“ADVAITA, A-Z” Part Three, The Conclusion

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: The way you laid out the advaitan pointers 1-7 was helpful. How about doing the same for those of us new to A.V.? I mean sort of a simple, straight forward 1-2-3 overview. Also do you have any mantras or meditations for beginners? Thank you. Thomas

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: So, with that "A-Z" piece possibly providing what you requested for beginners, let this series end with the reminder that all of the doingness is not necessary for Realization. What is required is a teacher who can determine where on the path you are and what pointers are required to shift you to the next step on the “journey.”

Reading #97 in the “Meditation Guide, Volume One” deals with so-called “Self-Transformation” (a misnomer in itself…merely a use of the verbiage that beginners can relate to) . In that reading, all of the typical going and doing and zooming by many seekers is addressed. It is shown (1) that many seekers are enthralled with such doingness and (2) that all of their religious or spiritual activities often trap them in spiritual workaholism.

Use “Advaita, A-Z” but know that at some point all doingness can end. Consider the pointers in the reading for "day 97." After the reading, consider whether or not you might eventually be free of that workaholism. The reading begins with an excerpt from a non-duality novel as it reviews one seeker's life-long efforts. That excerpt is followed by a consideration.

97

In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he’d been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he’d been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life’s Meaning, he’d been communion’d, Om’d, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram’d, accepted, rejected, Mu’d, and yoga’d; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he’d been pulverized, martinized, and frappéd; and in the endeavor to attain Life Eternal, he’d been baptized, Buddha’d, New Aged, powwow’d, Far Eastern Indianized, incense’d, sage’d, Tao’d, Peru’d, Tibet’d, washed in the blood, dunked in the waters, and purportedly purified. (pp. 42-43, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)

Consideration: What if Full Realization happened instead to be as close as the “inner guru”? Carbon-dating of human skeletons prove that mankind has walked the earth for millions of years. The question is, how did humans “make it” for millions of years without all of that doingness, without candles and bells, without gongs and incense, without bowing or genuflecting, without tithing or serving, without special books and special robes and special dogma or special, spiritual exercises?

[NOTE: That notion that humans “made it” for millions of years is called into question by fundamentalists at the far right of the reasoning spectrum.Those fundamentalists ignore scientific evidence and believe instead in the “Ussher Chronology”—a system of dating the earth that is based in Bishop James Ussher’s literal reading of the Old Testament during the 17^th century. By totaling the years recorded in the “begats” (this person begat that one and he lived this many years, etc.), Ussher concluded that the first day of the “Creation Process as reported in Genesis” occurred at nightfall the day before October 23, 4004 B.C. (using the Julian calendar).

Using that bit of nonsense, modern fundamentalists use Ussher's dating method (a) to determine that the earth is only a little over 6000 years old, (b) to conclude that scientists who speak of evolution and a multi-million-year-old planet are liars, and (c) to conclude that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth together.]

Using the scientific evidence available, however, the question can be asked again: "How did humans make it for millions of years without all of the religious and spiritual and self-improvement methods that are catalogued in the excerpt above?"

What has changed that supposedly requires that modern humans work so hard at their religious or spiritual activities in order to be free and to find peace? Is it possible that finding the answer to that question might be a key to being free of working at being at peace so that one can just be at peace, period? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click LIBERATION

“ADVAITA, A-Z” Part Two

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: The way you laid out the advaitan pointers 1-7 was helpful. How about doing the same for those of us new to A.V.? I mean sort of a simple, straight forward 1-2-3 overview. Also do you have any mantras or meditations for beginners? Thank you. Thomas

F.: [Continued from yesterday]

R. Realize this: I am not my mind, because what I call “my mind” is just a collection of ideas, emotions, and beliefs that were given to me by others. I didn’t even choose my name, much less all the beliefs I have. I’ve been programmed with faulty values and beliefs.

S. Realize this: I have allowed myself to be swept along through life by the emotions of desire and fear that generate reactions that stem from beliefs that I never chose.

T. Therefore, I need to rid myself of the influence of ideas, emotions and beliefs.

U. Realize this: There is no such thing as peace of mind. The “mind” (which is just a collection of wrong ideas, sweeping emotions, and programmed beliefs) is the source of all chaos I seemingly experience.

V. Realize this: There is no “second” or “higher” self to search for. There is only one Real Me. To find it, I need but see the illusions that aren’t real but that I’m nevertheless using to define who I think I am.

W. Realize this: There is no “path” to travel to find what I seek. The Real Me is here and now. The “journey” is to nowhere but right here and now. Only now is Real. The “past” and “future” are illusions.

X. Realize this: Effort is not required, though it certainly characterizes “the searching and seeking” that many engage in. Non-effort is required. Living in the drama caused by believing I’m my body-mind is effort. Seeing Reality—my Real Self—takes no effort except to watch for the false states as they arise and then ask, “What false ego-state is causing my discontentment,” and then turn back to acknowledging my Real Self. Later, I will just flow through life.

Y. Realize this: At first, I must be the observer in the audience, watching all the drama being played out by my false selves and the false selves of others. I must guard against believing the play is real. It’s not. Everyone is play-acting out the images they have of themselves. They are not showing me their Real Self because they think they are their images. Images are illusions. The dramas we act out are not Real. They have nothing to do with the Real Me. Why react to things not Real?

Z. Realize the simplicity: all I have to do is be awake to see that anger and discontentment are the alarms showing that I’ve entered an illusory ego-state and feel threatened; then see that the Real Me is forever and I cannot be attacked; and then turn away from the illusion.

So there you are, Thomas. Maybe the above will met your request until you have no requests, until you know that You Are the Pure Witnessing Consciousness for as long as You Are temporarily manifested.

Afterwards, You might witness that which is beyond even this manifestation and, knowing that You Are That, abide as That for the remainder of the manifestation after understanding Your original nature and abiding there as.

[Tomorrow, you’ll be offered a few pointers about shifting from the doingness to the beingness.] Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

Click LIBERATION

“ADVAITA, A-Z” Part One

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: The way you laid out the advaitan pointers 1-7 was helpful. How about doing the same for those of us new to A.V.? I mean sort of a simple, straight forward 1-2-3 overview. Also do you have any mantras or meditations for beginners? Thank you. Thomas

F.: Hello, Thomas. Of course the only mantra that my teacher assigned was the “I AM”—stay in the I AM. Break the habit, the programming, and the conditioning that inspire the non-Realized to add labels after “I am”—labels that reinforce false identifications. So if it’s a mantra you want, use the “I AM” only for now.

But Westerners want “more,” correct? To “do a mantra” or to “do a reading each day” or to “do meditation” is all early-stage activity, undertaken when there is an erroneous belief that there is a do-er and that doing is required. Early on, those are typical activities among beginning seekers.

Eventually, when you move through the wet charcoal stage and the dry charcoal stage and reach the gunpowder stage, then a key pointer or two might explode away all of the few remaining beliefs and will bring all doingness to an end. Then, the “beingness only” happens.

In the meanwhile, here’s something that was sent to a seeker back in the year 2000 who made a request similar to yours. (He happened to be seeking “the bliss of Realization.”) The response was what came to be called “Advaita, A to Z” which will be shared with you now.

A. The only way to experience bliss is to see Truth.

B. Those who claim to be telling The Truth—religions, programs, spiritual movements—all contradict themselves. None of them know the Truth, none of them know the Real Self, and none of them have ever shown anyone how to get into touch with the True Self.

C. Admit this: I cannot answer the question “Who Am I, Really?” In the beginning. I can only answer the question, “Who Am I NOT?” I am not this false self, my false images, my ego-states. Only if I first find who I’m not is it possible for Who I Am to be Realized.

D. Admit this: When I find all the roles I’ve thought I am, and when I eliminate belief in all of those illusions, then I AM only what is left after seeing all the false. That is Truth—that is the Real Me.

E. Admit this: So there is a Real Me, a Me that is beyond—that is forever. I AM THAT only.

[SEE IF YOU CAN RELATE TO THESE TYPICAL RELATIVE SCENARIOS]
F. Awareness of the True Self was suppressed when I was a child.

G. I was never more than a potentiality.

H. I fixated emotionally and mentally as a child.

I. The residue of traumatic events became suppressed in my subconscious and in every cell of the body.

J. They will trigger reactions that throw me into egotistical over-reactions and that generate emotional intoxication.

[REALIZE THE FOLLOWING]:
K. Ego-states (A.K.A., mental states, false selves, states-of-being, roles) are illusions.

L. When I go into ego, egotism materializes to protect the image.

M. If I can see the illusion, I am the observer, seeing the false image.

N. I can become the witness of thoughts that are false, and eventually the Pure Witness only for the remainder of the manifestation.

O. If it is bliss I seek, then I must understand that relative problems will diminish to the degree that identification with the body and the mind and the personality are diminished.

P. Admit this: I am not my body. It will decay, but I will not. I am not my body, because if you cut off my arms and legs and even transplant another heart into me, I AM still “Me.” So what I Really AM is something beyond my body.

Q. Realize this: The Real Me is forever; the body is a temporary housing…a temporary space. Just because I move about in a car does not mean that I am the car.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:
>Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT
and
>Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY
and
>Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
and
>Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
and
>Click LIBERATION

THE STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN IT IS READY TO FORFEIT BELIEF IN THE PERSONAL SELF AND A PERSONAL GOD, Part Four, The Conclusion

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.

[Continued from 26 Sep 2008] Yesterday’s post ended with a sharing of the response to a reply to a visitor’s e-mail:

THE VISITOR’S RESPONSE: Spectacular! Yes! All I was seeing was Ego's rebuilding new Egos that they found more acceptable.... nothing internal. It was seeming crazy to me. I will take these thoughts I am attaching to into inquiry and they will be undone as the others have.

So simple. It is shocking to me that it was unseen before, but alas, it is sweet today to stop the rebuilding of self. Oh, and this 7 steps, I will read more about that on your website, as I am unravelling and sometimes feel "unguided", and that too is just a thought...

I love that you are in the world, Floyd and thank you again so much. Your words had me laughing out loud as they matched what I could not yet seem to articulate. Glad to get your books, too.

F.’s reply to the follow-up e-mail from the site visitor: Indeed, there can be no path since a path would be traveled by a walker and there is no “one” to walk. [There is the Pure Witness that can notice walking if it happens or does not, but still...no walker.] Your order has shipped, so when you read about a “journey,” then you will already know that it is a journey not only to nowhere but to no-thing. Regards, Peace and Light, f.

The exchange recalls several Advaitin pointers:

1. The readiness is all.

2. The teacher must determine the seeker’s “position” on the “seven-step path.”

3. Level appropriate pointers must be offered.

4. Steps cannot be skipped and must be completed in order. There was an exact order by which the consciousness manifested and became convinced that it was the “I.” The shift from identification with the false “I” to abidance as the Absolute must be completed in the exact reverse order in which the conscious-energy manifested and was programmed to believe in the false “I.” (The way Maharaj put it was: “…You should go back, reverse, to the source.”)

5. A willingness to ask “Is that true?” in reference to every idea and concept and belief is a prerequisite for movement along the “path” to Realization.

6. To find Who/What You Are, you must find everything that you are not but that you have taken yourself to be.

7. The consciousness that is “ready” is marked either by (1) non-attachment to any persons, any places, any things, any concepts, any ideas, and dualism, or by (2) a willingness to at least question attachment to any persons, any places, any things, any concepts, any ideas, and dualism.

So, L.L., it is to be seen if, after reading about the third and fourth steps in the FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, if the shift beyond step three and into step four happens.

This is a pivotal juncture on the "journey" because there are seven degrees of separation from Reality among all persons, (that is, among all of the non-Realized). Steps One, Two, and Three involve removal of "The First Three Degrees of Separation from Reality." Step Four begins "The Movement Toward Reality." Regards.
FOR THE FULL DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER, YOU MAY ORDER:

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS

Click FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

THE STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN IT IS READY TO FORFEIT BELIEF IN THE PERSONAL SELF AND A PERSONAL GOD, Part Three

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: After 2 years of putting thousands of thoughts and concepts that were rising in what I then described as "My Mind" up against the question, "Is That True"? I started to become aware (none of how I am saying this is quite true, but language is by nature separating, I am seeing....) that nothing was true, and what I am NOT was clear. And now even what I appear to be, and what the world appears to be is okey dokey too, i just don't believe it anymore!

Anyway, my question is this. [The visitor at this point described her involvement in a quasi-spiritual religious group and revealed that she is beginning to question her attachment.] She continued:

Ego is really clinging here and I would love to hear your response to this. I googled [certain topics] and there you were! I am not a student of Advaita, but after this "experience" i describe above, I was given a book on advaita and it MATCHED totally with this awareness, now aware of itself, in this space here. So strange to try and language this. Coming from no spiritual path, I am finding language very limiting. PS: Loving your blog. "My" head just nodding, YES YES YES as I read and recognize truth. L.L.

F.: [Continued from yesterday] Note in the visitor’s e-mail how she shares the most critical prerequisite, the indisputable requirement, for breaking free of the hold of personas and beliefs that accompany fixation at the third step of the seven-step “journey” to Realization:

At the third step—the religious and/or spiritual step—no shift to the next step can happen unless it is asked, as she has asked, “Is That True?” Notice, too, in her e-mail that it was only after she began applying that question to each of her beliefs and ideas and concepts could she say, “I started to become aware….”

Few, however, will ever have the courage to ask that question because they are so deeply attached to their supposedly “good” personas that are supported by unquestioned beliefs; thus, it can be seen that the adoption of “good” personas actually proves to be a hindrance to continuing and completing the “journey.” Why?

(1) Because those who are convinced that their current practices and their cherished beliefs have made them “good persons” will not seek any further; and (2) because those who are sure that they have “gotten it” will be assured they need not question anything anymore and that they need not search for anything anymore.

In fact, they will be assured by their programmers that to so much as question any of an organization’s concepts and ideas and beliefs will guarantee disaster, just as religious programmers will assure their members that questioning any of their concepts or ideas or beliefs will guarantee eternal punishment.

That “Aye Aye, Sir!” mentality keeps persons fixed in the ignorance that results from a refusal to question the most nonsensical teachings and will assure that darkness will continue until the end of that manifestation.

If the words of the visitor quoted above had indicated that she was at the body identification stage, then pointers would have been offered to provide an opportunity to shift to the second stage. In her case, however, it was determined that she is at the third of the seven steps.

Thus, the suggestions that were offered were presented as an invitation for her to consider a shift to the fourth level. (She will be reading FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE as a guide to that fourth step, and then possibly beyond.) Part of the response to the initial e-mail follows]

F.: Hello. On the “journey”—which is a journey to nowhere since You Are where you have been trying to be and since You Already Are That Which You have been seeking—the terms “path” or “journey” are only used for the sake of pointing the way to Realization via seven steps that can shift you from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute.

The third phase on the path is the spiritual or religious step. That is where [such religious and spiritual groups] can get you, but that is also where they will cause you to fixate. The third step is required, but it is not the end of the journey, contrary to what “they” will tell you.

What happens to persons who [join such religious or spiritual groups] is this:

1. Old personas that you were told were “bad” are merely replaced with new personas that you are told are “good”: “The Helper,” “The One Serving Others,” “The Spiritual Woman” or “The Religious Woman” or both, etc.

2. Old programming is replaced with new programming but neither reveals truth—both are sources of concepts and lies that are not based in Reality.

While 95%+ do not stay for even five years in such programs or groups as you’ve mentioned, for many it becomes their new monomania, there entire life. Some few others might eventually ask, “Is this all there is?” Maybe you are approaching that place?

Some see that the third step cannot be all there is. A few will complete the “journey” to Full Realization. I would never suggest to anyone that they should do this or should not do that.

The invitation instead is to question—which you are doing—and to see if indeed there is more than you've found so far and to see if what you have been told so far is really true. Eventually, if you complete all seven steps to The Great Reality, you will find that for a time you get “the more, the rest.”

Later, you might find that you “get” the Nothingness. You have likely worn yourself out by accumulating. Maybe de-accumulation can prove to be a more peaceful alternative. You are finding all that you are not. When you know all that you are not, then That Which You Truly Are will spring into awareness. Peace and Light, f.

THE VISITOR’S RESPONSE: Spectacular! Yes! All I was seeing was Ego's rebuilding new Egos that they found more acceptable....nothing internal. It was seeming crazy to me. I will take these thoughts I am attaching to into inquiry and they will be undone as the others have.

So simple. It is shocking to me that it was unseen before, but alas, it is sweet today to stop the rebuilding of self. Oh, and this 7 steps, I will read more about that on your website, as I am unravelling and sometimes feel "unguided", and that too is just a thought.

I love that you are in the world, Floyd and thank you again so much. Your words had me laughing out loud as they matched what I could not yet seem to articulate. Glad to get your books, too.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be concluded tomorrow)

FOR THE FULL DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER, YOU MAY ORDER:

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS

Click FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

THE STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN IT IS READY TO FORFEIT BELIEF IN THE PERSONAL SELF AND A PERSONAL GOD, Part Two

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: After 2 years of putting thousands of thoughts and concepts that were rising in what I then described as "My Mind" up against the question, "Is That True"? I started to become aware (none of how I am saying this is quite true, but language is by nature separating, I am seeing) that nothing was true, and what I am NOT was clear. And now even what I appear to be, and what the world appears to be is okey dokey too, i just don't believe it anymore!

Anyway, my question is this. [The visitor at this point described her involvement in a quasi-spiritual religious group and revealed what seems to be the early stirrings of a less-blocked consciousness that is beginning to question the value of attachment to the group. She is also beginning to see, it seems, that the real attachment is not as much to the group as it is to the ego-states generated by membership in the group and to all of the related “doingness” that had previously been undertaken without any independent questioning on her part about whether or not any of the teachings or activities really make any sense.] She continued:

Ego is really clinging here and I would love to hear your response to this. I googled [certain topics] and there you were! I am not a student of Advaita, but after this "experience" i describe above, I was given a book on advaita and it MATCHED totally with this awareness, now aware of itself, in this space here. So strange to try and language this. Coming from no spiritual path, I am finding language very limiting. PS: Loving your blog. "My" head just nodding, YES YES YES as I read and recognize truth. L.L.

F.: To continue with the point offered yesterday, it is the task of the teacher to read or listen to the words of a seeker and to determine “where” on the “path” the person might be. Then, pointers can be offered that might allow the seeker to shift to the next level.

The key? The “state” of the consciousness, or more specifically, the degree to which programming has blocked the consciousness from accessing itSelf and from knowing itSelf. Only if the readiness is present (that is, only if the consciousness within can begin to question beliefs and ideas and concepts that have previously gone unquestioned) can pointers initiate any shift at all.

The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Realization) is a set of transcriptions of satsang sessions that were taped. One exchange touched on the subject of readiness:

F.: “Early on, my teacher guessed that one in ten thousand might make it to the ‘end’ [of the ‘path’ to Realization]; later, he predicted one in a million. He was only guessing, but he might have been close.

Questioner: “Not very good odds.”

F.: “Indeed.”

Questioner: "Maybe we need better teachers." [Laughter]

F.: "Indeed."

Questioner: “No fight? Ha.”

F.: “None. The variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all. Are you ready?”

Questioner: “Yes.”

F.: “We’ll see.”

In the case of the e-mail from the visitor cited above, it is obvious that the seeker is at the third of the seven steps to Realization. Most are placed in that level from early on as a result of religious indoctrination during childhood. Some “find religion” or “find god” or “find spirituality” later on and enter into the third level during adulthood.

Persons in the former group who were indoctrinated early on have little chance of shifting beyond the third step. Those in the latter group who have “come to” religion or spirituality later in life have a greater chance of shifting beyond that third step; however, few of those are likely to do so, either.

For those who came to religion or spirituality and/or belief in a personal god during their adult years, most merely abandoned their former personas (the “bad” ones) and simply replaced their former ego-states with new personas—religious or spiritual personas—and have been convinced that those are “good” ones.

Either way, false identities are false identities, and accepting religious and/or spiritual identifications as being real will block the finding of the True Self just as much as any other personas that are adopted.

When a seven-step “journey” fixates at the third step, then the play amounts to nothing more than “religious game-playing” or “kindergarten spirituality,” but the super religious or super spiritual think they are basking in the light of high noon when, in fact, it is only the early dawn.

In some rare cases, a person (a persona-player) might become conscious of her/his true state of discomfort and begin to question and begin to seek answers that are different from those that have been accepted as truth without questioning. Most, however, are so dissociated from their condition that they will continue to follow their "faith-based marching orders" and will question nothing. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR THE FULL DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER, YOU MAY ORDER:

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS

Click FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

THE STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN IT IS READY TO FORFEIT BELIEF IN THE PERSONAL SELF AND A PERSONAL GOD, Part One

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: I’ve read some of your books and a lot of your postings. Somewhere along the way, you said belief in a personal god negates the opportunity for The Understanding to manifest. No argument there, but no complete grasping of the point either. how about some further discussion? Thx Robert

F.: In the previous series, it could have been seen via the responses to Robert's inquiry above that all notions involving ego or ego-states or a sense of "a personal being" or belief in "a personal do-er" or a belief in "a personal god" are all illusions…all mis-perceptions based in delusion. So, how to be free of belief in illusions and to see truth instead?

First, most persons will never be freed from foolish beliefs. When intelligence is neutralized via learned ignorance, then even the intelligent will be fools and will most likely remain fools. When ignorance is combined with learned ignorance, the chances for enlightenment are practically nil. So it is.

Secondly, if the intelligent are to be freed of entrapment in learned ignorance, then all beliefs must be forfeited, without exception, yet who wants to discard the beliefs that most persons prize so highly? The fact is, however, that to discard a thousand beliefs but to cling to even one as if it were your ultimate sacred cow will avail you nothing.

Furthermore, to invite one who believes in a personal self and in a personal god to consider the possibility that their beliefs are pure fiction will only reinforce, not diminish, their attachment to their beliefs. The very invitation itself will usually inspire persons to “dig in their heels” and stubbornly defend what they mistakenly take to be "their" beliefs (which are really others’ beliefs that have merely been passed along to them).

An exception might be a young child that is in the earliest stages of programming. A parent might admit that “the Santa Claus story was a lie, and so was the god story.” The child might want to cling to the belief for selfish purposes (to receive gifts or to gain “power”) but if caught early enough in the programming process, the mere reporting of truth might suffice to free the child of its belief in fiction.

Typically, though, once the programming has extended beyond the age of 7 or 8, beliefs will be taken by persons to be a part of what defines them…that identifies “who they are” as much as the labels that they have been assigned or have adopted on their own.

They will cling forever to their conceptual lies, and only a small fraction will ever be free of the hold of beliefs and thereafter Realize Fully. So blind have persons been made by programming, conditioning, domestication, and enculturation that they cannot begin to fathom the veracity of facts when they hear them.

Should they happen to hear the consciousness speak to say, “Every belief you have is a lie,” most persons will close themselves off from the voice of pure consciousness and cling to the blockages that prevent the consciousness that They Are from hearing itSelf or from hearing facts.

They will refuse to so much as consider the possibility offered by the consciousness when it says, “In fact, you have no beliefs. What you have are ‘their’ beliefs, not yours, yet you have adopted them with such conviction and pride that you behave as if those ideas were original to you.”

This pointer was offered yesterday:

to tell one believing in a personal self that there is no such thing is to only reinforce their belief in a personal self. To tell one believing in a personal god that there is no such thing is to only reinforce their belief in a personal god and will incite them to enter into defensive—and often offensive—modes.

The readiness of the seeker has to be there; only then can the teacher begin her/his task. Dennis Waite put it this way: “It is the perennial problem of the teacher to be able to judge where the student currently is in his or her understanding and lead them onwards from there.”

He added, “As ever, in the philosophy of Advaita, the teaching is graded to suit the level of understanding of the student - and it is no use trying to ‘jump levels’ if we have not yet grasped the lower level principles.”

Meaning? Meaning that there are seven steps required to shift from identification with the false "I" to abidance as the Absolute. Meaning that there are three "levels" among seekers and all pointers offered by the teacher must be level appropriate. What is said to one seeker in regards to a topic may differ entirely when addressing the same topic with a different seeker.

Persons at the “wet charcoal” level (which includes the masses) will likely never be able to understand Advaitin pointers (or much of anything else). The teacher will never be able to “fire them up” enough to burn away their learned ignorance.

Those at the “dry charcoal” level include persons who have done some of the work and, with much effort, the teacher might be able to generate a spark of light that can move them closer to The Understanding. For those at the “gunpowder” level, they are very close to Full Realization, being blocked by attachment to only a few remaining concepts.

With the proper pointers offered by a teacher that knows “where they are on the path,” the teacher can often say to those at this third level exactly what is required to trigger an explosion that blows away all of their remaining beliefs and allows them to continue along the “path” in order that Full Realization might happen.

The pointers offered to a recent visitor to the site would not have been offered to those who have not done the level of work that she has obviously completed. Her comments expose the state of the consciousness when the readiness to move to the next level is seemingly in place.

Tomorrow, the specifics of her case will be shared to illustrate what can happen when the teacher sees that one who has been (a) fixated for a time at the third step—the religious / spiritual / personal god step—then (b) contacts a teacher and asks questions as a result of the consciousness awakening to the possibility of “something” beyond that stage.

Visitors to the site tomorrow will see what it is like when the consciousness becomes ready to transcend that phase and continue on with the post-religion, post-spiritual, post-personal god, post-personal self steps of the “journey.”

What about you/You? Have you been fixated at the religious / spiritual / personal god stage? Is the consciousness finally beginning to inspire some questioning? Might the consciousness have reached a level where it is beginning to sense that there might be “something else” to be understood beyond religious dogma and beyond "spiritual principles"? Please enter the silence of contemplation.