A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
Because persons take their "selves" seriously, they end up taking themselves way too seriously.
F.: There is another aspect of personality that the non-Realized masses are not aware of. It has been made clear that personalities / ego-states subconsciously use a variety of ego-defense mechanisms to defend themselves, including egotism, projection, justification, denial, regression, repression, displacement, compensation, grandiosity or assertiveness, blame, excuse-making, prevarication, rationalization, and many others.
Yet there are two other tools used by personalities which could be included in the list above but that are seldom discussed in terms of personality: personality assumption also generates significant distortions as well by use of normalization and minimization.
The tendency of personality is to normalize the abnormal and to minimize the extent of the harm and damage (relatively speaking) that personality generates in the relative existence.
The result is that the non-Realized masses no longer have a clue about what is natural vs. what is unnatural; about what is normal vs. what is abnormal; or about what is true vs. what is false.
While part of the inability to differentiate between true and false can be physical (caused by an under-functioning hypothalamus) much of that inability is rooted in personality and its subconscious willingness to lie and distort in order to defend self.
The desire of the consciousness for continuity brings with it an innate, instinctive drive to protect oneself, but assumed and assigned personalities also come with a desire to protect and extend themselves even though they are total illusions.
Consider Maharaj’s take on the bogus concept of continuity:
“Memory creates the illusion of continuity”
and
“Images arise and disappear and only memory gives them [a false sense of] continuity.”
(Most persons, if asked if they believe that a mirage could protect itself, would conclude that the one asking the question must be crazy, yet those same persons throughout any given day use words and actions to try to protect dozens of mirages – dozens of false personas – which they think actually help identify who they are.)
Consider the abject terror that can be felt when the one playing the role of “The Employee” makes a mistake in the workplace and is then confronted by “The Boss.” Consider the abject terror that can be felt by some who are playing - in a docile manner - the role of “The Spouse” when confronted angrily by the one playing the co-dependent counterpart spouse.
As with the manifest consciousness, the primary desire of all assigned or assumed personalities is continuity. “The Husband” wants to be “The Husband” forever, at all costs. If “The Husband” feels as if he is being threatened by a wife who is talking about leaving or if that role feels interfered with by another man making a pass at his wife, then that can inspire a shift into an attack mode to defend the false identity of “The Husband.” Men kill men at an alarming rate because of their woman-dependent roles, and in the U.S., 59% of all women murdered annually are killed by a partner during a breakup.
When it comes to the distorted perspectives that ego-states hold dear, something is always supposedly threatening them, something is always supposedly happening to them that must be addressed, and something supposed is always generating defensive and offensive postures.
Maharaj, by contrast, said, “To Me, nothing ever happens.” So it is here. So it can be with You.
Aggravating the instability that manifests when the unstable masses enter into “relationships” is the use of minimization. Reference was made in a past post about a husband who was in a counseling session with his wife who found out that, over a period of several months, he had left work during his lunch break and had taken four different women to hotels for sexual liaisons.
Sometimes an ego-state, rather than feeling abject fear, will respond with abject distortion that is driven by the use of ego-defense mechanisms such as grandiosity and assertiveness. When she confronted him in front of the counselor, he replied that none of those were “affairs” because he had only received oral sex.
“Besides,” he said, “all men at one point or another hook up with women other than their wives.” There, too, is an example of the minimization mentioned earlier (“it was only oral sex”) and the normalization mentioned earlier (“everyone does it so it’s no big deal when I do it”).
The use of minimization among non-Realized persons inspires them to hold the view that the difference between big problems and little problems is this: “Problems that are mine are the big ones; problems that are yours are the little ones.”
As far as a persona goes, nothing is more relevant than itself and the belief systems that are used to support it and the psychological tools that are used to try to guarantee its continuity.
Because persons take their "selves" seriously, they end up taking themselves way too seriously.
Consider those who define themselves by their political party or by their religious affiliation. Have you ever seen such ranting and raving and extreme behavior? Of such types, Maharaj said: "Anyone who thinks he knows what's good for another is dangerous."
Calm down. Get off your “high horse.” Quit taking your "selves" seriously. Mirages cannot be serious, so what a distortion it is to believe that they can be.
To that end, consider the relevance of the content of this exchange:
Questioner: “I have definite spiritual ambitions. Must I not work for their fulfillment?”
Maharaj: “No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the ‘I Am’. If you want to make real progress, you must give up all idea of personal attainment. In the lust for an everlasting personal bliss, the mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal.”
Relatedly, he also said: “Even after enlightenment the body is allowed to continue a few of its habits and to me it is not a big deal. Wake up, look through apparent appearances, examine your own righteousness and judgment, and separate the wheat from the chaff. If you can’t see beyond surface appearance and get caught up in your superficial judgments, then you have no business being here with me.”
And all of the nonsense shared in the above examples is based in the assumption of false identities and in not understanding all that one is not. In fact, you cannot truthfully be said to be "this." You cannot truthfully be said to be "that."
Maharaj: “To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge.”
Maharaj’s antidote for personality-generated distortion and ego-state-based desires and fears that drive persons to the most insane acts imaginable?
Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion. That is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realize that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.
As for fighting to preserve false identities, he said: “Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own.”
See, it’s all about reaching a state in which one's perspective is valid and balanced. Some know that one very hot summer around 1953 or so, I was seated on the front porch of my Cherokee grandmother’s cabin which was situated in a pine forest in East Texas. Usually, my cousins were more affected by the summer heat in East Texas than I because they had air conditioning in their homes and I did not, but the temperature that particular day was so high that I was definitely uncomfortable.
Around noon, Grandmother and I had enjoyed lunching on the cream peas I had picked and shelled that morning from her garden, served with the cornbread which she had cooked in her wood-burning stove and which she had coated with the home-made butter that she had churned by hand.
After lunch we were sitting in rockers on the front porch of her cabin and the heat had been particularly sweltering that day. I mentioned how hot it was, but Grandmother remained silent. Suddenly, a realization dawned on me at that point. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I said something to the effect of, “Grandmother, it just hit me that in the winter you never complain about it being too cold and in the summer you never complain about it being too hot. How is that?”
Her answer convinced me that she had finally and completely lost her senses. She said, “That’s because when it’s hot it's hot and when it’s cold it’s cold.” Looking straight ahead toward the forest in front of the cabin (but seeing the confused expression on my face in her peripheral vision), she smiled a little smile.
Later, I got it, and when I saw the following words from Maharaj, they made perfect sense in light of what Grandmother had taught me with her answer:
Maharaj: “You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, nor regrets. My mind is free of thoughts for there are no desires to slave for.”
Any personality that has been assigned to you or that you have assumed will enslave you. You will be beset by the worries of mirages, of your false identities. You will have regrets. You will have a mind, and that mind will forever block you from being free.
Yet how persons fight to preserve the very source of such misery and suffering, namely, the mirages that they take to be real and that result in their taking themselves way too seriously. Now that is what the insanity of mindedness and dual-mindedness looks like.
The invitation: Be free. Stop taking yourself / your false selves so seriously. Finally, do not take them seriously at all. They are merely mirages. If you see a mirage when driving through a hot, barren area, does the mirage generate in you a sense of abject fear? Of course not.
Likewise, see your assumed or assigned personas for what they are: merely mirages that have no ability at all to inspire desire or fear were it not for your fiction-filled, imagining mind. Be done once and for all with the mind-based Ultimate Sickness - and with its ignorance and insanity - which inspire persons to take mirages seriously; then only can you be done with taking yourself / your selves so seriously.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
14 July 2014
The most commonly-used trap in the history of humankind is the trap that persons set in order to try to control other persons. Once in the snare, most never escape. As a result, some might speak about “the taste of the most special nectar” and about “the essence,” but they actually never taste the nectar and they never really enjoy the essence of the relative existence.
Traps usually have two parts. One part is the trigger. When set off, it activates the second part of the trap that actually does the confining or snaring or trapping.
In terms of the message here, the two-part trap employs one lie and one belief. The lie is the triggering device. The belief – as is the case with all beliefs – is the part that traps persons, that confines them, that restricts them, and that limits them.
The triggering part of the trap is this lie: “There is life after this life.” The confining part of the trap is engaged when a one person’s lie becomes another person’s belief, and that confining, restricting, limiting belief is this: “I will live after this life.”
The consciousness innately desires continuity, so setting the trap and ensnaring the masses has proved to be a very easy task.
At least two hundred generations of persons have now been exposed to the lie since the first self-appointed religious leader began talking about “multiple lives.” The lie has been modified by others who teach that “there are not multiple lives . . . there is just this life and the afterlife.”
Each time one hears that lie and believes it and accepts it as an unquestionable fact based in the blind, no-challenging version of faith that is supposedly required in order to assure that one receives a reward after this life, then the lie triggers the trap and ensnarement is assured as a result of a belief.
The result of multi-generational exposure to the lie is this: not millions and not billions but actually trillions have believed the lie. The result of that? Trillions have been ensnared, and billions are currently ensnared at this very moment all around the globe. They have been trapped, and like anything caught in a trap, the potential for an enjoyable relative existence comes to an abrupt end.
Regular visitors to this site have read about the woman who - in her "mind" - is certain that she has lived multiple lives and who is now assured - in her "mind" - that she has now lived a life of total purity that is, in turn, going to end all of the birth-life-death-rebirth cycles that she thinks she has gone though over the past several hundred years.
Why is she finally – in her beliefs and in her “mind” – pure enough to finally reach her final goal (which is to escape the cycling, to take mahasamadhi, and then to finally enter into a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering nor desire nor a sense of self)? Why does she think that she is finally pure enough to be “released from the effects of karma and the cycles of death and life and rebirth over and over again”?
Because she stopped eating meat or any protein (which her particular body type requires, the absence of which - her doctors have shown her – has resulted in the disabling of her organs which are no longer functioning properly). Because she stopped enjoying the act of sex (though she admits that she still desires it at times). Because she observes all of the ancient Eastern food laws (as well as all of the ancient Jewish food laws).
Because she daily eats all her veggies (as "a good girl" does) and annually eats a Seder meal during which she consumes a plate with three matzos dipped into a bowl of salt water, accompanied by a side dish of bitter herbs and four cups of (in her case) non-alcoholic wine.
(Yummm, huh? So much for tasting the sweet nectar. So much for tasting the essence of enjoyable foods that are available for consumption during the relative existence. Belief in the ancient concept that “it is best to suffer now so you can receive an eternal reward later” is alive and well. Where? In her "mind." The trap has been set for millennia, trillions have been ensnared in the trap via their beliefs, and now billions around the globe are also trapped as well.)
Why else? Because according to her beliefs, her body is now as pure internally as is her “mind” and “spirit.” As with billions of persons all around the globe who have been totally fooled, the storehouse of lies (the mind) and a dreamed up, bogus concept (the “spirit”) results in persons never tasting the nectar and never enjoying the essence of the relative existence.
Were she to grasp the non-dual, Nisargan understanding, then she would understand that the state in which there is neither suffering nor desire nor a sense of self can be reached now, during the manifestation. She would also understand that there will be no one – post-manifestation – to be aware of anything, including being aware of freedom from suffering and desire and a sense of self. She would understand that suffering and desire and a sense of self are the province of ego-states only and that one can be free of all three NOW.
As another example, Protestants and Catholics have all believed the lie. They are both “Christians” but they define differently the way to attain and maintain the “purity” that is required to enjoy the afterlife and to supposedly be rewarded eternally.
The irony? Though all claim to be members of the same religion, the Protestants claim they do not drink alcohol; the Catholics do and use alcohol in their worship services. The Protestants claim they do not gamble but the Catholics have weekly bingo games at their church with monetary payoffs. (Seems Christ once showed his opinion about the moneychangers in the temple, but that is evidently ignored.) The Protestants claim they do not dance, but the Catholics organize dances regularly.
All contradictory nonsense set forth by persons who are all defining themselves as Christians. What is shared in common? The belief that suffering now results in a reward later, and the result of that is that they will insanely normalize suffering now, they will never taste the nectar, and they will never enjoy fully the essence of the relative existence; moreover, they will never received a reward or anything else eternally because there will be no one and nothing personal that survives the taking of mahasamadhi.
Additionally, for 5,000 years the thousands of organized religions and cults and denominations and sects that have come and gone or stayed have told the ensnaring lie and have fostered the beliefs that have prevented trillions of persons from abiding naturally, from behaving normally, and from tasting the nectar and enjoying the essence of the relative existence.
Non-duality and the Nisarga yoga come along and say, “You are invited to be free NOW. You are invited to taste the nectar and enjoy the essence of the relative existence NOW. You need not wait. You need not allows others to tell you what you should and should not eat when there are three different body types which all require three different dietary food plans if the internal organs are to function properly.
“You need not de-accumulate or reject or discard anything natural. Don’t want to enjoy sexual experiences for whatever reason? Fine. Want sex but deny yourself because of some belief about purity and belief in the lies about birth-life-death-rebirth cycles? Fine? No. Insane? Yes.
“There is no personal self, there is no personal Self, and there is no Supreme Self. (How is it that the narcissism that gives a person a sense of being 'supreme' is deemed unacceptable but the sense that one can be a 'Supreme Self' is not only acceptable but is also a near-divine objective?) There is nothing personal that will survive. There is nothing personal that 'made you' or 'created' you."
The Nisarga Yoga invites all to abide naturally rather than unnaturally and rather than trying to live supernaturally (that is, religiously or spiritually or from within a new abode set up in Foo-Foo-Land). Every living thing on the planet does exactly that – abides naturally - except for humans.
You can do that too if you understand that you were not born and that you cannot die. Yes, there are cycles, but what cycles and what does not? Persons do not. Dreamed up "spirits" or "souls" do not.
What does cycle? Elements come together and form a temporarily-manifested composite unity. At the end of the manifestation, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements; the circulating air will return to the universal pool of air; and the circulating conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy. End of story.
[For more on the fact that you were not born and cannot die, you may view the video above to the right that discusses the subject in more detail.]
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
12 July 2014
Because persons take their "selves" seriously, they end up taking themselves way too seriously.
F.: There is another aspect of personality that the non-Realized masses are not aware of. It has been made clear that personalities / ego-states subconsciously use a variety of ego-defense mechanisms to defend themselves, including egotism, projection, justification, denial, regression, repression, displacement, compensation, grandiosity or assertiveness, blame, excuse-making, prevarication, rationalization, and many others.
Yet there are two other tools used by personalities which could be included in the list above but that are seldom discussed in terms of personality: personality assumption also generates significant distortions as well by use of normalization and minimization.
The tendency of personality is to normalize the abnormal and to minimize the extent of the harm and damage (relatively speaking) that personality generates in the relative existence.
The result is that the non-Realized masses no longer have a clue about what is natural vs. what is unnatural; about what is normal vs. what is abnormal; or about what is true vs. what is false.
While part of the inability to differentiate between true and false can be physical (caused by an under-functioning hypothalamus) much of that inability is rooted in personality and its subconscious willingness to lie and distort in order to defend self.
The desire of the consciousness for continuity brings with it an innate, instinctive drive to protect oneself, but assumed and assigned personalities also come with a desire to protect and extend themselves even though they are total illusions.
Consider Maharaj’s take on the bogus concept of continuity:
“Memory creates the illusion of continuity”
and
“Images arise and disappear and only memory gives them [a false sense of] continuity.”
(Most persons, if asked if they believe that a mirage could protect itself, would conclude that the one asking the question must be crazy, yet those same persons throughout any given day use words and actions to try to protect dozens of mirages – dozens of false personas – which they think actually help identify who they are.)
Consider the abject terror that can be felt when the one playing the role of “The Employee” makes a mistake in the workplace and is then confronted by “The Boss.” Consider the abject terror that can be felt by some who are playing - in a docile manner - the role of “The Spouse” when confronted angrily by the one playing the co-dependent counterpart spouse.
As with the manifest consciousness, the primary desire of all assigned or assumed personalities is continuity. “The Husband” wants to be “The Husband” forever, at all costs. If “The Husband” feels as if he is being threatened by a wife who is talking about leaving or if that role feels interfered with by another man making a pass at his wife, then that can inspire a shift into an attack mode to defend the false identity of “The Husband.” Men kill men at an alarming rate because of their woman-dependent roles, and in the U.S., 59% of all women murdered annually are killed by a partner during a breakup.
When it comes to the distorted perspectives that ego-states hold dear, something is always supposedly threatening them, something is always supposedly happening to them that must be addressed, and something supposed is always generating defensive and offensive postures.
Maharaj, by contrast, said, “To Me, nothing ever happens.” So it is here. So it can be with You.
Aggravating the instability that manifests when the unstable masses enter into “relationships” is the use of minimization. Reference was made in a past post about a husband who was in a counseling session with his wife who found out that, over a period of several months, he had left work during his lunch break and had taken four different women to hotels for sexual liaisons.
Sometimes an ego-state, rather than feeling abject fear, will respond with abject distortion that is driven by the use of ego-defense mechanisms such as grandiosity and assertiveness. When she confronted him in front of the counselor, he replied that none of those were “affairs” because he had only received oral sex.
“Besides,” he said, “all men at one point or another hook up with women other than their wives.” There, too, is an example of the minimization mentioned earlier (“it was only oral sex”) and the normalization mentioned earlier (“everyone does it so it’s no big deal when I do it”).
The use of minimization among non-Realized persons inspires them to hold the view that the difference between big problems and little problems is this: “Problems that are mine are the big ones; problems that are yours are the little ones.”
As far as a persona goes, nothing is more relevant than itself and the belief systems that are used to support it and the psychological tools that are used to try to guarantee its continuity.
Because persons take their "selves" seriously, they end up taking themselves way too seriously.
Consider those who define themselves by their political party or by their religious affiliation. Have you ever seen such ranting and raving and extreme behavior? Of such types, Maharaj said: "Anyone who thinks he knows what's good for another is dangerous."
Calm down. Get off your “high horse.” Quit taking your "selves" seriously. Mirages cannot be serious, so what a distortion it is to believe that they can be.
To that end, consider the relevance of the content of this exchange:
Questioner: “I have definite spiritual ambitions. Must I not work for their fulfillment?”
Maharaj: “No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the ‘I Am’. If you want to make real progress, you must give up all idea of personal attainment. In the lust for an everlasting personal bliss, the mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal.”
Relatedly, he also said: “Even after enlightenment the body is allowed to continue a few of its habits and to me it is not a big deal. Wake up, look through apparent appearances, examine your own righteousness and judgment, and separate the wheat from the chaff. If you can’t see beyond surface appearance and get caught up in your superficial judgments, then you have no business being here with me.”
And all of the nonsense shared in the above examples is based in the assumption of false identities and in not understanding all that one is not. In fact, you cannot truthfully be said to be "this." You cannot truthfully be said to be "that."
Maharaj: “To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge.”
Maharaj’s antidote for personality-generated distortion and ego-state-based desires and fears that drive persons to the most insane acts imaginable?
Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion. That is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realize that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.
As for fighting to preserve false identities, he said: “Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own.”
See, it’s all about reaching a state in which one's perspective is valid and balanced. Some know that one very hot summer around 1953 or so, I was seated on the front porch of my Cherokee grandmother’s cabin which was situated in a pine forest in East Texas. Usually, my cousins were more affected by the summer heat in East Texas than I because they had air conditioning in their homes and I did not, but the temperature that particular day was so high that I was definitely uncomfortable.
Around noon, Grandmother and I had enjoyed lunching on the cream peas I had picked and shelled that morning from her garden, served with the cornbread which she had cooked in her wood-burning stove and which she had coated with the home-made butter that she had churned by hand.
After lunch we were sitting in rockers on the front porch of her cabin and the heat had been particularly sweltering that day. I mentioned how hot it was, but Grandmother remained silent. Suddenly, a realization dawned on me at that point. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I said something to the effect of, “Grandmother, it just hit me that in the winter you never complain about it being too cold and in the summer you never complain about it being too hot. How is that?”
Her answer convinced me that she had finally and completely lost her senses. She said, “That’s because when it’s hot it's hot and when it’s cold it’s cold.” Looking straight ahead toward the forest in front of the cabin (but seeing the confused expression on my face in her peripheral vision), she smiled a little smile.
Later, I got it, and when I saw the following words from Maharaj, they made perfect sense in light of what Grandmother had taught me with her answer:
Maharaj: “You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, nor regrets. My mind is free of thoughts for there are no desires to slave for.”
Any personality that has been assigned to you or that you have assumed will enslave you. You will be beset by the worries of mirages, of your false identities. You will have regrets. You will have a mind, and that mind will forever block you from being free.
Yet how persons fight to preserve the very source of such misery and suffering, namely, the mirages that they take to be real and that result in their taking themselves way too seriously. Now that is what the insanity of mindedness and dual-mindedness looks like.
The invitation: Be free. Stop taking yourself / your false selves so seriously. Finally, do not take them seriously at all. They are merely mirages. If you see a mirage when driving through a hot, barren area, does the mirage generate in you a sense of abject fear? Of course not.
Likewise, see your assumed or assigned personas for what they are: merely mirages that have no ability at all to inspire desire or fear were it not for your fiction-filled, imagining mind. Be done once and for all with the mind-based Ultimate Sickness - and with its ignorance and insanity - which inspire persons to take mirages seriously; then only can you be done with taking yourself / your selves so seriously.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
14 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
“It is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality.”
F.: Out of the three hundred or so people that visited this site yesterday, a few submitted queries that asked about the above pointer also from yesterday, so, to clarify:
The summative statement of non-duality is “I AM THAT; I AM.” Just as the composite unity that is typing this post is making use of two arms, those arms are not “separate from” the composite unity as a whole. Were that the case, they would not be available for use during the typing process that is happening.
“Advaita” means “not two,” and such is the case with the summative statement. It might appear to some that “I AM THAT” and “I AM” refer to two separate things, but they do not. They are joined by a semicolon which indicates that whatever appears to the left of the semicolon in a sentence correlates to whatever is to the right of it in a sentence; thus, “I AM THAT; I AM” offers a single expression of the non-dual teachings, not two separate expressions.
(Moses plagiarized almost every word in the Torah / “Old Testament” which he supposedly wrote. In one case, he stole one of the Far Eastern teachings that had found its way to the Middle East via the caravans that was used along the trade route linking the two areas.
He placed into the mouth of a supposed God - who was supposedly appearing as a “burning bush” - the plagiarized and misquoted words I AM THAT I AM, reported to be that “God's” answer to the question, “Who are you?” The omission of the semicolon shows that Moses did not have a clue about the real meaning of the phrase and merely wrote what he had heard without any understanding of what the original “I AM THAT; I AM” referred to; nevertheless, it has sounded good ever since to billions upon billions of Jews and Christians and Muslims whose religions are, ironically, all three rooted in the same teachings of Abraham but who now share little in common except among those who have assumed the dualistic persona of "Judaeo-Christians.")
So in the pointer above - “it is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality” – it could have been phrased just as easily as “It is useless to be in touch with THAT if it results in your being out of touch with the AM-ness” or as “To be in touch with Reality only is to tout the “That”-ness while ignoring or minimizing the “AM-ness” which is given equal billing in the summative statement and which, therefore, misses the point of “advaita” and the non-dual understanding completely.
To be in touch with reality only is to tout the “AM”-ness while ignoring the “THAT”-ness. To be in touch with Reality only is to tout the “THAT”-ness while ignoring the “AM-ness.” That involves a sense of separation, a sense of separation results in dual-mindedness, and “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
Therefore, both scenarios above assure insanity, whether the case is that one is out of touch with reality or the case is that one is out of touch with Reality.
Here, the “journey” is discussed metaphorically as a three-part or three-leg journey. Maharaj said, “. . . You should go back, reverse to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came.”
The first leg involved the seven-step movement from the source to the manifestation of the conscious-energy in the frame or space or construct that is called “a composite unity” for the sake of discussion. (Maharaj: “In order to manifest itself, the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can appear.”)
The second leg involves going back - reversing to the source - by following the seven-step “path” by which the consciousness originally manifested.
The third leg is the part of the overall “journey” whereby there is a “moving back” to the relative state after having Realized by following the same path by which you came originally (except the return “trip” happens without any blocking of the pure consciousness because there is none of the programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination that the consciousness was subjected to by sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers during the first leg along which the conscious-energy first came).
At that point, Reality is overlaid on reality. The removal via Realization of
(1) the blockages and the removal of
(2) the accumulation of "knowledge" (which is really nothing more than learned ignorance) and the removal of
(3) the accumulation of insane and erroneous beliefs that were stored away in a "mind"
allows the remainder of the manifestation to happen without the burdensome handicaps that were accumulated during the original "coming in" when the first leg of the "journey" happened.
[The fourth leg discussed here is the part of the “journey” that happens after mahasamadhi is taken, allowing the three parts of the composite unity that had "come together" to finally "come apart" - as dictated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics;
therefore, after the taking of mahasamadhi, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements, the air will return to the universal pool of air, and the conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of energy known as “The Absolute.”]
It is "there" in that absolute (that is "pure" or "unadulterated") field of conscious-energy where there is no longer any manifested consciousness that can be “conscious-of”;
where there is no “one” to know anything or to be aware of anything (including some special self, some Special Self, or some Supreme This or That”);
where awareness might be available to be pulled once more into another sequence of cycling from (a) the unmanifested awareness into (b) the manifested consciousness with a capacity for conscious-of-ness to (c) the awareness that has no capacity to be aware of anything and no capacity to be conscious of anything either;
or, where the awareness-that-is-not-aware-of remains eternally, never again being pulled back into the cycling process which had allowed the originally unmanifested awareness to manifest as consciousness during the first leg of the "journey."
The invitation is to understand THAT for the sole purpose of restoring total freedom and total sanity (which can only result if one is totally free of all of the effects of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination).
That purging, in turn, will allow the remainder of the AM-ness to happen in a way that is not driven by the hidden agendas of assigned or assumed personalities; in a way that is not marked and marred by what Maharaj called the “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” that are among the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness; and in a way that unfolds naturally and spontaneously.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 July 2014
“It is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality.”
F.: Out of the three hundred or so people that visited this site yesterday, a few submitted queries that asked about the above pointer also from yesterday, so, to clarify:
The summative statement of non-duality is “I AM THAT; I AM.” Just as the composite unity that is typing this post is making use of two arms, those arms are not “separate from” the composite unity as a whole. Were that the case, they would not be available for use during the typing process that is happening.
“Advaita” means “not two,” and such is the case with the summative statement. It might appear to some that “I AM THAT” and “I AM” refer to two separate things, but they do not. They are joined by a semicolon which indicates that whatever appears to the left of the semicolon in a sentence correlates to whatever is to the right of it in a sentence; thus, “I AM THAT; I AM” offers a single expression of the non-dual teachings, not two separate expressions.
(Moses plagiarized almost every word in the Torah / “Old Testament” which he supposedly wrote. In one case, he stole one of the Far Eastern teachings that had found its way to the Middle East via the caravans that was used along the trade route linking the two areas.
He placed into the mouth of a supposed God - who was supposedly appearing as a “burning bush” - the plagiarized and misquoted words I AM THAT I AM, reported to be that “God's” answer to the question, “Who are you?” The omission of the semicolon shows that Moses did not have a clue about the real meaning of the phrase and merely wrote what he had heard without any understanding of what the original “I AM THAT; I AM” referred to; nevertheless, it has sounded good ever since to billions upon billions of Jews and Christians and Muslims whose religions are, ironically, all three rooted in the same teachings of Abraham but who now share little in common except among those who have assumed the dualistic persona of "Judaeo-Christians.")
So in the pointer above - “it is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality” – it could have been phrased just as easily as “It is useless to be in touch with THAT if it results in your being out of touch with the AM-ness” or as “To be in touch with Reality only is to tout the “That”-ness while ignoring or minimizing the “AM-ness” which is given equal billing in the summative statement and which, therefore, misses the point of “advaita” and the non-dual understanding completely.
To be in touch with reality only is to tout the “AM”-ness while ignoring the “THAT”-ness. To be in touch with Reality only is to tout the “THAT”-ness while ignoring the “AM-ness.” That involves a sense of separation, a sense of separation results in dual-mindedness, and “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
Therefore, both scenarios above assure insanity, whether the case is that one is out of touch with reality or the case is that one is out of touch with Reality.
Here, the “journey” is discussed metaphorically as a three-part or three-leg journey. Maharaj said, “. . . You should go back, reverse to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came.”
The first leg involved the seven-step movement from the source to the manifestation of the conscious-energy in the frame or space or construct that is called “a composite unity” for the sake of discussion. (Maharaj: “In order to manifest itself, the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can appear.”)
The second leg involves going back - reversing to the source - by following the seven-step “path” by which the consciousness originally manifested.
The third leg is the part of the overall “journey” whereby there is a “moving back” to the relative state after having Realized by following the same path by which you came originally (except the return “trip” happens without any blocking of the pure consciousness because there is none of the programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination that the consciousness was subjected to by sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers during the first leg along which the conscious-energy first came).
At that point, Reality is overlaid on reality. The removal via Realization of
(1) the blockages and the removal of
(2) the accumulation of "knowledge" (which is really nothing more than learned ignorance) and the removal of
(3) the accumulation of insane and erroneous beliefs that were stored away in a "mind"
allows the remainder of the manifestation to happen without the burdensome handicaps that were accumulated during the original "coming in" when the first leg of the "journey" happened.
[The fourth leg discussed here is the part of the “journey” that happens after mahasamadhi is taken, allowing the three parts of the composite unity that had "come together" to finally "come apart" - as dictated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics;
therefore, after the taking of mahasamadhi, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements, the air will return to the universal pool of air, and the conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of energy known as “The Absolute.”]
It is "there" in that absolute (that is "pure" or "unadulterated") field of conscious-energy where there is no longer any manifested consciousness that can be “conscious-of”;
where there is no “one” to know anything or to be aware of anything (including some special self, some Special Self, or some Supreme This or That”);
where awareness might be available to be pulled once more into another sequence of cycling from (a) the unmanifested awareness into (b) the manifested consciousness with a capacity for conscious-of-ness to (c) the awareness that has no capacity to be aware of anything and no capacity to be conscious of anything either;
or, where the awareness-that-is-not-aware-of remains eternally, never again being pulled back into the cycling process which had allowed the originally unmanifested awareness to manifest as consciousness during the first leg of the "journey."
The invitation is to understand THAT for the sole purpose of restoring total freedom and total sanity (which can only result if one is totally free of all of the effects of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination).
That purging, in turn, will allow the remainder of the AM-ness to happen in a way that is not driven by the hidden agendas of assigned or assumed personalities; in a way that is not marked and marred by what Maharaj called the “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” that are among the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness; and in a way that unfolds naturally and spontaneously.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
“It is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality.”
All persons among the non-Realized masses, and many who take themselves to be Realized as well, have no clue at all about the trap in which they have been snared.
“It is useless to be in touch with Reality if that results in your being out of touch with reality.”
All persons among the non-Realized masses, and many who take themselves to be Realized as well, have no clue at all about the trap in which they have been snared.
The most commonly-used trap in the history of humankind is the trap that persons set in order to try to control other persons. Once in the snare, most never escape. As a result, some might speak about “the taste of the most special nectar” and about “the essence,” but they actually never taste the nectar and they never really enjoy the essence of the relative existence.
Traps usually have two parts. One part is the trigger. When set off, it activates the second part of the trap that actually does the confining or snaring or trapping.
In terms of the message here, the two-part trap employs one lie and one belief. The lie is the triggering device. The belief – as is the case with all beliefs – is the part that traps persons, that confines them, that restricts them, and that limits them.
The triggering part of the trap is this lie: “There is life after this life.” The confining part of the trap is engaged when a one person’s lie becomes another person’s belief, and that confining, restricting, limiting belief is this: “I will live after this life.”
The consciousness innately desires continuity, so setting the trap and ensnaring the masses has proved to be a very easy task.
At least two hundred generations of persons have now been exposed to the lie since the first self-appointed religious leader began talking about “multiple lives.” The lie has been modified by others who teach that “there are not multiple lives . . . there is just this life and the afterlife.”
Each time one hears that lie and believes it and accepts it as an unquestionable fact based in the blind, no-challenging version of faith that is supposedly required in order to assure that one receives a reward after this life, then the lie triggers the trap and ensnarement is assured as a result of a belief.
The result of multi-generational exposure to the lie is this: not millions and not billions but actually trillions have believed the lie. The result of that? Trillions have been ensnared, and billions are currently ensnared at this very moment all around the globe. They have been trapped, and like anything caught in a trap, the potential for an enjoyable relative existence comes to an abrupt end.
Regular visitors to this site have read about the woman who - in her "mind" - is certain that she has lived multiple lives and who is now assured - in her "mind" - that she has now lived a life of total purity that is, in turn, going to end all of the birth-life-death-rebirth cycles that she thinks she has gone though over the past several hundred years.
Why is she finally – in her beliefs and in her “mind” – pure enough to finally reach her final goal (which is to escape the cycling, to take mahasamadhi, and then to finally enter into a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering nor desire nor a sense of self)? Why does she think that she is finally pure enough to be “released from the effects of karma and the cycles of death and life and rebirth over and over again”?
Because she stopped eating meat or any protein (which her particular body type requires, the absence of which - her doctors have shown her – has resulted in the disabling of her organs which are no longer functioning properly). Because she stopped enjoying the act of sex (though she admits that she still desires it at times). Because she observes all of the ancient Eastern food laws (as well as all of the ancient Jewish food laws).
Because she daily eats all her veggies (as "a good girl" does) and annually eats a Seder meal during which she consumes a plate with three matzos dipped into a bowl of salt water, accompanied by a side dish of bitter herbs and four cups of (in her case) non-alcoholic wine.
(Yummm, huh? So much for tasting the sweet nectar. So much for tasting the essence of enjoyable foods that are available for consumption during the relative existence. Belief in the ancient concept that “it is best to suffer now so you can receive an eternal reward later” is alive and well. Where? In her "mind." The trap has been set for millennia, trillions have been ensnared in the trap via their beliefs, and now billions around the globe are also trapped as well.)
Why else? Because according to her beliefs, her body is now as pure internally as is her “mind” and “spirit.” As with billions of persons all around the globe who have been totally fooled, the storehouse of lies (the mind) and a dreamed up, bogus concept (the “spirit”) results in persons never tasting the nectar and never enjoying the essence of the relative existence.
Were she to grasp the non-dual, Nisargan understanding, then she would understand that the state in which there is neither suffering nor desire nor a sense of self can be reached now, during the manifestation. She would also understand that there will be no one – post-manifestation – to be aware of anything, including being aware of freedom from suffering and desire and a sense of self. She would understand that suffering and desire and a sense of self are the province of ego-states only and that one can be free of all three NOW.
As another example, Protestants and Catholics have all believed the lie. They are both “Christians” but they define differently the way to attain and maintain the “purity” that is required to enjoy the afterlife and to supposedly be rewarded eternally.
The irony? Though all claim to be members of the same religion, the Protestants claim they do not drink alcohol; the Catholics do and use alcohol in their worship services. The Protestants claim they do not gamble but the Catholics have weekly bingo games at their church with monetary payoffs. (Seems Christ once showed his opinion about the moneychangers in the temple, but that is evidently ignored.) The Protestants claim they do not dance, but the Catholics organize dances regularly.
All contradictory nonsense set forth by persons who are all defining themselves as Christians. What is shared in common? The belief that suffering now results in a reward later, and the result of that is that they will insanely normalize suffering now, they will never taste the nectar, and they will never enjoy fully the essence of the relative existence; moreover, they will never received a reward or anything else eternally because there will be no one and nothing personal that survives the taking of mahasamadhi.
Additionally, for 5,000 years the thousands of organized religions and cults and denominations and sects that have come and gone or stayed have told the ensnaring lie and have fostered the beliefs that have prevented trillions of persons from abiding naturally, from behaving normally, and from tasting the nectar and enjoying the essence of the relative existence.
Non-duality and the Nisarga yoga come along and say, “You are invited to be free NOW. You are invited to taste the nectar and enjoy the essence of the relative existence NOW. You need not wait. You need not allows others to tell you what you should and should not eat when there are three different body types which all require three different dietary food plans if the internal organs are to function properly.
“You need not de-accumulate or reject or discard anything natural. Don’t want to enjoy sexual experiences for whatever reason? Fine. Want sex but deny yourself because of some belief about purity and belief in the lies about birth-life-death-rebirth cycles? Fine? No. Insane? Yes.
“There is no personal self, there is no personal Self, and there is no Supreme Self. (How is it that the narcissism that gives a person a sense of being 'supreme' is deemed unacceptable but the sense that one can be a 'Supreme Self' is not only acceptable but is also a near-divine objective?) There is nothing personal that will survive. There is nothing personal that 'made you' or 'created' you."
The Nisarga Yoga invites all to abide naturally rather than unnaturally and rather than trying to live supernaturally (that is, religiously or spiritually or from within a new abode set up in Foo-Foo-Land). Every living thing on the planet does exactly that – abides naturally - except for humans.
You can do that too if you understand that you were not born and that you cannot die. Yes, there are cycles, but what cycles and what does not? Persons do not. Dreamed up "spirits" or "souls" do not.
What does cycle? Elements come together and form a temporarily-manifested composite unity. At the end of the manifestation, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements; the circulating air will return to the universal pool of air; and the circulating conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy. End of story.
[For more on the fact that you were not born and cannot die, you may view the video above to the right that discusses the subject in more detail.]
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
12 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Maharaj on the deceptions around “relationships”: “It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.”
Maharaj’s words that describe the agendas of the love-starved Personality Type Two and the security-seeking Personality Type Six (and all of the other personality types that connect with their agendas): “Your interest in others is egoistic, self-concerned, self- oriented. You are not interested in others as persons, but only as far as they enrich, or ennoble your own image of yourself.”
His words that are relevant to “husbanding” / “wifing,” or not: “There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable, for it means the soul has cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment - when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing, but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the instruction: Whatever you come across - go beyond.”
See, the term “couples counseling” is a misnomer, is totally misleading, and is guaranteed to set people up to believe erroneously that the unpleasant interactions which have manifested after shifting their identities from “two separate individuals” to “a couple” should - and can be - addressed as a “couple problem” when, in fact, what is actually at play is this:
There were the separate problems that each individual had all along as a result of being blindly driven by the hidden agendas of the personalities that have been driving them for their entire relative existence. They then brought those personality-driven issues into “their relationship.”
Their belief that “couples counseling” is needed will prevent them from focusing on the real issue which is this: each party has a series of false personality identifications that are subconsciously determining every thought that is thought, every word that is said, every emotion that is felt, and every action that is taken. Neither person is present to the “relationship” because both are already in a committed relationship with all of their false personas that they will, if need be, fight to the death to defend. Yet they believe the answer is to treat them both together to address “couple problems” when there is no such thing. There are only “individual, personal problems.”
It is as if one person has lung cancer and another has a brain tumor but they go to a doctor together and request that their problems be addressed with one surgical procedure rather than two separate operations. It is as if two people were in an auto accident in which one person suffered a broken arm and the other suffered a broken leg but they show up at a hospital emergency room and ask the attending physician to apply one cast to treat them both together.
So that would look something like this:
And the result, if the one working with those two people honored their request for “couples surgery,” would be what? They would both be cramped, restricted, hamstrung, and even crippled. Rather than treating each separately so that each could be liberated, their separate “issues” were not afforded the separate treatment that was called for.
Too often, when “relationships” are entered into or after the words “I do” are said, it is as if the two become conjoined twins who each soon begin blaming the other person – and blaming the other solely and 100% - for all of the uncomfortable aspects of their life together. That mindset and the arrangement it generates are hardly what non-dualists are pointing two with the term “the unicity.”
The solution? The case is the same whether one is a part of “a couple” or not: every non-Realized person who would shift from that which is counterproductive (relatively speaking), and which is usually insane as well, must address his or her own personality issues. Each must find the specific personas that are driving her or him and then each must turn from those false identities, each must seek authenticity, and each must be freed from living under the influence of personality, once and for all.
In the book below entitled FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, there is a reference make to what is called here “Applied Advaita.” What does that refer to? It refers to Realizing and then applying – or overlaying – onto the relative existence the sanity and wisdom that returns with Realization.
Actually, there is no way to Realize and then fail to allow the resultant sanity and wisdom to prevail for the remainder of the AM-ness. If persons do not allow that “overlaying” to happen (or more accurately, when that overlaying does not happen spontaneously) it is because those persons have not truly Realized at all. They think they have come to know “THAT” and then “THAT” is all they care about, using “THAT” as a means to try to escape from reality (from the realities of the relative existence) and to move into a psychotic kind of “Foo-Foo Land.”
Yesterday, this topic for today was announced: Why personality identification makes the concept of “opposites attract” total BS. Now, to that.
An ideal “partnership” or “relationship” would be marked by each member bringing to the “partnership” or “relationship” what the other lacks. In one business that was run here years ago, a partnership happened with a man named Bill. Bill was extremely introverted and could not comfortably or effectively speak to people. He had spent his years working in jobs that could, for the most part, be done by him alone. He had no training in sales.
I, on the other hand, had many years of training in sales and marketing, but I had no interest in installation of products; therefore, I met prospects and potential customers, I presented features and benefits, and I closed deals and got contracts signed. Bill handled the installation of the products that were sold.
We each brought a different skill set to the “partnership” or “relationship” that then allowed a business to function profitably in a way that it could not have otherwise.
But that’s not the way “personal relationships” work. Why not? Because of personality identification (that is ego-state assumption) and because of the egotism that always accompanies personality identification assumption (that is, ego-state assumption).
Because of arrogance, because of the belief that “my views are right and all others are wrong,” and because of the belief that “I’m really quite the catch” and the belief that “anyone should be thrilled to be with me,” then that sort of ego-state sustaining egotism and arrogance and narcissism and false pride and unfounded sense of superiority ends up driving persons in this way:
They do not seek to form healthy “partnerships” or “relationships” that are based in bringing complementary elements and different assets to the arrangement; instead, what arrogant heterosexuals really want is an opposite-sex version of themselves, and what arrogant homosexuals want is a same-sex version of themselves.
The lyrics sung by most persons on the planet are not “To know, know, know you is to love, love, love you, and I do”; instead, the lyrics sung by most persons on the planet are “To know, know, know me is to love, love, love me, and I do.”
No “breakup” or “divorce” has ever happened unless there is one belief in particular, and that particular belief is always, “He / She is not good enough for me.” And that belief always comes after an ego-state has been assumed and after it has then upgraded itself.
All “The Wife” needed to “exist” in her own mind was “A Husband.” Once that false identity self-upgraded (which ego-states always do because of egotism), then she becomes The Super Wife.” After that, what she believes she “needs” to “exist” in her own mind is “A Super Husband.” Because she does not have “A Super Husband,” she must leave.
Same with the husband who self-upgrades, but usually he’ll stay around; however, he may have an extramarital affair (or many such affairs) because he believes that he is super and because he believes that he is not being treated in a super fashion at home and because he believes that he deserves better. Thus he will seek another woman – or many women - who are willing to treat him in the super fashion that he believes he deserves.
Rampart narcissism is the curse of the humanity, and it is rooted in the nonsense of personality identification and in the use of the ego-defense mechanism called “egotism” which accompanies every assigned or assumed personality. And personality will always generate a false set of dreamed up phony “needs” . . . alongside another belief that always eventually comes, namely, the belief that one's phony, dreamed up needs are not being met.
How could they be? They are not real. Hang on to those beliefs – or any other beliefs – and you will be assured a relative existence that is certain to be marked by duality-induced chaos.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
11 July 2014
Should dating and living together “forever” or marrying “forever” be eliminated in all cultures? That’s a different subject. The non-dual take is that "husbanding" can happen without believing the lie that part of one’s actual identity is “The Husband” (who soon self-upgrades to “The Super Husband”) and that "wifing" can happen without believing the lie that part of one’s actual identity is “The Wife” (who soon self-upgrades to “The Super Wife”).
That "husbanding" and "wifing" without personality assumption and upgrading can only happen if (a) one Realizes and if (b) one does not drop the “I AM” part of the non-dual summative statement, “I AM THAT; I AM.” “Husbanding” can happen just fine among the Realized (and no-“husbanding” can happen just fine, too.) Same with “wifing” or no-“wifing.” Yet the AM-ness must be able to unfold naturally without identifying with THAT only.
Remember that, post-Realization among Nisargans, the focus returns to the relative existence and to abiding naturally as the sanity and wisdom which result from Realization are overlaid on the relative. There is “reality” and there is also Reality; there is "I AM THAT" and there is also “I AM.”
Yet personality identification does not allow for a sense of Oneness to be overlaid on the reality of "abiding together under a common roof." Two persons come together with their own (often-subconscious) agendas and belief systems and expectations while thinking that there are no significant differences . . . that they "share so much in common."
(If some differences are detected, those are set aside when the nonsensical belief that “I’ll change him” comes into play or when the nonsensical belief that “she’ll always be just like she is right now while we’re dating” comes into play).
Several friends who are counselors report that the most frequent call they receive nowadays involves a request for “couples counseling.” Here, over the years, much work with couples has also happened, using the wisdom of the enneagram as a tool for understanding exactly what it is that is actually driving everything in their “relationship.”
Persons request “couples counseling” because (1) they think that the problems they are experiencing are a result of being together and interacting with each other or (2) one or the other thinks that she or he can triangulate with the counselor to “fix” the offending partner who is deemed to be solely responsible for the “issues” plaguing their “relationship.”
Of course, that is nonsense. Two persons both have their own issues and then enter into a “relationship” where their individual issues become magnified and thus more observable.
The problems among couples are not rooted in their duality-based “relationship.” They are based in the duality of the multiple personalities which they erroneously believe define their identities and that subconsciously drive their every thought and word and action.
The most effective counselors, therefore, work with one, then the other, then both together. The same approach is used here, limiting the “couple” part of the process to no more than 1/3 of the overall process and allowing for a full focusing on the personality-based issues of each “individual.”
It’s like this: if one person in a “relationship” develops a physical problem - such as cancer, say - it does not mean that the other person has cancer; however, it does mean that both are going to be affected. The same is true when there are mental and emotional problems (a.k.a., personality assumption and identification problems). It can be that one person has a personality-based problem, but – yes – it is going to affect both.
Yet when one partner has cancer, the doctor does not treat both partners for cancer. If the cancer is removed from one, then both will be affected (and affected “positively,” relatively speaking). If one partner has cancer and the other is bi-polar, then each must be treated separately for what ails him or her. If both are treated, then both will be affected (and affected “positively,” relatively speaking).
If only one is treated for what needs to be treated, then that person will be better off (relatively speaking) but it does not address the issue of the other person that is also screaming for treatment. If two sick persons are both healed, the sharing of a common roof can happen more pleasantly. If one only is healed, or neither is healed, then sharing a common roof will set the stage for many nightmarish scenarios as both will be trapped in their "individual, personal dream."
In the end, Realization can remove all personality influence, and two people sharing a common roof who have both been freed from the hidden agendas of personality, well, that can be a rare but joyous happening. Why?
Because no hidden agendas will be driving them and because the understanding of the Oneness – of the Unicity – will manifest, then what will also result will be unimaginable shifts in the way things happen under that common roof.
TOMORROW: Why personality identification makes the concept of “opposites attract” total BS.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 July 2014
F.: Maharaj on the deceptions around “relationships”: “It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.”
Maharaj’s words that describe the agendas of the love-starved Personality Type Two and the security-seeking Personality Type Six (and all of the other personality types that connect with their agendas): “Your interest in others is egoistic, self-concerned, self- oriented. You are not interested in others as persons, but only as far as they enrich, or ennoble your own image of yourself.”
His words that are relevant to “husbanding” / “wifing,” or not: “There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable, for it means the soul has cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment - when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing, but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the instruction: Whatever you come across - go beyond.”
See, the term “couples counseling” is a misnomer, is totally misleading, and is guaranteed to set people up to believe erroneously that the unpleasant interactions which have manifested after shifting their identities from “two separate individuals” to “a couple” should - and can be - addressed as a “couple problem” when, in fact, what is actually at play is this:
There were the separate problems that each individual had all along as a result of being blindly driven by the hidden agendas of the personalities that have been driving them for their entire relative existence. They then brought those personality-driven issues into “their relationship.”
Their belief that “couples counseling” is needed will prevent them from focusing on the real issue which is this: each party has a series of false personality identifications that are subconsciously determining every thought that is thought, every word that is said, every emotion that is felt, and every action that is taken. Neither person is present to the “relationship” because both are already in a committed relationship with all of their false personas that they will, if need be, fight to the death to defend. Yet they believe the answer is to treat them both together to address “couple problems” when there is no such thing. There are only “individual, personal problems.”
It is as if one person has lung cancer and another has a brain tumor but they go to a doctor together and request that their problems be addressed with one surgical procedure rather than two separate operations. It is as if two people were in an auto accident in which one person suffered a broken arm and the other suffered a broken leg but they show up at a hospital emergency room and ask the attending physician to apply one cast to treat them both together.
So that would look something like this:
And the result, if the one working with those two people honored their request for “couples surgery,” would be what? They would both be cramped, restricted, hamstrung, and even crippled. Rather than treating each separately so that each could be liberated, their separate “issues” were not afforded the separate treatment that was called for.
Too often, when “relationships” are entered into or after the words “I do” are said, it is as if the two become conjoined twins who each soon begin blaming the other person – and blaming the other solely and 100% - for all of the uncomfortable aspects of their life together. That mindset and the arrangement it generates are hardly what non-dualists are pointing two with the term “the unicity.”
The solution? The case is the same whether one is a part of “a couple” or not: every non-Realized person who would shift from that which is counterproductive (relatively speaking), and which is usually insane as well, must address his or her own personality issues. Each must find the specific personas that are driving her or him and then each must turn from those false identities, each must seek authenticity, and each must be freed from living under the influence of personality, once and for all.
In the book below entitled FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, there is a reference make to what is called here “Applied Advaita.” What does that refer to? It refers to Realizing and then applying – or overlaying – onto the relative existence the sanity and wisdom that returns with Realization.
Actually, there is no way to Realize and then fail to allow the resultant sanity and wisdom to prevail for the remainder of the AM-ness. If persons do not allow that “overlaying” to happen (or more accurately, when that overlaying does not happen spontaneously) it is because those persons have not truly Realized at all. They think they have come to know “THAT” and then “THAT” is all they care about, using “THAT” as a means to try to escape from reality (from the realities of the relative existence) and to move into a psychotic kind of “Foo-Foo Land.”
Yesterday, this topic for today was announced: Why personality identification makes the concept of “opposites attract” total BS. Now, to that.
An ideal “partnership” or “relationship” would be marked by each member bringing to the “partnership” or “relationship” what the other lacks. In one business that was run here years ago, a partnership happened with a man named Bill. Bill was extremely introverted and could not comfortably or effectively speak to people. He had spent his years working in jobs that could, for the most part, be done by him alone. He had no training in sales.
I, on the other hand, had many years of training in sales and marketing, but I had no interest in installation of products; therefore, I met prospects and potential customers, I presented features and benefits, and I closed deals and got contracts signed. Bill handled the installation of the products that were sold.
We each brought a different skill set to the “partnership” or “relationship” that then allowed a business to function profitably in a way that it could not have otherwise.
But that’s not the way “personal relationships” work. Why not? Because of personality identification (that is ego-state assumption) and because of the egotism that always accompanies personality identification assumption (that is, ego-state assumption).
Because of arrogance, because of the belief that “my views are right and all others are wrong,” and because of the belief that “I’m really quite the catch” and the belief that “anyone should be thrilled to be with me,” then that sort of ego-state sustaining egotism and arrogance and narcissism and false pride and unfounded sense of superiority ends up driving persons in this way:
They do not seek to form healthy “partnerships” or “relationships” that are based in bringing complementary elements and different assets to the arrangement; instead, what arrogant heterosexuals really want is an opposite-sex version of themselves, and what arrogant homosexuals want is a same-sex version of themselves.
Opposites attract? No way. Egotism will not allow that to happen. The theme song of humanity is not “I’m In The Mood For Love”; it’s really, “I’m In The Mood For Me.”
The lyrics sung by most persons on the planet are not “To know, know, know you is to love, love, love you, and I do”; instead, the lyrics sung by most persons on the planet are “To know, know, know me is to love, love, love me, and I do.”
No “breakup” or “divorce” has ever happened unless there is one belief in particular, and that particular belief is always, “He / She is not good enough for me.” And that belief always comes after an ego-state has been assumed and after it has then upgraded itself.
All “The Wife” needed to “exist” in her own mind was “A Husband.” Once that false identity self-upgraded (which ego-states always do because of egotism), then she becomes The Super Wife.” After that, what she believes she “needs” to “exist” in her own mind is “A Super Husband.” Because she does not have “A Super Husband,” she must leave.
Same with the husband who self-upgrades, but usually he’ll stay around; however, he may have an extramarital affair (or many such affairs) because he believes that he is super and because he believes that he is not being treated in a super fashion at home and because he believes that he deserves better. Thus he will seek another woman – or many women - who are willing to treat him in the super fashion that he believes he deserves.
Rampart narcissism is the curse of the humanity, and it is rooted in the nonsense of personality identification and in the use of the ego-defense mechanism called “egotism” which accompanies every assigned or assumed personality. And personality will always generate a false set of dreamed up phony “needs” . . . alongside another belief that always eventually comes, namely, the belief that one's phony, dreamed up needs are not being met.
How could they be? They are not real. Hang on to those beliefs – or any other beliefs – and you will be assured a relative existence that is certain to be marked by duality-induced chaos.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
11 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Personality identification also blocks seekers from grasping fully one of the most essential elements of the non-dual understanding, namely, the understanding of the Oneness or the Unicity. The reason? So many personalities are linked to the bogus concept of “relationships” which, in turn, results in the confusion around the bogus concept of “Oneness” vs. “relationships.”
There is no “Oneness” vs. “relationships.” The idea that one can “relate to” is duality. With that concept, there must be an “A” that is relating to a “B” and a “B” that is relating to an “A.”
That dualistic belief is the centerpiece of “relationship-related personalities” which include the continuum that Maharaj discussed and which he noted drives so much of the chaos (and results in the chaos that comes from the desire to control) that marks and mars the relative existence all around the globe:
stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to fiancé (or fiancée) to wife (or husband) to Super Wife (or Super Husband) to Not Super Wife (or Not Super Husband) to enemy to mortal enemy to “The Ex.”
Recall, to assume a role and believe that it is a real identity requires a co-dependent, counterpart role player. It takes two players for any personality identification to manifest and then continue to be seen as an actual identity. That’s duality. And what drives duality and the belief in “relationships” and the valuing (and over-valuing) of “relationships? Personality.
Return to the science of personality (as Maharaj predicted and advised) and see what an understanding of the personality enneagram can reveal:
Note that the connecting lines indicate the way that different types “relate”:
The 2 and the 6 are the two types that are most preoccupied with “relationships,” though their agendas are different. Recall that the love-starved 2 wants to be loved while the dependent and co-dependent 6 wants security and looks for it from a caretaker.
Next, note that the 2 has both a 1-wing and a 3-wing, so those types can have a piece of the 2’s love-starved agenda. Note that the 6 has both a 5-wing and a 7-wing, so those types can have a piece of the 6’s dependency and co-dependency agenda around “relationships.”
Note also that a 3 and a 9 can shift to the 6’s agenda around "relationships." Too, the 6 and the 8 often misidentify because they share many relationship-driven traits in common. Finally, the 4 and the 6 will connect if the Borderline Personality Disorder develops.
Therefore, in one way or another, there are 8 types that are strongly linked in one way or another to the 2 basic, personality types that are most concerned with “relationships.”
And nothing else drives human thoughts and words and deeds more than a preoccupation with “relationships,” including “finding the right person,” "establishing a relationship with a Higher Power," “hanging on to the right person,” improving “my relationship” with the person I’m with, "improving my relationship with my Higher Power," and maintaining the “relationship”-related roles that have been assigned or assumed (including those in Maharaj’s continuum as well as “The Parent,” “The Homeowner,” “The One Better Off Financially,” “The Lover,” etc.)
F.: Personality identification also blocks seekers from grasping fully one of the most essential elements of the non-dual understanding, namely, the understanding of the Oneness or the Unicity. The reason? So many personalities are linked to the bogus concept of “relationships” which, in turn, results in the confusion around the bogus concept of “Oneness” vs. “relationships.”
There is no “Oneness” vs. “relationships.” The idea that one can “relate to” is duality. With that concept, there must be an “A” that is relating to a “B” and a “B” that is relating to an “A.”
That dualistic belief is the centerpiece of “relationship-related personalities” which include the continuum that Maharaj discussed and which he noted drives so much of the chaos (and results in the chaos that comes from the desire to control) that marks and mars the relative existence all around the globe:
stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to fiancé (or fiancée) to wife (or husband) to Super Wife (or Super Husband) to Not Super Wife (or Not Super Husband) to enemy to mortal enemy to “The Ex.”
Recall, to assume a role and believe that it is a real identity requires a co-dependent, counterpart role player. It takes two players for any personality identification to manifest and then continue to be seen as an actual identity. That’s duality. And what drives duality and the belief in “relationships” and the valuing (and over-valuing) of “relationships? Personality.
Return to the science of personality (as Maharaj predicted and advised) and see what an understanding of the personality enneagram can reveal:
Note that the connecting lines indicate the way that different types “relate”:
The 2 and the 6 are the two types that are most preoccupied with “relationships,” though their agendas are different. Recall that the love-starved 2 wants to be loved while the dependent and co-dependent 6 wants security and looks for it from a caretaker.
Next, note that the 2 has both a 1-wing and a 3-wing, so those types can have a piece of the 2’s love-starved agenda. Note that the 6 has both a 5-wing and a 7-wing, so those types can have a piece of the 6’s dependency and co-dependency agenda around “relationships.”
Note also that a 3 and a 9 can shift to the 6’s agenda around "relationships." Too, the 6 and the 8 often misidentify because they share many relationship-driven traits in common. Finally, the 4 and the 6 will connect if the Borderline Personality Disorder develops.
Therefore, in one way or another, there are 8 types that are strongly linked in one way or another to the 2 basic, personality types that are most concerned with “relationships.”
And nothing else drives human thoughts and words and deeds more than a preoccupation with “relationships,” including “finding the right person,” "establishing a relationship with a Higher Power," “hanging on to the right person,” improving “my relationship” with the person I’m with, "improving my relationship with my Higher Power," and maintaining the “relationship”-related roles that have been assigned or assumed (including those in Maharaj’s continuum as well as “The Parent,” “The Homeowner,” “The One Better Off Financially,” “The Lover,” etc.)
Should dating and living together “forever” or marrying “forever” be eliminated in all cultures? That’s a different subject. The non-dual take is that "husbanding" can happen without believing the lie that part of one’s actual identity is “The Husband” (who soon self-upgrades to “The Super Husband”) and that "wifing" can happen without believing the lie that part of one’s actual identity is “The Wife” (who soon self-upgrades to “The Super Wife”).
That "husbanding" and "wifing" without personality assumption and upgrading can only happen if (a) one Realizes and if (b) one does not drop the “I AM” part of the non-dual summative statement, “I AM THAT; I AM.” “Husbanding” can happen just fine among the Realized (and no-“husbanding” can happen just fine, too.) Same with “wifing” or no-“wifing.” Yet the AM-ness must be able to unfold naturally without identifying with THAT only.
Remember that, post-Realization among Nisargans, the focus returns to the relative existence and to abiding naturally as the sanity and wisdom which result from Realization are overlaid on the relative. There is “reality” and there is also Reality; there is "I AM THAT" and there is also “I AM.”
Yet personality identification does not allow for a sense of Oneness to be overlaid on the reality of "abiding together under a common roof." Two persons come together with their own (often-subconscious) agendas and belief systems and expectations while thinking that there are no significant differences . . . that they "share so much in common."
(If some differences are detected, those are set aside when the nonsensical belief that “I’ll change him” comes into play or when the nonsensical belief that “she’ll always be just like she is right now while we’re dating” comes into play).
Several friends who are counselors report that the most frequent call they receive nowadays involves a request for “couples counseling.” Here, over the years, much work with couples has also happened, using the wisdom of the enneagram as a tool for understanding exactly what it is that is actually driving everything in their “relationship.”
Persons request “couples counseling” because (1) they think that the problems they are experiencing are a result of being together and interacting with each other or (2) one or the other thinks that she or he can triangulate with the counselor to “fix” the offending partner who is deemed to be solely responsible for the “issues” plaguing their “relationship.”
Of course, that is nonsense. Two persons both have their own issues and then enter into a “relationship” where their individual issues become magnified and thus more observable.
The problems among couples are not rooted in their duality-based “relationship.” They are based in the duality of the multiple personalities which they erroneously believe define their identities and that subconsciously drive their every thought and word and action.
The most effective counselors, therefore, work with one, then the other, then both together. The same approach is used here, limiting the “couple” part of the process to no more than 1/3 of the overall process and allowing for a full focusing on the personality-based issues of each “individual.”
It’s like this: if one person in a “relationship” develops a physical problem - such as cancer, say - it does not mean that the other person has cancer; however, it does mean that both are going to be affected. The same is true when there are mental and emotional problems (a.k.a., personality assumption and identification problems). It can be that one person has a personality-based problem, but – yes – it is going to affect both.
Yet when one partner has cancer, the doctor does not treat both partners for cancer. If the cancer is removed from one, then both will be affected (and affected “positively,” relatively speaking). If one partner has cancer and the other is bi-polar, then each must be treated separately for what ails him or her. If both are treated, then both will be affected (and affected “positively,” relatively speaking).
If only one is treated for what needs to be treated, then that person will be better off (relatively speaking) but it does not address the issue of the other person that is also screaming for treatment. If two sick persons are both healed, the sharing of a common roof can happen more pleasantly. If one only is healed, or neither is healed, then sharing a common roof will set the stage for many nightmarish scenarios as both will be trapped in their "individual, personal dream."
In the end, Realization can remove all personality influence, and two people sharing a common roof who have both been freed from the hidden agendas of personality, well, that can be a rare but joyous happening. Why?
Because no hidden agendas will be driving them and because the understanding of the Oneness – of the Unicity – will manifest, then what will also result will be unimaginable shifts in the way things happen under that common roof.
TOMORROW: Why personality identification makes the concept of “opposites attract” total BS.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: The 8 July 2014 post shared scientific evidence (just as was predicted by Maharaj) that the non-dual pointer that persons can be physically awake but also unconscious at the same time is 100% valid.
How asleep can persons be? That is, how unconscious can persons be even if deemed "physically awake"?
1. As noted yesterday, many persons who were rescued by other persons from the elevators in which they were trapped during the 1977 New York City power outage actually told reporters as they exited the buildings where they had been trapped that "it was God" who had rescued them.
2. A woman whose husband worked 80 hours per week in order to pay for the house she wanted told friends and relatives for weeks as they dropped by for “the tour” of the new homestead that "God had finally blessed her with the beautiful home that she had always dreamed about." The husband heard that comment a dozen times before he asked, “So what am I? Chopped liver? And if my company goes bankrupt and I can no longer pay the house note and the bank forecloses on it and sells it to someone else, would that be God’s doing as well?” From her sleep state, she stared at him as if he were the one who was talking total nonsense.
3. The state of Texas in the U.S. conducts lotteries with prizes in the millions, and millions of people buy their lottery tickets faithfully; however, every year over $800,000,000.00 in unclaimed prizes are transferred from the lottery account into the general state treasury because people buy tickets but then never check to see if they won. That totals almost $18 billion dollars so far that people have won in one state alone but were too asleep to check to see if they won. The same happens all across the nation.
4. Annually in the U.S., the average number of people killed in accidental shooting is 16,500. On average, 16,500 are killed every year by people who did not intend to kill them, including children shooting siblings accidently, parents shooting children accidently, and children accidently shooting a parent
5. Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or had fallen asleep at the wheel.
6. Every year in the U.S., more than 100,000 wrecks occur as a result of driving while sleeping. Those are the ones that are known. Far more likely occur without the actual cause being known.
7. Data from Australia, England, Finland, and other European nations indicates that drowsy driving or driving while asleep cause 10 to 30 percent of all crashes annually.
8. In the public health sector in the U.S., 180000 to 360000 deaths occur annually in hospitals because of mistakes made by doctors and nurses who are sleep-deprived at home and are therefore going through their daily routines in a sleep-like state at a hospital.
9. In the nearby city of Houston, a recent report noted that a 65-year-old Houston man lost vision in one eye after a pharmacist mistakenly filled his prescription for eye drops with ear drops. Driving while intoxicated is a major hazard around the globe, but now sleeping while working – and sleeping while filling prescriptions – has presented a new risk.
10. Investigators have ruled that sleep was a significant factor in the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island as well as the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.
11. Investigations showed that the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker, as well as the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, involved sleep issues.
So science has proven Maharaj correct: persons can, and indeed do, walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, work in their sleep, and do almost everything they do from a sleep state. The masses are physically awake yet totally unconscious.
To understand the way that personality drives thoughts and words and actions is to understand that persons think in their sleep, talk in their sleep, and take actions in their sleep . . . all while physically awake but totally unconscious.
That is the curse of personality identification: every assumed role has a hidden agenda. Everything that one does when being driven by the agenda of personality / personalities is done unconsciously, is done subconsciously. It’s all done without any clue at all that mirages are driving persons throughout their entire relative existence, even as they erroneously believe that they are making conscious choices.
And that leaves persons believing that phony “needs” are real needs; drives them to dedicate themselves (their false selves) to a constant quest to satisfy their phony, dreamed-up needs; and traps them in an existence that is marked and marred by personality-generated delusions and illusions.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 July 2014
F.: The 8 July 2014 post shared scientific evidence (just as was predicted by Maharaj) that the non-dual pointer that persons can be physically awake but also unconscious at the same time is 100% valid.
How asleep can persons be? That is, how unconscious can persons be even if deemed "physically awake"?
1. As noted yesterday, many persons who were rescued by other persons from the elevators in which they were trapped during the 1977 New York City power outage actually told reporters as they exited the buildings where they had been trapped that "it was God" who had rescued them.
2. A woman whose husband worked 80 hours per week in order to pay for the house she wanted told friends and relatives for weeks as they dropped by for “the tour” of the new homestead that "God had finally blessed her with the beautiful home that she had always dreamed about." The husband heard that comment a dozen times before he asked, “So what am I? Chopped liver? And if my company goes bankrupt and I can no longer pay the house note and the bank forecloses on it and sells it to someone else, would that be God’s doing as well?” From her sleep state, she stared at him as if he were the one who was talking total nonsense.
3. The state of Texas in the U.S. conducts lotteries with prizes in the millions, and millions of people buy their lottery tickets faithfully; however, every year over $800,000,000.00 in unclaimed prizes are transferred from the lottery account into the general state treasury because people buy tickets but then never check to see if they won. That totals almost $18 billion dollars so far that people have won in one state alone but were too asleep to check to see if they won. The same happens all across the nation.
4. Annually in the U.S., the average number of people killed in accidental shooting is 16,500. On average, 16,500 are killed every year by people who did not intend to kill them, including children shooting siblings accidently, parents shooting children accidently, and children accidently shooting a parent
5. Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or had fallen asleep at the wheel.
6. Every year in the U.S., more than 100,000 wrecks occur as a result of driving while sleeping. Those are the ones that are known. Far more likely occur without the actual cause being known.
7. Data from Australia, England, Finland, and other European nations indicates that drowsy driving or driving while asleep cause 10 to 30 percent of all crashes annually.
8. In the public health sector in the U.S., 180000 to 360000 deaths occur annually in hospitals because of mistakes made by doctors and nurses who are sleep-deprived at home and are therefore going through their daily routines in a sleep-like state at a hospital.
9. In the nearby city of Houston, a recent report noted that a 65-year-old Houston man lost vision in one eye after a pharmacist mistakenly filled his prescription for eye drops with ear drops. Driving while intoxicated is a major hazard around the globe, but now sleeping while working – and sleeping while filling prescriptions – has presented a new risk.
10. Investigators have ruled that sleep was a significant factor in the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island as well as the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.
11. Investigations showed that the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker, as well as the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, involved sleep issues.
So science has proven Maharaj correct: persons can, and indeed do, walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, work in their sleep, and do almost everything they do from a sleep state. The masses are physically awake yet totally unconscious.
To understand the way that personality drives thoughts and words and actions is to understand that persons think in their sleep, talk in their sleep, and take actions in their sleep . . . all while physically awake but totally unconscious.
That is the curse of personality identification: every assumed role has a hidden agenda. Everything that one does when being driven by the agenda of personality / personalities is done unconsciously, is done subconsciously. It’s all done without any clue at all that mirages are driving persons throughout their entire relative existence, even as they erroneously believe that they are making conscious choices.
And that leaves persons believing that phony “needs” are real needs; drives them to dedicate themselves (their false selves) to a constant quest to satisfy their phony, dreamed-up needs; and traps them in an existence that is marked and marred by personality-generated delusions and illusions.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Next week will mark the thirty-seventh year since a power failure crippled New York City from the evening of July 13 until the evening of July 14, 1977. Along with other consequences, the loss of power resulted in thousands of people being stranded in elevators.
Those persons trapped in elevators did not need to learn more and more and more about elevators in order to escape what amounted to a temporary imprisonment. They did not have to expand their knowledge about elevators and how elevators operate in order to be free. They did not need to become intimately involved with some distant source of power that would allow the elevator to function.
No one said to them, “You must turn to the new programs that are available and that can free people,” and none said “You must return to the ways of the old religions if you are going to survive.”
They would have thought anyone crazy who said that – if they were ever to be free –they would need to make contact with some amateurs who in the past had been trapped in elevators and who have subsequently started a program where they can sit around and endlessly share their experiences regarding what it was like to be entrapped in an elevator.
No one with the potential to extricate the people trapped in elevators stood in the hallways where elevators were stuck between floors and shouted, “You must have faith and show it. You must believe in a distant power and beg to be saved from the entrapment. It is your only hope.”
No would-be “rescuer” climbed down the elevator shaft and opened the small access door atop the elevator compartment and said, “I'm going to drop a very, very special book to you, along with a flashlight so you can read it. It is the be-all-and-end-all book when it comes to explaining how elevators were created, who is in charge of this particular elevator, what he expects of people who are using the elevator, what the rules are for using the elevators, and what his “do’s” and “don’t” are for people on elevators.
No accumulation could address the issue being faced by those who were trapped. The entrapped merely needed someone to lower a ladder through the access atop the elevator and guide them out; or, they needed someone to pry open a door from the nearest hallway to where the elevator was stuck and lower a ladder so that they could, step by step, extricate themselves from their entrapment; or they needed someone to open the access above and reach out to them and pull them from their place of entrapment.
Moreover, those trapped would probably have questioned everything above if they had been told all that nonsense. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to become elevator experts. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to read a special book about elevators. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to become closer to the creator of the elevator.
Yes, some did report later to the media that, throughout their period of entrapment, they believed unquestioningly and unwaveringly all along that their faith in some invisible power would surely protect them and save them, and even after it was humans who rescued them, they still gave credit for their freedom to some non-human entity in some distant place. Yet until humans came to the rescue, there was was no cause for rejoicing among those dependent on some Unseen and Unseeable Power.
Those who actually felt real joy were the ones who saw someone, who saw another visible human rather than some invisible power, and someone who appeared and who was willing to guide them out of their entrapment.
Nothing
other-worldly was involved with the rescues. Nothing that required magical thinking was involved. The problem of being trapped was being experienced in "this realm." The solutions had to come from "this
realm" as well.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 July 2014
F.: Next week will mark the thirty-seventh year since a power failure crippled New York City from the evening of July 13 until the evening of July 14, 1977. Along with other consequences, the loss of power resulted in thousands of people being stranded in elevators.
Those persons trapped in elevators did not need to learn more and more and more about elevators in order to escape what amounted to a temporary imprisonment. They did not have to expand their knowledge about elevators and how elevators operate in order to be free. They did not need to become intimately involved with some distant source of power that would allow the elevator to function.
No one said to them, “You must turn to the new programs that are available and that can free people,” and none said “You must return to the ways of the old religions if you are going to survive.”
They would have thought anyone crazy who said that – if they were ever to be free –they would need to make contact with some amateurs who in the past had been trapped in elevators and who have subsequently started a program where they can sit around and endlessly share their experiences regarding what it was like to be entrapped in an elevator.
No one with the potential to extricate the people trapped in elevators stood in the hallways where elevators were stuck between floors and shouted, “You must have faith and show it. You must believe in a distant power and beg to be saved from the entrapment. It is your only hope.”
No would-be “rescuer” climbed down the elevator shaft and opened the small access door atop the elevator compartment and said, “I'm going to drop a very, very special book to you, along with a flashlight so you can read it. It is the be-all-and-end-all book when it comes to explaining how elevators were created, who is in charge of this particular elevator, what he expects of people who are using the elevator, what the rules are for using the elevators, and what his “do’s” and “don’t” are for people on elevators.
The very, very special book will explain that the creator of the elevator will do nothing for you unless you contact him, speak to him, praise him, glorify him, and make him feel good about you in order to inspire him to come to your rescue and save you. If you don’t do those things, then he’ll let you stay entrapped in the elevator and suffer forever.” [What a total ass he would be, yes?]
No accumulation could address the issue being faced by those who were trapped. The entrapped merely needed someone to lower a ladder through the access atop the elevator and guide them out; or, they needed someone to pry open a door from the nearest hallway to where the elevator was stuck and lower a ladder so that they could, step by step, extricate themselves from their entrapment; or they needed someone to open the access above and reach out to them and pull them from their place of entrapment.
Moreover, those trapped would probably have questioned everything above if they had been told all that nonsense. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to become elevator experts. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to read a special book about elevators. They would not have believed unquestioningly that they needed to become closer to the creator of the elevator.
Yes, some did report later to the media that, throughout their period of entrapment, they believed unquestioningly and unwaveringly all along that their faith in some invisible power would surely protect them and save them, and even after it was humans who rescued them, they still gave credit for their freedom to some non-human entity in some distant place. Yet until humans came to the rescue, there was was no cause for rejoicing among those dependent on some Unseen and Unseeable Power.
Those who actually felt real joy were the ones who saw someone, who saw another visible human rather than some invisible power, and someone who appeared and who was willing to guide them out of their entrapment.
The actual rescuers were simply humans who were willing to guide trapped persons out of the place where they were stuck. See? Neither a very, very special book nor an other-worldly power nor more knowledge was required.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: It is noted here how often the wisdom of Maharaj allowed for the sharing of non-dual pointers that no other teachers shared. One such pointer in particular is referenced here on occasion because it has proved to be so spot on. In an article available at floydhenderson.com, this is offered:
“Maharaj said that someday his teachings would be explained in terms of the science involved and that would expand the numbers of those with the Understanding of his teachings because those with a scientific (or more concrete than abstract) brain could know the Absolute. Of course science has never been necessary for the Understanding since all that one need to know is within, but science today does reaffirm the veracity of Maharaj’s words.”
The latest example was sent yesterday by a regular visitor to this site in a forwarded news article, part of which follows:
Scientists Discover Switch to Put On and Off Human Consciousness!
A group of scientists at George Washington University has claimed that they have achieved success in switching on and off a woman's consciousness. The scientists have been able to do so by electrically stimulating a single area of the brain. Published in the Journal of Epilepsy & Behavior this week, the research has paved a way for the development of an on / off switch.
The discovery of the switch in question was serendipitous because the real intention behind the study was to pinpoint the cause of the patient's seizures. The group was actually looking for the claustrum, a thin, sheet-like structure existing deep inside the brain, with the help of electrodes. However, the researchers found that the woman lost consciousness. They found that the patient was slowing down and speaking more slowly in addition to no response to voice or visual stimulation.
After the electrical stimulation was switched off, the woman gained full consciousness, but had no memory of what she experienced just before. “This study is incredibly intriguing but it is one brick in a large edifice of consciousness that we're trying to build,” said American neuroscientist Cristof Koch.
Koch said that what makes this discovery really interesting is the fact that the woman was awake despite being unconscious.”
Here since 1989, in satsang and other small groups or individual sessions or at retreats, Maharaj’s pointers about people walking about in their sleep and talking in their sleep and driving in their sleep and actually living out an entire relative existence in their sleep while being trapped in the “Dream of the Planet” has been discussed.
Most who heard those pointers likely minimized them by assuming, “Well, yeah, metaphorically speaking.” Yet Maharaj was not speaking metaphorically, and neither was I.
Now, once again, science has advanced to the point that it has now confirmed that that “a woman was awake despite being unconscious.”
In June of 2007, this was offered for consideration:
The delusions which persons (the non-Realized) live in—and which are addressed by the Advaita Teachings—are fixed in the “minds” of persons and are one dominant influence on their relative behavior and thought. The effects of those delusions are so dominant that persons are walking about in their sleep, talking in their sleep, and doing what they do in their sleep while actually believing that they are fully awake and while actually believing that they are controlling their thoughts and making their own decisions and choosing to do what they do.
Could it possibly be more insane-like than for persons to be driven by unconscious and subconscious factors while being convinced that they are awake and aware and conscious and exercising free-will and choice? Could the level of self-deception be any greater than for persons to be driven to say what they say and to do what they do without a clue about why they are doing it or why they are saying it?
[What insanity is displayed when persons believe that a mirage can have “needs,” yet that is a basic belief of billions and billions of persons on the planet. They accept that their culture’s dreamed up roles – which they play on a daily basis on the stage of “The Theater of the Lie” – are real; then, they believe that something that has been totally dreamed up can have "needs" that are also real. Talk about living out an entire relative existence from the sleep state, being “physically awake” though actually being “totally unconscious.”]
The 2007 post continued:
Consider this example:
A child watched her mother and grandmother in the kitchen as they cut a roast in half and put it into two small pans for cooking. When the child asked her mother why they didn’t just put the roast in their big pan, her mother said, “Because this is the way that your grandmother always did it. Maybe it involves flavor or cook time or something, is that right, Mom?” But the child’s grandmother answered her daughter, “Not really. That’s just the way my mother always did it.”
So the child picked up the phone and called her great-grandmother and asked, “Why did you always cut a roast in half and put it into two little pans instead of just putting it into one big pan for cooking?” And the great-grandmother replied, “Because we were poor back then and couldn’t afford to buy a big pan. I always had to cut our roasts in half and put the halves into our two small pans because we didn’t own a large pot.” So one person did something out of necessity, but then two more persons senselessly modeled that same behavior out of ignorance. And it took an act of questioning to finally expose the senselessness of the behavior that had been passed down, unconsciously and unquestioningly, for generations.
But even after the child returned from the phone call and revealed to her mother and her grandmother the root of their now senseless behavior, for the rest of their lives they still continued to cut their roasts in half and to put the two parts into small pans for cooking. Eventually, that child became an adult, married, had children and cooked roasts. And in her kitchen one afternoon, as she was cutting a roast in half and preparing to cook the two pieces for their evening meal, her child asked her, “Why don’t you just put the roast in the big pan to cook it?”
And she answered, “Well, I remember asking that question myself one time, but now I don’t remember exactly what the answer was. But I know that your great-great grandmother did it this way, and your great-grandmother did it this way, and your grandmother did it this way, so I just do it that way too.” And the little child said, "OK," and when she became an adult, she did it that way, too.
[See? Practically no one who is a Christian chose to be a Christian; practically no one who is a Muslim chose to be a Muslim; no one who is Jewish chose to be Jewish; practically no one who is a Hindu chose to be a Hindu. It's all just "stuff" passed down from one generation to the next and - like all other nonsense and faith-based beliefs and things totally ignorant - it's all just accepted without question. Identities are assigned and then assumed, and nothing in the process is ever questioned by the masses. And those who, for example, think that their path led them a place where they did "choose" something other than their parents' religion or beliefs and who think they chose to be, say, "A Buddhist," are also totally mistaken, totally devoid of any awareness at all of the effects of personality assumption and identification which have controlled everything that they have ever thought and said and done.]
The article continued:
The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop doing things simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always done things that way. The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop believing in concepts simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always believed in those concepts.
The Advaita Teachings invite you to question it all. The teachings offer a method by which you can be awakened, by which you can be enlightened, by which you can understand how you have been unconsciously driven by folklore that is thousands of years old, and how you can be free of all things that currently influence you and that unconsciously drive you.
It is no longer necessary for you to abide for the remainder of the relative existence in a supposedly "awake" state while actually being totally unconscious.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
F.: It is noted here how often the wisdom of Maharaj allowed for the sharing of non-dual pointers that no other teachers shared. One such pointer in particular is referenced here on occasion because it has proved to be so spot on. In an article available at floydhenderson.com, this is offered:
“Maharaj said that someday his teachings would be explained in terms of the science involved and that would expand the numbers of those with the Understanding of his teachings because those with a scientific (or more concrete than abstract) brain could know the Absolute. Of course science has never been necessary for the Understanding since all that one need to know is within, but science today does reaffirm the veracity of Maharaj’s words.”
The latest example was sent yesterday by a regular visitor to this site in a forwarded news article, part of which follows:
Scientists Discover Switch to Put On and Off Human Consciousness!
A group of scientists at George Washington University has claimed that they have achieved success in switching on and off a woman's consciousness. The scientists have been able to do so by electrically stimulating a single area of the brain. Published in the Journal of Epilepsy & Behavior this week, the research has paved a way for the development of an on / off switch.
The discovery of the switch in question was serendipitous because the real intention behind the study was to pinpoint the cause of the patient's seizures. The group was actually looking for the claustrum, a thin, sheet-like structure existing deep inside the brain, with the help of electrodes. However, the researchers found that the woman lost consciousness. They found that the patient was slowing down and speaking more slowly in addition to no response to voice or visual stimulation.
After the electrical stimulation was switched off, the woman gained full consciousness, but had no memory of what she experienced just before. “This study is incredibly intriguing but it is one brick in a large edifice of consciousness that we're trying to build,” said American neuroscientist Cristof Koch.
Koch said that what makes this discovery really interesting is the fact that the woman was awake despite being unconscious.”
Here since 1989, in satsang and other small groups or individual sessions or at retreats, Maharaj’s pointers about people walking about in their sleep and talking in their sleep and driving in their sleep and actually living out an entire relative existence in their sleep while being trapped in the “Dream of the Planet” has been discussed.
Most who heard those pointers likely minimized them by assuming, “Well, yeah, metaphorically speaking.” Yet Maharaj was not speaking metaphorically, and neither was I.
Now, once again, science has advanced to the point that it has now confirmed that that “a woman was awake despite being unconscious.”
In June of 2007, this was offered for consideration:
The delusions which persons (the non-Realized) live in—and which are addressed by the Advaita Teachings—are fixed in the “minds” of persons and are one dominant influence on their relative behavior and thought. The effects of those delusions are so dominant that persons are walking about in their sleep, talking in their sleep, and doing what they do in their sleep while actually believing that they are fully awake and while actually believing that they are controlling their thoughts and making their own decisions and choosing to do what they do.
Could it possibly be more insane-like than for persons to be driven by unconscious and subconscious factors while being convinced that they are awake and aware and conscious and exercising free-will and choice? Could the level of self-deception be any greater than for persons to be driven to say what they say and to do what they do without a clue about why they are doing it or why they are saying it?
[What insanity is displayed when persons believe that a mirage can have “needs,” yet that is a basic belief of billions and billions of persons on the planet. They accept that their culture’s dreamed up roles – which they play on a daily basis on the stage of “The Theater of the Lie” – are real; then, they believe that something that has been totally dreamed up can have "needs" that are also real. Talk about living out an entire relative existence from the sleep state, being “physically awake” though actually being “totally unconscious.”]
The 2007 post continued:
Consider this example:
A child watched her mother and grandmother in the kitchen as they cut a roast in half and put it into two small pans for cooking. When the child asked her mother why they didn’t just put the roast in their big pan, her mother said, “Because this is the way that your grandmother always did it. Maybe it involves flavor or cook time or something, is that right, Mom?” But the child’s grandmother answered her daughter, “Not really. That’s just the way my mother always did it.”
So the child picked up the phone and called her great-grandmother and asked, “Why did you always cut a roast in half and put it into two little pans instead of just putting it into one big pan for cooking?” And the great-grandmother replied, “Because we were poor back then and couldn’t afford to buy a big pan. I always had to cut our roasts in half and put the halves into our two small pans because we didn’t own a large pot.” So one person did something out of necessity, but then two more persons senselessly modeled that same behavior out of ignorance. And it took an act of questioning to finally expose the senselessness of the behavior that had been passed down, unconsciously and unquestioningly, for generations.
But even after the child returned from the phone call and revealed to her mother and her grandmother the root of their now senseless behavior, for the rest of their lives they still continued to cut their roasts in half and to put the two parts into small pans for cooking. Eventually, that child became an adult, married, had children and cooked roasts. And in her kitchen one afternoon, as she was cutting a roast in half and preparing to cook the two pieces for their evening meal, her child asked her, “Why don’t you just put the roast in the big pan to cook it?”
And she answered, “Well, I remember asking that question myself one time, but now I don’t remember exactly what the answer was. But I know that your great-great grandmother did it this way, and your great-grandmother did it this way, and your grandmother did it this way, so I just do it that way too.” And the little child said, "OK," and when she became an adult, she did it that way, too.
[See? Practically no one who is a Christian chose to be a Christian; practically no one who is a Muslim chose to be a Muslim; no one who is Jewish chose to be Jewish; practically no one who is a Hindu chose to be a Hindu. It's all just "stuff" passed down from one generation to the next and - like all other nonsense and faith-based beliefs and things totally ignorant - it's all just accepted without question. Identities are assigned and then assumed, and nothing in the process is ever questioned by the masses. And those who, for example, think that their path led them a place where they did "choose" something other than their parents' religion or beliefs and who think they chose to be, say, "A Buddhist," are also totally mistaken, totally devoid of any awareness at all of the effects of personality assumption and identification which have controlled everything that they have ever thought and said and done.]
The article continued:
The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop doing things simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always done things that way. The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop believing in concepts simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always believed in those concepts.
The Advaita Teachings invite you to question it all. The teachings offer a method by which you can be awakened, by which you can be enlightened, by which you can understand how you have been unconsciously driven by folklore that is thousands of years old, and how you can be free of all things that currently influence you and that unconsciously drive you.
It is no longer necessary for you to abide for the remainder of the relative existence in a supposedly "awake" state while actually being totally unconscious.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Most humans have no ability to relax and take it easy, all the lip service paid to those abilities notwithstanding. Why? Once again, because of personality identification.
All personalities / personas / roles require doingness and cannot continue their imaginary existence if merely enjoying the beingness. And the roles that are supposed to provide peace and the ability to relax actually require as much doingness as any other roles.
Here the Nisargan perspective is this: abide naturally. Losing oneself (one's self or selves) by taking a stance in the unwavering assurance of being identity-less and in the conviction of no-body-ness and in a state not of mindfulness but of no-minded-ness, then only does true peace and an ability to relax perfectly actually manifest.
Then only can one abide as do the deer that Maharaj held up as an example of a composite unity that can relax and rest in the cool, blue shade.
The Nisargan's invitation is to "get Real in order to get real," that is, Realize Truth - especially the truth surrounding the false belief in body and mind and personality identifications - in order to discard those beliefs once and for all so that you can abide naturally. The only justification for understanding THAT is so that "this" is no longer misunderstood.
In an email yesterday, a regular to the site who loves to taunt and pester in order to try to inspire a reaction noted that an article in the news recently explained that a few minutes of meditation can change one's entire day for the better. Of course he knew his email would be ignored, with a smile.
That practice is but one more example of the counter-productive and counter-intuitive doingness that ego-states like "The Spiritual One" can inspire.
Meditation was originally a process not whereby a brief period of samadhi could be achieved (by WHOM?) but was intended to allow a seeker to enter not into a "blank" state but to enter into what could almost be deemed to be a "hyper-aware state."
It was to be used only during the seeking process, allowing a seeker to take pointers from her or his teacher into silent contemplation in order to truly grasp the meanings. Once Realized, no more meditation is required. As Maharaj said, there is no longer any going into or out of samadhi. It is a continuous state, post-Realization, not a temporary condition that comes and goes.
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes of "peace of mind" is supposed to change one's entire day? If Realized, it is understood that there is no such thing as peace of mind and that there is only peace if you are out of your mind, completely and totally. That's just more spiritual doingness even as one claims to be subsumed in beingness along. One is either at peace for twenty-five minutes or one is at peace throughout all of the waking hours.
The point has been made about those who tout the spiritual and mental and emotional "benefits" of their yoga classes. Benefits to whom, exactly? Here, the point has been made, "So do your physical exercises and stretches if you choose. It happens here, too. But can you do them without assigning some supposedly supernatural aspect to them?"
That, too, just involves more spiritual doingness and going and doing and zooming, even as one claims to be subsumed in beingness along. One need not have special clothes and go to special places in order to do special stretchings and special bendings. That involves nothing more than actions that are supposedly "needed" to maintain a persona and to present a public image. Doingness, not beingness.
Next, if Realized, there is no self; therefore, all such instances of self-contradiction are eliminated. There is no "I do all of this going and doing and zooming so that I do not have to go and do and zoom and can then relax and be at peace." What? Really?
Too, cases have been described here where persons have placed the entire Am-ness "on hold." No love, no sex, no enjoyable foods, etc. All things pleasurable are sacrificed in order to maintain one's purity in order to break free of the cycles of birth-death-rebirth. Nonsense. Again, the only justification for Realizing is to take the sanity and wisdom that manifests via that process and then overlay it on the relative.
Get Real to get real. Get real to be free so you can enjoy the only existence that you will be able to enjoy: the one NOW. Get real in order to be free of all of the restraints and guilt and shame that big government and big religion and parents and cultures and other "authorities" would deprive you of.
Any opportunity to enjoy happiness or bliss is NOW. There is no "you" that will exist post-manifestation and that can enjoy anything "later." Your only shot at happiness and bliss and the enjoyment of the beingness is . . . NOW.
Finally, those who assume new and grander identities and who take themselves to be THAT alone have left reality and have moved into Foo-Foo-Land. Claiming to be in touch with Reality, they are more out of touch with reality than one who has never even sought. That's all just more "stuff" that ego-states come up with, and the ego-state of "The Spiritual Giant" can come up with as much nonsense as any person trapped in the ignorance and insanity that is so pervasive all around the globe.
The Nisargan invitation: Realize, but only to be able afterwards to abide naturally and spontaneously, having nothing that must be done to try to support any assumed or assigned personality and nothing that must be done in order to convince self or "others" that any persona is real when, in fact, all personas are totally phony.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 July 2014
F.: Most humans have no ability to relax and take it easy, all the lip service paid to those abilities notwithstanding. Why? Once again, because of personality identification.
All personalities / personas / roles require doingness and cannot continue their imaginary existence if merely enjoying the beingness. And the roles that are supposed to provide peace and the ability to relax actually require as much doingness as any other roles.
Here the Nisargan perspective is this: abide naturally. Losing oneself (one's self or selves) by taking a stance in the unwavering assurance of being identity-less and in the conviction of no-body-ness and in a state not of mindfulness but of no-minded-ness, then only does true peace and an ability to relax perfectly actually manifest.
Then only can one abide as do the deer that Maharaj held up as an example of a composite unity that can relax and rest in the cool, blue shade.
The Nisargan's invitation is to "get Real in order to get real," that is, Realize Truth - especially the truth surrounding the false belief in body and mind and personality identifications - in order to discard those beliefs once and for all so that you can abide naturally. The only justification for understanding THAT is so that "this" is no longer misunderstood.
In an email yesterday, a regular to the site who loves to taunt and pester in order to try to inspire a reaction noted that an article in the news recently explained that a few minutes of meditation can change one's entire day for the better. Of course he knew his email would be ignored, with a smile.
That practice is but one more example of the counter-productive and counter-intuitive doingness that ego-states like "The Spiritual One" can inspire.
Meditation was originally a process not whereby a brief period of samadhi could be achieved (by WHOM?) but was intended to allow a seeker to enter not into a "blank" state but to enter into what could almost be deemed to be a "hyper-aware state."
It was to be used only during the seeking process, allowing a seeker to take pointers from her or his teacher into silent contemplation in order to truly grasp the meanings. Once Realized, no more meditation is required. As Maharaj said, there is no longer any going into or out of samadhi. It is a continuous state, post-Realization, not a temporary condition that comes and goes.
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes of "peace of mind" is supposed to change one's entire day? If Realized, it is understood that there is no such thing as peace of mind and that there is only peace if you are out of your mind, completely and totally. That's just more spiritual doingness even as one claims to be subsumed in beingness along. One is either at peace for twenty-five minutes or one is at peace throughout all of the waking hours.
The point has been made about those who tout the spiritual and mental and emotional "benefits" of their yoga classes. Benefits to whom, exactly? Here, the point has been made, "So do your physical exercises and stretches if you choose. It happens here, too. But can you do them without assigning some supposedly supernatural aspect to them?"
That, too, just involves more spiritual doingness and going and doing and zooming, even as one claims to be subsumed in beingness along. One need not have special clothes and go to special places in order to do special stretchings and special bendings. That involves nothing more than actions that are supposedly "needed" to maintain a persona and to present a public image. Doingness, not beingness.
Next, if Realized, there is no self; therefore, all such instances of self-contradiction are eliminated. There is no "I do all of this going and doing and zooming so that I do not have to go and do and zoom and can then relax and be at peace." What? Really?
Too, cases have been described here where persons have placed the entire Am-ness "on hold." No love, no sex, no enjoyable foods, etc. All things pleasurable are sacrificed in order to maintain one's purity in order to break free of the cycles of birth-death-rebirth. Nonsense. Again, the only justification for Realizing is to take the sanity and wisdom that manifests via that process and then overlay it on the relative.
Get Real to get real. Get real to be free so you can enjoy the only existence that you will be able to enjoy: the one NOW. Get real in order to be free of all of the restraints and guilt and shame that big government and big religion and parents and cultures and other "authorities" would deprive you of.
Any opportunity to enjoy happiness or bliss is NOW. There is no "you" that will exist post-manifestation and that can enjoy anything "later." Your only shot at happiness and bliss and the enjoyment of the beingness is . . . NOW.
Finally, those who assume new and grander identities and who take themselves to be THAT alone have left reality and have moved into Foo-Foo-Land. Claiming to be in touch with Reality, they are more out of touch with reality than one who has never even sought. That's all just more "stuff" that ego-states come up with, and the ego-state of "The Spiritual Giant" can come up with as much nonsense as any person trapped in the ignorance and insanity that is so pervasive all around the globe.
The Nisargan invitation: Realize, but only to be able afterwards to abide naturally and spontaneously, having nothing that must be done to try to support any assumed or assigned personality and nothing that must be done in order to convince self or "others" that any persona is real when, in fact, all personas are totally phony.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: To review:
Maharaj, along with many other sages of the East for one century after another, advised seekers to be rid of personality and to thereby be free of personality’s ability to determine thoughts and words and behaviors.
Maharaj also noted that science would one day reach a point where it could provide evidence of the validity of the non-dual teachings as well as the non-dual understanding of the functioning of the totality.
Science has reached that point, so the science of the enneagram – the most accurate and effective tool for understanding personality and the way it functions as well as the toll that it takes on the relative existence of those trapped in personality identification – can show, as Maharaj predicted,
(a) why few will ever Realize and
(b) why most will experience a relative existence dominated by flux and chaos and instability of the type referenced in the non-dual pointer that “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
This was offered yesterday:
So 50% of the people on the planet are “pre-wired” to be Type Sixes who prefer dependency and co-dependency. Only ½ of 1% have any chance of being “pre-wired” as Type Fours to seek Realization and authenticity (with Types 1, 2 and 5 also having a greater-than-average chance of being influence somewhat by the Four’s preference for being free of dependency and co-dependency).
Then this was asked: So what will the relative existence be like for those Type Sixes? They will “live in the triangle,” as it is called, sometimes acting like a Type Six, sometimes acting like a Type Three, and sometimes acting like a Type Nine.
Their constant shifting from the 3 to the 6 to the 9 assures a relative existence which will be dominated by chaos and dual-mindedness and instability.
To continue:
LIVING IN THE TRIANGLE
In enneagram terms, to "live in the triangle" is to shift throughout the day from being driven by the hidden agenda of the Type 3 at times to being driven by the hidden agenda of the 6 at other times to being driven by the hidden agenda of the 9 at other times.
That kind of shifting can happen no matter what the primary personality type of a person might be, but since there are more persons trapped in the 3-6-9 triangle (because at least 50% of the people on the planet are 6’s and because you can add in the 9’s and 3’s which elevates the total of those living in the triangle), and it can then be seen why the planet-wide chaos and instability is best understood when looking at this scenario.
Now to the use of the science of personality to explain the non-dual teachings regarding personality, as Maharaj advised: notice in the enneagram pictograph that each type is connected to two others types by lines, and the lines that connect the variety of three points all form triangles:
Note, however, that while all of the other triangles are either scalene triangles or isosceles triangles, only one triangle is of the equilateral type:
The message? Again, while every person can be driven by other personality types in addition to their primary type, those "living in the equilateral triangle" are - more often than not - being driven more or less "equally" by three types and can therefore behave as one type in one instant, as another type in the next instance, and as a third type moments later. The result is that those living in the triangle have considerable work to do if they would be free of the volatility, the instability, and the chaos (and, therefore, insanity) that comes with such shifting and unpredictability.
At one moment, those "in the triangle" (again, constituting the majority of persons on the planet) can shift from being charming Type 3’s to fear-based Type 6’s that go on the attack if they or their business or their success or their relationship feels threatened. At other times, they can be influenced by the Type 9 and will want to maintain their inner peace at all costs and will avoid “rocking the boat.” Too, the Type 3's desire for success can be stymied by the Type 9's tendency to avoid or to be lazy. When three types are at cross-purposes, any individual – but especially the majority on the planet who are “living in the equilateral triangle” - will often feel "torn" or "pulled in many different directions."
Additionally, while those on the right side of the pictograph (2, 3, 4) must deal mainly with depression and those on the left side (5, 6, 7) must deal mainly with fear and those at the top (8, 9, 1) must deal mainly with anger, those "living in the triangle" can be called on to deal with all three – depression, fear, and anger - at any given moment of any given day as they are constantly shifting, being driven by right side influences then by left side influences and then by top side influences as they move about the triangle throughout the years, the months, the weeks, the days, or even a series of moments.
The way that looks in action was described some time back:
Companies contract with me to (a) use the enneagram test results of applicants to assist owners in determining who should be hired or not, based on an what applicant’s scores can predict about the way that person in going to behave in the workplace; and to (b) consult with workers in staff development sessions to show them why they are behaving the way they are behaving, what personality-driven behaviors could be eliminated to make their work experience more productive, and what could be enhanced to make their experience more productive.
In a staff meeting at one company, the CEO had called in his department heads for a meeting. The CEO was a Type 3, one adept at playing the role of “The Charming One.” His greetings as the heads entered were so entrancing and amiable and charismatic that many thought that they were being gathered to be told that they were going to all receive an annual bonus for their excellent work.
But the CEO was a Type 3, charming one minute while able to shift to an attack mode the next. The 3’s basic fear is of failure while a 3’s primary desire is to succeed. Coming up during the meeting, they were about to watch the boss shift from being driven by the agenda of the 3 to being driven by the agenda the 6 to being driven by the agenda of the 9, all within a matter of minutes.
The purpose of the meeting was soon made clear: one worker had failed in his responsibility to address the needs of a customer, and the employee’s dereliction was taken as a threat to the CEO’s Type 3 desire for success and triggered his 3’s fear of failure. The CEO suddenly shifted to the 6 (which is the fear-based and anxious and dependent and co-dependent type that wants others to meet his needs).
The agenda of the 3 to succeed and its fear of failure sent the CEO totally into his Type Six identity where fears are exaggerated and often blown so far out of proportion that the Type 6 mistakes certain acts as even being life-threatening.
The CEO began to rip the department heads apart verbally in front of the worker’s peers. The raging went on for at least ten minutes. When the CEO felt he had adequately made an example of the employee and felt he had properly intimidated all of the other department heads, he dismissed the group.
As they began filing out of the conference room, the CEO shifted to the 9 (“The Peacemaker”) and the 3 (“The Charmer”). He put his arm around the shoulder of the head who had just been humiliated, and asked, “So how’s everything else? The wife and kids all OK?”
The man was shocked, as were the others watching the scene, certain that the CEO was the craziest, most unstable person they’d ever met. They did not know the cause, but you do: the man was totally driven by his false personality identifications, so within fifteen or twenty minutes, he had assumed the persona of a charming 3, then the persona of a fear-driven 6, and then the persona of a quiet and peace-loving 9.
If you have ever lived with someone in the triangle, you understand how it feels to never know “who is going to show up today” and to wonder, “Who is going to be on the other side of the door when I walk into the house tonight?” or “Am I about to see ‘Hug’ or ‘Slug’ when I walk inside?” Be ready for Borderline Personality-type displays of “I love you, I hate you.” Insane? Yes. And that is the way it is when personality is driving thoughts and words and actions.
All of that flux and chaos and instability was rooted in the hidden, subconscious agendas of three personality types that determined the CEO’s thoughts and words and actions, and it has been found here after analyzing thousands of sets of enneagram test scores that most humans are being driven unconsciously by the agendas of three to five different personality types. And that is guaranteed to generate insanity.
What of the employees who were certain that the CEO was the craziest person they’d ever met? They were on the right track in their analysis. Abiding under the influence of personality, and bouncing around inside the enneagram pictograph like a metal ball in a pin ball machine, is insane.
Again, while some persons deal mostly with the 8-9-1’s anger or with the 2-3-4’s depression or with the 5-6-7’s fears, those in the triangle can “visit” all three sections within a matter of minutes. They can exhibit charm or depression one moment, confidence or fear the next, and rage or peacefulness the next. The employees were spot on: that’s insane, but that is the way the majority on persons on the planet abide, trapped as they are in their personality trance.
No matter what their primary type, persons can shift from one type to another instantly. The kind, love-seeking Two can shift to the vicious, near-sociopathic 8 in an instant, and the same shift can happen with any of the other types as well. The 3-6-9 combination was focused on only because it is the most commonly-occurring personality scenario on the planet.
Again, there’s another option: complete all seven steps; Realize; be free of the subconscious influence of personality which control thoughts and words and behaviors; overlay Reality on the relative existence; and abide sanely, driven by true wisdom rather than by the unconscious agendas of false identities / personalities.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
3 July 2014
F.: To review:
Maharaj, along with many other sages of the East for one century after another, advised seekers to be rid of personality and to thereby be free of personality’s ability to determine thoughts and words and behaviors.
Maharaj also noted that science would one day reach a point where it could provide evidence of the validity of the non-dual teachings as well as the non-dual understanding of the functioning of the totality.
Science has reached that point, so the science of the enneagram – the most accurate and effective tool for understanding personality and the way it functions as well as the toll that it takes on the relative existence of those trapped in personality identification – can show, as Maharaj predicted,
(a) why few will ever Realize and
(b) why most will experience a relative existence dominated by flux and chaos and instability of the type referenced in the non-dual pointer that “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
This was offered yesterday:
So 50% of the people on the planet are “pre-wired” to be Type Sixes who prefer dependency and co-dependency. Only ½ of 1% have any chance of being “pre-wired” as Type Fours to seek Realization and authenticity (with Types 1, 2 and 5 also having a greater-than-average chance of being influence somewhat by the Four’s preference for being free of dependency and co-dependency).
Then this was asked: So what will the relative existence be like for those Type Sixes? They will “live in the triangle,” as it is called, sometimes acting like a Type Six, sometimes acting like a Type Three, and sometimes acting like a Type Nine.
Their constant shifting from the 3 to the 6 to the 9 assures a relative existence which will be dominated by chaos and dual-mindedness and instability.
To continue:
LIVING IN THE TRIANGLE
In enneagram terms, to "live in the triangle" is to shift throughout the day from being driven by the hidden agenda of the Type 3 at times to being driven by the hidden agenda of the 6 at other times to being driven by the hidden agenda of the 9 at other times.
That kind of shifting can happen no matter what the primary personality type of a person might be, but since there are more persons trapped in the 3-6-9 triangle (because at least 50% of the people on the planet are 6’s and because you can add in the 9’s and 3’s which elevates the total of those living in the triangle), and it can then be seen why the planet-wide chaos and instability is best understood when looking at this scenario.
Now to the use of the science of personality to explain the non-dual teachings regarding personality, as Maharaj advised: notice in the enneagram pictograph that each type is connected to two others types by lines, and the lines that connect the variety of three points all form triangles:
Note, however, that while all of the other triangles are either scalene triangles or isosceles triangles, only one triangle is of the equilateral type:
The message? Again, while every person can be driven by other personality types in addition to their primary type, those "living in the equilateral triangle" are - more often than not - being driven more or less "equally" by three types and can therefore behave as one type in one instant, as another type in the next instance, and as a third type moments later. The result is that those living in the triangle have considerable work to do if they would be free of the volatility, the instability, and the chaos (and, therefore, insanity) that comes with such shifting and unpredictability.
At one moment, those "in the triangle" (again, constituting the majority of persons on the planet) can shift from being charming Type 3’s to fear-based Type 6’s that go on the attack if they or their business or their success or their relationship feels threatened. At other times, they can be influenced by the Type 9 and will want to maintain their inner peace at all costs and will avoid “rocking the boat.” Too, the Type 3's desire for success can be stymied by the Type 9's tendency to avoid or to be lazy. When three types are at cross-purposes, any individual – but especially the majority on the planet who are “living in the equilateral triangle” - will often feel "torn" or "pulled in many different directions."
Additionally, while those on the right side of the pictograph (2, 3, 4) must deal mainly with depression and those on the left side (5, 6, 7) must deal mainly with fear and those at the top (8, 9, 1) must deal mainly with anger, those "living in the triangle" can be called on to deal with all three – depression, fear, and anger - at any given moment of any given day as they are constantly shifting, being driven by right side influences then by left side influences and then by top side influences as they move about the triangle throughout the years, the months, the weeks, the days, or even a series of moments.
The way that looks in action was described some time back:
Companies contract with me to (a) use the enneagram test results of applicants to assist owners in determining who should be hired or not, based on an what applicant’s scores can predict about the way that person in going to behave in the workplace; and to (b) consult with workers in staff development sessions to show them why they are behaving the way they are behaving, what personality-driven behaviors could be eliminated to make their work experience more productive, and what could be enhanced to make their experience more productive.
In a staff meeting at one company, the CEO had called in his department heads for a meeting. The CEO was a Type 3, one adept at playing the role of “The Charming One.” His greetings as the heads entered were so entrancing and amiable and charismatic that many thought that they were being gathered to be told that they were going to all receive an annual bonus for their excellent work.
But the CEO was a Type 3, charming one minute while able to shift to an attack mode the next. The 3’s basic fear is of failure while a 3’s primary desire is to succeed. Coming up during the meeting, they were about to watch the boss shift from being driven by the agenda of the 3 to being driven by the agenda the 6 to being driven by the agenda of the 9, all within a matter of minutes.
The purpose of the meeting was soon made clear: one worker had failed in his responsibility to address the needs of a customer, and the employee’s dereliction was taken as a threat to the CEO’s Type 3 desire for success and triggered his 3’s fear of failure. The CEO suddenly shifted to the 6 (which is the fear-based and anxious and dependent and co-dependent type that wants others to meet his needs).
The agenda of the 3 to succeed and its fear of failure sent the CEO totally into his Type Six identity where fears are exaggerated and often blown so far out of proportion that the Type 6 mistakes certain acts as even being life-threatening.
The CEO began to rip the department heads apart verbally in front of the worker’s peers. The raging went on for at least ten minutes. When the CEO felt he had adequately made an example of the employee and felt he had properly intimidated all of the other department heads, he dismissed the group.
As they began filing out of the conference room, the CEO shifted to the 9 (“The Peacemaker”) and the 3 (“The Charmer”). He put his arm around the shoulder of the head who had just been humiliated, and asked, “So how’s everything else? The wife and kids all OK?”
The man was shocked, as were the others watching the scene, certain that the CEO was the craziest, most unstable person they’d ever met. They did not know the cause, but you do: the man was totally driven by his false personality identifications, so within fifteen or twenty minutes, he had assumed the persona of a charming 3, then the persona of a fear-driven 6, and then the persona of a quiet and peace-loving 9.
If you have ever lived with someone in the triangle, you understand how it feels to never know “who is going to show up today” and to wonder, “Who is going to be on the other side of the door when I walk into the house tonight?” or “Am I about to see ‘Hug’ or ‘Slug’ when I walk inside?” Be ready for Borderline Personality-type displays of “I love you, I hate you.” Insane? Yes. And that is the way it is when personality is driving thoughts and words and actions.
All of that flux and chaos and instability was rooted in the hidden, subconscious agendas of three personality types that determined the CEO’s thoughts and words and actions, and it has been found here after analyzing thousands of sets of enneagram test scores that most humans are being driven unconsciously by the agendas of three to five different personality types. And that is guaranteed to generate insanity.
What of the employees who were certain that the CEO was the craziest person they’d ever met? They were on the right track in their analysis. Abiding under the influence of personality, and bouncing around inside the enneagram pictograph like a metal ball in a pin ball machine, is insane.
Again, while some persons deal mostly with the 8-9-1’s anger or with the 2-3-4’s depression or with the 5-6-7’s fears, those in the triangle can “visit” all three sections within a matter of minutes. They can exhibit charm or depression one moment, confidence or fear the next, and rage or peacefulness the next. The employees were spot on: that’s insane, but that is the way the majority on persons on the planet abide, trapped as they are in their personality trance.
No matter what their primary type, persons can shift from one type to another instantly. The kind, love-seeking Two can shift to the vicious, near-sociopathic 8 in an instant, and the same shift can happen with any of the other types as well. The 3-6-9 combination was focused on only because it is the most commonly-occurring personality scenario on the planet.
Again, there’s another option: complete all seven steps; Realize; be free of the subconscious influence of personality which control thoughts and words and behaviors; overlay Reality on the relative existence; and abide sanely, driven by true wisdom rather than by the unconscious agendas of false identities / personalities.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
3 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Maharaj talked more about personality and being free of its influence than any other single subject. He also said that, someday, science would advance to the point where it would be able to prove, factually, all aspects of the non-dual understanding and the functioning of the totality. He recommended using that science once it could provide the factual proof.
Personality. Science.
Today, the science of personality has advanced to that point which Maharaj predicted, so let us return today to another understanding about personality and its machinations and about how it adversely impacts the relative existence of billions of persons.
The most significant aspect of personality (as far as the science behind the non-dual teachings is concerned) is this: the distribution of the primary personality types explains why only a few will Realize and why most will not.
The reason why so few will Realize and why so many will never Realize can be understood by understanding the two extremes that exist in terms of how many on the planet are of one type or the other. The issue deals with how many Type Sixes there are on the planet vs. how many Type Fours there are on the planet.
First, the Type Four (like Maharaj): they are individualists, lovers of independence, lovers of total freedom, and they care not a whit about the agenda of authorities who want to control every aspect of every person’s life (be that authority big government, big religion, big business or the many authoritarian-type persons moving about on the globe).
At the other extreme in terms of the distribution of personality types among the 7,000,000,000+ persons on the planet are the Type Sixes who are not individualists; who go along with the crowd; who seek out authority and remain loyal to the same in order to have a caretaker; and who are dependent and co-dependent types.
Sixes really care nothing about total freedom (while giving great lip service to the concept of freedom and independence) but who prefer to establish relationships with those who will meet or help meet their needs for housing, clothing, food, etc.; and who align themselves with the agendas of authorities (be that authority big government, big religion, big business or a big god or gods or goddesses). They are primarily driven by fear and anxiety and subconsciously seek out ways to “feel secure” by aligning themselves with what they take to be "sources of power / Power."
Thus, millions of Sixes join the military or work for a police force (or both, many working in law enforcement after leaving the military) or work as security guards – note the preference for gun-toting occupations - or work in the “justice” system or in the corporate world where big business perks will supposedly meet their financial needs.
To understand why few will Realize, consider the percentage of those who are Type Fours vs. the percent of those who are Type Sixes:
Note the actual numbers which those percentages translate into at the present moment on the planet:
Maharaj guesstimated originally that only 1 in 100,000 would ever Realize. After more years of working with seekers, he changed that to only 1 in 1,000,000. Eventually, after decades of working with seekers, he changed his guess to 1 in 10,000,000.
Today, the science of personality and the science of the enneagram suggest how spot on he may have been. While any type can Realize, the likelihood is very high that 50% (the Type Sixes) will never seek Realization, much less find it. They will continue to prefer dependency and co-dependency (on business and religion and government and partners / mates / spouses) and will never seek to be free because they are not truly interested in the least in the prospect of total freedom and total independence. Entitlement will reign.
Conversely, only ½ of 1% (the Type Fours) are likely to have an inclination to be free and independent, but then what lesser portion of those will ever find the “path” which non-dualists offer and thereby reach that condition of being totally free?
So what will the relative existence be like for most Type Sixes? They will “live in the triangle,” as it is called, sometimes acting like a Type Six, sometimes acting like a Type Three, sometimes acting like a Type 9, and sometimes developing a counter-phobic attitude and exhibiting the chaotic, unpredictable traits that come with the Borderline Personality Disorder (i.e., "I love you, I hate you" and "Prepare for a chaotic, unpredictable Hug-Slug existence if you stay with me.")
Their constant shifting from the 3 to the 6 to the 9 (and sometimes to an angry, counter-phobic 4) assures a relative existence which will be dominated by chaos and dual-mindedness and instability (and which will often be marked by the effects of the Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder (P.D.), the Paranoid P.D., the Dependent / Co-Dependent P.D., and the Borderline P.D. More on that tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a different option to consider: complete all seven steps; Realize; be free of all of the subconscious motives of personality that drive thoughts and words and actions; overlay Reality on the relative existence; and then abide sanely, driven by true wisdom rather than by the unconscious forces of false identities / personalities.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
2 July 2014
F.: Maharaj talked more about personality and being free of its influence than any other single subject. He also said that, someday, science would advance to the point where it would be able to prove, factually, all aspects of the non-dual understanding and the functioning of the totality. He recommended using that science once it could provide the factual proof.
Personality. Science.
Today, the science of personality has advanced to that point which Maharaj predicted, so let us return today to another understanding about personality and its machinations and about how it adversely impacts the relative existence of billions of persons.
The most significant aspect of personality (as far as the science behind the non-dual teachings is concerned) is this: the distribution of the primary personality types explains why only a few will Realize and why most will not.
The reason why so few will Realize and why so many will never Realize can be understood by understanding the two extremes that exist in terms of how many on the planet are of one type or the other. The issue deals with how many Type Sixes there are on the planet vs. how many Type Fours there are on the planet.
First, the Type Four (like Maharaj): they are individualists, lovers of independence, lovers of total freedom, and they care not a whit about the agenda of authorities who want to control every aspect of every person’s life (be that authority big government, big religion, big business or the many authoritarian-type persons moving about on the globe).
At the other extreme in terms of the distribution of personality types among the 7,000,000,000+ persons on the planet are the Type Sixes who are not individualists; who go along with the crowd; who seek out authority and remain loyal to the same in order to have a caretaker; and who are dependent and co-dependent types.
Sixes really care nothing about total freedom (while giving great lip service to the concept of freedom and independence) but who prefer to establish relationships with those who will meet or help meet their needs for housing, clothing, food, etc.; and who align themselves with the agendas of authorities (be that authority big government, big religion, big business or a big god or gods or goddesses). They are primarily driven by fear and anxiety and subconsciously seek out ways to “feel secure” by aligning themselves with what they take to be "sources of power / Power."
Thus, millions of Sixes join the military or work for a police force (or both, many working in law enforcement after leaving the military) or work as security guards – note the preference for gun-toting occupations - or work in the “justice” system or in the corporate world where big business perks will supposedly meet their financial needs.
To understand why few will Realize, consider the percentage of those who are Type Fours vs. the percent of those who are Type Sixes:
Note the actual numbers which those percentages translate into at the present moment on the planet:
Maharaj guesstimated originally that only 1 in 100,000 would ever Realize. After more years of working with seekers, he changed that to only 1 in 1,000,000. Eventually, after decades of working with seekers, he changed his guess to 1 in 10,000,000.
Today, the science of personality and the science of the enneagram suggest how spot on he may have been. While any type can Realize, the likelihood is very high that 50% (the Type Sixes) will never seek Realization, much less find it. They will continue to prefer dependency and co-dependency (on business and religion and government and partners / mates / spouses) and will never seek to be free because they are not truly interested in the least in the prospect of total freedom and total independence. Entitlement will reign.
Conversely, only ½ of 1% (the Type Fours) are likely to have an inclination to be free and independent, but then what lesser portion of those will ever find the “path” which non-dualists offer and thereby reach that condition of being totally free?
So what will the relative existence be like for most Type Sixes? They will “live in the triangle,” as it is called, sometimes acting like a Type Six, sometimes acting like a Type Three, sometimes acting like a Type 9, and sometimes developing a counter-phobic attitude and exhibiting the chaotic, unpredictable traits that come with the Borderline Personality Disorder (i.e., "I love you, I hate you" and "Prepare for a chaotic, unpredictable Hug-Slug existence if you stay with me.")
Their constant shifting from the 3 to the 6 to the 9 (and sometimes to an angry, counter-phobic 4) assures a relative existence which will be dominated by chaos and dual-mindedness and instability (and which will often be marked by the effects of the Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder (P.D.), the Paranoid P.D., the Dependent / Co-Dependent P.D., and the Borderline P.D. More on that tomorrow.
Look around the planet. Does that style of living look familiar? Understand why now? 50% are more likely than not to be snared in that particular personality trap.
Meanwhile, a different option to consider: complete all seven steps; Realize; be free of all of the subconscious motives of personality that drive thoughts and words and actions; overlay Reality on the relative existence; and then abide sanely, driven by true wisdom rather than by the unconscious forces of false identities / personalities.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
2 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Allusion was made in recent posts to the fact that “birth” and “life” and “death” are mere concepts, totally mythical, yet the term “death” is used here on occasion not in the context of "a person coming to an end" but in the context of “belief in ideas coming to an end.”
Freedom from belief in “phony, dreamed-up needs” - and the discomfort and dis-ease and angst and even misery that those perceived needs can generate – requires a “death” . . . requires that the belief in the false needs of false selves dies away.
Great joy – even bliss – only comes with that kind of “death.” That has nothing to do with the kind of post-manifestation, reward-accompanied “death” that the non-Realized talk about or the kind of post-manifestation, punishment-accompanied "death" that persons fear; instead, it refers to the kind of required “death” that can come not later but at the only time that joy and happiness and bliss can be “experienced,” namely, now.
[NOTE: Why are “phony, dreamed-up needs” guaranteed to generate discomfort and dis-ease and angst and even misery? Because they are the imaginary needs of imaginary identities, and nothing that is imaginary can “have” anything, including “needs.” The relative existence of non-Realized persons is totally consumed with trying to meet the needs of the child of a barren woman. Insane, yes?]
Yet imaginary personalities / personas / roles will nevertheless inspire a sense of misery and suffering if their perceived “needs” are not being met – the primary perceived “need” of every role being a co-dependent, counterpart role player that is always required for any roles to be assumed to be “real:
“Spouse” must have a spouse to “be”; “Employee” must have an employer to “be”; “The Super Spouse” must have a super spouse to “be,” etc.
To believe that one’s assumed roles are real – and there are billions on the planet making that assumption – and to allow the phony needs of phony roles to determine is one if happy or sad, based on the presence or the absence of a counterpart role player, sets one up for misery (which is rooted in believing that one’s happiness is dependent on an external – actually many externals – rather than on addressing effectively the internal issues that must be addressed in order to be free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness and to thereafter feel . . . well).
To play such insanity-based games around imaginary identities and their imaginary needs is tantamount to saying this:
[A cabbie picks up a fare at the airport and says]: “Welcome to Phoenix. As I drive you to the hotel, I’ll swing through a dry, arid area where I saw the loveliest mirage yesterday. You’re going to love it.” [Continues driving.] “Okay, it’s going to be just ahead after the road straightens out after we go around this curve.” [Drives further, then says] “Wait a minute. What’s going on? It was right here. I saw it in this exact same spot just twenty-four hours ago. Damn! This is disappointing. I’m really sad. I’m sorry we’ve missed out on it. I don’t know what happened to it.”
[Once the fare has been dropped off at hotel, the fare certain that he has met a man who is totally trapped in insanity, the cabbie speaks to a friend who asks]: “What’s wrong? You look miserable?” The cabbie replies: “I’m really down. There was a mirage I fell in love with yesterday. It was lovely, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. But it left and I’m already missing it big time. You know, mirages need to get their act together. They need to stay. They need to be reliable. They need to always be there for you. They need to be there when we want them and when we want to see them and when we want to be seen with them.”
Is that a too-far-out illustration? Or have you perchance talked to a “Husband” who had entered a state of deep and dark misery because "wife" said, “I am leaving,” which actually means this:
“I was playing a role that was accepted because of acculturation. Our culture programmed and conditioned us to believe that we must marry and raise a family in order to be happy (or to at least be considered ‘normal’) and to believe what we are told by men in robes when they say, ‘I now pronounce that you are husband and wife.’ But I am tired of playing the co-dependent, counterpart role of ‘wife’ that is required for you to continue to play your role of ‘husband,’ so goodbye.”
Isn’t (1) “The Miserable Husband Who Is Miserable Because He Is Soon To Be the Ex-Husband As a Result of the Fact That an External That He ‘Needed’ in Order To "Be" and To Be Happy Is Leaving” just as delusional as (2) the cabbie in the example above who thinks he needs a mirage to be happy and needs mirages to behave in certain ways for him to be happy and who believes the mirage needs to do certain things consistently as well?
Isn’t “The Ex-Husband-To-Be” really the same? “Damn! This is disappointing. I’m really sad. I’m going to miss out. I don’t know what happened, but I’m really down. There was a mirage I fell in love with. She was lovely, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. But she left and I’m already missing her big time. You know, I have the belief that wives need to get their act together. They need to stay. They need to be reliable. They need to always be there for you. They need to be there when we want them and when we want to see them and when we want to be seen with them. That's what I believe. That's what I need.”
Either the understanding that (A) “husbanding” can happen even without assuming the false identity of “The Husband” or (B) one is going to assume that role or some other role (or many other roles) that generate a belief in perceived but phony needs which involve other role players or externals that will be thought to be a requirement in order for happiness or a sense of security or a sense of “completion” to manifest.
Either one understands that the child of a barren woman can have no needs at all or one shall suffer the same misery generated by all ignorance-and-insanity-laden minds. And one either understands that a barren woman mourning "the loss" of an imaginary child is trapped in ignorance and insanity or one shall be trapped in both of those as well.
While manifested, the actual needs of a composite unity include food, clothing and shelter. All "personal needs" are imagined.
The “death” of all assumed personalities / personas / roles must happen first if happiness is to happen consistently; otherwise, "The False Identity Assumers" shall forever be at the mercy of externals for their happiness, and externals (1) are never permanent, (b) cannot be controlled, (c) are never consistent, and (d) will – as predicted by the Second Law of Thermodynamics – come and go.
Whatever comes together will eventually come apart, yet those trapped in ignorance and insanity will deny the scientifically-based facts that Maharaj touted and believe instead that what comes together shall stay together, forever, and will believe that "what God has joined together, no one should put asunder."
[And all who believe in their false roles shall know how truly painful "asundering" can be because there are so many out there who give great asunder.]
In his “Editor’s Note” to two non-duality anthologies, Andy Gugar, Jr. described some happenings that occurred during his initial visit here:
I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to "go ahead and die now."
Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must "die."
I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
As I entered, I shouted, "Knock knock ... anybody home?" He yelled back, "No." I got it ... I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body ... nobody.
So what must “die” for happiness to manifest at the only point where it can be enjoyed (specifically, now)?
First, self-love, rooted in the belief that one is "something" rather than "nothing," as Andy suggests; then, for those who take themselves to be “Fully Realized,” the concept of “Self-Love” must also die away. "Self-Love" is rooted in the belief that one is "Something" rather than "nothing," as Andy suggests. (Relatedly, once in The Light, any earlier desire to “be in the spotlight” will die away as all sense of being "something special" and being "Something Special" are burned away by The Light.)
Too, “The Connoisseur of Consciousness” must die away; moreover, concepts, ideas, perceptions / misperceptions, notions, thoughts, designs, plans, schemes, inspirations, emotions (but not feelings), brainstorms, impressions, memories, images, opinions, views, and inklings (a.k.a., “beliefs”) must die away as well.
Next, self-esteem and Self-esteem must die away. It has been asked on occasion, “How can I help my mate with her / his low self-esteem issues?” The reply: “Low? High? What are those except just more dualistic concepts? Address their low self-esteem and replace it with high self-esteem? Are you sure you want to do that?"
What almost always results when low self-esteem is replaced with high self-esteem? A false “self” with esteem and, more often than not, narcissism. As Maharaj reported: I am not a Spiritual Giant as you are. Next to you, I am but a spiritual pygmy.
Besides, how do you know that it is low-self-esteem that is really driving whatever behaviors you have decided need to change? Few trapped in their personas are likely to always have high self-esteem or to always have low self-esteem. What persons do have is (a) a sense of self-ness, which needs to go, and (b) more often than not, a duality-based, egomania-inferiority complex combination.
All ego-states have a primary desire and a primary fear. When an ego-state / personality / persona / false self thinks it is “getting” what it desires, a narcissistic cockiness can manifest; when it “loses” what it desires and is thus in fear, the fear can show up as anger, then switch to the other side of the anger coin – namely - depression, and then supposedly exhibit what is mistaken for “low self-esteem.”
All of that generates the instability which marks and mars the relative existence, and instability always accompanies ego-state assumption and the accompanying egotism that manifests in order to try to defend and support the continuity of every assumed ego-state.
To be free of misery, once must be free of the belief that there are “personal needs” which are not being met; to be free of the belief that there are “personal needs” which are not being met, one must be free of the belief in false, personal identities that generate a belief in such perceived but phony “needs.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
1 July 2014
F.: Allusion was made in recent posts to the fact that “birth” and “life” and “death” are mere concepts, totally mythical, yet the term “death” is used here on occasion not in the context of "a person coming to an end" but in the context of “belief in ideas coming to an end.”
Freedom from belief in “phony, dreamed-up needs” - and the discomfort and dis-ease and angst and even misery that those perceived needs can generate – requires a “death” . . . requires that the belief in the false needs of false selves dies away.
Great joy – even bliss – only comes with that kind of “death.” That has nothing to do with the kind of post-manifestation, reward-accompanied “death” that the non-Realized talk about or the kind of post-manifestation, punishment-accompanied "death" that persons fear; instead, it refers to the kind of required “death” that can come not later but at the only time that joy and happiness and bliss can be “experienced,” namely, now.
[NOTE: Why are “phony, dreamed-up needs” guaranteed to generate discomfort and dis-ease and angst and even misery? Because they are the imaginary needs of imaginary identities, and nothing that is imaginary can “have” anything, including “needs.” The relative existence of non-Realized persons is totally consumed with trying to meet the needs of the child of a barren woman. Insane, yes?]
Yet imaginary personalities / personas / roles will nevertheless inspire a sense of misery and suffering if their perceived “needs” are not being met – the primary perceived “need” of every role being a co-dependent, counterpart role player that is always required for any roles to be assumed to be “real:
“Spouse” must have a spouse to “be”; “Employee” must have an employer to “be”; “The Super Spouse” must have a super spouse to “be,” etc.
To believe that one’s assumed roles are real – and there are billions on the planet making that assumption – and to allow the phony needs of phony roles to determine is one if happy or sad, based on the presence or the absence of a counterpart role player, sets one up for misery (which is rooted in believing that one’s happiness is dependent on an external – actually many externals – rather than on addressing effectively the internal issues that must be addressed in order to be free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness and to thereafter feel . . . well).
To play such insanity-based games around imaginary identities and their imaginary needs is tantamount to saying this:
[A cabbie picks up a fare at the airport and says]: “Welcome to Phoenix. As I drive you to the hotel, I’ll swing through a dry, arid area where I saw the loveliest mirage yesterday. You’re going to love it.” [Continues driving.] “Okay, it’s going to be just ahead after the road straightens out after we go around this curve.” [Drives further, then says] “Wait a minute. What’s going on? It was right here. I saw it in this exact same spot just twenty-four hours ago. Damn! This is disappointing. I’m really sad. I’m sorry we’ve missed out on it. I don’t know what happened to it.”
[Once the fare has been dropped off at hotel, the fare certain that he has met a man who is totally trapped in insanity, the cabbie speaks to a friend who asks]: “What’s wrong? You look miserable?” The cabbie replies: “I’m really down. There was a mirage I fell in love with yesterday. It was lovely, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. But it left and I’m already missing it big time. You know, mirages need to get their act together. They need to stay. They need to be reliable. They need to always be there for you. They need to be there when we want them and when we want to see them and when we want to be seen with them.”
Is that a too-far-out illustration? Or have you perchance talked to a “Husband” who had entered a state of deep and dark misery because "wife" said, “I am leaving,” which actually means this:
“I was playing a role that was accepted because of acculturation. Our culture programmed and conditioned us to believe that we must marry and raise a family in order to be happy (or to at least be considered ‘normal’) and to believe what we are told by men in robes when they say, ‘I now pronounce that you are husband and wife.’ But I am tired of playing the co-dependent, counterpart role of ‘wife’ that is required for you to continue to play your role of ‘husband,’ so goodbye.”
Isn’t (1) “The Miserable Husband Who Is Miserable Because He Is Soon To Be the Ex-Husband As a Result of the Fact That an External That He ‘Needed’ in Order To "Be" and To Be Happy Is Leaving” just as delusional as (2) the cabbie in the example above who thinks he needs a mirage to be happy and needs mirages to behave in certain ways for him to be happy and who believes the mirage needs to do certain things consistently as well?
Isn’t “The Ex-Husband-To-Be” really the same? “Damn! This is disappointing. I’m really sad. I’m going to miss out. I don’t know what happened, but I’m really down. There was a mirage I fell in love with. She was lovely, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. But she left and I’m already missing her big time. You know, I have the belief that wives need to get their act together. They need to stay. They need to be reliable. They need to always be there for you. They need to be there when we want them and when we want to see them and when we want to be seen with them. That's what I believe. That's what I need.”
Either the understanding that (A) “husbanding” can happen even without assuming the false identity of “The Husband” or (B) one is going to assume that role or some other role (or many other roles) that generate a belief in perceived but phony needs which involve other role players or externals that will be thought to be a requirement in order for happiness or a sense of security or a sense of “completion” to manifest.
Either one understands that the child of a barren woman can have no needs at all or one shall suffer the same misery generated by all ignorance-and-insanity-laden minds. And one either understands that a barren woman mourning "the loss" of an imaginary child is trapped in ignorance and insanity or one shall be trapped in both of those as well.
While manifested, the actual needs of a composite unity include food, clothing and shelter. All "personal needs" are imagined.
The “death” of all assumed personalities / personas / roles must happen first if happiness is to happen consistently; otherwise, "The False Identity Assumers" shall forever be at the mercy of externals for their happiness, and externals (1) are never permanent, (b) cannot be controlled, (c) are never consistent, and (d) will – as predicted by the Second Law of Thermodynamics – come and go.
Whatever comes together will eventually come apart, yet those trapped in ignorance and insanity will deny the scientifically-based facts that Maharaj touted and believe instead that what comes together shall stay together, forever, and will believe that "what God has joined together, no one should put asunder."
[And all who believe in their false roles shall know how truly painful "asundering" can be because there are so many out there who give great asunder.]
In his “Editor’s Note” to two non-duality anthologies, Andy Gugar, Jr. described some happenings that occurred during his initial visit here:
I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to "go ahead and die now."
Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must "die."
I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
As I entered, I shouted, "Knock knock ... anybody home?" He yelled back, "No." I got it ... I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body ... nobody.
So what must “die” for happiness to manifest at the only point where it can be enjoyed (specifically, now)?
First, self-love, rooted in the belief that one is "something" rather than "nothing," as Andy suggests; then, for those who take themselves to be “Fully Realized,” the concept of “Self-Love” must also die away. "Self-Love" is rooted in the belief that one is "Something" rather than "nothing," as Andy suggests. (Relatedly, once in The Light, any earlier desire to “be in the spotlight” will die away as all sense of being "something special" and being "Something Special" are burned away by The Light.)
Too, “The Connoisseur of Consciousness” must die away; moreover, concepts, ideas, perceptions / misperceptions, notions, thoughts, designs, plans, schemes, inspirations, emotions (but not feelings), brainstorms, impressions, memories, images, opinions, views, and inklings (a.k.a., “beliefs”) must die away as well.
Next, self-esteem and Self-esteem must die away. It has been asked on occasion, “How can I help my mate with her / his low self-esteem issues?” The reply: “Low? High? What are those except just more dualistic concepts? Address their low self-esteem and replace it with high self-esteem? Are you sure you want to do that?"
What almost always results when low self-esteem is replaced with high self-esteem? A false “self” with esteem and, more often than not, narcissism. As Maharaj reported: I am not a Spiritual Giant as you are. Next to you, I am but a spiritual pygmy.
Besides, how do you know that it is low-self-esteem that is really driving whatever behaviors you have decided need to change? Few trapped in their personas are likely to always have high self-esteem or to always have low self-esteem. What persons do have is (a) a sense of self-ness, which needs to go, and (b) more often than not, a duality-based, egomania-inferiority complex combination.
All ego-states have a primary desire and a primary fear. When an ego-state / personality / persona / false self thinks it is “getting” what it desires, a narcissistic cockiness can manifest; when it “loses” what it desires and is thus in fear, the fear can show up as anger, then switch to the other side of the anger coin – namely - depression, and then supposedly exhibit what is mistaken for “low self-esteem.”
All of that generates the instability which marks and mars the relative existence, and instability always accompanies ego-state assumption and the accompanying egotism that manifests in order to try to defend and support the continuity of every assumed ego-state.
To be free of misery, once must be free of the belief that there are “personal needs” which are not being met; to be free of the belief that there are “personal needs” which are not being met, one must be free of the belief in false, personal identities that generate a belief in such perceived but phony “needs.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
1 July 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Retreats here with up to five visitors are conducted around the table that can be seen in the downloadable retreat or on the DVD versions of a retreat that are available below. [That video version of a retreat allows seekers to meet two who came and “got it.” Both of those in the video - Andy Gugar, Jr. and Mac – are now familiar specks of consciousness among many Realized Nisargans.]
One-on-one retreats are conducted in a different area of the house, and it was in that area where a recent visitor said, “I want you to take a few minutes to tell me exactly what your typical day looks like from the time you rise in the morning until the time that you go to bed at night.”
The reply: “First, WHO wants to know that, and, secondly, why do you think I would take the time to tell you that?”
Of course, the WHO involved was some persona rooted in a lingering concept – a lingering misperception – that “Realization looks a certain way” and “his way is the way that the Realized behave throughout the day, and if I behave that way then I, too, shall be Realized.”
Next, modeling is about image and image is as far removed from Realization as possible, being hooked into body identification as it is. Certainly, there was not going to be any modeling here; that is, I was not going to "model the lifestyle of the Realized" in order to illustrate what it looks like. No day in the lives of any two that are “Realized” will look the same.
Some among “the Realized” talk or teach or share post-Realization; some do not.
Some continue with their “previous relationships”; some do not.
(The case here and with Maharaj is that those “relationships” did not continue; when Maharaj’s wife took mahasamadhi, the last thing he was going to do was re-marry; same here after a divorce. On the other hand, many “relationships” do continue post-Realization, but even those "relationships" are seldom of the same nature they were prior to Realization by one or the other or both).
Some continue with the same form of employment that was being undertaken prior to Realization and some do not.
Both here and with Maharaj, several businesses were owned and operated, but both soon divested ourselves of all but one. Eventually, the sharing of the understanding became “Job #1” with both. That may be the exception more than the rule, it seems, but it matters not. In either case, the actual case was this:
Teaching (actually, “unteaching”) happened though there was no “teacher” teaching (or unteaching); speaking happened though there was no “speaker” speaking; living happened those there was no “one” who was alive and no “one” who was going to die someday.
Moreover, few that encountered Maharaj outside the loft or who encounter Floyd outside the house have even the slightest clue about either being “Realized or not.”
When all identification had dissolved, all affectations dissolve as well; thus, a few facts become clear:
1. If you happen to cross the path of “one that is Realized,” it is more likely than not that you won't even know it (unless you open the door to a discussion by query or statement or request).
2. The “Realized” could not care less if someone says “she / he is Realized” or “he / she is not Realized.” As for caring at all, the “Realized” that do care only care if you have reached a Realized state or not, if it is that state which you seek.
3. The “Realized” will never be recognizable by the wearing of anything deemed to be “holy wear” or “spiritual garb” or “religious wear.” Such garbs are a sure sign of being non-Realized. There is no standard, proper or “special” uniform worn by the “Realized.”
[All trappings are the stuff of ego, religions, spiritual movements, ideologies, cults, sky cults, etc. There are no non-dual trappings or any other means by which "the Realized" would choose to try to advertise their condition. No elemental plant food body could ever be used as a billboard for religiosity or spirituality if it houses the pure consciousness. For silliness? Yes. For pure consciousness? No.]
4. The “Realized” will not be recognizable by the wearing of a cross; by the wearing of a special head wrap; by the wearing of a special kind of facial hair or by having no hair only because one wants to show one’s “religious or spiritual or philosophical state.” Neither pointy hats, special beards, a shaved this or shaved that, a wrapping around this or that, expensive red Patton leather shoes, black robes, white robes, orange robes nor yellow robes show anything other than the presence of ego-states and egotism.
5. The "Realized" - free of the desire to have anything that is believed to an outward show of an inner condition - are Realized without anyone else usually knowing it unless some query or statement is made that deals with the Ultimate Sickness or the Ultimate Medicine.
6. The Realized can be healed from the ravages of the Ultimate Sickness without anyone knowing it, though observers do sometimes note certain shifts, some of which are occasionally welcomed though often they are far more unwelcome, especially by those who think they are “losing” something if de-accumulation happens with, say, spouses that have Realized when their mates have not.
NOTE: De-accumulation of one type or another always happens, spontaneously, among “ the Realized” though “de-accumulation” does not refer necessarily as much to things physical as much as things mental and emotional. To be "Realized," you need not give up all your physical possessions and walk about in the streets or in the forest with only a staff, a robe, and worn out sandals. (Nice try, but no cigar.) My daughter, when young, played "dress up" with girlfriends. That is the stuff of childish minds, like many males here in Texas who claim to be super-macho and "real men" yet who play "dress up" and wear fancy hats and high heels (a.k.a., "boots"). Dressing up as a cowboy, a curate, a clergyman, a celibate, a cardinal, a caliph, or anything else is still about supposedly dressing UP. It does not happen among "the Realized."
Post-Realization here, housing was maintained, but housing of a far “lesser size and style” became the case. Maharaj may have added a loft, but he did not move out of the depressed area where he had been living and re-locate into a huge mansion which, yes, at one point he could have afforded. Nor did he accept the offers of several to "build him the grandest ashram ever."
7. “The Realized” will not be recognizable as a result of projecting an image of how holy they are. Such projecting is a sure sign of the absence of Realization.
8. “The Realized” will not be recognizable as a result of hanging out in supposedly “holy buildings” or “spiritual rooms” or by visiting "geographic places on the planet that are deemed to be especially religious or especially spiritual or especially holy" (the word “holy” meaning “different from.” Non-dualists do not give any credence to any concept, much less the concept of “different from.” Such a belief is a sure sign of the absence of Realization).
9. If persons tell you they are holy, they are not; if persons tell you they are spiritual, they are not; if persons tell you they are different from you, they are not; if persons tell you they are godly, they are not. (If they make the claim, "I am godly," they might as well tell you, “I am miragy.”)
10 . If one is deemed by the masses to be “Realized,” he is not.
11 . If one is popular, a “Big Name,” a "highly-respected member of his community," said to be blessed with hoards of loyal friends, or is said to be understood by - and in total agreement with - everyone in her or his family, that one is probably not Realized.
12 . If one speaks of "all of the benefits" that have come as a result of Realization, that one is probably not Realized.
13 . If one tells you that she / he is now abiding as “THAT” alone, that one is not Realized.
14 . If someone cannot stand the silence and loves constant doing and going, that one is not Realized.
15 . If one is exhibiting any of the following, that one is not Realized:
The Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (P.D.); the Depressive P.D.; the Narcissistic P.D.; the Histrionic P.D.; the Dependent / Co-Dependent P.D.; the Avoidant P.D.; the Borderline P.D.; the Masochistic P.D.;
the Schizoid Avoidance P.D.; the Schizotypal P.D.; the Passive-Aggressive P.D.; the Paranoid P.D.; the Antisocial / Sociopathic P. D.; the Pathological P.D.; the Sadistic P.D.; the Dissociative P.D., or any other mental / emotional disorder rooted in personality, then that one is not Realized.
Detecting that one is Realized, therefore, is far more difficult than seeing when one is not. That said, however, the invitation is this: focus on yourself and not others. It matters not if another is Realized or not. You can only seek for yourself / Your Self, never for "others."
See what applies in your case, because what applies in other cases is irrelevant. The Ultimate Sickness and its treatment are always, ultimately, an “inside job.” Only that which is internal matters; externals are meaningless mirages.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
30 June 2014
F.: Retreats here with up to five visitors are conducted around the table that can be seen in the downloadable retreat or on the DVD versions of a retreat that are available below. [That video version of a retreat allows seekers to meet two who came and “got it.” Both of those in the video - Andy Gugar, Jr. and Mac – are now familiar specks of consciousness among many Realized Nisargans.]
One-on-one retreats are conducted in a different area of the house, and it was in that area where a recent visitor said, “I want you to take a few minutes to tell me exactly what your typical day looks like from the time you rise in the morning until the time that you go to bed at night.”
The reply: “First, WHO wants to know that, and, secondly, why do you think I would take the time to tell you that?”
Of course, the WHO involved was some persona rooted in a lingering concept – a lingering misperception – that “Realization looks a certain way” and “his way is the way that the Realized behave throughout the day, and if I behave that way then I, too, shall be Realized.”
Next, modeling is about image and image is as far removed from Realization as possible, being hooked into body identification as it is. Certainly, there was not going to be any modeling here; that is, I was not going to "model the lifestyle of the Realized" in order to illustrate what it looks like. No day in the lives of any two that are “Realized” will look the same.
Some among “the Realized” talk or teach or share post-Realization; some do not.
Some continue with their “previous relationships”; some do not.
(The case here and with Maharaj is that those “relationships” did not continue; when Maharaj’s wife took mahasamadhi, the last thing he was going to do was re-marry; same here after a divorce. On the other hand, many “relationships” do continue post-Realization, but even those "relationships" are seldom of the same nature they were prior to Realization by one or the other or both).
Some continue with the same form of employment that was being undertaken prior to Realization and some do not.
Both here and with Maharaj, several businesses were owned and operated, but both soon divested ourselves of all but one. Eventually, the sharing of the understanding became “Job #1” with both. That may be the exception more than the rule, it seems, but it matters not. In either case, the actual case was this:
Teaching (actually, “unteaching”) happened though there was no “teacher” teaching (or unteaching); speaking happened though there was no “speaker” speaking; living happened those there was no “one” who was alive and no “one” who was going to die someday.
Moreover, few that encountered Maharaj outside the loft or who encounter Floyd outside the house have even the slightest clue about either being “Realized or not.”
When all identification had dissolved, all affectations dissolve as well; thus, a few facts become clear:
1. If you happen to cross the path of “one that is Realized,” it is more likely than not that you won't even know it (unless you open the door to a discussion by query or statement or request).
2. The “Realized” could not care less if someone says “she / he is Realized” or “he / she is not Realized.” As for caring at all, the “Realized” that do care only care if you have reached a Realized state or not, if it is that state which you seek.
3. The “Realized” will never be recognizable by the wearing of anything deemed to be “holy wear” or “spiritual garb” or “religious wear.” Such garbs are a sure sign of being non-Realized. There is no standard, proper or “special” uniform worn by the “Realized.”
[All trappings are the stuff of ego, religions, spiritual movements, ideologies, cults, sky cults, etc. There are no non-dual trappings or any other means by which "the Realized" would choose to try to advertise their condition. No elemental plant food body could ever be used as a billboard for religiosity or spirituality if it houses the pure consciousness. For silliness? Yes. For pure consciousness? No.]
4. The “Realized” will not be recognizable by the wearing of a cross; by the wearing of a special head wrap; by the wearing of a special kind of facial hair or by having no hair only because one wants to show one’s “religious or spiritual or philosophical state.” Neither pointy hats, special beards, a shaved this or shaved that, a wrapping around this or that, expensive red Patton leather shoes, black robes, white robes, orange robes nor yellow robes show anything other than the presence of ego-states and egotism.
5. The "Realized" - free of the desire to have anything that is believed to an outward show of an inner condition - are Realized without anyone else usually knowing it unless some query or statement is made that deals with the Ultimate Sickness or the Ultimate Medicine.
6. The Realized can be healed from the ravages of the Ultimate Sickness without anyone knowing it, though observers do sometimes note certain shifts, some of which are occasionally welcomed though often they are far more unwelcome, especially by those who think they are “losing” something if de-accumulation happens with, say, spouses that have Realized when their mates have not.
NOTE: De-accumulation of one type or another always happens, spontaneously, among “ the Realized” though “de-accumulation” does not refer necessarily as much to things physical as much as things mental and emotional. To be "Realized," you need not give up all your physical possessions and walk about in the streets or in the forest with only a staff, a robe, and worn out sandals. (Nice try, but no cigar.) My daughter, when young, played "dress up" with girlfriends. That is the stuff of childish minds, like many males here in Texas who claim to be super-macho and "real men" yet who play "dress up" and wear fancy hats and high heels (a.k.a., "boots"). Dressing up as a cowboy, a curate, a clergyman, a celibate, a cardinal, a caliph, or anything else is still about supposedly dressing UP. It does not happen among "the Realized."
Post-Realization here, housing was maintained, but housing of a far “lesser size and style” became the case. Maharaj may have added a loft, but he did not move out of the depressed area where he had been living and re-locate into a huge mansion which, yes, at one point he could have afforded. Nor did he accept the offers of several to "build him the grandest ashram ever."
7. “The Realized” will not be recognizable as a result of projecting an image of how holy they are. Such projecting is a sure sign of the absence of Realization.
8. “The Realized” will not be recognizable as a result of hanging out in supposedly “holy buildings” or “spiritual rooms” or by visiting "geographic places on the planet that are deemed to be especially religious or especially spiritual or especially holy" (the word “holy” meaning “different from.” Non-dualists do not give any credence to any concept, much less the concept of “different from.” Such a belief is a sure sign of the absence of Realization).
9. If persons tell you they are holy, they are not; if persons tell you they are spiritual, they are not; if persons tell you they are different from you, they are not; if persons tell you they are godly, they are not. (If they make the claim, "I am godly," they might as well tell you, “I am miragy.”)
10 . If one is deemed by the masses to be “Realized,” he is not.
11 . If one is popular, a “Big Name,” a "highly-respected member of his community," said to be blessed with hoards of loyal friends, or is said to be understood by - and in total agreement with - everyone in her or his family, that one is probably not Realized.
12 . If one speaks of "all of the benefits" that have come as a result of Realization, that one is probably not Realized.
13 . If one tells you that she / he is now abiding as “THAT” alone, that one is not Realized.
14 . If someone cannot stand the silence and loves constant doing and going, that one is not Realized.
15 . If one is exhibiting any of the following, that one is not Realized:
The Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (P.D.); the Depressive P.D.; the Narcissistic P.D.; the Histrionic P.D.; the Dependent / Co-Dependent P.D.; the Avoidant P.D.; the Borderline P.D.; the Masochistic P.D.;
the Schizoid Avoidance P.D.; the Schizotypal P.D.; the Passive-Aggressive P.D.; the Paranoid P.D.; the Antisocial / Sociopathic P. D.; the Pathological P.D.; the Sadistic P.D.; the Dissociative P.D., or any other mental / emotional disorder rooted in personality, then that one is not Realized.
Detecting that one is Realized, therefore, is far more difficult than seeing when one is not. That said, however, the invitation is this: focus on yourself and not others. It matters not if another is Realized or not. You can only seek for yourself / Your Self, never for "others."
See what applies in your case, because what applies in other cases is irrelevant. The Ultimate Sickness and its treatment are always, ultimately, an “inside job.” Only that which is internal matters; externals are meaningless mirages.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
30 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Here, most of the time when the email inbox is opened, it only requires a reading of the “Subject” line or the service provider’s “Preview line” to make clear whether or not the “Delete” button should be used on any given file.
The "file size" notation shows that “The Reformers” and “The Correctors” and “The Proselytizers” rarely limit their diatribes to less than several pages, and the first line in the Preview frame is all that this speck of consciousness here is exposed to before a deletion happens.
Yesterday, however, one proselytizer used only the first line to sneak a point through: “There is too much order in the universe to deny there’s a God who can cure the ills of the entire world. To deny the benefits of religion and spirituality is . . . .”
There’s so much sickness (and Sickness) nowadays, it’s difficult to miss every germ that one might be exposed to, including such contaminates as the germs of duality, the germs of ideology, the germs of beliefs, the germs of nonsense, the germs of programming and conditioning, etc.
I recall from the earliest days - when this composite unity was loaded into a beat up, ten-year-old Ford and driven several times a week to a Southern Baptist Church - that a preacher there offered this argument for (and defense of) a Supreme Being:
[Paraphrasing] “There is far too much order in this world and in this universe to think that such order could happen by accident. If I walk down the road and see a rock, all sorts of explanations could be given about how that rock ended up there. But if I walk a little further and find a clock, I know automatically and without question that there is a clockmaker somewhere.”
I was only 6 or 7, but the Type Four “rebel, anti-authority” personality has already developed enough that “BS” was called on that, along with all of the other teachings offered in Sunday School class by Miss Myrtle before she released us and sent us up to listen to the preacher, including tales about:
a God who “created everything in six days and then took off a day to rest”; who “loves unconditionally but was willing to drown everyone on the planet except for the members of one Ark-building family and two of every species”; “who loves unconditionally but who opens up holes in the grounds that swallow and kill 5,000 people at a time"; and who has “built a mansion with many rooms on a road paved with gold and set behind protective pearly gates” and awaiting only a few people while most will be sent instead to a place of eternal flames and mental and emotional and physical suffering forever for those who do “A” or “B” or “C” or “A” or “B” or “C” to the 1000th power.
Having already checked off something like “A” through “P” on the “don’t do these things” list - and having by the age of 7 accepted the ultimate, dreadful fate with which I was being threatened - then a shift into a “carpe diem” mode manifested (and continues to this day): "What the hell, Hell. At least I won't have to spend eternity with that preacher and people like him."
As for “an orderly world and universe that works like a fine Swiss clock,” there had already been too much witnessed by the age of 6 or 7 to buy into any notion of “a well-ordered world” and “a smooth-running universe.”
In those pre-Hubble days, there had been no pictures such as those that that now confirm in black and white or full color illustrations the complete chaos happening in a universe where the certainty of the Second Law of Thermodynamics has been playing out for billions of years, yet there had been enough observed in what was called “this world” to know that “order” is a bogus concept and that chaos reigns.
Chaos can be observed on this planet in many natural systems, such as weather and climate. That is the way it is and the way it shall be. Chaos can also be observed as all things operate per the natural laws of physics, coming together and coming apart. That is the way it is and the way it shall be.
However, chaos can also be observed in many unnatural and supposedly supernatural systems (that is, systems dreamed up in the minds of men and women over the ages, rooted in nonsense, but passed on as “truth” or “the gospel truth”). That is the way it is, but that is not the way it must be.
Among “non-Realized humans,” the non-dual pointer is this: “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Because duality prevails on a planet-wide basis, then instability prevails. [See this eBook below if interested in the full explanation]:
And instability is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness and is at the root of the symptoms of that Sickness, three of which Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Chaos is the way of what is mistakenly called “this world” and is the way of what is called “this universe.” In the universe overall, it is natural. Human chaos is centered in the mind and is most unnatural, reaching its peak when it becomes “supernatural” (i.e., religious or spiritual in nature, entirely based in the magical thinking of warped, nonsense-filled minds).
Thus, “The Proselytizer’s” statement can be reworded to provide more accurate pointers:
“There is no order in the universe; that’s a myth; therefore, the notion that there is an order-bringing God is also a myth. As for any ‘who’ or ‘Who’ that can cure the ills of the entire world, there is no world to be cured. There are mind’s to be ‘cured,’ that is, minds that call for the removal of the cancer of beliefs that drive insane thoughts and words and actions.
“To deny the benefits of belief-based religion and belief-based spirituality is . . . . to be in a position to seek and possibly find the real Ultimate Medicine. Then, eventually, to deny belief in the counterfeit and fictitious benefits of belief-based religion and belief-based spirituality is . . . to be sane. And to be sane is to be free.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
29 June 2014
F.: Here, most of the time when the email inbox is opened, it only requires a reading of the “Subject” line or the service provider’s “Preview line” to make clear whether or not the “Delete” button should be used on any given file.
The "file size" notation shows that “The Reformers” and “The Correctors” and “The Proselytizers” rarely limit their diatribes to less than several pages, and the first line in the Preview frame is all that this speck of consciousness here is exposed to before a deletion happens.
Yesterday, however, one proselytizer used only the first line to sneak a point through: “There is too much order in the universe to deny there’s a God who can cure the ills of the entire world. To deny the benefits of religion and spirituality is . . . .”
There’s so much sickness (and Sickness) nowadays, it’s difficult to miss every germ that one might be exposed to, including such contaminates as the germs of duality, the germs of ideology, the germs of beliefs, the germs of nonsense, the germs of programming and conditioning, etc.
I recall from the earliest days - when this composite unity was loaded into a beat up, ten-year-old Ford and driven several times a week to a Southern Baptist Church - that a preacher there offered this argument for (and defense of) a Supreme Being:
[Paraphrasing] “There is far too much order in this world and in this universe to think that such order could happen by accident. If I walk down the road and see a rock, all sorts of explanations could be given about how that rock ended up there. But if I walk a little further and find a clock, I know automatically and without question that there is a clockmaker somewhere.”
I was only 6 or 7, but the Type Four “rebel, anti-authority” personality has already developed enough that “BS” was called on that, along with all of the other teachings offered in Sunday School class by Miss Myrtle before she released us and sent us up to listen to the preacher, including tales about:
a God who “created everything in six days and then took off a day to rest”; who “loves unconditionally but was willing to drown everyone on the planet except for the members of one Ark-building family and two of every species”; “who loves unconditionally but who opens up holes in the grounds that swallow and kill 5,000 people at a time"; and who has “built a mansion with many rooms on a road paved with gold and set behind protective pearly gates” and awaiting only a few people while most will be sent instead to a place of eternal flames and mental and emotional and physical suffering forever for those who do “A” or “B” or “C” or “A” or “B” or “C” to the 1000th power.
Having already checked off something like “A” through “P” on the “don’t do these things” list - and having by the age of 7 accepted the ultimate, dreadful fate with which I was being threatened - then a shift into a “carpe diem” mode manifested (and continues to this day): "What the hell, Hell. At least I won't have to spend eternity with that preacher and people like him."
As for “an orderly world and universe that works like a fine Swiss clock,” there had already been too much witnessed by the age of 6 or 7 to buy into any notion of “a well-ordered world” and “a smooth-running universe.”
In those pre-Hubble days, there had been no pictures such as those that that now confirm in black and white or full color illustrations the complete chaos happening in a universe where the certainty of the Second Law of Thermodynamics has been playing out for billions of years, yet there had been enough observed in what was called “this world” to know that “order” is a bogus concept and that chaos reigns.
Chaos can be observed on this planet in many natural systems, such as weather and climate. That is the way it is and the way it shall be. Chaos can also be observed as all things operate per the natural laws of physics, coming together and coming apart. That is the way it is and the way it shall be.
However, chaos can also be observed in many unnatural and supposedly supernatural systems (that is, systems dreamed up in the minds of men and women over the ages, rooted in nonsense, but passed on as “truth” or “the gospel truth”). That is the way it is, but that is not the way it must be.
Among “non-Realized humans,” the non-dual pointer is this: “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Because duality prevails on a planet-wide basis, then instability prevails. [See this eBook below if interested in the full explanation]:
And instability is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness and is at the root of the symptoms of that Sickness, three of which Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Chaos is the way of what is mistakenly called “this world” and is the way of what is called “this universe.” In the universe overall, it is natural. Human chaos is centered in the mind and is most unnatural, reaching its peak when it becomes “supernatural” (i.e., religious or spiritual in nature, entirely based in the magical thinking of warped, nonsense-filled minds).
Thus, “The Proselytizer’s” statement can be reworded to provide more accurate pointers:
“There is no order in the universe; that’s a myth; therefore, the notion that there is an order-bringing God is also a myth. As for any ‘who’ or ‘Who’ that can cure the ills of the entire world, there is no world to be cured. There are mind’s to be ‘cured,’ that is, minds that call for the removal of the cancer of beliefs that drive insane thoughts and words and actions.
“To deny the benefits of belief-based religion and belief-based spirituality is . . . . to be in a position to seek and possibly find the real Ultimate Medicine. Then, eventually, to deny belief in the counterfeit and fictitious benefits of belief-based religion and belief-based spirituality is . . . to be sane. And to be sane is to be free.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
29 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: From yesterday: Maharaj’s spoke of those who mistakenly think that they are being bathed fully in the noonday light but who are actually just standing in the dull light of dawn.
If you are certain that you have Realized Fully, put that to the test. While the style of the relative existence of any two specks of pure consciousness will always differ, there are some commonalities that have been witnessed over the decades.
One self-test (actually, a no-self test) follows. Mark all of the options that apply:
Question: Would those who are around you throughout the day report that
(a) “He / she has a great sense of humor.”
(b) “She / he has a dry wit.”
(c) “He / she is totally humorless.”
(d) “She / he takes herself / himself way too seriously.”
(e) “He / she takes life way too seriously.”
See, the prerequisite for taking oneself way too seriously is the belief in one’s self / selves. That is also the prerequisite for a self that is far-too-absorbed with one’s life - and / or one’s death – both of which are misperception-based myths.
Along the way, one non-duality teacher said something to this effect: If you have no sense of humor, then you are likely not nearly as awake as you think you are.
Maharaj had a tremendous sense of humor (his “demeanor while teaching,” which many misunderstood, notwithstanding).
He peppered his talks with occasionally bawdy remarks and sprinkled some profanity throughout to restore lightness or to emphasize a point. (Ironically, his translators – concerned with the image of a teacher who had no concern at all with image – assumed the prerogative to filter those elements from his talks, both during sessions and later from the transcripts of his talks.)
When men come here to report that they are angry that their ex-wives are not making proper use of the court-order child support funds that they are paying to “The Ex,” one non-dual query in particular is often used:
F.: “WHO is angry?” [That is, "What ego-state or ego-states are assuming a sense of being threatened and being interferred with and being offended?"]
He: “I am.”
F.: “Nope. Try again. WHO is angry?”
He: “Screw you. Are you even listening to me?”
F.: “No. I am not listening to You. I am listening, however, to several ‘you’s, including “The Super Dad,” “The Formerly Super Husband and Present Super Dad Who Knows What’s Best,” “The One Who Could Not Control a Woman When You Were Married to Her But Who Thinks That He Can Control Her Now That They Are Divorced and Now That She Knows the Court Will Guarantee That the Flow of Funds Will Continue No Matter What,” etc., etc., etc.
“Who-ness” is a robber. It steals a sense of humor, it steals a sense of buoyancy when feeling as if one is being tossed about on the sometimes-stormy seas of relativity, and it steals the ability to follow through on the suggestions offered in the eBook below entitled, DANCING LIGHTLY.
All of the following block any chance to enjoy humor:
self-absorption
self-advancement
self-will
self-image
self-flattery
self-concern
self-importance
self-interest
self-indulgence
self-righteousness
self-improvement
self-justification
self-consciousness
self-conceit
self-promotion
self-seeking
self-talk
self-love (vs. Self Love)
self-pity
self-preservation
self-deception
self-congratulation
self-interest
and many more.
A sense of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and “self-ness” and “Self-ness” all block the manifestation of humor, and blocked humor is a sure sign of the absence of any of the conditions that can appear at various points along “the path” and that can manifest during “the journey” (including “Liberation,” and “Enlightenment,” and “Realization” and - post-Realization - “Natural Abidance” and “Lightness” and an ability to enjoy “Dancing Lightly” and an ability to laugh at things that are totally laughable).
When the humor-blocking senses of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and “self-ness” and “Self-ness” manifest, then there will also manifest a shift in focus away from the actual, basic requirements of the composite unity during the relative existence (i.e., food, clothing, shelter, etc.) Then the focus will be directed toward all of the “phony, dreamed-up needs” of assigned and assumed personalities which, in turn, generate a host of delusion-and-illusion-based phony “needs.”
And those phony needs are nothing to be taken lightly, according to the agendas of the false selves that are concerned with those phony needs. According to the agendas of each and every assigned and assumed persona, those needs are to be taken with a deadly seriousness, with a humorless perspective, with an appreciation of their gravity, with a willingness by all to respond to their most-serious importance, and with an awareness on the part of all regarding their weightiness.
The invitation could be offered to "Hey, lighten up! Laugh! Inspire laughter!" That would be useless. Unless first freed of all personal identification and freed from being driven by the hidden, subconscious agendas of all assigned and assumed personalities, the ability to accept that invitation will be impossible.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
28 June 2014
F.: From yesterday: Maharaj’s spoke of those who mistakenly think that they are being bathed fully in the noonday light but who are actually just standing in the dull light of dawn.
If you are certain that you have Realized Fully, put that to the test. While the style of the relative existence of any two specks of pure consciousness will always differ, there are some commonalities that have been witnessed over the decades.
One self-test (actually, a no-self test) follows. Mark all of the options that apply:
Question: Would those who are around you throughout the day report that
(a) “He / she has a great sense of humor.”
(b) “She / he has a dry wit.”
(c) “He / she is totally humorless.”
(d) “She / he takes herself / himself way too seriously.”
(e) “He / she takes life way too seriously.”
See, the prerequisite for taking oneself way too seriously is the belief in one’s self / selves. That is also the prerequisite for a self that is far-too-absorbed with one’s life - and / or one’s death – both of which are misperception-based myths.
Along the way, one non-duality teacher said something to this effect: If you have no sense of humor, then you are likely not nearly as awake as you think you are.
Maharaj had a tremendous sense of humor (his “demeanor while teaching,” which many misunderstood, notwithstanding).
He peppered his talks with occasionally bawdy remarks and sprinkled some profanity throughout to restore lightness or to emphasize a point. (Ironically, his translators – concerned with the image of a teacher who had no concern at all with image – assumed the prerogative to filter those elements from his talks, both during sessions and later from the transcripts of his talks.)
When men come here to report that they are angry that their ex-wives are not making proper use of the court-order child support funds that they are paying to “The Ex,” one non-dual query in particular is often used:
F.: “WHO is angry?” [That is, "What ego-state or ego-states are assuming a sense of being threatened and being interferred with and being offended?"]
He: “I am.”
F.: “Nope. Try again. WHO is angry?”
He: “Screw you. Are you even listening to me?”
F.: “No. I am not listening to You. I am listening, however, to several ‘you’s, including “The Super Dad,” “The Formerly Super Husband and Present Super Dad Who Knows What’s Best,” “The One Who Could Not Control a Woman When You Were Married to Her But Who Thinks That He Can Control Her Now That They Are Divorced and Now That She Knows the Court Will Guarantee That the Flow of Funds Will Continue No Matter What,” etc., etc., etc.
“Who-ness” is a robber. It steals a sense of humor, it steals a sense of buoyancy when feeling as if one is being tossed about on the sometimes-stormy seas of relativity, and it steals the ability to follow through on the suggestions offered in the eBook below entitled, DANCING LIGHTLY.
All of the following block any chance to enjoy humor:
self-absorption
self-advancement
self-will
self-image
self-flattery
self-concern
self-importance
self-interest
self-indulgence
self-righteousness
self-improvement
self-justification
self-consciousness
self-conceit
self-promotion
self-seeking
self-talk
self-love (vs. Self Love)
self-pity
self-preservation
self-deception
self-congratulation
self-interest
and many more.
A sense of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and “self-ness” and “Self-ness” all block the manifestation of humor, and blocked humor is a sure sign of the absence of any of the conditions that can appear at various points along “the path” and that can manifest during “the journey” (including “Liberation,” and “Enlightenment,” and “Realization” and - post-Realization - “Natural Abidance” and “Lightness” and an ability to enjoy “Dancing Lightly” and an ability to laugh at things that are totally laughable).
When the humor-blocking senses of “who-ness” and “Who-ness” and “self-ness” and “Self-ness” manifest, then there will also manifest a shift in focus away from the actual, basic requirements of the composite unity during the relative existence (i.e., food, clothing, shelter, etc.) Then the focus will be directed toward all of the “phony, dreamed-up needs” of assigned and assumed personalities which, in turn, generate a host of delusion-and-illusion-based phony “needs.”
And those phony needs are nothing to be taken lightly, according to the agendas of the false selves that are concerned with those phony needs. According to the agendas of each and every assigned and assumed persona, those needs are to be taken with a deadly seriousness, with a humorless perspective, with an appreciation of their gravity, with a willingness by all to respond to their most-serious importance, and with an awareness on the part of all regarding their weightiness.
The invitation could be offered to "Hey, lighten up! Laugh! Inspire laughter!" That would be useless. Unless first freed of all personal identification and freed from being driven by the hidden, subconscious agendas of all assigned and assumed personalities, the ability to accept that invitation will be impossible.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
28 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: How did you wake this morning? Some claim they snap out of their sleep instantly, can jump out of bed, and can begin racing about at top speed while being immediately, 100%, fully awake, aware, and conscious. Of course they are mistaken. Many aspects of “arising” evolve during the first minutes and hours, even though some degree of awakening has actually happened.
Here, each morning while the coffee is brewing, a routine of stretching happens, the nearly-sixty-seven-year-old parts of the composite unity more prone to stiffness after a night’s sleep than in days gone by.
Note: It’s just stretching . . . not some series of physical, yoga-style movements that supposedly also have some “spiritual” or “beyond-the-physical” aspects or some associated “special meaning.”
Clouseau, a bichon frise my daughter had when she was a child, did the same thing every morning, waking slowing and stretching:
Chloe, the cat she now has, does the same:
Animals in the wild do the same:
See? It’s natural, not supernatural. There is no magical, other-worldly aspect to it. It’s just stretching. It’s just natural. The dog and cat and fox above don’t know yoga from a Dakota or a toga. They’re just stretching.
The point? Some mistakenly believe that at the end of the seven-step “path” when Realization happens that they are supposed to be fully awake, fully aware, fully conscious . . . and totally able to witness all purely and accurately. That's not necessarily so.
Here, the stretching of muscles that contracted over night does not happen instantly. In the first stretch, the toes are placed together, the body is bent over at the waist, and the fingers are extended and pointed at the toes. In the beginning, there might be a six-inch gap between the tip of the fingers and the toes. In short order, though, the fingers soon reach the toes and then the floor. Things "open up." The same happen in the non-dual process, so there are, in fact, aspects of awakening and Realization that continue after the seven steps.
Here, on Mondays and Thursdays, the garbage is set out for collection and discarding. But the cleansing is not done with that act. In order for the environment to be totally pure and fresh and clean, the can that the trash was in from Thursday to Friday to Saturday to Sunday to Monday must be sprayed with an environmentally-safe freshener.
Otherwise, the lingering, residual odor might not be visible, but it is nevertheless there, and it can negatively affect the relative existence inside with its foul residue. The same applies with the process offered here.
There are many terms that are misunderstood, so there are also resulting misunderstandings about this process. “Awakening” is an on-going process, just as happens in the morning. “Liberation” happens if the third-step-to-fourth-step transition happens, because liberation involves freedom from personality; “Enlightenment” is not a single, “Ah ha!” happening but is a series of events along the “path” that cast light on the stumbling blocks along the way; and “Realization” is not the end of the process, either.
Even after several “awakenings” and after liberation from body-mind-and-personality identification and after many enlightening events and after reaching the end of the “path,” there is almost always some additional “freshening up” or final “cleaning up” that must happen. The garbage may well have been discarded, but some additional freshening might be called for.
Thus, one must “return” after "finding" THAT . . . must "return" to the Am-ness and overlay Reality on the reality of the Is-ness. The Nisarga Yoga invites the seeker to begin de-accumulating whatever remains, be those remains of a mental, emotional, or physical variety.
Libraries often go; accoutrements often go; other accumulations that had been collected prior to completion of the “journey” often go. Any residual odors that might not be visible but that are affecting the relative existence with their foul residue must go. Then natural abidance begins as the discarding and de-accumulating is finally completed.
None of the additional cleansing happens in an instant. It, too, is a part of the process. It’s like losing the excess weight that a food addict picked up along the way. Carrying all of that extra stuff around was burdensome, but it can’t be tossed aside in an instant.
All of the nonsense in the mind was not placed there in an instant. It cannot be removed in an instant, although an “Ah ha!” moment can trigger a major purge.
Consider: one might place a new rose in a vase, but it may yet be closed off for a time.
It takes time for that rose to open and bloom fully and to reach the full potential of its essence and to share its fragrance.
So it is with those on this “journey.”
Maharaj’s spoke of those who mistakenly think that they are being bathed fully in the noonday light (that is, who think they are fully "enlightened” – a miscalculation in itself since that is an on-going process that happens all along the “path”) but who are actually just standing in the dull light of dawn.
That statement usually referred to those stuck at the third step. But those who have completed all seven steps, while not standing in the dull light of dawn, may not be fully bathed in the full light, either. Do not expect that nothing more is to be understood or purged, even after the steps have been completed.
The open flower shown above did not become something different from the closed flower. It merely reached its full potential. (What happens after that is another topic, but what comes together will eventually come apart. Smell the flowers along the way, for they shall not last, and neither shall the “you” that is a composite unity).
Relax. Enjoy. Take time to smell the roses, but don’t expect the roses to be fully bloomed immediately or to open instantly. Give all its “proper time requirements,” in the quiet.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
28 June 2014
F.: How did you wake this morning? Some claim they snap out of their sleep instantly, can jump out of bed, and can begin racing about at top speed while being immediately, 100%, fully awake, aware, and conscious. Of course they are mistaken. Many aspects of “arising” evolve during the first minutes and hours, even though some degree of awakening has actually happened.
Here, each morning while the coffee is brewing, a routine of stretching happens, the nearly-sixty-seven-year-old parts of the composite unity more prone to stiffness after a night’s sleep than in days gone by.
Note: It’s just stretching . . . not some series of physical, yoga-style movements that supposedly also have some “spiritual” or “beyond-the-physical” aspects or some associated “special meaning.”
Clouseau, a bichon frise my daughter had when she was a child, did the same thing every morning, waking slowing and stretching:
Chloe, the cat she now has, does the same:
Animals in the wild do the same:
See? It’s natural, not supernatural. There is no magical, other-worldly aspect to it. It’s just stretching. It’s just natural. The dog and cat and fox above don’t know yoga from a Dakota or a toga. They’re just stretching.
The point? Some mistakenly believe that at the end of the seven-step “path” when Realization happens that they are supposed to be fully awake, fully aware, fully conscious . . . and totally able to witness all purely and accurately. That's not necessarily so.
Here, the stretching of muscles that contracted over night does not happen instantly. In the first stretch, the toes are placed together, the body is bent over at the waist, and the fingers are extended and pointed at the toes. In the beginning, there might be a six-inch gap between the tip of the fingers and the toes. In short order, though, the fingers soon reach the toes and then the floor. Things "open up." The same happen in the non-dual process, so there are, in fact, aspects of awakening and Realization that continue after the seven steps.
Here, on Mondays and Thursdays, the garbage is set out for collection and discarding. But the cleansing is not done with that act. In order for the environment to be totally pure and fresh and clean, the can that the trash was in from Thursday to Friday to Saturday to Sunday to Monday must be sprayed with an environmentally-safe freshener.
Otherwise, the lingering, residual odor might not be visible, but it is nevertheless there, and it can negatively affect the relative existence inside with its foul residue. The same applies with the process offered here.
There are many terms that are misunderstood, so there are also resulting misunderstandings about this process. “Awakening” is an on-going process, just as happens in the morning. “Liberation” happens if the third-step-to-fourth-step transition happens, because liberation involves freedom from personality; “Enlightenment” is not a single, “Ah ha!” happening but is a series of events along the “path” that cast light on the stumbling blocks along the way; and “Realization” is not the end of the process, either.
Even after several “awakenings” and after liberation from body-mind-and-personality identification and after many enlightening events and after reaching the end of the “path,” there is almost always some additional “freshening up” or final “cleaning up” that must happen. The garbage may well have been discarded, but some additional freshening might be called for.
Thus, one must “return” after "finding" THAT . . . must "return" to the Am-ness and overlay Reality on the reality of the Is-ness. The Nisarga Yoga invites the seeker to begin de-accumulating whatever remains, be those remains of a mental, emotional, or physical variety.
Libraries often go; accoutrements often go; other accumulations that had been collected prior to completion of the “journey” often go. Any residual odors that might not be visible but that are affecting the relative existence with their foul residue must go. Then natural abidance begins as the discarding and de-accumulating is finally completed.
None of the additional cleansing happens in an instant. It, too, is a part of the process. It’s like losing the excess weight that a food addict picked up along the way. Carrying all of that extra stuff around was burdensome, but it can’t be tossed aside in an instant.
All of the nonsense in the mind was not placed there in an instant. It cannot be removed in an instant, although an “Ah ha!” moment can trigger a major purge.
Consider: one might place a new rose in a vase, but it may yet be closed off for a time.
It takes time for that rose to open and bloom fully and to reach the full potential of its essence and to share its fragrance.
So it is with those on this “journey.”
Maharaj’s spoke of those who mistakenly think that they are being bathed fully in the noonday light (that is, who think they are fully "enlightened” – a miscalculation in itself since that is an on-going process that happens all along the “path”) but who are actually just standing in the dull light of dawn.
That statement usually referred to those stuck at the third step. But those who have completed all seven steps, while not standing in the dull light of dawn, may not be fully bathed in the full light, either. Do not expect that nothing more is to be understood or purged, even after the steps have been completed.
When seekers come here for a retreat, the process is far from over. They are advised, as were the visitors to Maharaj's loft, to return home, to sit in the quiet and consider all of the pointers offered, and to allow the "gift of the tea of 'the path' to steep fully."
The open flower shown above did not become something different from the closed flower. It merely reached its full potential. (What happens after that is another topic, but what comes together will eventually come apart. Smell the flowers along the way, for they shall not last, and neither shall the “you” that is a composite unity).
Relax. Enjoy. Take time to smell the roses, but don’t expect the roses to be fully bloomed immediately or to open instantly. Give all its “proper time requirements,” in the quiet.
Don’t assume too much and don’t expect too much to happen immediately. Take time to allow the tea to steep fully. Stretch. And then enjoy the additional levels of freedom that will eventually unfold and bloom fully - just like a flower coming into its fullness.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
28 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] In addition to the nonsensical but "effective" obstacles to Realization that are firmly entrenched in the traditions and mores and customs which are embedded in cultures and societies around the globe (those obstacles referenced here as "the effects of acculturation"), there is the additional obstacle of "individual personality" standing in the way of any effort to be free of personality.
To review the basic personality types that are common to all personas in varying degrees of influence and that drive the thoughts and words and actions of all humans, review the enneagram pictograph:
As regular visitors to this site know, it is the Type Four that is most likely to seek authenticity and Realization, but the nine types are not distributed evenly among the globe’s population. (If there were an even distribution of types, then of the 7,000,000,000+ persons on the planet, 11.11% would be Type Ones, 11.11% would be Type Twos, 11.11% would be Type Threes, etc.)
But personality types do not develop and function in such a simple and balanced fashion. Little is more complicated in regards to development and functioning (and in regards to relative impact and consequences) than personality assignment or assumption; thus, while only 1/2 of 1% are Type Fours, 50% are Type Sixes who are driven by dependency and co-dependency and fear and anxiety.
The last thing Type Sixes seek is total freedom and total independence (especially freedom from their beliefs which they think are empowering and freedom from the liaisons they seek in order to be taken care of and in order to have their relative needs - and more - taken care of); instead, they will forever seek to march, in lock-step, to the beat of same drummer that the masses march to in order to gain a false sense of security.
Sixes will likely forever play the role of "The Loyalist," "The Patriot," "The Lover of My Country, Which Happens to Be the Greatest Country on Earth," "The Good, God-Fearing, God-Loving Christian / Muslim / Hindu / Jew / Whatever," "The One Dedicated to a Love of Our Flag and All That It Stands For," and "The One Willing to Proudly Serve and Even Die For My Country." (Did you just experience a gag-reflex? Hello, genuine Type Four.)
Conversely, a small percentage – ½ of 1%, as noted – are Type Fours that are the most likely to rebel against what the planet takes to be “conventional wisdom,” the most likely to de-value what most on the planet take to be their “near-sacred traditions and mores and customs and values and beliefs,” and the most likely to call “BS” on the whole lot of it.
Yet there are those who have other primary personality types that can also tap into the Four’s propensity for seeing nonsense and identifying it as such and then Realizing Fully. Personality “wings” are the two types adjacent to one’s primary type, so Type Fives have a chance for their “Four-ness to develop” and so do Type Threes (though their predilection for image and for form over substance often makes the development of their Four-wing nearly impossible).
If you review the enneagram pictograph above, you will see that Type Ones can also connect to the Four as can Type Twos. If the development of the Four happens with Ones, Two’s, Threes, and Fives, then more than ½ of 1% have a chance at developing an interest in authenticity; they, too, might eventually step onto the “path” and begin the "journey" in earnest.
That said, understand that any of the other eight types can shift toward the Type Four or can internalize a Four (as is the case when a child internalizes a parent’s Four traits); therefore, the odds are somewhat greater, at least statistically, that more than ½ of 1% on the planet might be seeking Realization at any given moment.
Yet that having been said, see that the Type Four personality itself can be as much as obstacle to Full Realization as the other eight types. Why? Because a non-Realized Four can display the following traits:
Non-Realized Fours can, of course, have the same kinds of phony “needs” that are being discussed in this series. Relevant among those are a need to experience their feelings, which for non-Realized Fours can often be dark and gloomy. (For example, while most types dread a dark and supposedly-dreary and bleak and stormy day with thunder and lightning and one downpour of rain after another, the Four can enjoy the heck out of that type of tempest or squall or massive storm.)
Too, the non-Realized Four had a “need” to be understood, is driven to search for “the meaning of life,” and will be driven to avoid being ordinary. (A Type Four who has been identified as the human that is most likely to have had the highest IQ ever was the Type Four Goethe who said, “I can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.”)
Indeed, Type Fours, Realized or not, are the ones most likely to march to the beat of a different drummer.
During the “developmental years,” a Type Four “at her or his best” might be refined, expressive, creative, intuitive, supportive, compassionate, warm, available, and able to relish the solitude, but when removed from being in touch with “reality” and Reality, Fours can be self-absorbed, guilt-ridden, withdrawn and isolated, moody, driven by flights of fantasy, driven by romantic but unrealistic and idealistic and excessively optimistic perspectives, and driven by a desire - not to find Reality but - to escape reality.
They are often the ones who think that the “journey” is about “leaving the Am-ness behind” and “abiding only as THAT” - in other words, checking out mentally . . . mentally moving to Foo-Foo Land in their subconscious quest to (a) have their emotions triggered so that they feel as if they are about to vibrate off the planet; and, relatedly, to (b) escape reality . . . that is, to escape the realities of the relative existence and even escape the responsibility of meeting the basic requirements of food and clothing and shelter (and anything else that requires work).
If they do begin to search and if their search finally moves to searching on a non-dual "path," they are often first drawn – especially in the West – to the Neo-Vedanta approach (i.e., to “Non-Duality Lite”) which offers what was referenced earlier:
In what they erroneously take to be “an earnest search for Truth,” they really only want a message with a big dollop of "Super Sweet Spiritual Cream" dropped on as a topping in order for that "Heavenly Splotch of Sugary Syrupiness" to provide a more palatable taste.”
Those types were discussed here in 2007 with the following:
Paraphrasing Dennis Waite: The term Neo-Vedanta refers primarily to the method used by Vivekananda and his followers. Some critics consider this method a “watered down” version of Traditional Advaita, a result of the fact that Vivekananda and his followers have tried to make the teachings more suitable to Western tastes where concepts and ego-states have dominated persons for millennia.
[NOTE: Neo-Vedanta teachers typically employ seemingly sublime or exalted or emotion-inspiring statements that encourage followers to adopt more concepts and identities instead of encouraging seekers to forfeit all concepts and identities. Some examples include such advise as: dream on an idea and be full of it and you’ll succeed; believe in yourself; make yourself strong; find god and gain power; use thoughts to create a new reality; engage in the noble goal of seeking knowledge; you are responsible for what you are; acquire power; and seek love. Such concepts are in direct opposition to the teachings presented via the Direct Path, nisarga yoga approach. f.h.]
Yet consider how very much a Type Four, trapped in her or his role of . . .
“The Romanticist” or “The Incurable Romantic” or “The One with Romantic Beliefs or Attitudes” or “The One Inclined Toward the Feeling of Excitement and Mystery Associated with Love” or “The Sentimental One” or “The One with An Idealized View Of Reality” . . .
will find appealing a talk by a Neo-Vedantin (or by others with a similarly lofty or “other-worldly” or romanticized or escapist-mentality-influence) if the talks speaks fondly of "dreaming" and "believing in self" and "creating one’s own reality" and "engaging in a noble, meaning search" and "seeking love" or any other such "Moon-June-Spoon" talk that is emotionally-charged and emotionally-intoxicating.
Thus, “Four-ness” can be a double-edged sword, as can all personalities:
With so many obstacles that most seekers never see as obstacles, is it any wonder that Maharaj's guesstimate of how many would ever Realize changed over the years from 1 out of 100,000 to 1 out of 1,000,000 to 1 out of 10,000,000.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
26 June 2014
F.: [Continued from yesterday] In addition to the nonsensical but "effective" obstacles to Realization that are firmly entrenched in the traditions and mores and customs which are embedded in cultures and societies around the globe (those obstacles referenced here as "the effects of acculturation"), there is the additional obstacle of "individual personality" standing in the way of any effort to be free of personality.
To review the basic personality types that are common to all personas in varying degrees of influence and that drive the thoughts and words and actions of all humans, review the enneagram pictograph:
As regular visitors to this site know, it is the Type Four that is most likely to seek authenticity and Realization, but the nine types are not distributed evenly among the globe’s population. (If there were an even distribution of types, then of the 7,000,000,000+ persons on the planet, 11.11% would be Type Ones, 11.11% would be Type Twos, 11.11% would be Type Threes, etc.)
But personality types do not develop and function in such a simple and balanced fashion. Little is more complicated in regards to development and functioning (and in regards to relative impact and consequences) than personality assignment or assumption; thus, while only 1/2 of 1% are Type Fours, 50% are Type Sixes who are driven by dependency and co-dependency and fear and anxiety.
The last thing Type Sixes seek is total freedom and total independence (especially freedom from their beliefs which they think are empowering and freedom from the liaisons they seek in order to be taken care of and in order to have their relative needs - and more - taken care of); instead, they will forever seek to march, in lock-step, to the beat of same drummer that the masses march to in order to gain a false sense of security.
Sixes will likely forever play the role of "The Loyalist," "The Patriot," "The Lover of My Country, Which Happens to Be the Greatest Country on Earth," "The Good, God-Fearing, God-Loving Christian / Muslim / Hindu / Jew / Whatever," "The One Dedicated to a Love of Our Flag and All That It Stands For," and "The One Willing to Proudly Serve and Even Die For My Country." (Did you just experience a gag-reflex? Hello, genuine Type Four.)
Conversely, a small percentage – ½ of 1%, as noted – are Type Fours that are the most likely to rebel against what the planet takes to be “conventional wisdom,” the most likely to de-value what most on the planet take to be their “near-sacred traditions and mores and customs and values and beliefs,” and the most likely to call “BS” on the whole lot of it.
Yet there are those who have other primary personality types that can also tap into the Four’s propensity for seeing nonsense and identifying it as such and then Realizing Fully. Personality “wings” are the two types adjacent to one’s primary type, so Type Fives have a chance for their “Four-ness to develop” and so do Type Threes (though their predilection for image and for form over substance often makes the development of their Four-wing nearly impossible).
If you review the enneagram pictograph above, you will see that Type Ones can also connect to the Four as can Type Twos. If the development of the Four happens with Ones, Two’s, Threes, and Fives, then more than ½ of 1% have a chance at developing an interest in authenticity; they, too, might eventually step onto the “path” and begin the "journey" in earnest.
That said, understand that any of the other eight types can shift toward the Type Four or can internalize a Four (as is the case when a child internalizes a parent’s Four traits); therefore, the odds are somewhat greater, at least statistically, that more than ½ of 1% on the planet might be seeking Realization at any given moment.
Yet that having been said, see that the Type Four personality itself can be as much as obstacle to Full Realization as the other eight types. Why? Because a non-Realized Four can display the following traits:
Non-Realized Fours can, of course, have the same kinds of phony “needs” that are being discussed in this series. Relevant among those are a need to experience their feelings, which for non-Realized Fours can often be dark and gloomy. (For example, while most types dread a dark and supposedly-dreary and bleak and stormy day with thunder and lightning and one downpour of rain after another, the Four can enjoy the heck out of that type of tempest or squall or massive storm.)
Too, the non-Realized Four had a “need” to be understood, is driven to search for “the meaning of life,” and will be driven to avoid being ordinary. (A Type Four who has been identified as the human that is most likely to have had the highest IQ ever was the Type Four Goethe who said, “I can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.”)
Indeed, Type Fours, Realized or not, are the ones most likely to march to the beat of a different drummer.
During the “developmental years,” a Type Four “at her or his best” might be refined, expressive, creative, intuitive, supportive, compassionate, warm, available, and able to relish the solitude, but when removed from being in touch with “reality” and Reality, Fours can be self-absorbed, guilt-ridden, withdrawn and isolated, moody, driven by flights of fantasy, driven by romantic but unrealistic and idealistic and excessively optimistic perspectives, and driven by a desire - not to find Reality but - to escape reality.
They are often the ones who think that the “journey” is about “leaving the Am-ness behind” and “abiding only as THAT” - in other words, checking out mentally . . . mentally moving to Foo-Foo Land in their subconscious quest to (a) have their emotions triggered so that they feel as if they are about to vibrate off the planet; and, relatedly, to (b) escape reality . . . that is, to escape the realities of the relative existence and even escape the responsibility of meeting the basic requirements of food and clothing and shelter (and anything else that requires work).
If they do begin to search and if their search finally moves to searching on a non-dual "path," they are often first drawn – especially in the West – to the Neo-Vedanta approach (i.e., to “Non-Duality Lite”) which offers what was referenced earlier:
In what they erroneously take to be “an earnest search for Truth,” they really only want a message with a big dollop of "Super Sweet Spiritual Cream" dropped on as a topping in order for that "Heavenly Splotch of Sugary Syrupiness" to provide a more palatable taste.”
Those types were discussed here in 2007 with the following:
Paraphrasing Dennis Waite: The term Neo-Vedanta refers primarily to the method used by Vivekananda and his followers. Some critics consider this method a “watered down” version of Traditional Advaita, a result of the fact that Vivekananda and his followers have tried to make the teachings more suitable to Western tastes where concepts and ego-states have dominated persons for millennia.
[NOTE: Neo-Vedanta teachers typically employ seemingly sublime or exalted or emotion-inspiring statements that encourage followers to adopt more concepts and identities instead of encouraging seekers to forfeit all concepts and identities. Some examples include such advise as: dream on an idea and be full of it and you’ll succeed; believe in yourself; make yourself strong; find god and gain power; use thoughts to create a new reality; engage in the noble goal of seeking knowledge; you are responsible for what you are; acquire power; and seek love. Such concepts are in direct opposition to the teachings presented via the Direct Path, nisarga yoga approach. f.h.]
Yet consider how very much a Type Four, trapped in her or his role of . . .
“The Romanticist” or “The Incurable Romantic” or “The One with Romantic Beliefs or Attitudes” or “The One Inclined Toward the Feeling of Excitement and Mystery Associated with Love” or “The Sentimental One” or “The One with An Idealized View Of Reality” . . .
will find appealing a talk by a Neo-Vedantin (or by others with a similarly lofty or “other-worldly” or romanticized or escapist-mentality-influence) if the talks speaks fondly of "dreaming" and "believing in self" and "creating one’s own reality" and "engaging in a noble, meaning search" and "seeking love" or any other such "Moon-June-Spoon" talk that is emotionally-charged and emotionally-intoxicating.
Thus, “Four-ness” can be a double-edged sword, as can all personalities:
on one hand, the Type Four’s heart instinct can delay or even halt the search for Realization because of the tendency to seek the more romantic, non-realistic, escapist aspects which the relative existence can afford a person and that run counter,
on the other hand, to the Four’s gut instinct that – at its core – longs for authenticity and sense and reason and logic and freedom from dependency and freedom from the insane and too-often abusive machinations of the authorities who control big government and big religion and big business (a subject covered in detail in the non-duality-based adventure novel below entitled THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS).
With so many obstacles that most seekers never see as obstacles, is it any wonder that Maharaj's guesstimate of how many would ever Realize changed over the years from 1 out of 100,000 to 1 out of 1,000,000 to 1 out of 10,000,000.
Yet if more have the opportunity to become aware of the obstacles and how to avoid or circumvent them, then there just might be a chance that some of those will eventually Realize. Or not.
Either way, here, the means by which that might possibly happen will continue to be offered for as long the condition of the composite unity allows.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
26 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: This is the final pointer regarding what came to be understood when "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Ultimate Sickness and the only effective treatment came into consciousness:
Again, if seekers would Realized Fully, then all religious or spiritual or philosophical concepts and beliefs and ideas and teachings must eventually be abandoned, and the sooner the better for those who would be totally free of delusions and distortions and ignorance and who would abide in the freedom and peace and ease and simplicity and relaxation of natural living.
For those not ready for the full dose, all sorts of yoga and teaching methods are available that can offer up a half-dose of The Ultimate Medicine which provides temporary - but not complete - relief from the symptoms of The Ultimate Sickness. So it is.
For most, however, nothing will be sought and none of the above will ever even be considered because most believe that
they are something
and
in fact, actually believe that they are many things
and
believe that, the things they think they are, are really very special things.
And the few on the planet who do seek are often just as fooled. Why?
Because they believe that they are Realized when they have actually only reached the third of seven steps on the “path” to Realization;
because they have assumed the role of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant” and have dedicated themselves to playing one or both of those roles; and
because they cannot have their own "private experience" with whatever they think those roles are providing but are driven to show off their roles in public so all can see how religious or spiritual they are and how devout and pious and pure and virtuous and moral and saintly and godly and blessed and holy they are (and, therefore, how different-than and how much better-than they are, their claims of modesty and humility notwithstanding).
In the style or fashion that they have adopted in an effort to mark their relative existence with their assumed traits of different-from-ment and better-than-ment, they are actually showing that they are not even at the third step level of being religious or spiritual. They are showing that they have not left the first step. They are still totally absorbed with body identification. How's that?
While having taken no steps to be free of the mind and mind-identification (thinking that their beliefs define who they are) and while certainly having taken no steps to be free of all personality-identification, they are only fooling themselves (and some others) with their assigned or assumed religious / spiritual personas.
The evidence? Notice how they treat their bodies like human Christmas trees, adorning them with all sorts of decorations. Note what they do with what is nothing more than a composite unity that began with the coming together of plant food elements that resulted in an elemental plant food body:
though each composite unity is nothing more than one of the trillions of elemental bodies on the planet and one of the billions of human-style elemental plant food bodies on the planet, they mistake each such conglomeration of elements for something that is unique, special, and personal;
then, the effects of "The Human Christmas Tree Syndrome" begin. As a child, their parents wrap the accumulated earth elements in special clothing. Some parents hang ribbons from the elemental body’s hair. Later, some children are trained to apply expensive products to the skin to enhance its appearance.
Some begin to add adornments to all parts of the body - piercing it, cutting away or mutilating various elemental parts and replacing those parts with metal or plastics; all that is done in an effort to attract attention to the body with which they identify.
They wrap it in fine, pretty things; they hang shiny things from it; some add rings over the years to stretch the length of their necks by ten or twelve inches. Some bind their feet to keep them small. Some sever lips and add plates to stretch their lower lips.
In business, many of them are told “this is the company uniform” or “this is the company standards of dress.” Image. Image. Image.
Then for those that have been told that they are members of this religion or that religion or who think they have chosen to follow this spiritual leader or that philosophical teacher, they have followed the demands to do other things to the elemental body which they identify with and use to project manufactured images in public:
Some of those will shave their heads or wear special robes. Others will adorn the elemental body with special wooden or gold (or, yes, even gold-and-diamond-shaped crosses. (Wonder if that would make Christ proud or make Christ weep?) Image. Image. Image.
Some supposedly advance to such levels that, when they appear in public, they dress up the elemental plant food body in red Patton leather shoes and in ornamental robes that could more appropriately be used to dress up the windows in the most magnificent European castles. They place mitres on top of the elemental body and wrap the rest of the body in cassocks or soutanes;
they even establish rubrics (regulations) for the type of vestments to be hung on an elemental plant food body during special ceremonies, those vestments including stoles (mink or ermine), albs, surplices, copes, rochets, zucchettos, maniples, veils, birettas, tunicles, chasubles, dalmatics, amices, cinctures, palliums, gloves, sandals, fanons, papal tiaras, subcinctoriums, faldas, chimeres, gaiters, caps, tippets, and gowns.
In some other quarters, males cultivate huge quantities of facial hair to make the elemental plant food body look different; some wrap their heads in a special cloth; and some demand that their women wear clothes that cover the entire elemental plant food body from head to toe.
All sorts of special stuff is placed at various times on the top of or over or under an elemental plant food body - when in public, of course – to show off rank and degrees of holiness and degrees of different-from-ment and degrees of better-than-ment and the uniqueness of the one wearing such adornments. In short, they dress up an elemental plant food body to show off publicly everything that is the opposite of non-duality and Oneness and no-different-from-ment and no-better-than-ment.
Image. Image. Image. Phoniness. Phoniness. Phoniness. All having to do with body identification wrapped in the cloak of religious or spiritual identities. It's all First Step body-body-body stuff, all presented – and misrepresented – as being religious or spiritual stuff.
For persons who talk so much about “things Noumenal” and “A Supreme Self” and “The Supreme Self” and “God” or “Gods and Goddesses” and all other sorts of “other-worldly things,” there is certainly a great deal of focus on the body and what it’s wrapped in and what is being used to decorate it and how its adornments are used to project an image and a message, whether anyone else cares about that image or those messages or not.
Some allow the body to inhale and smell special smoke. Some have the body listen to holy words read or said and to special music or bells or chants or the sounds made when a special bowl sitting on a special pillow is struck with a special stick. Some have the body make unique, humming sounds. Some make the body produce rough, coarse guttural sounds.
Some have the body move to a special room or special temple or special church or special mosque and have the body look at the special things enshrined therein.
Maharaj gave short shrift to such image-manufacturers and image-sustainers. The best way to purchase a one-way ticket back to the noisy and dirty street at 10th Lane, Khetwadi in Bombay was to walk into the loft in an ochre robe and begin sharing one’s beliefs and displaying one’s vast wealth of accumulated knowledge and showing off the supposedly-high spiritual level that one has supposedly ascended to.
When one has been fooled so much that he or she does not know the difference in
(a) a composite unity
and
(b) all of the dreamed-up, bogus identities that they have been assigned or have assumed,
then
of course they will also buy into the belief that the phony needs of their bogus identities are real; then, their thoughts and words and behaviors will all be determined by personality-generated and personality-based delusions and illusions, most of which will inspire persons to focus on the body and their body-identification.
In some cases, there has been concrete evidence here which shows that a movement along the “path” is happening for real. A sure sign: de-accumulation of things collected to show off one’s religious or spiritual state:
One man wrote yesterday to explain that, after taking the content of the posts and books here into careful consideration for quite some period of time, he finally returned his robes to a Buddhist temple this week and sold them. Evidently, there is no special “one” who needs to be seen wearing them anymore.
Others have explained before finishing half of the online course that they have cleared out their massive collection of books in their in-home libraries that each contained hundreds and hundreds of self-help or spiritual books.
Another wrote to report that he had tossed out his special pyramid that he sat under in his house (and to say that his wife and children now have at least a slight hope that he might be restored to a state of sanity someday).
Others have shared that they have gotten rid of their special crystal collections; their meditation beads or rosaries; their special bracelets; their tilakas; their vilhuti or their Ash Wednesday trips to a church to have their foreheads smeared and soiled; their special candles; or their perfumed incense sticks that were choking their teens and driving them out of the house to try to find some fresh air.
Many have been rid of all externals that have nothing to do with their internal issues, nothing to do with the inside-the-mind issues that are at the root of the Ultimate Sickness. Accoutrements are about getting instead of getting rid of. Special clothes and hairdos or non-hairdos and vestments and rings and lip plates are about the body and about image. They have nothing to do with the process of Realization and becoming free of all beliefs, including those about being “Realized.”
What about you? Are there any externals that have been added to your relative existence that must go if you would move away from image and toward authenticity? Are you focusing on external markings, clothing, noises, smells, appearances, trappings, accoutrements, etc. that have shifted the focus away from focusing on the internals that must be addressed if you would be free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness?
Is there anything that you are doing, any places you are going, any things you are saying, any meetings that you are attending, any services that you going to, any supposedly-special places on the planet that you are visiting, all in an effort to show yourself and others how religious or spiritual (that is, how different and special) you are?
If so, might it be time to at least consider the possibility that all of that has moved you off the real “path” and that you are now on a side road where nothing but side shows are happening?
Of course, that is all just a series of suggestions or just a series of possible considerations to take into the silence, if you choose to do so.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
25 June 2014
F.: This is the final pointer regarding what came to be understood when "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Ultimate Sickness and the only effective treatment came into consciousness:
Again, if seekers would Realized Fully, then all religious or spiritual or philosophical concepts and beliefs and ideas and teachings must eventually be abandoned, and the sooner the better for those who would be totally free of delusions and distortions and ignorance and who would abide in the freedom and peace and ease and simplicity and relaxation of natural living.
For those not ready for the full dose, all sorts of yoga and teaching methods are available that can offer up a half-dose of The Ultimate Medicine which provides temporary - but not complete - relief from the symptoms of The Ultimate Sickness. So it is.
For most, however, nothing will be sought and none of the above will ever even be considered because most believe that
they are something
and
in fact, actually believe that they are many things
and
believe that, the things they think they are, are really very special things.
And the few on the planet who do seek are often just as fooled. Why?
Because they believe that they are Realized when they have actually only reached the third of seven steps on the “path” to Realization;
because they have assumed the role of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant” and have dedicated themselves to playing one or both of those roles; and
because they cannot have their own "private experience" with whatever they think those roles are providing but are driven to show off their roles in public so all can see how religious or spiritual they are and how devout and pious and pure and virtuous and moral and saintly and godly and blessed and holy they are (and, therefore, how different-than and how much better-than they are, their claims of modesty and humility notwithstanding).
In the style or fashion that they have adopted in an effort to mark their relative existence with their assumed traits of different-from-ment and better-than-ment, they are actually showing that they are not even at the third step level of being religious or spiritual. They are showing that they have not left the first step. They are still totally absorbed with body identification. How's that?
While having taken no steps to be free of the mind and mind-identification (thinking that their beliefs define who they are) and while certainly having taken no steps to be free of all personality-identification, they are only fooling themselves (and some others) with their assigned or assumed religious / spiritual personas.
The evidence? Notice how they treat their bodies like human Christmas trees, adorning them with all sorts of decorations. Note what they do with what is nothing more than a composite unity that began with the coming together of plant food elements that resulted in an elemental plant food body:
though each composite unity is nothing more than one of the trillions of elemental bodies on the planet and one of the billions of human-style elemental plant food bodies on the planet, they mistake each such conglomeration of elements for something that is unique, special, and personal;
then, the effects of "The Human Christmas Tree Syndrome" begin. As a child, their parents wrap the accumulated earth elements in special clothing. Some parents hang ribbons from the elemental body’s hair. Later, some children are trained to apply expensive products to the skin to enhance its appearance.
Some begin to add adornments to all parts of the body - piercing it, cutting away or mutilating various elemental parts and replacing those parts with metal or plastics; all that is done in an effort to attract attention to the body with which they identify.
They wrap it in fine, pretty things; they hang shiny things from it; some add rings over the years to stretch the length of their necks by ten or twelve inches. Some bind their feet to keep them small. Some sever lips and add plates to stretch their lower lips.
In business, many of them are told “this is the company uniform” or “this is the company standards of dress.” Image. Image. Image.
Then for those that have been told that they are members of this religion or that religion or who think they have chosen to follow this spiritual leader or that philosophical teacher, they have followed the demands to do other things to the elemental body which they identify with and use to project manufactured images in public:
Some of those will shave their heads or wear special robes. Others will adorn the elemental body with special wooden or gold (or, yes, even gold-and-diamond-shaped crosses. (Wonder if that would make Christ proud or make Christ weep?) Image. Image. Image.
Some supposedly advance to such levels that, when they appear in public, they dress up the elemental plant food body in red Patton leather shoes and in ornamental robes that could more appropriately be used to dress up the windows in the most magnificent European castles. They place mitres on top of the elemental body and wrap the rest of the body in cassocks or soutanes;
they even establish rubrics (regulations) for the type of vestments to be hung on an elemental plant food body during special ceremonies, those vestments including stoles (mink or ermine), albs, surplices, copes, rochets, zucchettos, maniples, veils, birettas, tunicles, chasubles, dalmatics, amices, cinctures, palliums, gloves, sandals, fanons, papal tiaras, subcinctoriums, faldas, chimeres, gaiters, caps, tippets, and gowns.
In some other quarters, males cultivate huge quantities of facial hair to make the elemental plant food body look different; some wrap their heads in a special cloth; and some demand that their women wear clothes that cover the entire elemental plant food body from head to toe.
All sorts of special stuff is placed at various times on the top of or over or under an elemental plant food body - when in public, of course – to show off rank and degrees of holiness and degrees of different-from-ment and degrees of better-than-ment and the uniqueness of the one wearing such adornments. In short, they dress up an elemental plant food body to show off publicly everything that is the opposite of non-duality and Oneness and no-different-from-ment and no-better-than-ment.
Image. Image. Image. Phoniness. Phoniness. Phoniness. All having to do with body identification wrapped in the cloak of religious or spiritual identities. It's all First Step body-body-body stuff, all presented – and misrepresented – as being religious or spiritual stuff.
For persons who talk so much about “things Noumenal” and “A Supreme Self” and “The Supreme Self” and “God” or “Gods and Goddesses” and all other sorts of “other-worldly things,” there is certainly a great deal of focus on the body and what it’s wrapped in and what is being used to decorate it and how its adornments are used to project an image and a message, whether anyone else cares about that image or those messages or not.
Some allow the body to inhale and smell special smoke. Some have the body listen to holy words read or said and to special music or bells or chants or the sounds made when a special bowl sitting on a special pillow is struck with a special stick. Some have the body make unique, humming sounds. Some make the body produce rough, coarse guttural sounds.
Some have the body move to a special room or special temple or special church or special mosque and have the body look at the special things enshrined therein.
Maharaj gave short shrift to such image-manufacturers and image-sustainers. The best way to purchase a one-way ticket back to the noisy and dirty street at 10th Lane, Khetwadi in Bombay was to walk into the loft in an ochre robe and begin sharing one’s beliefs and displaying one’s vast wealth of accumulated knowledge and showing off the supposedly-high spiritual level that one has supposedly ascended to.
When one has been fooled so much that he or she does not know the difference in
(a) a composite unity
and
(b) all of the dreamed-up, bogus identities that they have been assigned or have assumed,
then
of course they will also buy into the belief that the phony needs of their bogus identities are real; then, their thoughts and words and behaviors will all be determined by personality-generated and personality-based delusions and illusions, most of which will inspire persons to focus on the body and their body-identification.
In some cases, there has been concrete evidence here which shows that a movement along the “path” is happening for real. A sure sign: de-accumulation of things collected to show off one’s religious or spiritual state:
One man wrote yesterday to explain that, after taking the content of the posts and books here into careful consideration for quite some period of time, he finally returned his robes to a Buddhist temple this week and sold them. Evidently, there is no special “one” who needs to be seen wearing them anymore.
Others have explained before finishing half of the online course that they have cleared out their massive collection of books in their in-home libraries that each contained hundreds and hundreds of self-help or spiritual books.
Another wrote to report that he had tossed out his special pyramid that he sat under in his house (and to say that his wife and children now have at least a slight hope that he might be restored to a state of sanity someday).
Others have shared that they have gotten rid of their special crystal collections; their meditation beads or rosaries; their special bracelets; their tilakas; their vilhuti or their Ash Wednesday trips to a church to have their foreheads smeared and soiled; their special candles; or their perfumed incense sticks that were choking their teens and driving them out of the house to try to find some fresh air.
Many have been rid of all externals that have nothing to do with their internal issues, nothing to do with the inside-the-mind issues that are at the root of the Ultimate Sickness. Accoutrements are about getting instead of getting rid of. Special clothes and hairdos or non-hairdos and vestments and rings and lip plates are about the body and about image. They have nothing to do with the process of Realization and becoming free of all beliefs, including those about being “Realized.”
What about you? Are there any externals that have been added to your relative existence that must go if you would move away from image and toward authenticity? Are you focusing on external markings, clothing, noises, smells, appearances, trappings, accoutrements, etc. that have shifted the focus away from focusing on the internals that must be addressed if you would be free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness?
Is there anything that you are doing, any places you are going, any things you are saying, any meetings that you are attending, any services that you going to, any supposedly-special places on the planet that you are visiting, all in an effort to show yourself and others how religious or spiritual (that is, how different and special) you are?
If so, might it be time to at least consider the possibility that all of that has moved you off the real “path” and that you are now on a side road where nothing but side shows are happening?
Of course, that is all just a series of suggestions or just a series of possible considerations to take into the silence, if you choose to do so.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
25 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: To review from yesterday:
In the end, objective analysis allowed both to see neither of those methods of treatment was working. Then, there was a shift or adjustment. The understanding of the psychology behind “The Why” came to the forefront and it was seen that the problem of humanity – and the problems induced by the Ultimate Sickness - are not centered . . .
. . . in some “spirit” or “soul” or “inner self” or some “phantom or specter or apparition within” or some “psychic something or other” but are centered . . .
. . . in the mind.
The Ultimate Sickness, after years of working with the Illness, was eventually seen by “maharaj” and by “floyd” for what it is, and for what it is not.
It is not a “sickness of the soul” or a “sickness of the spirit.”
It is not a sickness that is centered “somewhere in a human body, specifically, in an area somewhere in the vicinity of the heart.”
It is not a sickness that results from “a dogma-deficiency” but does seem to flourish in an environment of “excess dogma.”
Its symptoms can be aggravated by the egotism that accompanies the assignment or assumption of “beyond the phenomenal, spiritual, Noumenal personas.”
It is a mental sickness.
It is centered in the mind.
It can, sometimes, respond to treatments that focus on the actual location of the Sickness but never to treatments that focus on imaginary locations of the Sickness. As noted earlier, the blocked artery in the heart here a few years ago was not treated by working on the head, and head problems are not treated by working on the heart / soul / spirit / whatever.
TOMORROW: More on why "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Sickness and the only effective treatment came into consciousness.
In the eBook dealing with “Maharaj’s Evolution,” quotes from his many critics are shared. Relevant to this discussion are these:
"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
What those criticisms actually mean is this:
1. “I am a Spiritual Giant.”
2. “I am driven by ego-state-and-egotism-based beliefs.”
3. “I only want to hear statements that affirm what I believe.”
4. “I am stuck at the third step of a ‘path’ that involves a seven-step ‘journey’ to Realization, but I believe that I have completed an entire journey when, in fact, I have not even reached the halfway point.”
5. “As long as what Maharaj said was reinforcing my favorite assumed persona of ‘The Spiritual Giant,’ I approved of what he said. How dare he claim that he is now a ‘Spiritual Pygmy,’ not a “Spiritual Giant.”
6. “I resent his inviting me via his pointers to consider the possibility that I’m not really standing in the full light of the noonday sun (as I think I am and believe I am) but that I am actually still standing in the dull light of dawn.”
7. “Before, I was a fan, but his comments about seekers who have not moved at all beyond a kindergarten level of spirituality are insulting.”
8. “I had been a fan and saw him as "A Spiritual Master," but after he stopped recommending spiritual practices as the treatment for the Ultimate Sickness, I now perceive him as "The Enemy." I wish I had the ability to make all of the books with his talks except I AM THAT vanish.”
9. “I really hate him for telling people in his later talks to stop reading I AM THAT and that his message has changed completely from what he shared in those early talks.”
How the Spiritual Giants do hate to hear him advise: "Forget spirituality."
How they hated to hear him encourage seekers to follow "their normal inclinations," that is, to follow their natural tendencies, to abandon all of their spiritual work and just abide naturally - not unnaturally and not supernaturally (i.e., neither "religiously" nor "spiritually" nor "philosophically").
How they hated it when he told visitors, "Do your normal duties" and "just give up spirituality."
And how they hated to hear him advise seekers to stop reading the book I AM THAT and to heed his later teachings (advice offered after he witnessed clearly that spirituality and spiritual exercises and the adoption of a spiritual persona did not cure the Sickness but actually aggravated its symptoms).
So some ask, quite reasonably, “If you were wrong about the efficacy of using religion as a treatment for the Ultimate Sickness and wrong about the efficacy of using spirituality as a treatment for the Ultimate Sickness, then why should I accept without question Maharaj’s third approach (an address-the-sickness-of-the-mind approach) and hence your third approach (also an address-the-sickness-of-the-mind approach)?”
The reply: “You should not. Never accept anything without question. Question it all, while considering alternatives. Might your problem, and humanity’s problem, be rooted in a mental and emotional and personality-based Sickness, or are you convinced humanity’s problem is rooted in too little dogma and the fact that too few people are doing spiritual exercises and activities on a daily basis?”
In one looks at the results of the treatment plans tried to date, what are the actual results? Do you see any long-term shifts among those using traditional (religious and / or spiritual) treatment plans, or do you see lip service and false claims about having been “restored to sanity” while there remains overwhelming evidence that insanity is still the driving force in the lives of those claiming restoration?
You must make that determination. For those that have made the determination and see the reality regarding the results of ineffective treatment, then the invitation is to try something else. That, too, seems reasonable.
Meanwhile, there is a reason for the third step on “the path” where religion and / or spiritual roles are played: it does turn the focus of a seeker away from a phenomenal-only focus; thus, there is no suggestion that one skip the step. There is also no suggestion that one can skip the step. It is not likely to happen that way.
The following was shared years ago but is relevant again at this juncture:
No matter how many warnings or disclaimers or clarifications that Maharaj offered, and no matter the fact that his teaching name made clear that he offered the Nisarga Yoga, seekers attached to a yoga other than the Nisarga Yoga came to the loft to debate and argue and defend their beliefs.
Same here. In spite of the clear disclaimers, Christians show up to press their case; those attached to the Traditional Teaching Method of Advaita Vedanta come to set forth their arguments about why their method - not the Direct Path Method - is the "right method"; some Islamists have sent threatening messages;
and recently, one assuming the role of "The Devout Buddhist" showed up and was shocked to hear that belief in the holiness of "His Holiness" was pure dualistic nonsense of the type expressed in all dualistic labels such as holy vs. not holy, right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral. Did anger manifest? Instantly. Did he walk out of the retreat? Instantly.
So consider: if you need a new pair of shoes, enter a car dealership, and ask to try on a pair of black wingtip shoes in a size 10-1/2 C, how insane would it be to become angry and offended when the salesperson says, "I do not sell black wingtip shoes here, but I can put you into a black Camry"?
The onus is upon the seeker to find not only what the teacher was teaching five or ten or fifteen years ago but what the teacher is offering now. For those who read I AM THAT only, so it is, but those seekers who only read the "Early Maharaj" and not the "Later Maharaj" will only see "The Tip of the Iceberg of Maharaj's Ultimate Teachings." Thus, some research on the part of all seekers is required if they want to avoid being "surprised."
Here, it is explained that if one prefers the Traditional Advaita Vedanta method, the Neo-Advaita method, the Neo-Vedanta method, or the Pseudo Advaita teaching method, it will not be found here.
Here, the disclaimer also makes clear that Nisarga Yoga is offered rather than guru-yoga or hatha-yoga or jnani-yoga or bhakti-yoga or raja-yoga or karma-yoga or kriya-yoga or mantra-yoga or kundalini-yoga or swara-yoga, etc. Again, some research on the part of the seeker is required.
In the case of the first 8,000 or so who came to hear "floyd," the fact is this: the pure consciousness - yet blocked - was not able to speak truth (to the relative misfortune of those who listened). As with "Early Maharaj," some came for what they took to be "a religious message," and they heard one. Others came later for what they took to be "a spiritual message," and they heard that.
In both cases, seekers were hearing "Maharaj Lite" or "Diet Floyd." Both drinks were intoxicating for those who came for nothing more than reinforcement of their bogus beliefs and who were actually content to remain thirsty . . . totally dry . . . even parched.
Both "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" were yet adulterated and therefore unable to quench the thirst for Truth or Understanding or Realization that some were seeking. Later, when the unadulterated versions of the drinks were offered, more popular, Big Name Teachers were sought.
Many who come now claim that they really are placing an order for a "Big Gulp of a BS-Free Beverage," but when the order is filled and they receive their first taste, it becomes clear that what they really desire is a big dollop of "Super Sweet Spiritual Cream" dropped on as a topping in order for that "Heavenly Splotch of Sugary Syrupiness" to provide a more palatable taste, a flavor more like what they are accustomed to.
Maybe pointing to the truth WILL set persons free, or maybe pointing to the truth COULD set persons free, but more often than not it is only going to really infuriate those who come seeking more rather than less.
Only those who understand that what is to be sought is freedom - namely, freedom from all ideas, concepts, attitudes, perceptions, misperceptions (a.k.a., "beliefs") - will also come to understand that if they become free of all of that, then it matters not what "Maharaj" or "Floyd" say.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
24 June 2014
F.: To review from yesterday:
In the end, objective analysis allowed both to see neither of those methods of treatment was working. Then, there was a shift or adjustment. The understanding of the psychology behind “The Why” came to the forefront and it was seen that the problem of humanity – and the problems induced by the Ultimate Sickness - are not centered . . .
. . . in some “spirit” or “soul” or “inner self” or some “phantom or specter or apparition within” or some “psychic something or other” but are centered . . .
. . . in the mind.
The Ultimate Sickness, after years of working with the Illness, was eventually seen by “maharaj” and by “floyd” for what it is, and for what it is not.
It is not a “sickness of the soul” or a “sickness of the spirit.”
It is not a sickness that is centered “somewhere in a human body, specifically, in an area somewhere in the vicinity of the heart.”
It is not a sickness that results from “a dogma-deficiency” but does seem to flourish in an environment of “excess dogma.”
Its symptoms can be aggravated by the egotism that accompanies the assignment or assumption of “beyond the phenomenal, spiritual, Noumenal personas.”
It is a mental sickness.
It is centered in the mind.
It can, sometimes, respond to treatments that focus on the actual location of the Sickness but never to treatments that focus on imaginary locations of the Sickness. As noted earlier, the blocked artery in the heart here a few years ago was not treated by working on the head, and head problems are not treated by working on the heart / soul / spirit / whatever.
TOMORROW: More on why "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Sickness and the only effective treatment came into consciousness.
In the eBook dealing with “Maharaj’s Evolution,” quotes from his many critics are shared. Relevant to this discussion are these:
"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
What those criticisms actually mean is this:
1. “I am a Spiritual Giant.”
2. “I am driven by ego-state-and-egotism-based beliefs.”
3. “I only want to hear statements that affirm what I believe.”
4. “I am stuck at the third step of a ‘path’ that involves a seven-step ‘journey’ to Realization, but I believe that I have completed an entire journey when, in fact, I have not even reached the halfway point.”
5. “As long as what Maharaj said was reinforcing my favorite assumed persona of ‘The Spiritual Giant,’ I approved of what he said. How dare he claim that he is now a ‘Spiritual Pygmy,’ not a “Spiritual Giant.”
6. “I resent his inviting me via his pointers to consider the possibility that I’m not really standing in the full light of the noonday sun (as I think I am and believe I am) but that I am actually still standing in the dull light of dawn.”
7. “Before, I was a fan, but his comments about seekers who have not moved at all beyond a kindergarten level of spirituality are insulting.”
8. “I had been a fan and saw him as "A Spiritual Master," but after he stopped recommending spiritual practices as the treatment for the Ultimate Sickness, I now perceive him as "The Enemy." I wish I had the ability to make all of the books with his talks except I AM THAT vanish.”
9. “I really hate him for telling people in his later talks to stop reading I AM THAT and that his message has changed completely from what he shared in those early talks.”
How the Spiritual Giants do hate to hear him advise: "Forget spirituality."
How they hated to hear him encourage seekers to follow "their normal inclinations," that is, to follow their natural tendencies, to abandon all of their spiritual work and just abide naturally - not unnaturally and not supernaturally (i.e., neither "religiously" nor "spiritually" nor "philosophically").
How they hated it when he told visitors, "Do your normal duties" and "just give up spirituality."
And how they hated to hear him advise seekers to stop reading the book I AM THAT and to heed his later teachings (advice offered after he witnessed clearly that spirituality and spiritual exercises and the adoption of a spiritual persona did not cure the Sickness but actually aggravated its symptoms).
So some ask, quite reasonably, “If you were wrong about the efficacy of using religion as a treatment for the Ultimate Sickness and wrong about the efficacy of using spirituality as a treatment for the Ultimate Sickness, then why should I accept without question Maharaj’s third approach (an address-the-sickness-of-the-mind approach) and hence your third approach (also an address-the-sickness-of-the-mind approach)?”
The reply: “You should not. Never accept anything without question. Question it all, while considering alternatives. Might your problem, and humanity’s problem, be rooted in a mental and emotional and personality-based Sickness, or are you convinced humanity’s problem is rooted in too little dogma and the fact that too few people are doing spiritual exercises and activities on a daily basis?”
In one looks at the results of the treatment plans tried to date, what are the actual results? Do you see any long-term shifts among those using traditional (religious and / or spiritual) treatment plans, or do you see lip service and false claims about having been “restored to sanity” while there remains overwhelming evidence that insanity is still the driving force in the lives of those claiming restoration?
You must make that determination. For those that have made the determination and see the reality regarding the results of ineffective treatment, then the invitation is to try something else. That, too, seems reasonable.
Meanwhile, there is a reason for the third step on “the path” where religion and / or spiritual roles are played: it does turn the focus of a seeker away from a phenomenal-only focus; thus, there is no suggestion that one skip the step. There is also no suggestion that one can skip the step. It is not likely to happen that way.
The following was shared years ago but is relevant again at this juncture:
No matter how many warnings or disclaimers or clarifications that Maharaj offered, and no matter the fact that his teaching name made clear that he offered the Nisarga Yoga, seekers attached to a yoga other than the Nisarga Yoga came to the loft to debate and argue and defend their beliefs.
Same here. In spite of the clear disclaimers, Christians show up to press their case; those attached to the Traditional Teaching Method of Advaita Vedanta come to set forth their arguments about why their method - not the Direct Path Method - is the "right method"; some Islamists have sent threatening messages;
and recently, one assuming the role of "The Devout Buddhist" showed up and was shocked to hear that belief in the holiness of "His Holiness" was pure dualistic nonsense of the type expressed in all dualistic labels such as holy vs. not holy, right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral. Did anger manifest? Instantly. Did he walk out of the retreat? Instantly.
So consider: if you need a new pair of shoes, enter a car dealership, and ask to try on a pair of black wingtip shoes in a size 10-1/2 C, how insane would it be to become angry and offended when the salesperson says, "I do not sell black wingtip shoes here, but I can put you into a black Camry"?
The onus is upon the seeker to find not only what the teacher was teaching five or ten or fifteen years ago but what the teacher is offering now. For those who read I AM THAT only, so it is, but those seekers who only read the "Early Maharaj" and not the "Later Maharaj" will only see "The Tip of the Iceberg of Maharaj's Ultimate Teachings." Thus, some research on the part of all seekers is required if they want to avoid being "surprised."
Here, it is explained that if one prefers the Traditional Advaita Vedanta method, the Neo-Advaita method, the Neo-Vedanta method, or the Pseudo Advaita teaching method, it will not be found here.
Here, the disclaimer also makes clear that Nisarga Yoga is offered rather than guru-yoga or hatha-yoga or jnani-yoga or bhakti-yoga or raja-yoga or karma-yoga or kriya-yoga or mantra-yoga or kundalini-yoga or swara-yoga, etc. Again, some research on the part of the seeker is required.
In the case of the first 8,000 or so who came to hear "floyd," the fact is this: the pure consciousness - yet blocked - was not able to speak truth (to the relative misfortune of those who listened). As with "Early Maharaj," some came for what they took to be "a religious message," and they heard one. Others came later for what they took to be "a spiritual message," and they heard that.
In both cases, seekers were hearing "Maharaj Lite" or "Diet Floyd." Both drinks were intoxicating for those who came for nothing more than reinforcement of their bogus beliefs and who were actually content to remain thirsty . . . totally dry . . . even parched.
Both "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" were yet adulterated and therefore unable to quench the thirst for Truth or Understanding or Realization that some were seeking. Later, when the unadulterated versions of the drinks were offered, more popular, Big Name Teachers were sought.
Many who come now claim that they really are placing an order for a "Big Gulp of a BS-Free Beverage," but when the order is filled and they receive their first taste, it becomes clear that what they really desire is a big dollop of "Super Sweet Spiritual Cream" dropped on as a topping in order for that "Heavenly Splotch of Sugary Syrupiness" to provide a more palatable taste, a flavor more like what they are accustomed to.
Maybe pointing to the truth WILL set persons free, or maybe pointing to the truth COULD set persons free, but more often than not it is only going to really infuriate those who come seeking more rather than less.
Only those who understand that what is to be sought is freedom - namely, freedom from all ideas, concepts, attitudes, perceptions, misperceptions (a.k.a., "beliefs") - will also come to understand that if they become free of all of that, then it matters not what "Maharaj" or "Floyd" say.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
24 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Maharaj has been criticized for the “inconsistencies” in his message. As explained in the eBook below dealing with “Maharaj’s Evolution,” some of those charges were legitimate and some were not.
The ones that were not inconsistent at all dealt with cases when Maharaj was offering a “level appropriate” response to seekers at different places on “the path.” One at the third step would be given considerations that were intended to allow for a movement to the fourth step. The next session, a seeker at the second step could be given a response that was intended to allow for a movement to the third step, and yes, the two responses could – and would and should – be different.
The ones that were inconsistent dealt with cases when Maharaj’s message and approach were indeed shifting – or evolving, if you will, or maybe even more accurately, “being adjusted” – as he witnessed what was “working” and what was not.
In the eBook below, it is noted that Maharaj always used the Direct Path Teaching Method, but he employed that method in tandem with one kind of yoga after another over the years; therefore, the message shifted or evolved or was adjusted as he moved from the use of
guru-bhakti and bhakti to
bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma")
to jnana and nisargan
to nisargan.
So, yes, early on, Maharaj's discussions focused on a “spiritual / religious path” because in the Hindu philosophy / religion, bhakti can deal with a focus on “God” – fostering among some a love of God, faith in God, and surrender to God; among others, the intent of Hinduism was to “realize” God.
(The focus here in not on Hinduism, so it will be left to those whose focus is on that subject to debate the variety of things "being Hindu" means. The point is, early on, it influenced Maharaj’s message and practices and affected the way his sessions were conducted in the beginning.)
So in the early days of his sharings, his message involved Hindu-influenced pointers that were rooted in that “philosophy” or “religion” and its “spiritual path” influences.
When he began to shift away from that, he spoke considerably about "knowing" as he combined jnana yoga with his teaching method. When that did not produce the effect he was seeking, he began – especially in his later talks – to focus more and more on his nisargan message.
(Yes, that “namesake” – indicating that a visit to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj would expose one to a message that advocated abiding naturally – was chosen early on, but it was not until later that the message focused on that alone).
The result: some inconsistencies did occur as there was a shifting or adjusting over the years from one yoga to another to facilitate the Direct Path Teachings.
If the “religious” / “spiritual” approach had shown from early on to actually address the Ultimate Sickness and have been witnessed to be successful and to be the “proper means” for eliminating the symptoms of the Sickness, there would have been no shift in (no adjusting of) the message.
Witnessing the failure of that method is what required “maharaj” and “floyd” both to adjust the message. Last winter in this community, there was an outbreak of influenza which was not recognized initially as being from a new strain. The doctors treated the first patients who showed up at the community hospital here with their traditional methods. When they realized that the inflection was being brought on by a mutated “super bug,” then traditional methods were set aside.
The first four patients died because traditional methods were being used to treat their sickness. Once doctors realized that the traditional methods were not working, their treatment evolved – they adjusted their treatment plan.
As noted, there is now an outbreak of a new, far-more-serious strain of the Ultimate Sickness though it is not being recognized by most as a far more serious strain of the Ultimate Sickness than has ever existed. Most persons are still trying to use a religious or spiritual treatment - the traditional methods – to try to treat persons who have grave mental and emotional disorders.
As with the doctors here last winter, the case was the same with “maharaj” and “floyd”: when they realized that the traditional methods were having no lasting effect on the Ultimate Sickness, those methods were set aside.
Today, many are dying from the Sickness because traditional methods are still being used to try to treat a far-more-potent strain of the Sickness. If persons were to wake up and realize that the traditional methods are not working, then they might seek a different treatment plan.
However, when one’s devotion is to a treatment plan that is “religious” or “spiritual” in style, then a fanaticism is sure to develop; then, their devotion to that plan will be clung too with a fanatical passion and a fervor and a zeal that will block off the willingness to be receptive to any suggestion that another method might “work better” than the one they are trying.
Though pure witnessing reveals that their traditional plan is a total failure, they will deny that their method is not working at all, assured that they are “just fine” or “now totally pure” and “now restored fully to sanity” and “now finally and fully healed in body and mind and spirit.”
Many among those masses will claim that a God did for them what they could not do for themselves without ever asking, “But why would an all-powerful God have allowed me to enter into so sick of a state to begin with?”
When that has been asked about here, the reply is “He loved me enough to give me free will. We can abuse that or use that. I abused it. Now I am using it.”
The reply to that: “So a good parent will allow a child to use its free will and play in the traffic and become harmed and will then be a good parent for taking the child to receive the medical care required from the injuries sustained after the child is hit by a car while playing in the street? But the harm and injuries could and would have all been prevented in the first place by a wise parent, right? Mummm. That's a rather curious-behaving God and a rather curious concept overall, is it not?”
Both “maharaj” and “floyd” tried to use religious means to try to address the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness in those who came our way. Had that approach worked long-term, we’d have stuck with it. Later, we both tried to use a “not-religious-but-spiritual-method-instead” approach. Had that approach worked long-term, we’d have stuck with it.
In the end, objective analysis allowed both to see neither of those methods of treatment was working. Then, there was a shift or adjustment. The understanding of the psychology behind “The Why” of human thoughts and words and behaviors came to the forefront and it was seen that the problem of humanity – and the problems induced by the Ultimate Sickness - are not centered . . .
. . . in some “spirit” or “soul” or “inner self” or some “phantom or specter or apparition within” or some “psychic something or other” but are centered . . .
. . . in the mind.
The Ultimate Sickness, after years of working with the Illness, was eventually seen by “maharaj” and by “floyd” for what it is, and for what it is not:
It is not a “sickness of the soul” or a “sickness of the spirit.”
It is not a sickness that is centered “somewhere in a human body, more specifically, in an area somewhere in the vicinity of the heart.”
It is not a sickness that results from “a dogma-deficiency” (but actually seems to flourish in an environment of “excess dogma”).
Its symptoms can be aggravated by the egotism that accompanies the assignment or assumption of “beyond the phenomenal, spiritual, Noumenal personas.”
It is a mental sickness.
It is centered in the mind.
It can, sometimes, respond to treatments that focus on the actual location of the Sickness but never to treatments that focus on imaginary locations of the Sickness. As noted earlier, the blocked artery in the heart here a few years ago was not treated by working on the head, and head problems are not treated by working on the heart / soul / spirit / whatever.
TOMORROW: More on why "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Sickness, and the only effective treatment for the Sickness, came into consciousness.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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F.: Maharaj has been criticized for the “inconsistencies” in his message. As explained in the eBook below dealing with “Maharaj’s Evolution,” some of those charges were legitimate and some were not.
The ones that were not inconsistent at all dealt with cases when Maharaj was offering a “level appropriate” response to seekers at different places on “the path.” One at the third step would be given considerations that were intended to allow for a movement to the fourth step. The next session, a seeker at the second step could be given a response that was intended to allow for a movement to the third step, and yes, the two responses could – and would and should – be different.
The ones that were inconsistent dealt with cases when Maharaj’s message and approach were indeed shifting – or evolving, if you will, or maybe even more accurately, “being adjusted” – as he witnessed what was “working” and what was not.
In the eBook below, it is noted that Maharaj always used the Direct Path Teaching Method, but he employed that method in tandem with one kind of yoga after another over the years; therefore, the message shifted or evolved or was adjusted as he moved from the use of
guru-bhakti and bhakti to
bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma")
to jnana and nisargan
to nisargan.
So, yes, early on, Maharaj's discussions focused on a “spiritual / religious path” because in the Hindu philosophy / religion, bhakti can deal with a focus on “God” – fostering among some a love of God, faith in God, and surrender to God; among others, the intent of Hinduism was to “realize” God.
(The focus here in not on Hinduism, so it will be left to those whose focus is on that subject to debate the variety of things "being Hindu" means. The point is, early on, it influenced Maharaj’s message and practices and affected the way his sessions were conducted in the beginning.)
So in the early days of his sharings, his message involved Hindu-influenced pointers that were rooted in that “philosophy” or “religion” and its “spiritual path” influences.
When he began to shift away from that, he spoke considerably about "knowing" as he combined jnana yoga with his teaching method. When that did not produce the effect he was seeking, he began – especially in his later talks – to focus more and more on his nisargan message.
(Yes, that “namesake” – indicating that a visit to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj would expose one to a message that advocated abiding naturally – was chosen early on, but it was not until later that the message focused on that alone).
The result: some inconsistencies did occur as there was a shifting or adjusting over the years from one yoga to another to facilitate the Direct Path Teachings.
If the “religious” / “spiritual” approach had shown from early on to actually address the Ultimate Sickness and have been witnessed to be successful and to be the “proper means” for eliminating the symptoms of the Sickness, there would have been no shift in (no adjusting of) the message.
Witnessing the failure of that method is what required “maharaj” and “floyd” both to adjust the message. Last winter in this community, there was an outbreak of influenza which was not recognized initially as being from a new strain. The doctors treated the first patients who showed up at the community hospital here with their traditional methods. When they realized that the inflection was being brought on by a mutated “super bug,” then traditional methods were set aside.
The first four patients died because traditional methods were being used to treat their sickness. Once doctors realized that the traditional methods were not working, their treatment evolved – they adjusted their treatment plan.
As noted, there is now an outbreak of a new, far-more-serious strain of the Ultimate Sickness though it is not being recognized by most as a far more serious strain of the Ultimate Sickness than has ever existed. Most persons are still trying to use a religious or spiritual treatment - the traditional methods – to try to treat persons who have grave mental and emotional disorders.
As with the doctors here last winter, the case was the same with “maharaj” and “floyd”: when they realized that the traditional methods were having no lasting effect on the Ultimate Sickness, those methods were set aside.
Today, many are dying from the Sickness because traditional methods are still being used to try to treat a far-more-potent strain of the Sickness. If persons were to wake up and realize that the traditional methods are not working, then they might seek a different treatment plan.
However, when one’s devotion is to a treatment plan that is “religious” or “spiritual” in style, then a fanaticism is sure to develop; then, their devotion to that plan will be clung too with a fanatical passion and a fervor and a zeal that will block off the willingness to be receptive to any suggestion that another method might “work better” than the one they are trying.
Though pure witnessing reveals that their traditional plan is a total failure, they will deny that their method is not working at all, assured that they are “just fine” or “now totally pure” and “now restored fully to sanity” and “now finally and fully healed in body and mind and spirit.”
Many among those masses will claim that a God did for them what they could not do for themselves without ever asking, “But why would an all-powerful God have allowed me to enter into so sick of a state to begin with?”
When that has been asked about here, the reply is “He loved me enough to give me free will. We can abuse that or use that. I abused it. Now I am using it.”
The reply to that: “So a good parent will allow a child to use its free will and play in the traffic and become harmed and will then be a good parent for taking the child to receive the medical care required from the injuries sustained after the child is hit by a car while playing in the street? But the harm and injuries could and would have all been prevented in the first place by a wise parent, right? Mummm. That's a rather curious-behaving God and a rather curious concept overall, is it not?”
Both “maharaj” and “floyd” tried to use religious means to try to address the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness in those who came our way. Had that approach worked long-term, we’d have stuck with it. Later, we both tried to use a “not-religious-but-spiritual-method-instead” approach. Had that approach worked long-term, we’d have stuck with it.
In the end, objective analysis allowed both to see neither of those methods of treatment was working. Then, there was a shift or adjustment. The understanding of the psychology behind “The Why” of human thoughts and words and behaviors came to the forefront and it was seen that the problem of humanity – and the problems induced by the Ultimate Sickness - are not centered . . .
. . . in some “spirit” or “soul” or “inner self” or some “phantom or specter or apparition within” or some “psychic something or other” but are centered . . .
. . . in the mind.
The Ultimate Sickness, after years of working with the Illness, was eventually seen by “maharaj” and by “floyd” for what it is, and for what it is not:
It is not a “sickness of the soul” or a “sickness of the spirit.”
It is not a sickness that is centered “somewhere in a human body, more specifically, in an area somewhere in the vicinity of the heart.”
It is not a sickness that results from “a dogma-deficiency” (but actually seems to flourish in an environment of “excess dogma”).
Its symptoms can be aggravated by the egotism that accompanies the assignment or assumption of “beyond the phenomenal, spiritual, Noumenal personas.”
It is a mental sickness.
It is centered in the mind.
It can, sometimes, respond to treatments that focus on the actual location of the Sickness but never to treatments that focus on imaginary locations of the Sickness. As noted earlier, the blocked artery in the heart here a few years ago was not treated by working on the head, and head problems are not treated by working on the heart / soul / spirit / whatever.
TOMORROW: More on why "Maharaj Lite" and "Diet Floyd" evolved or shifted or adjusted once the true nature of the Sickness, and the only effective treatment for the Sickness, came into consciousness.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Next, consider the fact that many called – and call – Maharaj “The Master” and “One Who Was Different from the Beginning" or "One Destined to Guide Others to Realization.” He would have considered all of that nonsense. If you read the information after the following collection of postings, you will find information on the way that the pre-Realization existence of Maharaj unfolded.
The information shows that Maharaj was far from different. He followed the same insane ways of the masses: he moved to the city for greater opportunity; he began working to earn and accumulate money; he built up many successful businesses; he married; he had children; he faced the same problems that all married couples face; he fought with his wife over spending, religion, taking a path that she did not approve of, etc.;
he struggled with the relative nonsense that was rooted in accepting and assuming multiple personalities and in early programming and conditioning and domestication and in the acculturation that was accepted once he began living in Bombay (Mumbai); he sought in a fanatical manner; he was criticized for placing the seeking above the interests of marriage and family; etc.
Master? Destined? Hardly. His seeking took him along the same long and arduous path that far too many take.
So is “Master” totally irrelevant? To the degree that it was an assigned label and identity and to the degree that all labels and identities are false and irrelevant, yes. The only relevancy between “Maharaj” and “Master” (actually, “master” or “mastery”) is this:
that which was and is called “Maharaj” was nothing more than a three-part composite unity consisting of an elemental, plant food body / space; a space circulating oxygen; and a space housing the conscious-energy.
None of those three parts have any continuity at all. The elements cycle, cells coming together and coming part constantly; the oxygen cycles in and out of the space; and the conscious-energy cycles into and out of the space.
So where does “master” fit in? Once the mind had been purged and a state of “zero concepts” has been reached (unblocking the consciousness and allowing for Pure Witnessing to happen) a mastery manifested. Maharaj mastered the psychology that is required for understanding and sharing non-duality.
He was not “A Spiritual Master” but could be pointed to as “a speck of consciousness that mastered psychology” (psychology: "-logy" = “the study of”; “psyche” = “the mind”).
Psychology is a discipline that used a scientific – or science-like – study of mental functions and behaviors, specifically, mind-driven behaviors.
As a result of being a quantity of conscious-energy that came to understand psychology – that is, as a speck that had mastered the understanding of the mind via having been instructed and after much witnessing and eventually after being able to witness purely - Maharaj also became able to guide persons along a "path" that led them back to sanity.
He came to understand how a mind comes into being, how it is filled with nonsense, and how that nonsense drives thoughts, words, and behaviors. That allowed Maharaj to understand exactly what the Ultimate Sickness is (and is not) and what the Ultimate Medicine is (and is not).
He explored concepts such as personality, the mind, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and how that subconscious mind functions in conjunction with personality; perceptions / misperceptions; emotion vs. feeling; motivation; blind motivation and blind faith; neuroses; psychoses; normal brain functioning vs. abnormal mind functioning; “relationships”; and much more.
Once psychologists come to a level of mastery in their field, many then become involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in counseling sessions with individuals, couples, or groups or establishing a clinical practice.
That is what Maharaj did. Unlike those in the business of offering counseling in order to pay their bills, Maharaj’s visitors provided all that was required for his relative “needs” to be met, allowing him to focus on guiding seekers along the “path.”
By developing a mastery of psychology, the speck called “Maharaj” also developed a mastery of fiction as well. To use a term he employed often (“B.S.”) he could spot the B.S. that dominates and controls the thoughts and words and actions of humankind and could point out the way to freedom from the same.
He understood that “freedom” dealt as much as anything with being free of nonsense and mental B.S. and fictional concepts (all of which amount to nothing more than accumulated “beliefs”).
More succinctly, he developed a mastery of “The Why” – that is, a master’s level understanding of the ways of human behavior. Of course that resonated here, what with a certification to teach psychology in all fifty states in the U.S.
Yet at the time the certification was earned, there was not a fraction of the understanding that Maharaj eventually reached. That came later, also after much instruction and witnessing and, eventually, Pure Witnessing.
As with Maharaj, many years were spent lying while believing that truth was being shared:
“Religion can address the ills of humanity”; then, later,
“No. Wait. It is spirituality that can restore humankind’s lost sanity” and
“Being spiritually-fit solves all other problems with the body and the mind.”
Eventually, though, by way of witnessing purely the failure of those recommended treatments, it was seen that they could not provide the Ultimate Medicine that is required to address the Ultimate Sickness.
“The Real Why” was eventually seen by Maharaj, so he changed his approach and his recommendations. Same here. Eventually, “The Real Way” was understood to involve freedom from personality assignment and assumption; freedom from the personality disorders that always eventually accompany personality assumption; and freedom from the disintegration of personality disorders into full-blown neuroses and psychoses.
The understanding included the way that physical pain can send persons racing to a doctor vs. the way that mind-and-emotion-based suffering and misery do not usually send persons racing anywhere.
It included the way that the 97% who claim a religious affiliation will turn to religious leaders for counseling rather than to professionals or to the few that understand the way – the "path" – that leads back to sanity;
It included the way that spiritual persons have not been de-programmed but have been re-programmed in their program in a manner that is not the way though they become convinced that it is; and it included the way – and an understanding of the reasons that cause – most persons to spend an entire relative existence abiding in what Maharaj called the “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” that mark the Ultimate Sickness.
Most will minimize, normalize, discount or deny the presence of those traits and will never give their mental and emotional misery and suffering the kind of attention they give their physical pain.
While some might normalize their physical pain, almost all minimize, normalize, discount, or deny their misery and suffering. A few will even honor it, claiming their suffering now is the way to eternal pleasure and reward later.
And both of those are, in themselves, evidence of insanity, are they not?
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
To be continued.
The information shows that Maharaj was far from different. He followed the same insane ways of the masses: he moved to the city for greater opportunity; he began working to earn and accumulate money; he built up many successful businesses; he married; he had children; he faced the same problems that all married couples face; he fought with his wife over spending, religion, taking a path that she did not approve of, etc.;
he struggled with the relative nonsense that was rooted in accepting and assuming multiple personalities and in early programming and conditioning and domestication and in the acculturation that was accepted once he began living in Bombay (Mumbai); he sought in a fanatical manner; he was criticized for placing the seeking above the interests of marriage and family; etc.
Master? Destined? Hardly. His seeking took him along the same long and arduous path that far too many take.
So is “Master” totally irrelevant? To the degree that it was an assigned label and identity and to the degree that all labels and identities are false and irrelevant, yes. The only relevancy between “Maharaj” and “Master” (actually, “master” or “mastery”) is this:
that which was and is called “Maharaj” was nothing more than a three-part composite unity consisting of an elemental, plant food body / space; a space circulating oxygen; and a space housing the conscious-energy.
None of those three parts have any continuity at all. The elements cycle, cells coming together and coming part constantly; the oxygen cycles in and out of the space; and the conscious-energy cycles into and out of the space.
So where does “master” fit in? Once the mind had been purged and a state of “zero concepts” has been reached (unblocking the consciousness and allowing for Pure Witnessing to happen) a mastery manifested. Maharaj mastered the psychology that is required for understanding and sharing non-duality.
He was not “A Spiritual Master” but could be pointed to as “a speck of consciousness that mastered psychology” (psychology: "-logy" = “the study of”; “psyche” = “the mind”).
Psychology is a discipline that used a scientific – or science-like – study of mental functions and behaviors, specifically, mind-driven behaviors.
As a result of being a quantity of conscious-energy that came to understand psychology – that is, as a speck that had mastered the understanding of the mind via having been instructed and after much witnessing and eventually after being able to witness purely - Maharaj also became able to guide persons along a "path" that led them back to sanity.
He came to understand how a mind comes into being, how it is filled with nonsense, and how that nonsense drives thoughts, words, and behaviors. That allowed Maharaj to understand exactly what the Ultimate Sickness is (and is not) and what the Ultimate Medicine is (and is not).
He explored concepts such as personality, the mind, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and how that subconscious mind functions in conjunction with personality; perceptions / misperceptions; emotion vs. feeling; motivation; blind motivation and blind faith; neuroses; psychoses; normal brain functioning vs. abnormal mind functioning; “relationships”; and much more.
Once psychologists come to a level of mastery in their field, many then become involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in counseling sessions with individuals, couples, or groups or establishing a clinical practice.
That is what Maharaj did. Unlike those in the business of offering counseling in order to pay their bills, Maharaj’s visitors provided all that was required for his relative “needs” to be met, allowing him to focus on guiding seekers along the “path.”
By developing a mastery of psychology, the speck called “Maharaj” also developed a mastery of fiction as well. To use a term he employed often (“B.S.”) he could spot the B.S. that dominates and controls the thoughts and words and actions of humankind and could point out the way to freedom from the same.
He understood that “freedom” dealt as much as anything with being free of nonsense and mental B.S. and fictional concepts (all of which amount to nothing more than accumulated “beliefs”).
More succinctly, he developed a mastery of “The Why” – that is, a master’s level understanding of the ways of human behavior. Of course that resonated here, what with a certification to teach psychology in all fifty states in the U.S.
Yet at the time the certification was earned, there was not a fraction of the understanding that Maharaj eventually reached. That came later, also after much instruction and witnessing and, eventually, Pure Witnessing.
As with Maharaj, many years were spent lying while believing that truth was being shared:
“Religion can address the ills of humanity”; then, later,
“No. Wait. It is spirituality that can restore humankind’s lost sanity” and
“Being spiritually-fit solves all other problems with the body and the mind.”
Eventually, though, by way of witnessing purely the failure of those recommended treatments, it was seen that they could not provide the Ultimate Medicine that is required to address the Ultimate Sickness.
“The Real Why” was eventually seen by Maharaj, so he changed his approach and his recommendations. Same here. Eventually, “The Real Way” was understood to involve freedom from personality assignment and assumption; freedom from the personality disorders that always eventually accompany personality assumption; and freedom from the disintegration of personality disorders into full-blown neuroses and psychoses.
The understanding included the way that physical pain can send persons racing to a doctor vs. the way that mind-and-emotion-based suffering and misery do not usually send persons racing anywhere.
It included the way that the 97% who claim a religious affiliation will turn to religious leaders for counseling rather than to professionals or to the few that understand the way – the "path" – that leads back to sanity;
It included the way that spiritual persons have not been de-programmed but have been re-programmed in their program in a manner that is not the way though they become convinced that it is; and it included the way – and an understanding of the reasons that cause – most persons to spend an entire relative existence abiding in what Maharaj called the “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” that mark the Ultimate Sickness.
Most will minimize, normalize, discount or deny the presence of those traits and will never give their mental and emotional misery and suffering the kind of attention they give their physical pain.
While some might normalize their physical pain, almost all minimize, normalize, discount, or deny their misery and suffering. A few will even honor it, claiming their suffering now is the way to eternal pleasure and reward later.
And both of those are, in themselves, evidence of insanity, are they not?
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
To be continued.
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"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
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“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.
* * * * * * *
Anthology of four books
Anthology of six books
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
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Open the attachment via the email on your iPad or Android tablet or
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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.]
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WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
"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?
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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
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:
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
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:
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 FINAL UNDERSTANDING
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:
A GUIDE FOR WORKING THE STEPS (IN THE MANNER USED BY THE FOUNDERS)
THE TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-DAY PLAN FOR A PSYCHIC CHANGE
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME TWO)
WHY NISARGA YOGA IN ADDITION TO THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS?
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga
YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE
GOING CRAZY / GOING SANE
INSTABILITY / INSANITY: WHAT THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS CAN (AND CANNOT) ADDRESS
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (THERE IS ONLY PEACE IF YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND)
FREEDOM FROM SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION (THE SOURCES OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS & THE NON-DUALITY TREATMENT)
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?"
THE MYTH OF "DEATH"
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS: THE SIMPLICITY OF REALIZATION
FINDING REAL LOVE IN AN UNREAL WORLD
CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT
THE NON-DUALITY POINTERS OFFERED BY YESHU'A ("JESUS THE CHRIST")
NOW ACCEPTING REQUESTS FOR FREE COPIES OF THE FOLLOWING EBOOKS:
A free copy of the 278-page eBook entitled
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
and / or
A free copy of the 267-page eBook entitled
"THE VISION"
is available to be sent to you and anyone else you choose.
[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.)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE ADVAITIN
WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (THE "FINAL" TALKS OF FLOYD HENDERSON)
I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS DEALING WITH NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA, AND MORE
DANCING LIGHTLY
THE PATH TO FREEDOM VS. THE PATH TO MISERY
THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS PERSONAL (INCLUDING YOU AND INCLUDING GOD)
LIBERATION (ATTAINING FREEDOM FROM PERSONALITY VIA REALIZATION)
WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
WHEN REALITY IS OVERLAID ON THE RELATIVE
THE RELATIVE RESULTS OF RETURNING TO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
WHAT BLISS IS AND WHAT BLISS IS NOT
THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
LESSONS IN NON-DUALITY FROM TRAVELS IN SOUTH AFRICA
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIRST STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SECOND STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE THIRD STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FOURTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIFTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SIXTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SEVENTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (AND WHY KNOWING IT SETS YOU FREE)
