Beyond Beingness and Non-Beingness, Part Two

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Thursday, you used the terms beyond the beingness and beyond the non-beingness. Can you explain. Thank you.

F.: Pls. note: Some are reporting strange font sizes and misconfigurations. If that occurs, please click the "refresh" button on your screen. That should address the issue. [Continued from yesterday] If the incense stick example did not provide the understanding being sought, try one or more of these examples:

Mentioned recently, persons think that a steel beam is really just a steel beam until they look at it through an electron microscope, then they see that it is a swirling mass of energy.

The beam was not what it appeared to be. It’s beingness, as erroneously perceived, never even was as it was imagined to be. All beliefs about its beingness were misconceptions. Upon viewing the steel via an electron microscope and gaining a deeper understanding of “the beam,” could it then be said accurately that the beam is suddenly “not being”? No.

Similarly, imagine a couple wanted to have a daughter and a son, but they had only one child, a daughter. Can the son be said to “not be”? That which never was—that which was only a misconception all along—cannot be said to “have been” nor said to suddenly “not be.” That which is real is beyond any concepts dreamed up by men regarding “being” or “not being.”

A fourth example used in past postings to try to clarify the points regarding beingness and non-beingness involved an ice cube. People think an ice cube is an ice cube instead of one of the fourteen or so solid phases of H20. Similarly, in almost every case, they think that what they are seeing is being seen accurately.

Yet if you drop an ice cube into a pan of boiling water and the cube seems to disappear before your very eyes, can you accurately claim that “the cube” (or what you misperceived H20 to be) “now no longer exists”? No. Could you accurately claim that “what was, now, no longer is?” No.

Can you accurately claim that “it was, but now it is not”? No. Can you claim “regarding the cube, there was beingness, but now the cube is in a state of not-beingness”? No.

In fact, do you see that there was never a cube at all but there was H20 that had, at a certain temperature, appeared to take the form of a cube but was not that form at all? Do you see that persons were in error all along when they taught you that what is actually H20 is “a cube”? The same applies every time that they tell you that THAT is "this."

So looking into the pan, post-dissolution, can you say “the cube is”? No. It has shifted beyond a solid state into a liquid state and could soon enter into a vapor state. Yet in every case, the H20 remains. So it is with THAT which is beyond any notions about beingness and non-beingness.

To review, can you say “that which the cube was no longer is?” No. All that can be said factually is, “that which I thought the cube to be was not at all what it really was. The form that H20 assumed temporarily has disappeared, and the beingness (what I thought it was and everything I was taught about an ice cube and what it is) was not at all what it was or is.

You could say, “The real beingness of that cube has been misperceived.” You could also say, “Once the H20 that had temporarily taken the shape of a cube had melted, I was also mistaken to believe that the cube had entered into a state of not-being.”

In regards to “cubes” or “persons” or “this world” or anything else that seems to appear, if the beingness was a misperception, then how could any conclusion about its not-being possibly be true?

When the incense burns and when the “body” part seems to have disappeared and when the smoke part seems to have disappeared, do you understand that the same body of the stick will never be again? Do you see that that same smoke can never be again?

Do you see that the same spark can never be again, but that spark-ness, the essence of that spark, could be again? Do you see that the body was a play of elements and that the smoke was an illusory cloud with no concrete substance? Then see as well that maya is nothing more than the collective sum of all mental projections…the very basis of duality by which “one” is seen as “many.”

The invitation is to understand the state that is even prior to this talk of beingness and of non-beingness. The cube was not really being a cube, and after being tossed into the boiling water, it was not really not being a cube either.

Find out what is real behind all of the mirages that persons (1) take to be real and that persons (2) assume at some point end up in a non-being state. Then you might understand why I am not this beingness, so there can be no non-beingness of anything that never actually was in the first place.

THAT which I Am was not born and is not what it is taken to be by persons; thus, THAT which I Am cannot enter into a state of "not-being any longer." I Am beyond all of that, yet that which is beyond all of that has nothing whatsoever to do with any "self" that has been assumed to be nor anything to do with any "Self" that has been thought to have been.

That which is beyond both beingness and non-beingness neither "has" self-ness nor Self-ness, anymore than the currently manifested consciousness can "have" anything. All pointers to the contrary are merely thorns being employed along the way. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued Friday)

Beyond Beingness and Non-Beingness

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Thursday, you used the terms beyond the beingness and beyond the non-beingness. Can you explain. Thank you.

F.: Consider this first: two modes by which the manifestation can happen include the “phenomenal mode” and the “noumenal mode.” The phenomenal is marked by mis-perceptions based in learned ignorance and dualistic beliefs…the noumenal by reality, free from concepts and marked by an understanding of non-duality.

Perceived abidance as the beingness will guarantee that persons will suffer the slings and arrows of beingness, marked by occasional periods of what might appear to be “happiness” but dealing more often with “relationship” issues, health issues, financial issues, body gratification issues, "love" issues, hate issues, issues generated by the troubled and troublesome “mind,” and an unending series of chaotic, personality-induced “crises.”

Ninety-five percent of the energy used by the non-Realized will be spent in acquiring false roles, supporting false roles, sustaining false images, and engaging in all of the conflicts that inevitably accompanies ego-state assumption and the use of ego-defense mechanisms to try to support that non-reality (which is, of course, impossible). Their entire existence will be lived in the mirror.

By contrast, I abide as THAT which is beyond this beingness that occupies and pre-occupies persons. I am done with the body, done with the “mind,” done with persona-building, done with “issues,” done with belief in any concepts. In that regard, this:

RECEIVED FROM RAJA THIS A.M.: You said truth cannot be stated but known. 1)Are these are concepts/facts/truth/essence? If speaking to a friend has to happen on these concepts, what should i tell him?

Hello, Raja. The “path” from body identification to Full Realization takes seven steps. No one can skip any step on the “path,” so along the way, the teacher will use thorns to remove thorns, will discuss certain Advaitin principles or pointers, in order to free the seeker of the hold his/her concepts are exerting. As with thorns, one can be used to remove another, but in the end, both thorns are tossed. So it is as the consciousness speaks to seekers.

Moreover, I am done with any notions about the non-beingness. Who is speaking about the beingness, and post-manifestation, who would remain to speak of “no longer being”? In a post last December, the pointer was offered that

all concepts about self, Self, and an Infinite Self will be burned away in the light of awareness and you can just…be.

Yet that beingness which is identified with is itself temporary. In consciousness the “I” can claim “I AM,” yet is that not—at its core—also dualistic? Who is this “I” that is witnessing what it is or what it knows about what it is witnessing? This level is one of two levels of witnessing…the subject-object witnessing level. Neither type of witnessing can happen in the Absolute.

Now, this manifestation of consciousness will—no doubt about it—unmanifest at some point. At that point, freedom from all of the phenomenal nonsense that generates much ado about nothing will be transcended.

All of the fluctuations between happiness and unhappiness, and all of the relative pain and suffering that can only happen during the manifestation of consciousness, will—guaranteed—be transcended. Why not transcend now?

In fact, I am beyond this beingness and the non-beingness as well, and so are You. The difference is, most persons will never know that, so they will be preoccupied with extending this manifestation to the maximum possible (the horrid condition of the bodies-cum-consciousness with which they identify notwithstanding):

"Yes, the bones are cracking with the slightest movement, yes the teeth are falling out, yes many of the original organs and joints have metal replacements, yes control of basic bodily functions is being lost, and yes, all mobility has vanished; nevertheless, I want to live one more day...just one more day."

They will also be preoccupied with extending not only the body but the mind and personality for eternity, so they will attend regular meetings or services, they will give away money and assets, and they will follow the most insane dictates of their “leaders” in order to try to assure the continuity of that with which they erroneously identity. Others have been exposed to such warping that the "everlasting body" is given higher value than the "temporary body":

"Blow yourself up while killing people with different religious beliefs and you'll have a bevy of beauties awaiting to satisfy your body desires forever."

In considering the transcendence mentioned, do not confuse consciousness and awareness. If you look to a burning stick of incense, the stick can represent the body and the smoke can represent the “mind.”

Does the smoke understand the spark behind the smoke? Is that spark (or the “spark-ness”) not beyond both the being and the not being…beyond both the stick (the body) and the hazy smoke (i.e., the “mind”) and all else that is involved with the temporary manifestation of the stick and whatever is temporarily happening in regards to the stick?

Is the stick “as stick” finite? Yes. Are the elements that temporarily came together as “stick” permanent? Yes. Was the smoke ever what it appeared to be? No. Can the smoke possibly be on a permanent basis? No.

Can you understand, as far as the Absolute is concerned, that whatever you speak of as “being” or as “having been” or as “no longer being” is totally irrelevant…all having been based in misconception and ambiguity? Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Seven, The Conclusion

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: Just as people and places and things in your dreams seem real while dreaming—but can be seen to be fiction upon awakening—so too can all of your “wake state” dreams be seen as fiction upon Your Awakening.

That includes the “good” dreams you like when they seemingly come true as well as the “bad” dreams—the nightmares—that generate such relative misery. If you choose to celebrate that which you think is “good,” be prepared to mourn that which you think is “bad.”

Such is the instability of living with a concept-filled, dualistic belief system. That which brings pleasure will bring pain when trapped in duality. That which brings the most pleasure will eventually bring the most pain. That is the relative curse of entrapment in duality.

If you awake from a dream and know that you were, even prior to being fully conscious this morning, then You might glimpse the Absolute. Were you to abide as the Absolute—as the unalterable, unchangeable, no-mind, no-body, no-personality awareness—then only would You be free of the volatile and erratic and unpredictable periods of happiness and misery.

To know “I am manifested energy” is to preempt any claim that “I am a person who is in pain and suffering because I had this but I lost it.” The energy at a wall plug in your home can move through a plug-wire-appliance, but it cannot suffer or lose or gain. So it is with the energy that You Are.

You can move through this relative existence, but You cannot suffer or lose or gain. That which you think is suffering is a case of mistaken identity.

Consciousness speaks, and when it states that it is energy, it speaks factually. When it says, “I am suffering,” it speaks emblematically, as if symbolic roles assigned or adopted are real. Can light suffer or not suffer? Can any form of energy suffer or not suffer?

I tell you that Your Real Nature cannot suffer, nor can it change. It transcends all that is circumstantial (that is, phenomenal); conversely, all that is not your Real Nature will be subject to circumstance…subject to functioning under the relative Laws of Thermodynamics that make clear that all which comes together will eventually come apart.

That which is Real is the Oneness, and that which is One cannot “come together” or “come apart.” One is one, not two. That is the no-concept, non-dual Reality.

These teachings can set you free of believing in any of the false “you’s” and can allow You to know Your True Self—Your Real Nature—and to dwell as that/THAT.

There was no suffering prior to manifestation and there will be no suffering post manifestation. Similarly, there was no ecstasy prior to manifestation and there will be no ecstasy post manifestation. Can you be OK with that?

The answer to that question for non-Realized persons is "No, I cannot be happy with the notion that I won't continue to exist and experience bliss for eternity after I die." On the other hand, You can be at perfect peace with that understanding. Know the “You” and be done with the “you”—the false “you’s.” If it is bliss you seek, find it now, for only now can it happen.

To be free is to understand the Truth and thereby understand the functioning of the totality. Such understandings accompany the Realization of the True Self, a comprehension of the True Nature of consciousness/awareness, and an understanding of that which Is temporary and THAT Which is eternal. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Six

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: You have dreamed during sleep and the dream seemed completely real. At times, you might begin to come out of the sleep state but the dream can still seem to be very real until fully awake.

If you grasp how real your dreams seemed to be while asleep, and how real they seemed to be when not yet fully awake, then you can understand the condition in which the relative existence of most persons unfolds: they walk about, they drive, they talk, etc., but it’s all more or less in their sleep. They are not fully awake, aware, and conscious.

Were the dreams during sleep real? No. Did they seem real? Yes. Is the relative real? No. Does it seem real? Yes. But the fact is that all which seems real to you is just your dream. Anything pertaining to the phenomenal that you seemingly observe is just a dream-like illusion, never seen for what it is.

As an example, refer again to the example of the steel beam: most think they know what they are seeing when they look at a steel beam, but if they were to observe the beam by using an electron microscope, they would see that it is actually nothing at all like what it appears to be.

So it is with what persons call “the world.” How many versions of “this world” are there? Billions. There are as many versions of what “this world” is as there are dreamers. And there are as many versions of “who you are” and “who floyd is” as there are persons claiming to know you or “floyd.”

And among the non-Realized, there are as many versions of “who they think there are” as there are assumed or assigned personas. And all personas are the result of the adulteration of the formerly pure consciousness. All roles are limited and finite. All will generate shifting emotions of instability and ambiguity as they seemingly come and seemingly go.

In the U.S., 50-60% of the time, the role of “spouse” is guaranteed to come and go as a result of the “marriage-divorce” cycle. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the role of “spouse” is guaranteed to come and go as a result of the death of one member or the other of that dualistic pair called “mates” (since mates rarely die simultaneously).

Recall the earlier example in this series:

WHO believes he or she has married? Who told you that you are married? A man in a robe? Another man in a robe can as easily tell you that you are not married. And the non-Realized on the planet will unquestioningly accept that the statement from the first man in a robe is true and they will as readily and unquestioningly accept the statement from the second man in a robe as truth: “I pronounce that you are Mrs. Jones.” OK. “I pronounce that you are no longer Mrs. Jones.” OK. (Can marriage happen, or not, during the relative without assumption of limited roles as identities? Yes, just as teaching can happen, or not, even in the absence of "The Teacher" ego-state, but it is rare.)

To the contrary of accepting temporary roles as identities, understand that truth is truth. It is Absolute and unchanging. What is true now has always been true and always will be true, so anything based in the “relative” is fiction.

Anything that is temporary, like the roles being discussed, cannot be Who/What You Are. The body is temporary, the “mind” is temporary, and the personality is temporary. Every relative label ever applied is temporary.

THAT Which You Are is all You have ever been and all that You will ever be, and it need not even be named. In the effort to know Your Real Nature, to find Who/What You Truly Are, find first everything that you are not. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)

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Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

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Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Five

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: Thus it is with persons who think that they have lost something: the loss is not about the body or the breath but is about “the mind’s” manipulation of (supposed) reality during this manifestation of consciousness.

Thus, when a concept of “loss” is triggered (often as a result of archetypal influences), it is “the mind” that magnifies the emotional pain and perpetuates the sense of “loss” far beyond reason.

The pointer was offered yesterday that “even the consciousness must be transcended and abidance as the Absolute must happen” if one is to be free of the pain and suffering generated by an ego-state’s perceived loss.

Ultimately, to speak of “higher” or “lower” levels of consciousness is duality. Maharaj said, “There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding.” In fact, You Are in Your True State—You cannot be anything other than Your Real Nature—but because of the duality of “the mind,” you are blocked from knowing that.

Yet believing that your false nature is real (even though that is a totally erroneous belief), such a belief will nevertheless prevent you from knowing and dwelling in your natural state. As a result, the relative existence will unfold in an unnatural fashion or in a supernatural fashion (which is equally unnatural).

To be free of the pain associated with roles and ego-states and false identities requires freedom first from belief in all roles and ego-states and false identities. Thus the dance between the seeker and an Advaitin teacher:

as pure awareness leads in the dance, the movement can liberate the consciousness of the seeker from the effects of the programming and conditioning that have prevented persons from enjoying the music and moving spontaneously with the natural rhythms that happen when abiding in the natural state.

As the dance continues, liberation from the effects of “the mind” can happen. By the end of the dance, there is freedom from “the mind” and even from consciousness itself since it, too, is relative. While the consciousness is an attribute, it is awareness that is beyond all that is relative…beyond the beingness…beyond the non-beingness.

So, this current consciousness is all relative. Yes, the body is required for the “experiencing” of consciousness, but what is the body but plant food? Once you transcend consciousness and abide as the Absolute, where is any “experiencer?” Where is “anyone” who gained? Where is “anyone” who lost?

The state before this Am-ness, and any consciousness of the Am-ness, that is the Real State. Dwelling in that original natural state, WHO was there to own or gain or lose? There was no one. WHO was there to do or to “be this” or “be that”? No one.

After the knowledge of the Is-ness happened, it was then that identification with body and “mind” and personality followed. After identifying with the body and “mind” and personality, periods of fluctuation between happiness and unhappiness began.

All of the misidentification which triggers instability is accepted to be real by the programmed consciousness and the resultant “mind,” but none of that is your original and Real Nature.

If you understand that Your Real Nature has no identity, no form, no “Who-ness” and no name, then the falsity of such concepts as “owning,” “possessing,” “gaining” and “losing” becomes clear. Then, the role played by the conditioned consciousness and the “mind” in generating a sense of suffering becomes obvious.

Eventually, the seeker can understand the words of the Advaitin poet: “…There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” All duality, including “good or bad,” is rooted in “thinking,” in the fiction-filled “mind” that thinks…and that thinks it knows when it does not.

All involving the conditioned consciousness is impure, adulterated, limited, unstable, shifting, and ambiguous. That is the unnatural state. That is not Your Real Nature. Your Real Nature is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, pure, unadulterated, unlimited, and unambiguous. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

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Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Four

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: If peace is to manifest, You must know Your Self...the True Self. Your original, Real Nature must be understood. Yet most will not, so most persons (the non-Realized) will believe that they are miserable or that they are fluctuating between states of misery and happiness.

Their so-called memories and impressions block them from knowing the Self, from understanding (and abiding as) that which is real rather than that which is false. Because memories and samskaras are obstacles to seeing truth, most will look without rather than within for whatever it is that they think they are seeking.

In looking without, all that can be seen is illusion. In that process, they will also believe that they are seeing all that they have gained and all that they believe they have lost. Only if they were to ignore all without, which is illusory, can they then look within and find Truth and the freedom that brings.

Take the misery being suffered by the site visitor whose e-mail initiated this discussion. Looking without, a “husband” seemed to appear. As with a mirage in the desert, only one fate awaits: whatever seems to appear will eventually disappear.

Because of the Am-ness, you will seem to appear, and what you take “floyd” to be will seem to appear. Eventually, both will seem to some persons to disappear, but neither the appearance nor the disappearance are real.

So what is involved with this temporary manifestation, this short-term “appearance”? Breath, body, and consciousness. Which of those three is capable of feeling pain and suffering? Not the breath, so most will say “the body,” but they would be in error. How can you understand that?

Before the doctors began resetting all of the bones that were broken during a motorcycle accident, the body was subjected to general anesthesia. If fully awake and conscious, the pain of their incisions and the insertion of metal rods and plates and screws would have been unbearable.

However, as a result of the level of consciousness having been manipulated chemically, that was not the case (at least until regaining consciousness during the surgical procedure, feeling the pain, but not being able to let anyone know).

Manipulate the level of consciousness and a surgeon can cut open a chest and handle the body’s heart or remove it and replace it with a substitute. Since the events are not being registered via the full consciousness, it is not aware of those happenings, so pain that would typically be considered horrendous is tolerated.

Therefore, pain is registered by nerve fibers that transmit signals to the spinal cord which redirects the message to the brain. There, pain signals are processed but are also subjected to the machinations of “the mind,” which accounts for the significant variances in the thresholds of pain that humans display.

Since the body registers none of the pain signals when under the influence of general anesthesia, it can be seen that experiencing pain involves not the breath and not the body as much as the level of consciousness and the play of "the mind." Such is the case not only with physical pain but with mental-emotional pain and suffering as well.

All of the body functions notwithstanding, awareness of pain and suffering can be seen to ultimately involve the consciousness. Thus, when false identities are thought to be real, the case is this: the consciousness, blocked or contaminated by programming and conditioning, registers a false sense of pain and suffering if false identities are assumed to be real and think they have experienced a "loss."

More to the point, what is to be understood is that all which is mental and/or emotional deals with the relative and with relative illusions. While the Realized witness feelings rise and fall, only ego-states can trigger emoting. Is the belief that mental pain or emotional pain regarding a "loss" is real? Then an ego-state is involved.

Ego-states are fabrications of the fictional "mind," so any pain or suffering associated with the "loss" of an ego-state is also generated by the false content of "mind" and is also fictional...no matter how "real" it seems as it is registered via the corrupted or blocked consciousness.

How to transcend even this consciousness that allows ego-states to seemingly experience pain and suffering? Even the consciousness must be transcended and abidance as the Absolute must happen. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Three

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: Your Real Nature precedes the false nature that is mistakenly considered real as a result of programming and conditioning and enculturation and domestication. On some level, You know that Real Nature, but most persons will seldom understand it.

Instead, they will be driven by their false nature, and in the process, the agendas of false personas will drive persons into a state of misery wherein the assumed identities will make demands and will have desires that will never be met consistently;

will suffer fear as a result of wanting a temporary identity to last forever while sensing on some level that it cannot; will be co-dependent with the “others” who are required for the illusion of any persona to be sustained; and will vacillate between states of seeming happiness and supposed misery as false identities come and go.

To consider the Real Nature which few persons will ever understand, compare that pre-manifestation state to an adult whose earliest memories are limited to events that happened after the age of three. Would that adult even consider the possibility that years one through three did not happen, relative speaking, because there is no memory of them? Of course not.

Similarly, you slept last night and then awoke this morning. When you awoke, you again became aware of the fact that you are. Yet you are also aware of the fact that you were even prior to awakening.

And even if you were not aware of the consciousness during that sleep state, you can understand that the consciousness was present. It saw to it that your heart pumped blood, that your lungs circulated air, and that the brain oversaw all of the other bodily functionings.

Whether awakening from sleep or considering the pre-memory years of ages one to three, it is not questioned at all that there was an existence prior to the memories from age three onward or from the period prior to awakening this morning.

Such is also the case with THAT Which You Truly Are: there is no memory of any pre-manifestation existence because there was no “one” to experience those events, but that does not mean that such an existence was not fact. Nor does it mean that you cannot understand that/THAT.

To answer such question as “Who (What) Am I, Really?” and “Where did I come from?” and “How did I come into being?” you are invited to contemplate this question: where were you in the days prior to conception?

If the manifestation unfolded in a spontaneous fashion in alignment with Your Real Nature rather than aligned with the lies and self-deceit and images and phoniness of persons who are taking their false nature to be real, then how could the peace possibly be interrupted by the comings and goings of bogus roles that are assumed by persons or assigned by cultures that are filled with persons who think that they are awake when they are really asleep and dreaming? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

Visit AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT

Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part Two

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since his funeral and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: “Gain” and “loss” are dualistic concepts. The non-Realized do not understand the conscious energy or they would know that the True Self can neither gain nor possess nor lose anything. Yet the belief in the dualistic pair of gain/loss subsequently drives persons to experience the instability that results as the shifting between “having” and “not having” is taken to be real.

It also generates emotional intoxication among the non-Realized as well as all of the subsequent misery and suffering that accompany that relative condition.

Some 93 million miles from earth is a nuclear furnace called “the sun.” From the sun, solar energy reaches the earth. What could that energy possibly possess? What can it gain? What can it lose? Similarly, how could a temporarily manifested speck of conscious-energy own, gain, or lose anything?

To understand that specks of consciousness cannot own or gain or lose is to be free of belief in the concepts of doership (such as "I got married") and ownership (such as "my spouse"). Can energy own anything? Can energy “marry”? Of course not. Can breath marry? No. Can the elements of the earth marry? No.

Just as the rhetorical question “Who told you that you were naked?” is an invitation to consider the source of shame and guilt, so the philosophical question “Who told you that you were married?” is an invitation to consider the effects of enculturation and the way it generates false beliefs when persons do not question what they are told.

So WHO believes he or she has married? Who told you that you are married? A man in a robe? Another man in a robe can as easily tell you that you are not married. And the non-Realized on the planet will unquestioningly accept that the statement from the first man in a robe is true and they will as readily and unquestioningly accept the statement from the second man in a robe as truth:

“I pronounce that you are Mrs. Jones.” OK. “I pronounce that you are no longer Mrs. Jones.” OK. To the contrary, truth is truth. It is Absolute and unchanging. What is true now has always been true and always will be true, so anything based in the “relative” is a lie.

The consciousness can witness such happenings, and the bogus “mind” can conclude that what is said by corrupted or blocked specks of consciousness is truth. Yet all pronouncements rooted in corrupted or blocked consciousness are always false, and all identities assigned or assumed by the corrupted or blocked consciousness are also false.

Thus, it should be understood that the pain that persons suffer is not about anything or anyone that they think they have lost. It is about (1) the loss of identity—namely, a false identity—or it is about (2) cellular memories or mental impressions, many of which—when traumatic—are stored at the atomic level.

Much of the suffering that the non-Realized speak of is rooted in the memory of traumatic childhood trauma or in distorted memories formed and recalled during adulthood and based (A) not in the way things really were but in the delusional way that things were thought to be or (B) not in the way things were but in the delusional way that abnormal things have been normalized, relatively speaking, as the desirous “mind” rewrites history and ignores truth or suppresses the recall of the reality surrounding certain happenings.

The Advaita teachings, if understood, will not only remove belief in all that is false but will also remove the “one” who thinks he/she has beliefs and has been “doing” things.

Post-Realization, “thoughts” generated by a fictional “mind” end; words generated by the corrupted or blocked consciousness end; and any belief in a “do-er” (or a “gainer” or “loser” or “owner” or “husband” or “wife” or “widow”) also end.

All of those false identities are about your false nature. The invitation is to find Your Real Nature and thereby be free of all delusions. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

Visit AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT

Your Real Nature Prior to Manifestation, Part One

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 22 March 2008] A woman in my office sent me a copy of what you wrote today. When I read the words from the woman who said she’d never been anything but Waynes wife, I froze I felt paralized. I got a chill because I’ve felt the same way since my husband passed. You helped her in a retreat but I can’t get off work to come there. I feel like my life has been on hold since he died and that has been years ago. I go through the motions, but I do not feel like I am even there. I want peace. I had to get a job and I got busy with work and church but here I am years later and nothing has changed. I have read some other things from you but I can’t begin to understnd what youre talking about but if you helped her I figure its worth asking. Can you help me?

F.: Unfortunately (relatively speaking) the answer is, probably not...not now at least.

You come here wanting your pain to be liquidated, the root of which is understood exactly. Here, however, I would liquidate “you,” were you ready. With that liquidation, there would be no “one” left to experience the mental and emotional pain that you speak of. But that would make no sense to you at this point.

The readiness is all. Religion has not given you peace (but then, how could it since before Christ was, I Am and You Are). It is not likely, though, that the philosophy shared on this site can result in peace for you either…not at this point. While your request for help will not be ignored, other avenues at this point might be more appropriate.

Could the Advaita teachings free you of the pain of the relative existence you are describing if you arranged a face-to-face encounter that moves you from the first step on the “journey” to the last. Possibly. But since that is not possible, you might consider this:

If you decide to follow another course of action at this point, e-mail this site and you will be re-directed to a highly competent therapist who knows professionals across the nation who are trained in treating PTSD with a clinical—rather than a religious or spiritual or philosophical—approach.

She can put you into contact with someone in your area who can offer treatment that is level appropriate (meaning, that counselor will meet you “where you are” right now, so to speak. That current state is not one in which you are prepared for the Advaita understanding).

Next, since many among the non-Realized will relate to the situation you have described, and since some of them might be ready, the topic will be addressed. (Even those who are “almost” ready might be moved toward the understanding is the seeds being scattered via this site should take root.)

The seeds being spread here are the seeds of consciousness. If they become planted, and if the weeds of “the mind” are pruned, then pointers taken into consideration might eventually bloom into buds of truth which might spring forth and blossom into a full understanding. Let the sowing begin.

Here, Your Real Nature is discussed. The unnatural state of the non-Realized is one of being conscious but without awareness. Persons talk in their sleep and walk in their sleep and argue in their sleep and drive in the sleep. Some in cars travel for miles without even looking at the road.

Some leave on a journey and hardly remember anything about the trip. Here, the invitation to visitors and seekers is to take the “journey” to Realization and thereafter abide in a state of Eternal Awareness, not as Consciousness but as the Absolute.

Here, the invitation is to abandon the notion of “being this” or “being that” (including “wife,” “former wife,” or “widow”) and merely be in a pure state of consciousness. To know the pure consciousness and to be the pure consciousness is the antidote for the state of “being this or that” which follows the corruption of or blocking of the manifest consciousness.

“Being this or that” involves the assumption of false identities that are assumed or assigned post manifestation of the consciousness. Your Real Nature existed prior to the arising of any consciousness of the Am-ness or Is-ness.

If some mantra or exercise is thought to be required, then stay with the “I Am” only until You become aware of That Which Is prior to the “I am consciousness.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

Visit AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT

“This” is all relative…THAT is Absolute, Part Eleven, The Conclusion

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

F.: [Continued from yesterday. Please see the 9 March 2008 posting for the e-mail which is being responded to in this series]

Yesterday, this pointer was offered: “When a persona feels hurt or threatened or interfered with, it is not a relative issue to the non-Realized person who is taking that persona to be a real self; instead, the challenge is perceived as a ‘life-or-death’ crisis.”

All personas that are assigned or adopted will be considered a requirement for survival; thus, if “The Wife” announces to “The Husband” that she is leaving, that husband persona will literally believe that it is not facing a challenge but is facing an attack that will lead to extinction itself.

Thus, each year in the U.S., 59% of all murdered women are killed as they attempt to end their relationships with males. In some cases, drugs or alcohol are involved, but in all cases, personas are involved.

Feeling as if their very existence is being threatened literally, “The Lovers” or “The Husbands” strike out in what their “minds” are insanely telling them (unconsciously) is an act of defense…not offense.

While those killings often happen in houses or apartments, the same happenings occur between states and regions and nations as arrogant leaders—identified with their “good” personas and assigning “bad” labels to “others”—commit relative existence acts of offense while claiming that their actions are “defensive.”

Thus, Danny, you can now see that all of the historical and current instances of murder and war and genocide you mentioned in your e-mail are rooted in the fictional beliefs of the fictional “mind,” including the belief among the non-Realized that personas are real.

Trapped in persona-identities, there is no peace among the non-Realized since energy is spent trying to maintain images and fighting all of the erroneously-perceived threats to personas and image.

If an Advaitin teacher or a psychologist comes along and suggests to one who is attached to a false identity that she/he consider abandoning that false role and finding the True Self, the very invitation to abandon personality (which was originally believed during childhood to be a necessary adaptation for survival) will often be seen as a literal threat or attack to the same person in adulthood.

Not only will fear manifest. The fear will often be accompanied by anger, a desire to fight, or a desire for flight…flight away from the one casting light on lies that have been believed to be truth, often for years or even decades.

The longer an identity has been considered to be a real identity, the greater will be the resistance to forfeiting that role. If the role is removed without the role-player’s agreement, then comes what Ralph Klein described in an earlier post as “mourning” for the perceived loss of an “illusion,” a bogus “identity,” the “false self.”

Thus, one woman reported in a satsang session that, “since the death of my husband, I have been lost because I’ve never been anything other than 'Wayne’s wife.' I’m here because you helped a friend of mine get past this same thing.”

She had been trying, unsuccessfully, to face what Klein called “a relinquishing of the only way of being that [she] had ever known.” The pointer shared with her was that, if she were to be free, then she would have to shift “beyond being wife or widow” to just “being.”

The expression that appeared on her face after hearing that pointer revealed that the suggestion made no sense at all, but before the end of the retreat during which each of the seven steps on the “path” to Reality were explained, the suggestion to shift “beyond being wife or widow” to just “being” was understood.

So what about you, Danny? Do you now understand the roots of all of the insane and brutal relative happenings about which you inquired? Do you understand why the invitation is for you to focus not on the illusions called “the world” but on the reality of the True Self and the Absolute?

Do you understand the repeated invitations from Advaitins to cast aside your ideas and beliefs and attitudes and personas and, yes, the illusion of “mind” as well? Do you understand that you are not in the world but that the world is in you?

Do you understand the state of non-attachment and the position of neutrality and the peace that can follow if that understanding is grasped? Do you understand that “this” is not real and that THAT is? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

Visit AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT

“This” is all relative…THAT is Absolute, Part Ten

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as taught by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

F.: To Sh Vijan regarding your request to re-publish in your magazine in India: the e-mail address you provided is not accepting mail, so the response that was sent (but returned as undeliverable) will be posted here:

Many sites re-publish the daily postings from this site. Though the postings are copyrighted, they can be re-published free of charge as long the source is credited and as long as they are not being sold for profit. Best regards, Peace and Light.

[Continued from Monday. Please see the 9 March posting for the e-mail which is being responded to in this series] Next, you are invited to see that (a) personas which are taken to be real are actually nothing more than mirages—adopted or assigned—but that (b) they nevertheless foster dependency and thus preempt freedom during the relative existence.

The analogy offered on occasion is of a car being driven on a winding road along a mountainside. Imagine that the driver sees a mirage in the road ahead, swerves to “miss” the mirage, and plunges off the cliff in a fiery crash. That is exactly what happens when persons identify with personality, when they believe in and react to images, and when they allow the thought-word-deed continuum to generate pain and suffering in the relative.

The earliest false identities that are assigned and/or assumed include “boy” or “girl.” Duality is then introduced, and “good boy” vs. “bad boy” or “good girl” vs. “bad girl” follow. Then “son” or “daughter” are followed by “the good or bad son” or “the good or bad daughter.”

As the confusion and frustration generated by duality increases, children begin to adopt one of the nine basic personality types in order to cope with family dysfunctions and the reward-punishment syndromes that accompany the assignment of “good-bad” dualities.

The dependency on parents transforms into a dependency on “approving vs. non-approving parents” and on “happy vs. angry parents.” Co-dependency begins (and usually continues throughout the entire relative existence unless persons Realize). The result is this:

Developing one of the nine basic personality types, “The Perfectionists” become dependent upon persons, especially those who will convince them that they are “good” and on those “persons in error” that allow “The Perfectionist’s” judging and criticizing to manifest;

“The Helper” becomes dependent upon the masses in order to try to gain mass approval and mass love to compensate for the perception that the desired level of “needed love” or “needed approval” was missing during childhood and must be gained during adulthood;

“The Performers” will become dependent upon feedback from a mass audience to convince them that they are worthy and successful and admired and to provide their narcissism with the level of applause and “honor” and recognition that Threes desire;

“The Romanticists” will depend upon others to fulfill dreams and fantasies until “The Romantics” reach a point where they isolate and begin a search for the Authentic Self (after which they might enjoy the solitude);

“The Analyst” will become dependent upon others who can be impressed with his/her acquired knowledge;

“The Loyalist” will become dependent upon others to provide the “protection” that they desire as a result of their fears and insecurities;

“The Adventurer” will be dependent upon others for socialization and shared entertainment;

“The Boss” will be dependent upon persons who can be controlled; and

“The Peacemakers/The Slothful Ones” will be dependent upon others to meet all of their needs for food and clothing and shelter and money, feeling they are “entitled” and believing that they should not have to work to meet their own relative existence needs.

In all cases, belief in personas results in dependency, and any dependency robs persons of freedom...of independence. Considering all of the relative consequences of being driven by personality, why is a relinquishing of belief in personas and roles so difficult for persons?

Children adopt a personality (a) in order to adapt to abnormal and dysfunctional and threatening environments and (b) as a result of what they truly think, unconsciously, is an adaptation necessary for their very survival.

Thus, when a persona feels hurt or threatened or interfered with, it is not a relative issue to the non-Realized person who is taking that persona to be a real self; instead, the challenge is perceived as a “life-or-death” crisis. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (TOMORROW: The Conclusion)

Notice: Because of requests from people who want to limit the time away from their job, some weekend retreats will be offered in ’08. You arrive on Thursday PM or Friday AM, depart Sunday PM or Monday AM. All of the content will be presented, just as during the retreats that take place during the week.

Visit AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT