YOUR “DOINGNESS” THEN WAS FOR NAUGHT AND YOUR "DOINGNESS" NOW IS FOR NAUGHT, Part One

An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period.

F.: First, let it be noted that the pointers offered in this series are often the most difficult to accept among seekers and achievers and go-ers and do-ers and zoom-ers. Even as they give lip service to de-accumulation, persons love to hang on to the knowledge they think they have accumulated; to the perception that enlightenment came as a result of all their activities; to the notion that something has been achieved that made them different.

All of those beliefs are as false as the beliefs they were clinging to prior to whatever it is that they think they have now accomplished. Whether old beliefs or new beliefs, all are still beliefs, and no belief is true. Thus:

"Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period."

Earth is plagued with sociopaths and narcissists who think they are perfect, who could not care less about their relative impact on persons or the planet, and who see no need for changing their thoughts or words or deeds.

Then there are those who want to improve, want to be better, or are convinced they have improved and are better because of their religious affiliations. Ninety-seven percent claim such religious affiliation, though many of those are religious in name only.

(Some estimates by religious organizations suggest that no more than 30% of those on “membership rolls” are active participants, and many of them come and go as they seek, think they have found, and then realize that they have not.)

Some claim to be “spiritual” rather than religious, and many of them consider their “spiritual” status to be of a higher status than that of the religious. Other self-improvement, spiritual groups have even less success. Consider a few examples to illustrate the pointer:

a U.S. Government study showed that fewer than 3% of those who join twelve-step groups are still around two years later; members of cults, and their cults, come and go...only a few lingering long enough to have some “credibility” today among the uninformed; Scientologists must swear to maintain their membership for “one billion years,” but more and more are leaving those ranks (and in a matter of time that is far less than a billion years).

But none of that negates the fact that, all across the planet, persons are engaging in religious services; or they are attending spiritual group meetings; or they are answering the call to prayers many times throughout a day; or they are attending seminars and retreats conducted by big name teachers;

or they are seeking Realization or Enlightenment or Liberation; and hoards of them are engaging in all sorts of exercises and disciplines that they have either dreamed up on their own or that have been assigned by others who are just as trapped in ego-states, egotism, and ignorance as seekers who are engaging in such exercises.

Exercises, disciplines, doingness, imaginary do-ers, going, zooming, effort, work...work...work. Most un-deer-like. Most unnatural.

So most person on the planet are involved in doingness, trying to be better or trying to improve or trying to change or trying to find peace or progress or perfection or—as one said to Maharaj—working at developing a “pure heart.” Most, if truly honest, would admit that they are convinced that they are not trying but have already become "better and improved and changed and perfect." Been there…done that.

At any given moment, most persons think they have found “it,” but the fact is, all doingness in the past was for naught and all doingness now is for naught. Consider:

If you owned a house that was warped and falling down and you finally witnessed it fall down and come to an end, would you still think that you needed to tear it down again and again and again, even if there is nothing left to tear down?

If you owned a house that was warped and falling over and you gave considerable thought to tearing it down or read about how to tear down houses or visited seminars time and again that talked about tearing down houses, would that have helped solve the problem?

Would you claim that the falling of the house was aided by all of the thinking and reading and attending that was done, or is the case that none of that helped and in the end the falling of the house was merely witnessed as it fell?

The following exchange was shared during the last series:

Questioner: Then should all spiritual disciplines be dropped?

Maharaj: At the highest level this is so; at the earlier levels you have to do your homework.

Part of an on-going thread with a speck who sees the wisdom of the Nisarga Yoga included the following in regards to "doing the homework" (in the absence of a belief in any do-er) and then abandoning all practices and disciplines:

F.: Maharaj said that—at the earlier levels—some homework is required; however, the homework referenced is the homework assigned by the Realized teacher and not by all the other would-be's met along the way. Further, the homework does not involve any actual doing other than the consciousness witnessing certain pointers offered by the teacher...pointers intended to "move" the seeker directly to the next step on "the path."

It is the Realized teacher that can hear a few words from a seeker and determine where on the seven-step path to Realization that seeker is and that can then provide the “assignment” (the consideration) that can move the seeker to the next level.

Such an assignment will never include any actions undertaken by some persona adopted along the way or an exercise that has been dreamed up by a seeker. That said, the thread continued as follows:

Questioner: Yes – although there are one or two that I think may have been helpful in this case which is what I would ask for your input on – as perhaps I am caught up in temporary delusion here.

F.: Freedom from the belief that former activities or practices were helpful might come about by asking, “WHO thinks she / he was helped?” Here, if practices are mentioned, they are usually accompanied with a disclaimer that they accomplished nothing. [See the confessional excerpt from an Advaita-based novel coming up later in the series.]

Did “floyd” read? Yes, and the reading of works by non-Realized, often-famous people was for naught, and the pointers from a Realized teacher that were merely witnessed by the consciousness (silently, when alone, while doing nothing) were not for naught.

Persons say, “Well, I had to do everything I did, and so did you.” No, you didn’t. No, I didn't. That is more nonsense – just another belief. When colon cancer in the body of “floyd” went undiagnosed for months, all sorts of things were done in an effort to bring about healing.

None of those things worked, and none helped an iota, so neither I nor the doctors had to “do everything we did” to get to the final treatment that was actually required. All that was required was an awareness of what the real problem was—what the real blockage was all about—and then an awareness of what the ultimate medicine was that finally addressed the real blockage.

So what happened happened with all of that, but you now know that the nisarga approach calls for doing nothing that is not natural. Much of what "I" "did" for years was as unnatural as what spiritual persons and religious persons and seekers do.

Eventually, peace and freedom came when this speck of temporarily manifest consciousness became free of notions of doership and therefore identified with the nothingness and did nothing any more...there being no “one” to do anything.

Q.: The main thing really is watching the sense “I Am” – but this practice evolved by accident – and only lately do I realise this is what it was. Caught at the spiritual persona level, I had the notion one day that if it was possible to… [at this point, a series of exercises were described, exercises not assigned by a Realized teacher but dreamed up by one seeking earnestly but without direction].

At that point, I had never heard the word “advaita” or “self-enquiry”, but the sense is that the observation was simply resting in pure awareness – watching the sense “I Am” without attribute.

F.: So what happened happened with all of that, but you now know that the nisarga approach calls for doing nothing that is not natural. Again, much of what "I" "did" for years was as unnatural as what spiritual persons and religious persons and seekers do, and it was all for naught.

Eventually, peace and freedom come when a temporary speck that understands the nothingness is freed from notions of doership and therefore does nothing...there being no "one" to do anything.

The deer is not “doing grass.” Eating merely happens, naturally and spontaneously. Witnessing merely happens too...or not.

As noted in other series, the seeker / doer is one of the last illusions to fade. Now, whatever happens happens, but there is merely the consciousness that is witnessing whatever unfolds even as whatever unfolds is natural only. The consciousness can do nothing beyond witnessing; all else, thought by a mind that there is a do-er that is doing things, is delusion.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
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THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
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THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
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