Advaita Vedanta: USING THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE TO CURE THE TWO MOST PREVALENT ADDICTIONS ON THE PLANET, Part Two

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.

F.: Yesterday's post ended with "the examples of the desire for power in order to control are near infinite in number. Tomorrow, the Advaitin take on the concepts of 'control' and 'power'."

The Nisargan-Advaita take on control and power - as far as those two involve any person - is that they do not exist, that both are concepts and nothing more, and that anyone thinking or believing that she / he has power and / or control over anything or anyone is delusional.

That is not a popular pointer since it can only be read by persons and not by the deer or the fish or the birds or the plants or any other members of the majority of the forms-or-bodies-cum-conscious-energy that are also forms-or-bodies-with-no-egos (and, therefore, no egotism or delusion).

Forms-or-bodies-with-assumed-egos-and-egotism-and-delusion (that is, the non-Realized) will reject outright the suggestion that they have no power or control. While working with a staff member at a company where enneagram sessions were conducted as a "staff development tool," it was observed that the employee's talk was rooted in spiritual giantism and that his statements dealt time and again, ad nauseum, with the earthly and heavenly power that he thought was available to him.

When the pointer above was shared, suggesting that no one has any power, he said, "My boss Mark has power." The reply: "By what evidence?" He said, "By evidence of the fact that he can fire me."

The reply: "If he fired you, that would be his admission that he has no power, that he has tried time and again to make you behave and perform in a certain manner and that you have not done so. Firing you would be his admission that he does not have the power to make you behave and perform as he desires so he is abandoning his efforts to try to have power over you and to try to control you and is therefore firing you instead."

Examples have been provided in the past of the cases where the big name teachers and lecturers and authors who studied the words of Maharaj took a part of what he taught but then distorted the message to make it appealing to the members of the public who - as with all among the non-Realized masses - are addicted to control and power.

Those persons have bastardized a message that had nothing to do with gaining anything, including gaining power or gaining control. Now, those persons are diluting the message offered by Maharaj by adding to it the notions that they can show the masses how to attain power and how to be able to control whatever they want to control.

Thus, it has been pointed out that those pretenders to Maharaj's teachings write about such topics as "how to gain power through intentions" or "gaining power NOW" or "how to use the mind effectively to get whatever you want."

MARAHAJ ON POWER

With those no farther along the "path" than what Maharaj called "the kindergarten level of spirituality," he spoke of "the power of knowing the Self" or "the power of awareness," etc., but in the end, the message for those at the end of the "path" was:

Maharaj: " ... the wise man [is] stripped of all his powers ..."

and

"We must realise how poor and powerless we are."

As for those who were seeking other-worldly power from gods or from this Being or that Being, he said, "There is no power as separate from me. It is inherent in my very nature."

Striking at the delusional concept of power being a key to happiness, he said: "To imagine that some little thing - food, sex, power, fame - will make you happy is to deceive yourself. Only something as vast and deep as your Real Self can make you truly and lastingly happy."

Regarding power, he also said:

Maharaj: "Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others."

Maharaj: "The shape things take is not within your power."

MAHARAJ ON CONTROL:

Maharaj: "Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control ...."

and

"What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control ...?"

and

"... a little whorl [a twist] arises in the mind, which indulges in fantasies and imagines itself dominating and controlling life." Thus, the desire for power and control is universal among the masses (where non-Realization prevails).

So consider how truly widespread the desire for control and power actually is: the religious want to control; addicts are among the most extreme control freaks on the planet; Personality Type Eights are control freaks, often to a pathological level; spiritual giants want to control, and some of them even want to control what is shared on privately-owned websites; politicians want to control;

Type Sixes with their fear-driven tendencies often join a military force, a police force, a security guard services etc., all because they want to have power and want to control; those who function in all of their "interpersonal relationships" in "The Parent Role" want to control;

bosses want to control; principals want to control; managers want to control; teachers want to control; supervisors want to control; neighbors and members of community boards want to control; members of school boards want to control;

the police and sheriffs and constables and highway patrolmen and patrolwomen want to control; members of the IRS and the FBI and the CIA and the entire hodge-podge of three-letter government law enforcement agencies want to control; district attorneys want to control;

courtroom lawyers want to control; judges want to control; rage-aholics want to control; ass-aholics want to control; bullies on school grounds want to control; gangs and cartels want to control; mothers and fathers want to control;

preachers, rabbis, imams, ayatollahs, priests, lamas, popes, cardinals, bishops, and deacons want to control; religious activists want to control sexual conduct and decisions that people make about what to do with their bodies or what not to do with their bodies; religious fanatics want to control; ideologues want to control; spouses and lovers and friends and acquaintances and even strangers want to control;

Sunday School teachers want to control; Boy and Girl Scout leaders want to control; sexual predators and rapists want to control; murderers want to control; robbers want to control; counselors want to control; life coaches want to control;

diners in restaurants want to control; drivers in traffic want to control; shoppers in checkout lines want to control; parental activists in schools want to control; salespeople want to control; CEO's want to control; CFO's want to control; and some gurus want to control;

airport security personnel want control; on airplanes, pilots and cabin crew members want control; people next to crying babies on the plane want control; people around smokers want control; the smokers want control; small-town police operating speed traps want control; mayors and justices of the peace want control; city council members want control;

publishers and editors want control; abused children want control; selfish children want control; manipulative men and women want control; strippers and prostitutes want control; those deemed in cultures to be "the best looking" want control; those deemed not to be the best looking want control;

divas and models and actors and actresses want control; directors want control; the rich want control; those who work in whatever versions of a "department of defense" exists in nations around the planet want control; border patrol workers want control;

people who create internet viruses want control; people who steal the identity and credit card information from the people they target want control; people looking for a parking place in a crowded parking lot / car park want control; game wardens want control;

Christians want control; Jews want control; Muslims want control; suicide bombers want control; jurors want control; dominant males in the wild want control; dominant males and females in societies want control; right-wing party leaders want control; left-wing party members want control; and spokespersons and publicists want control.

Control ... control ... control. It is the scourge of the planet. The desire for power in order to be able to control is likewise a scourge of the planet. Maharaj: "This is their stupidity, verging on insanity" and again, "What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control ...?"

So who / what does NOT want power and control ... does not even believe in power and control?

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

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Much of what Louise has shared has resonated with many site visitors. to that end, some have inquired recently if Louise offers the online Advaita Internet Course. The answer is, "Yes."
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2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
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THE MEDITATION GUIDES
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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)
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LIBERATION
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THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
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FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
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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
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3. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes

Received 19 August 2010 from one that just completed the entire course:

I would like to extend deepest appreciation towards you for these teachings that you have offered. It has been most valuable towards what may not have been revealed throughout this manifestation labeled "anthony." Understanding Truth and finding words for gratitude are one as is all. Thank you again for pointing "me" to THAT and the understanding that came as well. Hopeful for future "contact"! Sincerely, Anthony M. W.

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The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders offers the non-duality message by way of a mystery-adventure novel, discussing the movement from pain to healing to awakening to peace.
From Dr. R.F. Maley, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Houston: "Floyd Henderson's book, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, is a fun read and an interesting mystery, but perhaps more importantly it serves as a vehicle for blending Eastern Philosophy and Native American Spirituality to make an intellectually challenging novel. The book's insights into both relationships and authoritarian conditioning of people in our society make it a must read, tracing the roots of narcissistic, sociopathic and psychopathic behaviors to the very core of the culture. This truly witty and politically-incorrect study of the aggressive nature of 'the American character' offers not only a diagnosis but also a treatment plan, making the book an excellent supplemental reading in courses such as psychology, anthropology, philosophy, sociology and counseling."

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The Sequel to The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders:
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS

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The Board of Directors of Wars

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