HINDU BY “BIRTH,” BUT INVESTIGATING ADVAITA, Part One

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hi Floyd, Firstly i must thank you for this wonderful blog on Advaita and also your thoughfulness to provide a platform for asking questions. Although I am a Hindu by birth, only recently i was introduced to Advaita(about 6 months ago).

My concept of Brahman(God) has so far been like, It is the Ultimate spaceless-timeless Void which has Consciousness. The Void itself being aware nothing exists. There is no spirit, but only Consciousness without any substratum. Now, Consciousness is what provides for the experience. Not the experience itself. SO Consciousness should make you aware that you exist. Same goes for Brhaman. COnsciousness makes It aware it exists.

Now, in every religion there is no parallel existence to God. God does not change also. Even if there is Consciousness, how could God become aware of It's existence, unless there is some percievable change within it? Hypothetically, if i became deaf,blind,numb to touch, insensitive to smell all at the same time and there is no bodily feeling inside me, and my memories got erased too that wud mean i'm in a coma right?

How could i be aware of my own existence, without even knowing any external or internal changes happening? I understand that this would be the case even if i believed God to be a Spirit. I mean, there is not much difference. the Void should know nothing exists. the spirit should know nothing else exists. But how does this knowledge comes in the first place? Hope this doesn't sound like a babble. P.S: English is no my mother-tongue. so excuse me for my grammatical errors. Vignesh

F.: Hello Vignesh: Please pardon the delay but an out-of-town Advaita seminar will be conducted Tuesday-Thursday. Responses to this e-mail and both follow-ups will begin on Friday.

To all visitors: While out-of-town, a summary of available resources is provided below. If not interested, there are nearly 800 postings that are archived. You’re invited to click on a month and year to the right and read other postings. Peace and Light.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKS IN THE ADVAITA COLLECTION:

The books are presented in the recommended ordering for reading. They may be ordered individually, or in one of three sets, or in their entirety. [The Entire Advaita Collection: all twelve books + the CD $187.00 + S&H]

THE MEDITATION GUIDES
These books can be read in either order since each stands alone. The entries each day provide an excerpt from a non-duality book, followed by one or more considerations for that day. Some read the books from beginning to finish while others use them on a daily basis. Either way, they offer hundreds of pointers that are intended to allow those in the early stages of seeking to begin consideration of pointers that deal with something other than the body and mind issues that dominate most persons. Reading all of the entries in either or both guides will allow the consciousness to begin processing subject matter that is beyond the phenomenal. That will prepare the consciousness to receive the Advaita pointers at the end of the volumes and that continue in a progressive order throughout the remaining books on the list. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
This book contains a series of “propositionalities” that would be worthless except to the extent that they prepare all seekers to become willing to question the sacred cows of your culture. Ultimately, this all deals more with the relative than the Absolute, but one cannot abide sanely as the Absolute without first seeing the insanity of the relative. If one can question his/her core beliefs that are generally held sacred by the masses, then discarding all of the other nonsense of the culture might become easier. That alone can begin the "journey" toward total freedom and total peace. Few will ever be able to discard the minor cows, much less these six sacred cows, but this book is an invitation to begin questioning what is usually taken for granted after years of programming and enculturation. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
This book is for the 6 billion+ persons who have been programmed with the dogma of the planets’ religions, especially the three outgrowths of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is also for those who are playing a spiritual role or who have become spiritually intoxicated (which prevents moving beyond all role-playing and Realizing Fully). It's intent is to allow persons on the "path" to transition beyond the religious and spiritual identities that are assumed at the third step of the "journey." The focus is on those three since their dogma has programmed—and corrupted the consciousness of—most persons on the planet, but the overall message reflects the truth about all religions and all “spiritual” programs or movements as well. The content reveals the 16 tenets common to those religions which evolved from the killing of virgins; exposes the contradictions of those teachings; discusses the glorification of suffering; catalogues and exposes the false promises that are made in order to attract and control the masses; explains the way that their leaders' addiction to power drives them to manipulate their followers; exposes the lies upon which those institutions are based; identifies the results of religious and spiritual intoxication; and uncovers the mental disorders that result from strict adherence to the dogma and ideology. If you have been exposed to any religious or spiritual indoctrination, or if you live in a culture where the leaders have been indoctrinated by religion, this one should be read. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The four volumes above + a CD are available as “The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H]

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)
This book leads to the next level of freedom, allowing seekers to transition beyond the mind. The content explores the history of the human brain, including the fact that for millions of years, human and human-like beings functioned without any mind. The book uncovers the ways that the brain evolved over the ages and developed an ability to store and retrieve memories. It then shows how the original memories were used constructively but how programming and conditioning changed all that and created a "mind" that most often overrules the brain and generates relative-existence harm and destruction. Similarly, the book shows the way that personality develops during childhood as a means for survival and adaptation but later becomes a liability when those childhood personality traits continue to drive adult thinking and behavior.

Ultimately, the content of the book shows why Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly identified the "problems of the planet" as being rooted in body-mind-personality identification and offers suggestions for being free of all of that nonsense via Realization. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

LIBERATION
This book helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
This book offers the opportunity to shift to the next level of understanding, the level at which you come to realize that you cannot die since you were not born. Fears generally begin to fall away after reading this work. The Foreword offers this: “If you find the answer to ‘What happens when I die—what happens after the body ends?’ the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.” Eventually, it will be understood that You cannot die since You were never born. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
This book is used by many as a primer and companion piece to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. “PART ONE” includes answers to frequently-asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teachings. “PART TWO” provides information for those who are “close” but haven’t yet “gotten it.” "PART TWO" moves the seeker to a depth of understanding that sets the stage for the final message in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The four volumes above are available as “The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H]

FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Most of the so-called “Spiritual Masters” addressed all of the steps that must be taken, in a very exact order, to shift from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute. All of the steps (or “stages” to use Maharaj’s term) have been discussed for centuries, but this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from “the lie of the I” to Full Realization. Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers. This one should be read last. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

Recommended: Use in conjunction with FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE the CD entitled SPIRIT JOURNEY TO YOUR TRUE SELF in order to have an experiential awareness of the seven steps as you read about each. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)

After following the “path” as outlined in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) in order to Realize, the next step is to understand the difference in consciousness and awareness in order to abide as the Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation and then be totally free. "The Final Frontier" of the Advaita Teachings is transitioned when the Nature of Reality is understood and when the Advaita Teachings are "applied" on a daily basis even in the absence of any “Applier.” The Nature of Reality cannot be understood until the differences in Consciousness and Awareness are understood. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness allows for abidance in the I AM, but what of THAT Which Is beyond, and that which is beyond the beyond? To be at perfect peace on a daily basis, abidance as the re-purified Consciousness must be transitioned and abidance as the Absolute Awareness must happen. Only abidance as the Absolute allows for the remainder of the manifestation of Consciousness to happen in Perfect Peace. This book will distinguish between Consciousness and Awareness, will define the exact Nature of Reality, will offer explanations that will allow fixation in the Full Realization to happen, will allow for an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality, and will assist all earnest seekers to find the way to fixate in a state of peace from NOW until the Consciousness Unmanifests. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

This book, the third in the “Advanced Seeker’s Package,” is only for Realized Advaitin seekers. The recommendation is that both FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS be read (in that order) and that the pointers in both of those books be understood before reading FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. An understanding of the pointers offered in this book can allow the advanced seeker to shift even beyond SELF-Realization, even beyond an understanding of Consciousness and Awareness, and to an understanding of that which preceded the Absolute. The content of this book can, in fact, allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the Reality of “no concept,” of “no duality,” of “no something,” and even of “no nothing.” The Advaita Teachings offer an invitation to be free of all concepts, all beliefs, and all ideas in order to be totally free. Yet how many reach that "state," and how many who reach that "state" are able to fixate in that understanding and truly be free and thereby at peace? This book will offer details of the way that can happen. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The three volumes above are available as “The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness / Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H]

SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Ten, The Conclusion

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: So, Art, it has been shown that there are times when some persons leave other persons out of egotism and that there are times when some persons with hidden agendas seek out or stay with other persons in order to use them to sustain ego-states and to meet relative desires and to avoid relative fears.

There are also instances when relative-only factors are involved with staying or going, such as when someone is being abused mentally, emotionally, and/or physically; such as when someone is being used and realizes that their enabling is causing someone to remain dependent instead of being free; or such as when the “relationship” should never have been entered into from the start.

As for the notion that the Realized should “tolerate” others, if that means “passively permitting or putting up with,” understand that all happens spontaneously with the Realized. Some among the Realized might appear to be passive; some might appear to be active. What happens…happens.

If “tolerate” means “to suffer something to be done by not hindering or prohibiting it,” understand that Realization does not result in being disengaged from relative happenings. And it certainly does not result in trying to control relative happenings.

Yet the Realized are not insulated from happenings with employment, from dealings that involve children or mates, or from events such as wars or fires or earthquakes or robberies or assaults. What does mark the relative existence, post-Realization, is a non-attachment to false identities and an absence of being driven blindly and irrationally by personality or agendas or desires or fears or emotional intoxication.

Maharaj was once asked a question about what he would do if he saw someone being beaten. Would he rush in to aid the victim of the beating or not? He explained that the cause of any action is the cause of all prior actions, so he did not predict. Whatever happened, if that circumstance were presented, would happen spontaneously. The cause of whatever action was or was not taken would be a result of the accumulation of all causes up to that very instant.

More relevant than those types of “what if” scenarios, however, is this question: does a shift in consciousness result in a shift away from the type of deeds or actions that were happening during the period of non-Realization? Of course, and it all happens automatically and spontaneously.

Now Art, a final pointer on your questions about “spending time with certain people” and “tolerance”: when belief in the illusion of “self” is eliminated, it will be understood that there is no "one" to tolerate (or not tolerate) anything. You’ll understand that the Realized do not have to “go” anywhere to be at peace, though many do seem to pass more time in natural or natural-like settings (meaning, calm and undisturbed by the type of doingness that drives persons).

Yet even in a crowd, even in a chaotic workplace, peace can happen if witnessing without attachment happens. Indeed, there is nothing to do to maintain the peace. Peace is about beingness, not doingness. Beingness and peace happen in the absence of a “do-er,” not in the presence of a supposed “do-er.”

Many who are attached to all of their so-called “spiritual exercises” have not understood this point. Post Full Realization, there is no "do-er" to do exercises and no “maintainer” to work daily to maintain anything. All just happens spontaneously.

Peace happens no matter the surroundings, though there is, post-Realization, a shift toward the peace and quiet and silence as self-lessness (and eventually even SELF-lessness) are understood.

At that point, there is no longer any assumption that there is any “one” to “move” or “stay” or “go.” Whatever happens happens spontaneously and naturally. “But what if I am being abused?” someone asked in an e-mail. The response: "Is it natural to be abused? No, so if abuse is happening in one place, the Realized would automatically move toward another place."

Might the movement toward the silence reduce the number of persons invited into your environs who could disrupt the silence? That often is the case, and you mentioned that there were persons you spent a lot of time with before but now spend no time with at all. That is not uncommon as the “journey” to Realization happens.

However, let it be emphasized that Realization does not mean that the Realized cannot be involved at all in “ordinary life” or in the “relative existence.” Quite to the contrary. A relative existence marked by pleasure and joy and beingness is engaged in far more fully than during any pre-Realization life that was marked by turmoil and chaos and noise and doingness and dissociation and disengagement.

Belief in the duality of “with” vs. “apart from” is nonexistent. Too, the solitude is not sought out. It just happens. There is no “one” that is moving toward or away from, unlike the persons in the case studies in this series who all feel certain that they can maneuver and manipulate events to their will and who all believe that they can make certain they get what they want. The fact is that the relative existence is devoid of certainty.

The only certainty is You. Via the tapping into the inner resource—the inner guru—that which is certain (namely the Absolute, the Awareness, the Void) can be understood.

Understand, though, that happiness cannot happen before independence happens. Who that is not free could truly be happy? Who that is driven by thoughts and words and deeds which they do not select (but that have been pre-selected because of programming and conditioning) could possibly be happy, even though their delusion is that they have power and the ability to choose?

When a shift in consciousness happens (that is, when the obstacles to seeing truth and reason are removed) then a spontaneous and automatic shift happens. Both sin and morality disappear; unfounded fears of punishment and empty dreams about rewards disappear; and an understanding of the functioning of the totality appears. Then peace happens, automatically and spontaneously. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

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

NEW ADVAITA PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT REDUCED RATES:

The Entire Advaita Collection (all twelve items in all three of the packages below): $187.00 + S&H

“The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H

“The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H

“The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness/Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H

To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm .

YES, WE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. New rates by the USPS went into effect in 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.

SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Nine

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: The discussion today continues by looking at the three case studies along with a mom enabling a son that is suffering from an addiction that has not been successfully treated. [See the post on 27 October 2007] All four, trapped in their dreams that blind them to reality, are enslaved as a result of having been lulled asleep by processes that produced a major warping of consciousness. They have not understood these Advaitin pointers previously offered:

1. That which gives you pleasure will eventually give you pain.
2. That which gives you the most pleasure will eventually give you the most pain.
3. All misery and suffering and entrapment flow from the assumption of ego-states that are driven by either fears or desires or both.
4. Persons have been programmed and conditioned just like Pavlovian dogs.
5. Programming and conditioning will leave them helpless, with no ability to choose anything.
6. That programming and conditioning will determine their every thought…which will determine their every word… which will drive their every action.
7. Being controlled by programming and conditioning can only result in unhappiness because it will drive persons to try to accumulate, will leave them in a state of constant longing for more, and will deprive them of any sense of feeling fulfilled. (In the U.S. alone, more than 10 million women are taking anti-depressants on any given day. Seventy-seven percent of the 300 million people in the nation report that they suffer so much stress that it is affecting them physically.)
8. Those persons who have been programmed and conditioned to want more have already laid the foundation of what will prove to be their own prison.

Of course, persons are merely following their programming to want more, and unless they transcend the accumulation stage and engage in Self-Inquiry, they will never reach the de-accumulation stage that is so freeing. All of the persons referenced in this series are imprisoned, and one force that has driven them into their prisons is a desire for more.

Yet these four are not rare exceptions on planet earth. Add to these the case study from the book CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS which discusses a woman whose father told her, “You don’t need to go to college. You’re good looking. Just find a man to take care of you.” Her mother added, “If you manipulate a man with love, you’ll get everything you ever want.”

The non-Realized persons who walk the face of the globe are equally asleep, equally miserable, and equally enthralled with having more. Most of those six billion+ will remain in that condition for the remainder of the manifestation. Robert Crais wrote of those types in one of his novels. A character exits a building at sunrise and observes:

“Moths swarmed around the parking lot lamps, banging into the glass with a steady tap, tap, tap, and I wondered if they welcomed the dawn. At dawn, they could stop slamming their heads into the thing that forever kept them from the light. People don’t have a dawn. We just keep slamming away until it kills us.”

The “Repetition Compulsion” will prevent most from ever breaking the cycles of insanity (or of insane-like deeds or actions which are generated by personality disorders that mark the existence of those identified with body-mind-personality). Consider:

With Case “A,” husband #1 “took care of her,” but they eventually divorced after years of beatings. Husband #2 “took care of her,” but they eventually divorced after years of beatings. Husband #3 is “taking care of her,” but she wishes for him to die after years of beatings.

Yet, her lifestyle is “comfortable,” she claims, because she “doesn’t have to work…is able to shop all day…is able to do whatever she wants.” And that is truly her belief, though he is slamming her head and though she has been kept from the light. Such is the case among billions who are walking about asleep, dreaming they are awake and that they know truth. They will never even begin to see how distorted their thinking is…how warped their perspectives are…how nonsensical their beliefs are…or how every idea they have is 180-degrees in reverse of reality.

Just as with all persons (who are typically in denial and dissociated) Case “A” denies that she is suffering and miserable and depressed. She goes to men who will pay her bills; she runs from men who beat her; she goes back to the same type man because he’s willing to pay her bills; she runs away from that man who beats her. All of this nonsense about hanging around certain people or running away from certain people is typical of the chaos that marks the existence of the non-Realized. Such behavior shows that persons believe all problems are external and that all solutions are external.

As referenced in Art’s question, there are specific people Case "A" wanted to be around but now doesn’t want to be around; instead of moving toward independence and meeting her own relative existence needs, however, she continues to run to the same type of rescuing, caveman-type males who have always believed that whatever they find and bring home is theirs to own and do with as they please: “You’re bought and paid for, fair and square, so you’re mine.”

As a result, she is like Cases “B” and “C,” dreaming that they are free but imprisoned by their dependent, take-care-of-me, give-me-a-better-lifestyle mentalities.

Yet even as they claim they are “doing fine and are happy and joyous,” all three are in therapy, all three are (perfunctorily) involved in 12-step programs, and, as mentioned, all three have recently talked of suicide.

The Advaita Teachings can introduce persons to the dawn—to the beginning of the awakening process—and can reveal that such deeds as “slamming their heads into something” and being “forever kept from the light” can end. A shift happens automatically if one sees the light and spontaneously becomes free of self-destructive, self-absorbed living, as far as the relative existence goes.

Now, what of you? If you look at anyone and think you know him/her well, you do not. If you look at anyone and see anything other than (1) a space formed by a combining of elements and (2) a form in which the consciousness is temporarily manifested, then in no way do you know Who/What That Is which you think you are seeing (speaking in absolute terms) and in no way do you know who or what they are at all (speaking in relative terms).

Krishna spoke of “fools.” All foolishness happens because “they” fooled us first, but now most have taken up the task and continue to fool themselves by refusing to question the ideas and concepts and dogma and beliefs which have been programmed into their "minds." If that applies, know that you are in a position to effect change. The change happens when seven specific steps are taken in a very specific order.

That process can “change” the consciousness from its warped condition to a re-purified condition. More accurately, all that really happens is that the obstacles that are blocking the consciousness from seeing clearly will be removed. Then, freedom from thoughts can happen; fewer words will happen; and a shift in deeds will necessarily follow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)
RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

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

NEW ADVAITA PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT REDUCED RATES:
The Entire Advaita Collection (all twelve items in all three of the packages below): $187.00 + S&H

“The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H

“The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H

“The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness/Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H
To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm .

YES, WE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. New rates by the USPS went into effect in 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.

SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Eight

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: The non-Realized are living a nightmare but dreaming that their dreams are “sweet dreams.” They are in prison but are dreaming that they are free. That is evidenced in the three case studies in this series.

All three want to accumulate. All could provide for themselves, but (a) wanting more than they could earn and (b) desiring a richer lifestyle than their talents could provide and (c) believing that they are “different from others” and therefore (d) deserving to have someone else pay all of their bills, they have accepted the imprisonment that comes along with the supposed “perks.”

These cases are not rare but are, as the psychotherapist from yesterday’s post pointed out, becoming very common. (They are actually as old as the oldest “human relationships.”) Another case in point:

A woman following this series wrote yesterday to ask what she can do to escape from a situation that is another example related to the content of these current postings. Both she and her son have sought peace for years, have sought relief from the Addictive Personality Disorder, and have tried the Advaita approach as well. Neither has moved far along the “path.”

Her unemployed son, who will be thirty in a few years, comes home drunk at night and rages against her. Other details provided allowed the following response:

“There is no need for any talk about Realization at this point. Deal with the relative aspects since the Absolute is not understood by either of you. Nobody can refuse to get a job, get drunk, have a house to come home to, and be allowed to rage without an enabler who makes it possible to avoid employment, to still get drunk, to still have a place to come home to, and to still have someone to rage against.

”Details that have been provided show that your mom enabled you and now you are passing it on to your son. You’ve mentioned your therapist. Discuss a plan to stop your enabling. You might be able to break the chain. No one quits abusing whatever they are abusing unless they hit a bottom and suffer the consequences, but an enabler always prevents the addict from finding the bottom or experiencing consequences.”

In this case, a deadline for moving out must be established. Art said, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. In this case, it could be said by the mother, “There is a person I don’t want to be around while he is this sick and spreading his contagion. If he seeks treatment and wellness results, then I will reconsider.”

To give up the assumed ego-state of “The Enabler” and “The Rescuer” always seems painful to the non-Realized, but as with all ego-states and false identities, discarding them involves far less misery and suffering than maintaining them. Sometimes, at least a temporary movement away from certain people is indicated. It might eventually prove to be a step toward peace and sanity.

The woman playing the role of “The Enabler” is seeking relief via the Realization process, but here are a few facts about the process: (1) The readiness is all. If the readiness is not there, no chance of being in touch with reality will happen. (2) The ignorant can never Realize, and the intoxicated are ignorant. (3) A clouded “mind” cannot possibly understand any pointers that are aimed toward elimination of the “mind.” (4) Many other steps must be completed before the “Seven Steps to Realization” can be taken.

This case, along with the three already discussed, reinforces a pointer often offered here: the non-Realized walk about as if they are free, but they are not. They are imprisoned. For example, consider the parallels with Case “C” [25 October 2007]. Look at the parallels between his current imprisonment and his former imprisonment and see that he is no freer now than when he was incarcerated by the state:

In prison, he lived in a place without ownership, staying or going at the whims of whoever was in charge of him at the time. Same now. He could only have a minimal amount of money in his account. Same now. He was treated like a child by persons playing “The Parent” role in his life who told him when to go and where to go and how to go. Same now. He had to adopt many personas and walk about as if he were something that he was not in order to protect “self.” Same now.

As with all non-Realized persons, he remains incarcerated but believes he is free. He believes that this time he is “in love with” the one assuming the role of his guard and warden and mother. He thinks he is living the life of an adult, in grand style in her mansion, but he is actually still living as a child.

In fact, none of these persons are what they seem or what they take themselves to be. Furthermore, in spite of whatever their mates or partners or relatives think that they know about them…in no way are they the way they seem. And whatever they think their circumstances are, in no way are things the way they perceive them.

And for those embroiled in the relative existence, the same applies. If you have a spouse, you think you know your spouse and what that mate feels and thinks and believes. You do not. And there are thoughts and feelings and beliefs and desires and fears that you have that your spouse hasn’t a clue about. Only if You know That Which You Are can any truth about a spouse, or anyone else, be known.

Witness that type of delusion as it plays out among the case studies in this series. With Case “A,” she thinks that her occasional professions of love to her husband are real though she admits privately that she wants him to die. While she is wishing he would die, he is believing that she loves him.

This is the third husband who has paid all her bills and the third husband that she has wished dead. She is incarcerated but claims that she is “comfortable” in her prison. In the past, she had twice claimed that she was also comfortable in the other two prisons that she had moved into in order to avoid employment and to have others pay for her housing and clothing and all necessities. Rather than seeing that she is the common element in all three of those disasterous marriages, she concludes that all men are abusers and that all men are worthless except for paying bills.

Another, Case “B,” has thought that each man she dated was going to be the one to “take care of her,” but none of them proved in the end to be what they seemed during the dating process. They came; they saw; they conquered; they left. Yet she is still “in the hunt,” still seeking the “right man”…still seeking the one who will be willing to take care of her.

She is unknowingly begging to be locked away in the same kind of existence as “A,” as “C,” and as the enabling mother. All are willing to be prisoners of their dreams in order to sustain their bogus images and their false identities. All are prisoners of the desires and fears that are driving them throughout their relative circumstances.

When Advaitins speak of the imprisonment and misery and suffering that accompany the assumption and maintenance of ego-states, the talk is not metaphorical for those embroiled in their relative, phenomenal misery. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Seven

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: The Realized are not trapped, as are the non-Realized, in thoughts and words and deeds that are driven by the warped consciousness. Nor are they trying to escape from anything. One researcher reported that 99% of the people on the planet are addicted to something. Addiction is driven by the desire to escape from. The Realized have nothing to escape from and have nothing to seek for.

In that regard, Art, are you seeing that moving away from some people might be based in egotism and agendas? Are the case studies showing you that staying with certain people can be based in desires and fears and egotism and agendas? Are you also seeing that a shift toward peace and quiet and attachment-free living is unique to the ego-less and the agenda-less that abide as the Absolute?

When a marriage counselor asked two weeks ago about upcoming blog topics, these three cases were summarized. She suggested that all three are really playing one basic role that she sees frequently in her practice, namely, that of “The Lifestyle Prostitute.” (Okay, she used a more graphic term than “prostitute” to identify the role being played, but that word was substituted for hers in deference to those site visitors with delicate sensibilities.)

She describes the traits of the syndrome that accompanies that assumed identity:

“These are the people who are not prostitutes per se but who prostitute themselves out (to one person at a time) in order to have a 'better lifestyle'; the role is now being played by both males and females; they not only accept but also expect the monetary benefits of others’ labors or charities, including money from mates, spouses, parents, or society at large; they claim that they have genuine feelings for their ‘provider’ in order to disguise their real motives and in order to continue their manipulation; they live a miserable but often high-end lifestyle (relatively speaking);

“while being master manipulators, they are nevertheless abused at times, either mentally, emotionally, and/or physically; that does not happen in all cases since they are capable of fooling people so well that mates really think they are being loved by these manipulators; thus, if their financial support is coming from a ‘personal’ relationship source, they claim that they are ‘in love’ in order to minimize the fact that they are prostituting themselves (as well as to justify or rationalize the abuse or misery that they are tolerating). Sometimes they even seem to believe their own lies about 'love.'

“The particular ego-state involved in this syndrome is distinguished by motive, agenda, and entitlement, so it is intention that clearly separates these persons from, say, ‘stay-at-home moms or dads’ who are not necessarily driven by egotism, entitlement, or the motives of this ego-state. Yet when I mention that possibility, all of the people playing this role claim that is their circumstance. They never see their hidden agendas and true motives.”

The counselor’s term for that ego-state does accurately point toward the commonality of the basic belief systems of all three persons in these case studies:

All believe in their co-dependent fashion that other people should “take care of them”; all believe that others should “meet their economic and housing needs as well as any other desires”; all speak of “love” in order to hide their real agenda; all are manipulative; all really use “love” as nothing more than a tool for gain; and all are allowing their laziness or entitlement to trap them in dependency as a result of their desire for “more” and for an “elevated lifestyle.”

The therapist also reported that a large number of her clients embroiled in this ego-state are quite open about admitting, as Case “A” did, that there are times when they really want their mates to die. “So much for true, unconditional, unselfish love,” she said. “That inability to love unconditionally,” she continued, “also distinguishes those playing this role from people who have some understanding of what the word ‘love’ really involves.”

She also pointed out that all who come to her office seeking happiness or freedom are trapped in ego-states but that recently a disproportionately large number (both male and female) have assumed this role and are dodging work while seeking money from others.

What is revealed via these three case studies, as well as what the psychotherapist shared, is that false identities and their always-accompanying co-dependency are a continuing source of misery and suffering in the relative existence. What is also revealed is that persons are driven blindly by thoughts and words and deeds that evolve from the warped consciousness. The Realization process is one effective “treatment” for that condition of the consciousness.

It can also be seen that dependent, non-Realized persons run to assumed roles and attachments and co-dependencies in order to sustain their ego-states, their self-interests, and their sense of entitlement. They seek out others to meet their relative desires and to fulfill their personal agendas.

Elimination of self, of desires, of fears, of entitlement, of co-dependencies, of self-interests, and of ego-states will facilitate the shift to independence and then freedom and then happiness.

Two of the three people described in these case studies claim that they are “comfortable” in their current relationships while the third thinks that she wants what they have, namely, “someone taking care of her.”

Yet all three admitted that they have recently contemplated suicide. For some, the Realization process can eliminate that kind of denial and distortion. For some, the Realization process can remove the playing of ego-states, a practice that just happens to be at the root of all relative misery and suffering.

No one who is running away from people, or merely tolerating people, or constantly seeking out people as caretakers is “comfortable.” “Comfortable” only happens from a spontaneous mode of nisarga (natural) AS IF living, from a platform of witnessing feelings as they rise and fall, from being free of the emotional intoxication that is generated by ego-states and their desires and fears, and from being independent. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Six

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: The non-Realized often “stay” around persons because of desires and fears or perceived needs (such as, “I need a very high lifestyle but I am not willing to work for it and pay for it myself”) or an egotistical sense of entitlement (e.g., “I am so special that I deserve to be taken care of by someone else”).

Driven by their hidden agendas, persons generate ego-states with attachments, which are always accompanied by co-dependency. Why? “Husband” cannot exist without “Wife,” and vice versa; “Employee” cannot exist without “Employer,” and vice versa; “Taker” cannot exist without “Giver,” and vice versa; "The Rescued" cannot exist without "The Rescuer," and vice versa.

After the assumption of false identities with agendas, attachments, and co-dependencies, the non-Realized tolerate misery in order for their perceived needs and desires to be met or in order for their fears to be allayed. All the while, their level of denial allows them to convince themselves that they are happy or “comfortable” in spite of not being free. That is, of course, impossible.

The non-Realized do not gravitate toward peace, silence, and reality. Many among the non-Realized seek out those that they can use (speaking, of course, in the most basic, relative sense). Their misery is then generated when the ones they use assume a sense of “ownership” in the absence of the users’ lack of “earnership.” If you take “their” money and earn none of your own, that might seem “comfortable” for a time (as Case “A” claims) but the observable misery that manifests long-term provides evidence to the contrary.

Thus, the non-Realized do not move toward peace and quiet and agenda-less, attachment-free living. They seek out ways and means by which they can sustain their ego-states and that actually reinforce their dependencies and co-dependencies. The result is mental and emotional imprisonment, as illustrated in case study “C.”

Today’s post studies a man who has distorted his desire to gain power and his desire to have someone meet his financial and sexual needs into what he terms “love.” Because of his agendas (most of which are even hidden from him) he is “staying” even though he has been placed in the role of “The Child” and is claiming that he is “in love with” the woman playing “The Parent.”

Case “C”: Regarding the desire to gain power and to have someone meet financial and sexual needs and then labeling that “love”
Case “C” is a man who has generated a more-than-typical share of relative existence problems and consequences: heavy substance abuse; incarceration; parole; an inability to find decent housing; charming a recently-divorced woman who received a large settlement; moving into a house she owns; and now living the lie of appearing to be a “grand success” in her upscale neighborhood.

At home, he has been told to “cover up his past” among the neighbors and he deals with daily reminders that it is she who owns the house he lives in. Recently, a long-time acquaintance gave him a job, overpaying him $1000 per week out of “friendship.” He was informed by his female benefactor that all of his checks must be direct deposited into her account and that he will receive a weekly allowance (“$50 a week should cover whatever you need. In turn, you get to live in a beautiful home, with me”).

Before, he had felt economically powerless, unable to buy anything on credit and unable to find decent housing. Now, he is able to ride the coattail of her financial “power” as long as they stay together. His sexual “needs” and lifestyle desires are being met, but at the cost of his harmony (and his entire paycheck).

Claiming he is “more than comfortable” and is actually “joyous” and “in love,” he is nevertheless prone to fits and outbursts and raging as a result of the tension of having to hide his past, as a result of playing phony roles in the neighborhood, and as a result of assuming “The Child” ego-state to her “Parent” role. With his current income, he could now live well on his own, but he could not live in a mansion in an upscale neighborhood.

The phoniness of playing “The Successful Businessman” who also appears to be “The Wealthy Homeowner” (while living like “The Child” indoors) is taking a relative toll as he lives a lie while putting on hold earlier efforts to answer, “Who am I, really”?

He slipped for just a moment and admitted that sometimes he “had felt freer a year ago when he was living alone in a tiny apartment in a low-rent area of town,” but he immediately reverted to reciting his lines from the script of the roles being played in “The Drama of the Lie”: “But I’ve found the woman of my dreams, I love her and her children, we’re in a great neighborhood and a beautiful home, so it’s all good.” Meanwhile, she has twice postponed their scheduled marriage.

He has not yet realized that dreams can easily become nightmares when phony role-playing blinds persons to the fact that whatever provides pleasure will someday provide pain. He has not realized how loosely persons toss about the word “love” in order to justify and even “sanctify” their self-centered actions that have nothing to do with love. Such are the circumstances of those persons who are attached to the illusions of the phenomenal and who haven’t the slightest clue about the reality of the Noumenon.

Is it any wonder that Maharaj said,
“The world is nothing but the picture of your own ‘I’ consciousness”
and
“All is dishonesty”
and
“There is no truth in this fraud”
and
“Only that false ‘I’ is attached. Everything is just happening, and the false ‘I’ is taking the credit for doing things.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Five

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: Is it becoming clear that the non-Realized are never consistently happy (even if they “stay”) and are never consistently happy (even if they “go”)? Is it becoming clear that many “go” because of ego and that many “stay” because of desires and fears and hidden agendas?

Is it being seen that non-Realized persons who “go” do so as a result of having thought and judged and criticized and felt “apart from” or”separate from”? Is it clear that any movement that happens among the Realized is a spontaneous movement toward something…be that freedom, independence, peace, quiet, or silence?

Is it understood why it is often in review that it becomes clear why spontaneous and automatic shifts occurred? Is it understood why, among some of the Realized, that it is only in “looking back” that the extent of how much was cast aside or left behind becomes clear?

Why is that? First, because all happenings were happening automatically in the earliest stages of the awakening process, not as a result of any “thought-out” motives. And secondly, because in the early days of awakening, some move along as does a leaf floating atop the currents of a stream, being moved along rather than struggling to determine its own course.

There is no longer any struggle, there is no longer any effort to control, and there is no longer any effort to “change” or to “grow” or to “be more” or to “get more.” Though awakening, there is in all those early movements a dream-like quality of lightness…not unlike that experienced by a physical body awakening from a too-deep sleep.

Some seekers, in those early moments of the awakening process, laugh loudly at the hoax that was perpetuated upon them...a laugh not unlike that which comes from a wrongly-convicted man when he is released after years of being in prison but surprisingly cleared by new evidence. Though imprisoned for years when he should not have been, the happiness that accompanies the sensation of freedom far outweighs any resentment toward those who imprisoned him.

Others in the earliest stage of awakening, however, are as if in shock. It is not that the happenings in those early days happened without awareness…quite the opposite. Yet what is happening is that feelings are being registered whereas before only the emotional intoxication that is generated by ego-states was taking place.

Yet all those early-stage happenings are suddenly so very different from the functionings that took place as a result of the agendas of ego-states, functionings that happened without pure consciousness or with selfish calculation.

It is because of the nature of those early days of the awakening process, and because of the sudden disappearance of the ego’s ulterior motives and agendas, and because of the fact that all is suddenly happening spontaneously, that many must “look back” to understand exactly what was happening when the awakening process first began.

So the pointer is, if you are “moving away from” certain persons because you have judged them and think you are now “better than,” that movement is not happening spontaneously and is not involved at all with Realization. If the pure consciousness has gravitated either toward other specks of pure consciousness or toward the silence of the All-Oneness, then Realization is likely involved.

Furthermore, is it becoming clear that the concept called “relationships” is dualistic at the core (“this” is relating to “that”)? Is it becoming clear that if the One-ness is not understood, no “relationship” can be free of dualistic conflicts that are rooted in labeling self and others as good-bad, right-wrong, giver-user, loving-hating, etc.?

Tomorrow’s post will illustrate the third major pointer in this series. It will provide an example of a man who has distorted his desire to gain power and his desire to have someone meet his financial and sexual needs into what he terms “love." Because of his agendas (most of which are even hidden from him) he is “staying” even though he has been placed in the role of “The Child” and is claiming that he is “in love with” the woman playing “The Parent.”

[Consider that scenario of a grown man staying with a woman who is behaving like his parent/mother and treating him like a child and see that this “case study” exposes such complex psychological disorders—which are typical among the non-Realized—that the study could really be expanded into a dissertation for a doctorate.]

For now, though, the invitation is to consider this: in your case, are all happenings happening spontaneously…or with motive? Is your relative existence happening in an AS IF fashion…as if whatever is happening is real while differentiating quite clearly between true and false, between real and illusion?

Are you moving away from people because you have judged them and found them lacking, or did a spontaneous shift happen that automatically moved you toward the peace and quiet? Are you married to “The Meal-Ticket,” “The Rent-Payer,” and/or “The Sex-Provider,” or are you married to freedom? Are you in isolation...or in the solitude? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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