[Continued from yesterday]
SITE VISITOR Lisa asked for responses to certain questions as part of an assignment for a college course in religions and philosophies:
SITE VISITOR Lisa asked for responses to certain questions as part of an assignment for a college course in religions and philosophies:
LISA: Do we ever stop growing spiritually?
F.: Yes—when you transition the third of the seven steps to Realization and thereby forfeit all personas (including "The Religious Person" and "The Spiritual Giant"). The book you ordered, FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, will explain that process to you. What actually happens after transitioning that third step is that the fictional concept behind the false identity of "I am a spiritual person" is discarded; therefore, the illusion that there is some person that has been "growing" comes to an end. Remember always that anything following the “I Am,” other than THAT, is a lie; therefore, “I am spiritual” and “I am religious” or “I am a spiritual person” or “I am a religious person” are lies, nothing more than ego-states. Those are merely assumed personas being "supported" by statements generated by the contaminated consciousness. Understand that there are no “good” personas and “bad” personas. Lies are lies, and all ego-states/personas are false identities…are all lies. Just as “Husband” or “Wife” “grow” into “Super Husband” or “Super Wife” and fall under the influence of ego-defense mechanisms that are used to support false identities, spiritual “growth” results in “The Spiritual One” “growing” into “The Super Spiritual One” and then being sustained by egotism.
That is not “growth” at all. It is the expansion of an ego-state. It is the magnification of a false identity. Understand that persons always take an illusion and either dualistically upgrade the illusion or downgrade the illusion. (EX.: Take the lie, “This world is real.” Believing that, persons over the millennia have upgraded that illusion by promising that “after death, there is another world that will provide eternal continuity for the body-mind-personality.” They upgrade the illusion of “this world” with the promise of another world in heaven for the “good people” and they downgrade the illusion of “this world” with the threat of another world called "hell" that awaits the “bad” people.)
Thus, “I am a man” can be an initial illusion. Egotism can generate the belief that “I am a spiritual man,” which is nothing more than an upgrade of the illusion. Guilt can take the initial illusion that "I am a man" and generate the belief that “I am a bad man,” which is nothing more than a downgrading of the illusion. THAT which You Are is not “a woman,” and THAT which I AM is not “a man.” I AM energy temporarily manifested. So Are You. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, much less “grow.”
LISA: If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?
F.: There is nothing in the world to change because there is no world to be changed. I Am not in the world. You are not in the world either, but you do not yet understand that. The world is in you--in your "mind"--and since the "mind" is not real, neither are any of the images and mirages that it imagines to be real. (A steel girder is neither steel nor girder, is it?) Simply understand that the “I” is an abstraction, along with what is perceived to be a real, physical world. If you understand that the perceiver is an abstraction, it becomes easy to understand that anything which an abstract “perceiver” thinks it is seeing must also be an abstraction.
Advaita teaches that all is one substance. It is now known that matter (such as something called a “steel girder”) is really a field of energy that is in constant movement; similarly, that which is Real is conscious-energy (that is, energy that has the capacity to "be conscious of" if manifested in a space with a nervous system).
Thus, You are consciousness, manifested via a combination of elements with a nervous system and a brain. Were your every action to be determined by the brain rather than the "mind," you would never do anything destructive or harmful...to self or "others." The "mind" is a collection of false memories, false teachings, and false ideas that make you believe that your roles are who you are and that your personality/personas are real. Those false identities all have their own hidden agendas and will fight for their survival even though they are mirages. Only via finding WHO/WHAT YOU TRULY ARE can you be free of the misery-generating lies that have been offered to you as truth(s) that can be stated. (That in itself is a lie.) Freedom happens when you Realize that You Are neither in the world nor of the world and that there is no world to change and no WHO that needs changing. Best regards, f.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
