A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] There was nothing “negative” that Maharaj felt about those who think that religion and / or spirituality might be the Ultimate Medicine to address the ignorance and insanity that are at core of the Ultimate Sickness. (Feeling “negative” would be as dualistic as feeling “positive.”)
There was no person there and there is no person here to feel “negative” or “positive” about anything. As far as “humans” go, there are only composite unities, and which of the composites’ three parts - earth elements or air or (conscious) energy – could possibly feel either negative or positive about anything?
The point is, Maharaj at various times prescribed both dogma and spiritual exercises to be used as the Ultimate Medicine, an approach tried by billions; unlike those billions, he abandoned both when he awoke to the fact that neither treats humankind’s main problem which centers in the mind . . . a problem which is a mental and emotional illness involving personality identification and the subsequent personality disorders that disintegrate into neuroses and psychoses.
The same is the case here: both were tried and prescribed; it became clear that neither has ever addressed humankind’s all-pervasive mental and emotional illnesses; it became clear that neither can address the real problem; and it was seen that both actually contribute to the Sickness.
(What is more mentally unstable and emotionally-intoxicated than those who are fanatical about religion or spirituality or politics or sports or guns or anything else?)
Thus, this has been shared many times in the past: “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.”
So, Maharaj in the end advised persons not to read the excessively-spiritual talks in I AM THAT but to read his later talks which addressed the effective way to treat the Ultimate Sickness, specifically, with a version of non-duality that results post-Realization in a Nisargan manner of abiding naturally.
Someone once asked why anything from that book is still mentioned on this site. This is the explanation offered in the past:
“As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers farther along the ‘path.’ During his last years, he said of I AM THAT:
‘That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today’ [and am] emphasizing different aspects.’
What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier 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’.”
Same here. There are neither “positive” nor “negative” thoughts about persons who are still trying to use a totally ineffective “medicine” for their Sickness. Again, why?
It is clear that there is nothing that is either “positive” or “negative”; having reached a state of “zero concepts,” there is no mind so there are no thoughts; and having had years of experience with religious and spiritual workaholism and fanaticism – as did Maharaj – the same conclusion as his was finally reached:
That which has been the most abundant source of nonsense and dualistic thinking and ignorant beliefs and insane behavior cannot possibly address nonsense and dualistic thinking and ignorant beliefs and insane behavior. Both methods for thousands of years have given it “the good ole college try,” but in the end: sorry . . . no cigar.
In terms of those stuck at the third of seven steps who continue to assume and play their “Super Religious One” role or their “Spiritual Giant” role or their “Super Seeker” role, there is no childish attitude here that says, “I hate you!” Nor is there the sociopath’s version of “I hate all of you!” Instead, the case here is this: there is no one – no persona – here that can hate, for only a persona can become emotionally-intoxicated and hate.
There is offered (from what Mac called “Floyd’s electronic loft”) the same invitation that was offered from Maharaj’s loft:
Here, there is simply an invitation to (1) consider seeking something else for a change and to (2) seek it somewhere else besides in the places that are obviously the planet’s warehouses of fanaticism and myth-and-superstition-based, nonsensical beliefs. So you are being begged, to use Maharaj's words, to . . .
a. abandon all of the methods of seeking that have been used in the past but that have been conducted in a helter-skelter fashion;
b. seek a proper diagnosis and seek to understand what the real problem is;
c. come to a true understanding of the most pervasive, debilitating illness that humanity has ever faced;
d. see that the Ultimate Sickness involves neither a dogma-deficiency nor spiritual unfitness; and,
e. see that humanity’s (relative) ignorance and (relative) destructive and self-destructive insanity could be reduced if the proper Medicine were used to treat humanity’s mental and emotional illnesses rather than using the totally ineffective medicine that the masses are currently using.
In short,
1. seek not any of the popular Noumenal or supernatural treatments (since the Noumenal takes care of itself automatically); instead,
2. seek the real source of all relative problems and chaos and ignorance and insanity and seek the real solution; then
3. abandon the use of a medicine that has been shown, after having had thousands of years to fix humanity's main problem, to have failed completely . . . to have had no effect at all on the Ultimate Sickness;
and
4. use the Ultimate Medicine to treat the Ultimate Sickness (while recognizing that for many, additional professional help may also be a required part of the treatment plan).
The sages have long understood that the most significant problems of humankind throughout history have been rooted in personality identification. (Maharaj even said that if seekers never get anything more from their seeking than freedom from personality - and, therefore, from their personality disorders - then that would be enough.)
And those sages also understood that assuming “new and improved good roles” (in an effort to replace what was considered to be their “former bad roles”) is a totally senseless, totally futile, enterprise.
In fact, as shared here before, many who have lived with a “formerly-really-rotten person” and are now having to try to bear the fanaticism of “the new and improved Super Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant” or “The Political Activist” or “The One Who Is Fanatical About This or That” are now longing for the former. They only thought at the time that “the former person” they were living with could not get any worse.
So really, if you’re fanatical about religion or spirituality or non-duality or any of the hundreds of other things that persons can become obsessive about, how much fun are you to be around, really? Is fanaticism making Jack a dull boy or Jill a dull girl? To abandon destructive behavior need not bring to an end the willingness or the ability to enjoy the relative existence and relative things fully.
As one of the indigenous peoples in the U.S. says in a song, “Winds of life are blowing across the reservation and I can hear the voice of a new generation . . . and it's time, yes it's time, to live.”
How about with you? In it time to live . . . to live freely . . . to live naturally . . . to truly relax and take it easy . . . and to leave others alone to do the same?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 June 2014
F.: [Continued from yesterday] There was nothing “negative” that Maharaj felt about those who think that religion and / or spirituality might be the Ultimate Medicine to address the ignorance and insanity that are at core of the Ultimate Sickness. (Feeling “negative” would be as dualistic as feeling “positive.”)
There was no person there and there is no person here to feel “negative” or “positive” about anything. As far as “humans” go, there are only composite unities, and which of the composites’ three parts - earth elements or air or (conscious) energy – could possibly feel either negative or positive about anything?
The point is, Maharaj at various times prescribed both dogma and spiritual exercises to be used as the Ultimate Medicine, an approach tried by billions; unlike those billions, he abandoned both when he awoke to the fact that neither treats humankind’s main problem which centers in the mind . . . a problem which is a mental and emotional illness involving personality identification and the subsequent personality disorders that disintegrate into neuroses and psychoses.
The same is the case here: both were tried and prescribed; it became clear that neither has ever addressed humankind’s all-pervasive mental and emotional illnesses; it became clear that neither can address the real problem; and it was seen that both actually contribute to the Sickness.
(What is more mentally unstable and emotionally-intoxicated than those who are fanatical about religion or spirituality or politics or sports or guns or anything else?)
Thus, this has been shared many times in the past: “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.”
So, Maharaj in the end advised persons not to read the excessively-spiritual talks in I AM THAT but to read his later talks which addressed the effective way to treat the Ultimate Sickness, specifically, with a version of non-duality that results post-Realization in a Nisargan manner of abiding naturally.
Someone once asked why anything from that book is still mentioned on this site. This is the explanation offered in the past:
“As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers farther along the ‘path.’ During his last years, he said of I AM THAT:
‘That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today’ [and am] emphasizing different aspects.’
What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier 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’.”
Same here. There are neither “positive” nor “negative” thoughts about persons who are still trying to use a totally ineffective “medicine” for their Sickness. Again, why?
It is clear that there is nothing that is either “positive” or “negative”; having reached a state of “zero concepts,” there is no mind so there are no thoughts; and having had years of experience with religious and spiritual workaholism and fanaticism – as did Maharaj – the same conclusion as his was finally reached:
That which has been the most abundant source of nonsense and dualistic thinking and ignorant beliefs and insane behavior cannot possibly address nonsense and dualistic thinking and ignorant beliefs and insane behavior. Both methods for thousands of years have given it “the good ole college try,” but in the end: sorry . . . no cigar.
In terms of those stuck at the third of seven steps who continue to assume and play their “Super Religious One” role or their “Spiritual Giant” role or their “Super Seeker” role, there is no childish attitude here that says, “I hate you!” Nor is there the sociopath’s version of “I hate all of you!” Instead, the case here is this: there is no one – no persona – here that can hate, for only a persona can become emotionally-intoxicated and hate.
There is offered (from what Mac called “Floyd’s electronic loft”) the same invitation that was offered from Maharaj’s loft:
Here, there is simply an invitation to (1) consider seeking something else for a change and to (2) seek it somewhere else besides in the places that are obviously the planet’s warehouses of fanaticism and myth-and-superstition-based, nonsensical beliefs. So you are being begged, to use Maharaj's words, to . . .
a. abandon all of the methods of seeking that have been used in the past but that have been conducted in a helter-skelter fashion;
b. seek a proper diagnosis and seek to understand what the real problem is;
c. come to a true understanding of the most pervasive, debilitating illness that humanity has ever faced;
d. see that the Ultimate Sickness involves neither a dogma-deficiency nor spiritual unfitness; and,
e. see that humanity’s (relative) ignorance and (relative) destructive and self-destructive insanity could be reduced if the proper Medicine were used to treat humanity’s mental and emotional illnesses rather than using the totally ineffective medicine that the masses are currently using.
In short,
1. seek not any of the popular Noumenal or supernatural treatments (since the Noumenal takes care of itself automatically); instead,
2. seek the real source of all relative problems and chaos and ignorance and insanity and seek the real solution; then
3. abandon the use of a medicine that has been shown, after having had thousands of years to fix humanity's main problem, to have failed completely . . . to have had no effect at all on the Ultimate Sickness;
and
4. use the Ultimate Medicine to treat the Ultimate Sickness (while recognizing that for many, additional professional help may also be a required part of the treatment plan).
The sages have long understood that the most significant problems of humankind throughout history have been rooted in personality identification. (Maharaj even said that if seekers never get anything more from their seeking than freedom from personality - and, therefore, from their personality disorders - then that would be enough.)
And those sages also understood that assuming “new and improved good roles” (in an effort to replace what was considered to be their “former bad roles”) is a totally senseless, totally futile, enterprise.
In fact, as shared here before, many who have lived with a “formerly-really-rotten person” and are now having to try to bear the fanaticism of “the new and improved Super Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant” or “The Political Activist” or “The One Who Is Fanatical About This or That” are now longing for the former. They only thought at the time that “the former person” they were living with could not get any worse.
So really, if you’re fanatical about religion or spirituality or non-duality or any of the hundreds of other things that persons can become obsessive about, how much fun are you to be around, really? Is fanaticism making Jack a dull boy or Jill a dull girl? To abandon destructive behavior need not bring to an end the willingness or the ability to enjoy the relative existence and relative things fully.
As one of the indigenous peoples in the U.S. says in a song, “Winds of life are blowing across the reservation and I can hear the voice of a new generation . . . and it's time, yes it's time, to live.”
How about with you? In it time to live . . . to live freely . . . to live naturally . . . to truly relax and take it easy . . . and to leave others alone to do the same?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: When Maharaj abandoned bhajans and organized religion, he was criticized highly by many persons. Later, when he abandoned spirituality as the solution for the Ultimate Sickness, far more criticized that decision.
He had no problem with people who continued to play those roles, knowing there was no “one” to have a problem with. It would be like watching a movie and not caring for the way the antagonist behaved and then hating that actor for the rest of your life. It was just a role, a stage character, assumed by someone who was playing a role.
The same applies here. But because Maharaj was attempting to share a solution that would eliminate the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (such as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”) he cared enough about those suffering from those conditions to abandoned what was not working and offer something else.
The same applies here. If there had been any evidence at all that belief-based systems could free persons of the beliefs (which are at the root of the problem) then those belief-based systems would still be used here.
If there had been any evidence that abandoning “bad” roles and then assuming and playing “good” roles – or “Really Good” roles, or even "Super Good" roles – could free persons from the nonsense generated by role-playing, that would still be used here. Obviously, such evidence cannot exist, so to continue.
With 97% of the planet’s population claiming an affiliation with one organized religion or another, and with millions more proudly proclaiming that they “are not religious but are spiritual instead,” and with millions more claiming membership in one or another ideological group or splinter group or fundamentalist cult, can any objective observer actually believe those people when they claim that “all of the evils of the world are caused by the fact that people are not religious and / or spiritual enough”?
Really? Religion and spirituality are more widespread than in the history of humankind, yet so are the problems of humankind. With 99.9% of the people on the planet being in one of the three groups above, the problems are obviously not a result of there being too few religious or spiritual people. (In fact, those stats shown that the opposite possibility might be the case.) No, instead the problems are rooted in the mental and emotional illness called “the Ultimate Sickness.”
While the masses have bought into the suggestion that persons need to know even more about religion and spirituality and need to study “this holy book” or “that holy book,” only the non-dual message, combined with the Nisarga Yoga, suggests that persons already “know” far too much and that the solution to their problems - at least partly - involve the need to be untaught . . . involve the need to unlearn.
There is no “one” here, so obviously there is no one here that wants you to learn more. The results of what Maharaj called planet-wide “learned ignorance” have been seen quite clearly.
As for reading “holy books,” Maharaj expressed his attitude about what so-called “leaders” say and about books that are deemed to be “holy” this way: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
Programming conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination – which are the province of parents and cultures and religions and spiritual programs and governments or rulers – have resulted in persons learning far too much. Too much of what?
Too much of what Maharaj called “learned ignorance.” Too much of the assigning or assuming of false identities. Too much of the accompanying personality disorders, neuroses, and psychoses that come with personality identification. Too much insanity.
That is what Maharaj made clear is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness: “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” and the cure for those is neither religion nor spirituality. Claim whatever benefit you are getting from one or both of those, but neither offers anything close to the methods and techniques that must be used to eliminate personality disorders and other mental illnesses.
Additionally, an eBook below discusses in detail what has been found that the non-dual “teachings” can and cannot address. While religious and spiritual leaders and authors and lecturers might claim that their beliefs are the panacea for the Sickness of the masses, there is no claim here that the non-dual understanding is the ultimate universal cure, the Ultimate Medicine which can, all by itself, cure the Sickness.
Too, the challenges for finding the cure are multiple and varied. Recall that once an ego-state is assigned or assumed as an identity, then ego-defense mechanisms will soon activate and upgrade the identity in the mind of the “beholder.”
A man was diagnosed as being clinically-depressed (which only affirmed what many acquainted with him had long recognized); yet because he was playing the role of “The Spiritual Giant” and was presenting himself as one whose spirituality had rendered him happy and joyous and free, he denied that diagnosis completely. So a personality’s agenda will impede receiving treatment for the Ultimate Sickness.
And even if persons admit that they are indeed suffering from the Ultimate Sickness, the chances of their finding someone that can dispense the Ultimate Medicine in the proper manner and in the proper dosage are practically nil. Moreover, as noted above, many are suffering a form of the Sickness which is so severe that they require professional help (and even that might not be able to address the most severe cases).
For those whose condition can be affected by the understanding, there are seven steps offered. Maharaj pointed out that most will never advance beyond the third of seven steps where they will play “kindergarten-level spirituality” and where they will mistakenly believe that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun when in fact they are still standing in the dull light of dawn.
Consider the ramifications of that fictional belief:
Many are aware of the fact that, here, there was early on an understanding of the consequences of duality via “my own experience.” (Later, it would be learned that there is no “experiencer,” but early on, such “experiencing” is required.)
On the one hand, there was the chaos and noise and concern about the two gangs whose leaders lived in the same inner city neighborhood; that inner city existence was also marked and marred by the struggles that came with extreme poverty along with the angst of abiding with an angry, abusive father.
By contrast, there was the cabin of Grandmother, a Cherokee Medicine Woman / Healer, which was set on a hilltop at the edge of a huge forest in the piney woods of East Texas.
The drive to her house took about three hours by car, but usually I traveled by Greyhound bus and that took nine hours or more. Yet there was never the slightest regret about that trip, even though it was always after dark before the driver dropped me off on the side of the highway near the foot of the hill where her cabin was located.
She would always listen for the bus, so after walking up the hill with my cardboard suitcase in hand and arriving in front of her home, Grandmother would be on the front porch to greet me. There awaited Love Manifest; in the home awaited peace and quiet . . . a lot of quiet, in fact . . . a lot of silence . . . an absence of angst . . . and freedom from exposure to the violence in the inner city.
Though her cabin had no running water, no AC for cooling during the hot summer, poor heat sources during the winter, a wood-burning stove, a smokehouse to be tended to, wood to be gathered or chopped, a one-acre garden that needed work, the feeding and watering of her mule, and a well in the back where water was drawn, time spent in that house was far more comfortable than anywhere in the city I had left behind.
Duality at its max.
Yet arriving at the front of her house did me no good unless I took certain measures. In front of the porch were three huge stones. The one closest to the house was about three high and four feet wide, roughly shaped along the edges but flat on the top. In front of that was a stone about two feet high, and in front of that, a stone that was about a foot high.
I could take the first step, and the second, and the third. But if I had not taken the fourth step onto the porch, there would have been no experiencing of Love Manifest or of peace and quietness and silence and freedom. And if I had not taken the other steps to reach my final destination inside that place of comfort, the entire trip would have been for nil.
How insane it would have been to travel for nine or more hours and then walk to the top of the third step and stand there for the three summer months or for the duration of the holiday visits and then take a nine-hour bus ride back to the inner city.
How insane it would have been for me to be convinced that I had arrived when I had only moved as far as the third step.
How ignorant it would have been to stand on the third step and then return to the city three months later and tell people about the amazing Love and peace and quietness and silence and freedom that I had enjoyed. I could shout all I wanted that “I am now happy and joyous and free!” Yet I would have only been deluding myself and all listeners.
Had I done that, I would not have been lying because I was not moral enough, religious enough, or spiritual enough. I would have been lying because I would have been ignorant, talking the talk and believing the talk while not having a clue at all that I was deceiving myself and others as well.
That would have been quite a sorry turn of events, yes? Can you see any comparisons?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 June 2014
F.: When Maharaj abandoned bhajans and organized religion, he was criticized highly by many persons. Later, when he abandoned spirituality as the solution for the Ultimate Sickness, far more criticized that decision.
He had no problem with people who continued to play those roles, knowing there was no “one” to have a problem with. It would be like watching a movie and not caring for the way the antagonist behaved and then hating that actor for the rest of your life. It was just a role, a stage character, assumed by someone who was playing a role.
The same applies here. But because Maharaj was attempting to share a solution that would eliminate the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (such as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”) he cared enough about those suffering from those conditions to abandoned what was not working and offer something else.
The same applies here. If there had been any evidence at all that belief-based systems could free persons of the beliefs (which are at the root of the problem) then those belief-based systems would still be used here.
If there had been any evidence that abandoning “bad” roles and then assuming and playing “good” roles – or “Really Good” roles, or even "Super Good" roles – could free persons from the nonsense generated by role-playing, that would still be used here. Obviously, such evidence cannot exist, so to continue.
With 97% of the planet’s population claiming an affiliation with one organized religion or another, and with millions more proudly proclaiming that they “are not religious but are spiritual instead,” and with millions more claiming membership in one or another ideological group or splinter group or fundamentalist cult, can any objective observer actually believe those people when they claim that “all of the evils of the world are caused by the fact that people are not religious and / or spiritual enough”?
Really? Religion and spirituality are more widespread than in the history of humankind, yet so are the problems of humankind. With 99.9% of the people on the planet being in one of the three groups above, the problems are obviously not a result of there being too few religious or spiritual people. (In fact, those stats shown that the opposite possibility might be the case.) No, instead the problems are rooted in the mental and emotional illness called “the Ultimate Sickness.”
While the masses have bought into the suggestion that persons need to know even more about religion and spirituality and need to study “this holy book” or “that holy book,” only the non-dual message, combined with the Nisarga Yoga, suggests that persons already “know” far too much and that the solution to their problems - at least partly - involve the need to be untaught . . . involve the need to unlearn.
There is no “one” here, so obviously there is no one here that wants you to learn more. The results of what Maharaj called planet-wide “learned ignorance” have been seen quite clearly.
As for reading “holy books,” Maharaj expressed his attitude about what so-called “leaders” say and about books that are deemed to be “holy” this way: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
Programming conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination – which are the province of parents and cultures and religions and spiritual programs and governments or rulers – have resulted in persons learning far too much. Too much of what?
Too much of what Maharaj called “learned ignorance.” Too much of the assigning or assuming of false identities. Too much of the accompanying personality disorders, neuroses, and psychoses that come with personality identification. Too much insanity.
That is what Maharaj made clear is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness: “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” and the cure for those is neither religion nor spirituality. Claim whatever benefit you are getting from one or both of those, but neither offers anything close to the methods and techniques that must be used to eliminate personality disorders and other mental illnesses.
Additionally, an eBook below discusses in detail what has been found that the non-dual “teachings” can and cannot address. While religious and spiritual leaders and authors and lecturers might claim that their beliefs are the panacea for the Sickness of the masses, there is no claim here that the non-dual understanding is the ultimate universal cure, the Ultimate Medicine which can, all by itself, cure the Sickness.
Too, the challenges for finding the cure are multiple and varied. Recall that once an ego-state is assigned or assumed as an identity, then ego-defense mechanisms will soon activate and upgrade the identity in the mind of the “beholder.”
A man was diagnosed as being clinically-depressed (which only affirmed what many acquainted with him had long recognized); yet because he was playing the role of “The Spiritual Giant” and was presenting himself as one whose spirituality had rendered him happy and joyous and free, he denied that diagnosis completely. So a personality’s agenda will impede receiving treatment for the Ultimate Sickness.
And even if persons admit that they are indeed suffering from the Ultimate Sickness, the chances of their finding someone that can dispense the Ultimate Medicine in the proper manner and in the proper dosage are practically nil. Moreover, as noted above, many are suffering a form of the Sickness which is so severe that they require professional help (and even that might not be able to address the most severe cases).
For those whose condition can be affected by the understanding, there are seven steps offered. Maharaj pointed out that most will never advance beyond the third of seven steps where they will play “kindergarten-level spirituality” and where they will mistakenly believe that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun when in fact they are still standing in the dull light of dawn.
Consider the ramifications of that fictional belief:
Many are aware of the fact that, here, there was early on an understanding of the consequences of duality via “my own experience.” (Later, it would be learned that there is no “experiencer,” but early on, such “experiencing” is required.)
On the one hand, there was the chaos and noise and concern about the two gangs whose leaders lived in the same inner city neighborhood; that inner city existence was also marked and marred by the struggles that came with extreme poverty along with the angst of abiding with an angry, abusive father.
By contrast, there was the cabin of Grandmother, a Cherokee Medicine Woman / Healer, which was set on a hilltop at the edge of a huge forest in the piney woods of East Texas.
The drive to her house took about three hours by car, but usually I traveled by Greyhound bus and that took nine hours or more. Yet there was never the slightest regret about that trip, even though it was always after dark before the driver dropped me off on the side of the highway near the foot of the hill where her cabin was located.
She would always listen for the bus, so after walking up the hill with my cardboard suitcase in hand and arriving in front of her home, Grandmother would be on the front porch to greet me. There awaited Love Manifest; in the home awaited peace and quiet . . . a lot of quiet, in fact . . . a lot of silence . . . an absence of angst . . . and freedom from exposure to the violence in the inner city.
Though her cabin had no running water, no AC for cooling during the hot summer, poor heat sources during the winter, a wood-burning stove, a smokehouse to be tended to, wood to be gathered or chopped, a one-acre garden that needed work, the feeding and watering of her mule, and a well in the back where water was drawn, time spent in that house was far more comfortable than anywhere in the city I had left behind.
Duality at its max.
Yet arriving at the front of her house did me no good unless I took certain measures. In front of the porch were three huge stones. The one closest to the house was about three high and four feet wide, roughly shaped along the edges but flat on the top. In front of that was a stone about two feet high, and in front of that, a stone that was about a foot high.
I could take the first step, and the second, and the third. But if I had not taken the fourth step onto the porch, there would have been no experiencing of Love Manifest or of peace and quietness and silence and freedom. And if I had not taken the other steps to reach my final destination inside that place of comfort, the entire trip would have been for nil.
How insane it would have been to travel for nine or more hours and then walk to the top of the third step and stand there for the three summer months or for the duration of the holiday visits and then take a nine-hour bus ride back to the inner city.
How insane it would have been for me to be convinced that I had arrived when I had only moved as far as the third step.
How ignorant it would have been to stand on the third step and then return to the city three months later and tell people about the amazing Love and peace and quietness and silence and freedom that I had enjoyed. I could shout all I wanted that “I am now happy and joyous and free!” Yet I would have only been deluding myself and all listeners.
Had I done that, I would not have been lying because I was not moral enough, religious enough, or spiritual enough. I would have been lying because I would have been ignorant, talking the talk and believing the talk while not having a clue at all that I was deceiving myself and others as well.
That would have been quite a sorry turn of events, yes? Can you see any comparisons?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: So here, there are seven steps offered. They are the same seven steps that Maharaj discussed during his talks about “going back” and "following the same path by which you came, except in reverse” (though he never discussed them in order and never numbered them 1 to 7).
Of those seven steps, the third step is the religious or spiritual step, so again, there is no “hatred” here of those roles or the persons playing them. They usually have to be played for a time, but not for a lifetime. Been there, done that, too. What is anathema here is the relative damage done to persons who need to be restored to sanity but who are being misled.
Consider: some similarities in the “journey” here and Maharaj’s “journey” are discussed after the postings. Here’s another:
We both first tried to use religion to find the solution for our problems and to allay our fears and to end our unhappiness and to be restored to sanity and to address the absence of steady, unassailable peace; the same was recommended to others as a means for addressing their problems. That recommendation was given even when religion was not solving our problems, yet we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
Next, after it was seen that religion was not going to provide a solution, we both tried to use spirituality to find the solution for our problems and to allay our fears and to end our unhappiness and to be restored to sanity and to address the absence of steady, unassailable peace; the same was recommended to others as a means for addressing their problems. That recommendation was given even when spirituality was not solving our problems, yet we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
That is, even when it was seen that spirituality could not address the problems and that spirituality, like religion, had no effect whatsoever on the Ultimate Sickness, we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
In the end, when ego and egotism and role-playing were set aside, and when sanity was restored, both stopped recommending religion and spirituality as the means to address the mental illness called “the Ultimate Sickness” (or, more specifically, the personality disorders that always accompanying personality identification).
Eventually, both of us came to these two realizations:
Being spiritual is as far removed from being sane as possible.
Being religious is as far removed from being sane as possible.
Who believes more insane, myth-based and superstition-based, dualistic nonsense? No one. Are sane persons going to believe as some Muslims do that a god told them to strap on a suicide bomb vest and kill people because those people belong to a different religion? Yet their most vocal critics among other religions who dismiss them as “totally nuts” are just as insane.
Are sane people going to believe as most Christians do that the earth is only 6000 years old; that a virgin could have a child; that a loving god would drown everyone on the planet except the members of one family and all the planet’s fauna; that a loving god would cast people into flames as an eternal punishment; and that it’s cool to shoot Muslims with rifles made in the U.S. that have biblical verses etched onto the rifle?
Be objective and it’s clear how insane all such types are. See that the insane cannot do a thing to address the insanity of others: “I cannot help myself but I can certainly help you?” Really?
So the message is, believe all the beliefs you want to believe (since that’s what’s going to happen in most cases anyway), but if you are playing role of “The Super Religious One” or the role of “The Spiritual Giant,” please give those struggling with personality identification and personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses a break and stop telling them being religious or being spiritually fit has something to do with being sane.
At one point, after seeing that neither religion nor spirituality addressed the mental / emotional issues at the core of the Ultimate Sickness, Maharaj said to one seeker something to the effect of this: “I beg you to give up all this spirituality” and “Go live naturally.”
The same applies here, but what I beg of you - if you are playing the role of “The Super Religious One” or the role of “The Spiritual Giant” - is not to give up playing your roles. What is begged of those playing those roles is, give those who are trying to find sanity and freedom and peace a fair “fighting chance.” How?
By abandoning the egotism that supports every ego-state, including “The Super Religious One” and the role of “The Spiritual Giant” so that you might consider (a) that your solution is not the only one and (b) that it might not be the best one and (c) that it might not be the solution for mental and emotional problems at all.
Consider being as religious or spiritual as you want but look at the facts and look at the evidence before you. Look at all the people who have labeled themselves religious and / or spiritual for 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more; look objectively and honestly; then you are invited to admit that sometimes you look at them or listen to them and think, “That person is completely nuts.”
Then, if you can take such an inventory of others, you might turn the focus on yourself and admit honestly what has and has not happened in your case.
Afterwards, you might consider doing whatever you want while no longer telling people that being spiritual will make persons sane or that being religious can make persons sane.
Of course, that’s all just a suggestion (with some begging thrown in to boot).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 June 2014
F.: So here, there are seven steps offered. They are the same seven steps that Maharaj discussed during his talks about “going back” and "following the same path by which you came, except in reverse” (though he never discussed them in order and never numbered them 1 to 7).
Of those seven steps, the third step is the religious or spiritual step, so again, there is no “hatred” here of those roles or the persons playing them. They usually have to be played for a time, but not for a lifetime. Been there, done that, too. What is anathema here is the relative damage done to persons who need to be restored to sanity but who are being misled.
Consider: some similarities in the “journey” here and Maharaj’s “journey” are discussed after the postings. Here’s another:
We both first tried to use religion to find the solution for our problems and to allay our fears and to end our unhappiness and to be restored to sanity and to address the absence of steady, unassailable peace; the same was recommended to others as a means for addressing their problems. That recommendation was given even when religion was not solving our problems, yet we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
Next, after it was seen that religion was not going to provide a solution, we both tried to use spirituality to find the solution for our problems and to allay our fears and to end our unhappiness and to be restored to sanity and to address the absence of steady, unassailable peace; the same was recommended to others as a means for addressing their problems. That recommendation was given even when spirituality was not solving our problems, yet we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
That is, even when it was seen that spirituality could not address the problems and that spirituality, like religion, had no effect whatsoever on the Ultimate Sickness, we both arrogantly and ignorantly and insanely continued to recommend it to others as the means by which their problems could be solved.
In the end, when ego and egotism and role-playing were set aside, and when sanity was restored, both stopped recommending religion and spirituality as the means to address the mental illness called “the Ultimate Sickness” (or, more specifically, the personality disorders that always accompanying personality identification).
Eventually, both of us came to these two realizations:
Being spiritual is as far removed from being sane as possible.
Being religious is as far removed from being sane as possible.
Who believes more insane, myth-based and superstition-based, dualistic nonsense? No one. Are sane persons going to believe as some Muslims do that a god told them to strap on a suicide bomb vest and kill people because those people belong to a different religion? Yet their most vocal critics among other religions who dismiss them as “totally nuts” are just as insane.
Are sane people going to believe as most Christians do that the earth is only 6000 years old; that a virgin could have a child; that a loving god would drown everyone on the planet except the members of one family and all the planet’s fauna; that a loving god would cast people into flames as an eternal punishment; and that it’s cool to shoot Muslims with rifles made in the U.S. that have biblical verses etched onto the rifle?
Be objective and it’s clear how insane all such types are. See that the insane cannot do a thing to address the insanity of others: “I cannot help myself but I can certainly help you?” Really?
So the message is, believe all the beliefs you want to believe (since that’s what’s going to happen in most cases anyway), but if you are playing role of “The Super Religious One” or the role of “The Spiritual Giant,” please give those struggling with personality identification and personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses a break and stop telling them being religious or being spiritually fit has something to do with being sane.
At one point, after seeing that neither religion nor spirituality addressed the mental / emotional issues at the core of the Ultimate Sickness, Maharaj said to one seeker something to the effect of this: “I beg you to give up all this spirituality” and “Go live naturally.”
The same applies here, but what I beg of you - if you are playing the role of “The Super Religious One” or the role of “The Spiritual Giant” - is not to give up playing your roles. What is begged of those playing those roles is, give those who are trying to find sanity and freedom and peace a fair “fighting chance.” How?
By abandoning the egotism that supports every ego-state, including “The Super Religious One” and the role of “The Spiritual Giant” so that you might consider (a) that your solution is not the only one and (b) that it might not be the best one and (c) that it might not be the solution for mental and emotional problems at all.
Consider being as religious or spiritual as you want but look at the facts and look at the evidence before you. Look at all the people who have labeled themselves religious and / or spiritual for 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more; look objectively and honestly; then you are invited to admit that sometimes you look at them or listen to them and think, “That person is completely nuts.”
Then, if you can take such an inventory of others, you might turn the focus on yourself and admit honestly what has and has not happened in your case.
Afterwards, you might consider doing whatever you want while no longer telling people that being spiritual will make persons sane or that being religious can make persons sane.
Of course, that’s all just a suggestion (with some begging thrown in to boot).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Regular visitors to this site are aware of the fact that, here, the road to Realization was a needlessly long and arduous one. Some can already relate, seeing that such is also the case with them.
The so-called “journey” was really nothing more than an effort to find the proper treatment for the sickness that was being experienced from early on and which was much later identified as “the Ultimate Sickness”; and actually, that “journey” was nothing more than a series of visits to one place after another, seeking healing and seeking, ultimately, peace and freedom.
While most persons on the planet will never seek at all, for reasons already discussed, why is it that among those who do seek that their “journey” is also proving to be a long and arduous one that is not providing the proper treatment for what really ails them? Even after having received the proper diagnosis – that the illness that is causing discomfort and misery and suffering is indeed “the Ultimate Sickness” - why does the seeking of the Ultimate Medicine end so often in failure?
The reason is simple: even after a proper diagnosis, most who are the ones offering “cures and answers and solutions” have no clue at all about how to treat the real problem effectively and efficiently.
Consider this comparison: the “surgery du jour” in the U.S. now is gall bladder removal. Here, every few years, a natural purging of the buildup in the gall bladder is undertaken. It happens with no pain, no mess, no fuss. Simple. Natural. After the flush, discomfort ends, the digestive processes return to normal and to maximum efficiency, and then all is cool once again.
But for most, who do not abide in the most natural way possible, they will visit a doctor who will immediately schedule surgery. Either they will try to blast the gallstones to pieces with lasers, damaging the organ and surrounding organs as well, or their attitude is this (because it pays more):
“Fix it? No. Cleanse it? No. Rip that sucker out? Yes! You don’t really need it. It’s like your tonsils. Besides, I’ve got five huge car notes and a huge note on my mansion and my other two houses, so I’ve gotta snip . . . snip . . . snip, cut . . . cut . . . cut!” And the masses, ignorant of the simple, effective, easy solution, go under the knife and have an organ removed, the absence of which will forever deprive them of the all-natural functioning of one of the major systems in the elemental plant food body.
The same happens with the Ultimate Sickness. There are millions who claim to know your problem and what the proper treatment is. They include preachers, priests, high priests, Muftis, Grand Muftis, imams, ayatollahs, abbots, bishops, popes, cardinals, rabbis, self-help gurus, sponsors, mullahs, Big Name Teachers, cult leaders, ideologues, medicine men, medicine women, shamans, supreme leaders, politicians, monks, fundamentalists, ad infinitum - yet not a one of them really knows what the real problem is; therefore, they cannot possibly know what the proper treatment is, namely, the Ultimate Medicine.
While most will never even receive a proper diagnosis of their real problem - understandable if you see the variety of personal agendas that are driving the persons on the list above - then it should be clear why it is that, even for the few who do receive the proper diagnosis, they will never receive the proper treatment.
Most are misled and believe . . .
a. that the Ultimate Sickness is a sickness of the spirit or the soul and that the proper treatment involves doing what is required to become spiritually fit. Not true. Other believe . . .
b. that the Ultimate Sickness – or the ills of the “world” – are based in the fact that people are not religious enough and that they therefore need to hear more and more religious messages. Not true. The fact: never in the history of humanity have people heard as many religious messages as they hear nowadays. The proselytizing is constant. There is no escape:
c. Weatherwomen and weathermen reference the role God plays in affecting weather patterns and the routes of hurricanes; the Dalai Lama got international coverage when he claimed that New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina “because of the negative karma of the people there”; Christians and Muslims alike talked about why the Twin Towers were knocked down in N.Y., and it all had to do with either a God that had been made angry (from Christians) or with a God that sanctioned the attack and was happy that the mission was a success (from Muslims); religious radio shows broadcast 24/7; religious channels on television broadcast 24/7; nothing dominates the internet the way that religious messaging does; millions attend meetings on a daily basis, gathering around tables to hear a religious message which is thought to be “a spiritual message”; 1.6 billion Muslims gather five times per day to get their dosage (i.e., their overdose) of religious messages; billions of Christians gather regularly to get their dose of religious messaging, etc., etc., etc. Yet for all that, the state of humanity around the globe is: “More screwed than ever.” It’s not working.
The improper methods for addressing the Ultimate Sickness prevail on a global basis, and the masses are told – and have become convinced – that a sickness that is centered in the mind can be treated by a heavier dose of religion or a heavier dose of spirituality. Maharaj eventually called “Nonsense!” on that and encouraged seekers to abandon that approach. Yet the advice that most persons hear and that most persons follow is this: "Do not try anything new . . . just keep coming back and keep increasing the dosage of what has already been shown to fail to treat your illness."
Yesterday, a review of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness – the major challenge facing humans all around the globe – showed that the symptoms have nothing to do with “soul-sickness” or “spirit-sickness” but have everything to do with mental issues and nothing else.
Maharaj listed the major symptoms of the widespread Ultimate Sickness as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” Why is it that the infestation of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” is spreading daily all around the globe, a fact that any objective witness would see clearly is the case?
To review: the problem is here
but the treatment being offered by religious and spiritual groups and spiritual programs and cults and self-help groups, etc. (and which the masses are blindly accepting as “the proper way to go”) is focused on the following place:
Some know that years ago this elemental plant food body staggered into the office of a cardiologist who, within minutes of conducting a brief examination, called for a wheelchair and rolled this body into the adjacent hospital for admission.
A stent was inserted to allow for a freer flow of blood through the left anterior descending artery (the LAD) which had, according to the doc, a 97% to 99% blockage.
So the problem was in this region:
and if
But really, how insane would that have been? How totally crazy would it have been for the doc to claim that the problem is with the heart but that we’re going to treat the brain? And how insane would it have been - when the brain surgery did not solve the problem - for me to return to the same cardiologist and tell him that I was not feeling better and for the same cardiologist to offer nothing different but to say, “Just keep going back . . . keep going back to the brain surgeon . . . stick with that treatment . . . have some more brain surgery . . . even if the results are nil . . . keep coming back until your miracle happens”?
And how crazy and egotistical would it have been for the brain surgeon to ignore the fact that the problem was with the heart and to refuse to admit that he could never solve my real problem?
Crazy, and arrogant, huh? Is that a dumb example, maybe? Well, that would be no dumber than the approach now being used with the masses all around the planet who are suffering from the Ultimate Sickness which is centered in the mind. They are being told by their spiritual advisers and their religious leaders or their sponsors, “Yes, we said the main problem centers in the mind, but we must work on the soul. We must improve your spiritual condition.” Talk about magical (supernatural) thinking.
And if they are asked by the sick ones, “Will that approach address the main problem which centers in the mind?” they always answer, “Of course. The plan is, if you have a mental problem, we treat that by working on the soul . . . on the spirit.”
The suggestion: Realization depends of realizing . . . on realizing where the root of the problem lies and on addressing the problem there, at the source, rather than thinking that the problem can be addressed by talking about conceptualizations and focusing on nebulous things that have been dreamed up by persons who are talking in their sleep.
Sky cults, in effect, are claiming that they can address mirages, illusions, fantasies, and all of the other stuff of myths and superstitions. The invitation here is to see that the main problem of persons on the planet is rooted in the mind, that that is what the non-dual message can address in many cases.
So the most relevant questions of all for those who have not yet Realized Fully are these
1. If you are not seeking because you are certain that your dogma provides everything that there is to know and understand, is it possible that you will never know what must be known and never understand what must be understood in order to be sane, wise, peaceful and free because you have a head problem but your “healer” is recommending you work on some other nebulous, dreamed up non-organ, like this?
2. if you have been seeking but have not yet Realized Fully, might it also be because this is what has been happening?
The answer: as far away as an approach that tries to use brain surgery to address a heart issue, or heart surgery to address a brain issue.
And,
3. Most relevant, is it now clear . . .
. . . why Maharaj abandoned any and all talk about religion and spirituality
and
. . . why he later on advised people not to read the book entitled I AM THAT with transcripts of his talks which contained more than a little attention to “spiritual matters” and is now labeled “a spiritual classic”?
He came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness and that religion and spirituality contribute to and aggravate mental illness rather than cure it.
He came to understand that the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness really do include “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
He came to understand this: that which contributes to a sickness cannot cure it.
That is, he came to understand that nothing has advanced the occurrence of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” more than the magical thinking that is inspired by religion and spirituality; that “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” have only to do with the mind and have nothing whatsoever to do with “a soul” or “the spirit” or “spiritual unfitness”;
and that the non-dual teachings must focus on addressing the symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” and not on talking and talking more and talking even more and more about dogma and things thought to be “spiritual.” How could magical thinking and the magical talk that it generates possibly address a mental illness? It cannot.
Next, it might be asked, “How can the above be shared with such conviction?” For several reasons. First, all other methods were tried and failed, so the conclusion about those methods is based in first-hand experience; and, almost all of the teachers listed above were given a chance to address the real problem but failed. Only non-duality finally “worked.” Why? Because “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” It is dual-mindedness that must go.
The problem is not about having too little dogma. It is not about having too little spiritual fitness. It is about dual-mindedness, that is, about having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated; about having false, personal identities assigned; and about assuming other personalities as well and then suffering from the personality disorders that they subsequently bring.
To those who suggest that the assumption and development of the “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are the cure, the fact is that “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are also assumed personalities, and assumed personalities cannot possibly be the cure for assumed personalities and the Sickness they bring.
False identites cannot eliminate the chaos and Sickness that come with false identities.
Next, it is now known for a fact that insanity cannot spot either sanity or insanity; sanity, on the other hand, can spot both. Only from the latter condition was all of the above seen.
(1) Having been made insane as a result of having originally been programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated in a totally bizarre way, and then
(2) subsequently having been freed from all of that and having been restored to a state of sanity, what can now be shared is a clear understanding of what causes insanity and what can address insanity.
Here, it was not all of the talking and talking more and talking even more about dogma and things thought to be “spiritual” that addressed the insane effects of having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated; here, it was an understanding of duality vs. non-duality that addressed and removed the symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Except for time spent with visitors, Maharaj became very quiet. In the end he became even quieter, knowing that one thing for sure that does not address the Ultimate Sickness is blah-blah-blah; in fact, it is only via blah-blah-blah that the Ultimate Sickness can be spread. It is the only sickness that humankind suffers from that is spread by . . . talk.
My Cherokee Grandmother taught that the closest thing to truth is the space behind an inhalation and an exhalation. It is said that the Dao / Tao itself cannot be expressed or understood in language, that the truth can be known but cannot be stated.
Here, the pointer offered is this: when words end, a chance to see Truth begins; when words begin, any chance to see Truth ends. Silence is not just golden. It is the only means by which the spread of the Ultimate Sickness can be checked.
Finally, the playing of religious and spiritual roles make up the third of the seven steps on the “path” that is offered here; thus – contrary to popular belief – there is no “hatred” of religion or spirituality here.
What there is, is a love of wisdom and prudence and sanity (which have nothing to do with religion or spirituality or any of the other sources that engender belief systems and the assumption and playing of false roles).
What there is, is a love of freedom from all sense of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and from a sense of all things “personal.” What there is, is a love of freedom and independence. What there is, is a love of peace. What there is, is a love of the Oneness. What there is, is a love of Love. What there is, is Love, period.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 June 2014
F.: Regular visitors to this site are aware of the fact that, here, the road to Realization was a needlessly long and arduous one. Some can already relate, seeing that such is also the case with them.
The so-called “journey” was really nothing more than an effort to find the proper treatment for the sickness that was being experienced from early on and which was much later identified as “the Ultimate Sickness”; and actually, that “journey” was nothing more than a series of visits to one place after another, seeking healing and seeking, ultimately, peace and freedom.
While most persons on the planet will never seek at all, for reasons already discussed, why is it that among those who do seek that their “journey” is also proving to be a long and arduous one that is not providing the proper treatment for what really ails them? Even after having received the proper diagnosis – that the illness that is causing discomfort and misery and suffering is indeed “the Ultimate Sickness” - why does the seeking of the Ultimate Medicine end so often in failure?
The reason is simple: even after a proper diagnosis, most who are the ones offering “cures and answers and solutions” have no clue at all about how to treat the real problem effectively and efficiently.
Consider this comparison: the “surgery du jour” in the U.S. now is gall bladder removal. Here, every few years, a natural purging of the buildup in the gall bladder is undertaken. It happens with no pain, no mess, no fuss. Simple. Natural. After the flush, discomfort ends, the digestive processes return to normal and to maximum efficiency, and then all is cool once again.
But for most, who do not abide in the most natural way possible, they will visit a doctor who will immediately schedule surgery. Either they will try to blast the gallstones to pieces with lasers, damaging the organ and surrounding organs as well, or their attitude is this (because it pays more):
“Fix it? No. Cleanse it? No. Rip that sucker out? Yes! You don’t really need it. It’s like your tonsils. Besides, I’ve got five huge car notes and a huge note on my mansion and my other two houses, so I’ve gotta snip . . . snip . . . snip, cut . . . cut . . . cut!” And the masses, ignorant of the simple, effective, easy solution, go under the knife and have an organ removed, the absence of which will forever deprive them of the all-natural functioning of one of the major systems in the elemental plant food body.
The same happens with the Ultimate Sickness. There are millions who claim to know your problem and what the proper treatment is. They include preachers, priests, high priests, Muftis, Grand Muftis, imams, ayatollahs, abbots, bishops, popes, cardinals, rabbis, self-help gurus, sponsors, mullahs, Big Name Teachers, cult leaders, ideologues, medicine men, medicine women, shamans, supreme leaders, politicians, monks, fundamentalists, ad infinitum - yet not a one of them really knows what the real problem is; therefore, they cannot possibly know what the proper treatment is, namely, the Ultimate Medicine.
While most will never even receive a proper diagnosis of their real problem - understandable if you see the variety of personal agendas that are driving the persons on the list above - then it should be clear why it is that, even for the few who do receive the proper diagnosis, they will never receive the proper treatment.
Most are misled and believe . . .
a. that the Ultimate Sickness is a sickness of the spirit or the soul and that the proper treatment involves doing what is required to become spiritually fit. Not true. Other believe . . .
b. that the Ultimate Sickness – or the ills of the “world” – are based in the fact that people are not religious enough and that they therefore need to hear more and more religious messages. Not true. The fact: never in the history of humanity have people heard as many religious messages as they hear nowadays. The proselytizing is constant. There is no escape:
c. Weatherwomen and weathermen reference the role God plays in affecting weather patterns and the routes of hurricanes; the Dalai Lama got international coverage when he claimed that New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina “because of the negative karma of the people there”; Christians and Muslims alike talked about why the Twin Towers were knocked down in N.Y., and it all had to do with either a God that had been made angry (from Christians) or with a God that sanctioned the attack and was happy that the mission was a success (from Muslims); religious radio shows broadcast 24/7; religious channels on television broadcast 24/7; nothing dominates the internet the way that religious messaging does; millions attend meetings on a daily basis, gathering around tables to hear a religious message which is thought to be “a spiritual message”; 1.6 billion Muslims gather five times per day to get their dosage (i.e., their overdose) of religious messages; billions of Christians gather regularly to get their dose of religious messaging, etc., etc., etc. Yet for all that, the state of humanity around the globe is: “More screwed than ever.” It’s not working.
The improper methods for addressing the Ultimate Sickness prevail on a global basis, and the masses are told – and have become convinced – that a sickness that is centered in the mind can be treated by a heavier dose of religion or a heavier dose of spirituality. Maharaj eventually called “Nonsense!” on that and encouraged seekers to abandon that approach. Yet the advice that most persons hear and that most persons follow is this: "Do not try anything new . . . just keep coming back and keep increasing the dosage of what has already been shown to fail to treat your illness."
Yesterday, a review of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness – the major challenge facing humans all around the globe – showed that the symptoms have nothing to do with “soul-sickness” or “spirit-sickness” but have everything to do with mental issues and nothing else.
Maharaj listed the major symptoms of the widespread Ultimate Sickness as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” Why is it that the infestation of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” is spreading daily all around the globe, a fact that any objective witness would see clearly is the case?
To review: the problem is here
but the treatment being offered by religious and spiritual groups and spiritual programs and cults and self-help groups, etc. (and which the masses are blindly accepting as “the proper way to go”) is focused on the following place:
Some know that years ago this elemental plant food body staggered into the office of a cardiologist who, within minutes of conducting a brief examination, called for a wheelchair and rolled this body into the adjacent hospital for admission.
A stent was inserted to allow for a freer flow of blood through the left anterior descending artery (the LAD) which had, according to the doc, a 97% to 99% blockage.
So the problem was in this region:
(A) I had been given a diagnosis of a 97-99% blockage of the LAD
and if
and if
(B) the doc had explained that the problem is here
(C) I had then asked, “So, what do we need to do to treat the illness
and if
(D) he said, “Well, I’m going to send you to an associate of mine who is a neurosurgeon, who is actually the top-rated brain surgeon is all of Houston – and have him operate on your brain
and if
(E) I had said, “Okay. Sounds good,” then the doc would have been insane to come up with that treatment plan and I would have been insane to go along with it. (Yet what else is a seeker to do - when the same happens in the case of their Ultimate Sickness - except to go along . . . being so desperate that they are willing to try anything?)
But really, how insane would that have been? How totally crazy would it have been for the doc to claim that the problem is with the heart but that we’re going to treat the brain? And how insane would it have been - when the brain surgery did not solve the problem - for me to return to the same cardiologist and tell him that I was not feeling better and for the same cardiologist to offer nothing different but to say, “Just keep going back . . . keep going back to the brain surgeon . . . stick with that treatment . . . have some more brain surgery . . . even if the results are nil . . . keep coming back until your miracle happens”?
And how crazy and egotistical would it have been for the brain surgeon to ignore the fact that the problem was with the heart and to refuse to admit that he could never solve my real problem?
Crazy, and arrogant, huh? Is that a dumb example, maybe? Well, that would be no dumber than the approach now being used with the masses all around the planet who are suffering from the Ultimate Sickness which is centered in the mind. They are being told by their spiritual advisers and their religious leaders or their sponsors, “Yes, we said the main problem centers in the mind, but we must work on the soul. We must improve your spiritual condition.” Talk about magical (supernatural) thinking.
And if they are asked by the sick ones, “Will that approach address the main problem which centers in the mind?” they always answer, “Of course. The plan is, if you have a mental problem, we treat that by working on the soul . . . on the spirit.”
The suggestion: Realization depends of realizing . . . on realizing where the root of the problem lies and on addressing the problem there, at the source, rather than thinking that the problem can be addressed by talking about conceptualizations and focusing on nebulous things that have been dreamed up by persons who are talking in their sleep.
Sky cults, in effect, are claiming that they can address mirages, illusions, fantasies, and all of the other stuff of myths and superstitions. The invitation here is to see that the main problem of persons on the planet is rooted in the mind, that that is what the non-dual message can address in many cases.
The call is to address the mental issues, because using a backdoor approach that claims it can come at one's mind problems through a soul door or a religious door or a spiritual door are tantamount to allowing someone to treat a blocked heart artery via brain surgery.
So the most relevant questions of all for those who have not yet Realized Fully are these
1. If you are not seeking because you are certain that your dogma provides everything that there is to know and understand, is it possible that you will never know what must be known and never understand what must be understood in order to be sane, wise, peaceful and free because you have a head problem but your “healer” is recommending you work on some other nebulous, dreamed up non-organ, like this?
2. if you have been seeking but have not yet Realized Fully, might it also be because this is what has been happening?
How far away is that approach from what is required in order for the one who does not understand to finally understand? Or, how far away is that approach from what is required in order for the one who has been seeking for years - without having found totally and unequivocally - to finally find what was being sought . . . to finally find relief?
The answer: as far away as an approach that tries to use brain surgery to address a heart issue, or heart surgery to address a brain issue.
And,
3. Most relevant, is it now clear . . .
. . . why Maharaj abandoned any and all talk about religion and spirituality
and
. . . why he later on advised people not to read the book entitled I AM THAT with transcripts of his talks which contained more than a little attention to “spiritual matters” and is now labeled “a spiritual classic”?
He came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness and that religion and spirituality contribute to and aggravate mental illness rather than cure it.
He came to understand that the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness really do include “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
He came to understand this: that which contributes to a sickness cannot cure it.
That is, he came to understand that nothing has advanced the occurrence of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” more than the magical thinking that is inspired by religion and spirituality; that “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” have only to do with the mind and have nothing whatsoever to do with “a soul” or “the spirit” or “spiritual unfitness”;
and that the non-dual teachings must focus on addressing the symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” and not on talking and talking more and talking even more and more about dogma and things thought to be “spiritual.” How could magical thinking and the magical talk that it generates possibly address a mental illness? It cannot.
Next, it might be asked, “How can the above be shared with such conviction?” For several reasons. First, all other methods were tried and failed, so the conclusion about those methods is based in first-hand experience; and, almost all of the teachers listed above were given a chance to address the real problem but failed. Only non-duality finally “worked.” Why? Because “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” It is dual-mindedness that must go.
The problem is not about having too little dogma. It is not about having too little spiritual fitness. It is about dual-mindedness, that is, about having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated; about having false, personal identities assigned; and about assuming other personalities as well and then suffering from the personality disorders that they subsequently bring.
To those who suggest that the assumption and development of the “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are the cure, the fact is that “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are also assumed personalities, and assumed personalities cannot possibly be the cure for assumed personalities and the Sickness they bring.
False identites cannot eliminate the chaos and Sickness that come with false identities.
Next, it is now known for a fact that insanity cannot spot either sanity or insanity; sanity, on the other hand, can spot both. Only from the latter condition was all of the above seen.
(1) Having been made insane as a result of having originally been programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated in a totally bizarre way, and then
(2) subsequently having been freed from all of that and having been restored to a state of sanity, what can now be shared is a clear understanding of what causes insanity and what can address insanity.
Here, it was not all of the talking and talking more and talking even more about dogma and things thought to be “spiritual” that addressed the insane effects of having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and brainwashed and indoctrinated; here, it was an understanding of duality vs. non-duality that addressed and removed the symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Except for time spent with visitors, Maharaj became very quiet. In the end he became even quieter, knowing that one thing for sure that does not address the Ultimate Sickness is blah-blah-blah; in fact, it is only via blah-blah-blah that the Ultimate Sickness can be spread. It is the only sickness that humankind suffers from that is spread by . . . talk.
My Cherokee Grandmother taught that the closest thing to truth is the space behind an inhalation and an exhalation. It is said that the Dao / Tao itself cannot be expressed or understood in language, that the truth can be known but cannot be stated.
Here, the pointer offered is this: when words end, a chance to see Truth begins; when words begin, any chance to see Truth ends. Silence is not just golden. It is the only means by which the spread of the Ultimate Sickness can be checked.
Finally, the playing of religious and spiritual roles make up the third of the seven steps on the “path” that is offered here; thus – contrary to popular belief – there is no “hatred” of religion or spirituality here.
What there is, is a love of wisdom and prudence and sanity (which have nothing to do with religion or spirituality or any of the other sources that engender belief systems and the assumption and playing of false roles).
What there is, is a love of freedom from all sense of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and from a sense of all things “personal.” What there is, is a love of freedom and independence. What there is, is a love of peace. What there is, is a love of the Oneness. What there is, is a love of Love. What there is, is Love, period.
Only a few will understand. So it is.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Yesterday:
“Not in my spiritual condition that in not as fit as it should be?”
“No.”
“Not in the condition of my sick soul?”
“No.”
If the composite unity called “floyd” continues for another three months to cycle earth elements via the consumption of plant food and continues to cycle conscious-energy via the consumption of plant food and continues to cycle air into and out of the space in which the consciousness is manifested, then it will be said by some in September that “floyd is now 67 years old.”
Throughout many of those years, tens of thousands of persons have been dealt with who are seeking something different – a different life, a more peaceful existence, freedom, whatever.
It has been shared that 97% of the persons on the planet have indicated that they are affiliated with one religion or another and are using dogma and “holy” books in order to try to have a more peaceful existence, freedom, etc., yet decades of pure and objective witnessing confirm that the long-term results of their efforts are nil.
It has been shared that millions more on the planet have indicated that they are not affiliated with one religion or another and state this proudly (even arrogantly): “I am not religious. I am spiritual.”
But they also try to use “special books” while seeking a more peaceful existence, freedom, etc. Again, however, decades of pure and objective witnessing confirm that the long-term results of their efforts are nil.
Why are all of their efforts for naught? Because their problem is here
But their “work” (be it religious work or spiritual exercises or supernatural work) is focused here
Persons have been using religious work or spiritual exercises or supernatural work for some at least 5,000 years. How are the masses doing with that plan?
Are the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness being reduced overall, or does objective witnessing reveal that not only the extent but also the degree of the Sickness are both skyrocketing?
How much sanity is being exhibited by the masses vs. how much insanity?
How much wisdom is being exhibited by the masses vs. how much ignorance?
As you review some of the symptoms again, are these physical symptoms? Are they “soul or spirit” symptoms? Or are they symptoms rooted in mental issues?
SYMPTOMS OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS
An inability to distinguish true from false and, therefore, the propensity to believe lies; distorted perceptions; believing that images are real; having no clue who you are; talking in one's sleep; working and driving and walk while asleep;
accepting as true, without questioning to even the slightest degree, the concepts and beliefs that are taught by authority figures and believing the most unbelievable tales that those figures dream up; accumulating the various forms of the Sickness and then passing them along to family members and friends and associates with pride in having done so; accepting, with blind faith, beliefs that have no basis in fact and that cannot possibly be proved; being so delusional that “one” is believed to be “two”;
believing that learned ignorance is wisdom; suffering willingly and repeatedly the consequences of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance"; losing all ability to detect nonsense when it is heard;
allowing subconscious motivators (a.k.a., personality / personalities) to determine every thought and word and action while believing that one is consciously choosing to think what is thought, to say what is said, and to do what is done; being asleep but believing that one is awake;
being self-destructive; exhibiting impaired judgment; being unreasonable and illogical; displaying unstable and inappropriate emotions (that is, being emotionally-intoxicated); being religiously or spiritually intoxicated; having hallucinations (such as believing that you can hear a supernatural being from another world and believing that such a being is actually talking to you);
believing that the not-special is special; believing that absolutes can be applied to things relative; being disorganized and confused while thinking that you are organized and thinking clearly; developing extreme dependencies on people and groups and leaders and on powers that are supposedly living in unseen worlds; being unable to cope; being in a state of unwarranted fear; constantly desiring more and more of what is already making one sick;
feeling guilt and self-blame that have no basis in fact; behaving like a six-year old child for an entire manifestation, even during "the adult years"; being preoccupied with "self" (with the false selves or false identities that are assumed and thought to be real); playing roles on a stage and believing the characters are real;
believing that a physical, plant food body can disintegrate, re-integrate, and last for eternity and can feel pain or ecstasy for eternity; suffering and then still believing that suffering is good; and believing that things that are unnatural and things that are mistakenly called “supernatural” are actually natural.
Billions believe that within the physical, elemental plant food body, there is literally something called “the soul” or “the spirit” which not only literally exists right now but will literally exist after the manifestation ends.
If something so literal actually exists, why has it never been seen by any surgeon? Every part of the body has been opened up and inspected, viewed, studied, and worked on, while the manifestation is continuing as well after the manifestation had ended.
Yet not one sighting of “the soul” or “the spirit” ever been seen and reported. Same with the hundreds of thousands of gods (or gods and goddesses) that persons have been so sure about, always believing that one or more gods or goddesses have also existed literally, though – as with “the soul” or “the spirit” – their god or their gods and goddesses have never been seen even once.
What should be obvious is this: with a religious and / or spiritual approach having been used continuously for at least 5,000 years (without providing even one, single sighting to affirm His or Her or Their existence), two things are obvious:
1. Blind faith, more than any other religious or spiritual idea, is His or Her or Their most valued concept; and secondly,
2. His or Her or Their ego and egotism (and, yes, narcissism) are His or Her or Their second-most prized thing, always requiring in one way or another than everyone should love Him or Her or Them “with all your body and heart and mind and soul.”
So, while the non-dual message is there for some, and while remarkable strides have been made by others in diagnosing and treating mental and emotional illnesses and personality disorders and neuroses and some psychoses, how many seek
One writer paraphrased certain pointers offered by Maharaj and came to this conclusion:
“As well search for an eagle's nest on the bed of an ocean, as search for happiness in the world outside of you.”
That can also be paraphrased to provide another consideration: “As well search for gold doubloons inside your body as search for a soul or spirit inside of you that can serve as the Ultimate Medicine for your Ultimate Sickness”
or
“As well search for freedom in a prison as search for the cause of ignorance and insanity and the absence of peace in any place other than in your mind.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 June 2014
F.: Yesterday:
“Not in my spiritual condition that in not as fit as it should be?”
“No.”
“Not in the condition of my sick soul?”
“No.”
If the composite unity called “floyd” continues for another three months to cycle earth elements via the consumption of plant food and continues to cycle conscious-energy via the consumption of plant food and continues to cycle air into and out of the space in which the consciousness is manifested, then it will be said by some in September that “floyd is now 67 years old.”
Throughout many of those years, tens of thousands of persons have been dealt with who are seeking something different – a different life, a more peaceful existence, freedom, whatever.
It has been shared that 97% of the persons on the planet have indicated that they are affiliated with one religion or another and are using dogma and “holy” books in order to try to have a more peaceful existence, freedom, etc., yet decades of pure and objective witnessing confirm that the long-term results of their efforts are nil.
It has been shared that millions more on the planet have indicated that they are not affiliated with one religion or another and state this proudly (even arrogantly): “I am not religious. I am spiritual.”
But they also try to use “special books” while seeking a more peaceful existence, freedom, etc. Again, however, decades of pure and objective witnessing confirm that the long-term results of their efforts are nil.
Why are all of their efforts for naught? Because their problem is here
But their “work” (be it religious work or spiritual exercises or supernatural work) is focused here
Persons have been using religious work or spiritual exercises or supernatural work for some at least 5,000 years. How are the masses doing with that plan?
Are the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness being reduced overall, or does objective witnessing reveal that not only the extent but also the degree of the Sickness are both skyrocketing?
How much sanity is being exhibited by the masses vs. how much insanity?
How much wisdom is being exhibited by the masses vs. how much ignorance?
As you review some of the symptoms again, are these physical symptoms? Are they “soul or spirit” symptoms? Or are they symptoms rooted in mental issues?
SYMPTOMS OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS
An inability to distinguish true from false and, therefore, the propensity to believe lies; distorted perceptions; believing that images are real; having no clue who you are; talking in one's sleep; working and driving and walk while asleep;
accepting as true, without questioning to even the slightest degree, the concepts and beliefs that are taught by authority figures and believing the most unbelievable tales that those figures dream up; accumulating the various forms of the Sickness and then passing them along to family members and friends and associates with pride in having done so; accepting, with blind faith, beliefs that have no basis in fact and that cannot possibly be proved; being so delusional that “one” is believed to be “two”;
believing that learned ignorance is wisdom; suffering willingly and repeatedly the consequences of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance"; losing all ability to detect nonsense when it is heard;
allowing subconscious motivators (a.k.a., personality / personalities) to determine every thought and word and action while believing that one is consciously choosing to think what is thought, to say what is said, and to do what is done; being asleep but believing that one is awake;
being self-destructive; exhibiting impaired judgment; being unreasonable and illogical; displaying unstable and inappropriate emotions (that is, being emotionally-intoxicated); being religiously or spiritually intoxicated; having hallucinations (such as believing that you can hear a supernatural being from another world and believing that such a being is actually talking to you);
believing that the not-special is special; believing that absolutes can be applied to things relative; being disorganized and confused while thinking that you are organized and thinking clearly; developing extreme dependencies on people and groups and leaders and on powers that are supposedly living in unseen worlds; being unable to cope; being in a state of unwarranted fear; constantly desiring more and more of what is already making one sick;
feeling guilt and self-blame that have no basis in fact; behaving like a six-year old child for an entire manifestation, even during "the adult years"; being preoccupied with "self" (with the false selves or false identities that are assumed and thought to be real); playing roles on a stage and believing the characters are real;
believing that a physical, plant food body can disintegrate, re-integrate, and last for eternity and can feel pain or ecstasy for eternity; suffering and then still believing that suffering is good; and believing that things that are unnatural and things that are mistakenly called “supernatural” are actually natural.
Billions believe that within the physical, elemental plant food body, there is literally something called “the soul” or “the spirit” which not only literally exists right now but will literally exist after the manifestation ends.
If something so literal actually exists, why has it never been seen by any surgeon? Every part of the body has been opened up and inspected, viewed, studied, and worked on, while the manifestation is continuing as well after the manifestation had ended.
Yet not one sighting of “the soul” or “the spirit” ever been seen and reported. Same with the hundreds of thousands of gods (or gods and goddesses) that persons have been so sure about, always believing that one or more gods or goddesses have also existed literally, though – as with “the soul” or “the spirit” – their god or their gods and goddesses have never been seen even once.
What should be obvious is this: with a religious and / or spiritual approach having been used continuously for at least 5,000 years (without providing even one, single sighting to affirm His or Her or Their existence), two things are obvious:
1. Blind faith, more than any other religious or spiritual idea, is His or Her or Their most valued concept; and secondly,
2. His or Her or Their ego and egotism (and, yes, narcissism) are His or Her or Their second-most prized thing, always requiring in one way or another than everyone should love Him or Her or Them “with all your body and heart and mind and soul.”
So, while the non-dual message is there for some, and while remarkable strides have been made by others in diagnosing and treating mental and emotional illnesses and personality disorders and neuroses and some psychoses, how many seek
(a) via non-duality or in professional venues as opposed to
(b) the 99.9%+ who do not seek because they believe their organized religions have all the answers or because they believe that their spiritual exercises are addressing all of their issues, including their mental and emotional issues that actually center in the mind?
One writer paraphrased certain pointers offered by Maharaj and came to this conclusion:
“As well search for an eagle's nest on the bed of an ocean, as search for happiness in the world outside of you.”
That can also be paraphrased to provide another consideration: “As well search for gold doubloons inside your body as search for a soul or spirit inside of you that can serve as the Ultimate Medicine for your Ultimate Sickness”
or
“As well search for freedom in a prison as search for the cause of ignorance and insanity and the absence of peace in any place other than in your mind.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Yesterday these points were offered for consideration:
1. Do you see that concepts, ideas, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, thoughts, impressions, and views can all be summarized with one word: “beliefs”?
2. Do you understand that there is no such thing as “your beliefs” – that you did not come up with a single one of those on your own – and that you have merely adopted “their beliefs” as if they were your own?
3. Do you see that beliefs are the stuff of ignorance and insanity?
4. Do you see that beliefs are the carriers of the Ultimate Sickness?
5. Have you ever set aside a few hours in the quiet and listed the things you believe and considered each of those beliefs objectively and questioned them objectively and seen that they actually cannot possibly have any legitimacy at all?
If you do that exercise, you will have completed one of the prerequisites required for you to set the stage to move along the remainder of “the path,” and you will have possibly set the stage for a shift away from The Dream of the Planet state and toward a state of Liberation, Enlightenment, and Realization.
So, nearly 300 visitors read those pointers and some of them wrote to ask the exact question that was being sought from all visitors, and their question was the appropriate response to suggestion #5, asking basically, “How could I ever have time to analyze every belief?”
Excellent!
It has been noted here in the past that you cannot, that no composite unity will remain intact long enough for such an inquiry to be completed in full. Live for a hundred more years and you’d still not have time to address every belief and find why it is false. You have been given far too many.
No, the intent is actually to begin questioning everything and to begin putting enough beliefs to the test – objectively - that you finally give up, exactly as happened here one evening over twenty-five years ago when suddenly the light pierced into the darkest depths and inspired this realization: “Oh my gosh! It’s all BS!”
At that point, it was over. It was done. Seeking ended. End of story. A state of full and total and complete belief-less-ness manifested in that instant, though a long and circuitous and arduous “journey” has taken place prior to that night.
Maharaj: “Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.” See? It’s all BS.
Yet of all of the teachings of Maharaj, not one presents a greater challenge than the one which invites seekers to “reach a state of zero concepts” and to join him in a “no-mind state.” And he was not talking about occasional periods of mindlessness.
He said in that regard, “I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi, or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”
See? “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways” and the Realized one is stable in all ways.
Nothing is more troublesome than the noise generated by the content of “the mind.” So conscious are persons of the troubling mind that they are constantly aware of its presence. To be able to ignore the chatter of a thousand monkeys emanating from that source is the goal of all would-be-sane persons, but because the chatter has been so loud for so long, the “realness” of the mind from which it is emanating is never even questioned at all by most.
The invitation as presented both in the loft and here as well – namely, to be free of the machinations of the mind completely - is simply beyond the grasp of most.
Why? Again, because they have forgotten. And forgotten what this time?
This time the reference is to what has been forgotten in regards to the early years. The reply to anyone who is saying / whining / disparaging that “I cannot be in a no-mind” state – that’s impossible” is this: “You have already been in a ‘no-mind state'; you have just forgotten that.”
On a daily basis, there are between 150 and 450 visitors that visit this site from every continent and from points all around the globe. For every one of those visitors reading this post - and for all that have concluded that the no-mind state is either unattainable at the least or, more than likely, total fiction at the worst - you are invited to recall that you were in a no-mind state for years. And for the billions who will never read this post, they – too – were in a no-mind state for years.
When?
1. During the early years of manifestation, the years prior to language development.
Maharaj: “That mind-language will talk only about the impressions it has collected. The knowledge ‘I Am’ is not a thought but observes the thoughts.”
The end game for Maharaj: “I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware that I am.”
When else?
2. During the early years prior to programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
Maharaj said, "After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay”
BELIEFS, BELIEVERS, NON-BELIEVERS, AND "NO-BELIEF-ERS"
The full explanation is offered in the eBook below entitled FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers").
There have been charges over the years from “believers” that I am a “non-believer.” Both of those are just more false, phony identities. The closest thing to reality that can be said is that “floyd is a no-belief-er” and is presently a speck of consciousness, manifested in the frame provided by a temporary-conglomeration of plant food elements.
(Maharaj: “In order to manifest itself, the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can appear.” That is all that’s going on here, and neither a frame comprised of earth elements nor energy – that is, conscious-energy – nor the circulating air can “have” anything, including beliefs.)
In the eBook referenced above, this is shared:
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj offered to those seekers who found their way to his loft these considerations regarding their beliefs:
“See that You are not what you believe yourself to be”
and
"Stop imagining, stop believing”
and
“. . . He is less remote from the truth who believes nothing . . . .”
Consider:
Thoughts are of the mind, and what the mind generates is based in the beliefs that have been accumulated and stored in the mind. A guy on PCP can believe in his mind that he can fly, so he jumps off a cliff and . . . guess what: he could not do what he believed in his mind that he could.
Most humans might as well be on PCP. Their beliefs could not be any stranger than “I believe I can fly,” including, “I can live forever”; “I can be reborn over and over again”; “I will be impure if I do not eat the right food and if I do not abstain from all sexual activity”; “a loving God can and did engage in genocide”; “a loving God can punish you forever”;
“when I die, I will grow wings and float about in heaven if I’ve been good on earth, and also there’s an invisible half-human, half-bird thing that is floating over me right now and everywhere I go and it is protecting me (just like a four-leaf clover and my rabbit’s foot and my horseshoe give me luck and protect me)”; “if my spouse leaves, I’ll just die”; “there’s a personal god”; “there are thousands of personal gods and goddesses,” ad infinitum.
And remember the sequence with humans:
Thought ->; word ->; action. Thoughts lead to words and words lead to actions.
So thoughts precede words, and words are expressions of the thought-based beliefs in the mind. If there are no beliefs, there is no deception or self-deception. If there are no insane thoughts, there can be no insane words, and if there are no insane words, there can be no insane actions. The main problem does, indeed, center in the mind.
“Not in my spiritual condition that in not as fit as it should be?”
“No.”
“Not in the poor condition of my sick soul?”
“No.”
So it has been said, “Well, you speak, so obviously there must be thoughts, and to have thoughts there must be a mind. Ha! Got you!”
Play gotcha if you want, but I won’t play along. There is no “me” that speaks here anymore than there was a “him” that spoke to people into an upstairs loft in Bombay / Mumbai.
There, it was the consciousness that spoke. Here, it is the consciousness that speaks. And that can be the case with You, if the bogus content of "your mind" (which is actually "their mind") is purged.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 June 2014
F.: Yesterday these points were offered for consideration:
1. Do you see that concepts, ideas, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, thoughts, impressions, and views can all be summarized with one word: “beliefs”?
2. Do you understand that there is no such thing as “your beliefs” – that you did not come up with a single one of those on your own – and that you have merely adopted “their beliefs” as if they were your own?
3. Do you see that beliefs are the stuff of ignorance and insanity?
4. Do you see that beliefs are the carriers of the Ultimate Sickness?
5. Have you ever set aside a few hours in the quiet and listed the things you believe and considered each of those beliefs objectively and questioned them objectively and seen that they actually cannot possibly have any legitimacy at all?
If you do that exercise, you will have completed one of the prerequisites required for you to set the stage to move along the remainder of “the path,” and you will have possibly set the stage for a shift away from The Dream of the Planet state and toward a state of Liberation, Enlightenment, and Realization.
So, nearly 300 visitors read those pointers and some of them wrote to ask the exact question that was being sought from all visitors, and their question was the appropriate response to suggestion #5, asking basically, “How could I ever have time to analyze every belief?”
Excellent!
It has been noted here in the past that you cannot, that no composite unity will remain intact long enough for such an inquiry to be completed in full. Live for a hundred more years and you’d still not have time to address every belief and find why it is false. You have been given far too many.
No, the intent is actually to begin questioning everything and to begin putting enough beliefs to the test – objectively - that you finally give up, exactly as happened here one evening over twenty-five years ago when suddenly the light pierced into the darkest depths and inspired this realization: “Oh my gosh! It’s all BS!”
At that point, it was over. It was done. Seeking ended. End of story. A state of full and total and complete belief-less-ness manifested in that instant, though a long and circuitous and arduous “journey” has taken place prior to that night.
Maharaj: “Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.” See? It’s all BS.
Yet of all of the teachings of Maharaj, not one presents a greater challenge than the one which invites seekers to “reach a state of zero concepts” and to join him in a “no-mind state.” And he was not talking about occasional periods of mindlessness.
He said in that regard, “I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi, or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”
See? “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways” and the Realized one is stable in all ways.
Nothing is more troublesome than the noise generated by the content of “the mind.” So conscious are persons of the troubling mind that they are constantly aware of its presence. To be able to ignore the chatter of a thousand monkeys emanating from that source is the goal of all would-be-sane persons, but because the chatter has been so loud for so long, the “realness” of the mind from which it is emanating is never even questioned at all by most.
The invitation as presented both in the loft and here as well – namely, to be free of the machinations of the mind completely - is simply beyond the grasp of most.
Why? Again, because they have forgotten. And forgotten what this time?
This time the reference is to what has been forgotten in regards to the early years. The reply to anyone who is saying / whining / disparaging that “I cannot be in a no-mind” state – that’s impossible” is this: “You have already been in a ‘no-mind state'; you have just forgotten that.”
On a daily basis, there are between 150 and 450 visitors that visit this site from every continent and from points all around the globe. For every one of those visitors reading this post - and for all that have concluded that the no-mind state is either unattainable at the least or, more than likely, total fiction at the worst - you are invited to recall that you were in a no-mind state for years. And for the billions who will never read this post, they – too – were in a no-mind state for years.
When?
1. During the early years of manifestation, the years prior to language development.
Maharaj: “That mind-language will talk only about the impressions it has collected. The knowledge ‘I Am’ is not a thought but observes the thoughts.”
The end game for Maharaj: “I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware that I am.”
When else?
2. During the early years prior to programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
Maharaj said, "After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay”
BELIEFS, BELIEVERS, NON-BELIEVERS, AND "NO-BELIEF-ERS"
The full explanation is offered in the eBook below entitled FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers").
There have been charges over the years from “believers” that I am a “non-believer.” Both of those are just more false, phony identities. The closest thing to reality that can be said is that “floyd is a no-belief-er” and is presently a speck of consciousness, manifested in the frame provided by a temporary-conglomeration of plant food elements.
(Maharaj: “In order to manifest itself, the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can appear.” That is all that’s going on here, and neither a frame comprised of earth elements nor energy – that is, conscious-energy – nor the circulating air can “have” anything, including beliefs.)
In the eBook referenced above, this is shared:
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj offered to those seekers who found their way to his loft these considerations regarding their beliefs:
“See that You are not what you believe yourself to be”
and
"Stop imagining, stop believing”
and
“. . . He is less remote from the truth who believes nothing . . . .”
Consider:
Thoughts are of the mind, and what the mind generates is based in the beliefs that have been accumulated and stored in the mind. A guy on PCP can believe in his mind that he can fly, so he jumps off a cliff and . . . guess what: he could not do what he believed in his mind that he could.
Most humans might as well be on PCP. Their beliefs could not be any stranger than “I believe I can fly,” including, “I can live forever”; “I can be reborn over and over again”; “I will be impure if I do not eat the right food and if I do not abstain from all sexual activity”; “a loving God can and did engage in genocide”; “a loving God can punish you forever”;
“when I die, I will grow wings and float about in heaven if I’ve been good on earth, and also there’s an invisible half-human, half-bird thing that is floating over me right now and everywhere I go and it is protecting me (just like a four-leaf clover and my rabbit’s foot and my horseshoe give me luck and protect me)”; “if my spouse leaves, I’ll just die”; “there’s a personal god”; “there are thousands of personal gods and goddesses,” ad infinitum.
And remember the sequence with humans:
Thought ->; word ->; action. Thoughts lead to words and words lead to actions.
So thoughts precede words, and words are expressions of the thought-based beliefs in the mind. If there are no beliefs, there is no deception or self-deception. If there are no insane thoughts, there can be no insane words, and if there are no insane words, there can be no insane actions. The main problem does, indeed, center in the mind.
“Not in my spiritual condition that in not as fit as it should be?”
“No.”
“Not in the poor condition of my sick soul?”
“No.”
So it has been said, “Well, you speak, so obviously there must be thoughts, and to have thoughts there must be a mind. Ha! Got you!”
Play gotcha if you want, but I won’t play along. There is no “me” that speaks here anymore than there was a “him” that spoke to people into an upstairs loft in Bombay / Mumbai.
There, it was the consciousness that spoke. Here, it is the consciousness that speaks. And that can be the case with You, if the bogus content of "your mind" (which is actually "their mind") is purged.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: To “dream up imaginary needs of an imaginary identity” first requires . . . dreaming, being trapped in the Dream of the Planet. It requires not being awake or aware or conscious at all.
How many living, non-humans things on the planet are in that situation? None.
How many humans on the planet are in that situation? Almost all.
Many dreamers would think that “Floyd has it made.” Why? The proof, they believe, is in my inbox:
1. It appears that I have many women around the globe fighting over me, big time, with some identifying themselves as “Russian would-be-brides” and others as “Vietnamese would-be-brides” and others as “Ukrainian-would-be-brides,” and I’ve seen their pictures and every one of them looks amazing! We’re talking 11’s on a scale of 10. Moreover, they are sitting in front of their computers and waiting to hear from me right now! (The one in Ukraine really wants to come to the U.S. and meet me in person and spend a few weeks with me and promises to “make my day” every day that she is here! She will be flying in to meet me as soon as I can send some cash for a plane ticket except there’s been a complication – I’ll also need to pay for the surgery her mom needs so she can leave her mom alone for the weeks when she’ll be visiting me. Can you say, “On top of the world?!”).
2. It also appears that, in addition to that, I have two – not one but two – BIG inheritances awaiting me. Asma Abdul-Qahhar informed me last week that he has an inheritance for me, but I must contact him promptly. Not sure where he is, but seems I have some relatives there who died recently. Also, I had no clue at all that I even had relatives in Africa, but obviously I did and they, too, recently died. The good news is that all I need to come up with is US$5,000.00 to cover probate court costs, after which a check for $8,000,000.00 will be on the way to my bank.
3. And, happy days, it also appears that - regarding the ticket I have for the next Powerball drawing - the odds are in my favor (with a 1 in 175,223,510 chance) that the jackpot I’m going to win is going to propel yours truly into the ranks of the 1%-ers.
Surely no one would be so asleep – so lost in the dream – that they would buy into such nonsense, right? But . . .
. . . a man I once worked with tried the Asian mail order bride deal, much to his chagrin; and
. . . many in the U.S. every day send $5000 to $10,000 or more to Africa and other nations, supposedly in order to receive millions of dollars in return. My banker told me of a man living less than a five-minute drive from my house who had recently sent $8,000.00 cash via FedEx in order to get the $12,000,000.00 inheritance that was said to be waiting for him in the bank of a Republic of Benin probate court.
(This one had an ending that was a bit different from what is usually the case: a cashier alerted my banker of the large cash withdrawal; he called the man he knew to be senile and asked if he would be willing to share why he had withdrawn such a large sum of cash from his account;
the banker was told by the old man that he was sending it to Africa in order to get an inheritance, after which the banker called the man’s son. The son got the shipping number on the package from his father and contacted FedEx. They intercepted the package just before the funds were about to be placed on an international flight to be flown out of the states. Hundreds on a daily basis have not been so fortunate.)
And as for one’s chances of winning the lottery, well, now that’s another thing entirely, isn’t it?
As outlandish as the stuff that dreams are made of is, there are always millions of persons at any given time that are nevertheless buying into the stuff of dreams. And many whose paths had been crossed here (who see how outlandish the schemes in 1, 2, and 3 above are) nevertheless have believed . . .
. . . that years of being programmed and conditioned to have blind faith cannot possibly have any drawbacks (the fact that people are sending checks and wiring cash transfers on a daily basis to Nigeria and the Republic of Benin notwithstanding);
. . . that false, dreamed up identities are real; and
. . . that a mirage – just like a false persona – can have “needs.”
Taking magical / supernatural thinking to a whole new level, many have believed . . .
. . . that a virgin birth really happened (or, actually, that 23 such births have happened, Christianity being the 23rd religion founded in the name of someone supposedly born of a virgin);
. . . that there can occur a rebirth or reincarnation of a temporarily-manifested composite unity consisting of an elemental plant food body that circulated air and energy;
. . . that angels and guardian angels are real;
. . . that there are thousands of gods and goddesses (dreamed up by Far Easterners) who are real;
. . . no wait, that there are many gods but the main one is Zeus;
. . . no wait, that there are many gods but the main one is Jupiter;
. . . no wait, that there is only one true God – the God of Abraham who just happens to be the one true God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam;
. . . that an ark which was reported to be 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and 45 feet high could accommodate one family but also a pair of every living thing on planet earth;
. . . that an “all-loving God” would drown everyone on earth except for the members of one family; and
. . . that an “all-loving God” would also be capable of casting "his children" into the eternal flames of Hades / Hell for eternity.
Now those kinds of beliefs can and do follow the assignment or assumption of some the most ignorance-and-insanity-generating ego-states on the planet and will inspire a belief that one “needs” to do this and “needs” to do that in order to assure that he or she will be rewarded eternally rather than punished eternally.
The questions for consideration today are these:
1. Do you see that concepts, ideas, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, thoughts, impressions, and views can all be summarized with one word: “beliefs”?
2. Do you understand that there is no such thing as “your beliefs” – that you did not come up with a single one of those on your own – and that you have merely adopted “their beliefs” as if they were your own?
3. Do you see that beliefs are the stuff of ignorance and insanity?
4. Do you see that beliefs are the carriers of the Ultimate Sickness?
5. Have you ever set aside a few hours in the quiet and listed the things you believe and considered each of those beliefs objectively and questioned them objectively and seen that they actually cannot possibly have any legitimacy at all?
If you do that exercise, you will have completed one of the prerequisites required for you to set the stage to move along the remainder of “the path,” and you will have possibly set the stage for a shift away from The Dream of the Planet state and toward a state of Liberation, Enlightenment, and Realization.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
2 June 2014
F.: To “dream up imaginary needs of an imaginary identity” first requires . . . dreaming, being trapped in the Dream of the Planet. It requires not being awake or aware or conscious at all.
How many living, non-humans things on the planet are in that situation? None.
How many humans on the planet are in that situation? Almost all.
Many dreamers would think that “Floyd has it made.” Why? The proof, they believe, is in my inbox:
1. It appears that I have many women around the globe fighting over me, big time, with some identifying themselves as “Russian would-be-brides” and others as “Vietnamese would-be-brides” and others as “Ukrainian-would-be-brides,” and I’ve seen their pictures and every one of them looks amazing! We’re talking 11’s on a scale of 10. Moreover, they are sitting in front of their computers and waiting to hear from me right now! (The one in Ukraine really wants to come to the U.S. and meet me in person and spend a few weeks with me and promises to “make my day” every day that she is here! She will be flying in to meet me as soon as I can send some cash for a plane ticket except there’s been a complication – I’ll also need to pay for the surgery her mom needs so she can leave her mom alone for the weeks when she’ll be visiting me. Can you say, “On top of the world?!”).
2. It also appears that, in addition to that, I have two – not one but two – BIG inheritances awaiting me. Asma Abdul-Qahhar informed me last week that he has an inheritance for me, but I must contact him promptly. Not sure where he is, but seems I have some relatives there who died recently. Also, I had no clue at all that I even had relatives in Africa, but obviously I did and they, too, recently died. The good news is that all I need to come up with is US$5,000.00 to cover probate court costs, after which a check for $8,000,000.00 will be on the way to my bank.
3. And, happy days, it also appears that - regarding the ticket I have for the next Powerball drawing - the odds are in my favor (with a 1 in 175,223,510 chance) that the jackpot I’m going to win is going to propel yours truly into the ranks of the 1%-ers.
Surely no one would be so asleep – so lost in the dream – that they would buy into such nonsense, right? But . . .
. . . a man I once worked with tried the Asian mail order bride deal, much to his chagrin; and
. . . many in the U.S. every day send $5000 to $10,000 or more to Africa and other nations, supposedly in order to receive millions of dollars in return. My banker told me of a man living less than a five-minute drive from my house who had recently sent $8,000.00 cash via FedEx in order to get the $12,000,000.00 inheritance that was said to be waiting for him in the bank of a Republic of Benin probate court.
(This one had an ending that was a bit different from what is usually the case: a cashier alerted my banker of the large cash withdrawal; he called the man he knew to be senile and asked if he would be willing to share why he had withdrawn such a large sum of cash from his account;
the banker was told by the old man that he was sending it to Africa in order to get an inheritance, after which the banker called the man’s son. The son got the shipping number on the package from his father and contacted FedEx. They intercepted the package just before the funds were about to be placed on an international flight to be flown out of the states. Hundreds on a daily basis have not been so fortunate.)
And as for one’s chances of winning the lottery, well, now that’s another thing entirely, isn’t it?
As outlandish as the stuff that dreams are made of is, there are always millions of persons at any given time that are nevertheless buying into the stuff of dreams. And many whose paths had been crossed here (who see how outlandish the schemes in 1, 2, and 3 above are) nevertheless have believed . . .
. . . that years of being programmed and conditioned to have blind faith cannot possibly have any drawbacks (the fact that people are sending checks and wiring cash transfers on a daily basis to Nigeria and the Republic of Benin notwithstanding);
. . . that false, dreamed up identities are real; and
. . . that a mirage – just like a false persona – can have “needs.”
Taking magical / supernatural thinking to a whole new level, many have believed . . .
. . . that a virgin birth really happened (or, actually, that 23 such births have happened, Christianity being the 23rd religion founded in the name of someone supposedly born of a virgin);
. . . that there can occur a rebirth or reincarnation of a temporarily-manifested composite unity consisting of an elemental plant food body that circulated air and energy;
. . . that angels and guardian angels are real;
. . . that there are thousands of gods and goddesses (dreamed up by Far Easterners) who are real;
. . . no wait, that there are many gods but the main one is Zeus;
. . . no wait, that there are many gods but the main one is Jupiter;
. . . no wait, that there is only one true God – the God of Abraham who just happens to be the one true God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam;
. . . that an ark which was reported to be 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and 45 feet high could accommodate one family but also a pair of every living thing on planet earth;
. . . that an “all-loving God” would drown everyone on earth except for the members of one family; and
. . . that an “all-loving God” would also be capable of casting "his children" into the eternal flames of Hades / Hell for eternity.
Now those kinds of beliefs can and do follow the assignment or assumption of some the most ignorance-and-insanity-generating ego-states on the planet and will inspire a belief that one “needs” to do this and “needs” to do that in order to assure that he or she will be rewarded eternally rather than punished eternally.
The questions for consideration today are these:
1. Do you see that concepts, ideas, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, thoughts, impressions, and views can all be summarized with one word: “beliefs”?
2. Do you understand that there is no such thing as “your beliefs” – that you did not come up with a single one of those on your own – and that you have merely adopted “their beliefs” as if they were your own?
3. Do you see that beliefs are the stuff of ignorance and insanity?
4. Do you see that beliefs are the carriers of the Ultimate Sickness?
5. Have you ever set aside a few hours in the quiet and listed the things you believe and considered each of those beliefs objectively and questioned them objectively and seen that they actually cannot possibly have any legitimacy at all?
If you do that exercise, you will have completed one of the prerequisites required for you to set the stage to move along the remainder of “the path,” and you will have possibly set the stage for a shift away from The Dream of the Planet state and toward a state of Liberation, Enlightenment, and Realization.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
2 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: It was shown yesterday that “The Seeker” / “The Super Seeker” will prevent continued movement along the “path” to its end. As the case is when there is an assumption of the role of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant,” all movement fixates at the third of seven steps.
Those playing any of those three roles, therefore, will never even reach the halfway point of the complete seven-step “journey.”
Additionally, it has been noted that most will never even reach “The Seeker” role because they are certain that they “already know” all that is to be known. For them – totaling 97% in one survey, that is, those who claimed to be affiliated with one religion or another - they get every answer to every question that might arise via the dogma and beliefs that are promulgated by their religious leaders.
Millions more at any given time claim an affiliation with one or another of the many so-called “spiritual groups or programs” and turn to the leaders there for answers. That is the extent of their seeking.
So most will never "find" because most will never seek.
Who does seek? Only they who realize that they have forgotten.
There is a comment often heard in that regard, and in one of two instances, the comment can provide an impetus to seek. The comment is, “There must be more than this.”
1. In the first instance, if the comment refers to the relative existence, it reveals a shallow preoccupation with things relative, exposing the “I need more” mindset discussed yesterday;
2. in the second instance, the statement arises if one comes to see the shallowness of things relative and makes the comment in a way that indicates that there is some "inkling" or "intimation" of "something that is permanent" (as opposed to phenomenal things only that are transient and temporary).
The latter can be labeled “Noumenal things” for the sake of discussion only.
The third step is a necessary step because it is there that the consciousness might have a chance to turn its focus from the relative only and begin focusing on both "things relative" and "things Noumenal" (that is, on not only the “I AM” but also the “I AM THAT”).
If the statement is used as in case “1” above, no seeking of “Truth” or “Enlightenment” or “Liberation” or "Realization" or clarity or understanding will happen.
If the statement is used as in case “2” above, then a seeking of the understanding offered via non-duality pointers might begin.
The statement in case “2” is rooted in having forgotten but also in having an "inkling" as well. Forgotten what?
a. Your Original Nature
b. a.k.a., your “prior-to-manifestation” condition
c. a.k.a., your previous state that was beyond both beingness and non-beingness.
The statement in instance "1" above is rooted in personality (actually personalities). Why? Consider: the Realized are driven by nothing personal at all, understanding the composite unity;
by contrast, among the non-Realized, never is there the case of a single, unaccompanied persona; the non-Realized are driven by a plethora of personalities with a plethora of different, hidden agendas and desires and fears.
That is why the planet is inhabited with humans who are, with but a few Realized exceptions, driven by the Multiple Personality Disorder (or to use the more common term nowadays, the Dissociative Identity Disorder).
If it is understood that almost all humans are dissociated (from reality and Reality and Self) then it is easy to also understand
A. why the answer to “Who Am I?” is such a mystery,
B. why dual / multiple answers are given to the question, and
C. why most will "come" and "go" without ever having found the true answer in between.
Consider this from a WebMD doctor, reading it in light of the non-dual message regarding personality identification:
“Dissociative Identity Disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person's behavior."
“The ‘alters’ or different identities . . . each has his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking.”
“. . . the ‘alters’ are imaginary . . . .”
“. . . Each personality reveals itself and controls an individual’s behavior and thoughts. [That] is called ‘switching’.”
Remember Dave who eventually discovered that he had accumulated over eighty assumed identities over a period of years? Does that mean he should have been locked away in an institution? Only to the degree that all among the non-Realized masses should be locked away in an institution.
It would take little time to list forty or so ego-states that can be played over a short span of years, including “The Child” and “The Good Boy / Girl” or “The Bad Boy Girl"; and “The Christian” or “The Muslim” or “The Hindu” or “The Jew” or whatever; and “The Perfectionist” or the “Rescuer” or “The Performer” or “The Romantic” or “The Analyst” or “The Dependent One” or “The Addict / Adventurer” or “The Boss and Controller” or "The One Guarding His or Her Internal Peace”;
and “The Student”; and “The Classmate”; and “The Friend”; and “The Elementary School Student”; and “The Middle School Student”; and “The High School Student”; and “The Graduate”; and “The College Student”;
and “The Employee”; and “The Apartment Renter”; and “The Condo Owner” and “The Homeowner”; and “The Close Friend”; and “The Lover”; and “The Fiancé / Fiancée”; and “The Spouse”; and “The Super Spouse”; and “the Parent”; and “The Provider”; and “The Divorcé / Divorcée”; and “The Rebounder”; ad infinitum. Expanding the list to eighty false identities would take only a little more time.
And all of those can be assigned or assumed at various times and will control one’s thoughts and words and actions per the hidden agenda and desires and fears of each. Each will have its own “voice,” spouting words intended to give every ego-state both legitimacy and continuity; moreover, each will bring at least seven basic concerns dealing with “money,” “relationships,” etc.
80 x 7 = 560 “voices.” Later on, when the total reaches 140, as is usually the case if a person “survives for an average lifespan,” and when the number of voices reaches a total of 1000, then that situation is what is being referred to here when reference is made to “The Chatter of a Thousand Monkeys” in one’s head.
That is what is at play when some have been advised: “Even when you’re driving down the road alone you’re in group therapy” or when one is told, “Every picture every taken of you is really a group photo.”
People say, “I just want peace of mind” and the response is, "There’s no such thing as peace of mind; there’s only peace if you’re out of your mind.” [See the eBook referenced below with that title.]
Maharaj made that point, explaining that peace came when he had reached a state of “zero concepts” and, therefore, “had no mind.”
But what is in every mind, in addition to ideas, concepts, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, nonsense, and learned ignorance (all of which, if lumped together, can be called “your beliefs,” which are really “their beliefs” and not "yours" at all)?
What is also "in there" is the belief that each personality / false identity that has been assigned to you or assumed by you is real, and every one of those multiple personalities will . . .
. . . generate thoughts and words and actions,
. . . will rob you of choice, and
. . . will control you with a totally unreal, totally insane set of hidden agendas, desires and fears.
And that, my friends, is – to use the non-scientific nomenclature - nuts.
Want to be free of the traits of the Ultimate Sickness? Be free of the place where they are stored. Here, years ago, a cluster of some cancerous growths were removed. Once removed, the comfort-robbing symptoms they were generating disappeared, instantly. Poof! Gone!
The same can happen with you if you remove the cluster of “cancerous-Ultimate-Sickness-growths.” Fortunately, they have not spread throughout the composite unity’s elemental-plant-food body.
They are all confined in one place, so you need only focus on that one place to treat your main problem. That place is “the mind,” which is only one part of the brain.
Eliminate the unnatural and supernatural mind and the rest of the naturally-functioning brain will continue to do its job. Then, the source of one’s “nut-ness” is gone. What Maharaj called humanity’s “ignorance, stupidity and insanity” will be gone.
Those three symptoms are not compatible with the elemental-plant-food-no-mind brain. Eliminate the unnatural-supernatural-thinking-mind and the brain will take over and you will spontaneously abide naturally.
And THAT is what freedom and liberation are all about. Pretty cool, huh?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
1 June 2014
F.: It was shown yesterday that “The Seeker” / “The Super Seeker” will prevent continued movement along the “path” to its end. As the case is when there is an assumption of the role of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant,” all movement fixates at the third of seven steps.
Those playing any of those three roles, therefore, will never even reach the halfway point of the complete seven-step “journey.”
Additionally, it has been noted that most will never even reach “The Seeker” role because they are certain that they “already know” all that is to be known. For them – totaling 97% in one survey, that is, those who claimed to be affiliated with one religion or another - they get every answer to every question that might arise via the dogma and beliefs that are promulgated by their religious leaders.
Millions more at any given time claim an affiliation with one or another of the many so-called “spiritual groups or programs” and turn to the leaders there for answers. That is the extent of their seeking.
So most will never "find" because most will never seek.
Who does seek? Only they who realize that they have forgotten.
There is a comment often heard in that regard, and in one of two instances, the comment can provide an impetus to seek. The comment is, “There must be more than this.”
1. In the first instance, if the comment refers to the relative existence, it reveals a shallow preoccupation with things relative, exposing the “I need more” mindset discussed yesterday;
2. in the second instance, the statement arises if one comes to see the shallowness of things relative and makes the comment in a way that indicates that there is some "inkling" or "intimation" of "something that is permanent" (as opposed to phenomenal things only that are transient and temporary).
The latter can be labeled “Noumenal things” for the sake of discussion only.
The third step is a necessary step because it is there that the consciousness might have a chance to turn its focus from the relative only and begin focusing on both "things relative" and "things Noumenal" (that is, on not only the “I AM” but also the “I AM THAT”).
If the statement is used as in case “1” above, no seeking of “Truth” or “Enlightenment” or “Liberation” or "Realization" or clarity or understanding will happen.
If the statement is used as in case “2” above, then a seeking of the understanding offered via non-duality pointers might begin.
The statement in case “2” is rooted in having forgotten but also in having an "inkling" as well. Forgotten what?
a. Your Original Nature
b. a.k.a., your “prior-to-manifestation” condition
c. a.k.a., your previous state that was beyond both beingness and non-beingness.
The statement in instance "1" above is rooted in personality (actually personalities). Why? Consider: the Realized are driven by nothing personal at all, understanding the composite unity;
by contrast, among the non-Realized, never is there the case of a single, unaccompanied persona; the non-Realized are driven by a plethora of personalities with a plethora of different, hidden agendas and desires and fears.
That is why the planet is inhabited with humans who are, with but a few Realized exceptions, driven by the Multiple Personality Disorder (or to use the more common term nowadays, the Dissociative Identity Disorder).
If it is understood that almost all humans are dissociated (from reality and Reality and Self) then it is easy to also understand
A. why the answer to “Who Am I?” is such a mystery,
B. why dual / multiple answers are given to the question, and
C. why most will "come" and "go" without ever having found the true answer in between.
Consider this from a WebMD doctor, reading it in light of the non-dual message regarding personality identification:
“Dissociative Identity Disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person's behavior."
“The ‘alters’ or different identities . . . each has his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking.”
“. . . the ‘alters’ are imaginary . . . .”
“. . . Each personality reveals itself and controls an individual’s behavior and thoughts. [That] is called ‘switching’.”
Remember Dave who eventually discovered that he had accumulated over eighty assumed identities over a period of years? Does that mean he should have been locked away in an institution? Only to the degree that all among the non-Realized masses should be locked away in an institution.
It would take little time to list forty or so ego-states that can be played over a short span of years, including “The Child” and “The Good Boy / Girl” or “The Bad Boy Girl"; and “The Christian” or “The Muslim” or “The Hindu” or “The Jew” or whatever; and “The Perfectionist” or the “Rescuer” or “The Performer” or “The Romantic” or “The Analyst” or “The Dependent One” or “The Addict / Adventurer” or “The Boss and Controller” or "The One Guarding His or Her Internal Peace”;
and “The Student”; and “The Classmate”; and “The Friend”; and “The Elementary School Student”; and “The Middle School Student”; and “The High School Student”; and “The Graduate”; and “The College Student”;
and “The Employee”; and “The Apartment Renter”; and “The Condo Owner” and “The Homeowner”; and “The Close Friend”; and “The Lover”; and “The Fiancé / Fiancée”; and “The Spouse”; and “The Super Spouse”; and “the Parent”; and “The Provider”; and “The Divorcé / Divorcée”; and “The Rebounder”; ad infinitum. Expanding the list to eighty false identities would take only a little more time.
And all of those can be assigned or assumed at various times and will control one’s thoughts and words and actions per the hidden agenda and desires and fears of each. Each will have its own “voice,” spouting words intended to give every ego-state both legitimacy and continuity; moreover, each will bring at least seven basic concerns dealing with “money,” “relationships,” etc.
80 x 7 = 560 “voices.” Later on, when the total reaches 140, as is usually the case if a person “survives for an average lifespan,” and when the number of voices reaches a total of 1000, then that situation is what is being referred to here when reference is made to “The Chatter of a Thousand Monkeys” in one’s head.
That is what is at play when some have been advised: “Even when you’re driving down the road alone you’re in group therapy” or when one is told, “Every picture every taken of you is really a group photo.”
People say, “I just want peace of mind” and the response is, "There’s no such thing as peace of mind; there’s only peace if you’re out of your mind.” [See the eBook referenced below with that title.]
Maharaj made that point, explaining that peace came when he had reached a state of “zero concepts” and, therefore, “had no mind.”
But what is in every mind, in addition to ideas, concepts, notions, perspectives, misperceptions, nonsense, and learned ignorance (all of which, if lumped together, can be called “your beliefs,” which are really “their beliefs” and not "yours" at all)?
What is also "in there" is the belief that each personality / false identity that has been assigned to you or assumed by you is real, and every one of those multiple personalities will . . .
. . . generate thoughts and words and actions,
. . . will rob you of choice, and
. . . will control you with a totally unreal, totally insane set of hidden agendas, desires and fears.
And that, my friends, is – to use the non-scientific nomenclature - nuts.
Want to be free of the traits of the Ultimate Sickness? Be free of the place where they are stored. Here, years ago, a cluster of some cancerous growths were removed. Once removed, the comfort-robbing symptoms they were generating disappeared, instantly. Poof! Gone!
The same can happen with you if you remove the cluster of “cancerous-Ultimate-Sickness-growths.” Fortunately, they have not spread throughout the composite unity’s elemental-plant-food body.
They are all confined in one place, so you need only focus on that one place to treat your main problem. That place is “the mind,” which is only one part of the brain.
Eliminate the unnatural and supernatural mind and the rest of the naturally-functioning brain will continue to do its job. Then, the source of one’s “nut-ness” is gone. What Maharaj called humanity’s “ignorance, stupidity and insanity” will be gone.
Those three symptoms are not compatible with the elemental-plant-food-no-mind brain. Eliminate the unnatural-supernatural-thinking-mind and the brain will take over and you will spontaneously abide naturally.
And THAT is what freedom and liberation are all about. Pretty cool, huh?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
1 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: As with the manifested consciousness itself, ego-states (personalities, personas, roles, stage characters, false identities, etc.) are also deadset on continuity – on perpetuating the false hope that they will never come to an end. To try to guarantee that (totally unreasonable) desire, they employ the tools in a kit that contains all sorts of tricks to delude others, all sorts of self-deluding tricks, and all sorts of ego-defense mechanisms, including:
egotism, denial, regression, compartmentalization, dissociation, projection, intellectualization, repression, displacement, sublimation, rationalization, compensation, excessive-assertiveness, and others.
So even with the few who realize that there is something to seek – something beyond their dogma or beyond their program or beyond what their cultures called “bad” roles – most never consider that (a) their assigned or assumed “good” roles are as equally false and that (b) the roles they think are "good" ones must be cast aside as well if all of the steps on the “path” are to be completed. Again, though, all of their assigned or assumed ego-states are deadset on continuity.
Three of the final phony roles that are usually the last to go – if they do ever go, which they typically do not – are “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant” and “The Super Seeker.” One of the tricks that will stop all progress along the “path” for “The Super Seeker” is “The Super Seeker’s” subconscious awareness of the fact that “The Super Seeker” will end (will lose its continuity) if it . . . finds.
So there’s the rub, the “Catch-22,” if you will: “The Super Seeker” must seek to exist, but “The Super Seeker” must end for Realization to be “found” – to happen. Why? When Realization happens, all seeking, of course, ends. Even the possibility of that happening is anathema to “The Super Seeker,” but as with all false personality identifications, the agenda of that type is hidden.
Persons who are seeking Realization have no idea that, on a subconscious level, they really do not want to “find” and thereafter abandon the seeking and then merely relax and take it easy and abide naturally. Some are addicted to the chaos of the spiritual going and doing and zooming; some have tried to relax and failed and seek to avoid boredom;
and some have become addicted to their spiritual workaholism and have also developed a related addiction to chaos in order to escape the monotony which they have experienced in the past. In the end, though, it’s all about ego-states and their hidden agendas. And to that end, each assumed ego uses all sorts of tricks to achieve its false hope for continuity.
This example has been offered in the past as an illustration, showing how one personality type – the Type Three Personality Achiever - uses the trick to sustain itself:
A man had this poster on the bulletin board behind his desk at his business:
When I entered his office a couple of years later, aware that his company had earned its first one million dollars, I sat across from him but was not providing the degree of attention to him which narcissistic Threes expect when they are talking. I was looking over his right shoulder at the bulletin board rather than looking at his eyes as he spoke to me. He asked, angrily, “Are you listening to me? What are you looking at?”
I pointed to the poster behind him. He turned and looked and what we both saw was this:
He had squeezed a “2” into the space after the “1.”
I laughed, pointing at the poster and asked, “What is that?!”
He said, “My revised goal.”
I said, “And you have no idea why you revised your goal or why you squeezed that ‘2’ in there, do you”?
The conversation went south from there, he claimed he had work to do, and our visit was clearly over.
So what WAS that about? The explanation is simple to understand if you understand the way that personality functions.
The actual achievement of a goal for a Personality Type Three Achiever is never acceptable. Type Threes always have to make room for achieving more in order for “The Achiever” / “The Super Achiever” to continue to exist (in the mind of the one assuming that role).
See? Nothing to achieve = no chance for “The Achiever” / “The Super Achiever” to “exist.” Note that the same applies to “The Super Seeker”: to find is to finish . . . to conclude . . . to end . . . to STOP. To stop going and dooming and zooming, which usually is involved far more with “running from” than it is involved with “running toward.”
The result of the Type Three Achiever’s subconscious use of “the guarantee-continuity-of-a-false-identity trick” is this: there will be a nagging, sub-surface sense that “there is never enough,” that “I always need more.”
For Threes, that belief – as is the case with all types and all of their beliefs – cannot be compartmentalized; therefore, the belief is not just about business goals. More money is always needed, yes, but a house with more rooms is also always needed, and a car that costs more is always needed, and a spouse with more to offer is always needed, and a Three’s children must always accomplished more, ad infinitum.
The point in this series that is being emphasized over and over is that all personalities generate delusion-and-illusion-based, phony, dreamed-up “needs” which are required in order for personalities to (supposedly) sustain themselves.
The same happens with “The Super Seeker,” another of those cunningly-deceptive ego-states. Again, “to actually find” would bring seeking to an end, and if seeking were to end, then the false identity of “The Super Seeker” would end.
That cannot happen with a person who cannot stand to be still and who is unable to enjoy the peace and quiet. A nagging sense of boredom drives the need to go and do and zoom, the need to accept and normalize entrapment in spiritual workaholism, and to constantly (and subconsciously) work at sustaining the image of scores of false identities.
Here, the invitation is to de-accumulate. Why? Accumulation is the work of ego. Ego always requires more and more and more, so “The Super Muslim” is not going to formal prayers one time a day. No way. Nor would two or three or four times be enough. No, five is the magic number. More and more and more.
“The Super Christian” might go to church one time a week, but “The Really Super Christian” will go twice on Sunday, will go to a "prayer meeting" on Wednesday, will go to choir rehearsal or some such on Thursday, will go to a “Pot Luck Dinner” at the church on Friday, will go to the church softball game on Saturday, and then will start it all over again the next day.
Go. Do. Zoom. Meet. Meet. Meet. Talk. Talk. Talk. Impress. Impress. Impress. Share. Share. Share. (Which really means, "Take advantage of a captive audience that will tolerate listening to you because you will soon have to tolerate listening to them.")
Fanaticism. Fanaticism. Fanaticism. THAT is what ego (and the egotism and other defense mechanisms that works to sustain ego) are all about.
And the same applies to the false identity of “The Super Seeker” and the same applies to every other assumed personality. And when personalities generate phony, dreamed-up “needs” that are based in personality-driven delusion and illusions, then the agendas and desires and fears of those personalities will drive even more fanaticism . . . fanaticism . . . fanaticism.
Of the trillions of life-forms on planet earth that have come and gone, and of the billions currently on planet earth, none - except for humans – have ever exhibited any form of extremism and radicalism and fanaticism. Why? Because none, except for humans, have ever assumed a false identification. None have ever been “rest-adverse” or “respite-challenged,” except for humans. (So much for "dominion over.")
Only humans will subconsciously come up with this kind of response to an invitation to stop with the constant going and doing and zooming and to get over their addiction to all forms of workaholism, including religious and / or spiritual workaholism:
“Really relax and take it easy? You must be nuts, Floyd. My religion / spirituality / seeking / politics / fanaticism / rescuing / reforming / controlling / achieving / analyzing / escaping / and avoiding takes a back seat to nothing.”
F.: “Ah, well. In that case, rock and roll.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
31 May 2014
F.: As with the manifested consciousness itself, ego-states (personalities, personas, roles, stage characters, false identities, etc.) are also deadset on continuity – on perpetuating the false hope that they will never come to an end. To try to guarantee that (totally unreasonable) desire, they employ the tools in a kit that contains all sorts of tricks to delude others, all sorts of self-deluding tricks, and all sorts of ego-defense mechanisms, including:
egotism, denial, regression, compartmentalization, dissociation, projection, intellectualization, repression, displacement, sublimation, rationalization, compensation, excessive-assertiveness, and others.
So even with the few who realize that there is something to seek – something beyond their dogma or beyond their program or beyond what their cultures called “bad” roles – most never consider that (a) their assigned or assumed “good” roles are as equally false and that (b) the roles they think are "good" ones must be cast aside as well if all of the steps on the “path” are to be completed. Again, though, all of their assigned or assumed ego-states are deadset on continuity.
Three of the final phony roles that are usually the last to go – if they do ever go, which they typically do not – are “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant” and “The Super Seeker.” One of the tricks that will stop all progress along the “path” for “The Super Seeker” is “The Super Seeker’s” subconscious awareness of the fact that “The Super Seeker” will end (will lose its continuity) if it . . . finds.
So there’s the rub, the “Catch-22,” if you will: “The Super Seeker” must seek to exist, but “The Super Seeker” must end for Realization to be “found” – to happen. Why? When Realization happens, all seeking, of course, ends. Even the possibility of that happening is anathema to “The Super Seeker,” but as with all false personality identifications, the agenda of that type is hidden.
Persons who are seeking Realization have no idea that, on a subconscious level, they really do not want to “find” and thereafter abandon the seeking and then merely relax and take it easy and abide naturally. Some are addicted to the chaos of the spiritual going and doing and zooming; some have tried to relax and failed and seek to avoid boredom;
and some have become addicted to their spiritual workaholism and have also developed a related addiction to chaos in order to escape the monotony which they have experienced in the past. In the end, though, it’s all about ego-states and their hidden agendas. And to that end, each assumed ego uses all sorts of tricks to achieve its false hope for continuity.
This example has been offered in the past as an illustration, showing how one personality type – the Type Three Personality Achiever - uses the trick to sustain itself:
A man had this poster on the bulletin board behind his desk at his business:
When I entered his office a couple of years later, aware that his company had earned its first one million dollars, I sat across from him but was not providing the degree of attention to him which narcissistic Threes expect when they are talking. I was looking over his right shoulder at the bulletin board rather than looking at his eyes as he spoke to me. He asked, angrily, “Are you listening to me? What are you looking at?”
I pointed to the poster behind him. He turned and looked and what we both saw was this:
He had squeezed a “2” into the space after the “1.”
I laughed, pointing at the poster and asked, “What is that?!”
He said, “My revised goal.”
I said, “And you have no idea why you revised your goal or why you squeezed that ‘2’ in there, do you”?
The conversation went south from there, he claimed he had work to do, and our visit was clearly over.
So what WAS that about? The explanation is simple to understand if you understand the way that personality functions.
The actual achievement of a goal for a Personality Type Three Achiever is never acceptable. Type Threes always have to make room for achieving more in order for “The Achiever” / “The Super Achiever” to continue to exist (in the mind of the one assuming that role).
See? Nothing to achieve = no chance for “The Achiever” / “The Super Achiever” to “exist.” Note that the same applies to “The Super Seeker”: to find is to finish . . . to conclude . . . to end . . . to STOP. To stop going and dooming and zooming, which usually is involved far more with “running from” than it is involved with “running toward.”
The result of the Type Three Achiever’s subconscious use of “the guarantee-continuity-of-a-false-identity trick” is this: there will be a nagging, sub-surface sense that “there is never enough,” that “I always need more.”
For Threes, that belief – as is the case with all types and all of their beliefs – cannot be compartmentalized; therefore, the belief is not just about business goals. More money is always needed, yes, but a house with more rooms is also always needed, and a car that costs more is always needed, and a spouse with more to offer is always needed, and a Three’s children must always accomplished more, ad infinitum.
The point in this series that is being emphasized over and over is that all personalities generate delusion-and-illusion-based, phony, dreamed-up “needs” which are required in order for personalities to (supposedly) sustain themselves.
The same happens with “The Super Seeker,” another of those cunningly-deceptive ego-states. Again, “to actually find” would bring seeking to an end, and if seeking were to end, then the false identity of “The Super Seeker” would end.
That cannot happen with a person who cannot stand to be still and who is unable to enjoy the peace and quiet. A nagging sense of boredom drives the need to go and do and zoom, the need to accept and normalize entrapment in spiritual workaholism, and to constantly (and subconsciously) work at sustaining the image of scores of false identities.
Here, the invitation is to de-accumulate. Why? Accumulation is the work of ego. Ego always requires more and more and more, so “The Super Muslim” is not going to formal prayers one time a day. No way. Nor would two or three or four times be enough. No, five is the magic number. More and more and more.
“The Super Christian” might go to church one time a week, but “The Really Super Christian” will go twice on Sunday, will go to a "prayer meeting" on Wednesday, will go to choir rehearsal or some such on Thursday, will go to a “Pot Luck Dinner” at the church on Friday, will go to the church softball game on Saturday, and then will start it all over again the next day.
Go. Do. Zoom. Meet. Meet. Meet. Talk. Talk. Talk. Impress. Impress. Impress. Share. Share. Share. (Which really means, "Take advantage of a captive audience that will tolerate listening to you because you will soon have to tolerate listening to them.")
Fanaticism. Fanaticism. Fanaticism. THAT is what ego (and the egotism and other defense mechanisms that works to sustain ego) are all about.
And the same applies to the false identity of “The Super Seeker” and the same applies to every other assumed personality. And when personalities generate phony, dreamed-up “needs” that are based in personality-driven delusion and illusions, then the agendas and desires and fears of those personalities will drive even more fanaticism . . . fanaticism . . . fanaticism.
Of the trillions of life-forms on planet earth that have come and gone, and of the billions currently on planet earth, none - except for humans – have ever exhibited any form of extremism and radicalism and fanaticism. Why? Because none, except for humans, have ever assumed a false identification. None have ever been “rest-adverse” or “respite-challenged,” except for humans. (So much for "dominion over.")
Only humans will subconsciously come up with this kind of response to an invitation to stop with the constant going and doing and zooming and to get over their addiction to all forms of workaholism, including religious and / or spiritual workaholism:
“Really relax and take it easy? You must be nuts, Floyd. My religion / spirituality / seeking / politics / fanaticism / rescuing / reforming / controlling / achieving / analyzing / escaping / and avoiding takes a back seat to nothing.”
F.: “Ah, well. In that case, rock and roll.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
31 May 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: It has been shared that, here, the “journey” was long and arduous. Why? Because like most, I was the one in charge of laying out the map for a journey that I had never traveled. I had no idea “where” I was or “where” I was supposed to get to.
Along the way, I fell time and again into what Maharaj called the trap of the “Big Name Teachers.” He warned his visitors to stay the heck away from them. Why?
It is clear now that they use the 5th of the 5 teaching methods for non-duality, namely, “Pseudo Advaita.” That involves taking certain non-dual “Noumenal” pointers but then bastardizing the message by adding popular phenomenal concepts and elements in order to give their talks “mass appeal” (which is actually, “mess appeal”). The strategy: Pull them in by mentioning non-duality, load up the message what they really want - power, success, control, great meaning, affirmation - and then collect the money.
As was the case here, most are running their quest as if they were a metal ball trapped inside a pinball machine, going first here, being kicked back there, flying off in another direction, being thrown back until hitting something else that set them on a different course, and being tossed helter-skelter all over the place.
In the past, the comparison offered involved a car that I received one holiday. It was a small wind-up car that ran in a straight line until it ran into something; then, it backed up a foot, turned ninety degrees, and then ran until it hit something else, at which point it would repeat the process. That is the way the "journey" for most unfolds.
It was finally seen here that, if one would go on a “journey,” and wanted to get to the destination as promptly and as easily as possible, that taking a direct path made sense.
If one happened to be in Los Angeles, California and wanted to travel to New York as promptly and as easily as possible, it would make no sense at all to leave Los Angeles, then drive to Idaho, then to Arizona, then to Wyoming, then to Texas, then to North Dakota, then to Oklahoma, then to Minnesota, then to Louisiana, then to Wisconsin, then to Alabama, then to Michigan, then to Georgia, and then finally to New York. Along the way, the direct path would be crossed – and ignored – over a dozen times, and in the process, a very simple journey would unnecessarily turn into a “long and arduous trip.”
Yet if one has no map, and is trying to make the trip without a guide that knows the way, a long and arduous trip is guaranteed.
If you have been seeking earnestly, look back over your “journey” so far and write down all of the diversionary paths you have taken. If you are honest, you’ll see that the process was totally helter-skelter, totally disorganized, totally haphazard, totally pell-mell, and, likely, totally hurried. Seeking - go-do-zoom style. Spiritual workaholism at its worst.
If all of your seeking would inspire any objective witness to shake her or his head in amazement, then that has all been useless seeking. And if one looked back honestly and objectively at the path followed so far, the appraisal would be, “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, running about like a chicken with its head cut off. It has all been totally nuts.”
Yet most seekers never “get that.” Why? Because the role of “The Super Seeker” has as powerful a grip on a person as the roles of “The Super Muslim,” “The Super Christian,” “The Super Lover,” or “The Super Spouse.” All, including “The Super Seeker,” can generate such levels of fanaticism that self-destructive behaviors can be normalized.
And who wants to admit that all of their efforts had been in vain? The egotism which supports every ego-state will fight that at every turn.
Furthermore, it is nothing more than a combination of ignorance and denial and egotism that claims, "Well, I had to do everything I did."
The response: "No, you did not. All that you did was harmful (relatively speaking) to far too many people and to yourself, and none of that had anything to do with the 'journey' to understanding Wholeness and Oneness and to attaining Mental and Emotional Health, all of which you still fail to grasp." Yet who wants to hear that truth?
Here, when the truth about where one actually in on the “path” (as opposed to where they think they are, which is typically three steps further along than they really are), then this applies: “The truth will set you free, but it’s going to piss you off first.” The “you” there is the conglomeration of false you’s that have been assigned or assumed as identities.
Moreover, who would welcome an employer who accepts the report that you hand in with pride after working on it for a week and who then hands it back to you saying, “This is a total waste of company time and resources . . . completely useless. Throw it away and start over from scratch.”
There is a saying among litigators: “A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” The same applies with the process of Realizing because the process is one whereby one comes to see how ignorant one’s beliefs are; whereby one comes to see how insane one’s thoughts and actions are;
whereby one inventories objectively all of the nonsense that has been passed on and stored in “the mind” and is now viewed as something of great value rather than something that should have been tossed out with all of the other garbage that can accumulate;
whereby one sees that programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and indoctrination and brainwashing did not result in a being “who is really a pretty nice guy, overall, Floyd” or “a pretty clever, quite savvy woman, mate”; and whereby one sees that phony, dreamed-up, (and, therefore, frustrating) unmet “needs” and unmet desires are personality-generated and based in delusion and illusions.
Who can miraculously know what he or she does not yet know? No one.
From the long and arduous “journey” here, it can be seen that another problem that almost all seekers encounter involves guidance . . . or a lack thereof:
1. Again, the one who would try to guide himself or herself to the peak of a mountain that millions have failed to reach is behaving like a fool.
2. The one who tries to climb that mountain with scores of guides who are all pointing out different ways to proceed is behaving like a fool.
3. And the one that continues to allow the same guide to direct him or her along the path to the peak - though that guide has failed to get anyone to the peak after following that guide for ten or twenty or thirty years - is behaving like a fool.
After a woman heard recently that a specific, step-wise process of Realizing is offered here, she wrote to say, “Since I am on my own and not guided I want to make sure I haven’t missed any steps.”
While that is short of what needs to be seen, it might set up the possibility of moving in the proper direction. What would not have been short? This:
“On my own, I have sought for decades but can only now admit that I have not found at all what I was seeking. The reason those efforts were all in vain, I see now, is because I was not being guided. I understand this much, at least: I am sure that I have missed many steps. I am tired. Very tired. I am now ready.”
Whether the cause is trying to self-guide, listening to too many guides, or sticking with one guide who has shown time and again that he or she cannot offer what you seek, those futile scenarios need not continue.
Next time you’re considering visiting a teacher, or thinking about paying for a seminar or a retreat or thinking about buying another book by a Big Name Teacher (thereby swelling a millionaire’s already-bulging wallet as well as swelling your “Library of Pride-Producing, Accumulated Knowledge,” ask in advance: “Will you be able to tell me exactly where I am on the ‘path’ that you guide seekers along?" and "Will you be able to tell me what step is next and how many more steps there are to take?”
Ask, “Do you have an overall plan that is going to provide a specific analysis of ‘where I am’ and ‘where else I need to go’ to be done with all this searching and seeking once and for all?” Inquire, “After I’m done doing the deal with you, might I then be able to simply abide naturally?” and “Might I finally not have to continue to make a second job out of just living?” and “Might I be free?” and “Might the suffering-inducing symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness be lifted?”
Ask: “How it is going to facilitate my movement along the 'path' if I listen to you promote your newest book and if I hear the same talk you are presenting to everyone else there, no matter how varied our places along the 'path' might be?" Ask: "Rather than using a shotgun approach, can you offer a custom-designed approach for me that will rifle in and target exactly where I am on the 'path' and where I need to move to next?”
Maharaj said that you must go back the same way you came and that you must move step-by-step in the exact reverse order by which you came. His level-appropriate pointers that varied from one seeker to the next were determined by where on the “path” each seeker’s words revealed him or she to be and exactly where she or he needed to go next.
What are the odds that he or she who is self-guided is going to come across - in the exact, reverse, step-wise order – “this book that shifted me to step two” and then “that seminar which shifted me to step three and to a place just beyond the wet charcoal stage”?
What are the odds that he or she who is self-guided is then going to come across “a talk about step three that moved me to step four and to the dry charcoal stage”?
And what are the odds that he or she who is self-guided will then magically come across “the pointers needed to shift me to step five, followed by pointers heard in a non-dual group that meets in my friend’s house which took me to step six in the exact, step-wise order I was following, which was followed by my coming across a talk on a public broadcast network that moved me to the gunpowder stage which then exploded and eliminated the final blockages and cleared the way for me to then be rocketed to the end of the 'journey'"?
The odds are nil.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
31 May 2014
F.: It has been shared that, here, the “journey” was long and arduous. Why? Because like most, I was the one in charge of laying out the map for a journey that I had never traveled. I had no idea “where” I was or “where” I was supposed to get to.
Along the way, I fell time and again into what Maharaj called the trap of the “Big Name Teachers.” He warned his visitors to stay the heck away from them. Why?
It is clear now that they use the 5th of the 5 teaching methods for non-duality, namely, “Pseudo Advaita.” That involves taking certain non-dual “Noumenal” pointers but then bastardizing the message by adding popular phenomenal concepts and elements in order to give their talks “mass appeal” (which is actually, “mess appeal”). The strategy: Pull them in by mentioning non-duality, load up the message what they really want - power, success, control, great meaning, affirmation - and then collect the money.
As was the case here, most are running their quest as if they were a metal ball trapped inside a pinball machine, going first here, being kicked back there, flying off in another direction, being thrown back until hitting something else that set them on a different course, and being tossed helter-skelter all over the place.
In the past, the comparison offered involved a car that I received one holiday. It was a small wind-up car that ran in a straight line until it ran into something; then, it backed up a foot, turned ninety degrees, and then ran until it hit something else, at which point it would repeat the process. That is the way the "journey" for most unfolds.
It was finally seen here that, if one would go on a “journey,” and wanted to get to the destination as promptly and as easily as possible, that taking a direct path made sense.
If one happened to be in Los Angeles, California and wanted to travel to New York as promptly and as easily as possible, it would make no sense at all to leave Los Angeles, then drive to Idaho, then to Arizona, then to Wyoming, then to Texas, then to North Dakota, then to Oklahoma, then to Minnesota, then to Louisiana, then to Wisconsin, then to Alabama, then to Michigan, then to Georgia, and then finally to New York. Along the way, the direct path would be crossed – and ignored – over a dozen times, and in the process, a very simple journey would unnecessarily turn into a “long and arduous trip.”
Yet if one has no map, and is trying to make the trip without a guide that knows the way, a long and arduous trip is guaranteed.
If you have been seeking earnestly, look back over your “journey” so far and write down all of the diversionary paths you have taken. If you are honest, you’ll see that the process was totally helter-skelter, totally disorganized, totally haphazard, totally pell-mell, and, likely, totally hurried. Seeking - go-do-zoom style. Spiritual workaholism at its worst.
If all of your seeking would inspire any objective witness to shake her or his head in amazement, then that has all been useless seeking. And if one looked back honestly and objectively at the path followed so far, the appraisal would be, “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, running about like a chicken with its head cut off. It has all been totally nuts.”
Yet most seekers never “get that.” Why? Because the role of “The Super Seeker” has as powerful a grip on a person as the roles of “The Super Muslim,” “The Super Christian,” “The Super Lover,” or “The Super Spouse.” All, including “The Super Seeker,” can generate such levels of fanaticism that self-destructive behaviors can be normalized.
And who wants to admit that all of their efforts had been in vain? The egotism which supports every ego-state will fight that at every turn.
Furthermore, it is nothing more than a combination of ignorance and denial and egotism that claims, "Well, I had to do everything I did."
The response: "No, you did not. All that you did was harmful (relatively speaking) to far too many people and to yourself, and none of that had anything to do with the 'journey' to understanding Wholeness and Oneness and to attaining Mental and Emotional Health, all of which you still fail to grasp." Yet who wants to hear that truth?
Here, when the truth about where one actually in on the “path” (as opposed to where they think they are, which is typically three steps further along than they really are), then this applies: “The truth will set you free, but it’s going to piss you off first.” The “you” there is the conglomeration of false you’s that have been assigned or assumed as identities.
Moreover, who would welcome an employer who accepts the report that you hand in with pride after working on it for a week and who then hands it back to you saying, “This is a total waste of company time and resources . . . completely useless. Throw it away and start over from scratch.”
There is a saying among litigators: “A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” The same applies with the process of Realizing because the process is one whereby one comes to see how ignorant one’s beliefs are; whereby one comes to see how insane one’s thoughts and actions are;
whereby one inventories objectively all of the nonsense that has been passed on and stored in “the mind” and is now viewed as something of great value rather than something that should have been tossed out with all of the other garbage that can accumulate;
whereby one sees that programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and indoctrination and brainwashing did not result in a being “who is really a pretty nice guy, overall, Floyd” or “a pretty clever, quite savvy woman, mate”; and whereby one sees that phony, dreamed-up, (and, therefore, frustrating) unmet “needs” and unmet desires are personality-generated and based in delusion and illusions.
Who can miraculously know what he or she does not yet know? No one.
From the long and arduous “journey” here, it can be seen that another problem that almost all seekers encounter involves guidance . . . or a lack thereof:
1. Again, the one who would try to guide himself or herself to the peak of a mountain that millions have failed to reach is behaving like a fool.
2. The one who tries to climb that mountain with scores of guides who are all pointing out different ways to proceed is behaving like a fool.
3. And the one that continues to allow the same guide to direct him or her along the path to the peak - though that guide has failed to get anyone to the peak after following that guide for ten or twenty or thirty years - is behaving like a fool.
After a woman heard recently that a specific, step-wise process of Realizing is offered here, she wrote to say, “Since I am on my own and not guided I want to make sure I haven’t missed any steps.”
While that is short of what needs to be seen, it might set up the possibility of moving in the proper direction. What would not have been short? This:
“On my own, I have sought for decades but can only now admit that I have not found at all what I was seeking. The reason those efforts were all in vain, I see now, is because I was not being guided. I understand this much, at least: I am sure that I have missed many steps. I am tired. Very tired. I am now ready.”
Whether the cause is trying to self-guide, listening to too many guides, or sticking with one guide who has shown time and again that he or she cannot offer what you seek, those futile scenarios need not continue.
Next time you’re considering visiting a teacher, or thinking about paying for a seminar or a retreat or thinking about buying another book by a Big Name Teacher (thereby swelling a millionaire’s already-bulging wallet as well as swelling your “Library of Pride-Producing, Accumulated Knowledge,” ask in advance: “Will you be able to tell me exactly where I am on the ‘path’ that you guide seekers along?" and "Will you be able to tell me what step is next and how many more steps there are to take?”
Ask, “Do you have an overall plan that is going to provide a specific analysis of ‘where I am’ and ‘where else I need to go’ to be done with all this searching and seeking once and for all?” Inquire, “After I’m done doing the deal with you, might I then be able to simply abide naturally?” and “Might I finally not have to continue to make a second job out of just living?” and “Might I be free?” and “Might the suffering-inducing symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness be lifted?”
Ask: “How it is going to facilitate my movement along the 'path' if I listen to you promote your newest book and if I hear the same talk you are presenting to everyone else there, no matter how varied our places along the 'path' might be?" Ask: "Rather than using a shotgun approach, can you offer a custom-designed approach for me that will rifle in and target exactly where I am on the 'path' and where I need to move to next?”
Maharaj said that you must go back the same way you came and that you must move step-by-step in the exact reverse order by which you came. His level-appropriate pointers that varied from one seeker to the next were determined by where on the “path” each seeker’s words revealed him or she to be and exactly where she or he needed to go next.
What are the odds that he or she who is self-guided is going to come across - in the exact, reverse, step-wise order – “this book that shifted me to step two” and then “that seminar which shifted me to step three and to a place just beyond the wet charcoal stage”?
What are the odds that he or she who is self-guided is then going to come across “a talk about step three that moved me to step four and to the dry charcoal stage”?
And what are the odds that he or she who is self-guided will then magically come across “the pointers needed to shift me to step five, followed by pointers heard in a non-dual group that meets in my friend’s house which took me to step six in the exact, step-wise order I was following, which was followed by my coming across a talk on a public broadcast network that moved me to the gunpowder stage which then exploded and eliminated the final blockages and cleared the way for me to then be rocketed to the end of the 'journey'"?
The odds are nil.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
31 May 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Earlier, mention was made of Maharaj’s pointers regarding “kindergarten-level spirituality” and the way that so many seekers are actually – and unknowingly – exactly like their religious counterparts, believing that they are now fully bathed in the light of the noonday sun when they are really still standing in the dim light of dawn.
The religious – self-identified as such in surveys which show that 97% of the planet’s population claim affiliation with one religion or another – are so “certain.” Why? Because they were programmed and conditioned from early on to believe that their way is not only "the right way” but is also “the only way” to whatever it is they think there to gain both now and later as well.
They are sure they know what is to be known, and - trapped in that assuredness - they will never really understand what is to be understood.
At least most seekers who come this way are willing to “budge an inch or so on their belief” about where they are in the process. Most of them think that are “pretty well enlightened” or “have it all except for one little piece that needs fine-tuning.” To that end, they are as trapped at the third of seven steps on the “path” to Full Realization as the self-identified religious and spiritual persons who are also stuck at the third step.
The obstacle on the “path” at that point is the same for those assuming the false identity of “The Super Religious One” as it is for those assuming the false identity “The Spiritual Giant” and as it is for those assuming the false identity of “The Almost Fully Realized” or “The Almost Fully Awakened” or “The Almost Totally Enlightened.”
The old adage, “You're either pregnant or not” applies. There is no "almost fully pregnant” or “almost totally pregnant.” As one character used to say in the comic pages which I read daily during childhood, “Either yous is or you isn’t . . . either yous is or you ain’t.”
And the roles of the “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” and “The Super Seeker” are three of thousands of false identities that will guarantee that one remains in that dim light of dawn while believing that they are in the bright light of noon (a.k.a., "enlightened").
The problem with those seeking via the non-dual understanding? There are five very different methods of teachings and there are many different types of yoga used in conjunction with one of those five methods.
Consider what happens if only fifteen of the various types of yoga happen to be combined with the five methods: there would be 3003 possible combinations or permutations. With 3003 potential results if using the variety of 1 of the 5 methods of teachings combined with 1 of 15 types of yoga, how can one ever measure the actual degree of Realization or Enlightenment or Awakening "attained"?
One cannot.
There would have to be 3003 definitions of what “Realized” or “Awakened” or “Enlightened” looks like and when it has been reached. What confusion! And if one has been around “the non-dual search environment” for any time at all, the level of confusion should be obvious. 3003 different definitions of something do not define something; they cannot, in fact, define anything.
Yet Maharaj was able – by using the Direct Path Method of teaching combined with the Nisarga Yoga – to do exactly that . . . to measure precisely the degree of Realization or Enlightenment or Awakening “attained” so far by any given seeker in the loft.
That same determination is made here on a daily basis when interacting with admitted “novice seekers” or with those who take themselves to be “advanced seekers” or with those who think they “only lack a piece or two of the puzzle” or with those who believe they only need one key pointer – or maybe two at the most - to wrap things up.”
To explain: it has been discussed here that, if reading I AM THAT (which Maharaj suggested to seekers toward the end of his teaching days that they NOT read) one should notice that Maharaj might say something to one seeker in one discussion and then the exact opposite to another seeker in the very next discussion. He was offering “level-appropriate” pointers to both because each was at a different point from the other on the seven-step “path.”
With only a few comments, it is easy for one familiar with the seven steps that Maharaj taught to determine exactly where on the seven-step “path” a particular seeker is presently “located.”
(Though Maharaj never laid them out in order and numbered them “steps 1 though 7” as happens here when working with seekers one-on-one, the seven steps were all addressed by him.)
So, if one is fixated at the third step, as referenced above, then that seeker is 43% “Realized” or “The Almost Fully Awakened” or “The Almost Totally Enlightened” (having arrived at a "3 of 7 point" or at a point that is less than halfway to Realization). None of the other 3002 combinations of teaching methods and type of yoga have any possible way of providing a seeker with clear evidence of “where on the ‘path’ she or he truly is" and “where exactly he or she needs to ‘go’ next.”
Here, the case was that after years of seeking in vain, it was only after understanding exactly “where” I was on the “path” and exactly “where I needed to go next and next and next” that the illusion of the false identity of “The Spiritual Giant” and that the illusion of the false identity of “The Super Seeker” came to an end, along with all other assumed roles, along with all beliefs, and – finally – with the forfeiture of all beliefs that emptied (and thus ended) “the mind.” Then only did the Full Understanding come and then only did Nisargan (natural) abidance begin.
So what about you? If you are seeking, do you know exactly where you are in the total seeking process?
If you identify yourself as “Almost Fully Realized” or “Almost Fully Awakened” or “Almost Totally Enlightened,” have you considered those identities objectively?
And if you are convinced that you are “Fully Realized” or “Fully Awakened” or “Totally Enlightened,” have you tested that objectively?
Moreover, have you gotten an objective “second opinion” on that? :-)
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
You can scroll down through the book section below if interested in receiving a free copy of the eBooks entitled:
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
or
"THE VISION"
Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
Submit to:
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.
* * * * * * *
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F.: Earlier, mention was made of Maharaj’s pointers regarding “kindergarten-level spirituality” and the way that so many seekers are actually – and unknowingly – exactly like their religious counterparts, believing that they are now fully bathed in the light of the noonday sun when they are really still standing in the dim light of dawn.
The religious – self-identified as such in surveys which show that 97% of the planet’s population claim affiliation with one religion or another – are so “certain.” Why? Because they were programmed and conditioned from early on to believe that their way is not only "the right way” but is also “the only way” to whatever it is they think there to gain both now and later as well.
They are sure they know what is to be known, and - trapped in that assuredness - they will never really understand what is to be understood.
At least most seekers who come this way are willing to “budge an inch or so on their belief” about where they are in the process. Most of them think that are “pretty well enlightened” or “have it all except for one little piece that needs fine-tuning.” To that end, they are as trapped at the third of seven steps on the “path” to Full Realization as the self-identified religious and spiritual persons who are also stuck at the third step.
The obstacle on the “path” at that point is the same for those assuming the false identity of “The Super Religious One” as it is for those assuming the false identity “The Spiritual Giant” and as it is for those assuming the false identity of “The Almost Fully Realized” or “The Almost Fully Awakened” or “The Almost Totally Enlightened.”
The old adage, “You're either pregnant or not” applies. There is no "almost fully pregnant” or “almost totally pregnant.” As one character used to say in the comic pages which I read daily during childhood, “Either yous is or you isn’t . . . either yous is or you ain’t.”
And the roles of the “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” and “The Super Seeker” are three of thousands of false identities that will guarantee that one remains in that dim light of dawn while believing that they are in the bright light of noon (a.k.a., "enlightened").
The problem with those seeking via the non-dual understanding? There are five very different methods of teachings and there are many different types of yoga used in conjunction with one of those five methods.
Consider what happens if only fifteen of the various types of yoga happen to be combined with the five methods: there would be 3003 possible combinations or permutations. With 3003 potential results if using the variety of 1 of the 5 methods of teachings combined with 1 of 15 types of yoga, how can one ever measure the actual degree of Realization or Enlightenment or Awakening "attained"?
One cannot.
There would have to be 3003 definitions of what “Realized” or “Awakened” or “Enlightened” looks like and when it has been reached. What confusion! And if one has been around “the non-dual search environment” for any time at all, the level of confusion should be obvious. 3003 different definitions of something do not define something; they cannot, in fact, define anything.
Yet Maharaj was able – by using the Direct Path Method of teaching combined with the Nisarga Yoga – to do exactly that . . . to measure precisely the degree of Realization or Enlightenment or Awakening “attained” so far by any given seeker in the loft.
That same determination is made here on a daily basis when interacting with admitted “novice seekers” or with those who take themselves to be “advanced seekers” or with those who think they “only lack a piece or two of the puzzle” or with those who believe they only need one key pointer – or maybe two at the most - to wrap things up.”
To explain: it has been discussed here that, if reading I AM THAT (which Maharaj suggested to seekers toward the end of his teaching days that they NOT read) one should notice that Maharaj might say something to one seeker in one discussion and then the exact opposite to another seeker in the very next discussion. He was offering “level-appropriate” pointers to both because each was at a different point from the other on the seven-step “path.”
With only a few comments, it is easy for one familiar with the seven steps that Maharaj taught to determine exactly where on the seven-step “path” a particular seeker is presently “located.”
(Though Maharaj never laid them out in order and numbered them “steps 1 though 7” as happens here when working with seekers one-on-one, the seven steps were all addressed by him.)
So, if one is fixated at the third step, as referenced above, then that seeker is 43% “Realized” or “The Almost Fully Awakened” or “The Almost Totally Enlightened” (having arrived at a "3 of 7 point" or at a point that is less than halfway to Realization). None of the other 3002 combinations of teaching methods and type of yoga have any possible way of providing a seeker with clear evidence of “where on the ‘path’ she or he truly is" and “where exactly he or she needs to ‘go’ next.”
Here, the case was that after years of seeking in vain, it was only after understanding exactly “where” I was on the “path” and exactly “where I needed to go next and next and next” that the illusion of the false identity of “The Spiritual Giant” and that the illusion of the false identity of “The Super Seeker” came to an end, along with all other assumed roles, along with all beliefs, and – finally – with the forfeiture of all beliefs that emptied (and thus ended) “the mind.” Then only did the Full Understanding come and then only did Nisargan (natural) abidance begin.
So what about you? If you are seeking, do you know exactly where you are in the total seeking process?
If you identify yourself as “Almost Fully Realized” or “Almost Fully Awakened” or “Almost Totally Enlightened,” have you considered those identities objectively?
And if you are convinced that you are “Fully Realized” or “Fully Awakened” or “Totally Enlightened,” have you tested that objectively?
Moreover, have you gotten an objective “second opinion” on that? :-)
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
You can scroll down through the book section below if interested in receiving a free copy of the eBooks entitled:
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
or
"THE VISION"
Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
Questions?
Submit to:
Comments?
Just hang on to those please.
Just hang on to those please.
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";
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.
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
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.
THESE PAPERBACK BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON.COM
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
* * * * * * *
ALL EBOOK AND PAPERBACK VERSION OF HENDERSON'S NON-DUALITY BOOKS
and
RECOVERY LITERATURE
and
FINANCIAL BOOKS
are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or on a Kindle reader.
For Apple and Android, either download the eBook directly onto your device or email the eBook file to your mobile device and open the file from your email. For Kindles or other similar devices, use your USB cable to transfer the eBook to your reader.
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
THE ADVANCED SEEKERS' SERIES
Anthology of four books
THE BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES
Anthology of six books
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AND HIS EVOLUTION
THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-DAY PLAN FOR A PSYCHIC CHANGE
PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION (THE SOURCES OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS & THE NON-DUALITY TREATMENT)
NOW ACCEPTING REQUESTS FOR FREE COPIES OF THE FOLLOWING EBOOKS:
[Please note: When the Direct Path Teaching Method is offered in conjunction with the Nisarga Yoga, something unique results when compared to what happens via the approach used by religions, spiritual movements, philosophies, ideologies, etc.:
rather than inviting seekers to learn more, the invitation here is to unlearn all; rather than offerings teachings, what is offered are unteachings; rather than offering to provide seekers more of anything, seekers will find that the process will take away everything. And via that process, the bliss of Your Original Nature will manifest and remain until mahasamadhi is taken.
To that end, the content of this book will seem radical to the seekers of more, but for those truly ready to be totally free and totally independent - and for those who are truly ready to abandon efforts to accumulate and to de-accumulate instead - the pointers in this book might be relevant.]
To receive your free copy, or to have us send a free copy to your friends or relatives, send your email address (or their addresses) to the following:
(Sorry, but for security reasons, we no longer have a clickable link. You will have to type in our gmail address above. By the way, your email addresses will never be used to contact you or your friends or relatives and email addresses will never be shared with anyone else.)
Simply state in your email that you want the book sent as a gift to you (or as a gift from you to as many people as you like. Copies are now ready to be sent.)
THE PATH TO FREEDOM VS. THE PATH TO MISERY
THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS PERSONAL (INCLUDING YOU AND INCLUDING GOD)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)