THE ULTIMATE UNDERSTANDING: No "You" Existed Prior to Manifestation, Nor Will a "You" Exist Post-Manifestation, Part Six, The Conclusion

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.

Furthermore, for those who have developed a preference for any non-nisargan yoga or who prefer Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: here you will only find the use of the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No prior Me-ness? Surely there was something?

F.: Again, these posts have been for those that have reached the end of the "path" and are now ready to fall "into the abysmal depth" and be totally free. That means the talks in this series ...

** have not been for the masses who are living lives in which they are playing a variety of characters on a stage in their "Theatre of the Lie";

** have not been for those who identify with the body-mind-personality triad instead of understanding the composite unity of elements-breath-conscious-energy;

** have not been for those who have stopped playing their earlier "lesser roles" but who have now adopted "higher personas" (either "The Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant") and are subsumed in the activities of those ego-states and in the egotism that both engender; and

** have not been for those who have discarded their "love of self" but have replaced that with the equally egocentric "love of Self."

Here, there is neither any subject-object "I love self" (as happened in "the old days") nor any "I love Self" (as happened at the midpoint on the "path" to Realization when the focus was on trying to live "religiously" and "spiritually" and before Full Realization resulted in a natural, no-role manner of living instead).

All of that adoption of "new and improve roles" happens at step three of the seven steps on the "path" to Realization where the playing of "good" roles replaces the playing of "bad" roles. That phase was eventually seen for what it really is: just arrogance-generating nonsense where new roles replace old roles and where seekers become convinced, delusionally, that they are free of their false identities.

It became understood that a naturally-abiding deer loves neither self nor Self nor consciousness, though it will respond in the fashion that the consciousness always responds in order to try to extend the length of its manifestation.

But what did the one called here, affectionately, "The Maverick Master of Mumbai" offer in terms of the final understanding about religion and spirituality and why one or both must be played for a time but must be transcended eventually if the full understanding is to come?

ON RELIGION
Maharaj: "Thousands of organizations have come and gone, thousands are yet to come. All of them are based on a certain concept" so " ... none of these organizations have any use; the ultimate thing is to find out about one's true nature. In this, organizations can do nothing because they are all based on a certain concept."

F.: Religions are the key source and key disseminator of dualistic concepts, focusing as they do on good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral, heaven vs. hell, reward vs. punishment, higher vs. lower, ad infinitum.

Maharaj: "Once the knowledge of the Self dawns, there is no longer any question of good or bad, suffering or not suffering, happiness vs. unhappiness; the question just does not arise."

ON SPIRITUALITY
Maharaj: "In the true state, nothing is. All this spiritual talk is spiritual jargon. You can talk in the world to the ignorant masses; you can convey any number of concepts to them" but " ... such concepts are for the ignorant people."

He asked: "Ultimately, what are these spiritual talks? They are meant for so long as ignorance prevails. To remove the ignorance, so-called knowledge is necessary. The knowledge removes the ignorance and then itself also goes"; then, he said, "both knowledge and ignorance are thrown overboard."

Also, he addressed the very reason that "Spiritual Giants" come here and criticize these pointers, as they did during the days he shared:

"I will not talk about what is being generally talked about elsewhere on the mistaken notion that they are discussing 'spiritual knowledge.' Parroting the opinions of others, that is not knowledge." He added, "Whatever knowledge you have is hearsay."

He taught: "Don't be led astray by all the so-called spiritual disciplines and rigmaroles."

Maharaj: "If you think you are interested in spirituality, I am dissuading you," advising, "Don't jump into this spiritual thing."

Instead, his invitation was to fall into "the abysmal depth" of the nothingness, to garner the wisdom that will make clear that "You are nothing." Then, the no-knowing, no-knower, no-concept abidance as the Awareness state can happen.

As that state, there is no aware-of-ness. The precipitating understandings that allow for abidance as the Absolute (and as that "depth" which is beyond) include the following:

** Nothing is as it appears;

** This beingness - by its very nature - is a culprit, engendering a limited sense of understanding and a sense of separate identity;

** The "I-Am-ness" is worn by all but a few as a shroud of illusion, typically blocking the view of the Absolute and most definitely blocking the enjoyment of the bliss of the Nothingness;

** Even identification with the consciousness, the Absolute, and the Nothingness must be transcended, allowing the remaining abidance to happen as the no-concept, no-belief, non-dual, no-identity Reality;

** There was no "Prior Me or You" and there shall be nothing remaining with any sense of a post-manifestation "Me or You";

** As the Void, there is also no "Present Me," no "Present You," and no "Present Them"; and

** The only sane and sound and logical and reasonable method that can allow for the present abidance to happen with a lightness of being is natural living, not unnatural living and not supernatural living.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.