An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hey Floyd, I love your site!! Well, I was programmed by catholicism and I'm still having trouble realizing that there is no heaven/hell... I still have a fear that I may create my own hell or that there might be a hell.. How can I deprogram myself from this fear? Are you positive there is no hell?? peace and love alex
F.: Thus, here are the dualistic effects on a planet where six billion people claim membership in one of the three religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Of those three, Judaism has been around for about 4000 years, and it has been shown that the writings that the Jews think are “holy” were written by Moses (who merely plagiarized and retold stories that had been circulated for over 500 years by members of pagan religions).
The stories common to all included a Great Flood story, stories about a supernatural power leading people from captivity to freedom, and creation stories.
(In the text used by Jews and in the “holy book” of the Judaeo-Christians, there are two totally different, totally contradictory versions of how earth was created in the book called “Genesis.” Moses had heard both told during his day, so he included both. So few have every read the the "scriptures" for themselves that they are unaware of that fallibility in the very first book of the text they take to be the “infallible word” of their God.)
The Jewish writings (which the Christians include in their “Bible”) are a series of tales that recount a pattern throughout: the Jewish people are being “bad”; God allows “others” to persecute them and they suffer miserably as a result; punished and beaten into submission, they finally appeal to God and “reconnect” with him; he sends God-fearing leaders who lead the Jews to victory over their enemies; prosperity prevails; the Jews move away from their God and enjoy their new-found freedom and prosperity; their God reigns down misery upon them again; and their “scriptures” recount that same cycle being repeated dozens of times.
Concepts based in duality are set forth and reinforced: “enemies vs. friends”; “others”; “people being good vs. people being bad”; a “God handing out punishments vs. a God handing out rewards”; “misery and suffering vs. prosperity and joy”; a relative existence in which fluctuation and chaos are normalized; a supernatural God who is nevertheless co-dependent…in relationship with people on earth who can “make him happy vs. make him sad and/or mad.”
Eventually, the Jews could not even agree on “the proper dogma and interpretation and practices” so they began to subdivide into various sects that battled with each other for religious control and superiority. They all claim to be “Jewish” but their in-fighting and disunity have destroyed any sense of unity (of the “unicity”) and duality prevails.
Two thousand years after Moses, Christianity evolved from the pagan-Judaeo teachings and followed the same route, teaching dualistic concepts and, like the Jews, fighting among themselves over doctrine and interpretation and practice. Eventually, like the Jews before them, they broke relations, formed splinter groups, and disorganized into over 1000 different denominations and sects and cults and sub-cults. They all claim to be “Christians” but their in-fighting and disunity have destroyed any sense of unity (of the “unicity”) and duality prevails.
Islam would begin to evolve some 600 years after Christianity and would eventually form sects. Many among those sects are bent on destroying each other as well as the members of the other two religions of Abraham. They all claim to be “Muslims” but their in-fighting and disunity have destroyed any sense of unity (of the “unicity”) and duality prevails.
A study of the history of other religions and philosophies reveals the same path of splintering and fighting with “others.” Here’s the way it was explained in May of ’06 (see archives for more).
Programming, conditioning, indoctrination, dogma, concepts, and beliefs corrupted the pure consciousness and resulted in a need for THE ORIGINAL UNDERSTANDING that could free persons of the misery of living a relative existence that was (and is) burdened by the handicap of their bastardized consciousness. Fictional teachings were spread, and myths and superstitions were given credibility via the religions and the spiritual programs or movements of men that persons considered “holy.” Eventually, their efforts blurred the line between religions and philosophies and philosophies and spiritual movements. Concepts based in duality followed, along with the separation that religions inspire. Evidence of the divisiveness and duality that religions generate can be seen when it is realized that…
…in Hinduism, multiple pathways sprang up, multiple texts sprang up, multiple systems sprang up, multiple subcategories of those systems eventually sprang up, devotional practices sprang up, and multiple schools of thought sprang up;
…in Christianity, multiple denominations sprang up, multiple sects sprang up, and multiple sub-sects sprang up;
…in Islam and Judaism, multiple sects sprang up.
That is the pattern of religions: once defined, codified, organized, and practicing, some of the members break relationship, break away, and begin a modified version that better suits their agenda; hence, the near-infinite number of faiths, religions, sects, denominations and subgroups.
Whereas THE ORIGINAL UNDERSTANDING knew only the Oneness, the vast number of religions and philosophies now fester with the lies of “duality” or “multiplicity.” Division, separation, partitioning, and disconnection are the result of the efforts by religious persons and/or spiritual persons that have distorted THE ORIGINAL UNDERSTANDING and created illusory concepts like “separate,” “different,” “apart from,” “subjects and objects,” “good vs. bad,” “right vs. wrong,” “moral vs. immoral,” and “acceptable vs. unacceptable.”
Those concepts, in turn, have reinforced a false sense of separation and have inspired judging, fighting, debate, argument, and wars while claiming to provide a foolproof prescription for peace and harmony in this relative existence. They continue to attract followers around the globe by promising that they can assure eternal continuity for the body-mind-personality triad…all three of which are as fictional as the promises of an eternal re-manifestation of body and mind and personality as held forth by religious and spiritual persons.
For the sake of accuracy, it can be said that religions merely perpetuate the duality that arrogant, controlling, ignorant men dreamed up and codified into “religious and spiritual movements.” It was those ignorant persons who actually generated the dualistic concepts and who were able to control the masses by tapping into the fears and desires of persons.
Now, organized religions see to it that the dualistic concepts are passed on from one generation to the next as "truth," and people such as Alex who wrote the e-mail above are looking for some way to be de-programmed and to be free of the instability and misery and suffering and insanity that result from having been taught all of the nonsense that currently drives six billion people on the planet, all trapped in effects of their learned ignorance.
How to be free? This is the beginning of the process...seeing how the religion/cult that programmed you is based in lies and passes on lies. The "pre-step" before taking the first step of the Seven-Step Journey to Reality is an impartial and objective questioning of the nonsense that has been formerly accepted as unquestionable truth and fact. Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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