From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry
F.: Now, Larry, before continuing with the response to your query (a response that will be nothing more than a bit of entertainment) understand these pointers first:
1. All accumulated knowledge, all of the revered knowing, goes when “the knower” goes. (Ultimately, therefore, knowledge cannot be discarded either, since there is no “discarder.” Belief in all nonsense just fades away.)
2. All knowledge, including what persons call their “spiritual knowledge,” is only worldly knowledge. Why? It is all being generated by the warped consciousness that is currently functioning in the phenomenal world, so it all really deals only with the concepts of this false “world” and with upgrading phenomenal, dualistic illusions: “There is this world, and if you’re ‘good,’ you get to go to a better world.” Sounds “spiritual,” huh? Yet an illusion (a better world)that is an upgrade of an illusion (this world) is still an illusion, and illusions are always the stuff of “this world.”
3. Because so-called "knowledge" is being generated by persons in a world that is not real—that is nothing more than a series of false perceptions—then it is all false knowledge; therefore, it cannot be knowledge at all. It is only learned ignorance. To believe that there is “this world” and “that world” is duality, and not only is "this world" false—all "worlds" believed in by persons are false…figments of overactive and warped imaginations.
4. Who could possible “have” knowledge, “possess” knowledge or “attain” knowledge? Consciousness can be aware of itSelf, but even that is time-bound, only for the period of its manifestation. And even that is not a “knowing” since the prerequisite for "knowing" or for something being "known" is the presence of "a knower." To claim that “I know mySelf” is equally false since it suggests duality, that there is some subject with “I-ness” that knows some object. So in the purest terms of any discussion of “knowledge,” you cannot truthfully even claim to know yourSelf, and that is precisely why Advaita teaches that the truth cannot be stated. Ultimately, any knowledge that a person claims to have and then states cannot be the truth, so the effective Advaitin teacher guides seekers to an awareness that even they will not put into words if Fully Realized. The Advaitin teacher can do no more than point toward Reality, and once Reality is seen, even the pointers dissolve. So much for knowledge.
For now, though, back to the entertainment. As for that “vast knowledge” you refer to and think you might be seeing, it amounts to nothing more thorns being used to remove thorns from seekers. Some students of Advaita often miss a key point: you do not need to know everything that your teacher knows in order to realize. To the contrary, you need only to be willing to give up what you think you know if the teacher suggests that you give up certain concepts or beliefs. Eventually, all concepts and beliefs will fade away. Forget accumulating knowledge and focus on the de-accumulation process.
F.: Now, Larry, before continuing with the response to your query (a response that will be nothing more than a bit of entertainment) understand these pointers first:
1. All accumulated knowledge, all of the revered knowing, goes when “the knower” goes. (Ultimately, therefore, knowledge cannot be discarded either, since there is no “discarder.” Belief in all nonsense just fades away.)
2. All knowledge, including what persons call their “spiritual knowledge,” is only worldly knowledge. Why? It is all being generated by the warped consciousness that is currently functioning in the phenomenal world, so it all really deals only with the concepts of this false “world” and with upgrading phenomenal, dualistic illusions: “There is this world, and if you’re ‘good,’ you get to go to a better world.” Sounds “spiritual,” huh? Yet an illusion (a better world)that is an upgrade of an illusion (this world) is still an illusion, and illusions are always the stuff of “this world.”
3. Because so-called "knowledge" is being generated by persons in a world that is not real—that is nothing more than a series of false perceptions—then it is all false knowledge; therefore, it cannot be knowledge at all. It is only learned ignorance. To believe that there is “this world” and “that world” is duality, and not only is "this world" false—all "worlds" believed in by persons are false…figments of overactive and warped imaginations.
4. Who could possible “have” knowledge, “possess” knowledge or “attain” knowledge? Consciousness can be aware of itSelf, but even that is time-bound, only for the period of its manifestation. And even that is not a “knowing” since the prerequisite for "knowing" or for something being "known" is the presence of "a knower." To claim that “I know mySelf” is equally false since it suggests duality, that there is some subject with “I-ness” that knows some object. So in the purest terms of any discussion of “knowledge,” you cannot truthfully even claim to know yourSelf, and that is precisely why Advaita teaches that the truth cannot be stated. Ultimately, any knowledge that a person claims to have and then states cannot be the truth, so the effective Advaitin teacher guides seekers to an awareness that even they will not put into words if Fully Realized. The Advaitin teacher can do no more than point toward Reality, and once Reality is seen, even the pointers dissolve. So much for knowledge.
For now, though, back to the entertainment. As for that “vast knowledge” you refer to and think you might be seeing, it amounts to nothing more thorns being used to remove thorns from seekers. Some students of Advaita often miss a key point: you do not need to know everything that your teacher knows in order to realize. To the contrary, you need only to be willing to give up what you think you know if the teacher suggests that you give up certain concepts or beliefs. Eventually, all concepts and beliefs will fade away. Forget accumulating knowledge and focus on the de-accumulation process.
Here, knowledge is valued so little that, just as with a thorn that is tossed after being used to extract another thorn, so too is it all ignored when not being used to remove thorns. Just as there should be no pride in ignorance, there is no pride in knowing. More to the point, there is no one to be proud of anything. The consciousness speaks. One said during a recent gathering for sansang, “But it was the knowledge you shared regarding the pagan, barbaric roots of ‘holy communion’ that allowed me to detach from that ignorant practice.”
The reply was something close to this: "Fine. You are reporting that a piece of factual information was able to rid you of belief in a non-fact, in a bit of fiction-based dogma. But now, be free of all of that information. After you realize that the practice was--and is--all nonsense, then the knowledge of ancient barbaric practices should be as meaningless to you as their modern barbaric excrescence. On the other hand, know that some all along, with no additional knowledge about the history of communion, rejected the barbaric practice when first invited to participate. Many reply, 'Come with you on Sunday to drink blood and eat body (or to drink pretend blood and to eat pretend body)? Are you nuts?! No thanks.' Some naturally see more clearly than others because they were not subjected to the same insane programming. They were not given that 'knowledge'--that learned ignorance. Some see more clearly only after much effort, depending on the degree of programming and conditioning...that is, depending on the degree to which absurd concepts overlay the consciousness."
Next, were you to follow this space called “floyd” throughout a typical day, you would see no use of knowledge per se. You would see living happening in a natural, spontaneous, agenda-less manner. Just as you walk without thinking about walking, this entire “life of floyd” happens just like that. Can the deer (which offers a perfect example of how to live without "a thought-life") function for an entire day, an entire month, or an entire lifetime in that spontaneous, natural fashion? Not only can it—it does. And it happens across the globe among the comparatively few that are Realized. That is, in fact, why “the search” can end “successfully” with Advaita and Advaita only, and that is why the desire to accumulate knowledge and concepts and dogma and ideas can end with Advaita…and with Advaita only.
(NOTE: Until firmly fixed in Full Realization, what are you to do if a troublesome thought should arise? Find the ego-state that is thinking the thought. When you realize that the so-called thinker of the thought is fictional, her/his fictional thought is spontaneously discredited and discounted. Then, using that same process as often as is called for, the assumption of the false identity can recede until it eventually dissolves. You are never the thinker of a thought. Thoughts arise (1) after an ego-state is assumed as an identity and (2) after the ego-state falsely perceives a desire or need or fear-provoking threat. Talk about “needing a mirage" or "running scared from a mirage!”) Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
The reply was something close to this: "Fine. You are reporting that a piece of factual information was able to rid you of belief in a non-fact, in a bit of fiction-based dogma. But now, be free of all of that information. After you realize that the practice was--and is--all nonsense, then the knowledge of ancient barbaric practices should be as meaningless to you as their modern barbaric excrescence. On the other hand, know that some all along, with no additional knowledge about the history of communion, rejected the barbaric practice when first invited to participate. Many reply, 'Come with you on Sunday to drink blood and eat body (or to drink pretend blood and to eat pretend body)? Are you nuts?! No thanks.' Some naturally see more clearly than others because they were not subjected to the same insane programming. They were not given that 'knowledge'--that learned ignorance. Some see more clearly only after much effort, depending on the degree of programming and conditioning...that is, depending on the degree to which absurd concepts overlay the consciousness."
Next, were you to follow this space called “floyd” throughout a typical day, you would see no use of knowledge per se. You would see living happening in a natural, spontaneous, agenda-less manner. Just as you walk without thinking about walking, this entire “life of floyd” happens just like that. Can the deer (which offers a perfect example of how to live without "a thought-life") function for an entire day, an entire month, or an entire lifetime in that spontaneous, natural fashion? Not only can it—it does. And it happens across the globe among the comparatively few that are Realized. That is, in fact, why “the search” can end “successfully” with Advaita and Advaita only, and that is why the desire to accumulate knowledge and concepts and dogma and ideas can end with Advaita…and with Advaita only.
(NOTE: Until firmly fixed in Full Realization, what are you to do if a troublesome thought should arise? Find the ego-state that is thinking the thought. When you realize that the so-called thinker of the thought is fictional, her/his fictional thought is spontaneously discredited and discounted. Then, using that same process as often as is called for, the assumption of the false identity can recede until it eventually dissolves. You are never the thinker of a thought. Thoughts arise (1) after an ego-state is assumed as an identity and (2) after the ego-state falsely perceives a desire or need or fear-provoking threat. Talk about “needing a mirage" or "running scared from a mirage!”) Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
