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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?
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.
AND ANOTHER: How can I know if a teacher is Fully Realized?
Please see the information following this post if interested in money-saving eBook versions of the non-duality books available through this site
F.: [You will notice that many related questions that are among a backlog of e-mails are being addressed in this series.]
As mentioned yesterday, some words are never used by the Fully Realized Advaitin with the exception mentioned…when pointers are being offered to a seeker that is in an early stage of the “journey.” The teacher will “meet” persons at whatever place on the “path” they might be.
How to know if a teacher is Fully Realized? The very question invokes feelings of defensiveness or even anger among many. The answer often generates even more anger and resentment as seekers rush to the defense of their "favorite guru or teacher or lecturer or author."
Here, there is no "one" that can be attacked or defended, so the subject that is so sensitive to many involves no apprehension at all. If the question is asked, it shall be addressed.
And the question is not insignificant, as far as completing all of the steps required for Full Realization and Full Freedom to happen. What shall be shared first is based simply in “floyd’s journey” with this emphasis: none of this is about judging another person or teacher. It is about making an objective assessment so that the “journey” does become a needlessly-arduous, never-ending task.
In the case of “floyd,” much effort was put into following the disciplines set forth by a false prophet, yet most seekers never have an opportunity to see what is behind the mask and to find that none of the teacher’s claims are actually manifesting, that the teacher is still trapped in duality, and that his behaviors when “behind closed doors” reveal—if not clinically-diagnosable insanity—then certainly very serious personality disorders.
Much effort was also wasted with seven or eight teachers/authors/lecturers who had studied Maharaj and are now “on the circuit,” promoting their books, making television specials, giving interviews, and conducting seminars across the globe. Only post-Realization did the duality of their thinking and their words—and their bastardization of M.’s message—become recognizable.
Thus, it is no easy task to find the teacher that is not just repeating what she/he has heard but is also sharing what is known within—and what was always known within—that aligns with their teacher’s pointers.
It is one thing to repeat words read or heard. It is quite another when the unblocked consciousness is fully in touch with ItSelf—with the inner resource or inner guru that It Is—and then speaks as the pure consciousness rather than as a relative repeater of words gathered from external sources.
Of course, the “rankings of Advaitin teachers” that can be found on the internet are more nonsensical than the everyday nonsense being shared across the globe. How much arrogance is involved, and how much duality is involved, in such separating? WHO is “doing ranking”?
Yet years can be spent in fruitless seeking if one does not have some means by which to avoid those whose “tell’s” can reveal that Full Realization has not happened and that seekers might want to continue the search for a Realized teacher.
[Also, understand this: it have been noted here that there is no one, “best” way to present the teachings. There are a variety of teaching methods being used, there are a variety of yogas, and there are a variety of approaches.
That which is offered by one teacher and that might “work” for one seeker might not work for another at all. Those who visit this site and read the books available and still do not “get it” might very well find the Truth being sought by studying with a different teacher. Continuing the search is never discouraged. That said, consider if you will:]
One tool that might serve during your search is related to the ongoing discussion about words and language…about a vocabulary of Realization and an Advaita-style vocabulary of sanity and non-delusion.
Yet see the “catch”: the seeker needs some basic understanding of the vocabulary of Realization in order to differentiate between the teacher that is abiding as the original nature vs. the one who is still attached to the trappings of the relative existence;
however, it is an understanding of that very vocabulary which is being sought but that is lacking, so most will spend the days of their “quest” with false prophets or with some teachers who sincerely believe that they are Realized but are not. Thus, guidance in that regard will be offered to the seeker who wrote and asked.
If dualistic words or terms are used, they can serve as “tell’s,” revealing that Full Realization has not happened. Louise recently shared this observation about her niece: “I was fascinated as she began to acquire language – how this device begins to cut up the unified field into separate ‘bits.’ Our languaging actually needs to be changed to reflect Reality.”
And that is what happens among the Realized: language changes post-Realization. The words employed reflect Reality and do not cut up verbally the unified field into separate bits. To the seeker asking how to know if a teacher is Fully Realized, consider the words and language being used. If Realized, words that support non-dualistic concepts will not be spoken.
Often, much of what a teacher offers might be non-dualistic, suggesting Full Realization has happened, but then certain “tell’s” are revealed as in the case of the following statements offered by one who seemed—as a result of the majority of what was shared—to be Fully Realized:
All seems good to me as it is.
I meditate on that Self with devotion.
I am both full and empty, foolish and wise, asleep and awake.
I do not understand myself!
Those are all 'tell's." Yesterday, it was noted that many who studied the teachings when the consciousness called “Maharaj” spoke “now focus on only a few aspects of the teachings in particular (the case with so many currently on the circuit who also studied the pointers offered by Maharaj and then selected a few as their own and are now marketing a narrow, limited, and incomplete version of the teachings).”
Many who studied the teachings of Maharaj and who now claim to be Realized reveal, via their words and via the concepts that they espouse, that such claims might be questionable.
For example, would the truly Realized speak of “ambition,” of “the meaning of life,” of “changing your life,” of “someone having a calling,” of being “incredible,” of “succeeding,” of “controlling outcome via intention,” of “fostering ambition,” of “finding your life’s purpose,” of a “Self that is infinite,” of “seeking power and gaining power,” of having “an ageless body and mind,” of “fulfilling desires,” of “spiritual laws,” of "sacred contracts," of “God or Gods,” or of “knowing God”?
The answer is unequivocally “No.” Yet a half dozen or so who studied the teachings of Maharaj are now some of the most famous persons “on the circuit” and are using those exact terms above. Those are all “tell’s,” revealing that Truth is not known or that Truth is being ignored for the sake of marketing.
If you disagree, your questioning of this speck is welcome; however, might you not also welcome the opportunity for further understanding by questioning yourself and your attachment to, or belief in, any of the concepts above or any of the speakers, authors, and lecturers who teach and talk and write about the concepts in the list above?
All of the words and terms listed above are exact quotes from persons who studied the words of Maharaj and are now using those words in lectures and books—words that are “tell’s.” In the process, they are disseminating concepts and reinforcing belief in concepts rather than guiding seekers to freedom from concepts.
Disagree if you like, but would you be willing to try an exercise before ending all consideration? If so, list each word or term above (“ambition,” “meaning,” “power,” “Infinite Self,” etc.) and then write an explanation that explains WHO (that is, which ego-state) feels a certain affection for each of those concepts.
WHO (what persona) wants power? WHO (what ego-state) thinks he/she has power? WHO wants to be ageless? WHO wants to control? WHO wants eternal continuity?
Then write an explanation about how each is merely a concept, how each of those ideas has been dreamed up by persons with desires or fears, and how each is only endearing to persons attached to relative concepts and to bogus teachings regarding body-mind-personality issues and to a belief in the possibility of post-manifestation continuity of the body-mind-personality triad.
Some proclaim, “But millions speak of such, and millions are seeking those things and studying those things and are interested in those things and seem to have an internal need that is common to all people to gain those things. Millions cannot wrong.”
As noted before, that is a fact. Millions are not presently wrong in regards to their thinking and beliefs and desires and fears. In fact, it is billions that are confused, misled, and believing that popular fiction is actual fact.
Why do books on the dualistic concepts on the list above garner such huge sales and why do lectures on those topics rake in millions and billions of dollars in sales? Because billions are trapped in their body-mind-personality identities, are consumed with the notion of continuity, are attached to things relative, and are ensnared in the relative desires and fears of their assumed ego-states that want power and control and "more" rather than "less."
Because billions do not have the basic understanding of the vocabulary of duality as opposed to the vocabulary on non-duality and, as a result, have no means by which to differentiate statements based in logic and reason vs. statements based in nonsense. So it is, but so it need not be. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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