[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:
LISA: How can we help children to access their inner resource?
F.: Actually, Full Realization is not for the young, so to try to teach the youth to tap into the inner resource when they need to be tapping into skills that will allow them to address those basic (relative) needs as listed on the base of Maslow's pyramid would not be advised. If they are to function in their dysfunctional cultures, young adults must play the games of the culture for a time. Otherwise, their parents will be on a Dr. Phil show featuring "Boomerang Kids" about parents who can't get their adult-aged children out of the house. In other words, Pandora's Box of Concepts has been opened, and the freedom from all those concepts and personas that drive the misery of the relative existence on this planet will be their condition until some reach a point in adulthood and begin questioning all of the learned ignorance they have accumulated and then eventually reject it all. Few ever will. So it is.
LISA: Do you have a higher power or have you ever or and can you briefly describe what that is or was.
F.: The master addiction of the planet is a desire to control. That desire drives the secondary addiction: the desire for power (in order to control). That quest for power has led to more destruction and magical-thinking-type nonsense than anything else on the planet. It inspires efforts to accumulate earthly power and also to have an extraterrestrial power (or powers) that can also be tapped into in order to control. (E.g., the desire to control weather generated an imaginary god of rain. The desire to control the outcome of battles generated an imaginary god of war. Eventually, Abraham would take all the various gods of creation, sustenance, and destruction, would tell people that there is only one god, and from that they combined all their former gods into one. That is how then ended up with a schizo god who supposedly creates and sustains but also destroys. The creator god "loves his creations unconditionally" and will sustain them if they believe in him, sacrifice to him, worship him, work for him. Contradictorily, his "unconditional" love has "conditions," and, if they are not met, the sustaining will end and the destruction will begin, along with horrendous, eternal punishments to boot.) To be free of the nonsense of contradictory concepts and inconsistent dogma is to be free of the desire to control. That, in turn, ends the desire for power. As for “higher power,” that implies “lower power” as well, and that would be another duality.
F.: The master addiction of the planet is a desire to control. That desire drives the secondary addiction: the desire for power (in order to control). That quest for power has led to more destruction and magical-thinking-type nonsense than anything else on the planet. It inspires efforts to accumulate earthly power and also to have an extraterrestrial power (or powers) that can also be tapped into in order to control. (E.g., the desire to control weather generated an imaginary god of rain. The desire to control the outcome of battles generated an imaginary god of war. Eventually, Abraham would take all the various gods of creation, sustenance, and destruction, would tell people that there is only one god, and from that they combined all their former gods into one. That is how then ended up with a schizo god who supposedly creates and sustains but also destroys. The creator god "loves his creations unconditionally" and will sustain them if they believe in him, sacrifice to him, worship him, work for him. Contradictorily, his "unconditional" love has "conditions," and, if they are not met, the sustaining will end and the destruction will begin, along with horrendous, eternal punishments to boot.) To be free of the nonsense of contradictory concepts and inconsistent dogma is to be free of the desire to control. That, in turn, ends the desire for power. As for “higher power,” that implies “lower power” as well, and that would be another duality.
LISA: What would you say is one of the most important lessons you have learned in life.
F.: To unlearn all of the "important lessons about life" that I was taught. One book is entitled, IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing That Will Set You Free.) Once the learned ignorance of humanity is cast aside, the "path" can be followed that leads to the truth that cannot be stated but that can be understood; thereafter, the functioning of the totality becomes clear and the relative existence can happen in an AS IF fashion, as if any of the stuff of this realm is real or significant, but knowing that it is not.
LISA: What is the way to freedom and inner peace for suffering addicts and alcoholics?
F.: The way involves addressing the cause rather than the symptoms. Since you want these answers short, you may read the postings for Feb 12 and 13 at www.advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com for more.
TOMORROW, the response to “Do we ever stop growing spiritually?” To all site visitors: Based on the Advaita understanding, what response would the re-purified consciousness provide? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
F.: The way involves addressing the cause rather than the symptoms. Since you want these answers short, you may read the postings for Feb 12 and 13 at www.advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com for more.
TOMORROW, the response to “Do we ever stop growing spiritually?” To all site visitors: Based on the Advaita understanding, what response would the re-purified consciousness provide? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
