Advaita Vedanta: THE NONALIGNED STATUS OF THE REALIZED: Feeling without Emoting, Part Nineteen

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

F.: Most of the posts offered here daily are for all that would hear and be free and then at peace. Today's post might seem to be for a more limited audience, maybe for only about 15% on the planet who have assumed a specific religious identity. In fact, while the post first speaks directly to that 15%, it really is for all among the 97% who claim to be affiliated with one organized religion or another and who are, therefore, fixated at what is only the third step of a seven-step "journey" to authenticity and Full Realization and then total freedom and peace.

Many scathing comments have come to this site since 2005 from those among a variety of religious backgrounds, but the majority of the attacks have come from Christians. They come whenever an invitation is extended to transition beyond the playing of assumed religious and / or spiritual roles (that is, to transition beyond what you take to be your "good" and "new and improved" roles that are also nothing more than assigned or assumed ego-states).

Yesterday, however, an invitation to engage in that same transitioning was offered by one of the highest-ranking Christian officials, not by word ... but by deed. So, to the one-billion-plus Catholics around the globe, forget any invitations that have been posted here over the last eight years or that have been offered in retreats and in writings or via the oral offerings of non-dual pointers for what will be twenty-four years this July; instead, look at the example set forth by one of your own.

For years, the one that you have called "the Pope, the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, the Primate of Italy, the Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, the Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, the Servant of the Servants of God, your Model, your Teacher, your Ideal, your Hero, and your Guide" finally became so disgusted with the corruption and chaos in his own church that he quit and left. Peace? There was no peace there, and there is no peace there, and there shall be no peace there.

But consider that action: your own religious Model and Teacher and Ideal and Hero and Guide became disgusted and quit and left. Are there any questions?

As his journey of playing the highest religious role in your religion now ends, what happens with him is irrelevant, but for you, the key part of your "journey" can now begin if you follow his lead and transition beyond your religious and / or spiritual role-playing. Via the same non-dual, Advaitin teachings (which were taught by Jesus Christ during the final months of the manifestation of that speck of consciousness), you have an option which can begin today if you too exercise the alternative that your pope exercised yesterday: become disgusted, quit, and leave.

If you follow your pope's example and his guidance, you will be disgusted by the extravagance and over-spending and accumulation and excessiveness and lavishness and the abuse and corruption and fraud and vice and deceit and duplicity and criminal conduct and treachery. So, following his example, you too can also quit and leave and then focus on the search for authenticity and truthfulness;

then you - via the seven-step "journey" from identification with the false "I" to abidance as the Absolute - can continue on your "journey" and follow the rest of the "path" beyond religious and spiritual role-playing to the "path's" true and final completion. So again, the invitation is extended to you and to all, using the reminder from the name-sake of your religion who taught: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." Move away from what has become a dualistic source of instability and corruption and chaos.

And if you choose not to follow the pope's example, then follow the example of your Christ: he took a whip and beat those in the temple whose behavior also disgusted him with their extravagance and over-spending and co-mingling of religion and finances and who disgusted him with their accumulation and excessiveness and lavishness and corruption and fraud and vice and deceit and duplicity and treachery.

He too quit. He too left organized religion. He, too, overcame the blinding effects of his childhood programming and conditioning and he walked away ... finally ... free.

So, there are two examples for you: your pope and your Christ: both became disgusted. Both quit. Both left. Are there any questions?

Maybe only this one: "What are you waiting for?"

Follow the example of the two whom you have identified as your greatest leaders, the ones whom you believed to be inerrant, the ones whom you have said are in charge of you and your life, the ones you said have been your directors, the ones you have long claimed to be your guides. As was the case with both of them, it's okay to become disgusted. In fact, it's the only sane and logical conclusion. As was the case with both of them, it's okay to quit. It's the only sane and logical action. As was the case with both of them, it's okay to leave. In fact, it's the only sane and logical action.

And the same applies for all among the 97% who are involved in any of the organized religions or sky cults or spiritual groups around the globe and who are rising and kneeling and chanting and doing all the things that are being done as if asleep and who are blindly and unconsciously doing all the things that are being done as a result of nothing more than childhood programming and conditioning.

As a child, behave as a child, but as an adult, turn away from childish things. Transition beyond your alignment with an institution that you never consciously choose to align with in the first place but that you instead aligned with as a result of parental and cultural conditioning and programming.

Then, all of "the 97 percent-er's" are invited to transition ... to transition beyond what is only the third step on a seven-step "path," to transition beyond religious or spiritual identities which are also just more ego-states, to transition beyond what Maharaj called your "kindergarten spirituality," and then to complete the entire Non-Dual "Journey." Then only is there a chance that you can transition beyond your dualistic alignments and your dualistic "for-and-against" opinions and beliefs. Then only is there an opportunity to reach the nonaligned status of the Realized and to reach the position of neutrality from which the truly free and peaceful function.

Of course, all of that is just a suggestion.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Note: Online Internet Course now available at a discount. See details above.

[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