PEACE EVERY DAY…OR NOT, Part Two

From a site visitor: “…Just been introduced to the ideas of Vedanta:How does one overcome day to day frustrations and feelings of anger etc that may arise during a normal working day? While alone, reading, or with friends (bascially pleasant situations) i find it obviously easier to be in a peaceful state, but when i am at work the general frustration and complaining that is part of my job takes over and everything i may read or meditate on just goes out of the window. I guess im saying, how does one start to make spritiual practice and the journey of Self-realization a part of ones working day? I simply find my feelings of frustation in a chaotic workplace overwhelming! Thanks for your time, Jaime

F.: Ultimately, true peace can only happen when all wanting goes; when all desire to gain goes; when the effects of programming and conditioning and enculturation go; and when even the “you” that sent the inquiry goes. For now, that will sound a bit “far out,” so another consideration will be offered:

Is it possible that nothing in that chaotic workplace is overwhelming “jaime” or making “jaime” frustrated and angry? Is it possible that a “chaotic workplace” is not the source of what jaime is feeling but that happenings in the workplace are merely triggering old wounds or old beliefs or old frustrations which are already present and “lying in wait” just below the surface?

Is it possible that those inner factors are leaving you co-dependent, empowering other people and places and things to control you and how you feel? Is it possible that some assumed roles with hidden agendas and desires and fears are feeling threatened or are thinking that they are being interfered with, or are feeling hurt?

A call yesterday that adumbrated the content of jaime’s e-mail provides evidence of the validity of those considerations offered above: a man was “frustrated,” then “angry,” then “livid” with his employer and a co-worker (and he told them so). They had overruled one of his decisions, first “minimizing his arguments” and then “discounting him” and ultimately “rejecting him completely.” Of course he called the wrong telephone number if he was expecting confirmation that his feelings were a result of two externals…the boss and a peer.

Because he had shared openly some facts about his childhood during satsanga, it was already known that as a child he had been adopted because the woman, supposedly, could not have children. Subsequently, she became pregnant twice and the status of the adopted son would soon be likened to that of “a male Cinderella.” Not long after having their "own" children, the parents’ began to give all of their attention and affection to their "real children." The adopted son would be ignored, his accomplishments minimized. He felt discounted throughout the remaining years in that home. He felt rejected and less than and not enough and not good enough.

Is it now clear why, thirty-five years later, he became frustrated and angry and livid yesterday when the painful scenario that had played out in his childhood was repeated in the workplace? After a short talk, he realized that his fear was that his job could be in jeopardy. He desires a bigger role in the operation in order to attain the raise he wants and the job security he desires. He wants respect. He wants to be noticed. Fears, wants, and desires. All prerequisites for misery.

He saw that “nothing in that chaotic workplace frustrated him or made him angry” but that when two people spoke to him as if they were "The Parent" and as if he were "The Child," then decades-old "memories" surfaced immediately. Their rejection yesterday triggered “old wounds and old frustrations which were already present and ‘lying in wait’ just below the surface.” The boss and the peer did not make him angry. Their words merely triggered a mental-emotional process that allowed already-present anger to surface.

His “inner factors" have left him "co-dependent, empowering other people and places and things to control him and how he feels." His "assumed role" of “The Director,” with its “hidden agendas and desires and fears, felt threatened and interfered with and hurt.” Are you seeing how, to emphasis a pointer from yesterday, one can be "taken hostage by personality, by externals, and by relative existence influences?"

Persons are made miserable when ego combines with co-dependency in a sort of “mental marriage”—a condition that is experienced by billions of persons every day. Co-dependency can even manifest with total strangers whom persons empower to determine how they feel and what they do, as often happens in traffic, for example:

“Who does that person think he/she is, to drag butt in the fast lane and slow me down?! What I need to do next is being interfered with by this numbskull! Damn, people are so inconsiderate and crazy that they drive me crazy!”

In such instances, people you don’t even know will be allowed to control how you feel and how you react, just as people at work are "empowered" in the same fashion as well.

And the fact is that the enculturation process has programmed people to also judge and blame and criticize themselves for the way that they think and feel and behave, ignoring the fact that programming, conditioning and enculturation remove all ability to "choose." Yet the fact is, jaime, that you might well be farther along the path to being restored to peace and sane living than the masses who are in denial around their misery and who are normalizing their fluctuations between dualistic periods of contentment and periods of anger and frustration.

You can either try to rearrange the workplace or rearrange (more accurately “un-do”) the “mind” which becomes the great liability of all persons. The “mind” is an illusion, the product of all of the lies and ideas and concepts with which you have been programmed; however, an illusion can be significant, relatively speaking. If a driver on a road that is hugging the side of a mountain swerves to avoid a mirage in the road and plunges into the valley 1000 feet below, the mirage was certainly an illusion, but its effects are obvious when a person acts as if the false is real.

So happenings in the workplace are not the cause of your anger and frustration. There are some ideas you have about the way jaime’s life should be unfolding (but isn't); some beliefs about what jaime deserves (but isn't getting); some perceptions about the way that things should be happening in “the world” (though they're certainly not happening that way); and some concepts about the “right way” that things in the workplace should be happening (but are not...and likely never will).

It is a combination of those ideas and beliefs and concepts and expectations and old wounds that are driving your emotional reactions and causing you to experience emotional intoxication at times. You are invited to begin to seek, fearlessly and honestly, the real sources that are actually at the core of the fluctuations that you want to be free of. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
SEEKING “PEACE OF MIND”?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY?

Click LIBERATION

READY TO TAKE THE SEVEN-STEP “JOURNEY” TO REALITY?

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

PEACE EVERY DAY…OR NOT, Part One

From a site visitor: “…Just been introduced to the ideas of Vedanta: How does one overcome day to day frustrations and feelings of anger etc that may arise during a normal working day? While alone, reading, or with friends (bascially pleasant situations) i find it obviously easier to be in a peaceful state, but when i am at work the general frustration and complaining that is part of my job takes over and everything i may read or meditate on just goes out of the window. I guess im saying, how does one start to make spritiual practice and the journey of Self-realization a part of ones working day? I simply find my feelings of frustation in a chaotic workplace overwhelming! Thanks for your time, Jaime

F.: Hello Jaime. Your question is typical of the inquiries raised by “beginners” and is valid. For now, you want benefits, and that too is understandable at the beginner stage. Yet most people want solutions without digging deeply enough to expose and completely understand the actual source of their problems. The fact that you’ve been introduced to the Advaita philosophy might accelerate your finding the peace you seek since your words have revealed the source of your frustration and anger: duality.

For the following to make any sense at all, you must (ideally) sit in the presence of a Realized Teacher or you must complete some additional readings and take the pointers into contemplation.

The newest version of the book CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS explains how peace every day can happen after SELF-Realization, but you are not ready for that book since the prerequisite is a completion of all seven steps on the “path” to Reality as outlined in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE.

That process not having been completed, consider this: is it possible that the real source of your frustration and anger has nothing to do with where you are throughout the day and has nothing to do with what is happening around you? Is it possible that the source of your anger and frustration is rooted within, in jaime’s beliefs? Is it also possible that every role that jaime has played in life has brought with it a plethora of desires and expectations as well as a plethora of fears? Is it possible that fears can produce overwhelming chaos and that unmet expectations and desires can produce anger and frustration?

Persons (that is, those who have not fully realized all that they are not and who have not Realized That Which They Are) will try to experience a compartmentalized (and therefore dualistic) existence, such as the one you describe: OK alone vs. not OK at work; pleasant situations vs. unpleasant situations; spiritual vs. not spiritual; stable feelings vs. unstable feelings, ad infinitum.

Stability (and therefore peace) will not happen when a person is identified with, and attached to, anything that is “relative.” Only an existence marked by abidance as the Absolute can be stable and peaceful, as opposed to “chaotic” and “overwhelming.” Such abidance can only happen post-Full Realization. Either take all of the steps required for abidance as the Absolute to happen or know that your anger and frustration and chaos will continue with only the brief respites that you mentioned.

How brief will those respites be? If employed full time, over half of the hours in a week will be spent at work or in sleep (if sleep comes). If sleep is peaceful, it is a preview of what the waking hours could look like if Realized: you can be unaware of self; contentment can happen while not being attached to the happenings of “the world”; and peace can happen as you are unaffected by the surrounding chaos that continues on the planet while you remain "at rest." If abidance as the stable Absolute does not happen, then you will be driven to participate in the instability of the “relative run.”

THE “RELATIVE RUN” PROVIDES ONLY A TEMPORARY RESPITE, AT BEST
The non-Realized are always on the run: they run from the partner that they blame for their unhappiness; they run from a job that they blame for their unhappiness; they run to people and places and things that they think will make them happy. It could be that your job really is chaotic and overwhelming, relatively speaking.

It could also be that the influences of your personality type (possibly an Enneagram Type Four) make your current employment situation totally intolerable. Type Fours often feel fine in the solitude but miserable if in a crowd or a chaotic workplace. Running to another job might provide a temporary respite, but do you see how limited an existence becomes when external forces and/or personality determine what jaime can do and what jaime cannot do?

Are you beginning to see that jaime can either take the steps to be fully free or will be hostage to personality, to externals, and to relative influences? Are you seeing that one who is not free can never be at peace with any consistency? Do you also see that anyone who is not free is also co-dependent, always allowing people, places and things to determine how one feels and to determine whether one is “happy” at times but “frustrated,” “angry,” “chaotic,” and “overwhelmed” at other times?

There is much for jaime to understand if peace and stability are to replace all of those current traits of a relative existence. If being "spiritual" and "meditative" were the final solutions, that would have happened by now. In fact, "being spiritual" is only the third of seven steps to Full Realization. For now, that should be plenty to ponder. The discussion will continue tomorrow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
SEEKING “PEACE OF MIND”?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY?

Click LIBERATION

READY TO TAKE THE SEVEN-STEP “JOURNEY” TO REALITY?

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

ADVAITA IN CONTRAST TO DECONSTRUCTION, DERRIDA, AND KABBALAH

From a site visitor: I’m in a 12-step group and have been given some readings on the deconstruction of the ego. I’m now dedicated to pursuing that process of deconstruction and have been reading Derrida and looking at Kabbalah and also visiting your site for awhile. It seems that is really what your site is all about. It seems you’re trying to convince people to deconstruct the ego. Right?

F.: No. “Deconstruction” would not be accurate. If your actions should eliminate ego, that is, free you of your belief in all of the false “I’s,” so be it. If the use of ego-defense mechanisms should end (a use triggered by believing that your assumed ego-states are real), then so be it. But the consciousness which speaks here never tries to convince anyone of anything.

The consciousness which speaks here would “un-tell” everything you've been told and would then tell nothing "new." The consciousness which shares pointers from the Advaita philosophy via this site would actually bring to an end all philosophy and all study and all ideas and all concepts.

For the concepts of Derrida and Kabbalah and other deconstructionists to be accurate, the requirement would be for something to have been constructed in the first place. Understand that there is never an effort among Realized Advaitins to attempt to deconstruct anything or to construct anew anything. Why?

There is nothing to “deconstruct” since what appears to have been constructed has not really been constructed at all. For example, no mirage has ever been constructed so no mirage can ever be deconstructed. The invitation here is to simply see that a mirage is a mirage and then be done with it.

Rather than trying to convince anyone of anything, the words that emanate via the site can hasten the end of the belief in the “one” who is speaking, in the "one" who is believing in ego, or in the "one" who is behaving in an egotistical fashion during the relative existence.

Most who have come for satsanga after having tried to read anything by Derrida admit they failed. (A few claimed to have read Right of Inspection, but the suspicion is they bought the book for the pictures rather than for the explanation.)

Yes, Derrida and some Kabbalahists do touch on a significant aspect of the Advaita teaching, namely, the abandonment of binary (dualistic) thinking, binary (dualistic) vocabulary, and actions that are driven by such dualities as well; however, that is not their primary focus.

Also, Derrida did teach that the self is not Real; that “meaning” is only a concept; and that enculturation generates separation and inequality. He also spoke of the “nothingness” or the “Emptiness.” Yet both Derrida and Kabbalahists speak in dualities. Derrida spoke of “good,” of “birth,” and of “reincarnation.”

Many strict Kabbalahists, adhering to a set of teachings with religious (Jewish) roots, speak of “God,” of “God’s creation,” and of “empowerment,” all concepts that inspire persons to accumulate even more concepts rather than pointing toward a position of neutrality and the rationality of zero concepts. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
WORKING ON BEING FREE OF RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING AND DOGMA?

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF AN EVER-ACTIVE "MIND"?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF THE INFLUENCES OF PERSONAS AND PERSONALITY?

Click LIBERATION

TERESA: The Poster Child for the Brutality of Programming, Part Three, The Conclusion

F.: Via the insight into the machinations of the “mind” of Mother Teresa (insight provided by her written words), it can be seen that the programming of humans can result in brutal outcomes, relatively speaking. The natural inclinations of a formerly “happy” and “cheerful” girl—including the natural inclinations to date, marry and have children—were short-circuited by the programming of a mother and a priest.

Those childhood traits of being “happy” and “cheerful” were replaced by adulthood traits of “dryness,” “darkness” “loneliness,” “torture,” “terrible pain,” “emptiness,” and “hypocrisy.” Even “hypocrisy” from this “saint-to-be”? Yes. And consider how the guilt of such hypocrisy came about:

Had she not been programmed to believe that when it comes to spreading religious dogma, any action can be justified by the end desired, could a woman living out her existence in a natural style in Yugoslavia have even remotely been able to justify receiving over a million dollars in stolen funds and then keeping those funds even after a district attorney in the U.S. requested that she return the money to its rightful owners? Had her religious programming not driven her to behave as a felon, would she have been tormented by “hypocrisy”?

Would she have been driven into such levels of misery if her religious programming had not led her to reject the truth she saw privately in order to maintain a phony public persona and to continue to live a lie after she saw clearly that the dogma with which she had been programmed was a lie? Though her programming that was inspiring the maintenance of a false public image led her to reject the occasional realization of the lie that she was living and to continue to spread the lies that she was spreading, her letters provide details of her realization of the lies during those brief moments of awakening:

TERESA: Such deep longing for God—and…repulsed—empty—no faith—no love—no zeal.(Saving) souls holds no attraction—Heaven means nothing.

TERESA: If there be no God, there can be no soul; if there is no Soul, then Jesus, You also are not true.

TERESA: I feel just that terrible pain of loss...of God not being God, of God not really existing.”

The “helper’s high” that she experienced, which was just another form of emotional intoxication that manifests after personas are assumed, can never sustain itself…any more than any other false role can sustain itself among those who are in touch with reality to any degree at all.

The disintegration of the consciousness called “Teresa” had been completed early on, and the power of programming was so strong that—even after she saw the nonsense of her beliefs—she would never find the willingness to reject them publicly and thereby escaping her needless misery and suffering.

She was so close to Full Realization, but in allowing the hidden agendas of her personas to drive her, she spent sixty-six years of vacillation and doubt and suffering as a result of presenting a bogus front to the world. So deep was the suffering generated by her phoniness that she actually put these thoughts to paper and spread them across the globe.

Might she have been subconsciously hoping that someone would expose her phoniness and thereby give what she did not have the courage to take (namely, freedom from playing phony roles and living a lie)? How many today are in that same circumstance? How many today are tolerating an intolerable existence, wishing that someone else would take some action to end their suffering and misery, rather than taking the seven steps to Realization and ending that suffering now? How many need professional help but are seeking "spiritual" solutions instead?

Teresa had it, briefly. Many who suffer today because of their own phoniness have also had a glimpse into reality that showed their beliefs and their lives are based totally in a lie; yet their programming and enculturation are also blocking them from rejecting the lie. Teresa saw for a moment that “God” is not true, that “soul” is a concept, and that everything she had been told was a pack of lies.

She saw for a moment that all of her beliefs were nothing more than figments of the imagination of controlling men who lived thousands of years ago. She saw on occasion that “god” is not true; that “jesus” is not true; that “teresa” was not true. She could just as easily have known that “floyd” is not true and “you” are not true.

Teresa, like all who have been programmed, conditioned and enculturated, became the dualistic epitome of self-contradiction:

TERESA: My prayer of union is not there any longer—I no longer pray.

Moving from that false belief in “union,” she understood the unicity but hide that awareness for the sake of maintaining a public image and forwarding a religious agenda.

So much for the peace that comes to the faithful…to the believers…to those who refuse to question. So much for those who have been fooled but who refuse to admit it. (Remember: even those prospectors who only found fool's gold still yelled "Eureka!") So much for the false notion that freedom can happen in the absence of courage. So much for a passive-aggressive approach that tries to manipulate others to force your hand when you are playing a phony—and therefore self-despised—role. So much for any notion that happiness can happen if truth is being repressed or ignored. So much for believing that “this world” or “an afterlife” is real.

That speck of consciousness was so close, but--being warped--it never accepted Full Realization. Now, that formerly-manifested speck called "Teresa" is the Awareness that is not aware of its awareness, so that one shot at experiencing the bliss rather than the suffering was missed. She was so close to recovering the happiness that had been stolen by programming, but instead of accepting honesty, she continued to live her lie and the hypocrisy that generates. So it is, but so it need not be with “you.” The invitation is to take the steps in order to Realize and to be free and to thereby be happy as well. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)

Click LIBERATION

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

TERESA: The Poster Child for the Brutality of Programming, Part Two

[Note: Leaving town this morning to offer satsanga. “Part Three, the Conclusion” will be posted on Tuesday.]

F.: The recently-published letters of Mother Teresa reveal the level of torment and suffering she experienced most of her life after being programmed and conditioned with dogma as a child and after being maneuvered into giving up her pursuit of the life that she really wanted. “The Nun Headed to Sainthood” persona would combine with the subsequent egotism, thereby driving her to turn her back on truth and light each time either tried to rise into consciousness. The result was not merely the “darkness” she wrote about; the result was that she would eventually proclaim her “love of the darkness.”

Her programming and religious ego-states inspired her to try to justify the use of any means to reach her religion's goals, including receipt of over a million dollars in stolen funds from convicted felon Charles Keating, funds which she used to spread her Christian beliefs. When she wrote to the judge in Keating’s case to beg for leniency, L. A. Deputy D.A. Paul Turley responded. His letter informed her that she was guilty of having received stolen funds and that she should return the money to its rightful owners: the bond-holders from whom the money had been stolen.

She did not answer his letter and she kept the money, but she wrote to a friend and confessed “hypocrisy.” Yet Mother Teresa was not the exception in that regard. The rationalization that “God’s interests always supersede man’s laws” is a common belief among those programmed in “the faith”:

The early Mormons taught that “Lying for the Lord”—as well as cheating and stealing and killing for the Lord—is totally justified if it protects or spreads their religion. Today, many Muslims believe that those who do not adhere to the dictates of their dogma are “infidels” and should be killed. A born-again Christian president said that he heard the voice of “The Father” telling him to bomb and invade another nation. In the case of Teresa, however, she at least recognized her phoniness, unlike the billions on the planet who do not see their own:

TERESA: “My smile is 'a mask' or a 'cloak' that covers everything.”

Unlike most persons who never see that their role-playing is a lie, Teresa did (and living the lie took its toll):

TERESA: "Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.”

The facts revealed in letters and other accounts show that, as early as 1948, Teresa likely had an awakening, but the truth was so frightening (after years of believing the lies of her priest and after assuming her false roles to be real) that she had to reject truth and cling, at least publicly, to the lies with which she had been programmed.

Christopher Hitchens said, “She was no more exempt from the realization that religion is a human fabrication than any other person, and that her attempted cure was more and more professions of faith could only have deepened the pit that she had dug for herself.”

Of course she did not dig that pit. It was dug by her priest and her mother and her other programmers who then tossed her into that pit for life. Persons across the globe domesticate their dogs; parents and priests and teachers and politicians across the globe domesticate children by the same means. The only unique elements in the case of Teresa’s programming are her letters which reveal the life-long effects that manifest when the warped consciousness is left untreated. Among most non-Realized persons, the resulting misery and suffering never register.

In this case though, a set of letters exposes the tortured psyche that results when persons are exposed to childhood programming and conditioning and enculturation and are thereafter driven throughout their entire relative existence by nonsensical beliefs and ideas and concepts. Is it any wonder that she would eventually write:

TERESA: “...There is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started ‘the work’.”

Yesterday, it was asked, “My gosh, Teresa. What did they do to you? You were so plump and pink and happy and cheerful.”

Today, the answer is clear: They did to her what they did to “you” (and to all): they used lies and nonsense to program and condition and domesticate and enculturate you, and her, during childhood. They will try to continue their programming and conditioning of you throughout adulthood. They will do all they can to fool you, convinced that they are telling you the truth.

The difference is, while Teresa rejected the light and "loved the darkness," you can accept the light and come to love the Light. You can be free of the “mind.” You can be liberated. You need not wallow in the depths of what Teresa called “dryness, darkness, loneliness and torture.”

Teresa's spoken words were lies all her life, the same way that the words spoken by all persons are lies; however, even though that speck of consciousness called "Teresa" is no longer manifested, the consciousness that spoke via her written words shows time and again that the answer is not "God." [Teresa:"Heaven means nothing."] Instead, the content of her letters is living proof that the proper treatment for the darkness is enlightenment. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued Tuesday)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)

Click LIBERATION

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

TERESA: The Poster Child for the Brutality of Programming, Part One

F.: For the next few days, a story will be shared that reveals the details of the relative existence of a girl named Teresa. Why speak on this site of Teresa? Because what happened to her is what happens to billions every day (and has happened to trillions before her). Her case is like that of most persons: happiness and contentment happen for a period of time after the consciousness manifests; then, the warping of the consciousness happens, generating untold levels of misery and suffering.

While “your story” has not been completed and might yet have a “happy ending,” the story of Teresa is used since her story has been completed and reveals the entire “happiness to misery cycle” that happens when the consciousness is warped by programming, conditioning, and enculturation. And no means of programming has generated more misery and suffering on planet earth than the type to which Teresa was exposed: namely, using religious dogma to program the youth. The result is that the programming converts joy to misery and happiness to suffering, and that is what allows her to serve as the “The Poster Child for the Brutality of Programming.”

Teresa was born “Agnes Gonxha” but was called Gonxha most often because the name meant “flower bud.” Her mother said that name was appropriate for her since the little girl was always "plump and pink and cheerful." Her parents were known for never turning away anyone who needed help, and in Gonxha’s words, the family was “a very happy family.”

Gonxha’s father died when she was eight, but her mother worked very hard to make sure the children were happy, and Gonxha would report years later that her mother succeeded. Despite the death of her father, she said that her childhood was “exceptionally happy.” The name "Teresa" would be adopted years later.

Teresa’s childhood was not unlike that of any young girl: she was shy around males but giggled with her girlfriends as they admired the most handsome boys in town. She had hopes and dreams. She imagined being married and having a family someday. She would work as hard as her parents did to have a happy marriage, to have a happy family, and to help others who came her way.

She fantasized about her husband-to-be-someday. She grew older and began to show signs of a maturing young girl. Her body began to change shape, and she soon experienced the dichotomy of those glad-sad feelings that surrounded her first menstrual cycle; she began to feel more like a woman than a little girl. Feelings became more pronounced. The first stirrings of sexual longings began. Knowing that she was capable of producing offspring, she dreamed more of settling down with a husband some day and starting her own family. Teresa dreamed of unbridled happiness and bliss. She was the epitome of natural living.

Then came an intervention that had an effect that was not unlike the results of using a mind-altering drug that can so damage the psyche that it could never be normal and could never function naturally again. A huge shift happened to Teresa when, under the influence of her mother and the guidance of a priest, Agnes Gonxha was made to be interested in missionary work.

It would have an especial appeal since the dogma offered by the priest promised Teresa (a young girl who had no father) that she could acquire a replacement father in heaven as well as his son who loved her with all his heart. In later years, she would speak of her relationship with that son in terms that are typically used to describe a worldly love-affair between a young woman and a young man.

Her natural childhood feelings were removed and replaced with supernatural beliefs instead: she would be so programmed with those supernatural beliefs that she would behave most unnaturally, claiming to no longer want a husband or sex or children or a family of her own.

Teresa’s dreams of happiness and bliss were replaced with the concepts of her dogma, including the teaching that "the relative existence is a brief period of suffering, misery, service to others, abandonment of one’s natural inclinations, and giving up all plans for marriage, for raising a family, and for enjoying sexual relations." She was taught that such sacrifice would ensure that Teresa was "good," and if she was good (she was promised) then her relatively brief period of suffering in this life would end and would be followed by eternal bliss.

Soon, Teresa had been so programmed that she accepted as a father-substitute an invisible male in another world, and the “this-world” lover that she was programmed to "marry" was a man who had been dead for 2000 years. The deterioration of the psyche of a sweet, plump, pink, and happy girl (whose natural drives had inspired her to want a husband and a family and pleasure) was being short-circuited as a “mind-job” was done on a child. The consciousness was being so warped that Teresa’s natural tendencies were being supplanted by supernatural tendencies. The result would be a most unnatural existence.

She soon bought into the teachings that said "happiness and bliss are to be sacrificed and replaced by misery and suffering." She was assured that "to fight all of her desires to live naturally, to give up sex, to give up her desire to love a living man, to abandon her hopes and dreams, to forfeit her own happiness, to be willing to suffer for decades, and to live unnaturally" would be a “good” thing. In fact, to do otherwise—that is, to live naturally—would actually be a “bad” thing in her case...so the programming went.

Once she accepted those lies as truth, their programming and bastardization of the consciousness was complete. Her psyche had been made completely unnatural. So deteriorated was her psyche that Teresa believed that she heard a voice from another world, and it was the voice of the dead man that she had "married" and had come to love. And that voice affirmed the details of her training, assuring her that she really was to give up all natural feelings and hopes and desires, was to love him only and no other man, was to move from her homeland, and was to live among those suffering in the slums of Calcutta and suffer alongside them.

The warp was in, and anyone with any degree of compassion would hear her words as an adult and ask, “My gosh, Teresa. What did they do to you? You were so plump and pink and happy and cheerful. Listen to yourself now”:

Teresa: “I feel dryness, darkness, loneliness and torture.”

Teresa: "I feel the terrible pain of loss."

Teresa: "There is such terrible darkness within me."

Teresa: "The emptiness is so great."

Eventually she would say:

Teresa: "Love—the word—it brings nothing."

Teresa: "I have come to love the darkness."

“My gosh, Teresa. What did they do to you? You were so plump and pink and happy and cheerful.” And why, after seeing the effects of the warping of that speck of consciousness that would eventually be called “Mother Teresa,” would the persons of the planet continue to subject billions to that same brutal form of programming?

Why would they take something so happy and make it so miserable? Why would they take something so natural and replace it with magical, supernatural concepts that result in most unnatural thoughts and unnatural feelings and unnatural behavior? Indeed, it is true: they know not what they do. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

SAMADHI: Thought-Word-Deed/Deed-Word-Thought

F.: This exchange occurred during satsang this week:

Questioner: “I’m being nagged by my roommate over leaving clutter about, but all of those kinds of ‘this world issues’ seem so unimportant to me. My focus is on trying to enter into samadhi and still the mind, so I asked my roommate ‘WHO cares?’ You know, WHO is it—what persona—is caring about having everything perfectly straight? I find it difficult enough to reach the samadhi state without being nagged, and it’s darn near impossible if I’m being hazzled to ‘clean up that mess before you go sit down and meditate’.”
F.: [Pause…waiting] “Do you have a question?”
Q.: “Well…yeah. What would you say to a roommate like that?”
F.: “It would be said, “Thank you for pointing out a behavior that is blocking the way to samadhi and to Realization.”
Q.: [Puzzled look]
F.: “It may well be that there is no WHO and no persona that is 'nagging.' It might well be that there is a speck of re-purified consciousness that is offering relevant pointers, and the pointers are these: the Realized do not tolerate clutter, and the Realized ‘zen out’ their environment to the same degree that they ‘zen out’—that is, become rid of—all clutter...including environmental clutter, home clutter, desk clutter, mind clutter, relationship clutter, emotional clutter, ad infinitum. Your acceptance of clutter indicates how far removed you are from the state which you seek and reveals the way that your habits are blocking you. Were you to Realize, you would not have to be nagged to remove clutter. It would happen automatically and spontaneously after “Stage Five De-Accumulation” is reached.”
Q.: “Stage Five? The witnessing level?”
F.: “No, that is step five of seven on the path to Realization. Some of the early Advaitin teachers also spoke of ‘Five Stages,’ the final one being the de-accumulation stage. The pointer for you is this: you're trapped in a warped thought-word-deed paradigm. Once there, if you are into 'taking action' and being involved in doership, then you must reverse out of the trap via deed-word-thought.”
Q.: [Waved hands in a manner that indicated first confusion and then dismissal]
F.: [Silence]
Q.: [Finally] “OK, please explain.”
F.: “In order for the deed—namely, the act of cluttering—to manifest, you must first have cluttered thoughts that manifest as cluttered words. It is a guarantee that you have cluttered thoughts, and it is guaranteed that your words are cluttered as well. After reaching that condition, nothing other than the deed of cluttering will happen. That assures that you will be trapped in clutter and going in and out of various states-of-“mind” or fluctuating moods. Among the Realized, there is no ‘going into samadhi’ and ‘coming out of samadhi.’ All credibility that was formerly given to the ‘mind’ and its bogus content has been discounted and then cast aside. The re-purified consciousness is stable and fixed, not shifting and fluctuating. Since the programming and conditioning and enculturation that warped the consciousness have now trapped you in the realm of clutter, 'action-takers' like you must back out of the trap by reversing the paradigm. You must take the action to de-clutter, to de-accumulate, and to bring about an orderly environment. Then, you must speak of removing the chaos, as your roommate is doing. Only then might your thoughts begin to be less chaotic and less cluttered. Deed-word-thought can facilitate the shift until the no-thought state materializes permanently. Were you Fully Realized, all of that would happen spontaneously, but since you are not, you may use this reverse plan for now. So look at your home. Is clutter lying about? Is every inch of every wall covered with something? Are your rooms bursting at the seams because they are overfilled with excess furniture and “stuff”? Are you ‘saving’ stuff that might be used in the future? Do you have things in your closet that have not been touched in years? Are you like a neighbor who had two cars worth $100,000 but left them sitting in his driveway because his garage was filled with boxes that have not been unpacked during his last three moves, boxes that contained items which would not fetch $500 in a yard sale if all of the contents were sold? All of that clutter is a reflection of thoughts. Thoughts precede deeds. Chaos in one's words or one's life is always preceded by a chaotic 'mind.' It is known for a fact, therefore, that you cannot possibly reach the samadhi state with the degree of mind-clutter that is being revealed by your actions that tolerate clutter and that drive accumulation. Realization involves the de-accumulation of all clutter. The calm and peace come when less is more attractive than more...when the nothingness is preferred to the something or to the everything.” Please enter the silence of contemplation.
RELATED READINGS TO TODAY’S POST:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click LIBERATION

OUT OF TOWN FOR SATSANGA TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY

F.: Postings will continue on Friday. You are invited to visit the archives or these other Advaita-related sites:

Click ADVAITA QUOTES

Click ADVAITA VEDANTA, NON-DUALITY BOOKS

Click ”floyd’s” WEBSITE

YES, WE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. New rates by the USPS went into effect on 14 May 2007. You may visit http://ircalc.usps.gov/ to calculate rates and view options. (Select your country, then in the “weight” box, estimate 1 pound per each book ordered.) Add $5 to cover package preparation, the assistant's trip to and from the PO, and the time for completion of international shipping forms.

HOW SAMSKARAS GENERATE INSANE THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND DEEDS

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [This visitor has written frequently regarding his entrapment at the body identification level and his fear of cancer.] Not long ago you talked about the impact statements can have on people. Recurring statements or even just a one time statement. As you know, I've had an extreme worry of cancer. Irrational. I very well remember my grandmother being a bit of a hypochondriac and, in particular, always talking about getting cancer. My wife told me that my mother told her that when I was very young that my grandmother would talk to me often and I would listen intently about cancer. I had totally forgotten that as I was very young. The thing about statements is that in an instant they can impact your forever but you can't stop them in an instant.

F.: Yes. While vasanas (residual impressions) can provide a glimpse of the Original Understanding that lingers within, some teachers have long advised students to recognize and be free of the relative effects of samskaras—those mental impressions that are rooted in lies and that drive thoughts, words, and deeds. It is your memory of the fear-inducing content of those early conversations, along with your desire for body continuity and your fear of a lack of continuity, that have been the source of much of your mental suffering and emotional intoxication.

Samakaras (sans = together + kara = action) drive deeds when those false memories (or memories of the excessive talk from your grandmother) come together in a space/body that had the ability to take actions or perform deeds. Driven by a “mind” that was warped by such excessive fear-mongering, you (the consciousness) were warped by someone who was so absorbed in self that she assumed that her truth would be everyone's truth.

It would be like telling a relative, “You're going to get colon cancer and diabetes—guaranteed—just wait and see. No exceptions. I got 'em so you’re going to get 'em.” It is one thing to make offspring aware of any familial history with specific hereditary health issues; it is another to speak of it so often that children become traumatized. Yet such is the power of conditioning. Why not try telling the consciousness that it is the consciousness that is in fear, and not You? Why not return to step one and begin again the process of discarding body identification?

Another example of the long-lasting effects of statements from a grandmother (statements which programmed and conditioned a child) was provided by a woman who was advised by an associate to come for satsang. She arrived and soon shared her first lie: that she was “looking for change and peace.”

She had spent her first seventeen years on a south Louisiana rice farm. Her parents had followed the orders of their priest and pope and had bred as instructed: without restraint. As a result, the woman had eleven siblings living in a home with her, her mother, her father, and her grandmother, bringing to fifteen the total number of people living in a three-bedroom home.

She explained that the front porch and the back porch were eventually enclosed and that her eleven brothers and sisters slept in bunk beds either in one bedroom or in the two makeshift, porch rooms. With such crowded conditions, she felt "fortunate" that she was “her grandmother’s favorite” and was thus allowed to share a bed and a bedroom with that woman for fifteen years.

When the woman first came for satsang, she was 45 years old and miserable behind what she called “more than twenty-five years of horrible relationships with men.” More than anything, she wanted to know “what was wrong with men nowadays…why they were not raised to behave properly.”

As she shared the history of her relationships, it became obvious she had adopted the persona of her grandmother who had, in turn, assumed the identity of "An 80-Year-Old Occidental Prude." Men were quite confused over the years by her “runway model looks” but her octogenarian thinking and conduct. When asked to describe the events that precipitated the end of her most recent failed relationship, she explained:

Okay, well with that one, he greeted me properly at the door and gave me a flower. All seemed like it was going to go well. Then, as we approached the car, he unlocked the doors with his remote, got in on his side of the car, and opened my door from inside. I turned and started back to my condo. When he got out of the car and asked if I had forgotten something, I told him that he had forgotten something, namely, that a gentlemen walks a lady to her side of the car and opens her door from the outside before getting into the car.

She went on to describe other relationships that had ended as quickly when she slapped some men for making moves that did not reinforce her “Above all, I am a lady” self-image. Further investigation of what she called “wonderful lessons learned during the years that grandmother shared her room and her wisdom” uncovered the primary messages that contributed to a child’s programming and an adult’s misery:

“Always make sure that men treat you like a lady.” “You must demand that men treat you properly—they will not do it by choice.” “If a man asks you to do anything that is not lady-like, slap him and walk away.” When asked to appraise objectively how her grandmother’s advice was working for her in her relative existence, she defended the woman’s “wisdom” to the end.

After the consideration was offered that the problems in her relative relations were not being caused as much by men as they were being caused by her having adopted the phony self-image of "Super Lady" and by the grandmother that she had internalized, she left the way she arrived: angry. It seemed likely that the only reason she paused for a few seconds on her way to the door was to decide if she should come back long enough to slap the offending mouth.

Have you paused long enough to look at self and to determine if there are some basic but inane beliefs that are driving you through your relative existence? The powerful influence of a few nonsensical comments or pieces of advice or insane words stored as memories can remove from persons any ability at all to make choices.

Instead, their thoughts, words and deeds are being controlled by inane statements that have become components of a “mind”—that repository of nonsense and lies and dogma and concepts that often renders persons helpless and hopeless and miserable.

Advaita invites you to cast aside all of the ideas and emotions and attitudes that were pumped into you as a child. Question it all. See that it was all just so much nonsense. Then, the invitation is to discard it all and follow the seven-step “path” to freedom. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

“I AM GOD” (Continued): Just Another Concept to Discard Along the Path to Zero Concepts

F.: When Advaita or Neo-Advaita discussions reveal just how far the “I am God” belief removes persons from the Reality of zero concepts, the e-mail box begins to fill rapidly; however, a shift has been noticeable over the last two years. More and more seekers are transitioning beyond the third of seven steps in order to be able to live naturally rather than unnaturally or supernaturally.

More seekers seem to be grasping the fact that, since neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed, no “creator” can exist either. More seekers also are understanding how easily persons who have been programmed will attach to the concept of continuity of body-mind-personality. More seekers are seeing how the non-Realized will gladly accept the notion of “infinity after this life” but cannot imagine “infinity prior” (other than using that time/timeless measurement when discussing their concept of a god). Such is the way it is when persons have been programmed to believe in timelines and when few understand exactly what cycles and exactly what does not cycle.

As recently as the 12 August posting, it was asked, “Is there not already an excess of persons walking about the planet who are suffering from the God Complex Personality Disorder? Is there really a need for any more teachings that increase their fold?”

Pointers have been offered by Direct Path Teachers for centuries that the truly Realized follow the expression “I Am” with nothing. Pointers have been offered here since June of 2005 that the truly Realized follow the expression “I Am” with nothing.

Yet the “I Am God” concept is as alive and well as it has been for centuries. Why, if persons claim to be following these teachings which suggest staying with the “I Am” only, would they repeatedly follow “I Am” with “God” or anything else? The answer is clear if the question is given carefully consideration. Usually, they are attempting to travel an unfamiliar "path" without a guide that can lead them past the quagmire of Step Three. It is at that step, for most who are trying to complete their "journey" without a guide, that most will become bogged down in the quicksand of egotism. That is the pit which awaits those who have cast aside their former "bad identities" and have assumed a new "good" identity (such as "The Pious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" or "God").

And the curious part is that persons who are claiming to be (1) whoever they think they are while claiming as well that they are also (2) “the All-Knowing and the All-Powerful God” will also claim to have been "made humble" by their religion or spirituality. That claim is being made by countless numbers of the non-Realized and accepted as truth, once they have wrapped themselves in a cloak of religiosity or spirituality.

And when grandiosity is packaged as religiosity or spirituality, it will seldom be seen for what it is. How common it is on this planet for billions to have reached the religious level; how popular it has become among many persons to claim they have moved beyond religion and are now “spiritual”; but how rare it is for any to transition beyond either of those ego-states and then complete the entire “journey” to Full Realization.

Those fixated in either the religious or spiritual stage have mistaken the dawn for the noon. They have become bogged down by egotism and self-deception at a point that falls short of even the halfway point along the “path” to re-purification of the bastardized consciousness and to being in touch with reality.

“But what of Brahman, My Creator, the Creative Intelligence, God, G-d, Elohim, Jehovah, Lord, the Holy Ghost, Zeus, the Spirit of the Universe, the Universal Mind, Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Allah, my Higher Power, Yahweh, Master, the Supreme Being, the Almighty, the Prime Cause, or the Power That is greater than myself?”

The response: “And what of “acquaintance” and “friend” and “lover” and “spouse” and “not spouse” and “enemy” and “employee” and “human” and “Christian” and “Muslim” and “Jew” and “Hindu” and “good” and “bad” and any of the thousands of other labels that are employed among the non-Realized? It matters not what you follow the ‘I am’ with. To follow “I am” with any word is to deceive one’s self with a conceptual lie.”

Instead of basking in the glory of being God, the invitation is to add that false identity to the list of all that you are not. Then, complete the entire list and use it to realize all that you are not. The Direct Path Teacher Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj suggested that you first “see that you are not what you believe yourself to be.” Only then will you have even the slightest chance of finding That Which You Truly Are.

As long as a person continues to stand on a stage and perform roles, assume false identities, add labels after “I am,” and claim to be able to verbalize the truth that can be known but cannot be stated, then that person will never know the truth, nor the self, nor the Self, nor That which is beyond both the beingness and the non-beingness. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

THE READING RELATED TO TODAY'S TOPIC THAT OUTLINES THE SEVEN STEPS

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

THE ROAD (“PATH”) NOT TAKEN

F.: The Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” ends thusly:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Fortunate but few are those who find the less traveled (or actually seldom traveled) road or “path” that leads directly to the understanding. Two e-mails were received yesterday that provide an invitation for all seekers to study the varied “paths” of Advaita Vedanta and to consider objectively which teaching method might lead to Full Realization:

LETTER #1. Dearest Floyd, OK,OK,OK. Difficult to respond to the post today. "I" understand you see it as witness but there were more than a few lines which made me cringe. Difficult to face the posts of the last few days...but not too difficult to see the point. Have not thought about Kant since University but have gone over notes from the past and have a renewed understanding. "My" years with Babaji allowed a sentimentalism to flourish that I now see as another dis-eased concept. Must have known it on some "level" as the layers of esoteric writings and thousands of pages of commentaries began to just frigging irritate me. It was not understood as watered down and westernized till I was exposed to a path more direct by "stumbling" on "your" site. [A particular organization] promoted the teachings of Ramakrishna who allowed a "mystical" flow of consciousness between union with the form and formless. Happy was I with constant vacillation, but no more. Am being confronted with the many contradictions allowed in "my life." Here is to health for your "bag of bones" in order for the Consciousness to speak....or not. (The "or not" part is a little tough yet). Ginny

THE RESPONSE: It would seem that you are seeing why all of your years of effort along a "most traveled path" led nowhere. And yes, if the end result is only irritation, that "path" is not for you. Of course that "mystical flow" sounds quite appealing to many seekers, but that concept is cast aside when it is seen that to believe that anything can flow from one thing to another requires first a belief in a pair of dualities: something is flowing between "a" and "b," and "a" and "b" are then in union.

Frost said that the road/”path” taken (or the road/”path” not taken) will make all the difference. [Of course the "difference" can only “apply” to the relative. For more on that topic, visit www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/relevance_henderson.htm.] In some cases, the Consciousness speaks. In fewer cases, the Consciousness is heard. It seems You have heard. Finally, relatively speaking, thank you for the nod to this temporary bag of bones. Ha.

LETTER #2. Dear Floyd, If you would be so kind as to help me out with a question about Advaita Vedanta: [From another Advaita Vedanta website] "According to advaita [non-duality], what is called the universe is in reality not other than brahman. Similarly, what is called the jIva [individual soul with ego] is in reality, the Atman [Self], which is also nothing other than brahman Itself. The real jIva is the Atman, which is unchanging, ever free, and identical with brahman. ... This doctrine of advaita should not be misinterpreted to mean that the human self is in and of itself God, without any qualification whatsoever." Contrary to the last sentence of the quote, it seems to me that Advaita Vedanta logically implies that a human person, like me (Bob), would be identical with God.
Argument:

(1) Bob (Jiva) = Atman (Self)
(2) Atman (Self) = Brahman (God)
Therefore Bob (Jiva) = Brahman (God)
The only wiggle-room would be if there were a type of reality besides Brahman, but the doctrine of maya and non-duality of the Advaita Vedanta preclude this. So how can the webmaster of advaita-vedanta.org maintain that: "This doctrine of advaita should not be misinterpreted to mean that the human self is in and of itself God, without any qualification whatsoever"??? Any help is appreciated, Bob

THE RESPONSE: Offered for your consideration, Bob: Not only does Advaita not imply that a human person like you (Bob) would be identical with God, direct path Advaita asserts forthrightly that you are not a human, that you are not a person, and that you are neither bob nor god. "I AM" is a starting place on the road; "I am God" (or "I am...anything else") is a stopping place on the road. "I am God" will stop you at the third of seven steps to Reality and the rest of the road will not be taken.

Further, That Which You Truly Are is beyond beingness and non-beingness, beyond selfness and non-selfness, and beyond even Selfness and non-Selfness. Find That Which Is beyond all of those, and the Full Understanding will manifest.

There is no such thing as "this being one with that" or "this being the same as that," so your syllogistic model reveals no truth. There is the not-two, the unicity, only. In the Direct Path Advaita Teachings, there is no 1 + 1 = 2 and there is no 1 + 1 = 1. There is only...1. The first two propositions dealing with "1 + 1" are false, dualistic perceptions. As mentioned above to ginny, nothing flowing between and no union.

As for the True Self, that is merely the Pure Witnessing that can understand itSelf as well as That Which Is beyond pure witnessing, beyond the Pure Witness, and beyond the self and the Self. That should hold you for a few days...or months...or years.

If the truth of the words above manifests, it will happen instantly, though not necessarily this instant. As it is now, you are seeking more via Vedanta and less via Advaita. Advaita is "the road less traveled," but....

Non-duality is explicated via the "Vedanta" elements (and many, many other works), but its essence lies not in the explications and not in the focusing on the content of the "Vedanta" elements but in the understanding of the "Advaita"...the not-two.

In other words, you might read 1000 recipe books or you might read “The One Greatest Recipe Book in the World,” but if you do not find and follow the exact steps required to make the cake you seek, you will never taste the sweetness.

In the case of this speck of consciousness, exposure to all of the Advaita teaching methods happened, but only one ultimately provided the sweetness. The masthead on this site now identifies the “method” and “approach” and “school” that led to the sweetness; therefore, all answers via this site to inquiries or comments are offered only within the parameters of those aspects of the teachings that led to the re-purification of the Consciousness which speaks herein.

That said, and ignoring the fifth method of “Pseudo-Advaita” completely, there is no suggestion that seekers should not investigate any of the other three methods or should not take any “road” they choose (or at least think they are choosing). Please enter the silence of contemplation.
RELATED TO THE EXACT STEPS MENTIONED IN TODAY’S POST:

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

SIXTY YEARS OF MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

FROM A SITE VISITOR: My friend Ricardo told me to write to you. I just want peace. I just want to be happy. Help. William (Guillermo)

F.: Hello Guillermo. Since you are obviously just beginning the search for peace and happiness, understand that some come to the Advaita philosophy with high expectations. They are searching for immediate joy and bliss when that bar might be set too high for beginners. Realize that, ultimately, peace and happiness during the relative existence cannot happen unless it is first understood that all happenings are “Much ado about nothing.” Meaning? Meaning that if you observe all events with a clear perspective, you'll see how the trivial is elevated to the status of "significant" by persons. Then, seeing how trivial it all really is, you might be able to assume a position of neutrality around all happenings. Then, you might at least attain a sense of contentment before pursuing joy and bliss.

If it is understood that the entire manifestation of consciousness is much ado about nothing, then those obstacles which interrupt peace cannot materialize, obstacles such as belief in dualistic concepts, attachment, caring, judging, involvement, emotional intoxication, desiring, fearing, needing, etc.

What does much ado about nothing look like? It looks as if important happenings are occurring, happenings that require a dualistic stance, either for or against. But those happenings are really just the various parts of a fable; however, the elements of a fictional story can only be reviewed objectively if one functions as a non-attached witness. Then, by reviewing the elements of the fiction from a “distance,” one can see clearly how it all amounted to nothing. Here are the elements in one tale with a 60-year span. It will show how much ado can be made about nothing when persons think the events in their relative existence amount to something important. This particular fictional tale included such elements as:

A young girl abandoned after her mother died in childbirth; that girl later kidnapped by a relative; a young man watching his brother being cut in half by a train; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; Germany and Japan are declared “the enemy”; war declared; separation as a result of a war; two bombs dropped; returning home; prosperity; pregnancy; birth; another pregnancy; another birth; parents were pleased; parents were angry; teachers were pleased; teachers were angry; children were whipped with paddles; palms were beaten with rulers; national crime rates went down; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.

Germany and Japan are then declared “our friends” and communists are declared “the enemy”; bomb shelters were built; drills in schools, crawling under desks, and putting books over heads; making friends at school; fighting with friends at school; Cuba was declared “an enemy”; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.

a lack of prosperity; crime went up; a tonsillectomy; an appendectomy; a toe severed by a lawn mover; a rare snow; intense heat; punishment for not being “good”; exposure to religious Occidentals and their nonsensical beliefs; fear when the promise of eternal fire and damnation were introduced; accepting “salvation” to please, but knowing it was hogwash; dating; championships won; graduation; college; another graduation; employment; bosses were pleased; bosses were displeased; Vietnam was declared “an enemy”; another war; being drafted; another war ended; graduate school; a Master’s Degree and another graduation; low-paying employment; a meeting; “love”; a marriage; Vietnam was then declared “a friend” and “trading partner”; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.

too many lovers; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; high-paying employment; a Bush declares an Ortega “a friend”; plaques and certificates of achievement and paid vacations awarded at annual banquets; pregnancy; birth; a healthy child; a sick child; swings in the economy; low income; high income; a Rumsfeld meets a Saddam and declares him “our friend”; an apartment in Tuscany; months at a time in Europe; dream jobs that became nightmares; fortunes lost; fortunes earned again; huge homes purchased and filled with “stuff”; friendships with neighbors; fights with neighbors; pets bought; pets buried; repairmen scheduled; pipes OK; pipes burst; more contractors dealt with; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.

vast accumulations; wealth; hurricanes came, trees fell, property “destroyed”; property rebuilt; property taxes increased; evaluations protested; fortunes lost; dream relationships became nightmares; hearing the word “cancer”; a spouse who got into her car and drove away the day before the scheduled surgery for cancer, never to return; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.

arranging a funeral for a parent who preferred burial; Republican rule; nations to the south were declared “the enemy”; glasnost; Communists are then declared “a friend” and “a trading partner”; a parent’s stroke; more invasions and war; a declaration that “We must fight them in Central America or we’ll fight them here”; secret U.S. death squads; meeting a U.S. sniper using drugs to try to suppress the guilt of assassinating 46 innocent civilians in Central America (including a teacher and a priest) who were declared “the enemy” by the U.S. for anti-U.S. speeches; illegal arms deals; Democratic rule; huge surplus in national treasury; Republican rule; a Bush declares an Ortega is now “an enemy”; two poorly-designed towers fall; a Rumsfeld and others who had declared a Saddam to be "a friend" said he is “an enemy”; another war; national treasury surplus gone, replaced by huge national debt; a declaration that “We must fight them in the Middle East or we’ll fight them here”; nations to the south again declared “the enemy”; now, the health care providers no longer say “cancer,” but last week one said for the first time, “diabetes”; but ultimately, it’s all much ado about nothing.

To review those happenings from the perspective of the objective witness, Guillermo, is to see the insanity of all of the duality that robbed the players in that "Drama of the Lie" of peace and happiness: good and bad, satisfied and dissatisfied, pleased and displeased, reward and punishment, war and peace, enemy and friend, friend and enemy, rich and poor, sick and well, marriage and divorce, good times and bad times, chaos and stability, knowing who "the enemy" was then not knowing who "the enemy" was. Everything thought to be bad would eventually be thought to be good and everything thought to be good would eventually be thought to be bad. In fact, it was all dualistic fiction, all dualistic nonsense, all ego-based silliness, all ego-driven BS.

Then, searching began; seeking; doing; going; zooming; next, finding; understanding; awareness; and relaxing; and ultimately, it was Realized that it was, indeed, all much ado about nothing…all nothing more than a lot of sound and fury. Only when the addiction to the sound and the fury ends can the joy and bliss of the silence begin.

Those who believe in timelines would say those events covered “six decades in the life of one man.” The re-purified consciousness sees nothing more than the elements of a fable…a series of happenings all based in idiocy. Again, the words of the Advaitin William Shakespeare apply: “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Signifying…nothing. The invitation is to look at all of the elements in that fictional fable and see that they cover only 60 years of happenings on one planet that is spinning away in a universe that has a 14-billion year history. The invitation is too look at all those happenings and to note how “very important” they were all considered to be when they were happening. The invitation is also to see that the happenings amounted only to so much sound and fury…with no importance or truth or reality involved at all.

To understand that whatever persons take to be “something” or “something really important” is actually just much ado about nothing allows the nothingness to be understood. When the nothingness is understood, then That Which Truly Is Everything can be understood. When the functioning of the totality is understood, all things false are abandoned and peace just happens.

Relatedly, the Advaitin poet also wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts,” and “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage.” And then? "Out, out, brief candle."

Enjoy the play, Guillermo, but know that the play is a play. Then and only then will you not be deluded and made miserable by the dualities of the relative existence. Then and only then can the peace you long for manifest and remain for the duration of the manifestation of the consciousness. For now, this likely sounds senseless to you. Borrow the books Ricardo bought from the site and begin the readings in the order he can show you. Best regards on the "journey." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/READINGS ABOUT THIS POST:

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

THE USE OF THE FIRST PERSON, SINGULAR, NOMINATIVE CASE (SUBJECTIVE) PRONOUN BY REALIZED ADVAITINS, Part Two, The Conclusion

FROM SITE VISITOR GINNY: Still another question, Floyd. I have trouble getting past; "I am" ...."human". The deer does not say "I am deer", But I say, or am left with, I am human and harbor feelings and emotions despite my best efforts living in this condition. How do you get around that concept?

FROM SITE VISITOR RONALD: Advaita is new to me. Can you clarify the I AM that I see discussed on a lot of the sites?

F.: The only “I” that is real and that can talk is the pure consciousness (or the re-purified consciousness). If the word “I” is written or spoken to suggest that anything other than the consciousness is speaking, then Realization has not happened and one is trapped within the first three levels of a seven-step "journey" to Realization.

If persons speak about “my life,” or if they believe in something like “the history of ginny,” then they have failed to see that they are discussing “a fable agreed upon” by one or more persons identifying with "their humanity" rather than with the cycling consciousness. With perceptions being so far removed from Reality, who would presume to believe that “I and others can agree that my fable is true”?

Next, for you to be “a ginny/human,” some sort of body and mind and personality continuity would have had to exist for whatever number of years your culture has assigned to you, but no such continuity has happened.

The same body/elements that were thought yesterday to be “ginny” are no longer in combination today. There has been no body continuity whatsoever as would have been required for the "human" label to be true, as discussed in a May ’06 posting:

The human body is constantly replacing and regenerating cells to maintain proper and efficient function. (If you spend ten minutes reading this post and considering the content, during that time you will have shed 250,000 skin cells and those will have been replaced by 250,000 different cells. Not one cell of the billions of skin cells that came about during the last twenty-eight days is now present.) There has never been one body with continuity, and there will never be a body with continuity (whether talking about pre-manifestation, manifestation or post-manifestation).

So much for body continuity. Secondly, there has been no “mind” continuity, that storehouse of ideas and beliefs having been in constant flux. How many things that you "loved" in the past mean nothing to you now? You "changed your mind"? No. The "mind" is constantly changing since it is a storehouse of lies and beliefs and attitudes, and new ideas and concepts are being added regularly. Thus, that speck of consciousness which calls itself "a seeker" might be aware of reality today but can be totally out of touch with reality tomorrow because abidance as the unchanging Absolute is not happening.

Thirdly, there has certainly been no continuity of personality. Some identities you assumed ten years ago, you do not assume today, and those roles you are assuming and playing today, you will not assume and play in "the future." Further, any labels that you accepted years ago (including "human") but have not subsequently questioned and rejected will be a part of that mass of lies that blocks the light of truth. The deer, by contrast, doesn't have to question and reject the label "deer" because the deer is not communicating with, and being influenced by, persons who are totally out of touch with reality.

So, with no continuity of body or mind or personality, how could you be "human" if all that is used by the non-Realized to define "what a human is" has never "existed" for more than a micro-second at a time and has only "existed" in the faulty perception of persons anyway? Only that which is real is unchanging. Only THAT is continuous. The "I-Amness" or "Is-ness" or "beingness" is not continuous, and the "I" (as used among the non-Realized) never was and never has been.

Thus, the suggestion for both visitors who wrote, along with any others using the first person, singular, nominative case (subject) pronoun “I”, is this: never, ever use that word unless the intent is that (without a shadow of a doubt) the “I” refers to the conscious-energy. If you “slip” and use "I" to suggest than anything other than the consciousness is speaking, become aware of that slip immediately and shift away from the bogus use of “I.”

The "I" can never accurately refer to anything dealing with the phenomenal. In the case of a "slip," allow the Self to remind itSelf that “I” deals only with the Noumenon. That is one way to begin shifting away from identification with body-mind-personality and to begin rejecting all labels and all identification with anything other than the manifested consciousness or the Absolute. Any use that does not conform to that standard results in a statement that is a lie, as illustrated via these examples:

TRUE: I, the consciousness, have temporarily manifested in a space with a nervous system.
FALSE: I was born and I am a human.

TRUE: I have witnessed the formation of this universe and all universes.
FALSE: I hope I don’t lose my job.

TRUE: I AM THAT which is and always has been.
FALSE: I got married and became a wife/husband last weekend.

TRUE: As a form of energy, I cannot be destroyed.
FALSE: I have been saved by the grace of the god of Abraham whose words were transmitted by the prophet Moses (or the prophet Christ or the prophet Mohammed or by…whomever) and I shall resurrect and live in paradise with that god forever.

CAN BE TRUE: This speck of consciousness is presently witnessing “husbanding” or “wifing” as it happens.
CANNOT BE TRUE: I am married, so my spouse and I shall resurrect some day and will be reunited in heaven and shall spend eternity together (which some others might actually call "hell").

TRUE: I Am a speck of energy which has as an attribute the ability to be conscious of while manifested temporarily, and the type of energy that I Am is cycling via a temporary, ever-changing elemental space as a result of the consumption of plant food (or the consumption of plant food eaters).
FALSE: I am a person, a human.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/READINGS ABOUT THIS POST:

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

THE USE OF THE FIRST PERSON, SINGULAR, NOMINATIVE CASE (SUBJECTIVE) PRONOUN BY REALIZED ADVAITINS, Part One

FROM SITE VISITOR GINNY: Still another question, Floyd. I have trouble getting past; "I am" ...."human". The deer does not say "I am deer", But I say, or am left with, I am human and harbor feelings and emotions despite my best efforts living in this condition. How do you get around that concept?

FROM SITE VISITOR RONALD: Advaita is new to me. Can you clarify the I AM that I see discussed on a lot of the sites?

F.: Both questions dealing with the "I Am" will be addresssed, starting with Ronald's. The first person, singular, nominative case (subject) pronoun is “I.” Literally, in Latin, that is synonymous with “ego,” and “ego” is synonymous with “mask” or “false ‘I’ or “false self.” Figuratively or idiomatically, ego in some translations can point to “a consciousness of one's own identity,” but that refers to one's assigned or assumed identity/identities.

More frequently in some other translations, ego "I," is a word used to describe a person's conscious self—the false self that persons think they are aware of—as opposed to the Realized that are conscious of the True Self, the beingness, the non-beingness, and that which is even beyond the non-beingness.

As far as Advaita teaching are concerned, the goal is to be free of the “I,” yet the “I AM” is, ironically, the starting place. In all cultures, persons are programmed to follow the “I Am” with hundreds of words during a "lifetime": “I am a boy/girl”; “I am a good boy/good girl”; “I am a student”; “I am a graduate”; “I am an employee”; “I am a spouse,” "I am a seeker"; "I am a spiritual person," etc.

Any word that follows “I Am” will lead you further away from finding the answer to “Who/What Am I, Really?” Thus, a tool that can be used along the “path” to Realization is “I Am,” period. For some, it is a mantra. Follow that phrase with no word or thought. To be free of false identities, a shift away from old beliefs about who you are must happen. The phrase “I Am” is the tool that can begin that process for novices. Never follow "I Am" with any word. Fixate there only, and then the "journey" can continue.

Now, to “ginny.” First, you are wise to look at the “standard,” the deer, to test the degree to which natural living is happening in the relative existence. The deer never fails as a model for applying the principles of Nisarga Yoga:

the deer lives naturally, does not accumulate, has no identity, engages in no destructive or self-destructive behaviors, avoids conflict whenever possible, follows a minimalist lifestyle, avoids excess in all ways, might have a mate and offspring or might not, adheres strictly to the principle of non-attachment, stays aware and conscious of his surroundings rather than walking about as if asleep, etc.

As for “getting around that concept,” there is no getting around any concept. That suggests that the concept remains and that there is a “you” that is going to "move around it" and continue the seven-step “journey” to Reality. Such is not the case.

Only the abandonment of all concepts can provide freedom, including freedom from belief in the lie that "I am a human." “Human” deals with steps one and two—that is, with body and "mind" identification. You have been (and seemingly remain) more attracted to Neo-Vedanta than to Advaita or to Advaita Vedanta. You have followed that watered down, westernized "path" for years.

You have followed a "path" that encourages the accumulation of concepts rather than the abandonment of concepts, so of course you still cling to "I am a human." You have followed a "path" that has not led to Full Realization after years and years of listening to the words of the proponents of that "path."

You have done the "doingness" they recommend, but look at the facts: after all of that, they have not guided you beyond even the first two steps of a seven-step "journey" to Reality. If their teaching method happened to be working for you, the recommendation would be to continue with that method, but their course has not even moved you away from body (or "human") identification.

As for the question about "floyd's" path, the effort to try to "get around" any concepts ended when the total abandonment of concepts happened. The consciousness spoke and said to focus on the I AM until even that I AM goes. Then that nothingness set the stage for AS IF Living wherein even the consciousness is transcended and abidance as the Absolute happens.

As noted, the deer does not think it is a deer. That's a name made up and applied to it with no input from the deer at all nor any recognition by the deer of the applied label. So it was with "ginny": who told you that you are a human? You had no input at all. Why do you continue to recognize that applied label? Why do you give any credibility to people who have told you that you are "this" or "that" or anything else that they used to classifed you?

To the contrary, what do you know within? Why do you keep searching without and letting people tell you what they think they know when what you seek is already available within? Because their teachings for five years have reinforced your body-mind identification with their concepts. That is what they do. "Human." "Deer." "Guru." "Doing good." "Divine." "Special seasons." "Grace." "Holy scriptures." "Universal Mother." "Father Sky and Mother Earth." Etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. All BS made up by people who "love" separation and "love" cataloguing and who haven't a clue about freedom from concepts or about abandonment of labeling or about guiding proteges to less and not to more or about the Oneness which is all that is Real.

Next, consider the words of Napoleon; “What is history but a fable agreed upon?” Then, apply that to what you would call “your life.” Is that not but a fable that "you" and "your society" and "your friends" and "your family" have all agreed upon?

They will say that “you were born”; that “you have lived ‘x’ number of years”; that "you did this"; that “you did that”; that "such and such was done to you." Of course, that is all claptrap...nothing more than an extended fable. There was no "you" (no do-er) to do anything. There is no "you" to do anything. Why accept such a limiting label as "human" when You Are That Which is without limit? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/READINGS ABOUT THIS POST:

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

LOVE,” “FEAR” AND EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION, Part Three, The Conclusion

You mentioned love-hate in today’s post, but in satsanga you told us that the only two emotions that persons experience are love or fear. Que pasa? Ricardo

The list of 20 things that love is not continues from the previous postings:

10. Is it possible that love is NOT the “repetition compulsion” that drives persons to recreate past relationship models with a hidden agenda of bringing about what you believe would be a more positive outcome? Suppose you’re a young woman now whose father during your youth could not express love. Are you seeking men with a fatherly-image who seem willing to love you unconditionally? Are you taking that to be “love” when you're really addressing a subconscious "need"? Is "love" needy? Are you from a broken home and are now driven subconsciously to try to form a family and to “get it right” this time? Are you assuming it is “love” that is driving that desire?

11. Is it possible that love is NOT real if it drives self-destructive behavior or if it drives you to try to please at any cost…even the cost of never finding out who YOU truly Are as you subjugate yourself (Your True Self) to another person?

12. Is it possible that love is NOT the purely physical response that automatically drives all species to propagate?

13. Is it possible that love is NOT that which is a product of the many subconscious and unconscious factors that drive persons to try to treat with "love" the plethora of mental and emotional issues that need addressing?

14. Is it possible that love is NOT that which drives you to expend so much of your energy in an effort to find something that will heal the wounds of your childhood trauma and/or your adulthood trauma?

15. Is it possible that love is NOT that which drives persons to unite in order to "feel whole"? Are you aware that those drives are rooted in not knowing the unicity, in imagining that the duality of “separation” is "real," and in believing that the duality of "aloneness" or "apartness" are “real?” If you get in touch with The Great Reality, you will realize that the word "aloneness" is a corruption of the original term, "all-oneness.”

16. Is it possible that love is NOT what it is taken to be by anyone involved in “self” (personas, false selves) nor by anyone who has not fully Realized, nor by anyone who has not come to know the unicity of all via True Self awareness?

17. Is it possible that love is NOT what it is taken to be by persons who are unaware of the selflessness and Selflessness beyond this manifestation?

18. Is it possible that love is NOT that which persons are driven to search for as a result of the desires, the perceived emotional needs, and the fears of their ego-states?

19. Is it possible that love is NOT that which drives persons to try to find a partner to provide now what they wanted in childhood but did not get?

20. Is it possible that "love" is NOT that which is supposed to meet regularly your physical desires and is NOT that which is supposed to provide for economic welfare?

In conclusion, these pointers regarding “love/Love,” most of which are offered on the Advaita Quote site, are repeated here for consideration:

“What persons call ‘love’ is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion—that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state—prepare for war.”

Yet the following can be said of “True Love” as understood via the Pure Witness/True Self: “Can you, from the position of 'As If Living' that follows Full Realization, feel and share Unconditional Love? Not only can You, but You shall. In fact, once again, no choice will be involved. It will just happen...spontaneously and unequivocally.”

If there is no "do-er," and if there is no identity that is real, then there is no "lover" either. If there is no lover, then find WHO thinks she/he is experiencing anything.

Ego is believing that there’s a vast multiplicity arranged in a hierarchy and that you’re the pinnacle; humility is knowing that you’re nothing, no-thing; Love is knowing that You, with a capital ‘Y,’ Are everything. (That said, understand that ego, humility, and love are merely concepts, thorns that can be used to remove thorns.)

As is the case with the Truth, which can be known but not stated, ultimately the same applies to Love.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.
ADDITIONAL READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
THE FULL DISCUSSION ON “LOVE” AND THE WAY THAT REALIZATION CAN IMPROVE ALL ASPECTS OF THE RELATIVE EXISTENCE IS DISCUSSED IN CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS. ARE YOU WORKING ON ISSUES ARISING IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE NON-REALIZED AND ON FINDING SOLUTIONS TO “RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS”?

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS