Advaita Vedanta: WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE? Reality vs. reality, or Reality and reality, or Reality / reality?

A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU

F.: [Continued from yesterday] So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?

An inability to see clearly, to focus, to witness objectively, and to see true colors (such as “red flags”). What is lost is misperceiving; what comes is a clear perception of all.

Maharaj, from yesterday: “Purify your vision” and “Clear your vision.”

He advised: “Learn to see instead of staring”

and

“see the dream as dream.”

And then he asked, rhetorically, “What can I do beyond showing you the way to improve your vision?”

He said: “Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror.”

Next, he suggested: “Go beyond the personal and see”

and

if you Realized, then “you see everything much clearer.”

He said: “I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to Your Self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with Your Self. Bring Your Self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself, by inadvertence.”

And finally, “Neither your facts nor ideas are mine. What I see is beyond. Cross over to my side and see with me.”

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

30 September 2014

A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU

That’s not true. An ostrich often appears to have its head buried in the sand when it tends to its eggs that are buried in the sand. Sticking its head into the nest and turning the eggs to give them a more-even distribution of heat results in the appearance of the bird’s head being buried in the sand.

No, that silly act is the habit of

(1) individual humans

and

(2) human couples

And above all else, what inspires humans - all programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated from very early on – to bury their heads in the sand (that is, to refuse to see)?

Truth. Since the age of 5 or 6, that has been observed to be the case, and it has been noted here on occasion that “the truth can set you free, but it will piss you off first!” Why? Two reasons:

1. Because one key effect of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination is that the word of one having assumed the role of “The Authority” or the word of those playing the role of “The Authorities” is taken by the masses to be true - unquestioningly - based in blind faith alone; and

2. because seeing the truth would require escapists and avoiders to face reality; to stop putting a spin on reality; to see one’s truth rather than dissociating from it; to have to take the action that the truth is showing should be taken; to abandon some of their favorite roles; to stop whitewashing the darkness that surrounds them; and to admit that they have been blind and color blind.

And nothing drives all of that like the nine basic personality types which visitors to this site are familiar with:

Some will remember the response from the Type Eight and Type One man whose counselor was trying to help him see the effects that his sexual conduct was having on his marriage: “I did not have sexual affairs with those four women at work. They only gave me oral sex, dammit!”

Type One Perfectionists are forever spinning the truth about the liabilities that accompany that personality type, as are Type Threes who usually see themselves as being perfect.

The following was said to a marriage counselor who asked a Type Three to "give me a ball park estimate – using percentages – of how much of the trouble in your marriage you've caused over the years and how much of the trouble was caused by your husband."

The reply: “95 / 5.”

Counselor: “Please explain.”

She: “He has caused 95% of all of the troubles we’ve ever had.”

Counselor: “You don’t really believe that.”

She: “Yes I do.”

Counselor: “No, you’re just being nice, some might say, falsely modest. You really believe that he is 100% to blame for everything that has gone wrong in your relationship.”

She, with her primary Personality Type Three and her huge Type One Perfectionist which both joined forces with her vicious Type Eight, said: “You want the truth? That’s right! He’s caused every problem we’ve ever had!”

The narcissism of Types Twos and Threes results in being blind to the liabilities that their personalities bring.

Non-Realized Fours are escapists, as are Type Sevens (who are most likely to develop addictions).

Type Fives are the Kings and Queens of avoidance, as are their cohorts, Type Nines.

Type Sixes avoid if the confronting of issues might jeopardize the deal they have going with the people and institutions which they have formed dependent and co-dependent relationships with, trying to keep their caregivers attached at all costs.

Eights, being fighters and bossy and confrontational – and even sociopathic at times – are the only ones who don’t hide from the truth that they can be mean and cruel and sadistic. They just don’t care.

Most persons, therefore, have no willingness at all to see truth. Some time back, there was the sharing here of the story of a woman whose husband was hitting her, but she minimized that activity by saying, to paraphrase: “He says that those are love taps and that husbands who never get upset don’t care about their wives. He said if he wasn't emotionally invested in me, he couldn’t get as upset as he does.” Blind.

A husband recently admitted that his wife’s diagnosis (that she is a full-blown narcissist who is also bipolar, borderline, and sociopathic) was spot on; admitted that she really is damaging the psychic and physical health of their children; and admitted that he was going to have to leave her and the insanity-filled environment of their home and marriage.

He broached the topic of leaving with the children, and it was then that she revealed she had spoken to a lawyer and he had told her that “she would win custody of the children, that she would get a huge percentage of the money he earned, that all of their property would be sold and the funds divided, and that she could ruin him financially for life”).

He screamed, “I’d like to throw you off the balcony!”

He said, "And she just smiled . . . one those Gotcha, sucker! kind of smiles."

Had all of the signs of her mental illness been there from early on? Yes. Did friends and family warn him? Yes. Did he marry her and breed with her anyway? Yes. Why? Not only because he was blinded by the hidden agendas of his personality and by the early abandonment by a parent but also because he could not see true colors. Huh?

The red flags were there from the beginning, obvious to any and all, except him. His personas and would-be personas drove him full speed ahead.

Two days after wanting to throw her off a balcony, he told his mother that he was staying with his wife, that after really thinking about it, “I see that at her core she really is a good woman.”

Maharaj: See "your world" as it is, "not as you imagine it to be" and what is “true in essence” is not true “in appearance.”

“Be free of desires and fears [which are all rooted in personality] and at once your vision will clear and you shall see all things as they are.”

Maharaj also said: "Look at the net [at your “personal” world] and its many contradictions. You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war. You want longevity and overeat, you want friendship and exploit. See your net as made of such contradictions and remove them"; then, "your very seeing will make them go."

One-hundred-and-sixty-five years ago, Thoreau suggested that most people “lead lives of quiet desperation.” Today, the desperation is still there among the masses, but it is no longer quiet. It is very loud indeed.

Have you ever stubbed a toe as you walked into a door or the bed frame or some other piece of furniture while trying to move through your house or apartment / flat at night in the dark? Did you shout out very loudly? That’s what always happens when moving about in the dark. Pain and misery and suffering come, and people end up shouting at the top of their lungs.

Maharaj:

“Purify your vision.”

“Clear your vision.”

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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?

1. A relative existence that was complex is lost and a very simple existence manifests; and

2. a relative existence that was unnatural or (supposedly) supernatural is lost and a natural existence manifests; and

3. the inability to choose is lost as the ability to choose manifests.

(1) A RELATIVE EXISTENCE THAT WAS COMPLEX IS LOST AND A VERY SIMPLE EXISTENCE MANIFESTS

Maharaj said of this understanding, “It is all so simple.”

And it is. What has made seeking into such a long and arduous process nowadays? Find the answer to that and you will abandon all other venues and accept what can manifest by understanding this simple process which was laid out for seekers in a Bombay loft (at least in Maharaj’s later talks) and which are laid out here for you.

Received from a site visitor after he read the post from yesterday: “Beautiful blog post today! Just reading it I feel I can breathe easier and freer. I have nothing to get but much to lose (although it is much less to lose than I once had, thanks to you! Walter”)

Why might he be breathing freer and easier? Because it is when this simple understanding comes that all of the BS and nonsense and unnatural and supernatural going and doing and zooming come to an end.

Because when this simple understanding finally comes, persons stop making a second job out of what could be a simple manner of living which became complicated by religious doingness, religious fighting, and all of those spiritual exercises that “Spiritual Experts” require their protégés to engage in regularly.

And because, therefore, spiritual workaholism finally comes to an end as the third of seven steps is finally transcended. Then what Maharaj said would happen really happens:

One can then follow his advice to “live a simple . . . life.”

Some visitors to the site might recall that the one who was called "Floyd's father" at the end of the day in the cotton fields of east Texas was barely able to pull along the weight of the two burlap bags containing the cotton that he has accumulated each day by the time that the scorching sun had set.

Similarly, most persons move through the relative existence convinced that what they have accumulated - knowledge, financial wealth, beautiful people, fame, religious concepts, spiritual concepts, etc. - is all very “enriching.” In fact, it's all as burdensome as Dad’s overloaded burlap bags that were being dragged along by him. How could one possibly “breathe easier and freer” with the burden of such accumulations? One cannot.

Scientist Szent-Gyorgyi noted that “what drives life is a little electric current set up by the sunshine.”

See? It really is so simple. It is humans - with their concepts and beliefs - that complicate the existence.

In the 300's A.D., religious leaders met to consider the content in what they called "The Holy Bible." At their councils, they determined that 1,000 chapters that spoke of the humanity of the one called "Jesus Christ" had to be removed from all copies and had to be burned in order to have only versions that supported the conceptualized "divinity" of the man.

One other complicating change they made had an impact that continues to this day: in the still-continuing debate about why an all-powerful God could not stamp out evil and why "bad things happen to good people," they determined that they would introduce the concept of a second god, a god of evil.

They modeled him after the ancient evil gods of Greece and Rome, so he too had a pitchfork and a tail and horns. They took the Hebrew word for "the enemy," namely "satan" (often also used originally to refer to "egotism") and they took the pagan name for a god of insects ("beelzebub") and they capitalized those and invented the idea of a second god.

That second god they claimed was a god of evil named "Satan" or "Beelzebub," and they explained that the bad, rebellious god was the reason that evil existed in spite of there being a supposedly all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful god. They reported that there is a battle going on across the heavens as the two fight "for the hearts and souls and minds" of humankind.

Then, one priest pointed out a line in their "holy" text that they concluded had to be removed from a book that millions believe is infallible because it was "written by God," but that line they expunged because it contradicted the newly-dreamed-up fiction about a "god of evil, a Satan" who is responsible for all evil in the world. Obviously, that particular line was "the exception," one that was sneaked into the scriptures without having been inspired by God, so they concluded.

That original line said: "You have been given a simple life. Man's complex problems are of his own making."

Not the makings of a god of evil? No. Not the makings of "Satan"? No. So of course that line had to be removed. It pointed to the truth rather than supporting their newest, dreamed-up lie that would eventually be spread around the entire globe.

A friend in the early 1970’s began his career as a Christian minister. He became disillusioned with the actual effects of religion that he saw, so he left that job and began offering marriage / couples counseling.

He said he could no longer provide a total of the huge numbers of couples who came to him and who were involved in relationships in which two persons were angry and resentful and intent on punishing each other and so hell-bent on making their partner miserable.

He said that if he reached a point where it became clear that their relationship was beyond repair, he would often be honest enough to say, “This will be our last session. I’ll not try to be your ‘guide’ any longer through this very complex maze that your relationship has become. I am going to offer you one consideration to take with you and suggest you let this be your guide henceforth. The consideration for each of you is this: ‘Am I better off or worse off with this other person'?"

Then he would say, "Of course, if you have any hidden agendas about ‘a better lifestyle’ or concerns about ‘your public image’ or concerns about ‘whether your parents will approve or disapprove of you’ or issues about ‘what some god will or will not think or will or will not approve of,’ then you will not find the true answer to that question at all’.”

He said just before he retired that that he had seen far too much misery in his thirty years of working with couples, misery which came about in many cases because they were in three-way relationships (with “God” being the third party).

It was in the early ‘70’s that he said something that will be paraphrased, but it was something very close to this: “Some come to me because one person has suddenly become ‘spiritual’ and the partner no longer meets 'the new, required standard.' Others come because their religious training has handicapped them with a near-countless number of hang-ups about masturbation; sex; sex for fun rather than procreation; about staying in unhealthy or dangerous relationships because they actually believe that God would cast them into the fires of hell if they divorced, etc., etc., etc. I have tried to offer all of those types a way out that is based in logic and in what is reasonable rather than on something based in their parents’ or their grandparents’ magical thinking.”

So should marriage be avoided? That happens with some among the Realized and does not happen with others, but if a marriage continues, it will not continue as it has before if two persons suddenly Realize. Maharaj explained it this way:

[“There will be marriage, there will be children, there will be earning money to maintain a family; all this will happen in the natural course of events; [but] you will go through it without resistance, facing tasks as they come, attentive and thorough, both in small things and big. But the general attitude will be of affectionate detachment, enormous goodwill, without expectation of return, constant giving without asking. In marriage you are neither the husband nor the wife; you are the Love between the two. You are the clarity and kindness that makes everything orderly and happy.”]

So the counselor’s own experience showed that religious concepts and spiritual concepts complicate relationships and make lives more complex, but what can you see on your own as well?

Consider events happening all around the globe right now and, if you witness honestly and objectively, could you possibly conclude that persons’ who are “in a close relationship with God” are living lives that are (A) simpler rather than lives that are (B) as complex and complicated as they can possibly be?

Here, when stuck at the third of seven steps on the “path” to Full Realization (that is, to fully realizing how nonsensical beliefs had been driving thoughts and words and actions and then finally being free of their influence), life became very simple and far less complex when the third step was finally transcended and “The Super Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” roles were discarded and abidance began happening naturally in the absence of all of that third-step magical thinking and role-playing.

(2) A RELATIVE EXISTENCE THAT WAS UNNATURAL OR (SUPPOSEDLY) SUPERNATURAL IS LOST AND A NATURAL EXISTENCE MANIFESTS

It is at the third of seven steps to Realization where religious and spiritual role-playing happens. What did Maharaj say about that?

“Even 'faith in God' is only a stage on the way. Ultimately, you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.”

At that point, if one moves beyond the third step “good roles,” religious doingness and religious fighting and religious killing and spiritual exercises and spiritual workaholism come to an end. A simple life begins, and you “breathe easier and freer.” You relax and take it easy, no matter what is going on, or not.

(3) THE INABILITY TO CHOOSE IS LOST AND THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE MANIFESTS

Choice is a conscious act, but as it occurs among the Realized, it happens naturally and spontaneously and instinctively, not mentally or emotionally. Choice among the Realized exhibits evidence of brain-inspired logic and reason without any influence from a mind-driven thought.

Thought is the stuff of a mind, and the Realized are mindless. Among the non-Realized masses, thought is also the stuff of personality, as are words and deeds, all the result of being driven by the unconscious, hidden agendas of a personality rather than by awareness.

Freedom only comes in one variety: “Freedom without personality.” There is no such thing as "freedom with personality." How could a person possibly be “free” if that person is a captive of – is being driven unconsciously by - the hidden agendas of multiple personalities? A person cannot.

An example used to assist seekers in understanding that pointer involves riding in a car. If you are in a car and are being driven, there are three places in the vehicle where you can be and one place in the vehicle where you cannot be.

This was shared earlier:

Remember the movie “Driving Miss Daisy”? Where was Miss Daisy in the car, always? And where was Morgan Freeman in the car, always?

If one is being driven, the three places in the car where that person can be are in the passenger seat, in the back seat, or locked away in the trunk / the boot. The one place where a person who is being driven cannot be is . . . behind the steering wheel. You're being driven, not driving, when abiding under the influence of personality.

So, if driven, you cannot be in the driver’s seat. You cannot be the one deciding where you go, when you go, or how you go. You cannot keep the car on the road rather than it being run into the ditch if the driver decides that’s where the car needs to go.

(And if you look at any life that's been a total wreck, you can now understand why that was the case. They weren't driving. They were being driven.)

Assume all the power and all the ability to make decisions that you want, but if a personality is driving you, then you have no choice and you have no ability to decide anything consciously. Unconscious desires and fears and motives will be driving your every thought and word and action. And for one to think she or he is in the driver’s seat when he or she is actually being driven is a result of either ignorance or insanity.

If the non-dual understanding leads to Realization, then that will put You in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be driven by the subconscious motives and aims and agendas and fears and desires of false identifications.

If no longer driven, there will be no one who thinks he or she is living supernaturally (a.k.a., "other-worldly," “spiritually,” “religiously,” or “magically”); there will be no one abiding unnaturally (wearing special clothes, chanting, humming, or mucking up one’s environment with noisy bells and noisy leaders and noisy speakers and noisy, incessant talkers);

Instead, the relative existence will unfold naturally and spontaneously. The non-dualist Thoreau said of the twenty-five months that he spent in retreat at Walden Pond, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Look up “deliberately” in a dictionary and you will see that it means “consciously.” Understand everything that comes forth from the motives of personality and you will understand all that is "non-essential" and differentiate that from the basic "essential facts of life." There will no longer be any belief in the phony, dreamed up "needs" of false personas.

And if all beliefs go, then what will be lost is the following and what will be found is the following:

A relative existence that was complex is lost and a very simple existence will manifest; a relative existence that was unnatural or (supposedly) supernatural will be lost and a natural existence will manifest; and the inability to choose will be lost as the ability to choose manifests.

You’ll live a simple life, and living simply, you’ll “breathe freer and easier.”

Of course, those who generate chaos to try to escape boredom and those addicted to control and power and those who prefer complexities and complications and those who are driven by hang-ups and fixations and neuroses and psychoses and phobias and obsessions of the mind will continue to abide unnaturally or will continue to try to abide supernaturally. So it is.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

25 September 2014

A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU

F.: So, what else does one have to lose to Realize, and what else will one lose if Realized?

Many that Realize lose the multiple mental illnesses which persons often suffer in combination and which involve the instability associated with duality and dualistic thinking and dualistic perceptions.

And how is that lost? Let Maharaj’s own experience, after working with tens of thousands of seekers, answer the question. That is, see what the pure and unblocked consciousness shared when it spoke through that composite unity:

1. First, he tried organized religion, specifically, Hinduism.

2. Next, he tried a blend of organized religion and adulterated non-duality and threw in a large dose of spirituality.

3. Third, he tried a mix of one part adulterated non-duality, one part adulterated nisarga yoga, and a huge, heaping dose of spirituality.

4. Eventually, he cleaned out the loft, tossing out his stock of religious concepts, tossing out the large stock of spiritual concepts which he had accumulated, and then he finally starting serving up a combination of unadulterated non-duality and nisarga yoga.

Why? Because by that point, it had become clear that the Ultimate Sickness was not caused by persons being exposed to too-little religion and too-little dogma and by not learning enough religious concepts and beliefs;

that it was not caused by persons learning too little about spirituality and by not learning enough spiritual concepts and beliefs and by not engaging in enough spiritual exercises; and

that it was caused by the accumulation of non-religious and non-spiritual as well as religious and spiritual concepts and conceptions and ideas and notions and perceptions and perspectives and thoughts and designs and schemes and impressions and opinions and views and theories and intents and purposes (all of which form one body of “beliefs”) which are stored in the mind. From there, it became clear that, in order to be free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness, one did not have to add more but had to flush out all.

After trying to cure the Ultimate Sickness with religious concepts, he finally honored what he came to understand via his own experience:

“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”

So he saw, from his own experience that trying to treat the Ultimate Sickness by adding more religious concepts did not work.

He saw, also from his own experience, that trying to treat the Ultimate Sickness by adding more spiritual concepts did not work:

“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”

And he finally saw that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental sickness and that the only way to treat a mental illness is to subtract, not add; to delete all, not copy and paste in more; to be rid of all beliefs and to reach a state of zero concepts.

He saw that the understanding regarded “de-accumulation” was never more relevant than when it was applied to the entire collection of non-religious and non-spiritual as well as religious and spiritual concepts that had been collected in the mind after extensive exposure to programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination.

He saw that the resultant collection of conceptions and ideas and notions and perceptions and perspectives and thoughts and designs and schemes and impressions and opinions and views and theories and intents and purposes (all of which form one body of “beliefs”) were the cause of the Ultimate Sickness and that the Ultimate Medicine was not really an Ultimate, Magical Medicine that one could be given in order to solve humanity’s key problems.

He saw that what was really being called for was the Ultimate Treatment which involves not giving but taking away. When a cancerous tumor is found on an ovary, the treatment does not involve adding even more cancer to the ovary but removing all of the cancer which is already present. Among humans, the most debilitating cancer of all is the cancer of concepts, the cancer of beliefs, which – post programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination - have been piled up in a mind like a stinking pile of compost.

Thus, Maharaj said that he would not give anything to those who visited the loft but would, instead, take everything away.

How? By using the method that Hansel and Gretel had intended to use: as they walked deeper and deeper into a dark forest, they dropped breadcrumbs to mark the path by which they were going into the darkness in order to be able to go back the same way they came, except in reverse order.

Maharaj: “Follow the same path by which you came.”

So he offered the same Hansel-and-Gretel-type plan for Realizing, that is, for being free of all of the accumulated ignorance and insanity that is given to everyone. The reason that workers in emergency rooms attached to hospitals are trained to “pump out stomachs” instead of being trained to “pump more stuff into the stomachs of everyone who comes in” is because they know that when toxins have been put inside, they must be removed. Never does the treatment involve pumping in more toxins. Yet that is exactly what happens when more false and faulty concepts are used to try to treat false and faulty concepts.

For those suffering from the Ultimate Sickness, the cause is what had been put into them. They do not need even more pumped into them (which is the method used by religions, spiritual groups, step groups, ideologies, systems of philosophies, etc.)

They need everything removed. So what is the one-line overview of the Treatment plan laid out by Maharaj?

Maharaj: “…You should go back, reverse, to the source” (just as Hansel and Gretel had planned to do in order for them to get out of the darkness).

The experiences of Maharaj while seeking and while later trying to “teach” (and the experiences here while seeking and while later trying to “teach”) led in both cases to the same understandings:

No one needs to be taught more; all have already been taught too much.

Adding more concepts to a Sickness caused by concepts does not constitute an effective treatment but only shows the level of insanity that is driving those who believe it is.

No one needs more; all need less.

The Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do will knowing too-little dogma and too-few religious concepts.

The Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do will knowing too-few spiritual concepts and doing too-few spiritual exercise.

The Ultimate Sickness calls not as much for an Ultimate Medicine as an Ultimate Treatment.

The Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness.

Minds have been pumped full of religious and spiritual and philosophical and ideological ca-ca, and no plumber would try to address the problems that you are experiencing from a clogged, stopped up, over-flowing toilet by adding more ca-ca. All of the ca-ca must be removed completely to be rid of all the ca-ca that is marring one’s current existence. [Apologies in advance to the more “sensitive” visitors.]

It is not that which is “missing from one’s soul” that causes the Ultimate Sickness. It is what has been added to the storage / retrieval part of the brain and which formed a mind that is the problem.

From Maharaj’s experience and from the experience here, it is now clear that the non-dual message is not about adding what is missing but is instead about removing what has been added.

That is why, since 2005, it has been made clear here that “what is offered here does not involve teaching but involves un-teaching” and that “the object here is not for any seeker to learn more but for each seeker to un-learn all.”

Just as “The Bad One” and “The Immoral One” and “The Non-Believer” and “The Sinner” are all dreamed-up roles, so too are “The Super Religious One,” “The Spiritual Giant,” “The Believer,” and “The Virtuous One” all dreamed-up roles. The former are considered (dualistically) in most cultures to have a “negative” connotation. The latter are considered (dualistically) in most cultures to have a “positive” connotation.

All of those are seen by the Realized to be nothing more than phony roles, false personalities, assumed personas.

Maharaj: “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”

Reach that understanding and you will be well along to way to being free of the darkness and free of the ignorance-and-insanity-filled mind and, thus, free of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness that generate all of the personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses and chaos which presently mark and mar the relative existence of persons all around the globe.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

24 September 2014

A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU

Note the duality at play as alluded to in the title? The moods swings of a person with BPD result in such as absence of consistency and predictability that those around such persons never know what to expect . . . except the unexpected. The mood swings and instability result in constantly shifting perceptions, saying at one moment “I love you” but at the next moment “I hate you” and saying at one moment “Get out!” but in the next instant, “No! Don’t leave.”

Having been in a “relationship” with a BPD sufferer, a friend who saw the swings asked what it was like to be around that constantly unstable type of behavior and the constantly swinging moods that he had also witnessed in her.

The reply: “It’s like constantly being engaged in a ménage a trois but without any of the fun: I’m there and two others are there, but they only show up one at a time and I never know which one is going to be present. But if it’s the one I don’t care to be around, I can just wait a short while and the other one will show up soon enough. [Then] You know how I speak of persons assuming different roles?”

He: “Yes.”

F.: “Well, that’s the way it is. When I walk into the house in the evening, I never know if ‘Mrs. Hug’ or ‘Mrs. Slug’ will be greeting me. Either of those roles can be played at any given time, but both will definitely show up frequently at one time or another.”

How long was that tolerated? Far too long, but once Realization began to happen and sanity began to be restored, an exit would soon follow: “Goodbye. And, oh, goodbye to you, too.”

The farewell could as easily have said, “to you two.” The word advaita” means “not two.” Personality disorders often involve “two-ness,” as is the case with BPD and also with the Bi-Polar Personality Disorder that is showing up more and more frequently nowadays, especially among those suffering from the Addictive Personality Disorder.

In the top-selling book on that subject, the author – also an alcoholic – confessed that alcoholics can be mean or can be kind, depending on which is required to get what they want. See? Duality. Manic for a while; depressed for a while. Constantly fluctuating. Constantly unstable. That’s what a relative existence is like when duality is at play.

If you are familiar with personality disorders, as regular visitors to this site are, it is obvious why the sages have long encouraged seekers to be rid of personality identification. It is the prerequisite for the development of personality disorders. And if you are familiar with personality disorders, you might have seen that duality is also involved with these other disorders in addition to the Borderline Personality and Bi-Polar Disorders discussed above:

The Narcissistic Personality Disorder: often involves an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Talk about duality!

The Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder: the duality is obvious in the name of the disorder.

The Dependent Personality Disorder and the Co-Dependent Personality Disorder: “A” believes he or she must have “B.”

and

The Dissociative Personality Disorder: “A” is now being driven by “the ‘B’ he or she 'was' in the past but which ‘A’ does not realize is still driving thoughts and words and actions now.”

The list could go on and on, and the effects are near-limitless. After he was exposed to the non-dual teachings, Jesus is reported to have said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” "In all ways," meaning, in near-limitless ways.

Maharaj said: “People who depend on the intellect only always will be swinging like a pendulum.”

He came to understand that personality and duality are at the root of the Ultimate Sickness and that both are supported by the mind and its perverse and distorted content.

In the end, Maharaj’s version of the Ultimate Medicine included nothing religious and nothing spiritual. Having eventually come to understand what the Ultimate Sickness really involves, he eventually offered the science of what could have been called “the original version of transpersonal psychotherapy.”

The version today has been bastardized by those trying to integrate religious and spiritual messages with the scientific methods that address the psychological, mental components of their Sickness (many of which have been shown to be associated with dualistic beliefs and thinking). Talk about duality. Talk about trying to blend oil and water.

In his original version, Maharaj discarded those religious and spiritual elements after seeing that they were ineffective and then focused on using a “transpersonal” (or “beyond personal”) approach to free the Sick from the root source of their Illness, namely, “believing in - and then being driven and controlled by - anything thought to be ‘personal’.”

Maharaj knew that mental disorders / personality disorders (which can descend into neuroses and psychoses) generate psychological conflict (which in itself involves dualities). And he came to understood that psychological conflicts generate mental disorders. It’s a “Catch-22,” an endless cycle of shifting between conflicts that drive disorders and disorders that generate conflict.

And all of that is mental. See why he made clear that there is no such thing as peace of mind?

Maharaj said: “The mind exists in two states: as water and as honey. The water vibrates at the least disturbance, while the honey, however disturbed, returns quickly to immobility.” See? Duality. Instability. Mental disorder. Mental chaos.

He explained that it is "because of the mind [that] duality comes in . . . ."

See now why he spoke of the manifestation as being “ . . . unreal, time-bound and unstable” when a mind is at play? He also noted that “the old grooves must be erased in your brain, without forming new ones.”

He said: "You must realize yourself as the immovable, behind and beyond the movable, the silent witness of all that happens." In other words, the intent is for the understanding to shift you beyond your constantly unstable mental state and allow you to “ . . . reach an immovable state.”

What possible “good” or “benefit” could come from “entering into meditation” for fifteen minutes before leaving for the workplace if one is raging in traffic fifteen minutes later? As long as the mind remains, any so-called “experiencing of peace” will be transitory, fleeting, short-lived.

What possible “good” or “benefit” could come from “entering into samadhi” if one “leaves samadhi” because of the continuing presence and influence of a fiction-and-distortion-filled mind?

Maharaj: “I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”

Is that the case with you?

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

23 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?

You lose being trapped in the “monkey-see, monkey-do” mentality of the non-Realized masses after you come to understand how it is that the chain of ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism are perpetuated by one generation after another (just as Prince Ea mentioned in the interview shared here and just as Maharaj taught). You also see that, rather than being challenged in most cases, ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism are usually justified instead.

Here in the States, several examples are playing out in the media now via reports that are exposing how rampant domestic violence is, including spousal assault and child abuse. Now the sane might conclude that opposition to spousal assault and to child abuse would be automatic . . . a no-brainer.

Yet in a nation where the killing of the members of a minority by members of the majority is normalized, and where internet sites collect a quarter of a million dollars in donations overnight to defend shooters and beaters, the wise know that a sane, Loving response cannot be assumed or even expected. Those types of events which involve the non-Realized masses all around the globe are unfolding nowadays because it is “ignorance and stupidity and insanity,” rather than wisdom and Love, that rule.

On the rare occasions when one is exposed to words or acts that are rooted in wisdom and Love, some few become wise and Loving, recognizing the unicity completely, feeling empathy and understanding for any and all that suffer. Yet few ever hear words of wisdom and Love, and if they do, they seemingly hear them one day a week in the form of lip service while their actions for the rest of the week show a totally different belief system is at play.

When persons are abiding under the auspices of a mind that has been made into a storehouse of nonsense and ignorance and stupidity and insanity, then what can be generated by that mind’s content other than nonsensical, ignorant, stupid, and insane thoughts and words and actions – all driven by the hidden agendas of personality / personalities?

An example offered yesterday of how totally nonsensical, ignorant, stupid, insane and contradictory beliefs can be when being generated by a programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated mind included these:

A. “God loves you, unconditionally”

but

B. “He will punish you and give you pain and misery and he will hurt you severely and he will cast you into the fires of hell for eternity.”

[Or, are you among those who see “punishment” as “the universe denying you Nirvana” and as “involving rebirth and continuing cycles through various ‘levels’ and ‘forms’ of being”? Same nonsense. That which was never even born once cannot be “born again.”]

The people delivering in the same breath those two contradictory beliefs above have no clue at all that they are contradicting themselves and that they are exposing how truly corrupt the content of a mind can be.

A sane listener might say, “If that’s love, stop loving me.”

That is what “floyd” said as a child when he was being “disciplined” by a devout Christian father who adhered to the scriptures in the “holy” book he used as a guide for living, a book with a warning that it you “spare the rod, you spoil the child.” (Of course that was quoted from some of the Jewish scriptures that are included in a supposedly-Christian book, but note the way that a father's religious programming, conditioning, etc. strengthened the chain of ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism and allowed those to continue unchecked. Note the way things unfold when one's "guidebook" contains beliefs passed down from someone who lived 4,000 years ago.)

So turn to one example that is currently in the news and which can illustrate the pointer: a star player in the NFL who earns $700,000 per week and millions more in sponsors’ endorsement fees recently sent his four-year old son outside to cut a branch from a tree, strip the leaves from it, and bring that “switch” back inside so that his father could use it to beat him.

Assume not that such a practice is rare in the good ole U.S. of A. Every single male child in our neighborhood – and sometimes a few female children as well – was subjected to such beatings in that lower-economic class, Baptist, ultra-conservative, community where “floyd” was raised and was also regularly subjected to such “strict discipline” (a.k.a., brutal, blood-letting beatings) like that administered by the star referenced above . . . to more than one of his sons.

And that commonplace act of using branches and belts to punish children who have “done wrong” involves not only physical abuse but also includes mental and emotional abuse as well, what with the implied message that “You are going to bring me what I am then going to use to beat you. Think about the future pain that’s coming” (just as the case with the threat of Hell’s eternal flames or with the threat of multiple rebirths and miserable lives and painful deaths, huh?)

Now the non-dual message is that “pain is of the body” while “misery and suffering are of the mind.” The “go-fetch-your-own-switch” approach covers the entire gamut, does it not? “I’m going to subject you to misery and suffering during the entire time that you walk outside, find a tree, and select a suitable branch for me to use to ‘whip you / whup you / beat you’; and by the way, it better be a sturdy branch or I’ll send you back out until you get one that’s right and give you some extra whipping to boot. Then, I’ll have you drop your pants and expose your skin because whipping you through your jeans does not allow you to feel the full force of my anger - ahem, I mean, ‘my discipline.’ Now you go on and use that time to think about what you’ve done that was wrong and think about the pain that’s coming.”

What a plan, one not unlike that described in the verses on a “holy” book that plants the seed for that idea, namely, the concept of “the pain of burning eternally in the flames of hell” which is preceded by years of mental and emotional misery and suffering as you think about what’s coming.

And a cult-ure that is marked by persons who are functioning under the auspices of a perversely programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated mind can do nothing other than set the stage for persons to suffer from pain and misery and suffering throughout their existence unless steps are taken to address the effects of their ancestors’ and parents’ legacy: a totally perverted mind.

In the case above, the doctor’s report and the police report listed the following: “Open wounds from lacerations on the thighs. Bruises on the lower back and buttocks. Cuts on the hands and arms as the child tried to deflect the blows, that is, multiple defensive wounds. Wounds to the scrotum.”

All of that “floyd” knew all too well as a child. All of which every male relative or friend also knew all too well as a child.

But the responses after the star whipped his child so severely that the attending physician was required by law to file a police report illustrate why the chain of ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism continue.

The star (who used both a tree branch and his belt during the beating, and who had done the same to another son in the past which also led to intervention by law enforcement), threatened his son with “even more beatings if you tell anyone.”

The response from the star’s lawyer: “The allegation of another investigation into my client is simply not true. [It was.] That allegation is more than one year old and authorities took no action. An adult witness admittedly insists that my client did nothing inappropriate with his son,” and “he is a loving father who used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son. He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas.”

So there you have it: the planet’s “monkey-see, monkey–do” nonsense: Has a monkey been conditioned? Then that monkey will behaves as it was conditioned. The same applies to humans unless Realization happens to break the chain of – the cycling of - nonsense.

It’s no different with humans than with Pavlov’s dogs: once conditioned, the dogs did not saliva at the smell of food, as dogs will do, normally and naturally. They salivated at the sound of a bell, which makes no sense at all except to those that understand the perverted effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrinating. So it is with humans. Condition them and then stand back and witness the nonsense. Thus, the star’s defenders continue to speak out, justifying and defending his behavior:

A friend of the star: “He got the same kind of discipline himself, and the same kind of discipline he was given lovingly as a child made him the success he is today.”

A fellow player: “I was a fair-skinned guy, so I always went to my room with a [welt] or a scratch here and there from the switch, but looking back on it, I wouldn’t want to be raised any other way. And I have a 4-year-old girl I discipline, and I mean, I could see if the kid’s life was in danger or if a switch could cause some type of brain damage or put a life in jeopardy, but, I don’t see it as that. I know the marks and stuff will make the situation [seem to be] a little worse than it is, but I don’t see it as a big harm.”

An NBA player: “I’m from the South and whooping . . . we do it all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances.” A reply: “It doesn't matter where you're from - right is right and wrong is wrong.” The NBA player: “No, I don't believe that. We spank kids in the South.”

Another player: “I got what we call whooping” and “I’ll harshly punish my own one-year-old daughter too, if need be.”

The star’s mother, who said she used the same disciplinary methods with him: “When you whip those you love, it's not about abuse, but love. You want to make them understand that they did wrong."

As mentioned here on occasion, it is nothing other than arrogance and egotism that drive persons to normalize and defend their parents’ abnormal and indefensible behavior. The belief behind that? “What my parents did must have been right because look how well I turned out. And if what they did to me made me great, which it did, then I’ll do the same to my children to make them great.”

A comedian a few years ago, addressing the insanity of such faulty reasoning in his comedy club act, said this:

“I’ve been paying a lot of attention lately to way that people who were told as children that ‘God loves them but that He will punish them severely’ also use that same plan with their own children. Any parents here tonight? [Cheers from the audience as the parents used shouts and screams and applause to identify themselves.] The comedian continued: “Okay. So here’s a parenting tip for you: if your goal is to really screw up your kids, don’t use corporal punishment. Wounds heal in seven to ten days or so. No, to really screw ‘em up good, don’t screw up their bodies. That’s temporary; instead, screw up their minds. Now that punishment lasts forever!”

So, a news item and a comedian’s irony-packed comments might be the long route to reach the non-duality pointer, but here it is in the shorter version:

The problem with humanity – and the problem that generates the Ultimate Sickness – has nothing to do with a lack of spiritual fitness or with one being exposed to too-little religious dogma and training. (It has been shown repeatedly that those contribute to the pool of ignorance and stupidity and insanity which drive the thoughts and words and actions of the non-Realized persons on the planet. That is why Maharaj abandoned his earliest religious approach, abandoned his subsequent spiritual approach, and in the end turned solely to a psychological approach to provide the Ultimate Medicine.)

No, the Ultimate Sickness of humanity has nothing to do with spiritual or religious issues and has everything to do with the mental sickness that follows personality assignment and assumption and has everything to do with the mental illness that follows programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrinating.

Those generate the “monkey-see, monkey-do” mentality of the non-Realized masses, and their “monkey-see, monkey-do” mentality allow ignorance and insanity and abuse and dysfunctionalism to continue to dominate the lives of the masses.

Meanwhile, the star’s son might be thinking what “floyd” thought when his God-modeling father said, “I whip you like that because I love you.” The thought: “Then stop loving me so much, you crazy SOB!”

The non-Realized masses haven’t a clue about love or Love, and certainly have no clue that there is a major differentiation in the two. A woman who came to discuss non-duality had bruises on her arms and neck. When another woman in the group asked about those, she said, “Oh, my husband gives me what he calls ‘love taps’ every now and then. And he’s right. Like he says, if he didn’t care, he would never have the kind of emotions he shows with me. A lot of my friends have husbands who are numb around their wives. It’s clear they couldn’t care less. My husband obviously cares a lot.”

F.: “Indeed, it sounds like he just might love you to death.”

See? “Ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” all of which are the result of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrinating.

Here, the non-Realized are invited to know Love by way of the consciousness speaking and / or writing, not through bringing them into the home and trying to beat the nonsense out of them and trying to beat some sense into them. That would be evidence of being driven totally by ignorance, stupidity, and insanity, would it not?

For those who never have the opportunity to hear the consciousness as it speaks of the non-dual message of Love and unicity and the fact that the problems of humankind are centered in the mind, then the likelihood is that . . .

a. they will continue to behave as insanely as a dog salivating when it hears a bell rather than when it smells meat; that

b. they will continue to beat up others, and themselves; and that

c. they will continue to warp the psyche of their offspring in ways that will pass on ignorance and stupidity and insanity as well as all of the emotional disorders and personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses that mark and mar the relative existence of the non-Realized masses.

Yet any given seeker who has the capacity to understand has the opportunity to have a different experience for the remainder of the relative existence, if Realization happens and then provides freedom from the bondage of the mind.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

21 September 2014

A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU

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

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.

[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.

"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.

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 "movement" or "shift" happened here that added another parallel to the many parallels in terms of the phenomenal "experiences" and the noumenal revelations that "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" share in common. (Many visitors over the years have said that they also shared the same parallels with "Maharaj" and "Floyd" as well.) In the case of "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd":

1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";

11. both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making 12. both had wives who were unhappy when the de-accumulation stage was entered and both had wives who became unhappy about their husbands' focus on non-duality and who blamed their unhappiness on no longer having a religious husband (The facts be known, in both cases the unhappiness involved the fact that their husbands were no longer interested in - or willing - to work 80+ hours per week and that their husbands were no longer interested in accumulating wealth and possessions and providing the rich lifestyle to which their wives had grown accustomed)

13. both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce); 15. both accelerated their seeking; 16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more

19. both began sharing the teachings 20. for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.

21. Both saw that many who heard the teachings are not going to understand (Maharaj reporting that "only 1 in 100,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 22. both soon saw that even more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj modifying his "guesstimate" and reporting that "only 1 in 1,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding) 23. eventually both saw that even far more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj eventually concluding that "only 1 in 10,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding). And the failings were not the fault of seekers. A "one -in-ten-million" estimate is proof that satsang was not working for most seekers, and the evidence here lately is proof of the same.

Both "Maharaj" and "Floyd" invited seekers to focus on the exact, step-wise "path." Yes, during satsang, "Maharaj" sometimes alluded to the steps while discussing them in no particular order - but he never once laid out the steps in the exact order in which they had to be completed. That was not his teachings style or approach.

Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.

Looking objectively at the results here when using an "electronic loft" satsang method of sharing has not produced the intended outcome nearly as often as any of the three "face-to-face" methods used with seekers by which they have been led through the seven steps in order. Here, the body is growing older, of course. Mahasamadhi could be taken today, or it could be taken in twenty years.

Obviously, that cannot be known. But the decision here has been made that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the ways that have been seen over the last 20+ years to be the most effective methods.

Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required. It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces." It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two

In "Part One," examples were given of seekers that were led to Realization not by satsang but by following the various protocols outlined farther down this page which provide the understanding in the step-wise, orderly, required fashion which moves seekers along a "path" that is as prescribed by Maharaj ... "going back" in the "reverse order" by which the consciousness manifested and became blocked.

However, conversations with some that just read the majority of the books have revealed that they certainly seem to have grasped the understanding and Realized as well. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what has "not worked" as well - changes are being made. There are seven specific steps that happen when awareness-energy is "pulled" into a cycle of manifestation. When that energy manifests as conscious-energy, that formerly pure and unadulterated energy becomes "corrupted" (or "blocked" from seeing clearly) via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. Soon, there is a belief in the not-Real as a result of seven degrees of separation from an understanding of the Real. Using the method that was also employed by his contemporaries - a method which focused on offering non-duality pointers via satsang - Maharaj addressed questions in the order in which they were received. He might receive a question from a seeker at the third step and his reply would include what amounted to an invitation to move to the fourth step. The next question might come from a seeker at the first step, and the reply would include an invitation to move to the second step. The information offered to the second seeker would seemingly contradict what was offered to the first seeker, so visitors who have come here for decades have asked questions which showed how confused they were by the fact that Maharaj's statements to each visitor in his loft were "level-appropriate" yet were provided in no precise order, resulting in what seemed to be an inconsistent message. So the process overall was confusing in that seekers were told to follow the "path back" in the same way that they "came in," except in reverse order, but pointers were not given in a specific, step-wise order at all. Maharaj did recognize the seven steps that are taught here, but by offering the teachings in an order that was dictated by the order in which questions were received from seekers who were at different steps on the "path," the result was this: a pointer about moving beyond the fourth step might be followed by a pointer about moving beyond the first step, and that pointer might be followed by a pointer about how to move beyond the sixth step. The same was done on this site for seven years. The result is a collection of 1,800 or so essays discussing almost every non-duality topic that can be discussed, and the search button on the top right side of this page will now allow seekers with a question about a specific topic to find an explanation. That method, however, will never provide the manner in which the seven steps on the "path" must be transmitted and received in order to Realize Fully. An objective study of the history here of more than twenty years of offering non-duality pointers reveals this: seekers that were given pointers in the exact order in which they needed to receive them were the ones that Realized.

They read the books, then they completed the online course and / or completed seven Skype or telephone sessions or came here for a retreat (or watched the downloadable DVD version of an actual retreat, available below).

Some found that which they were seeking by reading the author's book that deal with non-duality subject matter. Via all of those venues, the steps are taught in their proper order. The essays available on this site will remain for those interested in searching for a discussion of a particular non-duality topic without charge, but the focus here until mahasamadhi is taken is going to be on offering the teachings in the step-wise fashion that has been seen to work.

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)

* * * * * * *

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:

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

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

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at

Floyd Henderson's Website

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

CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS

FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING

THE ADVANCED SEEKERS' SERIES

Anthology of four books

THE BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES

Anthology of six books

SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AND HIS EVOLUTION

THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION

For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:

TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY

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.

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:

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)

Advaita Vedanta

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Wednesday, October 01, 2014

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