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
