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FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received several weeks ago]: First off, thanks for your blog. I thought about some things you write about when I went to see the movie Doubt. I thought about how doubt had to come before I was willing to question anything. Before that, I never had any doubt at all that everything I was told by my preist and my parents was completely true. But I still have a few concepts lurking around back there that need to go. And just when I think they’re all gone, one will show up. Any advice? Please keep up your blogging. Chris
F.: Hello, Chris. Whenever a concept “shows up,” understand that You are not involved. Instead, some remnant of personality is working in tandem with the “mind,” and it is the fiction-filled "mind" that is retrieving from its archives some persona-related idea.
You mentioned priest, so religious programming will have been a block on your "path." Suppose you are moving along the Advaitin path toward Realization and suddenly a fear manifests. The “mind” might ask, “What if all of that Advaita stuff is wrong? What if there really is a hell, and what if my lack of faith in the words of my priest ends up dooming me to unending suffering in eternal flames?”
Note the way the “mind” is working there with various personas: all that you were taught about the concept of “hell” is retrieved from the storage section of the “mind.” Multiple personas begin working in tandem with the “mind” to perpetuate the fear.
Ask, "WHO feels threatened?" Is it “Chris the Good Christian”? Is it "Chris the Body" listening to "Chris the Mind" as it adumbrates the words of a priest, once more telling Chris that he is going to experience endless pain and suffering both now and forevermore?
Has “Chris the Good Boy” reared his head, knowing that his “Good Catholic Parents” will withdraw approval if they find out he is doubting (or, worst, rejecting) “the faith of our fathers”?
One man who recently came for an Advaitin retreat said to a fellow Christian some ten years ago, “I’ve reached a point where I am willing to risk my very soul to find the answer.” (In finding the answer via the Advaita teachings, he knows there was never a soul to risk. Ahhhh, peace.)
Sometimes doubt triggers the “journey,” yes, but sometimes it is suffering that triggers the “journey.” Sometimes an overwhelming sense of emptiness or brokenness triggers the “journey.”
In some cases, doubt comes first, then questioning, then the seeing of the false, and then seeing truth. In other cases, questioning comes first, and then doubt happens as a result of questioning. After that, the false is seen and then truth can be revealed.
Of course the order is not significant. What is significant is the willingness to question what you are told and what was accepted on faith alone, accepted without question merely because the one doing the telling was said to have been “an authority” or “an expert.” You might “look back” for a moment and see how those concepts were implanted.
Every belief that was taught and stored in the “mind” during the acculturation process is unquestioningly accepted in the same way that children accept without question the Santa Claus story or the karma-rebirth-nirvana story or the god story or the multiple gods story. Tales are accepted as truth because children have faith in the authority figures who were telling the tales.
But, why does the child want to cling to belief in the tales and not question all that he is told, especially when he begins to hear certain contradictory evidence or especially when that "inner guru" or "inner resource" is trying to inspire the consciousness to question it all? Why, especially, are adults not willing to set aside childish things, including their belief in myths and superstitions and magical tales?
1. Because the child’s natural inclination to question is removed early on by the use of corporal punishment or by threat or by the withholding of favors, all a part of the domestication process.
2. Because the child wants the payoff that is promised if only he/she believes.
3. Because most children feel certain that the authority figures in their lives would never lie to them.
4. Because personality blocks in almost all persons any opportunity for a “rebellious” (questioning) thought to arise. Fifty percent of all persons develop the personality type that drives them to be loyal to any and all authority figures. To be even slightly curious about some things heard in a church or temple or mosque, or to become totally perplexed by some of the unbelievable tales told by a priest or by any other religious “authority,” rarely happens among persons.
Fifty percent of the persons on the planet are driven subconsciously by the loyalist personality type. They are programmed to accept rather than to inquire or challenge.
Another percentage are of the peacemaker type, and they will seldom inquire or challenge; and another prevalent type—the helpers—will seldom inquire or challenge because they are so driven to please that they will seldom risk doing anything that might make others not love them.
Only 2% or so of the persons on the planet have any personality-driven propensity to question or challenge. Most, therefore, will stay asleep and will cling to the beliefs which they accepted on faith and which they have never doubted at all.
5. Because the programming by authority figures sometimes emphasizes a reward, but more often it includes dire warnings about what you can avoid if “faithful”: don’t question parents and you can avoid punishment;
don’t question your teachers and you can avoid a trip to the assistant principal or an “F”; and don’t be damned to hell by modeling yourself after “Doubting Thomas”—one of the greater villains in the text deemed “holy” by billions; also,
don’t question the police and you can avoid a beating; don’t question your commander and you can avoid the brig; don’t question your priest (or preacher or imam or rabbi) and you can avoid burning in eternal flames.
6. Because the ego-states that are generated are accompanied with the egotism that inspires pride in always having the answer (namely, "God" or "the gods"). Those types will enjoy the arrogance that is driven by the self-assuredness that there is a god (or gods) running the universe and that their gods/god is at their beck and call, giving them "power" during times of need…or desire…or fear.
7. Because most like the supposed confidence of being so certain that they know the truth as taught by religious authorities.
8. Because most are prideful that they are seen as “The Expert” about the content of this holy text or that holy text.
For all those reasons and more, to fixate in the no-concept, non-dual Reality rather than to have a few concepts lurking around back there, is a major challenge during the relative existence.
To continue the search, especially in the face of the blockages that are rooted in programming and conditioning, requires (1) a willingness to shift from sightless acquiescence and blind acceptance to a willingness to at least question; or
(2) tremendous suffering to inspire the seeking of something different from what is obviously not working but which most never even see is not working; or
(3) an understanding of what the relative results would be if The Understanding were to come, including independence, freedom, peace, and a relative existence marked by lightness rather than darkness and heaviness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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