Advaita Vedanta: CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: "Evil?" Or Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity? Part Eighteen in the Series

Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You

F.: Non-duality is about addressing some levels of insanity and freeing seekers of the effects; insanity that is ignored or that does not register as insanity is actually about the embracing of dualities (at least until it reaches a state that results in a disconnection with one's immediate surroundings or a state of severe detachment from physical and mental experiences as happened with Mary).

While non-duality dismisses the validity of all dualistic pairing including "good vs. evil," it also ignores many of the typical definitions of "insanity." Non-duality teachers leave it to the courts to deal with defining and debating "impaired by a mental disease or defect at the time of any given act" and "cognitive insanity" and "volitional insanity" and "irresistible impulse" and "mental diseases or defects that render persons incapable of controlling their actions" and "mental incompetency."

Instead, at the root of duality-based insanity is unchecked arrogance; belief in hierarchies and a desire to rise in whichever ones are deemed significant; a lack of awareness of the Oneness; a belief in the concepts of "two-ness" and "multiplicity" which in turn support a "me vs. all others" mentality;

unconstrained attachment to ego and egotism; and a level of preoccupation with self and self-ish-ness and self-centered that preempts anything in the relative that might be even remotely labeled as "social skills" (known among professionals as the Antisocial Personality Disorder).

[Note: at one point, a child had to spend fifteen years or more in a dysfunctional family to reach that point; now, some psychotherapists have shared that they are diagnosing seven and eight-year-olds with that disorder.]

To continue: the type and level of insanity that non-duality teachers are willing to address is the type that is rooted in duality and self-interest (which is what all insanity is about until one reaches the level that Mary reached four decades ago when she was admitted to a mental healthcare facility).

Here, the discussion having moved beyond the bogus, duality-based concept of "evil," the focus is on certain levels of insanity that can still be addressed by the teachings (which as far as Nisargan or Realized non-dualists are concerned does not refer to the relative condition or state of being "seriously mentally ill" or "totally mad" as much as it refers to being "extremely foolish or irrational").

Why? Because "serious mental illness" and / or "total madness" cannot be addressed by the Ultimate Medicine that Nisargan or Realized non-dualists can offer; however, it is possible that the Ultimate Medicine might be able to address extreme foolishness or irrationality or some levels of insanity if the Ultimate Sickness is treated before personality disorders reach the lower levels of psychic health.

[Generally, the intervention must happen before "Level 5" is reached - see below for an example of "Level 5" - yet there have been cases of those who have come this way that reached the understanding even though their personality disintegration had reached even lower levels.]

What does psychic health look like in contrast to average or unhealthy psychic health as one begins to disintegrate? The following is an example from the Enneagram Institute that shows what happens as psychic disintegration moves through the nine levels. This particular example applies to a Personality Type Eight:

Type Eight - Healthy Levels of the Psyche

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Level 2: Self-assertive, self-confident, and strong: have learned to stand up for what they need and want. A resourceful, "can do" attitude and passionate inner drive.

Level 3: Decisive, authoritative, and commanding: the natural leader others look up to. Take initiative, make things happen: champion people, provider, protective, and honorable, carrying others with their strength.

Type Eight - Average Healthy Levels of the Psyche

Level 4: Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, "rugged individualists," wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.

Level 5: Begin to dominate their environment, including others: want to feel that others are behind them, supporting their efforts. Swaggering, boastful, forceful, and expansive: the "boss" whose word is law. Proud, egocentric, want to impose their will and vision on everything, not seeing others as equals or treating them with respect.

Level 6: Become highly combative and intimidating to get their way: confrontational, belligerent, creating adversarial relationships. Everything a test of wills, and they will not back down. Use threats and reprisals to get obedience from others, to keep others off balance and insecure. However, unjust treatment makes others fear and resent them, possibly also band together against them.

Type Eight - Unhealthy Levels of the Psyche

Level 7: Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, "might makes right." The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.

Level 8: Develop delusional ideas about their power, invincibility, and ability to prevail: megalomania, feeling omnipotent, invulnerable. Recklessly over-extending self.

Level 9: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial PERSONALITY DISORDER.

Note: Those are not the "Nine Levels Of Good And Evil." Those are the nine levels that trace personality disintegration from a healthy psychic level to an unhealthy psychic level.

A non-dual consideration regarding part of yesterday's post: several emails were received from people who ignored the request to hang on to their comments, some of them charging that if I didn't understand that 20-year-old Adam Lanza was both evil and crazy - having shot his mom, twenty elementary-age-children, six staff members at a school, and himself - then I was also insane.

In fact, the non-dual take on insanity is rather unique, seeing that insanity is rooted in a belief in hierarchies and ego and a competitive "us vs. them" mentality that sets the stage for some persons to act out as the school shooter did.

The insanity picked up by the shooter in a dysfunctional home was accompanied by a series of ego-crushing events that set up a competition, and competitions usually involve rivalry and antagonism and struggle and fighting and clashing; with the insane who have withdrawn from society, though, the competition takes place in the warped "mind" of an individual. Such was the case with that shooter.

For example, reports are that the shooter had no friends, having been allowed by his mother to drop out of school and become "home schooled" because - as she reported - "he could not deal with school." Another report is that his home schooling amounted to his being allowed to sit in the windowless basement of his home, playing for many hours each day a variety of violent video games from the multi-thousand-dollar collection that his mother had bought for him, games in which he killed people. (There is no connection being drawn between such games and violent acts. The conclusions of the research vary. There is a connection between parents who are not available and who use such games as electronic babysitters so that the parents can go do their thing.)

Lanza had no friends. He had no girlfriend. He had no relationships with teachers. He had no educational successes. He had been assigned by events - or had adopted the persona himself - of "The Loser" ... "The Failure." That may have come about as a result of his personality disorders and an enabling mother and other factors, but it set the stage for a mental competition that played out like this in that twisted mind:

"I am in last place in friend-accumulation. I am in last place in girlfriend-accumulation. I am in last place in accumulating scholastic accomplishments and the 'attaboys' that others receive." Thus, the stage was set for a competition that he wanted to win so he would no longer be in last place - in at least one category or another. And the mind that had undergone a 20-year process of warping eventually found something he could do that would made him #1. What did he find?

His mother's preoccupation with firearms was shared with him, so he began to focus on shooting. His mother had taken him again to the gun range for target practice just days before the mass killings. When not at the range, the video games he played allowed him to shoot "virtual-reality people."

With a growing focus on guns and shooting people, he began to explore instances involving mass murderers who were "#1" in their involvement with guns and shooting people, the use of his computer having been totally unsupervised. That led him to find information on Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik who, on 22 July 2011, bombed government buildings in Oslo that killed eight people, followed by a mass shooting at a camp on an island where he killed an additional sixty-nine people, mostly teenagers.

Now a competitive goal could be set: Breivik was, in modern times, #1 as a mass killer. His total: 77 dead. Adam Lanza, in order to take the #1 spot away from Breivik, needed to kill at least 78 people. Then the 20-year-old who was dead last at friend-accumulation, at girlfriend-accumulation and at accumulating scholastic accomplishments and 'attaboys' would become #1 at something ... specifically, mass murder.

The self-centered basis of the competition advanced: in the area of accumulating friends and a girlfriend and scholastic achievement and "attaboys," Lanza was at the bottom of the dualistic hierarchy. He was dead last in having his former ego-states supported by ego-boosting feedback. He was dead last in regards to the stuff of ego and egotism, including "self-worth" and "self-esteem" and "self-love" and "a positive self-image."

But now he had a plan that was going to move him to the top in a global category: the highest number of people killed by a modern-day mass murderer. And THAT is the stuff of duality, of false self, of persona identification, of self-ish-ness, of belief in a hierarchy, of the belief that one's place on a dreamed-up hierarchy matters, and of a complete absence of any sense at all of the Oneness.

Thus, those with this understanding can see that among the insane, even a remote understanding of the Oneness that allows for an understanding of Real Love is absent; therefore, what many take to be "hatred" and "evil" involves to one degree or another a failure to understand Maharaj's pointer that

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything ...."

Lanza was not at-one with the children he intended to slaughter in his plan to finally be #1 at something. Were they the "others" in his "me vs. all others" mentality? Possibly, to some degree. But more than anything, they were the means to an end, pawns in the final competition that would make him #1; then, his egotism told his multiple ego-states that he could be remembered for many generations to come. Finally, the fame and recognition that ego and egotism long for was no farther away than the short drive from his home to an elementary school.

The time was nearing to bring on the competition and address with extreme, duality-based irrationality all of the frustrated and unmet "needs" of his ego-states. Crazy? Yes. Insane? Yes. Trapped in the neuroses and psychoses that come when personality disorders are allowed to run rampant? Yes.

(Do you see how the explanation that any given event is rooted in "evil" leads to vast oversimplification and preempts any chance of understanding the entire chain of causation involved?)

The dysfunctionalism and ignorance and stupidity and insanity that drive adults to take a child's blank tablet and to write on it the most insane and dualistic and nonsensical beliefs and ideas and concepts and notions and thoughts and opinions and judgments and views and perspectives, year after year after year, is the architect of the resulting ignorance and stupidity and insanity that generate such widespread pain and misery and suffering all around the globe.

Why do they do that? Because crazy cannot spot crazy, though it can most assuredly pass itself on. The Ultimate Medicine is available, but those who do not have a clue that they are Ultimately Sick will never seek that Medicine.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Questions?
Submit them to:

Comments?
Just hang on to those please.

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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WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:

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