THE “VOCABULARY OF REALIZATION,” Part Six

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.

RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or click CONTACT floyd

Please see the information following this post if interested in money-saving eBook versions of the non-duality books available through this site.

F.: E-mails arrive regularly, and some merely comment on certain posts and order books related to the subject. More are received from “legitimate” seekers, and they ask questions or they ask for clarifications—sincerely engaged in the search for Self and Truth and open to receiving the guidance that can move them to the next step on the “path.”

Some write to share what has happened as a result of a certain awareness that came while reading a post. Those are entertaining, a part of the dance shared here. However, far more e-mails are received without any questions at all but are chock full of pronouncements, with declarations of what the writers think they understand, with attempts to put their knowledge of Advaita or the Vedas on display.

Some write to challenge a pointer with which they disagree, but others write to endorse the dogma of their religion, to point out the rightness of their ideology, to affirm that I am an agent of satan, or to report that I am going to burn in hell forever.

Others write just to be writing, taking a brief respite from the talking they engage in all day long. The content is readily seen to have been written in the vocabulary of mind-language, and their writings are much ado about nothing (which they take to be something) and are inspired by the motives of any number of ego-states that are still very much “at work” via a “mind.”

When roles are assumed, mind-speak must follow. Personality-driven words must be spoken in an effort to support identity. When ego-states go, silence comes. The deer make little noise, having nothing to prove, having no mind-language with which to think, having no vocabulary with which to engage in mind-speak. That is what nisarga functioning looks like. Today, you are invited to witness your self/selves as talk happens. Was everything that was said really necessary? What was the motive behind the words spoken? What are you trying to prove? Why does talking and impressing have more appeal than the quiet? WHO feels the need to speak, to be "loved," to be admired, to be respected, or more often, just to be heard?

[Continued from yesterday] The complete exchange referenced yesterday unfolded as follow:

Visitor: My wife’s sister in law, a real nut if I were into labeling people and things, has hit a financial crisis since her husband just lost his job. She said the weird thing is that she "turned it all over to God" and now is not worried. You know, when I have "bottomed out" I have done that in the past and felt relief. What has happened, I realize, is that she simply stopped her mind from driving her crazy / from worrying. When you do that, whether you feel you have to turn it over to God or just stop worrying, the end result is that you will always feel relief from the mind.

[So one can receive “relief from the mind” by using "the mind," which is what caused the anxiety or distress or worry in the first place? Interesting concept, yes? Pardon the graphic illustration, but it does provide an exactly parallel example of the reasoning fallacy being used in that bit of illogical thought:

Once, “floyd’s dad” went into a rage around this incident: to start with, he had not approved of the fact that a stray dog had been adopted. The anger came when dad stepped into a bit of that dog’s defecation and tracked it into the house and soiled the new carpet.

Now the approach to solve that problem did not include a belief that “the stench and the defecation can be removed if you will go back outside, traipse about the yard, and bring in even more defecation.”

Similarly, “relief from the mind” cannot come about by traipsing about “in the mind” and tracking in more of the same stench that “the mind” came up with in the first place.

Anything generated from “the mind” is going to be nonsense, and nonsense does not remove nonsense, any more than the source of a stench can be used to remove the stench. Thus, what came from the “mind”—which is the very source of all “worry” and “bottoming out”—cannot possibly provide relief from worry and cannot possibly put an end to the “bottoming out.” That which appears to be a brief respite does not equal actual relief. Being relieved of the content of the mind that generates "dis-ease" is what relief is really about.]

You are speaking the language of the mind. Understand that every word uttered using the vocabulary of mind-speak is just so much hogwash. Try re-reading this: “When you do that, whether you feel you have to turn it over to God or just stop worrying, the end result is that you will always feel relief from the mind.”

That is totally false. First, the effects of any traumatic experience are stored at a cellular level throughout the body—not only in “the mind” or the brain. In fact, the fewest effects are accumulated in the "mind" since the toxicities of trauma are scattered throughout the entire body.

Thus, the impact continues even if denial is practiced; the effects go on and can manifest as unexplained illnesses, as an immune system that functions inefficiently, and as all sorts of PTSD effects which manifest at levels that persons can only seemingly dissociate from. The effects remain nonetheless.

You have shown one more way that people are prey to the beliefs of others that they hear and then adopt as their own, and that has come in your case after four years of exposure to Advaitin pointers. No wonder it is heard so often, “I’ve got, I’ve got it…oops, I lost it.”

Further, such “turning it over” to any dreamed up, other-world entity or entities only delays or stymies the process of addressing relative issues, not unlike what happened with a man who had been unemployed from January to November of 2007.

He had been living off withdrawals from his 401k retirement fund, withdrawals that were accompanied with penalties and forfeited earnings of interest. He said that he only had enough money remaining in his 401k to pay the bills for one more month.

“After that,” he said, “I don’t know what my wife and child and I will be doing in January for food and housing, but, you know what, Floyd? In God's time, not mine.” [His wife’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling in a show of total disgust, and it is a sense of disgust that is always the final indicator—the near-indisputable marker—that the end of a relationship is imminent. Later, it was seen that such was exactly the case with his marriage.]

The reply at that moment: “Now understand that this response to that magical thinking is admittedly steeped in the relative. Also understand that it is offered in the truest sense of what you might take to be ‘tough love,’ but the fact is that you could not be any dumber if you cut your head off.

“It is suggested that you get up off your rear, quit waiting on a god to rescue you since you’ve waited for eleven months without results, refine your resume, and understand that when someone has no job, his full-time job is not to sit on a couch as you’re doing, is not to play video games while waiting patiently for god, but is to go search for a job.”

As noted above, the effects of his “turning it over to God” was that it delayed and stymied the process of addressing relative issues, it inspired a “head in the sand” attitude, and it generated a sense of disgust with its relative but subsequent consequences.

Realization and nisarga-style living are not about ignoring relative happenings and “requirements” of the Is-ness; are not about relocating to a new “mental residence” in the ether (that is psychosis), and are not about denying the Am-ness for the period of manifestation.

Nisarga living happens when Reality is overlaid on the beingness, when all ego-states and magical/supernatural thinking ends, when believing that a relationship with a mirage can be real and can be empowering, and when all that happens unfolds in a mode of living that is as sane and logical and reasonable and natural as that of the deer. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (The sharing of the transcript of the dialogue will continue tomorrow)

Many of the non-duality books that have been offered on this site for years in paper form are now being offered in eBook format. This new option provides:

**REDUCED PRICES

**NO SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES

**PROMPT RECEIPT OF BOOKS

The eBook versions now available include:

1. From the Absolute to the Nothingness

2. Consciousness/Awareness

3. From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

4. It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)

5. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I

6. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II

7. There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''

8. Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost)

9. The Essence of the Teachings

10. A Twelve-Step Journey to Self-Transformation

11. Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships

12. What Happens When I Die?

13. Liberation

HOW TO ORDER AN eBook VERSION OF THE TITLES ABOVE or HOW TO SEND A GIFT eBook TO SOMEONE:

Visit

http://www.floydhenderson.com/

and click on the picture of any book you're interested in and you'll have the

option of purchasing either an eBook version or a paper version.

All payments are made via Paypal's secure service. If ordering an eBook, you'll be sent a downloadable version as soon as the payment is processed.

IF A GIFT:

You'll need to send a message using the "Contact" page on the http://www.floydhenderson.com/

website explaining that you are buying a book or an eBook as a gift.
You will be contacted via e-mail and payment + shipping arrangements will be made via a secure e-mail site.

All sales are final. Thank you.

Peace and Light

[Note: You will need one of the free, downloadable PDF readers such as Abode to

open and read the eBook version. Visit http://get.adobe.com/reader/ . NOTE: Mozilla Firefox might block your download. Open that page, click “Tools” and “Options,” “Content,” “Exceptions,” and then in the “Allowed Sites” box type in www.adobe.com . Click “Allow” and then “Close” and then retry the download.]

THE “VOCABULARY OF REALIZATION,” Part Five

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.

RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or click CONTACT floyd

FROM A SITE VISITOR yesterday: Floyd, it seems to me you present M as inerrant in all he said and wrote. That all his statements were "true" and appropriate for each particular situation and that if there is any inconsistency, it is caused by a faulty interpretation of M. Exactly like the Fundamentalists view the Bible. Am I correct in this observation?

F.: First, M. wrote nothing. As for your question, though, you were provided with a pointer in today's post (29 March 2009) that would answer the question you raise, if you were to transfer the point and find how it applies here.

What M shared, he shared as a result of his own inner awareness and thereby led seekers to the discarding of beliefs. The fundamentalist group (a group that has FUN DAMNING anything that is MENTAL) with which you are comparing him speak only of what they have collected from outer sources in their effort to spread their beliefs.

M. was not an outer source, and neither am I. He pointed toward the inner guru; I point toward the inner resource. Further, neither M. nor I would make any claim about being “inerrant” or not, though the group you referenced does make such a claim about their “scriptures and teachings.” M. never claimed to speak truth, as they do, and neither has this speck ever claimed to speak truth.

To the contrary, the message from the loft and the message from here is that truth cannot be spoken. Everything M. offered was a pointer to truth, not Truth itself, so where is any possibility of being “right” or “wrong”? Quite different from the group you mention that claims their writings and words are inerrant, yes?

Here and in that loft, any pointers that are offered are level-appropriate so there will be paradoxes on occasion, but not contradictions in the long haul. Dennis Waite explained the approach thusly: “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.”

Also, “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.”

Therefore, unlike the fundamentalists you mentioned, with Advaita there are never any statements such as “this is the truth” or “this is what is right” or “this is what you need to know because it is the truth”; instead, you might hear, “All of what you have learned you might consider unlearning.”

Your entire premise reveals that you are still operating from a position of duality, implying, “Surely M. could not have always been ‘right.’ Surely he must have sometimes been ‘wrong’.”

If you were a student walking through the woods with a teacher, and if the teacher paused to point toward a bird that is rarely ever seen by persons, would you proclaim, “You are so very wrong about that!” If you were to do so, the teacher might respond: “Hey, it’s not about right or wrong…I’m just pointing, you #%@*&#^*!”

Now, to continue with the series:

1. FROM A SITE VISITOR: What does it matter if I use the term “God” as long as I know it refers to Brahma or even Brahman?

2. FROM A SITE VISITOR:My wife’s sister in law, a real nut if I were into labeling people and things, has hit a financial crisis since her husband just lost his job. She said the weird thing is that she "turned it all over to God" and now is not worried. You know, when I have "bottomed out" I have done that in the past and felt relief. What has happened, I realize, is that she simply stopped her mind from driving her crazy / from worrying.

Please see the information following this post if interested in money-saving eBook versions of the non-duality books available through this site.

F.: The old adage is that if you want to manipulate someone to think about an elephant, tell them to “do everything possible right now to avoid thinking about an elephant.” Boom. They’re thinking about an elephant.

Using a far more direct but still manipulative approach, the puritanical minister Jonathan Edwards delivered his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon time and again throughout the New England area of the U.S. in the late 1700’s in order to influence persons to think about what he wanted them to think about and to think the way he wanted them to think.

[Some claim the influence of those early Puritans is still the prevailing force in the U.S., which has admittedly looked quite like a theocracy in recent years. The fact is, it is not just the groups that are the modern day descendants of the Puritans—groups such as Baptists and Presbyterians and Evangelicals—that yet cling to the beliefs expressed in those early teachings; most among the “super religious” and even some claiming to be “super-spiritual” still believe the same nonsense that Edwards taught, still talk in a way that Edwards would approve of, and still behave in ways that he would endorse.]

And that is exactly why those who would control the masses plant nonsensical thoughts in the “minds” of persons and inspire them to speak nonsensical words, because nonsensical thoughts and words—selected from “The Vocabulary of ‘Mind-Language’”—will behave exactly as programmed and conditioned and acculturated via the use of emotional constructs and mental implantations.

In that sermon, Edwards reminded congregants that “there is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment in time”; that “the wicked deserve to be cast into hell, so…divine justice never stands in the way [and] makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them”; that “they are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell”;

that God is “very angry with them, as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell”; and that “God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment.”

Is it any wonder that children hearing his words screamed in reaction to the fear that the minister was using to manipulate them or any wonder that adults fainted during the presentation of the sermon delivered in the verbiage of “mind-speak”?

While the content of that sermon is used nowadays in some university-level courses on reasoning fallacies (many of which are evident in the sermon), other right-wing religious colleges still use the sermon as an example of what should be contained in an effective religious message. Either way, the point is that reasoning fallacies can be heard daily as they come from the mouths of persons who talk like Edwards about their “God” or “gods” while speaking via the vocabulary of “mind-language” today.

Such persons are as trapped in magical thinking and psychological manipulation as the members of the Puritan congregations were in the 1770’s. The obstacles that block clear seeing—that prevent the pure consciousness from recognizing nonsense and seeing truth—are as dominant today as they were two and three centuries ago in the U.S. and as dominant as they were four and five thousand years ago around the globe.

Thus, the “mind-speak” in e-mail #2 above, providing modern-day examples of the type of reasoning fallacies used by Jonathan Edwards: a woman has “turned it over to god and is not worrying” and “I have done that in the past and felt relief.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (The sharing of the transcript of the dialogue will continue tomorrow)

Many of the non-duality books that have been offered on this site for years in paper form are now being offered in eBook format. This new option provides:

**REDUCED PRICES

**NO SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES

**PROMPT RECEIPT OF BOOKS

The eBook versions now available include:

1. From the Absolute to the Nothingness

2. Consciousness/Awareness

3. From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

4. It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)

5. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I

6. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II

7. There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''

8. Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost)

9. The Essence of the Teachings

10. A Twelve-Step Journey to Self-Transformation

11. Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships

12. What Happens When I Die?

13. Liberation

HOW TO ORDER AN eBook VERSION OF THE TITLES ABOVE or HOW TO SEND A GIFT eBook TO SOMEONE:

Visit

http://www.floydhenderson.com/

and click on the picture of any book you're interested in and you'll have the

option of purchasing either an eBook version or a paper version.

All payments are made via Paypal's secure service. If ordering an eBook, you'll be sent a downloadable version as soon as the payment is processed.

IF A GIFT:

You'll need to send a message using the "Contact" page on the http://www.floydhenderson.com/

website explaining that you are buying a book or an eBook as a gift.
You will be contacted via e-mail and payment + shipping arrangements will be made via a secure e-mail site.

All sales are final. Thank you.

Peace and Light

[Note: You will need one of the free, downloadable PDF readers such as Abode to

open and read the eBook version. Visit http://get.adobe.com/reader/ . NOTE: Mozilla Firefox might block your download. Open that page, click “Tools” and “Options,” “Content,” “Exceptions,” and then in the “Allowed Sites” box type in www.adobe.com . Click “Allow” and then “Close” and then retry the download.]

THE “VOCABULARY OF REALIZATION,” Part Four

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.

RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or contact floyd by clicking CONTACT floyd

1. FROM A SITE VISITOR: What does it matter if I use the term “God” as long as I know it refers to Brahma or even Brahman?

2. FROM ANOTHER VISITOR: You mentioned in an e-mail to my friend a vocabulary of realization and an Advaita-style vocabulary of sanity and non-delusion. Explain, please.

Please see the information following this post if interested in money-saving eBook versions of the non-duality books available through this site.

F.: Why else is impeccability with word usage recommended? Any concepts that a person utters are generated by the fiction-filled “mind,” and utterances frame all of the misunderstandings that the non-Realized believe about the relative and also lead to all of the unnatural or nonsensical behaviors that can be witnessed as they happen across the globe.

For example, the local weather forecaster reported last week that “our area is in for a bad week with the possibility of rain every day.” Never mind that the area has been in a drought for months.

Never mind that vegetation needed the rain. Never mind that the foundations of houses were cracking from shifts in the dry soil. According to his thoughts and words, an entire week was going to be “a bad one,” that assessment offered to an entire community by a person with preconceived notions (that is, with firmly-fixed, pre-conceptualized beliefs) about what makes a day “good” or “bad.”

Once such dualistic notions are applied not only to weather but also to spouses, neighbors, and “foreigners,” the roots of disharmony, fighting and even war become evident to the observant. It becomes clear how one can declare the entire populations of nations to be members of "an axis of evil."

Once the words “good” and “bad” have been introduced and stored as thoughts, then the basis of duality has been set in place. Once dualistic thinking begins to control what persons say and do, their vocabulary will undergo a near-limitless expansion and only dualistic words will adumbrate their dualistic belief systems.

Thereafter, all people and states and nations will be mentally divided and will be spoken of in terms of being either moral or immoral; right or wrong; righteous or evil; deserving to live or deserving to die. An understanding of the no-concept, non-dual Reality is almost impossiible.

Then, dualistic thoughts and dualistic words become the tools that the non-Realized use to fabricate illusory (but seemingly real) gulfs, splits, schisms, divisions, subdivisions, separations, hierarchies, and dreamed up multiplicities.

From that point, fluctuations and instability and disharmony mark the relative existence. Because the quiet is anathema among the non-Realized, dualistic words must be used to try to drown out the screaming thoughts coming from the disjointed, dualistic “mind.”

The preference for excessive levels of noise adumbrates the clamor and the pandemonium that occur in the “minds” of the non-Realized, and excessive levels of mouth-noise (a.k.a., talk via mind-language) is used to garner attention, to try to earn “love,” and to attempt unconsciously to support ego-states.

When thoughts and words inspire an egotistically-based “quest” for attention and illusory “love” and the sustaining of false identities, then persons will consider no alternatives and will undergo a restless, chaotic existence marked by the instability that was pointed to by the words of the post-Realization Christ when he said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”

Nowadays, that could be modified to, “Minded persons are unstable in all ways.” Furthermore, their vocabulary will reflect that instability, and their actions will generate unsteadiness, insecurity, volatility, flux, and disharmony.

Those become the legacy of dualistic thoughts and dualistic words, passed down from one generation to the next, accepted as “normal parts of life” by persons who have also accepted unquestioningly that “that’s just the way it is and that’s just the way it has always been and that’s just the way it is always going to be.”

And for the masses who have been programmed and conditioned to accept by faith alone all of the dualistic nonsense that they have been told, with the penalty of eternal pain and suffering awaiting those who do otherwise, a nisarga style of functioning will most likely never be found.

With unnatural or supernatural/magical thoughts leading to unnatural or supernatural/magical words, the result will be that the 95% or more of the masses who are prone to follow along in a sheep-like, sleep-like fashion—never questioning what they hear from “authorities”—will behave in an unnatural or supernatural/magical fashion.

Distorted beliefs and distorted thoughts will lead to the use of words that express distortions and which, in turn, will lead to (relatively) destructive behaviors that further separate you from Self and from peace and from freedom and from knowing the unicity and Love.

Therefore, the invitation is to utter none of the words and terms and phrases that are rooted in duality. With the use of words, practice impeccability, exactness, and accuracy. Begin to purge your self/selves of what M. called the use of “mind-language” when he said:

“…Mind-language will talk only about the impressions it has collected. The knowledge ‘I Am’ is not a thought but observes the thoughts.”

By reaching on “the path” the two witnessing stages, the dualistic words and the dualistic thoughts that drive separatist deeds can be seen, and the seeing—the objective witnessing of nonsense—might lead to:

a completion of the entire seven-step “journey” to Reality; to a purging of cultural corruptions; and to replacing the use of mind-language with the use of a vocabulary that might be referred to as “The Vocabulary of Reality” or “The Vocabulary of Sanity and Non-Delusion.”

The purification process is complete when the “mind” is eliminated (which happens when the last belief in any concept or ideas ends.) Believing that only a sunny day can be a “nice day" can corrupt your perception of the next rainy day and negatively shape your mood. Imagine, then, how such dualistic distortions can shape an entire "world" view.

Dissenters say: “Some concepts are beautiful.” Remember, Maharaj taught that all concepts take rise in you and you took rise from the dirt. Wherefore “pride” in the content of the “mind”?

Often recommended here is wariness regarding those who speak expertly of beliefs that were conceived originally via the fanciful imaginations of humans. What is dogma other than that? What is the obsequious content of a speech by a sycophantic politician other than that? What is a cataloguing of a host of “spiritual exercises” that must be completed daily “forever” other than that?

In their stead, the recommendation is to consider pointers that are in opposition to such flights of fancy and that are reports of direct realizations and inner recognitions of truth (rather than outer claims about truth which are always false).

Full Realization comes to those who experience a peripetia and see that it’s all nonsense...all just so much learned ignorance. When all nonsense goes, truth comes, awareness of Reality comes, Love comes. And belief in any and all concepts goes. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Many of the non-duality books that have been offered on this site in paper form are now being offered in eBook format. This new option provides:

**REDUCED PRICES

**NO SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES

**PROMPT RECEIPT OF BOOKS

The eBook versions now available include:

1. From the Absolute to the Nothingness

2. Consciousness/Awareness

3. From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

4. It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)

5. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I

6. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II

7. There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''

8. Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost)

9. The Essence of the Teachings

10. A Twelve-Step Journey to Self-Transformation

11. Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships

12. What Happens When I Die?

13. Liberation

HOW TO ORDER AN eBook VERSION OF THE TITLES ABOVE or HOW TO SEND A GIFT eBook TO SOMEONE:

Visit

http://www.floydhenderson.com/

and click on the picture of any book you're interested in and you'll have the

option of purchasing either an eBook version or a paper version.

All payments are made via Paypal's secure service. If ordering an eBook, you'll be sent a downloadable version as soon as the payment is processed.

IF A GIFT:

You'll need to send a message using the "Contact" page on the http://www.floydhenderson.com/

website explaining that you are buying a book or an eBook as a gift.
You will be contacted via e-mail and payment + shipping arrangements will be made via a secure e-mail site.

All sales are final. Thank you.

Peace and Light

[Note: You will need one of the free, downloadable PDF readers such as Abode to

open and read the eBook version. Visit http://get.adobe.com/reader/ . NOTE: Mozilla Firefox might block your download. Open that page, click “Tools” and “Options,” “Content,” “Exceptions,” and then in the “Allowed Sites” box type in www.adobe.com . Click “Allow” and then “Close” and then retry the download.]

THE “VOCABULARY OF REALIZATION,” 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.

RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or contact floyd by clicking CONTACT floyd

1. FROM A SITE VISITOR: What does it matter if I use the term “God” as long as I know it refers to Brahma or even Brahman?

2. ANOTHER: You mentioned in an e-mail to my friend a vocabulary of realization and an Advaita-style vocabulary of sanity and non-delusion. Explain, please.

3. AND ANOTHER: How can I know if a teacher is Fully Realized?

4. AND ANOTHER: I’v been reading Maharaj over and over and haven’t gotten from him what you evidently did. Any suggestions? What am I missing?

Please see the information following this post if interested in money-saving eBook versions of the non-duality books available through this site.

[Again, many e-mails with questions that are related in one way or another are being addressed in this series.]

F.: To questioner #4 above: On his journey, “floyd” read volume after volume of the transcripts of Maharaj’s talks and was often more confused than ever after each reading. To be discussed shortly, M. said that you must go back, reverse to the source, but he never delineated the order of the steps “in” or the steps “back out.”

Once, when asked directly if he could identify the exact steps required in the process, he did not answer the question.

That was his “style.” He used an approach that allowed seekers to sometimes find “the way” during the one to two weeks he allowed visitors to attend the AM and PM sessions in his loft. Most, he sent on their way with instructions to consider the teachings received. Some reportedly took years after to “get it.”

Why are so many confused when trying to read and understand M. without having their own teacher? As has been noted previously, he addressed seekers in the order in which they came, so there was no rhyme or reason to the order of his talks. One day, he addressed a seeker at the body level; the next, he might address a seeker that was ready to move to the second witnessing level.

The result is that, in the transcripts, contradictory pointers seem to appear, though they were not. They were simply responses made in a level-appropriate manner, so there was no exception to M.’s impeccability of word usage, just a tailoring of each response in light of where the seeker’s words revealed the seeker was located at that moment on “the path.”

Yet what M. never offered was a clear-cut listing of the steps making up the “exact order” in which the “reversing to the source” has to occur. If one can read M. and “get it,” so it is; unfortunately for many seekers who read I AM THAT, they will not grasp the teachings in totality unless they receive additional clarifications.

Most who have come here and who have been taught the exact order of the steps can then re-read many of the pointers offered by other teachers—M. included—and find that they make sense when they did not before. In that regard, this was received last week:

FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: [After reading and re-reading the content of certain books, a visitor wrote the following, some of which is paraphrased for the sake of brevity]:

I find I am, for the first time, due to all of our discussions, understanding pointers read before.

[He listed some of what is being eliminating and some of what is finally being understood]:

…beliefs, since it means something has been named and that brings associated ideas and images with that something, such as “God.”

…the idea that "I" want some permanency, due to memory, but there is none; we are always changing, interacting with the sun and air as vital components.

…memory, since it is ever changing along with everything else

…time, along with memory, is the other big problem I had. I could never enjoy "now" because of bringing up the past or having expectations of the future. "Now" is always lost.

So, I come to the conclusion that the only way to understand something is to view it (read, listen, learn) from multiple sources until you "see" it.

And such is “his” experience. There is no suggestion that the direct path, nisarga approach employed here is the single, “right” way. It is known, however, that persons must either sit in the presence of a teacher or must find the readings that can lead a seeker step-by-step (each taken in the proper order) to Realization.

And to visitor #3 above, consider your question in light of what you just read from another visitor discussing the part that readings played in his efforts to understand the teachings. Some come to this house for retreats and receive the teachings “face-to-face.” Distance and expenses prohibit others, so they can receive the teachings via the writings offered here or via the accompanying materials offered on the book site.

Again, some will be “wired” in a way that they will understand the teachings as presented in the books offered here while others seem to require (or “want?”) something quite different. So it is. Yet understand that your “quest” need not span decades as “floyd’s” did.

Time after time, teacher after teacher, the pointers came that there is a specific route that must be followed, but not one teacher in the hundreds of books that were read ever outlined specifically the steps on the “path.”

The reason FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and other works are offered is to provide the “road map” to seekers in order that they might Realize now and then go about the relative business of enjoying the freedom that comes with having completed all of the steps in order.

As alluded to earlier, M. said, “…You should go back, reverse, to the source.” He also said, “Follow the same path by which you came.” There is an exact order by which awareness manifested as consciousness and was subjected to a process whereby obstacles were set in place that block the consciousness from knowing ItSelf and from realizing Truth.

It was by that process that specks of energy from the universal pool of energy manifested and came to identify with the false self or selves (that is, with the “ego”), with the body, with “the mind,” and with the personality (and, eventually, with multiple personalities).

To go back, to take the same path in reverse, is the only means by which a shift from body identification to abiding as the original nature can happen. Many teachers can discuss the various phases of the “coming in” and the “going back.” Few actually teach the exact order in which the steps must be followed to reverse to the source.

Find that order if you would Realize Fully. To questioners 3 and 4 above, that is why the understanding has yet to happen and that is why readings are necessary if one cannot sit with a teacher and receive the necessary guidance. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Now being offered in eBook format are (1) four discount package deals (2) thirteen books and (3) an option for sending a gift to anyone of your choice as long as they have an e-mail address. These options now provide the following:

**REDUCED PRICES ON MOST TITLES

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FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE:

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INTERNATIONAL: $12.95 instead of $50.64 (book + international S&H)

[Scroll to the bottom of this posting for information on downloading a free copy of the Adobe PDF Reader that you’ll need to read an eBook]

The eBook versions now available include:

1. From the Absolute to the Nothingness

2. Consciousness/Awareness

3. From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

4. It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)

5. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I

6. Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II

7. There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''

8. Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost)

9. The Essence of the Teachings

10. A Twelve-Step Journey to Self-Transformation

11. Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships

12. What Happens When I Die?

13. Liberation

HOW TO ORDER AN eBook VERSION OF THE TITLES ABOVE or HOW TO SEND A GIFT eBook TO SOMEONE:

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