are relevant for the few at that “advanced stage” will not, and need not, align with pointers offered to protégés at other points.]

F.: That’s a legitimate query because both teachings have their place for proteges at varying steps along the “journey.” (If you are not familiar with the terms “wet charcoal, dry charcoal, and gunpowder,” use the search engine at the top of this page to research this site for an explanation of those first.) The wet charcoal must dry out and then become as gunpowder if Full Realization is to explode inrto consciousness. That said, a child must crawl before it walks; similarly, a protégé must focus on the I AM before abiding as the Absolute. Yet focusing as wholeheartedly on the I AM as you might can only provide a temporary respite from the insanity and misery and suffering that persons are experiencing (or which they will be experiencing if they currently are not.)

To focus on the I-Amness is to ignore the fact that the very beingness itself is the initial source of physical pain and mental-emotional despair. Prior to the beingness, no problems existed. Prior to the manifestation, there were no troubles, no dilemmas, no crises. No predicaments were faced, no losses were imagined. There were no relative existence quandaries, no advances, no setbacks. There were neither feelings to witness as they constantly rise and fall, and there was no emotional intoxication to suffer. Physical ailments did not happen, mental illnesses did not happen, financial problems did not happen, struggles with the vicissitudes of nature did not happen.

Wars, famine, genocide, murders, rapes, burglaries, and robberies did not happen. Trouble with personal relationships and addictions did not happen. The stresses of school and child-rearing and employment did not happen. The daily grind of 9-5 did not happen. Multi-hour commutes did not happen. Having to deal with incompetent people in businesses, and in city and state and federal governments, did not happen. Dealing with the preponderance of insanity in the community and "the world" did not happen. All of that came with the beingness.

While focusing for a time on the beingness, an undertaking that provides some relief from all the energy-draining doingness, the fact remains that some do-er has to exist to do that focusing, some do-er has to exist to undertake that undertaking, and some do-er has to exist to experience the beingness. Are you beginning to see the glitch? Persons experience misery because two other people experienced ecstasy. That set the stage for all of the dualities of the relative existence: one nation is miserable while their conquerers are seemingly estatic; one nationality is miserable as they starve while another is seemingly estatic in their obesity; one living in poverty is miserable as others are seemingly estatic as they squander their fortunes.

If one were to try to apply “an Advaita-based theory” (a contradiction in itself), then they could argue that fixation in the beingness should theoretically assure happiness, contentment, bliss…whatever. The fact, however, is this: though abiding as the I AM might result in less discontentment than abiding as one or more personas, even those abiding as the I-Amness cannot escape periods of dis-ease (even though no emotional intoxication is happening and even as feelings are merely witnessed as they rise and fall). It is the very nature of consciousnes—even the re-purified consciousness—to be aware of such. From the moment that the I-Amness happened to the moment it is no longer happening, feelings (and therefore certain miseries) will happen as well.

In October of ‘05, this pointer was offered:

Asleep you do not know you are. You are unconscious while asleep—not conscious of the fact that consciousness is still present in your body. But when at rest in the sleep state, the consciousness is still present, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Physically asleep, you do not remember the I-Amness, so perfect peace can manifest. Yet you cannot sustain that physical sleep state; therefore, once awake, You again become aware of the I-Amness. In that awareness, the level of peace that happened during sleep cannot remain. That peace can only happen during the waking state by transcending the Is-ness and abiding as the Absolute.

Does this devalue the step which requires abidance as the beingness? No. Just as the third step requires the adoption of a religious and/or spiritual persona that is eventually to be transcended in order to continue the “journey,” so abidance as the beingness must precede abidance as the Absolute. The beingness makes possible the awareness of the True Self, and that Pure Witnessing/Real Self stage makes possible the awareness of the Absolute. Please enter the silence of contemplation.