An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Why do so few ever realize?
F.: [Continued from last Monday] It was seen in the posting on August 11th how billions are set up—via religious dogma and personality—to never Realize and how only 1/2 of 1% of the earth’s population is even slightly “pre-disposed” to a search for the Authentic Self. “Spirituality” was also mentioned but requires further explanation since it is a major hindrance to Realization as well:
SPIRITUALITY
On the seven-step “journey” to Realization (and to the end of role-playing) the irony is that the third step involves…role-playing. Many who adopt a spiritual persona boast that they are “spiritual, not religious,” having assumed a “good role” (“The Spiritual Giant”) as a replacement for their former “bad roles.”
With the adoption of the ego-state of “The Spiritual One” come more dualistic beliefs of “separate from” and “better than”: “I am a completely different person from who I used to be”; “that former person no longer exists”; or, “I am better than religious people…on a much higher plane than them.”
Since all dualistic concepts are lies, then all that has happened with the adoption of the spiritual role is that one set of lies that was taken to be true is replaced with a new set of lies that is taken to be true.
Also, since a new ego-state has been adopted, egotism and other ego-defense mechanisms will be triggered. With egotism will come an increased sense of “separation” and a sense of being “better than,” both of which block any chance of ever seeing the Oneness and any chance of continuing along the “path” to Full Realization.
Interestingly, the promises offered by members of many spiritual groups are less ambitious than the promises implied by religions. Religions usually encourage attendance at weekly meetings. One man said, “Sunday services prepare me to handle things during the week, but by the following Saturday, my spiritual body has been side-swiped, rear-ended and towed off, so on Sundays I need some spiritual body work.”
Most “spiritual groups” are even less ambitious than religions when it comes to claims about their benefits, warning members that their effects only provide a “twenty-four hour reprieve” rather than religions' implication that they offer a seven-day reprieve.
Thus, both religion as well as the prevalent spiritual groups, in their effort to keep people coming back, never suggest that any permanent “shift” can happen which would bring to an end all of the religious or spiritual work and seeking and effort and toil and laboring and striving and doing and practicing (and, yes, tithing or donating) that are their stock and trade.
Among those who think they have reached a spiritual plane, the fact is that they are dabbling in what is really nothing more than kindergarten-level spirituality and learned ignorance. Why? Because they have become stuck at the third of seven steps rather than Realizing Fully.
Whether an assumed role involves religious beliefs or spiritual concepts, it is still a false role; therefore, those roles—as well as all of the beliefs and concepts that come along with the roles—are bogus. The third step (of religious or spiritual role-playing) must be transcended if Realization is to happen.
IGNORANCE
Along with all of the religious and spiritual ignorance that billions have learned, there is the fourth hindrance to Realization, namely, all of the other forms of learned ignorance. Those include ignorant, magical beliefs about how babies are made; ignorance about how a physical body comes into being and is sustained via plant food;
ignorance about how energy manifests; ignorance about how plant food is converted into human cells; ignorance about how non-usable energy is made usable; and ignorance regarding the fact that nothing can be created or destroyed.
Because 6.5 billion of the planet’s 7 billion persons are religious and have been taught "nonsense biology" rather than the actual, basic principles of biology, they do not understand the simple, natural processes of evolution, genetics, cell formation, and homeostasis.
Moreover, their ignorance prevents any understanding of the more complex, unnatural psychological factors that drive thoughts and words and deeds.
The combination of both biological and psychological ignorance ties in again with religious and spiritual ignorance as persons accept nonsensical teachings that lead them to believe that naturally-occurring events are really being controlled supernaturally.
The setup then is to believe that a god or gods are controlling pregnancies, weather patterns, floods, earthquakes, accidental deaths (“there’s some reason god had for taking your little angel”) and the paths of hurricanes (“Katrina hit New Orleans because of the bad karma of the people there,” according to the Dalai Lama).
When persons are trapped in ignorance, they are also trapped in a cycle that leaves them susceptible to believing even more ignorant teachings in all areas of the relative existence. What possible chance exists for them to understand the ancient Advaita teachings that are supported now by modern, scientific evidence? What possible chance exists for them to Realize? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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