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.: It was noted yesterday that “the forest dweller stage” need not happen literally, yet the stage must be entered into in some fashion in order to transition through the entire consciousness re-purification process. Some form of retreat for contemplation and consideration must happen. The requirements of that stage can be met among some seekers by readings that clarify the teachings; by attending an Advaita retreat or seminar or series of satsang sessions; or by receiving pointers and then engaging in meditation in the originally-intended fashion.
(PLS. NOTE: The original purpose of meditation was not to move into and out of a samadhi state or into and out of different levels of consciousness. The original intent was to be removed from the “maddening crowd” in order to enter the silence so that one could more effectively take a teacher’s pointers into consideration and thereby understand the teachings.
That forest dweller type of “removal from the masses” is required, but it does not require that one abandon employment or other relative existence tasks. The original intent of meditation, instead of being used to try to reach a “no-consciousness state,” called for a highly-focused concentration upon the content and meaning of pointers.
Since the intent is to provide an opportunity to focus on pointers that guide seekers to Realization, then post-Realization the tool is no longer used. Should the Realized seem to be engaged in any Advaita-related happenings post-Realization, it is for the sake of entertainment only.)
Remember also, Art, this fact as you consider the people you “want to be around, or not” during the relative existence: any pointers dealing with “relative living” suggest that it should happen in a natural fashion, and sometimes it is natural to take the action to move toward a place where peculiar, external effects cannot exert an influence.
Consider: long before scientists confirmed the existence of Neptune, they predicted that it existed and they predicted where it was located in relation to other bodies in the outer band of this galaxy. How?
Long before they saw Neptune, they saw effects being exerted on other nearby planets or bodies, causing them to behave in a peculiar fashion. Similarly, persons can exert effects on nearby persons, effects that result in peculiar fashions of living. The non-Realized are like soybeans in that they take on the flavor of whatever they are next to. That does not happen with the Realized, but as noted yesterday, the Realized gravitate toward the silence and solitude anyway.
You may be seeing that some persons in your physical vicinity are exerting a peculiar effect. The effect that Realization might have on that occurrence is irrelevant since you are not realized at this point. Realized, neither “tolerance” nor “a lack of tolerance” will be an issue.
Unlike the bodies being affected in a peculiar way by Nepture, which cannot choose to move to a different location, the Realized can move toward other places and other things as the Advaita Teachings provide freedom from attachments that had formerly paralyzed them and/or held them hostage.
In contrast, the “pecularity” of non-Realized persons with attachments is that that they would prefer company in prison rather than being alone and free. Therefore, while you ask about moving away from some types of persons that you are no longer comfortable with, many persons will stay with those very types.
Their attachments and agendas result in forms of bondage that can generate a “tolerance” for pain if the source has an air of familiarity; that can generate acceptance of misery if in denial; and that can generate a tendency to distort into what they call "love" that which is really a desire to gain power or a desire to have someone meet their financial or sexual needs. So it is. Tomorrow, examples of all three will be discussed. Please enter the silence of contemplation.(To be continued)
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