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.
Previous post
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.
Previous post
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.
Previous post
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.
Previous post
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: To review other key points about the Ultimate Sickness and the Ultimate Medicine:
Originally, the Sickness came on slowly, most persons reaching adulthood before the Illness manifested in a full-blown manner and displayed all of its most serious symptoms.
Today, because the Sickness has gone untreated for so many generations, a cumulative effect has resulted. The degree of the Sickness have been strengthening and intensifying for generations, so it is now being passed on in its severely-aggravated form from one ignorant and insane couple after another to their offspring.
The result? Each subsequent generation is suffering a greater and greater case of the Sickness at a younger and younger age. The results are approaching a state of critical mass.
Sitting behind a woman in a car at a red light recently, a bumper sticker on her vehicle was seen. It claimed: “Insanity is hereditary: you get it from your kids.” She reversed the order of the way the Ultimate Sickness is passed along. Nice effort at denial and deflection, but no cigar.
The actual, commonplace scenario now: totally unwell parents (unwell mentally and emotionally) are passing on the Ultimate Sickness at warp speed to their children. After the first few years, their culture joins in to provide one mega-dose after another of the Sickness, constantly giving children regularly-administered booster shots of ignorance and insanity.
One counselor shared recently that two weeks ago she came across the youngest client ever (a five-year-old male) who is already displaying full-blown levels of the Sociopathic Personality Disorder that have in the past been displayed only by twenty to thirty-year-olds.
Why don’t all nations report the same volume of school-rated shootings as the U.S. (presently accelerating and now at a rate of one per week)? Does the Ultimate Sickness not have as firm a foothold in other nations? Maybe, maybe not, but when children are being driven into the depths of the Sickness at so early as age, and with them now having access in the U.S. to stockpiles of lethal weapons in their homes, what else is to be expected?
But the issue here is not that. That is only evidence of the consequences of the Ultimate Sickness. The issue here is this: what can seekers do to more effectively treat their own present version of the Sickness and thus possibly interrupt the spread?
They must see that the version of the Ultimate Medicine that is being offered in most cultures is hogwash . . . just garbage . . . nothing more or less than pure and total nonsense. To that end, these considerations are offered:
1. There is no such thing as a soul, so there is no such thing as soul-sickness. Nor does anyone one have a sick spirit; nor does anyone have the now-planet-wide Ultimate Sickness as a result of a dogma-deficiency. (Quite to the contrary, in fact.)
2. Instead, the widespread Sickness is being passed down to every human via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination.
3. There is no such thing as a mirage malady or a malady suffered by the child of a barren woman or a unicorn malady or a vampire malady or a ghost malady or an angel malady or a spiritual malady or a too-little-religious malady or a soul malady.
4. There is no such thing as being a fit mirage or being the fit child of a barren woman or a fit unicorn or a fit vampire or a fit ghost or a fit angel or a fit spirit or a fit, spiritual person or a fit, religious person or a fit soul or being spiritually-fit or religiously-fit or soulfully-fit.
5. There is no such thing as a mirage experience and there has never been the child of a barren woman that has had any kind of experience. Contrary to the insane beliefs of many persons, no one can have a vampire experience, a ghost experience, an angel experience, a spiritual experience, a religious experience, or a soul experience. What they can have is spiritual pride; what they can have is religious pride - and that form of pride there most certainly is . . . in far-too-abundant quantities.
6. What else can they have? They can have mental delusions; hallucinations; schizophrenia; and severe, personality-based mental and emotional disorders leading to full-blown neuroses and psychoses. They can have beliefs which inspire them to believe in things that do not exist. They can have beliefs based in fiction and lies which they will never question.
From the eBook below entitled IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free):
In “Psyche News International” (April, 1996) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler offers professional insight into the connection between religion and mental disorders:
“Psychosis exists when people cannot differentiate the symbolic from the real, when they cannot tell the true from the false. When people think they are hearing the voice of a being living in another world, they are psychotic.
“Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially-acceptable self-reported imagining. All self-reported imaginings labeled ‘psychosis’ are essentially religious. To label religious claims as psychotic is no more derogatory than to label psychotic claims as religious.
“Hearing voices in one's head is normal. We generally call it our conscience. [Other times, it is just our self-will, our ego, granting itself what it wants in the guise of God.] Psychosis is the belief that the voices in one's head belong to another person. The denial of voices-as-self is an attempt to deny the truth. It is a way of saying ‘this is not me.’ Pretending that the self is split or dissociated is a way of avoiding responsibility.”
7. Thus, the Ultimate Medicine does not require having “a mirage experience” and does not require the child of a barren woman to have an experience. Those are impossible. They cannot happen. No different from those, the Ultimate Medicine does not include having “a spiritual experience” or “a religious experience” or “an experiencing of the soul’s darkness and then the soul’s coming to the light.” Nor does it include "The Universe" sending you messages or guidance or controlling things or intervening on your behalf. Similarly, those are impossible. They cannot happen.
8. Right-wing and fundamentalist politicians in the U.S. tout the use of “conversion” or “reparative therapy” to treat people who are sexually gay (as if the sexual preference of heterosexuals could be converted or needs repairing).
(And by the way, speaking of insanity, what better example of insanity is there than politicians claiming that they want to keep big government out of your lives while simultaneously wanting big government to control what happens in the privacy of your bedroom?)
9. But to the relevant point here: there is no such thing as “a conversion therapy” for any disorder or sickness or Sickness or addiction or illness or disease, but some love to report – as enthusiastically and fanatically as any other types of extremists - that their religious beliefs and / or spiritual exercises were a key component of what “converted” them.
10. One cannot shift from being driven by ignorance to not being not driven by ignorance as a result of "a conversion," much less by “an instantaneous conversion.” Converting the content of the mind from one set of beliefs to a new set of beliefs does not change the fact that all ignorance and insanity are rooted in beliefs. The Ultimate Medicine involves reaching a state of zero concepts, not acquiring new beliefs from a priest / rabbi / imam / sponsor / preacher / politician / guru / teacher, etc.
11. Never would the one called “floyd” try to teach anyone anything more. Completely opposite to the approach used by all other philosophies, all other sets of teachings, all other compilations of dogma, or all other collections of spiritual principles and concepts, the invitation offered by a Realized Nisargan is to unlearn it all.
12. Some claim that their leader’s special book offers the solution, a book (or books) wherein he - yes, usually a “he,” but sometimes a “she” - promises readers that if they would only become spiritual, then their bodies and their minds would be healed.
Point 1: Some body infirmities can heal, yes;
Point 2: but a mind cannot be healed any more than a cancer can be healed. It must be eliminated (meaning, all beliefs stored therein much be discarded).
13. An objective witness would see clearly that, among the many who are using that approach, their relative existence still continues to unfold in a way that is marked by extreme insanity.
14. Here, during the long and arduous “journey” to Realization, all of the messianic types whose paths were crossed suggested that one needed to learn what they had learned, needed to do what they are now doing, needed to read their “special” or “holy” book, and needed to re-read it constantly in order to learn everything it contained and then apply those learnings to “my life.”
15. Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from “the Big Name Teachers.” Indeed, such a caution is still appropriate today in regards to those who are viewed as the big name teachers of non-duality. But why stop there?
16. Should the warning not include all big name teachers of all times? What about Moses? If one were to learn what he claimed to know and did what he said should be done according to the ancient laws he shared, then today one would have to stone gays to death (as one Oklahoma politician endorsed last week); would have to stone to death women who commit adultery; would have to adhere to ancient food laws that do not take into account that there are three body types that each requires a different food plan for efficient organ functioning, etc.
What about Abraham? Mohammed? What about the Dalai Lama who claimed that Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans because of the negative karma of the people there? What about the Ayatollah Khomeini who endorsed killing women who committed adultery but who listed in his book the four animals and the bird that were included on his approved-for-sex-with-Muslim-men list?
What about a man who claimed to be an expert on “how to recover from alcoholism” but who excused and endorsed nicotine addiction; who used LSD for eleven of the years when he was offering speeches to huge audiences who wanted to be free of their alcohol addiction; and who stole funds from his organization's world headquarters?
17. See? It has been seen that those who take themselves to be “spiritually fit” - that is, those who have assumed the persona of “A Spiritual Giant” or “One Who Is Spiritually Fit” or “A Supreme Self” or “An Infinite Self” or whatever new and grander and upgraded identity they have adopted – will not even consider being totally free of any and every identity.
18. Can you see that the problem Maharaj addressed when he warned against those contemporaries who were viewed as Big Name Teachers was not unique to Bombay or to the late 20th century? The problem is ancient, the problem was real in Maharaj’s day, and the problem remains today.
19. Consider by contrast the rare invitations offered when the Direct Path Method is combined with the Nisargan Yoga:
(a) You do not need to learn more, you need to unlearn all.
(b) You do not need to be taught, but you do need to be un-taught.
The invitations here:
20. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to learn more.
21. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is in a book deemed by the masses to be “special” or “holy” or “big.”
22. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to know what he or she knows.
23. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to do what she or he does.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
19 June 2014
F.: To review other key points about the Ultimate Sickness and the Ultimate Medicine:
Originally, the Sickness came on slowly, most persons reaching adulthood before the Illness manifested in a full-blown manner and displayed all of its most serious symptoms.
Today, because the Sickness has gone untreated for so many generations, a cumulative effect has resulted. The degree of the Sickness have been strengthening and intensifying for generations, so it is now being passed on in its severely-aggravated form from one ignorant and insane couple after another to their offspring.
The result? Each subsequent generation is suffering a greater and greater case of the Sickness at a younger and younger age. The results are approaching a state of critical mass.
Sitting behind a woman in a car at a red light recently, a bumper sticker on her vehicle was seen. It claimed: “Insanity is hereditary: you get it from your kids.” She reversed the order of the way the Ultimate Sickness is passed along. Nice effort at denial and deflection, but no cigar.
The actual, commonplace scenario now: totally unwell parents (unwell mentally and emotionally) are passing on the Ultimate Sickness at warp speed to their children. After the first few years, their culture joins in to provide one mega-dose after another of the Sickness, constantly giving children regularly-administered booster shots of ignorance and insanity.
One counselor shared recently that two weeks ago she came across the youngest client ever (a five-year-old male) who is already displaying full-blown levels of the Sociopathic Personality Disorder that have in the past been displayed only by twenty to thirty-year-olds.
Why don’t all nations report the same volume of school-rated shootings as the U.S. (presently accelerating and now at a rate of one per week)? Does the Ultimate Sickness not have as firm a foothold in other nations? Maybe, maybe not, but when children are being driven into the depths of the Sickness at so early as age, and with them now having access in the U.S. to stockpiles of lethal weapons in their homes, what else is to be expected?
But the issue here is not that. That is only evidence of the consequences of the Ultimate Sickness. The issue here is this: what can seekers do to more effectively treat their own present version of the Sickness and thus possibly interrupt the spread?
They must see that the version of the Ultimate Medicine that is being offered in most cultures is hogwash . . . just garbage . . . nothing more or less than pure and total nonsense. To that end, these considerations are offered:
1. There is no such thing as a soul, so there is no such thing as soul-sickness. Nor does anyone one have a sick spirit; nor does anyone have the now-planet-wide Ultimate Sickness as a result of a dogma-deficiency. (Quite to the contrary, in fact.)
2. Instead, the widespread Sickness is being passed down to every human via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination.
3. There is no such thing as a mirage malady or a malady suffered by the child of a barren woman or a unicorn malady or a vampire malady or a ghost malady or an angel malady or a spiritual malady or a too-little-religious malady or a soul malady.
4. There is no such thing as being a fit mirage or being the fit child of a barren woman or a fit unicorn or a fit vampire or a fit ghost or a fit angel or a fit spirit or a fit, spiritual person or a fit, religious person or a fit soul or being spiritually-fit or religiously-fit or soulfully-fit.
5. There is no such thing as a mirage experience and there has never been the child of a barren woman that has had any kind of experience. Contrary to the insane beliefs of many persons, no one can have a vampire experience, a ghost experience, an angel experience, a spiritual experience, a religious experience, or a soul experience. What they can have is spiritual pride; what they can have is religious pride - and that form of pride there most certainly is . . . in far-too-abundant quantities.
6. What else can they have? They can have mental delusions; hallucinations; schizophrenia; and severe, personality-based mental and emotional disorders leading to full-blown neuroses and psychoses. They can have beliefs which inspire them to believe in things that do not exist. They can have beliefs based in fiction and lies which they will never question.
From the eBook below entitled IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free):
In “Psyche News International” (April, 1996) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler offers professional insight into the connection between religion and mental disorders:
“Psychosis exists when people cannot differentiate the symbolic from the real, when they cannot tell the true from the false. When people think they are hearing the voice of a being living in another world, they are psychotic.
“Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially-acceptable self-reported imagining. All self-reported imaginings labeled ‘psychosis’ are essentially religious. To label religious claims as psychotic is no more derogatory than to label psychotic claims as religious.
“Hearing voices in one's head is normal. We generally call it our conscience. [Other times, it is just our self-will, our ego, granting itself what it wants in the guise of God.] Psychosis is the belief that the voices in one's head belong to another person. The denial of voices-as-self is an attempt to deny the truth. It is a way of saying ‘this is not me.’ Pretending that the self is split or dissociated is a way of avoiding responsibility.”
7. Thus, the Ultimate Medicine does not require having “a mirage experience” and does not require the child of a barren woman to have an experience. Those are impossible. They cannot happen. No different from those, the Ultimate Medicine does not include having “a spiritual experience” or “a religious experience” or “an experiencing of the soul’s darkness and then the soul’s coming to the light.” Nor does it include "The Universe" sending you messages or guidance or controlling things or intervening on your behalf. Similarly, those are impossible. They cannot happen.
8. Right-wing and fundamentalist politicians in the U.S. tout the use of “conversion” or “reparative therapy” to treat people who are sexually gay (as if the sexual preference of heterosexuals could be converted or needs repairing).
(And by the way, speaking of insanity, what better example of insanity is there than politicians claiming that they want to keep big government out of your lives while simultaneously wanting big government to control what happens in the privacy of your bedroom?)
9. But to the relevant point here: there is no such thing as “a conversion therapy” for any disorder or sickness or Sickness or addiction or illness or disease, but some love to report – as enthusiastically and fanatically as any other types of extremists - that their religious beliefs and / or spiritual exercises were a key component of what “converted” them.
10. One cannot shift from being driven by ignorance to not being not driven by ignorance as a result of "a conversion," much less by “an instantaneous conversion.” Converting the content of the mind from one set of beliefs to a new set of beliefs does not change the fact that all ignorance and insanity are rooted in beliefs. The Ultimate Medicine involves reaching a state of zero concepts, not acquiring new beliefs from a priest / rabbi / imam / sponsor / preacher / politician / guru / teacher, etc.
11. Never would the one called “floyd” try to teach anyone anything more. Completely opposite to the approach used by all other philosophies, all other sets of teachings, all other compilations of dogma, or all other collections of spiritual principles and concepts, the invitation offered by a Realized Nisargan is to unlearn it all.
12. Some claim that their leader’s special book offers the solution, a book (or books) wherein he - yes, usually a “he,” but sometimes a “she” - promises readers that if they would only become spiritual, then their bodies and their minds would be healed.
Point 1: Some body infirmities can heal, yes;
Point 2: but a mind cannot be healed any more than a cancer can be healed. It must be eliminated (meaning, all beliefs stored therein much be discarded).
13. An objective witness would see clearly that, among the many who are using that approach, their relative existence still continues to unfold in a way that is marked by extreme insanity.
14. Here, during the long and arduous “journey” to Realization, all of the messianic types whose paths were crossed suggested that one needed to learn what they had learned, needed to do what they are now doing, needed to read their “special” or “holy” book, and needed to re-read it constantly in order to learn everything it contained and then apply those learnings to “my life.”
15. Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from “the Big Name Teachers.” Indeed, such a caution is still appropriate today in regards to those who are viewed as the big name teachers of non-duality. But why stop there?
16. Should the warning not include all big name teachers of all times? What about Moses? If one were to learn what he claimed to know and did what he said should be done according to the ancient laws he shared, then today one would have to stone gays to death (as one Oklahoma politician endorsed last week); would have to stone to death women who commit adultery; would have to adhere to ancient food laws that do not take into account that there are three body types that each requires a different food plan for efficient organ functioning, etc.
What about Abraham? Mohammed? What about the Dalai Lama who claimed that Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans because of the negative karma of the people there? What about the Ayatollah Khomeini who endorsed killing women who committed adultery but who listed in his book the four animals and the bird that were included on his approved-for-sex-with-Muslim-men list?
What about a man who claimed to be an expert on “how to recover from alcoholism” but who excused and endorsed nicotine addiction; who used LSD for eleven of the years when he was offering speeches to huge audiences who wanted to be free of their alcohol addiction; and who stole funds from his organization's world headquarters?
17. See? It has been seen that those who take themselves to be “spiritually fit” - that is, those who have assumed the persona of “A Spiritual Giant” or “One Who Is Spiritually Fit” or “A Supreme Self” or “An Infinite Self” or whatever new and grander and upgraded identity they have adopted – will not even consider being totally free of any and every identity.
18. Can you see that the problem Maharaj addressed when he warned against those contemporaries who were viewed as Big Name Teachers was not unique to Bombay or to the late 20th century? The problem is ancient, the problem was real in Maharaj’s day, and the problem remains today.
19. Consider by contrast the rare invitations offered when the Direct Path Method is combined with the Nisargan Yoga:
(a) You do not need to learn more, you need to unlearn all.
(b) You do not need to be taught, but you do need to be un-taught.
The invitations here:
20. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to learn more.
21. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is in a book deemed by the masses to be “special” or “holy” or “big.”
22. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to know what he or she knows.
23. Be wary of anyone who tells you that the solution to your problem is to do what she or he does.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
19 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Now, to review some key pointers from earlier:
*** Most humans on the planet have built up an immunity against the Ultimate Medicine, so the seat of their Illness – the place where the Ultimate Sickness is centered, namely, in the mind – now rejects wisdom; truth; pure witnessing; logic; reason; sense; common sense; the opportunity to be fully conscious, awake, and aware; and the opportunity to use intelligence (meaning here, a capacity for reasoning and for understanding while also including an aptitude for grasping truth and an ability to differentiate the true from the false).
*** The masses have developed a tolerance for three of the major symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
*** The tolerance seems in most cases to have worsened to the point that it has become a preference among those suffering those three key traits of the Sickness.
*** Now they seem to delight in those three traits; in fact, in many places, there is widespread pride in ignorance.
Now, to further understand the Ultimate Sickness and the Ultimate Medicine, the following pointers can also be reviewed:
*** The Sickness in a mental Sickness.
*** The problems of humanity are centered in the mind, not in something that has been dreamed up and that is supposedly inside every body and that is identified as “a soul” or “one's spirit” or some such.
*** Therefore, the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a lack of spiritual fitness.
*** Moreover, the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a shortage of religious beliefs or devotion to dogma.
*** Thus, spirituality has nothing to do with the Ultimate Medicine.
*** Additionally, religion has nothing to do with the Ultimate Medicine.
*** It is as insane to believe that insanity can be cured by one’s spiritual exercises or by increasing one’s religious knowledge and faith and devotion as it is to believe that aspirin is a sane and sound treatment for a brain tumor.
*** Clearly, nonsensical beliefs cannot effectively be any part of a treatment plan designed to eliminate nonsensical beliefs.
*** Beliefs that result in insane levels of fanaticism of any kind – whether the fanaticism involves obsessing about sports, politics, religion, spirituality, finances, nationality, sexual preference, city pride, state pride, national pride, racial pride, ad infinitum – cannot effectively be any part of a treatment plan designed to eliminate the insane levels of fanaticism and self-absorption that drive the insane thoughts and deeds of persons among the non-Realized masses.
*** Dualistic beliefs evidence ignorance and insanity; the top source of dualistic beliefs of all times is religion; ergo, religion contributes more to ignorance and insanity than any other single source; therefore, that which is the greatest source of duality and ignorance and insanity (namely, religion along with its cousin spirituality) cannot cure the Ultimate Sickness. They are not any part of the Ultimate Medicine.
*** That which causes a sickness (or the Sickness) cannot be the cure (the Ultimate Medicine) for a sickness (or the Sickness).
*** Again, there is no on-going struggle here with religion or spirituality or anything else. What is here is a willingness to share a means by which some can address the Ultimate Sickness and its symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
*** It is that same willingness that would inspire one particular response to someone who says, “I have a brain tumor and my advisor / guru / psychiatrist / spouse / best friend / teacher / sponsor / priest / imam / rabbi / preacher / ayatollah / God / supreme leader / or "The Universe" said that I should take two aspirin, eight times a day, to treat it.”
That particular response: “Evidently, if you accept that belief on blind faith and without questioning it objectively at all, then there is no room for any additional ‘ignorance, stupidity, and insanity’ in your relative existence. You have maxxed out.”
The same is true in every instance where a nonsensical, myth-based belief is driving relative behaviors that are destructive or self-destructive:
if a medicine has been used for 5,000 years and if its results - when viewed objectively and logically – show that it does not address the illness you are trying to address, then anyone who advises you to keep trying the same medicine or to increase the dosage of that medicine would be challenged in the same manner as “the religious” and “the spiritual” are challenged here when they claim that their dogma or methods or exercises or activities or meetings are the ingredients that make up the Ultimate Medicine which can address the Ultimate Sickness.
They are not the ingredients, and – as Maharaj said – that is based not in opinion but in “my own experience.” Same here.
Coming to that realization, Maharaj eventually advised seekers to give up on spirituality. He knew it was not working. His final talks included additional invitations to abandon the content of the mind, to reach a state of no concepts, to give up all beliefs, and to then abide naturally (as does every life-form on the planet with one exception: humans).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 June 2014
1. For example, discussed recently was the fact that body enhancement among humans – which began some 160,000 years ago via the use of early forms of “makeup” - has disintegrated in many cases into body self-mutilation;
2. also, discussed frequently here is the fact that nature’s originally-intended use for that part of the brain which is now called “the mind” was to store information regarding dangers that could impede the survival of the species; to recall that information when facing such dangers; and then to move away from those dangers.
Yet nowadays, with the Ultimate Sickness’s widespread ignorance and insanity that is rooted in the mind, that former asset has become a liability that is generating thoughts and words and actions that are quite detrimental to the survival of the species.
Additionally, an overall peculiarity regarding humans and the human body is the fact that it can tolerate drastic departures from normal, natural conditions.
Consider as an example a “normal” reaction to alcohol: a normal reaction, if someone drank alcohol excessively, would be to get sick and throw up the offending substance that is causing damage to the elemental plant food body. An “abnormal” drinker, on the other hand, is simply one who can tolerate drastic departures from normal, natural conditions around alcohol consumption which – in this case – means he or she can drink dangerous levels of the substance and not throw up at all.
In that case and others, an unnatural tolerance can develop among humans with the result that nature’s way – the Nisarga way - is often short-circuited or over-ridden to the body’s detriment and (as more of those types of modifications, mutations, and distortions occur) to the detriment of the species.
The same happens when the masses develop a tolerance for the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness. Most humans on the planet have built up an immunity against the Ultimate Medicine, so the seat of their Illness – the place where the Ultimate Sickness is centered, namely, in the mind – now rejects wisdom; truth;
In short, the masses have developed a tolerance for three of the major symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” In fact, the tolerance in most cases seems to have worsened to the point that it has become a preference among those suffering the three key traits of the Sickness and which they now seem to delight in.
That is a situation discussed previously, and a relevant comment from the U.S. President was shared as he observed about many members of the opposition party. He noted: “It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”
That is far too often the current state being displayed as well by members of the non-Realized masses: there is seemingly a pride in ignorance. That results in blocking any willingness to enter into self-or-Self-inquiry, which in turn blocks seeing insanity, which in turn blocks the taking of the necessary steps to find the Ultimate Medicine and to be free of the effects of the Ultimate Sickness.
The results of that, in turn, are aggression; grandiosity; greed; arrogance; compulsiveness; hostility; humorlessness; immaturity; deceitfulness; self-centeredness; self-importance; dependency; depression; egocentrism; vanity; vindictiveness; instability;
resentfulness; snobbery; manipulation and materialism as well as a tolerance for other effects of the Illness, including: anger; hatred; a sense of separation; a sense of better-than-ment; a sense of different-from-ment;
perverted desires; baseless fears; personality disorders that disintegrate further into full-blown neuroses and psychoses; and a propensity for not only believing BS but also defending it, often to the death.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
17 June 2014
F.: Now, to review some key pointers from earlier:
*** Most humans on the planet have built up an immunity against the Ultimate Medicine, so the seat of their Illness – the place where the Ultimate Sickness is centered, namely, in the mind – now rejects wisdom; truth; pure witnessing; logic; reason; sense; common sense; the opportunity to be fully conscious, awake, and aware; and the opportunity to use intelligence (meaning here, a capacity for reasoning and for understanding while also including an aptitude for grasping truth and an ability to differentiate the true from the false).
*** The masses have developed a tolerance for three of the major symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
*** The tolerance seems in most cases to have worsened to the point that it has become a preference among those suffering those three key traits of the Sickness.
*** Now they seem to delight in those three traits; in fact, in many places, there is widespread pride in ignorance.
Now, to further understand the Ultimate Sickness and the Ultimate Medicine, the following pointers can also be reviewed:
*** The Sickness in a mental Sickness.
*** The problems of humanity are centered in the mind, not in something that has been dreamed up and that is supposedly inside every body and that is identified as “a soul” or “one's spirit” or some such.
*** Therefore, the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a lack of spiritual fitness.
*** Moreover, the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a shortage of religious beliefs or devotion to dogma.
*** Thus, spirituality has nothing to do with the Ultimate Medicine.
*** Additionally, religion has nothing to do with the Ultimate Medicine.
*** It is as insane to believe that insanity can be cured by one’s spiritual exercises or by increasing one’s religious knowledge and faith and devotion as it is to believe that aspirin is a sane and sound treatment for a brain tumor.
*** Clearly, nonsensical beliefs cannot effectively be any part of a treatment plan designed to eliminate nonsensical beliefs.
*** Beliefs that result in insane levels of fanaticism of any kind – whether the fanaticism involves obsessing about sports, politics, religion, spirituality, finances, nationality, sexual preference, city pride, state pride, national pride, racial pride, ad infinitum – cannot effectively be any part of a treatment plan designed to eliminate the insane levels of fanaticism and self-absorption that drive the insane thoughts and deeds of persons among the non-Realized masses.
*** Dualistic beliefs evidence ignorance and insanity; the top source of dualistic beliefs of all times is religion; ergo, religion contributes more to ignorance and insanity than any other single source; therefore, that which is the greatest source of duality and ignorance and insanity (namely, religion along with its cousin spirituality) cannot cure the Ultimate Sickness. They are not any part of the Ultimate Medicine.
*** That which causes a sickness (or the Sickness) cannot be the cure (the Ultimate Medicine) for a sickness (or the Sickness).
*** Again, there is no on-going struggle here with religion or spirituality or anything else. What is here is a willingness to share a means by which some can address the Ultimate Sickness and its symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
*** It is that same willingness that would inspire one particular response to someone who says, “I have a brain tumor and my advisor / guru / psychiatrist / spouse / best friend / teacher / sponsor / priest / imam / rabbi / preacher / ayatollah / God / supreme leader / or "The Universe" said that I should take two aspirin, eight times a day, to treat it.”
That particular response: “Evidently, if you accept that belief on blind faith and without questioning it objectively at all, then there is no room for any additional ‘ignorance, stupidity, and insanity’ in your relative existence. You have maxxed out.”
The same is true in every instance where a nonsensical, myth-based belief is driving relative behaviors that are destructive or self-destructive:
if a medicine has been used for 5,000 years and if its results - when viewed objectively and logically – show that it does not address the illness you are trying to address, then anyone who advises you to keep trying the same medicine or to increase the dosage of that medicine would be challenged in the same manner as “the religious” and “the spiritual” are challenged here when they claim that their dogma or methods or exercises or activities or meetings are the ingredients that make up the Ultimate Medicine which can address the Ultimate Sickness.
They are not the ingredients, and – as Maharaj said – that is based not in opinion but in “my own experience.” Same here.
Coming to that realization, Maharaj eventually advised seekers to give up on spirituality. He knew it was not working. His final talks included additional invitations to abandon the content of the mind, to reach a state of no concepts, to give up all beliefs, and to then abide naturally (as does every life-form on the planet with one exception: humans).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: There are many peculiarities among humans which have manifested during the last 100,000 to 200,000 years. The evidence shows that some evolutionary changes and some behaviors and some abilities that were originally an asset (in terms of enhancing the human experience or contributing to the survival of the species) can shift 180-degrees and become a liability.
F.: There are many peculiarities among humans which have manifested during the last 100,000 to 200,000 years. The evidence shows that some evolutionary changes and some behaviors and some abilities that were originally an asset (in terms of enhancing the human experience or contributing to the survival of the species) can shift 180-degrees and become a liability.
1. For example, discussed recently was the fact that body enhancement among humans – which began some 160,000 years ago via the use of early forms of “makeup” - has disintegrated in many cases into body self-mutilation;
2. also, discussed frequently here is the fact that nature’s originally-intended use for that part of the brain which is now called “the mind” was to store information regarding dangers that could impede the survival of the species; to recall that information when facing such dangers; and then to move away from those dangers.
Yet nowadays, with the Ultimate Sickness’s widespread ignorance and insanity that is rooted in the mind, that former asset has become a liability that is generating thoughts and words and actions that are quite detrimental to the survival of the species.
Additionally, an overall peculiarity regarding humans and the human body is the fact that it can tolerate drastic departures from normal, natural conditions.
Consider as an example a “normal” reaction to alcohol: a normal reaction, if someone drank alcohol excessively, would be to get sick and throw up the offending substance that is causing damage to the elemental plant food body. An “abnormal” drinker, on the other hand, is simply one who can tolerate drastic departures from normal, natural conditions around alcohol consumption which – in this case – means he or she can drink dangerous levels of the substance and not throw up at all.
In that case and others, an unnatural tolerance can develop among humans with the result that nature’s way – the Nisarga way - is often short-circuited or over-ridden to the body’s detriment and (as more of those types of modifications, mutations, and distortions occur) to the detriment of the species.
The same happens when the masses develop a tolerance for the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness. Most humans on the planet have built up an immunity against the Ultimate Medicine, so the seat of their Illness – the place where the Ultimate Sickness is centered, namely, in the mind – now rejects wisdom; truth;
pure witnessing; logic; reason; sense; common sense; the opportunity to be fully conscious, awake, and aware; and the opportunity to use intelligence (meaning here, a capacity for reasoning and for understanding while also including an aptitude for grasping truth and an ability to differentiate the true from the false).
In short, the masses have developed a tolerance for three of the major symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” In fact, the tolerance in most cases seems to have worsened to the point that it has become a preference among those suffering the three key traits of the Sickness and which they now seem to delight in.
That is a situation discussed previously, and a relevant comment from the U.S. President was shared as he observed about many members of the opposition party. He noted: “It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”
That is far too often the current state being displayed as well by members of the non-Realized masses: there is seemingly a pride in ignorance. That results in blocking any willingness to enter into self-or-Self-inquiry, which in turn blocks seeing insanity, which in turn blocks the taking of the necessary steps to find the Ultimate Medicine and to be free of the effects of the Ultimate Sickness.
The results of that, in turn, are aggression; grandiosity; greed; arrogance; compulsiveness; hostility; humorlessness; immaturity; deceitfulness; self-centeredness; self-importance; dependency; depression; egocentrism; vanity; vindictiveness; instability;
resentfulness; snobbery; manipulation and materialism as well as a tolerance for other effects of the Illness, including: anger; hatred; a sense of separation; a sense of better-than-ment; a sense of different-from-ment;
perverted desires; baseless fears; personality disorders that disintegrate further into full-blown neuroses and psychoses; and a propensity for not only believing BS but also defending it, often to the death.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
17 June 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: The Ultimate Medicine is offered via Realized non-dualists to address the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness. One major symptom of the Sickness (per Maharaj) is insanity, and the intensity of insanity that has spread throughout almost all of humankind is to a degree that is far beyond the scope of sickness that manifested via any historical epidemics or plagues of the past. The Ultimate Sickness has reached a pandemic level.
A pandemic is also an epidemic, and the Ultimate Sickness is also plague-like since it, too, can be a deadly infectious disease; however, a pandemic is different in its range and extent because it spreads through human populations across a larger region and across multiple continents and even worldwide. Having now spread worldwide, the Ultimate Sickness is by far the most significant epidemic / plague / pandemic that humankind has ever faced.
While various plagues can be spread in the air, by direct contact, or by contaminated undercooked food, the Ultimate Sickness is spread by words and images alone. As a result of the widespread and unchecked dissemination of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination, there is now no immunization that can ward off the Sickness and there is no escaping the near-100% chance among all humans of contracting the Illness.
[Note that the other billions and trillions of life-forms that have lived or that are now living on the planet, not a single one has ever contracted the Ultimate Sickness. All have been immune for two reasons: (1) they have no words, and (2) they have no minds. No wonder the sages have long-recommended silence; no wonder the sages like Maharaj have recommended returning to the no-concept, no-mind state.]
And like “superbugs” that are no longer affected by many of the antibiotics that treated certain infections (“bugs”) effectively in the past, the mind-centered Ultimate Sickness has also developed a near-unyielding resistance to all that has prevented or treated the Sickness in the past:
Wisdom
Truth
Pure Witnessing
Logic
Reason
Sense
Common Sense
Being Fully Conscious, Awake, and Aware
and
Intelligence
To clarify the latter: many of those considered to be among the most intelligent persons on the planet have been observed to behave in the dumbest ways. Some of the so-called "most intelligent persons on the planet" display all three of the keys symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Therefore, the definition of intelligence used here is the one which says that intelligence does not involve “smartness” but instead involves a capacity, specifically, a capacity for . . .
sound reasoning
and for
understanding
while also including
an aptitude for grasping truth
and, relatedly,
an ability to differentiate between the true and the false.
It also involves a spontaneous and automatic use of the brain (which results in natural living) rather than being driven blindly by the fiction that fills what has become “the detrimental minds of humans” and that, therefore, plagues almost all of humanity.
It was explained thusly on this site in 2007 via the following excerpt from the eBook below entitled THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)”:
The brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain-and-preserve” fashion) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction). The parts of the brain that store and retrieve memories are overshadowing and overpowering all of the rest of the brain in determining how persons emote and behave. Historically, humankind in general attempted to take all necessary action to survive. That has changed.
It should be seen that all conduct that is considered harmful or destructive in the relative existence is a result of programmed and conditioned “minds” overriding the natural aspects of the human brain; therefore, all harmful or destructive conduct (relatively speaking) is based in that which is supernatural or in that which is unnatural.
The “mind,” intended by nature to function in coordination with the brain in order to inspire sane, constructive, and self-constructive behavior (again, relatively speaking) now short-circuits the natural process.
So, the brain is of the elements; the mind is rooted in the learned ignorance that is taught via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination; and the consciousness is of the Absolute, capable during the manifestation of witnessing purely and capable of functioning with Wisdom; with Truth; with full consciousness, awakeness, and awareness; and with intelligence of the variety defined above.
When those are functioning, then all body and mind and personality identifications vanish and the focus of the “human-style” composite unity is on actual, relative needs (meaning, adequate-but-not-excessive food, clothing, shelter, et cetera); moreover, when such functioning is happening, then all phony, dreamed-up “needs” which are personality-generated and based in delusion and illusions also vanish.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
You can scroll down through the book section below if interested in receiving a free copy of the eBooks entitled:
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
or
"THE VISION"
Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
Submit to:
Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.
* * * * * * *
Anthology of four books
Anthology of six books
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
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.
The book will be emailed to you as a PFD attachment upon request.
Gift copies can also be sent to your friends and relatives. The eBook
can be read on any computer (using Adobe, for example) or can be
transferred to any electronic reader or tablet or phone for reading.
Open the attachment via the email on your iPad or Android tablet or
phone and begin reading.
[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:
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WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
F.: The Ultimate Medicine is offered via Realized non-dualists to address the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness. One major symptom of the Sickness (per Maharaj) is insanity, and the intensity of insanity that has spread throughout almost all of humankind is to a degree that is far beyond the scope of sickness that manifested via any historical epidemics or plagues of the past. The Ultimate Sickness has reached a pandemic level.
A pandemic is also an epidemic, and the Ultimate Sickness is also plague-like since it, too, can be a deadly infectious disease; however, a pandemic is different in its range and extent because it spreads through human populations across a larger region and across multiple continents and even worldwide. Having now spread worldwide, the Ultimate Sickness is by far the most significant epidemic / plague / pandemic that humankind has ever faced.
While various plagues can be spread in the air, by direct contact, or by contaminated undercooked food, the Ultimate Sickness is spread by words and images alone. As a result of the widespread and unchecked dissemination of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination, there is now no immunization that can ward off the Sickness and there is no escaping the near-100% chance among all humans of contracting the Illness.
[Note that the other billions and trillions of life-forms that have lived or that are now living on the planet, not a single one has ever contracted the Ultimate Sickness. All have been immune for two reasons: (1) they have no words, and (2) they have no minds. No wonder the sages have long-recommended silence; no wonder the sages like Maharaj have recommended returning to the no-concept, no-mind state.]
And like “superbugs” that are no longer affected by many of the antibiotics that treated certain infections (“bugs”) effectively in the past, the mind-centered Ultimate Sickness has also developed a near-unyielding resistance to all that has prevented or treated the Sickness in the past:
Wisdom
Truth
Pure Witnessing
Logic
Reason
Sense
Common Sense
Being Fully Conscious, Awake, and Aware
and
Intelligence
To clarify the latter: many of those considered to be among the most intelligent persons on the planet have been observed to behave in the dumbest ways. Some of the so-called "most intelligent persons on the planet" display all three of the keys symptoms of the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Therefore, the definition of intelligence used here is the one which says that intelligence does not involve “smartness” but instead involves a capacity, specifically, a capacity for . . .
sound reasoning
and for
understanding
while also including
an aptitude for grasping truth
and, relatedly,
an ability to differentiate between the true and the false.
It also involves a spontaneous and automatic use of the brain (which results in natural living) rather than being driven blindly by the fiction that fills what has become “the detrimental minds of humans” and that, therefore, plagues almost all of humanity.
It was explained thusly on this site in 2007 via the following excerpt from the eBook below entitled THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)”:
The brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain-and-preserve” fashion) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction). The parts of the brain that store and retrieve memories are overshadowing and overpowering all of the rest of the brain in determining how persons emote and behave. Historically, humankind in general attempted to take all necessary action to survive. That has changed.
It should be seen that all conduct that is considered harmful or destructive in the relative existence is a result of programmed and conditioned “minds” overriding the natural aspects of the human brain; therefore, all harmful or destructive conduct (relatively speaking) is based in that which is supernatural or in that which is unnatural.
The “mind,” intended by nature to function in coordination with the brain in order to inspire sane, constructive, and self-constructive behavior (again, relatively speaking) now short-circuits the natural process.
So, the brain is of the elements; the mind is rooted in the learned ignorance that is taught via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination; and the consciousness is of the Absolute, capable during the manifestation of witnessing purely and capable of functioning with Wisdom; with Truth; with full consciousness, awakeness, and awareness; and with intelligence of the variety defined above.
When those are functioning, then all body and mind and personality identifications vanish and the focus of the “human-style” composite unity is on actual, relative needs (meaning, adequate-but-not-excessive food, clothing, shelter, et cetera); moreover, when such functioning is happening, then all phony, dreamed-up “needs” which are personality-generated and based in delusion and illusions also vanish.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
You can scroll down through the book section below if interested in receiving a free copy of the eBooks entitled:
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
or
"THE VISION"
Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
Questions?
Submit to:
Comments?
Just hang on to those please.
Just hang on to those please.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part One
A "movement" or "shift" happened here that added another parallel to the many parallels in terms of the phenomenal "experiences" and the noumenal revelations that "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" share in common. (Many visitors over the years have said that they also shared the same parallels with "Maharaj" and "Floyd" as well.)
In the case of "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd":
1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";
1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";
11. both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making
12. both had wives who were unhappy when the de-accumulation stage was entered and both had wives who became unhappy about their husbands' focus on non-duality and who blamed their unhappiness on no longer having a religious husband
(The facts be known, in both cases the unhappiness involved the fact that their husbands were no longer interested in - or willing - to work 80+ hours per week and that their husbands were no longer interested in accumulating wealth and possessions and providing the rich lifestyle to which their wives had grown accustomed)
13. both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce); 15. both accelerated their seeking; 16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more
19. both began sharing the teachings 20. for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.
13. both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce); 15. both accelerated their seeking; 16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more
19. both began sharing the teachings 20. for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.
21. Both saw that many who heard the teachings are not going to understand (Maharaj reporting that "only 1 in 100,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding)
22. both soon saw that even more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj modifying his "guesstimate" and reporting that "only 1 in 1,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding)
23. eventually both saw that even far more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj eventually concluding that "only 1 in 10,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding). And the failings were not the fault of seekers.
A "one -in-ten-million" estimate is proof that satsang was not working for most seekers, and the evidence here lately is proof of the same.
Both "Maharaj" and "Floyd" invited seekers to focus on the exact, step-wise "path." Yes, during satsang, "Maharaj" sometimes alluded to the steps while discussing them in no particular order - but he never once laid out the steps in the exact order in which they had to be completed. That was not his teachings style or approach.
Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.
Looking objectively at the results here when using an "electronic loft" satsang method of sharing has not produced the intended outcome nearly as often as any of the three "face-to-face" methods used with seekers by which they have been led through the seven steps in order.
Here, the body is growing older, of course. Mahasamadhi could be taken today, or it could be taken in twenty years.
Obviously, that cannot be known. But the decision here has been made that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the ways that have been seen over the last 20+ years to be the most effective methods.
Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required. It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces." It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two
Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required. It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces." It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two
In "Part One," examples were given of seekers that were led to Realization not by satsang but by following the various protocols outlined farther down this page which provide the understanding in the step-wise, orderly, required fashion which moves seekers along a "path" that is as prescribed by Maharaj ... "going back" in the "reverse order" by which the consciousness manifested and became blocked.
However, conversations with some that just read the majority of the books have revealed that they certainly seem to have grasped the understanding and Realized as well.
As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what has "not worked" as well - changes are being made.
There are seven specific steps that happen when awareness-energy is "pulled" into a cycle of manifestation. When that energy manifests as conscious-energy, that formerly pure and unadulterated energy becomes "corrupted" (or "blocked" from seeing clearly) via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. Soon, there is a belief in the not-Real as a result of seven degrees of separation from an understanding of the Real.
Using the method that was also employed by his contemporaries - a method which focused on offering non-duality pointers via satsang - Maharaj addressed questions in the order in which they were received. He might receive a question from a seeker at the third step and his reply would include what amounted to an invitation to move to the fourth step. The next question might come from a seeker at the first step, and the reply would include an invitation to move to the second step.
The information offered to the second seeker would seemingly contradict what was offered to the first seeker, so visitors who have come here for decades have asked questions which showed how confused they were by the fact that Maharaj's statements to each visitor in his loft were "level-appropriate" yet were provided in no precise order, resulting in what seemed to be an inconsistent message.
So the process overall was confusing in that
seekers were told to follow the "path back" in the same way that they "came in," except in reverse order,
but
pointers were not given in a specific, step-wise order at all.
Maharaj did recognize the seven steps that are taught here, but by offering the teachings in an order that was dictated by the order in which questions were received from seekers who were at different steps on the "path," the result was this:
a pointer about moving beyond the fourth step might be followed by a pointer about moving beyond the first step, and that pointer might be followed by a pointer about how to move beyond the sixth step.
The same was done on this site for seven years. The result is a collection of 1,800 or so essays discussing almost every non-duality topic that can be discussed, and the search button on the top right side of this page will now allow seekers with a question about a specific topic to find an explanation. That method, however, will never provide the manner in which the seven steps on the "path" must be transmitted and received in order to Realize Fully.
An objective study of the history here of more than twenty years of offering non-duality pointers reveals this: seekers that were given pointers in the exact order in which they needed to receive them were the ones that Realized.
They read the books, then they completed the online course and / or completed seven Skype or telephone sessions or came here for a retreat (or watched the downloadable DVD version of an actual retreat, available below).
Some found that which they were seeking by reading the author's book that deal with non-duality subject matter. Via all of those venues, the steps are taught in their proper order.
The essays available on this site will remain for those interested in searching for a discussion of a particular non-duality topic without charge, but the focus here until mahasamadhi is taken is going to be on offering the teachings in the step-wise fashion that has been seen to work.
THESE PAPERBACK BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON.COM
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
* * * * * * *
ALL EBOOK AND PAPERBACK VERSION OF HENDERSON'S NON-DUALITY BOOKS
and
RECOVERY LITERATURE
and
FINANCIAL BOOKS
are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or on a Kindle reader.
For Apple and Android, either download the eBook directly onto your device or email the eBook file to your mobile device and open the file from your email. For Kindles or other similar devices, use your USB cable to transfer the eBook to your reader.
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
THE 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)
