FROM A SITE VISITOR: So I read and re-read these words during the silence of contemplation that you always ask us to enter…“Do you grasp fully the functioning of the totality? Do you understand completely what cycles, how it cycles, what does not cycle, what remains forever, and what is only temporarily manifested?” Suddenly, it hit me. I have thought that I needed more and more knowledge to ever hope to understand “the functioning of the totality” but I see now that there really isn’t that much to grasp at all, is there? So this explains why you suggest getting rid of spiritual knowledge too, right? Also, does all other knowledge have to go as well? If so, how do I continue to understand the functioning? (PS. sorry for the length--just a lot being considered right now) Thanks, Robert
F. Hello, Robert. You've raised a wide range of issues, but each will be addressed in the response today.
F. Hello, Robert. You've raised a wide range of issues, but each will be addressed in the response today.
First, yes, it’s all so simple, supposedly complicated only by the “mind” that is generated by the corrupting of the consciousness. To see that there is not much to grasp is to move further along the “path” and nearer to the Fifth Stage of “De-accumulation.”
NOTE: There are Seven Steps to Realization, and for some they are transitioned in short order while for others the process can take years. (Maharaj reported that it was a three-year process in his case…probably about the same in “mine.”) The transitioning of those seven steps should not be confused with “The Five Stages.” The first two stages provide a picture of the typical lives of persons. The last three stages provide a picture of those who turn to the road less traveled and ultimately realize.
Stage One: Twenty years of being programming to accumulate
Stage Two: Typically, twenty years of trying to accumulate
Stage Three: For most (up to 95% ?), the efforts to accumulate continue for the entire lifetime as most persons will never realize, but for the few who are awake enough to be aware of the emptiness of years of focusing on accumulation, Self-Inquiry begins
Stage Four: The Seven-Step Realization process mentioned above happens
Stage Five: De-accumulation follows
Seekers move through the fourth stage and towards the fifth stage when they truly grasp the simplicity of natural functioning. The relative is maddening to persons; as the Absolute, madness cannot happen since there is no “mind.” Similarly, “something” can always be maddening to persons; the Nothingness can have no effect at all…“good” or “bad.” The Nothingness is the essence of AS IF living after Stage Five de-accumulation.
If the fifth stage is reached, then de-accumulation happens in all ways. As with persons who are controlling and arrogant and delusional and deceptive, de-accumulation happens in all ways or not at all. None of those traits exhibited by persons can be compartmentalized. One cannot be controlling at work and not be controlling at home, in stores and in traffic; one cannot be arrogant with employees but not arrogant in other interactions; one cannot be reasonable and logical at some times and delusional at other times; however, dual-minded persons are unstable in all ways, so they can appear to be compromising, humble, reasonable and perceptive at those times when they are on stage in the Drama of the Lie and when deceiving themselves and others with their assumed images.
Four sure signs of Realization include the following: (1) stability happens and the mood swings associated with the emotional intoxication generated by personas ends; (2) the addiction to going and doing and zooming stops, so the love affair with chaos ends; (3) de-accumulating begins to happen in all ways; and (4) authenticity preempts phoniness. De-accumulation is not compartmentalized and applied selectively; instead, "less" becomes the new standard in every aspect of the relative existence, and it happens automatically and spontaneously. “Getting rid of” rather than “getting” starts to happen automatically, and it begins by getting rid of all of the ideas and concepts and beliefs and false identities that are at the core of self-deception, image-building, and image-maintenance.
That leads to your question of being rid of “all knowledge.” As you may have observed, the single largest body of “learned ignorance” takes the form of religious and spiritual knowledge. Relatedly, it has been asked, “What of chemical imbalances and fluctuating moods due to physical conditions? Shouldn’t even the Realized be knowledgeable of what is required in those areas?” Those aspects of the relative existence have been recognized and addressed on the site before. It has been noted that physical imbalances—beyond the mental and emotional, but linked to them—can certainly impact the relative existence.
For example, the food supply has been bastardized, affecting body performance and mood fluctuations. Humans face variables that did not exist 35,000 years ago when Realization alone generated peace. Most persons do not have even the slightest clue that three different body types exist and that each type can only thrive on the one-of-three food plans that is designed specifically for their type. (So much for “government-recommended diets that everyone should follow.”) Being aware of one’s body type and following the specific food plan for that type could be an example of “knowledge” that could have relative existence application, of course.
(When a “spiritual guide” demands that all protégés follow the one, specific food plan prescribed by the guide, two out of three who take that advice will be committing slow suicide by following such uninformed advice: the sympathetic and parasympathetic aspects of the nervous system will crash; the base/alkalinity balance will end; and those effects along with other under-functioning organs will manifest mental and emotional, as well as physical, ills.)
But note: Realization does not prevent being reasonable and behaving in a sane manner, so the Realized address those issues. Awareness in regards to factual, not imagined, body requirements happens, and it happens without identifying with the body or attaching to the body or giving undue attention to the body. The space in which the consciousness is manifested is given common sense consideration as it functions in an AS IF style of living. (The deer living in a totally natural fashion never becomes so “at peace” or “so aware” that it stops eating and starves itself or that it starts eating substances that are not a part of its natural food plan and that harm its body.)
As for “spiritual knowledge,” the de-accumulation of religious or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) happens during the Realization process, not at the “end-point” of the Realization “journey.” If the third of the seven steps to Realization happens, such “knowledge” falls away at the instant that the persona of “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual One” falls away. Technically, then, every step on “the path” involves de-accumulating, discarding the various concepts previously considered valuable or sacred by the corrupted consciousness, and behaving in a sane-like fashion rather than in an insane-like fashion, relatively speaking. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
NOTE: There are Seven Steps to Realization, and for some they are transitioned in short order while for others the process can take years. (Maharaj reported that it was a three-year process in his case…probably about the same in “mine.”) The transitioning of those seven steps should not be confused with “The Five Stages.” The first two stages provide a picture of the typical lives of persons. The last three stages provide a picture of those who turn to the road less traveled and ultimately realize.
Stage One: Twenty years of being programming to accumulate
Stage Two: Typically, twenty years of trying to accumulate
Stage Three: For most (up to 95% ?), the efforts to accumulate continue for the entire lifetime as most persons will never realize, but for the few who are awake enough to be aware of the emptiness of years of focusing on accumulation, Self-Inquiry begins
Stage Four: The Seven-Step Realization process mentioned above happens
Stage Five: De-accumulation follows
Seekers move through the fourth stage and towards the fifth stage when they truly grasp the simplicity of natural functioning. The relative is maddening to persons; as the Absolute, madness cannot happen since there is no “mind.” Similarly, “something” can always be maddening to persons; the Nothingness can have no effect at all…“good” or “bad.” The Nothingness is the essence of AS IF living after Stage Five de-accumulation.
If the fifth stage is reached, then de-accumulation happens in all ways. As with persons who are controlling and arrogant and delusional and deceptive, de-accumulation happens in all ways or not at all. None of those traits exhibited by persons can be compartmentalized. One cannot be controlling at work and not be controlling at home, in stores and in traffic; one cannot be arrogant with employees but not arrogant in other interactions; one cannot be reasonable and logical at some times and delusional at other times; however, dual-minded persons are unstable in all ways, so they can appear to be compromising, humble, reasonable and perceptive at those times when they are on stage in the Drama of the Lie and when deceiving themselves and others with their assumed images.
Four sure signs of Realization include the following: (1) stability happens and the mood swings associated with the emotional intoxication generated by personas ends; (2) the addiction to going and doing and zooming stops, so the love affair with chaos ends; (3) de-accumulating begins to happen in all ways; and (4) authenticity preempts phoniness. De-accumulation is not compartmentalized and applied selectively; instead, "less" becomes the new standard in every aspect of the relative existence, and it happens automatically and spontaneously. “Getting rid of” rather than “getting” starts to happen automatically, and it begins by getting rid of all of the ideas and concepts and beliefs and false identities that are at the core of self-deception, image-building, and image-maintenance.
That leads to your question of being rid of “all knowledge.” As you may have observed, the single largest body of “learned ignorance” takes the form of religious and spiritual knowledge. Relatedly, it has been asked, “What of chemical imbalances and fluctuating moods due to physical conditions? Shouldn’t even the Realized be knowledgeable of what is required in those areas?” Those aspects of the relative existence have been recognized and addressed on the site before. It has been noted that physical imbalances—beyond the mental and emotional, but linked to them—can certainly impact the relative existence.
For example, the food supply has been bastardized, affecting body performance and mood fluctuations. Humans face variables that did not exist 35,000 years ago when Realization alone generated peace. Most persons do not have even the slightest clue that three different body types exist and that each type can only thrive on the one-of-three food plans that is designed specifically for their type. (So much for “government-recommended diets that everyone should follow.”) Being aware of one’s body type and following the specific food plan for that type could be an example of “knowledge” that could have relative existence application, of course.
(When a “spiritual guide” demands that all protégés follow the one, specific food plan prescribed by the guide, two out of three who take that advice will be committing slow suicide by following such uninformed advice: the sympathetic and parasympathetic aspects of the nervous system will crash; the base/alkalinity balance will end; and those effects along with other under-functioning organs will manifest mental and emotional, as well as physical, ills.)
But note: Realization does not prevent being reasonable and behaving in a sane manner, so the Realized address those issues. Awareness in regards to factual, not imagined, body requirements happens, and it happens without identifying with the body or attaching to the body or giving undue attention to the body. The space in which the consciousness is manifested is given common sense consideration as it functions in an AS IF style of living. (The deer living in a totally natural fashion never becomes so “at peace” or “so aware” that it stops eating and starves itself or that it starts eating substances that are not a part of its natural food plan and that harm its body.)
As for “spiritual knowledge,” the de-accumulation of religious or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) happens during the Realization process, not at the “end-point” of the Realization “journey.” If the third of the seven steps to Realization happens, such “knowledge” falls away at the instant that the persona of “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual One” falls away. Technically, then, every step on “the path” involves de-accumulating, discarding the various concepts previously considered valuable or sacred by the corrupted consciousness, and behaving in a sane-like fashion rather than in an insane-like fashion, relatively speaking. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
