A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
Everything which “feels comfortable” or “okay” based solely on the sense that
(a) it is “familiar” or
(b) it is presented dualistically by “authorities” as something that is “right” and that is to be accepted on their word, combined with blind faith, alone.
That mindset - common among the programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated masses - generates
A. a willingness to “follow” (unquestioningly and obediently) whatever has been or is being modeled, resulting in a planet being populated by blind followers; and
B. a planet being populated by sleepwalking followers who are proud of the beliefs which they have adopted on “faith” alone; and
C. a planet where hardly anyone’s thoughts and words and behaviors and affiliations are based in conscious decisions and are the result of one’s own conscious choices alone which were made after careful consideration and deliberation.
Thus, this is the way that most persons react as a result of their blind, “let’s follow-the-leader” mode of living:
“Let’s invade that land across the ocean to the west and kill 98% of the ‘Indian Natives’ there and take 99% of their land and let’s say we’re going to kill the millions of people already living there because they are heathens and because we are establishing a Christian nation for God!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s round up Africans and ship them to that country in order to provide a free-labor force in order for the businesses there to maximize profits!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Lets’ have a religious inquisition run by Catholic Christians and kill in the name of God all those who are not behaving as we want them to!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade all of the nations surrounding Germany and gather up all of the Jews as well as the mentally-handicapped and the homosexuals and send them all off to concentration camps and gas them!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Vietnam!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Grenada!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Nicaragua!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade El Salvador!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Iraq!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s tell them that subdividing a country is totally unacceptable and that we will never allow them to re-divide their country into the three regions / states that existed before the British invaders drew the present boundary lines for Iraq!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But while we tell them that it’s not acceptable to subdivide a country into parts, let’s ignore the fact that we have subdivided our country into fifty states!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Afghanistan!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Iraq again!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Syria!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade the nation of Georgia!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Ukraine!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s drink the poisonous Kool-Aid!”
“OKAY!!!”
“This is real blood and real body. Let’s drink it and eat it because that will let us commune with God and because it will please God and because it will make us closer to Him, and let's ignore the fact that we're engaging in vampirism and cannibalism!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s go on a pilgrimage where the chances are great that we’ll be killed in a human stampede!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s tell them that God loves them unconditionally!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But let’s also tell them that he will burn them in hell forever!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Similarly, let’s tell our children that the reason we whip them and even beat them is also because we love them!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s abuse anyone who is a member of a minority, and let’s do that all around the globe!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s kill all who are not members of our religious sect!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s mock those non-Christians for separating their religion into two sects!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But let’s separate our Christian religion into 41,000 different denominations!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s be like sheep that are followers and are willing to be led off a cliff!”
“OKAY!!!”
Note that the prerequisite for being subjected to mind-control is, first, to have a mind. No wonder Maharaj invited seekers to reach a no-mind, zero-concept state.
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
Everything which “feels comfortable” or “okay” based solely on the sense that
(a) it is “familiar” or
(b) it is presented dualistically by “authorities” as something that is “right” and that is to be accepted on their word, combined with blind faith, alone.
That mindset - common among the programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated masses - generates
A. a willingness to “follow” (unquestioningly and obediently) whatever has been or is being modeled, resulting in a planet being populated by blind followers; and
B. a planet being populated by sleepwalking followers who are proud of the beliefs which they have adopted on “faith” alone; and
C. a planet where hardly anyone’s thoughts and words and behaviors and affiliations are based in conscious decisions and are the result of one’s own conscious choices alone which were made after careful consideration and deliberation.
Thus, this is the way that most persons react as a result of their blind, “let’s follow-the-leader” mode of living:
“Let’s invade that land across the ocean to the west and kill 98% of the ‘Indian Natives’ there and take 99% of their land and let’s say we’re going to kill the millions of people already living there because they are heathens and because we are establishing a Christian nation for God!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s round up Africans and ship them to that country in order to provide a free-labor force in order for the businesses there to maximize profits!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Lets’ have a religious inquisition run by Catholic Christians and kill in the name of God all those who are not behaving as we want them to!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade all of the nations surrounding Germany and gather up all of the Jews as well as the mentally-handicapped and the homosexuals and send them all off to concentration camps and gas them!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Vietnam!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Grenada!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Nicaragua!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade El Salvador!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Iraq!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s tell them that subdividing a country is totally unacceptable and that we will never allow them to re-divide their country into the three regions / states that existed before the British invaders drew the present boundary lines for Iraq!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But while we tell them that it’s not acceptable to subdivide a country into parts, let’s ignore the fact that we have subdivided our country into fifty states!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Afghanistan!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Iraq again!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Syria!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade the nation of Georgia!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s invade Ukraine!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s drink the poisonous Kool-Aid!”
“OKAY!!!”
“This is real blood and real body. Let’s drink it and eat it because that will let us commune with God and because it will please God and because it will make us closer to Him, and let's ignore the fact that we're engaging in vampirism and cannibalism!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s go on a pilgrimage where the chances are great that we’ll be killed in a human stampede!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s tell them that God loves them unconditionally!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But let’s also tell them that he will burn them in hell forever!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Similarly, let’s tell our children that the reason we whip them and even beat them is also because we love them!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s abuse anyone who is a member of a minority, and let’s do that all around the globe!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s kill all who are not members of our religious sect!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s mock those non-Christians for separating their religion into two sects!”
“OKAY!!!”
“But let’s separate our Christian religion into 41,000 different denominations!”
“OKAY!!!”
“Let’s be like sheep that are followers and are willing to be led off a cliff!”
“OKAY!!!”
Note that the prerequisite for being subjected to mind-control is, first, to have a mind. No wonder Maharaj invited seekers to reach a no-mind, zero-concept state.
Yet it is from that global state of being dominated by what Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity and insanity” that the unblocked, non-dual voice of pure consciousness occasionally speaks and offers an invitation:
(A) “You are invited to question it all.”
(B) “You are invited to set aside your blind faith and accept nothing as truth and fact that is not based in logic and reason and proof.”
C) “You are invited to avoid going down a rabbit hole just because you saw someone else go down that rabbit hole.”
The more prurient connotation of the term “going down the rabbit hole” aside, the allusion as offered here is to a scene in Lewis Carroll's novel entitled Alice in Wonderland. Nowadays, the term is often used to refer to any instance when one enters into a period or place of chaos or confusion; or enters a venue where insanity rules but claims to offer restoration to sanity;
or enters a venue where one is told that she or he is evil but that the people already in that venue can make one virtuous; or where one becomes a member of a group or institution where any sane observer would immediately spot the prevalence of insanity;
or enters into a “relationship” with someone who is totally insane but adopts that person’s insane ways in order to “gain” something (such as “regular, steady sex” or “a better lifestyle” - the actual mental or emotional or physical or financial costs of that “relationship” be damned as long as the imaginary “perk” keeps on coming).
In Carroll's novel, Alice follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole, described this way by Carroll: “In another moment, down went Alice after [the rabbit], never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”
Hummm. Might that be like charging full steam ahead into Vietnam without once considering how in the world we’re going to get out again; or charging full steam ahead into Afghanistan without once considering how in the world we’re going to get out again; or charging full steam ahead into Iraq without once considering how in the world we’re going to get out again; or charging full steam ahead into Syria without once considering how in the world we are going to get out again, ad infinitum?
Or might that be like charging full steam ahead into a sky cult; a religious cult; a spiritual cult; a political cult; a business cult; an eastern religion cult; a self-help cult; a self-improvement cult; a satanic cult; an occult cult; a racist cult; a cult promising transformation; a communal cult; an ashram cult; a Native American cult; etc., etc., etc.?
Of course most are indoctrinated into the cults that their parents already belong too, 97% claiming an affiliation with one organized religion or another but with that affiliation having actually been determined for them as children by their parents, and their parents before them, and their parents before them, exactly as Prince Ea referred to in his interview and exactly as Maharaj pointed out in his talks.
That is the way it is for the sleep-walking, sleep-talking, non-questioning masses. Some few, however, do end up going down the rabbit hole in a well-meaning but misguided search for sanity or peace or freedom or a respite from chaos. Yet only a few will search because only a few will wake up enough to see that they were raised in an insane asylum which was called “their childhood home” or “their family or origin”; those few alone will seek and – as noted – will likely be driven to search down many, many rabbit holes.
The rest – the masses - will remain trapped in the egotism that preempts any awareness of a need to seek and which leads most persons instead to brag about how wonderful their parents were, (the arrogance-based, unstated belief being, “Look at me and how well I turned out, Floyd. My parents must have done something right, you big fat-headed jerk”).
Recall though: personality is formed during childhood – usually by the age of six. Why does personality even form? For one reason only in childhood: personality develops as a child's unconscious response to dysfunctionalism; its development is an automatic “survival response” as children try to adapt to (and try to survive in) an often stressful – and even hostile and insane and dysfunctional - environment.
Consider the facts arrived at via this bit of syllogistic reasoning:
A. No dysfunctionalism = no personality;
B. yet every child develops one (and usually multiple) personalities;
C. hence, every child grows up in a dysfunctional family and in a dysfunctional environment.
Next, of the few who do begin to seek, what awaits? Guaranteed, more insanity. More dysfunctional settings. More venues dominated by the craziness that is driving the persons therein. None of the typical or traditional or mainstream or conventional venues out there differ at all from “the original insane asylum” which one was raised in. Why?
1. Because those venues were all dreamed up by personality-driven, “ignorant, and insane” persons and because they are being run by personality-driven, “ignorant, and insane” persons who also grew up in dysfunctional families and in dysfunctional environments;
2. because those venues all have the goal of trying to inspire (or to manipulate) everyone who comes their way to accept their beliefs or concepts or dogma or principles or standards or attitudes or opinions or rules or laws or theories or notions or tenets . . . and to do so unquestioningly; and
3. because those venues are all run by programmers and conditioners and acculturaters and domesticators and brainwashers and indoctrinators who are suffering from their own untreated programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
How about you? Have you run down any rabbit holes? Is it possible that you are in an insanity-dominated venue right now but have normalized it in your mind? Here, many rabbit holes were tried. Here, many insanity-dominated venues were tried. Recall some of the venues tried here before a specific version of non-duality became understood. Some of those were described in this passage from a non-duality-based novel:
In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he’d been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he’d been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of life’s meaning, he’d been communion’d, Om’d, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram’d, accepted, rejected, Mu’d, and yoga’d; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he’d been pulverized, martinized, and frappéd; and in the endeavor to attain life eternal, he’d been baptized, Buddha’d, New Aged, powwow’d, Far Eastern Indianized, incense’d, sage’d, Tao’d, Peru’d, Tibet’d, washed in the blood, dunked in the waters, and purportedly purified.
Tomorrow: More on the “monkey-see, monkey do” mentality of the non-Realized masses and why the chain of ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism continues without being challenged but actually being justified instead.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
20 September 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
The point has been made that one loses the desire to accumulate (and the drive to accumulate that is based in fear and delusions about what is “needed” and what is not and about what not having enough and thus not “being enough”). In that process of de-accumulation, one also loses the far-greater costs of maintaining what has been accumulated.
Cultures of accumulation have spread globally. An element of the acculturation to which most are exposed inspires accumulation.
Maharaj said: “You have to give up everything to know that you need nothing, not even your body. Your needs are unreal and your efforts are meaningless. You imagine that your possessions protect you. In reality they make you vulnerable.”
He said: “Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content. You face it most cheerfully when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature.”
Again, that does not mean, for example, that marriage cannot happen. It means that happiness and harmony cannot come when marriage is followed by identification with “The Wife” and “The Husband” because egotism always upgrades an assumed ego-state; thus, “The Wife” soon becomes “The Super Wife” and “The Husband” soon becomes “The Super Husband.”
While “The Wife” can exist in her own mind as long as there is “A Husband,” that is not enough for “The Super Wife” to exist. (“He’s so bad he’s killing me!”) Same with “The Husband” and “The Super Husband.” The latter has got to have “A Super Wife” in order to “exist” (in his mind).
And just as egotism-driven ego-states self-upgrade, they also downgrade other “selfs”: “The Super Wife” will believe that she is not being treated in the manner to which she is entitled and will downgrade “The Husband” (who seemed at one point to be “The Super Husband”); but as “The Super Wife,” she will re-imagine him to be “The Husband That Is Not the Least Bit Super At All.” Same with “The Husband” as he downgrades her to the level of “The Formerly Super Wife Who Now Is No Longer Super At All.”
Once downgrading happens, misery follows.
Again, “Your true home is in nothingness . . . .”
Marriage – and anything else - can continue peacefully only if no phony roles are being assumed and being allowed to drive every thought and word and action as a result of one or more assumed personalities' hidden agenda.
Moreover, “your true home is . . . in emptiness of all content.”
And what obviously needs emptying out more than anything else among the non-Realized masses? The mind.
Maharaj: “Nothing can make you happier than you are. All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being.” That is, beingness without beliefs, merely being without any identification, merely being without anything deemed to be “personal.”
Maharaj: “As long as you identify yourself with them [the body and the mind], you are bound to suffer; realize your independence and remain happy. I tell you, this is the secret of happiness. To believe that you depend on things and people for happiness is due to ignorance of your true nature; to know that you need nothing to be happy . . . is wisdom.”
Yet no freedom – and therefore no happiness – can come as long as the mind is present. Again, the title of the eBook below sums up the point accurately: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS PEACE OF MIND (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind). Peace can only come in the absence of distortion, and the presence of a fiction-filled mind will assure distortion.
Depressed people who deny their depression are living under the influence of distortion, yet the effects of the depression can be seen quite clearly by those that are not suffering from distortion.
Maharaj: “A man who is given a stone and assured that it is a priceless diamond will be mightily pleased . . . .”
Yet even the most distorted person might experience an occasional flash of unblocked consciousness which allows a lapse in the denial and dissociation and the normalization of the abnormal which, in turn, allows truth to shine through for at least a moment. Consider then the rest of Maharaj’s pointer above:
“A man who is given a stone and assured that it is a priceless diamond will be mightily pleased . . . . until he realizes his mistake.”
Thus, the discussion brings the visitor once again to an opportunity to understand that the most debilitating accumulation of all – the accumulation that leads more than anything else to the development of the Ultimate Sickness – is the accumulation of ideas and “knowledge” and learned ignorance and foolishness . . . all of which can be summed up as an accumulation of “beliefs.”
What then is the logical treatment for the Ultimate Sickness? It is identified in the title mentioned earlier: FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS. The non-dual invitation is to abandon all identities and all personal / personality identification and then forfeit the notion that one is either “A Believer” or “A Non-Believer” and abide in a manner that makes clear that (at least for the sake of this discussion regarding beliefs) that you are abiding in the manner of a "No-Belief-er" . . . of one that has reached the zero concept state and is no longer burdened with any beliefs at all.
See that the mind is fictional and ill-defined and, actually, indefinable because it is nothing more than a storehouse of illusions, mirages, distortions, and figments of the imagination of ignorant “ancestors” who passed along their hand-me-down beliefs.
This pointer has been offered in the past:
“Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and perverted domestication and xenophobia-based acculturation as well as lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.”
Were one to consider the implications of that statement and truly understand those implications, then nothing would be relinquished so quickly as the mind as well as the attachment that persons have to the mind’s bogus content.
Consider: The brain, made from plant food elements, is real. Its existence is factual. It can be touched, literally, by a neurosurgeon. It can be seen, literally, and its presence can be substantiated, literally. It is tangible, elemental, genuine, undeniable, verifiable, palpable, viewable, concrete, physical, natural, solid, material, proven, irrefutable, and verifiable. It is the seat, during the manifestation, of all that is natural and innate and inherent and genuine. It is undeniable.
The mind, by contrast, is the very seat of denial. The mind is nothing that the brain is. The mind is the seat of imaginings and is thus imaginary. It is immaterial, that is, non-material; it is non-elemental and non-physical; it is formless, ethereal, unsubstantiated, impalpable, intangible, invisible, conceptual, notional, abstract, indefinite, hypothetical, theoretical, notional, figurative, emblematic, impressionistic, unrealistic and, therefore, unreal.
It is the place where false identities and false beliefs are stored. It is the seat of nonsense, the seat of learned ignorance, and the seat of all of the bizarre, mental and emotional effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
It is where false, personality identifications are stored. It is the breeding ground for personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses. The natural brain has nothing to do with anything mental. Mental disorders are generated by the mind – not by the brain - and the mind is just the result of thousands and thousands of years of human-generated lies and myths and superstitions and distortions and illusions and delusions that have been handed down from one generation to the next.
Yet more than a few seekers want to claim that Maharaj could not have been – and that I cannot possibly be - free of the mind and all beliefs. That would be tantamount to saying, “You cannot possibly travel through the desert day after day and still claim to be free of the influence of the mirages that appear.” What?!
There is no such thing as “peace of mind” because there is no such thing as “a mind.” It’s a totally fictional concept, taken to be real by the same type of persons who take mirages to be real.
Some claim that I am crazy to report that, just as was the case with Maharaj, I have no mind at all. Yet those same people would probably agree were I to say, “I own no mirages. You don’t either, do you?” They would reply, “Of course I don’t own any mirages, and again, you’re crazy for even asking.”
Yet they take full ownership of the mirages called “their minds.” To have a mind is insane; to have no mind is sane. To think that there is “one” that can have a mind (or anything else, really) is also insane. To believe what has been taught and learned and stored in the part of the brain called “the mind” is the epitome of insanity.
To believe anything that is in “your” mind is to believe that this fellow is actually trapped inside a real box:
Yet consider: the masses are exactly like that mime: the beliefs that they have accumulated – as bogus as they are - can leave them feeling as trapped as the mime appears to be. Look at the angst revealed by the mime’s facial features. That is what I see when I look at the masses: persons suffering, persons who are miserable, and all because of what they think is going on . . . all because of what they believe even though their beliefs are no more real than the mime’s box. That is what it’s like to be out of touch with reality and / or out of touch with Reality.
A man who was very popular on a speaker circuit used to tell his listeners, “I create my own reality, and it is a good one. Why don’t you do the same?” (He also told them to come up with their own conception of God, too. In other words, "Just dream up a version of an idea that you like. Make it up." Same with “reality”: “Hell, just create it.” The fact is: one can see or not see reality, but reality cannot be created by anyone. Reality is, period; and reality is, period.)
What the Realized see when they – the Pure Witnessing – look at and listen to the masses is this: they see a gathering of seven billion mimes with angst and confusion written all over their faces. And all that the non-dual “teacher” is really saying is, “You know, that box you think you’re in . . . it’s not real at all, so there is no reason at all that you should be suffering and miserable. The only ‘prison’ that seemingly exists is a mental prison, and each imaginary bar in that prison is one of the beliefs that you hold dear. Want to be free? Break the bars. Break your attachment to your accumulated beliefs. Step away from imaginary boxes and imaginary prisons by breaking away from imagined, imaginary beliefs.”
All is matter-energy and neither can be created nor destroyed; therefore, no one have ever created anything, including "their own reality" and including a “Creator God.” Parents have never created a baby. They are two composite unities that are cycling already-existing elements. Any belief to the contrary is just more “mind-stuff,” meaning stuff that is nonsensical, unreal, conceptualized, immaterial, unsubstantiated, notional, hypothetical, theoretical and unrealistic.
Ultimately, I did not have to work to get free of my mind nor did I have to work to get rid of the content that was stored in my mind. I did not have to tick off one lie after another until all the false beliefs stored in the mind were rejected. No more than one can get rid of a mirage in the desert can one get rid of her or his mind and all the bogus content stored therein.
One cannot get rid of what is fictional or what does not really exist or what has just been dreamed up or what is not even real in the first place. One might as well say “I’m really being bugged by that child of the barren woman next door.” Persons might as well try to get rid of all of the children of barren women as try to get rid of their minds and beliefs. As soon as you are awake enough to see that there is no such thing as “barren women having children,” then you will also be awake enough to see that you have no real mind and no true beliefs.
All that is called for is an understanding: no mirage is real, including the mirage called “the mind”; it is an appearance only; no one need get rid of it; no one need be free of it or its influence. One need but see reality. That is far more consequential than seeing Reality.
It’s all so simple, unless one is attached to a mirage, values a mirage, and thinks a mirage is real.
Freedom comes, and peace follows, when that which is not even real is no longer empowered to determine what you say, how you behave, or how you feel.
Here, a man’s wife over the years has been seen to be narcissistic, borderline, bi-polar, and sociopathic, facts which he has not seen but the ramifications of which he has tried to deal with nevertheless. (By the way, before charges of “chauvinism” are made, understand that far more personality disorders have been witnessed in men than women simply because more men have come this way.) That man came to me to seek advice. He was told, “I have no advice other than to suggest she consider seeking professional counseling.”
Later, one day after he had told her that he wanted to throw her off the third floor balcony of their apartment, he was saying to me as a result of the distorted thinking that was being generated by the content of his mind: “You know, Floyd, really, she’s a good person – a really great person, in fact.”
As days and weeks passed, though, even he began to see the evidence of her unchecked narcissism, of her borderline personality disorder, of her bi-polar personality disorder, and of her truly sociopathic nature as well as the harmful effects all of that was having on their child.
That was a year ago. He is still with her though she refuses to seek counseling and though she said to him, “You’re the one who needs counseling! You’re the one who’s crazy, not me!” In spite of all that, last week they had a second child, and now he is suffering deep and dark depression. And what he does not see - and what I invited him to at least consider - is that by having stayed with her and bred with her while so unhealthy a situation was happening, she might be at least half-clear in her assessment: “You’re the one who needs counseling! You’re the one who’s crazy.”
Crazy can spot crazy in “others” but typically cannot spot crazy in oneself . . . in one's "self" / "selves." That is why seekers must have someone to “bounce things off of” so that they have at least one person who can suggest that they might want to seek the 180-degree-opposite thought / belief in every case and to continue to do so until all thoughts and beliefs come to an end. Of course that too is just a suggestion.
One other option instead is to . . .
judge others who believe in unicorns; and Santa Claus; and the Easter Bunny; and the value of four-leaf clovers; and the good that can come by carrying around a rabbit’s foot; and the value of a horseshoe nailed upside down above a door; and the value of “being in a relationship” with a God or with Gods and Goddesses; or believing that there can be a God who can love unconditionally while at the same time sending people into eternal flames; or believing in a God who wants his followers to kill anyone who does not believe exactly what those followers believe . . .
while
. . . continuing to believe everything that one has been told by programmers and conditioners and acculturaters and domesticators and brainwashers and indoctrinators.
To be free and at peace, though, requires seeing that one’s own beliefs are just as fictional as all of the above beliefs which persons have accumulated and passed down over the ages.
De-accumulating the content of the mind – and thus being free of living under the influence of the mind entirely – can be as simple as seeing that it is insane to think that one is trapped in a box when (a) one is not trapped and when (b) there is no box; or it can be as simple as seeing the insanity of believing that one has some really valuable stuff stored in something called "my mind" even though that is just as fictional as a mime’s non-existent box.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
19 September 2014
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
The point has been made that one loses the desire to accumulate (and the drive to accumulate that is based in fear and delusions about what is “needed” and what is not and about what not having enough and thus not “being enough”). In that process of de-accumulation, one also loses the far-greater costs of maintaining what has been accumulated.
Cultures of accumulation have spread globally. An element of the acculturation to which most are exposed inspires accumulation.
Maharaj said: “You have to give up everything to know that you need nothing, not even your body. Your needs are unreal and your efforts are meaningless. You imagine that your possessions protect you. In reality they make you vulnerable.”
He said: “Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content. You face it most cheerfully when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature.”
Again, that does not mean, for example, that marriage cannot happen. It means that happiness and harmony cannot come when marriage is followed by identification with “The Wife” and “The Husband” because egotism always upgrades an assumed ego-state; thus, “The Wife” soon becomes “The Super Wife” and “The Husband” soon becomes “The Super Husband.”
While “The Wife” can exist in her own mind as long as there is “A Husband,” that is not enough for “The Super Wife” to exist. (“He’s so bad he’s killing me!”) Same with “The Husband” and “The Super Husband.” The latter has got to have “A Super Wife” in order to “exist” (in his mind).
And just as egotism-driven ego-states self-upgrade, they also downgrade other “selfs”: “The Super Wife” will believe that she is not being treated in the manner to which she is entitled and will downgrade “The Husband” (who seemed at one point to be “The Super Husband”); but as “The Super Wife,” she will re-imagine him to be “The Husband That Is Not the Least Bit Super At All.” Same with “The Husband” as he downgrades her to the level of “The Formerly Super Wife Who Now Is No Longer Super At All.”
Once downgrading happens, misery follows.
Again, “Your true home is in nothingness . . . .”
Marriage – and anything else - can continue peacefully only if no phony roles are being assumed and being allowed to drive every thought and word and action as a result of one or more assumed personalities' hidden agenda.
Moreover, “your true home is . . . in emptiness of all content.”
And what obviously needs emptying out more than anything else among the non-Realized masses? The mind.
Maharaj: “Nothing can make you happier than you are. All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being.” That is, beingness without beliefs, merely being without any identification, merely being without anything deemed to be “personal.”
Maharaj: “As long as you identify yourself with them [the body and the mind], you are bound to suffer; realize your independence and remain happy. I tell you, this is the secret of happiness. To believe that you depend on things and people for happiness is due to ignorance of your true nature; to know that you need nothing to be happy . . . is wisdom.”
Yet no freedom – and therefore no happiness – can come as long as the mind is present. Again, the title of the eBook below sums up the point accurately: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS PEACE OF MIND (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind). Peace can only come in the absence of distortion, and the presence of a fiction-filled mind will assure distortion.
Depressed people who deny their depression are living under the influence of distortion, yet the effects of the depression can be seen quite clearly by those that are not suffering from distortion.
Maharaj: “A man who is given a stone and assured that it is a priceless diamond will be mightily pleased . . . .”
Yet even the most distorted person might experience an occasional flash of unblocked consciousness which allows a lapse in the denial and dissociation and the normalization of the abnormal which, in turn, allows truth to shine through for at least a moment. Consider then the rest of Maharaj’s pointer above:
“A man who is given a stone and assured that it is a priceless diamond will be mightily pleased . . . . until he realizes his mistake.”
Thus, the discussion brings the visitor once again to an opportunity to understand that the most debilitating accumulation of all – the accumulation that leads more than anything else to the development of the Ultimate Sickness – is the accumulation of ideas and “knowledge” and learned ignorance and foolishness . . . all of which can be summed up as an accumulation of “beliefs.”
What then is the logical treatment for the Ultimate Sickness? It is identified in the title mentioned earlier: FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS. The non-dual invitation is to abandon all identities and all personal / personality identification and then forfeit the notion that one is either “A Believer” or “A Non-Believer” and abide in a manner that makes clear that (at least for the sake of this discussion regarding beliefs) that you are abiding in the manner of a "No-Belief-er" . . . of one that has reached the zero concept state and is no longer burdened with any beliefs at all.
See that the mind is fictional and ill-defined and, actually, indefinable because it is nothing more than a storehouse of illusions, mirages, distortions, and figments of the imagination of ignorant “ancestors” who passed along their hand-me-down beliefs.
This pointer has been offered in the past:
“Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and perverted domestication and xenophobia-based acculturation as well as lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.”
Were one to consider the implications of that statement and truly understand those implications, then nothing would be relinquished so quickly as the mind as well as the attachment that persons have to the mind’s bogus content.
Consider: The brain, made from plant food elements, is real. Its existence is factual. It can be touched, literally, by a neurosurgeon. It can be seen, literally, and its presence can be substantiated, literally. It is tangible, elemental, genuine, undeniable, verifiable, palpable, viewable, concrete, physical, natural, solid, material, proven, irrefutable, and verifiable. It is the seat, during the manifestation, of all that is natural and innate and inherent and genuine. It is undeniable.
The mind, by contrast, is the very seat of denial. The mind is nothing that the brain is. The mind is the seat of imaginings and is thus imaginary. It is immaterial, that is, non-material; it is non-elemental and non-physical; it is formless, ethereal, unsubstantiated, impalpable, intangible, invisible, conceptual, notional, abstract, indefinite, hypothetical, theoretical, notional, figurative, emblematic, impressionistic, unrealistic and, therefore, unreal.
It is the place where false identities and false beliefs are stored. It is the seat of nonsense, the seat of learned ignorance, and the seat of all of the bizarre, mental and emotional effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
It is where false, personality identifications are stored. It is the breeding ground for personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses. The natural brain has nothing to do with anything mental. Mental disorders are generated by the mind – not by the brain - and the mind is just the result of thousands and thousands of years of human-generated lies and myths and superstitions and distortions and illusions and delusions that have been handed down from one generation to the next.
Yet more than a few seekers want to claim that Maharaj could not have been – and that I cannot possibly be - free of the mind and all beliefs. That would be tantamount to saying, “You cannot possibly travel through the desert day after day and still claim to be free of the influence of the mirages that appear.” What?!
There is no such thing as “peace of mind” because there is no such thing as “a mind.” It’s a totally fictional concept, taken to be real by the same type of persons who take mirages to be real.
Some claim that I am crazy to report that, just as was the case with Maharaj, I have no mind at all. Yet those same people would probably agree were I to say, “I own no mirages. You don’t either, do you?” They would reply, “Of course I don’t own any mirages, and again, you’re crazy for even asking.”
Yet they take full ownership of the mirages called “their minds.” To have a mind is insane; to have no mind is sane. To think that there is “one” that can have a mind (or anything else, really) is also insane. To believe what has been taught and learned and stored in the part of the brain called “the mind” is the epitome of insanity.
To believe anything that is in “your” mind is to believe that this fellow is actually trapped inside a real box:
Yet consider: the masses are exactly like that mime: the beliefs that they have accumulated – as bogus as they are - can leave them feeling as trapped as the mime appears to be. Look at the angst revealed by the mime’s facial features. That is what I see when I look at the masses: persons suffering, persons who are miserable, and all because of what they think is going on . . . all because of what they believe even though their beliefs are no more real than the mime’s box. That is what it’s like to be out of touch with reality and / or out of touch with Reality.
A man who was very popular on a speaker circuit used to tell his listeners, “I create my own reality, and it is a good one. Why don’t you do the same?” (He also told them to come up with their own conception of God, too. In other words, "Just dream up a version of an idea that you like. Make it up." Same with “reality”: “Hell, just create it.” The fact is: one can see or not see reality, but reality cannot be created by anyone. Reality is, period; and reality is, period.)
What the Realized see when they – the Pure Witnessing – look at and listen to the masses is this: they see a gathering of seven billion mimes with angst and confusion written all over their faces. And all that the non-dual “teacher” is really saying is, “You know, that box you think you’re in . . . it’s not real at all, so there is no reason at all that you should be suffering and miserable. The only ‘prison’ that seemingly exists is a mental prison, and each imaginary bar in that prison is one of the beliefs that you hold dear. Want to be free? Break the bars. Break your attachment to your accumulated beliefs. Step away from imaginary boxes and imaginary prisons by breaking away from imagined, imaginary beliefs.”
All is matter-energy and neither can be created nor destroyed; therefore, no one have ever created anything, including "their own reality" and including a “Creator God.” Parents have never created a baby. They are two composite unities that are cycling already-existing elements. Any belief to the contrary is just more “mind-stuff,” meaning stuff that is nonsensical, unreal, conceptualized, immaterial, unsubstantiated, notional, hypothetical, theoretical and unrealistic.
Ultimately, I did not have to work to get free of my mind nor did I have to work to get rid of the content that was stored in my mind. I did not have to tick off one lie after another until all the false beliefs stored in the mind were rejected. No more than one can get rid of a mirage in the desert can one get rid of her or his mind and all the bogus content stored therein.
One cannot get rid of what is fictional or what does not really exist or what has just been dreamed up or what is not even real in the first place. One might as well say “I’m really being bugged by that child of the barren woman next door.” Persons might as well try to get rid of all of the children of barren women as try to get rid of their minds and beliefs. As soon as you are awake enough to see that there is no such thing as “barren women having children,” then you will also be awake enough to see that you have no real mind and no true beliefs.
All that is called for is an understanding: no mirage is real, including the mirage called “the mind”; it is an appearance only; no one need get rid of it; no one need be free of it or its influence. One need but see reality. That is far more consequential than seeing Reality.
It’s all so simple, unless one is attached to a mirage, values a mirage, and thinks a mirage is real.
Freedom comes, and peace follows, when that which is not even real is no longer empowered to determine what you say, how you behave, or how you feel.
Here, a man’s wife over the years has been seen to be narcissistic, borderline, bi-polar, and sociopathic, facts which he has not seen but the ramifications of which he has tried to deal with nevertheless. (By the way, before charges of “chauvinism” are made, understand that far more personality disorders have been witnessed in men than women simply because more men have come this way.) That man came to me to seek advice. He was told, “I have no advice other than to suggest she consider seeking professional counseling.”
Later, one day after he had told her that he wanted to throw her off the third floor balcony of their apartment, he was saying to me as a result of the distorted thinking that was being generated by the content of his mind: “You know, Floyd, really, she’s a good person – a really great person, in fact.”
As days and weeks passed, though, even he began to see the evidence of her unchecked narcissism, of her borderline personality disorder, of her bi-polar personality disorder, and of her truly sociopathic nature as well as the harmful effects all of that was having on their child.
That was a year ago. He is still with her though she refuses to seek counseling and though she said to him, “You’re the one who needs counseling! You’re the one who’s crazy, not me!” In spite of all that, last week they had a second child, and now he is suffering deep and dark depression. And what he does not see - and what I invited him to at least consider - is that by having stayed with her and bred with her while so unhealthy a situation was happening, she might be at least half-clear in her assessment: “You’re the one who needs counseling! You’re the one who’s crazy.”
Crazy can spot crazy in “others” but typically cannot spot crazy in oneself . . . in one's "self" / "selves." That is why seekers must have someone to “bounce things off of” so that they have at least one person who can suggest that they might want to seek the 180-degree-opposite thought / belief in every case and to continue to do so until all thoughts and beliefs come to an end. Of course that too is just a suggestion.
One other option instead is to . . .
judge others who believe in unicorns; and Santa Claus; and the Easter Bunny; and the value of four-leaf clovers; and the good that can come by carrying around a rabbit’s foot; and the value of a horseshoe nailed upside down above a door; and the value of “being in a relationship” with a God or with Gods and Goddesses; or believing that there can be a God who can love unconditionally while at the same time sending people into eternal flames; or believing in a God who wants his followers to kill anyone who does not believe exactly what those followers believe . . .
while
. . . continuing to believe everything that one has been told by programmers and conditioners and acculturaters and domesticators and brainwashers and indoctrinators.
To be free and at peace, though, requires seeing that one’s own beliefs are just as fictional as all of the above beliefs which persons have accumulated and passed down over the ages.
De-accumulating the content of the mind – and thus being free of living under the influence of the mind entirely – can be as simple as seeing that it is insane to think that one is trapped in a box when (a) one is not trapped and when (b) there is no box; or it can be as simple as seeing the insanity of believing that one has some really valuable stuff stored in something called "my mind" even though that is just as fictional as a mime’s non-existent box.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
19 September 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
The point has been made that, via Full Realization, one loses the desire to accumulate (as well as the drive to accumulate that is based in fear and delusions about what is “needed” and about what is not and about not having enough and thus about not “being enough”).
In that process of de-accumulation, one also loses the far-greater costs of maintaining what has been accumulated.
The desires and fears that drive accumulation are rooted in personality. No composite unity can desire anything; no composite unity can fear anything. I did not will this composite unity to come, and there will be no will to struggle to preserve this composite unity when the time arrives for what has come together to come apart (as the Second Law of Thermodynamics guarantees will happen).
[Consider the irony: Spouses will eventually move beyond the “pink cloud” stage of their marriage and will begin to see what is really lurking behind all of the false images that were presented during the courtship process. Then, fifty percent will divorce when it becomes clear that, “If only I had known, I would never have gotten involved in this mess.” Fifty percent leave the mess, and the 50% who do not leave are sometimes envious of the other fifty percent who “escaped” or who are in a state of acceptance that is based in denial and detachment and dissociation. Similarly, Maharaj pointed out that anyone sane who knew what was going to be involved with the manifestation and the relative existence and “life” in “this world” would never have chosen it at all. They would have said, “If only I had known, I would never have gotten involved in this mess.” Yet once the consciousness manifests, it wants more than anything else to cling to what it would never have chosen in the first place if all had been understood! Part of the insanity of humanity involves not wanting what one has and wanting what one does not have, and that warped thinking alone accounts for a consider amount of the accumulating that persons engage in.]
However, because the basic characteristic of the manifested consciousness is to preserve and extend itself and to maintain its continuity as long as possible, and because the conscious-energy is manifested within the space of the composite unity, that natural, instinctive characteristic will allow whatever happens to happen while merely witnessing it as it happens;
yet Realization allows for the complete de-accumulation of the beliefs which drive most persons to do anything possible to try to cling to one more year of manifestation, or at least one more month, or at least one more week, or at least one more hour, or at least one more minute, or at least one more second.
That includes fear-and-desire-generating beliefs about “death”; about the possibility of “eternal punishment and misery and suffering”; or fear-and-desire-generating beliefs about “reincarnation” and “rebirth” and being “reborn” at a “lower level” or as a “lower form.”
Consider the plethora of anxiety and angst and turmoil that comes with beliefs. And the more beliefs that one accumulates, the more anxiety and angst and turmoil will come. The more beliefs that one accumulates, the more one will also have to argue about and fight about, including “my country,” “my political party,” my family,” “my job to support my family” . . . “my lifestyle” . . . “my standard of living” . . . “my image in the community / state / nation / world,” etc.
The more beliefs that one accumulates, the less freedom and peace will manifest. Nowadays, most on the planet proudly claim that they are “believers.” From among that group over the years has come much criticism of “floyd,” charging, “You are a non-believer!” And as they make that charge, they actually believe it will be taken as a demeaning putdown. Ha.
The facts regarding beliefs and no beliefs are clarified in the eBook below entitled FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers"). One fact is that post-Realization – after having been freed from the insatiability of a “mind” and the distortions generated via "learned ignorance" and the insanity that comes with programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination – there are no beliefs; there is a state of zero concepts that is settled into; and there is no identity accepted at all.
Because all identifications are false, then there can be no persona / personality deemed to be “A Believer” and there can be no persona / personality deemed to be “A Non-Believer.” The closest label which could be used (for the sake of discussion only) would be “A No-Belief-er.”
From “The Introduction and the Rationale” of that book:
"Why is it that the peace and harmony and happiness that Maharaj referenced cannot manifest if there is a 'mind' (which he reported he no longer had after Realization)? Consider the implication of the title of the eBook below, There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out Of Your Mind). That is, there can only be peace and harmony and happiness if you are out from under the influence of what is taken to be 'your mind' when, in fact, there is no such thing as 'your mind'."
And what is in the mind? An accumulation of thousands of concepts and ideas and perceptions and thoughts and notions and impressions and memories and theories and hypotheses and views (all of which collectively amount to one's “beliefs”). To continue with the excerpt:
“What there is among the not-Fully-Realized is 'their mind' ('their' referring to all persons who have taught you any belief or idea or concept that is presently stored in the section of the brain called ‘the mind’; thus, it is the content of ‘their mind’ which has been passed down and transferred and is always taken in error to be ‘your mind.’ Why is it ‘their mind’? Because whatever is in it, you did not put there. ‘They’ put it there. Who are ‘they’? The members of your family of origin, relatives, friends, teachers, religious and / or spiritual influencers, political leaders, and all who were in positions of ‘authority’ during your childhood and who exposed you to 'their' ideas and concepts and beliefs which you have adopted as ‘your own’.”
As Prince Ea noted, persons are being driven blindly by the hand-me-down beliefs of ancestors who have long been gone and by grandparents and parents who passed on the nonsense from your culture, inviting his listeners to break that word down to its parts for more clarity: cult-ure.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 September 2014
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
The point has been made that, via Full Realization, one loses the desire to accumulate (as well as the drive to accumulate that is based in fear and delusions about what is “needed” and about what is not and about not having enough and thus about not “being enough”).
In that process of de-accumulation, one also loses the far-greater costs of maintaining what has been accumulated.
The desires and fears that drive accumulation are rooted in personality. No composite unity can desire anything; no composite unity can fear anything. I did not will this composite unity to come, and there will be no will to struggle to preserve this composite unity when the time arrives for what has come together to come apart (as the Second Law of Thermodynamics guarantees will happen).
[Consider the irony: Spouses will eventually move beyond the “pink cloud” stage of their marriage and will begin to see what is really lurking behind all of the false images that were presented during the courtship process. Then, fifty percent will divorce when it becomes clear that, “If only I had known, I would never have gotten involved in this mess.” Fifty percent leave the mess, and the 50% who do not leave are sometimes envious of the other fifty percent who “escaped” or who are in a state of acceptance that is based in denial and detachment and dissociation. Similarly, Maharaj pointed out that anyone sane who knew what was going to be involved with the manifestation and the relative existence and “life” in “this world” would never have chosen it at all. They would have said, “If only I had known, I would never have gotten involved in this mess.” Yet once the consciousness manifests, it wants more than anything else to cling to what it would never have chosen in the first place if all had been understood! Part of the insanity of humanity involves not wanting what one has and wanting what one does not have, and that warped thinking alone accounts for a consider amount of the accumulating that persons engage in.]
However, because the basic characteristic of the manifested consciousness is to preserve and extend itself and to maintain its continuity as long as possible, and because the conscious-energy is manifested within the space of the composite unity, that natural, instinctive characteristic will allow whatever happens to happen while merely witnessing it as it happens;
yet Realization allows for the complete de-accumulation of the beliefs which drive most persons to do anything possible to try to cling to one more year of manifestation, or at least one more month, or at least one more week, or at least one more hour, or at least one more minute, or at least one more second.
That includes fear-and-desire-generating beliefs about “death”; about the possibility of “eternal punishment and misery and suffering”; or fear-and-desire-generating beliefs about “reincarnation” and “rebirth” and being “reborn” at a “lower level” or as a “lower form.”
Consider the plethora of anxiety and angst and turmoil that comes with beliefs. And the more beliefs that one accumulates, the more anxiety and angst and turmoil will come. The more beliefs that one accumulates, the more one will also have to argue about and fight about, including “my country,” “my political party,” my family,” “my job to support my family” . . . “my lifestyle” . . . “my standard of living” . . . “my image in the community / state / nation / world,” etc.
The more beliefs that one accumulates, the less freedom and peace will manifest. Nowadays, most on the planet proudly claim that they are “believers.” From among that group over the years has come much criticism of “floyd,” charging, “You are a non-believer!” And as they make that charge, they actually believe it will be taken as a demeaning putdown. Ha.
The facts regarding beliefs and no beliefs are clarified in the eBook below entitled FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers"). One fact is that post-Realization – after having been freed from the insatiability of a “mind” and the distortions generated via "learned ignorance" and the insanity that comes with programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination – there are no beliefs; there is a state of zero concepts that is settled into; and there is no identity accepted at all.
Because all identifications are false, then there can be no persona / personality deemed to be “A Believer” and there can be no persona / personality deemed to be “A Non-Believer.” The closest label which could be used (for the sake of discussion only) would be “A No-Belief-er.”
From “The Introduction and the Rationale” of that book:
"Why is it that the peace and harmony and happiness that Maharaj referenced cannot manifest if there is a 'mind' (which he reported he no longer had after Realization)? Consider the implication of the title of the eBook below, There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out Of Your Mind). That is, there can only be peace and harmony and happiness if you are out from under the influence of what is taken to be 'your mind' when, in fact, there is no such thing as 'your mind'."
And what is in the mind? An accumulation of thousands of concepts and ideas and perceptions and thoughts and notions and impressions and memories and theories and hypotheses and views (all of which collectively amount to one's “beliefs”). To continue with the excerpt:
“What there is among the not-Fully-Realized is 'their mind' ('their' referring to all persons who have taught you any belief or idea or concept that is presently stored in the section of the brain called ‘the mind’; thus, it is the content of ‘their mind’ which has been passed down and transferred and is always taken in error to be ‘your mind.’ Why is it ‘their mind’? Because whatever is in it, you did not put there. ‘They’ put it there. Who are ‘they’? The members of your family of origin, relatives, friends, teachers, religious and / or spiritual influencers, political leaders, and all who were in positions of ‘authority’ during your childhood and who exposed you to 'their' ideas and concepts and beliefs which you have adopted as ‘your own’.”
As Prince Ea noted, persons are being driven blindly by the hand-me-down beliefs of ancestors who have long been gone and by grandparents and parents who passed on the nonsense from your culture, inviting his listeners to break that word down to its parts for more clarity: cult-ure.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 September 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
Yesterday, a few examples of what many non-Realized persons accumulate (and over-accumulate) were shared:
Egos (or ego-states, also referred to as roles, stage characters, personalities, personas, identities, etc. Children. Other persons / “lovers” / spouses. Real property.
From a site visitor: “So I told my wife after reading your blog post yesterday that as part of my process of Realizing and deaccumulating, we were going to have to get rid of the children, get rid of each other, and get rid of everything else we own. Ha. She did not appreciate what you had to say about that topic any more than she goes along with what you have to say about anything else. What hilarity, seeing the insanity that has driven me all my life. What hope now, finally seeing it all and seeing that it all can end. Thx.”
So maybe this will clarify: there’s a saying that “If you have dug yourself into a very deep hole and there seems to be no way at all of getting out, the least you can do is to stop digging, immediately.”
So, regarding the de-accumulating that you mentioned, there are some other possibilities as well:
Are you in a hole in terms of finances? Stop spending on non-essentials. Already have more children that you can afford (or more than the planet can afford)? There’s no suggestion that you toss out or wipe out the ones you have, but might you consider putting the brakes on your excessive breeding?
Have property that you can afford that is not excessive? Rock and roll. Have a home that is two or three or four times what is required because you bought it when living totally and blindly under the influence of egotism and image-development and image-maintenance? Some in that case pause to consider the possibility of downsizing in order to simplify one’s existence via de-accumulation and reduced maintenance expenses. Or, ignore all of those possibilities. Whatever. But recall this was the key pointer:
Above all else, ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and “foolishness” are first and foremost on the inventory list of what needs to be lost. It all can go, should go, and what must go if one is ever to be free. And unless free, there can be no peace, no happiness, no contentment.
Now all of those - ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and “foolishness” - you could get be rid of without even having to discuss any of that with your spouse . . . or anyone else.
And good riddance to them all, for they are the root and source of unhappiness and they – more than anything else – block your chance to be happy.
Maharaj: “A man of low intelligence believes, against all evidence, that he is an exception and that the world owes him happiness. But the world cannot give what it does not have; unreal to the core, it is of no use for real happiness. It cannot be otherwise. We seek the real because we are unhappy with the unreal. Happiness is our real nature and we shall never rest until we find it.”
One reason that persons are driven blindly to accumulate is in order to try to fill a void within, believing that "the next thing" will finally bring a sense of fulfillment: "If only I can get her / him to marry me; then all will be good"; then, "If only we can get the home I’ve always dreamed of, then everything will be okay"; followed by, "If only we can bring a few children into the mix and form the perfect family with a mommy and a daddy and 2.5 children" (or six children or twelve children in order to get some positive feedback from our priest and in order avoid eternal damnation for "wasting the seed"); ad infinitum. Get. Get. Get. Accumulate. Accumulate. Accumulate. But then what?
Maharaj: “A man who says ‘Now I am happy"’ is between two sorrows, past and future.”
Furthermore, “Pleasure depends on things, happiness does not. As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable”
and
“You are like a child with a lollypop in its mouth. You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centered, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering. Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash, or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable, because it does not depend on circumstances.”
And what is at the core of all of that nonsense? Beliefs. Beliefs which did not spring forth from within you but which have been accumulated from without - from others - and then stored away in your mind (which is nothing more than a storehouse for all of the nonsense and learned ignorance that has been accumulated along the way).
Maharaj: “Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Hence the importance of convincing oneself that one need not be prodded into happiness; that, on the contrary, pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy, when in reality it is just the opposite.”
What sets persons on a course to accumulate? Their parents. One study showed that parents typically give nine negative statements or statements of correction and redirection to every one positive statement. That ratio signals to children that their present course is all wrong. The implied message – or sometimes at least the message inferred by children – is “I am not enough. I will never be good enough. I will never have enough. I must get more and more to try to address this issue. If I am not enough for anyone to love me as I am, then I must accumulate a great deal to attract someone, or many someones, to love me.”
How could that not lead to a desire for excessive accumulation? And how can that, in turn, not lead to unhappiness and even misery and suffering?
Maharaj: “Why talk of happiness at all? You do not think of happiness except when you are unhappy. This happiness is mere excitement caused by relief from pain. Real happiness is utterly unselfconscious. It is best expressed negatively as: ‘There is nothing wrong with me; I have nothing to worry about’.”
Next, he said, “See that desires and fears create bondage.” And what can generate desires and fears? Only personalities, each with a main desire and a main fear.
The composite unity cannot generate desires and fears. The elements have no desires or fears; the air has no desires or fears; the pure, unblocked conscious-energy has no desires or fears. Neither elements nor air nor energy can fear anything or desire anything. Only the hidden agendas of dreamed up personalities / ego-states / false identities can imagine that they have needs and desires that must be fulfilled and fears that most be avoided or addressed.
Maharaj: “Selfishness is the cause of suffering. There is no other cause. It is only with separateness and self-seeking that real suffering appears in the world.” Without an assumed and / or assigned “self” – or multiple “selves” – there can be neither self-consciousness nor selfishness, and if there is no sense of self-ness, there can be no selfishness. And without selfishness, there can be no suffering. Voila: happiness, freedom, peace.
Yet assume not that the masses are really the least bit interested in that. Remember the woman who loves to fight and make up? Or witness the religious fanatics all trying to wipe out the “others” who don’t have the right beliefs and are not behaving in the right way. Or look at the right-wing ideologue who seems to enjoy his anger and ranting and raging: "To hell with peace and happiness at this point in our history. It's time to fight for our freedom." Huh?
What an absolute mess as a result of accumulating. And what insanity to be in bondage, enslaved to accumulating which is all rooted in the desires and fears and beliefs that come with body-mind-personality identification.
Of that Maharaj said: “Self-identification with the body creates ever fresh desires, and there is no end to them, unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire unless its causes and effects are clearly seen.”
Moreover: “When desire and fear end, bondage also ends”;
then,
“don't be afraid of freedom from desire and fear. It enables you to live a life so different from all you know, so much more intense and interesting, that truly by losing all you gain all.”
So many paradoxes and ironies are involved with these teachings (which are actually un-teachings intended to lead to un-learning). “What have you got to lose?” All. “What then comes?” All. What a deal.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
17 September 2014
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
Yesterday, a few examples of what many non-Realized persons accumulate (and over-accumulate) were shared:
Egos (or ego-states, also referred to as roles, stage characters, personalities, personas, identities, etc. Children. Other persons / “lovers” / spouses. Real property.
From a site visitor: “So I told my wife after reading your blog post yesterday that as part of my process of Realizing and deaccumulating, we were going to have to get rid of the children, get rid of each other, and get rid of everything else we own. Ha. She did not appreciate what you had to say about that topic any more than she goes along with what you have to say about anything else. What hilarity, seeing the insanity that has driven me all my life. What hope now, finally seeing it all and seeing that it all can end. Thx.”
So maybe this will clarify: there’s a saying that “If you have dug yourself into a very deep hole and there seems to be no way at all of getting out, the least you can do is to stop digging, immediately.”
So, regarding the de-accumulating that you mentioned, there are some other possibilities as well:
Are you in a hole in terms of finances? Stop spending on non-essentials. Already have more children that you can afford (or more than the planet can afford)? There’s no suggestion that you toss out or wipe out the ones you have, but might you consider putting the brakes on your excessive breeding?
Have property that you can afford that is not excessive? Rock and roll. Have a home that is two or three or four times what is required because you bought it when living totally and blindly under the influence of egotism and image-development and image-maintenance? Some in that case pause to consider the possibility of downsizing in order to simplify one’s existence via de-accumulation and reduced maintenance expenses. Or, ignore all of those possibilities. Whatever. But recall this was the key pointer:
Above all else, ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and “foolishness” are first and foremost on the inventory list of what needs to be lost. It all can go, should go, and what must go if one is ever to be free. And unless free, there can be no peace, no happiness, no contentment.
Now all of those - ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and “foolishness” - you could get be rid of without even having to discuss any of that with your spouse . . . or anyone else.
And good riddance to them all, for they are the root and source of unhappiness and they – more than anything else – block your chance to be happy.
Maharaj: “A man of low intelligence believes, against all evidence, that he is an exception and that the world owes him happiness. But the world cannot give what it does not have; unreal to the core, it is of no use for real happiness. It cannot be otherwise. We seek the real because we are unhappy with the unreal. Happiness is our real nature and we shall never rest until we find it.”
One reason that persons are driven blindly to accumulate is in order to try to fill a void within, believing that "the next thing" will finally bring a sense of fulfillment: "If only I can get her / him to marry me; then all will be good"; then, "If only we can get the home I’ve always dreamed of, then everything will be okay"; followed by, "If only we can bring a few children into the mix and form the perfect family with a mommy and a daddy and 2.5 children" (or six children or twelve children in order to get some positive feedback from our priest and in order avoid eternal damnation for "wasting the seed"); ad infinitum. Get. Get. Get. Accumulate. Accumulate. Accumulate. But then what?
Maharaj: “A man who says ‘Now I am happy"’ is between two sorrows, past and future.”
Furthermore, “Pleasure depends on things, happiness does not. As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable”
and
“You are like a child with a lollypop in its mouth. You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centered, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering. Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash, or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable, because it does not depend on circumstances.”
And what is at the core of all of that nonsense? Beliefs. Beliefs which did not spring forth from within you but which have been accumulated from without - from others - and then stored away in your mind (which is nothing more than a storehouse for all of the nonsense and learned ignorance that has been accumulated along the way).
Maharaj: “Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Hence the importance of convincing oneself that one need not be prodded into happiness; that, on the contrary, pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy, when in reality it is just the opposite.”
What sets persons on a course to accumulate? Their parents. One study showed that parents typically give nine negative statements or statements of correction and redirection to every one positive statement. That ratio signals to children that their present course is all wrong. The implied message – or sometimes at least the message inferred by children – is “I am not enough. I will never be good enough. I will never have enough. I must get more and more to try to address this issue. If I am not enough for anyone to love me as I am, then I must accumulate a great deal to attract someone, or many someones, to love me.”
How could that not lead to a desire for excessive accumulation? And how can that, in turn, not lead to unhappiness and even misery and suffering?
Maharaj: “Why talk of happiness at all? You do not think of happiness except when you are unhappy. This happiness is mere excitement caused by relief from pain. Real happiness is utterly unselfconscious. It is best expressed negatively as: ‘There is nothing wrong with me; I have nothing to worry about’.”
Next, he said, “See that desires and fears create bondage.” And what can generate desires and fears? Only personalities, each with a main desire and a main fear.
The composite unity cannot generate desires and fears. The elements have no desires or fears; the air has no desires or fears; the pure, unblocked conscious-energy has no desires or fears. Neither elements nor air nor energy can fear anything or desire anything. Only the hidden agendas of dreamed up personalities / ego-states / false identities can imagine that they have needs and desires that must be fulfilled and fears that most be avoided or addressed.
Maharaj: “Selfishness is the cause of suffering. There is no other cause. It is only with separateness and self-seeking that real suffering appears in the world.” Without an assumed and / or assigned “self” – or multiple “selves” – there can be neither self-consciousness nor selfishness, and if there is no sense of self-ness, there can be no selfishness. And without selfishness, there can be no suffering. Voila: happiness, freedom, peace.
Yet assume not that the masses are really the least bit interested in that. Remember the woman who loves to fight and make up? Or witness the religious fanatics all trying to wipe out the “others” who don’t have the right beliefs and are not behaving in the right way. Or look at the right-wing ideologue who seems to enjoy his anger and ranting and raging: "To hell with peace and happiness at this point in our history. It's time to fight for our freedom." Huh?
What an absolute mess as a result of accumulating. And what insanity to be in bondage, enslaved to accumulating which is all rooted in the desires and fears and beliefs that come with body-mind-personality identification.
Of that Maharaj said: “Self-identification with the body creates ever fresh desires, and there is no end to them, unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire unless its causes and effects are clearly seen.”
Moreover: “When desire and fear end, bondage also ends”;
then,
“don't be afraid of freedom from desire and fear. It enables you to live a life so different from all you know, so much more intense and interesting, that truly by losing all you gain all.”
So many paradoxes and ironies are involved with these teachings (which are actually un-teachings intended to lead to un-learning). “What have you got to lose?” All. “What then comes?” All. What a deal.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
17 September 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?”
Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
(A) Possibly begrudgingly at first, all which you have accumulated
and
(B) possibly delightfully, all of the costs associated with the on-going maintenance of what you have accumulated.
Cautionary pointers regarding accumulating have always been at the center of the non-dual teachings. De-accumulation is a foundational element of the teachings, always an initial and introductory part of the preparatory work that sets the stage for what is to come as one moves farther along the “path.”
Maharaj made clear to seekers that if they came to receive anything, to gain anything, to increase or expand in any way, to achieve anything, to acquire anything, or to secure anything, then they had come to the wrong place.
He made clear that he would give them nothing but would, instead, take away all.
He said: "Nothing, physical or mental, can give you freedom. You are free once you understand that your bondage is of your own making and cease forging the chains that bind you."
Among the chains that bind – above all others – is the binding chain of accumulation. Understand, however, that you did not choose bondage. It came with the concepts / beliefs that were given to you. You did not teach yourself to forge the chains that would eventually bind you. That was taught to you via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination.
You do not need to normalize bondage. You do not need more forging skills. The need is to stop normalizing and denying and rationalizing and accepting bondage. The need is to stop forging. The need is to stop putting yourself in more and more chains – the chains of accumulating physical things and mental things – and to break the chains that were set in place early on which triggered your earliest act of accumulating, namely, accumulating egos / personalities and their accompanying egotism (and other ego-defense mechanisms).
Note a key point in that regard: accumulations never create singular problems in the relative existence because they are always followed by and accompanied by a far more serious set of consequences: the maintenance of that which has been accumulated.
The maintenance of things accumulated, physical or mental, are many times more than the initial cost of an accumulation – sometimes one-hundred fold more, sometimes even more than that.
Moreover, there is a need for persons to see what the costs of their accumulations have been and continue to be, but even more significantly, to see what the maintenance costs are for those accumulations. Here, pointers are offered, always followed by examples and illustrations to make clear the point and to validate the point with facts. So, a couple of examples:
1. A couple mentioned recently that the child born last week “cost them nothing because their insurance was so good that it paid for everything.” What are they asleep to? The fact that the child has cost them a fortune but that the payment will be deferred and paid out over several decades. (Many become angry at this example: “How dare you try to put a price on the value of this child to us!” Not happening. What is happening is a calm discussion of facts. The results of a recent study released last month showed this: “In the U.S., a middle-income family with a child born in 2013 can expect to spend about $245,340.00 for food, clothing, shelter and other expenses up to the age of eighteen.”)
2. Recently, my daughter purchased a home in Austin, Texas. What she and her fiancé found while house shopping was that a large percentage of the homes in that city have swimming pools in their back yards. As a result of doing their due diligence, they determined that they would not buy a home with a pool because the maintenance of the pool (including constantly adding water during the high-evaporation months, cleaning, adding chemicals weekly, and paying the expense of the electricity required for the 365-day, 24 / 7 operation and maintenance of pumping and filtering equipment was going to add another 30% to their monthly house note). They also went through the pre-approval process on a home loan and were told by the bank that they qualified for a $375,000.00 loan. They ignored the bankers’ suggested figure and looked at homes that were half the size of what that pre-approved loan could have bought. The result: a lower monthly note, less maintenance, lower utilities, lower property taxes, etc. Less accumulation up front will result in lower maintenance costs in every other regard. (Is there any implication that the two of them are Realized and free of any and all influence that is imposed on those living in a capitalistic culture of accumulation? Hardly, but there have been revealed certain leanings in that direction, as in the case above. All are invited to try the same in every instance in which excess accumulation could happen.)
What else do persons accumulate that can bring far greater maintenance costs than the initial cost of what was accumulated? To begin the “journey” toward Realization and the subsequent freedom and peace that come with it, one must first awaken to a full and accurate realization and understanding of all that have been needlessly accumulated before being able to properly inventory what needs to be lost; what can go; what should go; and what must go. The list might include the following:
(A)
Ideas and beliefs, including those which drive excessive spending (those being among Maharaj’s “mental” things which can lead to an accumulation of more and more “physical” things).
(B)
Relatedly, “knowledge” (a.k.a., “learned ignorance” and “foolishness”). All of that involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s “mental” things.
(C)
Egos (or ego-states, also referred to as roles, stage characters, personalities, personas, identities, etc.) Each personality type will drive excessive spending and accumulating as a result of the personality’s hidden agendas. (For example, Personality Type Twos who wants to be liked / loved by as many persons as possible will spend huge sums of money – often far beyond what their budgets can accommodate – on helping and rescuing and offering gifts in order to gain favor and “love.”) All of that involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s “mental” things.
(D)
Children. The number of children that some accumulate is often determined by their religious programming rather than by any sensible planning or awareness. Many have been convinced that they will spend eternity in hell if they use any kind of contraception. In Africa, some Catholic / Christian missionaries warn men that they will be far better off facing the risk of contracting AIDS than facing the risk of eternal damnation as a result of using a condom during intercourse. During the days that I was operating a tour company in Western Europe, we passed a farmacia in Venice, Italy that was being picketed by nuns and priests and some of their parishioners because the pharmacist inside was selling birth control (and that in spite of the fact that over-population during the next fifty years will be humankind’s greatest challenge). The accumulation of more and more children involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Super Parent,” “The Super Good Catholic,” “The Super Virile Male,” “The Real Man,” etc.
(E)
Persons / “lovers” / spouses. (Some partners provide equally. Some partners, though, have a huge sense of entitlement and believe that someone else should pay all of their bills and provide additional "disposable" income for spending. Voila: accumulation and high maintenance. Many persons with a fear of abandonment or with a warped sense of grandiosity are determined to treat their spouses like a prince or princess, forgetting that actual members of a royal household live within a very strict and rigid and confined hierarchy with its places being determined by birth, not by choice. Treating anyone else like a prince or princess will not make them a prince or princess and it will not make them royal. It is more likely to make them a royal pain in the . . . well, you get the point). That involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Super Lover,” “The Super Spouse,” “The Super Provider,” “The Best Mate Ever,” etc. What does the drive to accumulate more and more “lovers” say about what is happening in the mind of one involved in that kind of accumulation? What does the accumulation of more and more “husbands” or “wives” say about what is happening in the mind of one involved in that kind of accumulation? There is nothing external that can be accumulated which will fill an inner sense of emptiness. To the contrary, the inner must be emptied in order for it to be filled with that which leads to a sense of singular, independent fullness.
(F)
"Real" property. That involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Really Successful Business Owner,” “The Owner of a Really Large Home,” “The Owner of the Largest House in Town,” “The Owner of More Stuff Than Anyone Else,” etc. (There is a saying in many cultures of accumulation: “The one who dies with the most toys at the end . . . wins.” Whatever.)
[Note: There are some who have come here for retreats and leave with the notion that they must quit their jobs. That is not a part of the teachings. There are basic requirements to be met throughout the relative existence – food, clothing, shelter, etc. – but there is no requirement to have the most expensive, gourmet food served at every meal; no requirement that one must wear the most expensive, image-enhancing, designer clothing; and no requirement that one must have the grandest house ever. Post-Realization, some seek different employment, some do not; some see that they can function quite well by working forty hours instead of eighty and by spending less money rather than having to earn more; and some of those with an excess – after understanding the unicity and Love – do share in motiveless ways with no intention of trying to gain anything . . . unlike the intent or motive of a Personality Type Two who is driven blindly to try to buy love and affection.]
Above all else, ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and (most often, externally-imposed) “foolishness” must be first and foremost on the inventory list of what needs to be lost. All of that can go, should go, and must go if one is ever to be free. And unless totally free first, there can be no peace, no happiness, and no contentment at all.
More on that tomorrow.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
16 September 2014
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?”
Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
(A) Possibly begrudgingly at first, all which you have accumulated
and
(B) possibly delightfully, all of the costs associated with the on-going maintenance of what you have accumulated.
Cautionary pointers regarding accumulating have always been at the center of the non-dual teachings. De-accumulation is a foundational element of the teachings, always an initial and introductory part of the preparatory work that sets the stage for what is to come as one moves farther along the “path.”
Maharaj made clear to seekers that if they came to receive anything, to gain anything, to increase or expand in any way, to achieve anything, to acquire anything, or to secure anything, then they had come to the wrong place.
He made clear that he would give them nothing but would, instead, take away all.
He said: "Nothing, physical or mental, can give you freedom. You are free once you understand that your bondage is of your own making and cease forging the chains that bind you."
Among the chains that bind – above all others – is the binding chain of accumulation. Understand, however, that you did not choose bondage. It came with the concepts / beliefs that were given to you. You did not teach yourself to forge the chains that would eventually bind you. That was taught to you via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination.
You do not need to normalize bondage. You do not need more forging skills. The need is to stop normalizing and denying and rationalizing and accepting bondage. The need is to stop forging. The need is to stop putting yourself in more and more chains – the chains of accumulating physical things and mental things – and to break the chains that were set in place early on which triggered your earliest act of accumulating, namely, accumulating egos / personalities and their accompanying egotism (and other ego-defense mechanisms).
Note a key point in that regard: accumulations never create singular problems in the relative existence because they are always followed by and accompanied by a far more serious set of consequences: the maintenance of that which has been accumulated.
The maintenance of things accumulated, physical or mental, are many times more than the initial cost of an accumulation – sometimes one-hundred fold more, sometimes even more than that.
Moreover, there is a need for persons to see what the costs of their accumulations have been and continue to be, but even more significantly, to see what the maintenance costs are for those accumulations. Here, pointers are offered, always followed by examples and illustrations to make clear the point and to validate the point with facts. So, a couple of examples:
1. A couple mentioned recently that the child born last week “cost them nothing because their insurance was so good that it paid for everything.” What are they asleep to? The fact that the child has cost them a fortune but that the payment will be deferred and paid out over several decades. (Many become angry at this example: “How dare you try to put a price on the value of this child to us!” Not happening. What is happening is a calm discussion of facts. The results of a recent study released last month showed this: “In the U.S., a middle-income family with a child born in 2013 can expect to spend about $245,340.00 for food, clothing, shelter and other expenses up to the age of eighteen.”)
2. Recently, my daughter purchased a home in Austin, Texas. What she and her fiancé found while house shopping was that a large percentage of the homes in that city have swimming pools in their back yards. As a result of doing their due diligence, they determined that they would not buy a home with a pool because the maintenance of the pool (including constantly adding water during the high-evaporation months, cleaning, adding chemicals weekly, and paying the expense of the electricity required for the 365-day, 24 / 7 operation and maintenance of pumping and filtering equipment was going to add another 30% to their monthly house note). They also went through the pre-approval process on a home loan and were told by the bank that they qualified for a $375,000.00 loan. They ignored the bankers’ suggested figure and looked at homes that were half the size of what that pre-approved loan could have bought. The result: a lower monthly note, less maintenance, lower utilities, lower property taxes, etc. Less accumulation up front will result in lower maintenance costs in every other regard. (Is there any implication that the two of them are Realized and free of any and all influence that is imposed on those living in a capitalistic culture of accumulation? Hardly, but there have been revealed certain leanings in that direction, as in the case above. All are invited to try the same in every instance in which excess accumulation could happen.)
What else do persons accumulate that can bring far greater maintenance costs than the initial cost of what was accumulated? To begin the “journey” toward Realization and the subsequent freedom and peace that come with it, one must first awaken to a full and accurate realization and understanding of all that have been needlessly accumulated before being able to properly inventory what needs to be lost; what can go; what should go; and what must go. The list might include the following:
(A)
Ideas and beliefs, including those which drive excessive spending (those being among Maharaj’s “mental” things which can lead to an accumulation of more and more “physical” things).
(B)
Relatedly, “knowledge” (a.k.a., “learned ignorance” and “foolishness”). All of that involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s “mental” things.
(C)
Egos (or ego-states, also referred to as roles, stage characters, personalities, personas, identities, etc.) Each personality type will drive excessive spending and accumulating as a result of the personality’s hidden agendas. (For example, Personality Type Twos who wants to be liked / loved by as many persons as possible will spend huge sums of money – often far beyond what their budgets can accommodate – on helping and rescuing and offering gifts in order to gain favor and “love.”) All of that involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s “mental” things.
(D)
Children. The number of children that some accumulate is often determined by their religious programming rather than by any sensible planning or awareness. Many have been convinced that they will spend eternity in hell if they use any kind of contraception. In Africa, some Catholic / Christian missionaries warn men that they will be far better off facing the risk of contracting AIDS than facing the risk of eternal damnation as a result of using a condom during intercourse. During the days that I was operating a tour company in Western Europe, we passed a farmacia in Venice, Italy that was being picketed by nuns and priests and some of their parishioners because the pharmacist inside was selling birth control (and that in spite of the fact that over-population during the next fifty years will be humankind’s greatest challenge). The accumulation of more and more children involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Super Parent,” “The Super Good Catholic,” “The Super Virile Male,” “The Real Man,” etc.
(E)
Persons / “lovers” / spouses. (Some partners provide equally. Some partners, though, have a huge sense of entitlement and believe that someone else should pay all of their bills and provide additional "disposable" income for spending. Voila: accumulation and high maintenance. Many persons with a fear of abandonment or with a warped sense of grandiosity are determined to treat their spouses like a prince or princess, forgetting that actual members of a royal household live within a very strict and rigid and confined hierarchy with its places being determined by birth, not by choice. Treating anyone else like a prince or princess will not make them a prince or princess and it will not make them royal. It is more likely to make them a royal pain in the . . . well, you get the point). That involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Super Lover,” “The Super Spouse,” “The Super Provider,” “The Best Mate Ever,” etc. What does the drive to accumulate more and more “lovers” say about what is happening in the mind of one involved in that kind of accumulation? What does the accumulation of more and more “husbands” or “wives” say about what is happening in the mind of one involved in that kind of accumulation? There is nothing external that can be accumulated which will fill an inner sense of emptiness. To the contrary, the inner must be emptied in order for it to be filled with that which leads to a sense of singular, independent fullness.
(F)
"Real" property. That involves the accumulation of Maharaj’s "physical" things which also happens to involve an accumulation of what he called “mental” things, specifically, new personas such as “The Really Successful Business Owner,” “The Owner of a Really Large Home,” “The Owner of the Largest House in Town,” “The Owner of More Stuff Than Anyone Else,” etc. (There is a saying in many cultures of accumulation: “The one who dies with the most toys at the end . . . wins.” Whatever.)
[Note: There are some who have come here for retreats and leave with the notion that they must quit their jobs. That is not a part of the teachings. There are basic requirements to be met throughout the relative existence – food, clothing, shelter, etc. – but there is no requirement to have the most expensive, gourmet food served at every meal; no requirement that one must wear the most expensive, image-enhancing, designer clothing; and no requirement that one must have the grandest house ever. Post-Realization, some seek different employment, some do not; some see that they can function quite well by working forty hours instead of eighty and by spending less money rather than having to earn more; and some of those with an excess – after understanding the unicity and Love – do share in motiveless ways with no intention of trying to gain anything . . . unlike the intent or motive of a Personality Type Two who is driven blindly to try to buy love and affection.]
Above all else, ideas and beliefs, “knowledge,” “learned ignorance” and (most often, externally-imposed) “foolishness” must be first and foremost on the inventory list of what needs to be lost. All of that can go, should go, and must go if one is ever to be free. And unless totally free first, there can be no peace, no happiness, and no contentment at all.
More on that tomorrow.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
16 September 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
All of the perverted, accumulated “knowledge” which fills the mind and which perversely controls words and behaviors and which Maharaj characterized as learned ignorance and foolishness. Recall:
Maharaj: “ . . . Give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind”
and
“That knowingness which has come over me, that itself is foolishness."
What else? A propensity for chaos. Most are well aware that persons can become addicted to power and control and food and nicotine and alcohol and drugs, yet few are aware of how pervasive the addiction to chaos is.
The addiction to chaos comes about because most persons nowadays are being raised in go-do-zoom cultures, and to stop or to relax or to slow down or to take it easy are all alien to most persons in most cultures. So if persons are not going and doing and zooming, they will often become bored and will “cause something to happen,” will “stir the pot,” or will “stir up some action”; in other words, they will generate some chaos or pandemonium or turmoil in order to avoid boredom.
A woman once said, “I like to fight because I like to make up. It makes me feel alive to get into a near-violent argument, to throw things at someone I’m quarreling with, and then to enjoy some makeup sex. Your thought?”
F.: “There is no thought here. There is only an on-going series of uninterrupted awarenesses.”
She: “And what are you aware of about me?”
F.: “I am aware that you are being driven to behave in a way which usually only happens in the presence of bats**t craziness and which indicates the need for a strict regimen of professional, psychological care, probably long-term.”
She: “I would like to throw something at you right now, you a**hole!”
F.: “Indeed, I bet you would.”
[Such is also the case with most persons who are suffering from adrenal deficiency. Their adrenal glands are underfunctioning because they are not adhering to the proper food plan - there being three different plans - that would be appropriate for the specific metabolic body type they have. Most have no clue that there are three very different, metabolic body types which each need a different food plan: about 1/3 of the humans on the planet would do well on a veggies-only plan; about 1/3 need a meat / chicken / turkey / protein plan; and about 1/3 need a combination food plan.]
Of the kinds of insanity revealed by a woman – and anyone else – who is addicted to chaos and quarreling and fighting in order to “feel alive,” Maharaj said:
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru – to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.” (Or not.)
All of that, and more, is what you have got to lose.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?” Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
All of the perverted, accumulated “knowledge” which fills the mind and which perversely controls words and behaviors and which Maharaj characterized as learned ignorance and foolishness. Recall:
Maharaj: “ . . . Give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind”
and
“That knowingness which has come over me, that itself is foolishness."
What else? A propensity for chaos. Most are well aware that persons can become addicted to power and control and food and nicotine and alcohol and drugs, yet few are aware of how pervasive the addiction to chaos is.
The addiction to chaos comes about because most persons nowadays are being raised in go-do-zoom cultures, and to stop or to relax or to slow down or to take it easy are all alien to most persons in most cultures. So if persons are not going and doing and zooming, they will often become bored and will “cause something to happen,” will “stir the pot,” or will “stir up some action”; in other words, they will generate some chaos or pandemonium or turmoil in order to avoid boredom.
A woman once said, “I like to fight because I like to make up. It makes me feel alive to get into a near-violent argument, to throw things at someone I’m quarreling with, and then to enjoy some makeup sex. Your thought?”
F.: “There is no thought here. There is only an on-going series of uninterrupted awarenesses.”
She: “And what are you aware of about me?”
F.: “I am aware that you are being driven to behave in a way which usually only happens in the presence of bats**t craziness and which indicates the need for a strict regimen of professional, psychological care, probably long-term.”
She: “I would like to throw something at you right now, you a**hole!”
F.: “Indeed, I bet you would.”
[Such is also the case with most persons who are suffering from adrenal deficiency. Their adrenal glands are underfunctioning because they are not adhering to the proper food plan - there being three different plans - that would be appropriate for the specific metabolic body type they have. Most have no clue that there are three very different, metabolic body types which each need a different food plan: about 1/3 of the humans on the planet would do well on a veggies-only plan; about 1/3 need a meat / chicken / turkey / protein plan; and about 1/3 need a combination food plan.]
Of the kinds of insanity revealed by a woman – and anyone else – who is addicted to chaos and quarreling and fighting in order to “feel alive,” Maharaj said:
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru – to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.” (Or not.)
All of that, and more, is what you have got to lose.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three above-referenced perspectives, more answers will be offered for consideration regarding the invitation “to find out who You are inside your body – what You are inside your body. What have you got to lose?”
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?”
Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose in order to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
How about the bondage of being trapped in ancient, lie-based, hand-me-down beliefs? Those beliefs are rooted in myths, superstitions, and the fears which lead to prejudice and to a sense of being “apart from” rather than “a part of” the singular wholeness, the unicity, the Oneness, the unity beyond the mistakenly-perceived multiplicity.
How about the burden of constantly being fooled? [Krishna said that those who understand that "he" is actually THAT which is beyond both the beingness and the non-beingness are wise. The rest are fools. Here, rather than assign an identity – “The Fool” or soon to be "The Super Fool" – the point is that there are those assuming false identities who are not “fools” but who have been fooled and who are abiding under the influence of the foolishness passed down to them. It is not unlike Maharaj’s approach: he never said that there are “The Ignorant Ones,” “The Stupid Ones,” and “The Insane Ones.” He noted instead that there is “ignorance, stupidity and insanity” as opposed to there being ones who are ignorant and stupid and insane.]
For example, have you known people who are so naïve that they are constantly being fooled by people they date or the people they have been married to? People who stayed in relationships in which they were being abused (often because of the ulterior motives and fears and desires of their assumed and assigned identities and because they want to cling to their “better lifestyle” at all costs and because they are convinced – by another or by oneself – that the beatings won’t happen again)? They have been fooled, and their ego-states are joining into that “confederacy” and are also fooling them.
To Realize is to lose such foolishness, to be freed from being driven by one’s “broken picker,” to cast aside all distortions and distorted thinking and distorted beliefs, and then to see clearly.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
How about mental illness, which is at the core of the Ultimate Sickness and which is rooted in personality? For ages, the non-dual sages have begged, pleaded with, advised or invited seekers to be rid of personality and its debilitating effects.
Personality is formed during a child’s early years as a way to try to counteract the dysfunctionalism of one’s family of origin, and the proof that all families are dysfunctional is that all persons develop personalities.
From personalities, personality disorders develop, and from untreated personality disorders, neuroses and psychoses develop. And nothing generates more personas than religion and spirituality, so nothing generates more distortion and neuroses and psychoses than religion.
Religion inspires persons to videotape themselves cutting off another human’s head. Religion inspires soldiers from the U.S. to use rifles with Bible verses engraved on them to kill non-Christians.
Religion inspires the members of one group to shot missiles at their neighbors and inspires their neighbors to shoot back more missiles.
Religion inspires members of one sect to force members of another sect to lie down on their stomachs so that those who believe they are members of "the right sect" can riddle the bodies of those in “the wrong sect” with thousands of bullets.
Religion inspires couples to allow men with no children to tell couples how many children they should have, and the more the better: 3 or 6 or 9 or 12? More and more and more are better in order to build up those church rolls by blindly breeding like rabbits, even as scientists warn that it is over-population - not global-warming, not war, not meteorites, not anything else - that will present the greatest threat and challenges to all humanity in the coming decades.
It is their religious personas which inspire people to talk the grandest nonsense imaginable. This exchange was heard recently in a grocery store, a conversation between a mother and her young daughter (maybe 8 to 10 years of age):
Child: “Momma, I don’t like going to the hospital and seeing Grandmother so sick. Is she going to die?”
Mother: “No, God is going to let Grandmother live for a very long time because she helps so many people.”
“Ignorance. Stupidity. Insanity.” Learned and taught and learned and taught, ad infinitum, passed down from one fooled generation after another; passed down by persons who have been subjected to the most outrageous levels of “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” and who now are subjecting their offspring to that same foolishness and “ignorance and stupidity and insanity.”
Other personas inspire persons to buy a house with a monthly note that is double what they can afford. Personas inspire others to buy houses they can afford that have double and triple the space that any family could ever require.
So, what do you have to lose? Ignorance. Insanity. Serious mental illness. Personality disorders. Neuroses. Psychoses. Misery. Suffering. Delusions of contentment that are not real. Being fooled. Being fooled by “others.” Being fooled by self / selves. Unadulterated, undiluted, complete and total foolishness. Abject, hopeless, utter foolishness, and foolishness-generated obstacles that burden the relative existence of all non-Realized persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind”
and
“That knowingness which has come over me, that itself is foolishness."
All of that, and more, is what you have got to lose. Yet so few will ever be willing to be free of it all. So it is.
Alas, most will never understand that there are no "degrees of freedom." One is totally free . . . or one is not free at all.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
II.
"THE VISION"
III.
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.
* * * * * * *
ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS
are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
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"
and / or
A free copy of eBook entitled
"SAPOLSKY, MAHARAJ AND THE NON-DUAL TEACHINGS"
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 the request (or their addresses) to the following gmail name:
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 choose.)
WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
This question was posed: Indeed, “what have you got to lose?”
Then, this observation was presented: There is much that one has got to lose if one is to be restored to sanity and enjoy a stable existence that can only come if wisdom manifests.
So, what else does one have to lose in order to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
How about the bondage of being trapped in ancient, lie-based, hand-me-down beliefs? Those beliefs are rooted in myths, superstitions, and the fears which lead to prejudice and to a sense of being “apart from” rather than “a part of” the singular wholeness, the unicity, the Oneness, the unity beyond the mistakenly-perceived multiplicity.
How about the burden of constantly being fooled? [Krishna said that those who understand that "he" is actually THAT which is beyond both the beingness and the non-beingness are wise. The rest are fools. Here, rather than assign an identity – “The Fool” or soon to be "The Super Fool" – the point is that there are those assuming false identities who are not “fools” but who have been fooled and who are abiding under the influence of the foolishness passed down to them. It is not unlike Maharaj’s approach: he never said that there are “The Ignorant Ones,” “The Stupid Ones,” and “The Insane Ones.” He noted instead that there is “ignorance, stupidity and insanity” as opposed to there being ones who are ignorant and stupid and insane.]
For example, have you known people who are so naïve that they are constantly being fooled by people they date or the people they have been married to? People who stayed in relationships in which they were being abused (often because of the ulterior motives and fears and desires of their assumed and assigned identities and because they want to cling to their “better lifestyle” at all costs and because they are convinced – by another or by oneself – that the beatings won’t happen again)? They have been fooled, and their ego-states are joining into that “confederacy” and are also fooling them.
To Realize is to lose such foolishness, to be freed from being driven by one’s “broken picker,” to cast aside all distortions and distorted thinking and distorted beliefs, and then to see clearly.
So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?
How about mental illness, which is at the core of the Ultimate Sickness and which is rooted in personality? For ages, the non-dual sages have begged, pleaded with, advised or invited seekers to be rid of personality and its debilitating effects.
Personality is formed during a child’s early years as a way to try to counteract the dysfunctionalism of one’s family of origin, and the proof that all families are dysfunctional is that all persons develop personalities.
From personalities, personality disorders develop, and from untreated personality disorders, neuroses and psychoses develop. And nothing generates more personas than religion and spirituality, so nothing generates more distortion and neuroses and psychoses than religion.
Religion inspires persons to videotape themselves cutting off another human’s head. Religion inspires soldiers from the U.S. to use rifles with Bible verses engraved on them to kill non-Christians.
Religion inspires the members of one group to shot missiles at their neighbors and inspires their neighbors to shoot back more missiles.
Religion inspires members of one sect to force members of another sect to lie down on their stomachs so that those who believe they are members of "the right sect" can riddle the bodies of those in “the wrong sect” with thousands of bullets.
Religion inspires couples to allow men with no children to tell couples how many children they should have, and the more the better: 3 or 6 or 9 or 12? More and more and more are better in order to build up those church rolls by blindly breeding like rabbits, even as scientists warn that it is over-population - not global-warming, not war, not meteorites, not anything else - that will present the greatest threat and challenges to all humanity in the coming decades.
It is their religious personas which inspire people to talk the grandest nonsense imaginable. This exchange was heard recently in a grocery store, a conversation between a mother and her young daughter (maybe 8 to 10 years of age):
Child: “Momma, I don’t like going to the hospital and seeing Grandmother so sick. Is she going to die?”
Mother: “No, God is going to let Grandmother live for a very long time because she helps so many people.”
“Ignorance. Stupidity. Insanity.” Learned and taught and learned and taught, ad infinitum, passed down from one fooled generation after another; passed down by persons who have been subjected to the most outrageous levels of “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” and who now are subjecting their offspring to that same foolishness and “ignorance and stupidity and insanity.”
Other personas inspire persons to buy a house with a monthly note that is double what they can afford. Personas inspire others to buy houses they can afford that have double and triple the space that any family could ever require.
So, what do you have to lose? Ignorance. Insanity. Serious mental illness. Personality disorders. Neuroses. Psychoses. Misery. Suffering. Delusions of contentment that are not real. Being fooled. Being fooled by “others.” Being fooled by self / selves. Unadulterated, undiluted, complete and total foolishness. Abject, hopeless, utter foolishness, and foolishness-generated obstacles that burden the relative existence of all non-Realized persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind”
and
“That knowingness which has come over me, that itself is foolishness."
All of that, and more, is what you have got to lose. Yet so few will ever be willing to be free of it all. So it is.
Alas, most will never understand that there are no "degrees of freedom." One is totally free . . . or one is not free at all.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[You can access previous posts in this series by using the "older posts" option] at the bottom of this page]
The following three eBooks are available without charge, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr. You can scroll down through the book section below to find information for requesting free copies for you or for friends:
I.
The following three eBooks are available without charge, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr. You can scroll down through the book section below to find information for requesting free copies for you or for friends:
I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.
Maharaj said of each that visited his Bombay loft, “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.” He also said that the problems of humankind are problems associated with the Ultimate Sickness and that three of the key traits of the Ultimate Sickness are "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
To that end, either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.
II.
"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.
“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.
III.
While in South Africa in 2011, I was introduced to A Primate’s Memoir (2002) by Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky. Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.
A Primate’s Memoir (which documents Sapolsky’s years in Africa while studying baboons), was recommended because there is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe. The book also portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy. (And the reduction or elimination of stress among humans is one of the aims of the non-dual understanding.)
Now Sapolsky’s recent findings are offered in a documentary film entitled “Stress: Portrait of a Killer.” [The 56-minute film is available on YouTube in many countries.]
This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part One
A Primate’s Memoir (which documents Sapolsky’s years in Africa while studying baboons), was recommended because there is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe. The book also portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy. (And the reduction or elimination of stress among humans is one of the aims of the non-dual understanding.)
Now Sapolsky’s recent findings are offered in a documentary film entitled “Stress: Portrait of a Killer.” [The 56-minute film is available on YouTube in many countries.]
This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.
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 www.floydhenderson.com
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or on a Kindle reader. For Apple and Android, either download the eBook directly onto your device or email the eBook file to your mobile device and open the file from your email. For Kindles or other similar devices, use your USB cable to transfer the eBook to your reader.
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
are available at www.floydhenderson.com
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or on a Kindle reader. For Apple and Android, either download the eBook directly onto your device or email the eBook file to your mobile device and open the file from your email. For Kindles or other similar devices, use your USB cable to transfer the eBook to your reader.
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
I. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
IV. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
V. BY ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.)
Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
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"
and / or
A free copy of eBook entitled
"SAPOLSKY, MAHARAJ AND THE NON-DUAL TEACHINGS"
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 the request (or their addresses) to the following gmail name:
nondualfloyd
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 choose.)
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)
