Advaita Vedanta: Are You, By Chance, Trapped in the Role of "The Super Seeker"? The Conclusion

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

F.: Most who are involved in religious activities or spiritual exercises or some other forms of spiritual workaholism find great offense when they hear what they take to be a minimizing or discounting or dismissing or diminishing of those activities or exercises that they deem to be so significant (making them significant in the process, at least in their own minds).

"How dare you disrespect my annual visits to an ashram in South America. Even if I don't understand a word they say during my week there, I absorb their spiritual energy"; or, "how dare you disregard my church work"; or "how dare you dismiss as useless my daily attendance at my spiritual group's gatherings";

or "how dare you question the fact that I carry a copy of 'I AM THAT' with me at all times. It's like my Bible" (even though Maharaj said of that book during his last years, "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period." He said, I am "speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier spirituality-focused talks, making clear that the pointers in "I AM THAT" will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line.")

So, indeed, how dare anyone question the spiritual going and doing and zooming of seekers, unless one has

a. already experienced all that, and

b. experienced the total lack of efficacy of all of that, and

c. has also witnessed the ineffective outcomes of all of that with hundreds and thousands of others who have tried all of that, and

d. can now attest to the fact that efforts "a-y" do not work and that "z" does.

The warning is, venture not into a pit-filled jungle with a guide that has not traveled through every part of that jungle and has found the one effective means for coming out the other side in ONE piece; thus, yesterday, this was shared: "Here, all of the insanity of excessive seeking happened." Been there; done that, too.

"The Super Seeker" role had been assumed here, and only because that is the case, and only because all the efforts of that role-player were ultimately seen to have been for nil, can a different invitation be offered to those who are playing that role. That invitation here is:

to question it all;

to pause if you are presently engaged in activities and exercises that have proven time and again to be ineffective and fruitless even as you are convinced that your religious and / or spiritual workaholism is effective and bearing great fruit; and then

to transcend all of that, now, and follow Maharaj's advice to “Follow the same path by which you came" and " ... go back, reverse, to the source.”

Two things still have the potential to be tiring:

1. merely reflecting on all of the effort and energy and time that was wasted in what proved to be a long and arduous and futile search prior to finding non-duality and the Nisarga Yoga; and

2. listening to others as they recount all that they have done; as they provide an inventory of all of the books by Big Name Teachers that they have read; as they name all of the places they have gone that they think are holy; as they catalogue all of the places they still go to regularly;

and as they list all of the things that they are still doing (all of which have generated new dependencies rather than bringing about total freedom and independence and peace and an end to all of their going and doing and zooming).

It is tiring just to hear it, much less to actually be doing it.

In the non-duality, partly-autobiographical and partly-fictional novel entitled, "The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders," the rigors of following the arduous (non-)path of "The Super Seeker" and the excesses of "Floyd the Super Seeker" were described thusly (via a character in the non-dual novel called "Kirk"):

In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he’d been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he’d been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life’s Meaning, he’d been communion’d, Om’d, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram’d, accepted, rejected, Mu’d, and yoga’d;

in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he’d been pulverized, martinized, and frappéd; and in the endeavor to attain Life Eternal, he’d been baptized, Buddha’d, New Aged, powwow’d, Far Eastern Indianized, incense’d, sage’d, Tao’d, Peru’d, Tibet’d, washed in the blood, dunked in the waters, and purportedly purified.

Then in the end, each of the religious or spiritual leaders had always charged him 10% of his total income for the whole sorry treatment, plus a building-fund-tax and a foreign-missions-surcharge to boot—all in spite of the complete ineffectiveness of their claims to “redeem and save.”

A request even came in the mail to contribute to the cost of adding an additional wing to an ashram. Kirk had to laugh at these outgrowths of the ancient quests for immortality: originally, relatives placed riches in the tomb or pyramid or sarcophagus of the deceased in order to provide the necessary wealth required to buy eternal life upon arrival “there”; now, the church’s new plan calls for making installment payments prior to death.

The new message: “You need only be good, do some suffering in this life, and also make your monthly 10%-of-income-payments in advance for services that are assured to be rendered after your demise.” In the end, to Kirk anyway, the popular religions sounded too much like grocery-shopping, coupon-style: “We’ll redeem. We’ll save you.” Yeah, but will you triple my value on Wednesdays?!

Now some might say, “Ah, I see what’s missing. Here’s your problem. You’ve never been to the mountaintop and talked to The Wise Man you’ll meet there.” But Kirk would say, “Oh, but I have, O Sayer of the False.”

Yes, Kirk had even been to the mountaintop, or darn close to it, when he traveled from his home to the airport in Houston and into Albuquerque; from there, he rented a car, drove from that city into Santa Fe, New Mexico, and climbed—via his rented auto—up the side of the white-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains, all for the promise of getting the chance to spend one hour with a full-blooded Cherokee Man of Wisdom, a Real, modern-day Soothsayer.

Once there, The Wise Man asked of Kirk, “Tell me what you have done so far on your search.” In his anal way at that time, Kirk took forty minutes to provide for the chief a detailed cataloguing of all of his spiritual work to date, as delightful a dose of divine workaholism as ever heard.

Then the chief inquired, “OK. Now tell me all that you have not yet done on your search that you are planning to do.” That took Kirk another twenty minutes, enumerating the elements in his game plan for gaining greater godliness and even more spirituality in the future.

At the end of his one-hour session, which had come at the conclusion of a very long journey, Kirk finally fell quiet and looked at the chief. The chief gazed directly at Kirk, but not into Kirk’s eyes. The stare from the chief pierced to a depth much deeper than the eyes, not unlike an arrow shot with such force that it not only reached its target but breached its way through the objective as well.

The look altered into one of those soul-penetrating stares, coming at Kirk from the now-narrowed eyes of a Wise Man, like a hawk’s glare fixed on a soon-to-be slain mouse. Several times, Kirk had to look down to sever this discomforting link, but each time he glanced up, the chief stared him down again.

Finally, the Cherokee rose, using the two canes now required for moving about on his ancient legs. Tottering over Kirk, he fixed his eyes again on this seeker, and Kirk became convinced that the Words of Wisdom he had come so far to hear would emerge within seconds.

The words, Kirk trusted, would provide the penultimate key. That penultimate key would then be used in the ultimate act required for the opening of his mind to a new and definitive level of freedom and independence. He waited with bated breath; his pulse quickened; his mind seemed already to be opening more than ever before. Finally, just about to come his way—he felt assured—would be the Secret Knowledge that unravels all mysteries, the key that would allow Full and Final Knowingness to manifest.

Instead, the chief proclaimed in a way-too-matter-of-fact manner, “Well, then. You’re going to be a very busy boy.” And with that, the old man hobbled away, in a way that told Kirk without the least doubt at all that he would hear nothing more, ever, from the chief.

Kirk’s breath was not now bated; his pulse quickened even more; his mind snapped shut like a spring-loaded trap. Kirk flashed back over all required to arrive in Santa Fe and to sit in the presence of the chief, all the time, all the money, all the effort, only to hear … that?

Kirk’s pseudo-spirituality dissolved, replaced with fury. He thought suddenly that those two canes might better be used to serve up a brutal pummeling across the back and neck and head of this clearly Not-Wise-Man.

Only later would the tremendous value of the chief’s ten words become clear. And later, that wisdom, along with the connection Kirk had with his grandmother, would inspire Kirk to once again seek insight from a different Cherokee chief.

So what about you? In the last week, three emails have been received in which the persons writing asked no questions at all. They wrote instead about all that they have done on their search, in order to ... what? Impress me? Or to take advantage of one more ego-and-egotism-based opportunity to talk about themselves ... about their false selves?

Do you see that nothing in the recounting above was about Floyd and that it was about "the non-Floyd's" who were engaged in nonsensical activities that were deemed at the time to be "oh so significant"?

The emailers spoke of wise men they had met in foreign lands; they spoke of seeking first via a religion and then via a different denomination or sect in that religion, and then via other religions;

they spoke of all of the spiritual work and all of the spiritual exercises that they were yet engaging in. They itemized the dozens of books they have read as they engaged in name-dropping, mentioning one famous author after another.

Yet still, no questions. Just a stream of self-interested words, one paragraph after another, all nothing more than lengthy self-congratulatory tales, cloaked in what they took to be a journey packed with what they took to be spellbinding details that were surely so fascinating that they needed to be shared and that would, surely, amaze and astound. In fact, so little did they impress that their extended narratives were deleted posthaste.

In days part, there might have been a reply such as, "Well, then. You’ve been a very busy boy. Are you going to continue with that busy-ness?" Now, such a useless waste of typing and sending can no longer happen.

But what of you? Have you been a very busy girl? Have you been a very busy boy? Are you going to continue with that busy-ness, or might you realize that the relative existence is too short to miss out on its offerings, including the opportunity to enjoy so much bliss; or the option to merely relax; or the chance to stop missing out on so many ignored pleasures; or the prospect of abiding naturally and freely?

Most have to be involved with some business to meet the basic needs of food and clothing and shelter, but none have to be involved in busy-ness. The invitation is to Realize Fully and then relax and abide naturally and freely and independently. Of course, that's just a suggestion.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

A Non-Duality Online Course is currently available at a reduced rate. See above for details. [Received from Mac, 10/17/12]: "Glad to see the online teaching offered at a discount. Hopefully, more who are ready will be able to take the course. For me, the course was the beginning of the unlearning that led to the trip to the lake for a retreat and the understanding."

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part One

A "movement" or "shift" happened here that added another parallel to the many parallels in terms of the phenomenal "experiences" and the noumenal revelations that "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" share in common. (Many visitors over the years have said that they also shared the same parallels with "Maharaj" and "Floyd" as well.) In the case of "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd";;

1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating;

6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";

11. both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making 12. both had wives who were unhappy when the de-accumulation stage was entered and both had wives who became unhappy about their husbands' focus on non-duality and who blamed their unhappiness on no longer having a religious husband (The facts be known, in both cases the unhappiness involved the fact that their husbands were no longer interested in - or willing - to work 80+ hours per week and that their husbands were no longer interested in accumulating wealth and possessions and providing the rich lifestyle to which their wives had grown accustomed) 13. both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce) 15. both accelerated their seeking;

16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more 19. both began sharing the teachings 20. for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.

21. Both saw that many who heard the teachings are not going to understand (Maharaj reporting that "only 1 in 100,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 22. both soon saw that even more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj modifying his "guesstimate" and reporting that "only 1 in 1,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 23. eventually both saw that even far more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj eventually concluding that "only 1 in 10,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding). And the failings were not the fault of seekers. A "one -in-ten-million" estimate is proof that satsang was not working for most seekers, and the evidence here lately is proof of the same.

Both "Maharaj" and "Floyd" invited seekers to focus on the exact, step-wise "path." Yes, during satsang, "Maharaj" sometimes alluded to the steps while discussing them in no particular order - but he never once laid out the steps in the exact order in which they had to be completed. That was not his teachings style or approach.

Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.

Looking objectively at the results here when using an "electronic loft" satsang method of sharing has not produced the intended outcome nearly as often as any of the three "face-to-face" methods used with seekers by which they have been led through the seven steps in order. Here, the body is growing older, of course. Mahasamadhi could be taken today, or it could be taken in twenty years.

Obviously, that cannot be known. But the decision here has been made that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the ways that have been seen over the last 20+ years to be the most effective methods.

Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required. It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces." It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two

In "Part One," examples were given of seekers that were led to Realization not by satsang but by following the various protocols outlined farther down this page which provide the understanding in the step-wise, orderly, required fashion which moves seekers along a "path" that is as prescribed by Maharaj ... "going back" in the "reverse order" by which the consciousness manifested and became blocked.

However, conversations with some that just read the majority of the books have revealed that they certainly seem to have grasped the understanding and Realized as well. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what has "not worked" as well - changes are being made. There are seven specific steps that happen when awareness-energy is "pulled" into a cycle of manifestation. When that energy manifests as conscious-energy, that formerly pure and unadulterated energy becomes "corrupted" (or "blocked" from seeing clearly) via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. Soon, there is a belief in the not-Real as a result of seven degrees of separation from an understanding of the Real. Using the method that was also employed by his contemporaries - a method which focused on offering non-duality pointers via satsang - Maharaj addressed questions in the order in which they were received. He might receive a question from a seeker at the third step and his reply would include what amounted to an invitation to move to the fourth step. The next question might come from a seeker at the first step, and the reply would include an invitation to move to the second step. The information offered to the second seeker would seemingly contradict what was offered to the first seeker, so visitors who have come here for decades have asked questions which showed how confused they were by the fact that Maharaj's statements to each visitor in his loft were "level-appropriate" yet were provided in no precise order, resulting in what seemed to be an inconsistent message. So the process overall was confusing in that seekers were told to follow the "path back" in the same way that they "came in," except in reverse order, but pointers were not given in a specific, step-wise order at all. Maharaj did recognize the seven steps that are taught here, but by offering the teachings in an order that was dictated by the order in which questions were received from seekers who were at different steps on the "path," the result was this: a pointer about moving beyond the fourth step might be followed by a pointer about moving beyond the first step, and that pointer might be followed by a pointer about how to move beyond the sixth step. The same was done on this site for seven years. The result is a collection of 1,800 or so essays discussing almost every non-duality topic that can be discussed, and the search button on the top right side of this page will now allow seekers with a question about a specific topic to find an explanation. That method, however, will never provide the manner in which the seven steps on the "path" must be transmitted and received in order to Realize Fully. An objective study of the history here of more than twenty years of offering non-duality pointers reveals this: seekers that were given pointers in the exact order in which they needed to receive them were the ones that Realized.

They read the books, then they completed the online course and / or completed seven Skype or telephone sessions or came here for a retreat (or watched the downloadable DVD version of an actual retreat, available below).

Some found that which they were seeking by reading the author's book that deal with non-duality subject matter. Via all of those venues, the steps are taught in their proper order. The essays available on this site will remain for those interested in searching for a discussion of a particular non-duality topic without charge, but the focus here until mahasamadhi is taken is going to be on offering the teachings in the step-wise fashion that has been seen to work.

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FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to the Absolute