A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: So what are some of the other ways that the members of three groups of persons differ in their perspectives about the cause of the problems of humanity?
Consider the varying ways that the three look at addiction and how it should be addressed:
While the masses often see how addictive thinking and addictive behavior can generate trauma, fewer understand that it is trauma which spawns addiction. With the Addictive Personality Disorder often appearing alongside of – and aggravating - the Ultimate Sickness, what are the various “answers” to the problem that are offered?
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “Pray for God to heal your addictive (fill-in-the-blank”) child / parent / spouse / boss etc.” or “Pray for God to guide you through recovery” or “All things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord” or “God will take care of you as you take the necessary steps to deal with the addict in your life,” etc.
NOTE: Here’s the historical background regarding the way that the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness spread . . . and continues to do so:
The ancient Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all set forth relatively-amazing advancements in the science of medicine, but in the Middle Ages, there was a major reversal in medical science and a major advancement of myths, superstitions, ignorance, and nonsense about illnesses and their causes and the proper methods of treatment.
The cause of that reversal?
The increased influence of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages (or “The Dark Ages” as the period was called because of the pervasive levels of ignorance that brought to halt all scientific advancement). It was during that period - from the 500's to the 1500's and especially from the 1100's to 1500's - that the (still on-going) schism and discord between science and religion began as religious persons rather than scientific scholars began dominating and determining the direction that "the medical world" would take.
Any views different from the established Roman Catholic Church view - regarding anything and everything, so including beliefs about sickness and treatment - could lead to charges of heresy and to severe punishment or death which usually followed the charge; therefore, when the Roman Catholic Church stated that illnesses were "punishments from God" and that "those who are ill have been made sick by God because they are sinners," few argued.
When the church began teaching that witches were agents of the devil and that witches and warlocks could use their powers to cause seizures or boils upon the skin and all sorts of mental and emotional and physical illnesses, then they became fair game for punishment and killing as well.
Some religious doctors began claiming that God was causing some persons to be ill by giving them excessive amounts of blood. In that case, "prayer" and "becoming righteous" were deemed to be the first line of defense and treatment, but in some cases the religious doctors agreed to assist those who were trying to “be better” and “be religious” and “be godly” by using bloodletting as a method inspired and provided by God to accelerate the treatment of diseases among people who were working to become "pleasing in the sight of God."
If only a small amount of bleeding was needed, a leech or two or three would be used. When it was believed that a larger quantity of blood needed to be released, then what was thought to be “the appropriate vein in the area of the disease” was cut.
Another phenomenon evolved simultaneously which triggered a “religious vs. spiritual” debate which is still under way today as many brag that they are "not religious" but are what they believe is far different and far greater: they claim that they are "spiritual."
As the church began to discuss illness and death and used their “carrot and stick / heaven and hell / reward and punishment” dualities to try to control the thoughts and words and actions of persons, it opened the door for some of those among the very small group of “the less gullible” to ask this:
“We see right before our very eyes that the body decays after death and that the only thing left is a pile of bones, so how can we enjoy a reward in heaven or feel any of the threatened physical pain and mental and emotional suffering in hell if our bodies do not last?”
The religious leaders had to put their minds into over-drive to come up with an answer. As always, they did:
The Religious Leaders: “Uh, yeah, well, you see, there is an, uh, a part that survives that you can’t see in a grave or coffin or tomb. That’s the part that is 'also you' but that is different from and separate from the part that decays.”
The Questioners: “Really?”
R.L.: “Uh, yeah.”
Q.: “So what is that part and exactly where inside me is it?”
R.L.: “Uh, well it can’t be seen and its location cannot be specified, but it’s there. Just take our word for that.”
Q.: "And what is 'the also me' called?"
R.L. "Its called 'your soul' or 'your spirit'."
Q.: "Hummm."
R.L.: "Tell you what. You want to doubt and question what we say? Then maybe you need to visit the tribunal at the Inquisition that is under way down the street. You think you really want to go that route?"
Q.: "No sir. A soul and spirit it is."
Even after the Dark Ages, as scientifically-based medical understandings and advancements began to come forth once again during "the Age of Enlightenment," misdiagnoses continued; and when the church’s influence was exerted, nonsense and ignorance continued:
1. "'Evil' people suffer more illness than 'good' people."
2. "People consorting with Satan cause illnesses and suffer illnesses.”
3. “There is something within every human body which is invisible and gauzy and filmy and which lasts forever and which will be sent to either heaven or hell after death but which cannot be found by way of either surgery or autopsy.”
(Nor will it be seen after medical schools open and after medical students dissect millions of human bodies and study every single millimeter of the components of a human body under a microscope.)
4. “But it is still there, nevertheless, and that should be accepted as the truth based on blind faith alone. And if that 'thing' becomes ill, then that imperceptible, indiscernible and undetectable 'thing' will spread its contagion throughout the body.”
Voila. “The soul” or “the spirit” was dreamed up, and many began to talk about the need to be “spiritual” in order to cure illness. Their claim:
"Whether an illness is a mental illness or an emotional illness or a physical illness, it all originates with a 'sick spirit' or a 'spiritual malady' or a 'dark soul' and can eventually disintegrate to the point that one can experience 'the dark night of the soul' when the soul’s condition reaches its maximum level of evilness and darkness."
The belief that there is a special kind of sickness – a malady that can strike "a soul" or "a spirit" and that can subsequently cause mental and emotional and physical illnesses - took hold.
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “Addicts have an untreated spiritual malady. If they will become spiritual, then being spiritual will, in turn, heal their bodies and minds. But the treatment is only good for twenty-four hours; then, more treatment is required. Exercising the spirit - with 'spiritual exercises' - will also help, but even being spiritual, or being 'super spiritual,' only works for one day at a time. One must do spiritual exercises daily in order to stay in conscious contact with God and to maintain one’s spiritually fitness in order to continue to be free of addictive thoughts and behaviors.”
The Spiritual Malady argument, while set forth by those who claim to be involved with something on a far higher and wiser plane than “religion,” can be seen via the historical facts above to be nothing more than a direct outcropping of religion. Its roots are based totally in religion, and all so-called “spiritual teachings” were originally religious teachings that began in pagan religions which were then assimilated into the dogma of organized religions and which are still a part of the dogma of the planet’s largest organized religions to this day.
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “There are many mental disorders, and professionals identify one of them as “the Addictive Personality Disorder.”
That disorder is as widespread as the Ultimate Sickness itself because all humans develop a primary addiction to control and a secondary addiction to power / Power, based in their desire to be able to control. All other addictions develop after those two basic ones.
Both the Addictive Personality Disorder and the Ultimate Sickness are mind and personality disorders. In severe cases, both usually require treatment by trained professionals or by those that have some mastery and understanding of what causes - and can sometimes address - psychological problems.
What the statistical findings of scientific research into the various methods being used to try to treat the Addictive Personality Disorder have shown is this: what does not work is the treatment offered by novices and by “over-night therapists” who join organizations that
(1) allow them to seek help on the first day they enter and then
(2) allow them to begin giving advice, offering treatment, offering help, and sharing their experiences the very next day to other sick people who come in seeking help.
It is now understood by trained professionals and by those with an understanding of the disorder that there is a prerequisite for the Addictive Personality Disorder to develop. The prerequisite is the experiencing of - and the continued suffering from and the lingering effects of - trauma.
Trauma? Really? Not a "dark soul"? No. Not a "spiritual malady" which can be treated by untrained, unqualified amateurs? No. A mental illness? Yes, and a mental illness that can be treated sometimes by trained professionals or, in a few cases, by someone such as Maharaj after he came to understand that those suffering from the Ultimate Sickness needed to be freed from all of the distortions and delusions and insanity that come when identified with personas which have highly influential fears and desires and which have the ability to control persons’ thoughts and words and actions, subconsciously.
Near here, in Houston, Texas in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it was seen that a group became active, a group which is still functioning today all across the U.S. and in many other countries: they called themselves “Pray-Away-the-Gay Christians.” Upon having to deal with a person who joined that group and who became obsessively active in “witnessing to gays” and who “confronted gays and told them that they are sinning” and who handed out brochures to announce the details of the next “Pray Away the Gay” service in local churches and auditoriums, this question was asked of her:
F.: “You and I are obviously heterosexual, right?”
She: “Of course.”
F.: “So let me ask you. Have you ever been hit on - you know, 'approached' - by a lesbian who was attracted to you?”
She: “Several over the years, actually.”
F.: “So suppose one of those lesbians also happened to be religious.”
She: “Impossible!”
F.: “Then let’s just pretend for a moment. Pretending should definitely be easy enough. And suppose that, in order to fulfill her desires to be in a sexual relationship with you, she began trying to 'pray away the straightness.' Do you think there is any way at all that her prayers could be answered and they would alter your natural attraction to men and could cause you to suddenly become gay instead of straight?”
She: [After a long, narrow-eyed, hateful glare / stare down effort] “You have obviously fallen under the influence of Satan and you are obviously stupid too because you missed the key point in what you just said – my attraction to men is natural. A lesbian’s attraction to me is unnatural.”
F.: "Actually, homosexual behaviors occur in every species. There are eleven penguins in a zoo in New York that regularly engage in homosexual activities but engage in no heterosexual activities at all.”
End of conversation. Another nail in the coffin of that “relationship,” its heterosexual foundation notwithstanding. Another thing “lost” via Realization. Reflecting on that “relationship,” were I of her ilk, I’d say, “Thank God.”
But the key points are these:
Persons are trying to pray away the gay, but the gay is not going away
just as
persons are still trying to pray away droughts but the droughts are not going away
and just as
persons are praying to get every other kind of selfish thing that their ego-states / personalities desire or are praying to avoid every kind of selfish thing that their ego-states / personalities want to avoid, but are having little consistent success with either.
A few years back, Governor Rick Perry of Texas tried on many occasions to pray away the drought, inspiring 15,000 to join him at one of his prayer meetings to do just that. The result: the drought continued for months after his religious prayer services. (You might say, “How ignorant!” You bet. Even the most ignorant persons on the planet know that you must accompany a pray-for-rain service with the killing of a virgin if you are going to really please an angry Rain God.)
To continue with the discussion of the trauma / addiction linkage:
In fact, many mental illnesses – not just the Addictive Personality - are rooted in trauma, and both the science of psychology and the science of therapeutic methods have advanced to the point that many professionally-trained counselors are highly competent at addressing unresolved trauma and unprocessed memories and at bringing relief which, in turn, brings to an end many of the self-destructive tendencies that persons experience during the relative existence.
Moreover, no religious lay persons and no untrained “spiritual persons” have the slightest clue about how to effectively address the Addictive Personality Disorder.
Got a water leak at your house or a stopped-up commode? Call a plumber. Got the Addictive Personality Disorder? Do not call a plumber. And do not call a carpenter, a realtor, a teacher, a salesman, a contractor, a builder, a waiter or waitress, a broker, a doctor specializing in something other than the Addictive Personality Disorder, or a doctor who will spend fifteen minutes with you and prescribe 5-14 drugs for you to use as a substitute cocktail; instead, call a trained and experienced mental healthcare professional. (Just a suggestion.)
In the eBook below entitled "Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address," it is made clear that the non-dual understanding in many cases can only be a part of that which can address the serious levels of psychic disintegration which the masses are now suffering.
Maharaj admitted that only a few would Realize (that is, be freed from ignorance and insanity) via his sharing of non-dual pointers, but after he abandoned not only the use of a religious approach but also abandoned the use of a spiritual approach in his efforts to address the Ultimate Sickness, he turned to the use of a psychological approach which can address with some sufferers the root cause of the Ultimate Sickness:
namely, the content of the mind, which is a result of nonsensical programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination as well as a result of the hidden fears and desires of assigned or / and assumed false personality identifications which are also stored in the mind.
He came to see that the main problem of humankind is centered in the mind, not in having too little religion or to little spirituality. Whether one seeks help professionally or gives non-duality pointers a try, Maharaj made clear that the solution to most of the problems of humanity all around the globe calls for a treatment of persons’ mental condition, not the condition of a dreamed up “soul” or “spirit.”
He tried the latter and it did not work. Even as he continued to offer the non-dual teachings, he admitted that only a few would be restored to their original state of pure, unblocked consciousness and only a few would recover their sanity and be freed from ignorance for the remainder of the manifestation. His attitude:
Sure. Come on up the stairs and have a seat. Move in closer together - the available space is small. Then, see if the psychology-based pointers offered here might being some relief to your mind-and-personality-controlled existence. If not, then seek elsewhere for the proper treatment for your mental illness.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
12 October 2014
Consider the varying ways that the three look at addiction and how it should be addressed:
While the masses often see how addictive thinking and addictive behavior can generate trauma, fewer understand that it is trauma which spawns addiction. With the Addictive Personality Disorder often appearing alongside of – and aggravating - the Ultimate Sickness, what are the various “answers” to the problem that are offered?
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “Pray for God to heal your addictive (fill-in-the-blank”) child / parent / spouse / boss etc.” or “Pray for God to guide you through recovery” or “All things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord” or “God will take care of you as you take the necessary steps to deal with the addict in your life,” etc.
NOTE: Here’s the historical background regarding the way that the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness spread . . . and continues to do so:
The ancient Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all set forth relatively-amazing advancements in the science of medicine, but in the Middle Ages, there was a major reversal in medical science and a major advancement of myths, superstitions, ignorance, and nonsense about illnesses and their causes and the proper methods of treatment.
The cause of that reversal?
The increased influence of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages (or “The Dark Ages” as the period was called because of the pervasive levels of ignorance that brought to halt all scientific advancement). It was during that period - from the 500's to the 1500's and especially from the 1100's to 1500's - that the (still on-going) schism and discord between science and religion began as religious persons rather than scientific scholars began dominating and determining the direction that "the medical world" would take.
Any views different from the established Roman Catholic Church view - regarding anything and everything, so including beliefs about sickness and treatment - could lead to charges of heresy and to severe punishment or death which usually followed the charge; therefore, when the Roman Catholic Church stated that illnesses were "punishments from God" and that "those who are ill have been made sick by God because they are sinners," few argued.
When the church began teaching that witches were agents of the devil and that witches and warlocks could use their powers to cause seizures or boils upon the skin and all sorts of mental and emotional and physical illnesses, then they became fair game for punishment and killing as well.
Some religious doctors began claiming that God was causing some persons to be ill by giving them excessive amounts of blood. In that case, "prayer" and "becoming righteous" were deemed to be the first line of defense and treatment, but in some cases the religious doctors agreed to assist those who were trying to “be better” and “be religious” and “be godly” by using bloodletting as a method inspired and provided by God to accelerate the treatment of diseases among people who were working to become "pleasing in the sight of God."
If only a small amount of bleeding was needed, a leech or two or three would be used. When it was believed that a larger quantity of blood needed to be released, then what was thought to be “the appropriate vein in the area of the disease” was cut.
Another phenomenon evolved simultaneously which triggered a “religious vs. spiritual” debate which is still under way today as many brag that they are "not religious" but are what they believe is far different and far greater: they claim that they are "spiritual."
As the church began to discuss illness and death and used their “carrot and stick / heaven and hell / reward and punishment” dualities to try to control the thoughts and words and actions of persons, it opened the door for some of those among the very small group of “the less gullible” to ask this:
“We see right before our very eyes that the body decays after death and that the only thing left is a pile of bones, so how can we enjoy a reward in heaven or feel any of the threatened physical pain and mental and emotional suffering in hell if our bodies do not last?”
The religious leaders had to put their minds into over-drive to come up with an answer. As always, they did:
The Religious Leaders: “Uh, yeah, well, you see, there is an, uh, a part that survives that you can’t see in a grave or coffin or tomb. That’s the part that is 'also you' but that is different from and separate from the part that decays.”
The Questioners: “Really?”
R.L.: “Uh, yeah.”
Q.: “So what is that part and exactly where inside me is it?”
R.L.: “Uh, well it can’t be seen and its location cannot be specified, but it’s there. Just take our word for that.”
Q.: "And what is 'the also me' called?"
R.L. "Its called 'your soul' or 'your spirit'."
Q.: "Hummm."
R.L.: "Tell you what. You want to doubt and question what we say? Then maybe you need to visit the tribunal at the Inquisition that is under way down the street. You think you really want to go that route?"
Q.: "No sir. A soul and spirit it is."
Even after the Dark Ages, as scientifically-based medical understandings and advancements began to come forth once again during "the Age of Enlightenment," misdiagnoses continued; and when the church’s influence was exerted, nonsense and ignorance continued:
1. "'Evil' people suffer more illness than 'good' people."
2. "People consorting with Satan cause illnesses and suffer illnesses.”
3. “There is something within every human body which is invisible and gauzy and filmy and which lasts forever and which will be sent to either heaven or hell after death but which cannot be found by way of either surgery or autopsy.”
(Nor will it be seen after medical schools open and after medical students dissect millions of human bodies and study every single millimeter of the components of a human body under a microscope.)
4. “But it is still there, nevertheless, and that should be accepted as the truth based on blind faith alone. And if that 'thing' becomes ill, then that imperceptible, indiscernible and undetectable 'thing' will spread its contagion throughout the body.”
Voila. “The soul” or “the spirit” was dreamed up, and many began to talk about the need to be “spiritual” in order to cure illness. Their claim:
"Whether an illness is a mental illness or an emotional illness or a physical illness, it all originates with a 'sick spirit' or a 'spiritual malady' or a 'dark soul' and can eventually disintegrate to the point that one can experience 'the dark night of the soul' when the soul’s condition reaches its maximum level of evilness and darkness."
The belief that there is a special kind of sickness – a malady that can strike "a soul" or "a spirit" and that can subsequently cause mental and emotional and physical illnesses - took hold.
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “Addicts have an untreated spiritual malady. If they will become spiritual, then being spiritual will, in turn, heal their bodies and minds. But the treatment is only good for twenty-four hours; then, more treatment is required. Exercising the spirit - with 'spiritual exercises' - will also help, but even being spiritual, or being 'super spiritual,' only works for one day at a time. One must do spiritual exercises daily in order to stay in conscious contact with God and to maintain one’s spiritually fitness in order to continue to be free of addictive thoughts and behaviors.”
The Spiritual Malady argument, while set forth by those who claim to be involved with something on a far higher and wiser plane than “religion,” can be seen via the historical facts above to be nothing more than a direct outcropping of religion. Its roots are based totally in religion, and all so-called “spiritual teachings” were originally religious teachings that began in pagan religions which were then assimilated into the dogma of organized religions and which are still a part of the dogma of the planet’s largest organized religions to this day.
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “There are many mental disorders, and professionals identify one of them as “the Addictive Personality Disorder.”
That disorder is as widespread as the Ultimate Sickness itself because all humans develop a primary addiction to control and a secondary addiction to power / Power, based in their desire to be able to control. All other addictions develop after those two basic ones.
Both the Addictive Personality Disorder and the Ultimate Sickness are mind and personality disorders. In severe cases, both usually require treatment by trained professionals or by those that have some mastery and understanding of what causes - and can sometimes address - psychological problems.
What the statistical findings of scientific research into the various methods being used to try to treat the Addictive Personality Disorder have shown is this: what does not work is the treatment offered by novices and by “over-night therapists” who join organizations that
(1) allow them to seek help on the first day they enter and then
(2) allow them to begin giving advice, offering treatment, offering help, and sharing their experiences the very next day to other sick people who come in seeking help.
It is now understood by trained professionals and by those with an understanding of the disorder that there is a prerequisite for the Addictive Personality Disorder to develop. The prerequisite is the experiencing of - and the continued suffering from and the lingering effects of - trauma.
Trauma? Really? Not a "dark soul"? No. Not a "spiritual malady" which can be treated by untrained, unqualified amateurs? No. A mental illness? Yes, and a mental illness that can be treated sometimes by trained professionals or, in a few cases, by someone such as Maharaj after he came to understand that those suffering from the Ultimate Sickness needed to be freed from all of the distortions and delusions and insanity that come when identified with personas which have highly influential fears and desires and which have the ability to control persons’ thoughts and words and actions, subconsciously.
Near here, in Houston, Texas in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it was seen that a group became active, a group which is still functioning today all across the U.S. and in many other countries: they called themselves “Pray-Away-the-Gay Christians.” Upon having to deal with a person who joined that group and who became obsessively active in “witnessing to gays” and who “confronted gays and told them that they are sinning” and who handed out brochures to announce the details of the next “Pray Away the Gay” service in local churches and auditoriums, this question was asked of her:
F.: “You and I are obviously heterosexual, right?”
She: “Of course.”
F.: “So let me ask you. Have you ever been hit on - you know, 'approached' - by a lesbian who was attracted to you?”
She: “Several over the years, actually.”
F.: “So suppose one of those lesbians also happened to be religious.”
She: “Impossible!”
F.: “Then let’s just pretend for a moment. Pretending should definitely be easy enough. And suppose that, in order to fulfill her desires to be in a sexual relationship with you, she began trying to 'pray away the straightness.' Do you think there is any way at all that her prayers could be answered and they would alter your natural attraction to men and could cause you to suddenly become gay instead of straight?”
She: [After a long, narrow-eyed, hateful glare / stare down effort] “You have obviously fallen under the influence of Satan and you are obviously stupid too because you missed the key point in what you just said – my attraction to men is natural. A lesbian’s attraction to me is unnatural.”
F.: "Actually, homosexual behaviors occur in every species. There are eleven penguins in a zoo in New York that regularly engage in homosexual activities but engage in no heterosexual activities at all.”
End of conversation. Another nail in the coffin of that “relationship,” its heterosexual foundation notwithstanding. Another thing “lost” via Realization. Reflecting on that “relationship,” were I of her ilk, I’d say, “Thank God.”
But the key points are these:
Persons are trying to pray away the gay, but the gay is not going away
just as
persons are still trying to pray away droughts but the droughts are not going away
and just as
persons are praying to get every other kind of selfish thing that their ego-states / personalities desire or are praying to avoid every kind of selfish thing that their ego-states / personalities want to avoid, but are having little consistent success with either.
A few years back, Governor Rick Perry of Texas tried on many occasions to pray away the drought, inspiring 15,000 to join him at one of his prayer meetings to do just that. The result: the drought continued for months after his religious prayer services. (You might say, “How ignorant!” You bet. Even the most ignorant persons on the planet know that you must accompany a pray-for-rain service with the killing of a virgin if you are going to really please an angry Rain God.)
To continue with the discussion of the trauma / addiction linkage:
In fact, many mental illnesses – not just the Addictive Personality - are rooted in trauma, and both the science of psychology and the science of therapeutic methods have advanced to the point that many professionally-trained counselors are highly competent at addressing unresolved trauma and unprocessed memories and at bringing relief which, in turn, brings to an end many of the self-destructive tendencies that persons experience during the relative existence.
Moreover, no religious lay persons and no untrained “spiritual persons” have the slightest clue about how to effectively address the Addictive Personality Disorder.
Got a water leak at your house or a stopped-up commode? Call a plumber. Got the Addictive Personality Disorder? Do not call a plumber. And do not call a carpenter, a realtor, a teacher, a salesman, a contractor, a builder, a waiter or waitress, a broker, a doctor specializing in something other than the Addictive Personality Disorder, or a doctor who will spend fifteen minutes with you and prescribe 5-14 drugs for you to use as a substitute cocktail; instead, call a trained and experienced mental healthcare professional. (Just a suggestion.)
In the eBook below entitled "Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address," it is made clear that the non-dual understanding in many cases can only be a part of that which can address the serious levels of psychic disintegration which the masses are now suffering.
Maharaj admitted that only a few would Realize (that is, be freed from ignorance and insanity) via his sharing of non-dual pointers, but after he abandoned not only the use of a religious approach but also abandoned the use of a spiritual approach in his efforts to address the Ultimate Sickness, he turned to the use of a psychological approach which can address with some sufferers the root cause of the Ultimate Sickness:
namely, the content of the mind, which is a result of nonsensical programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination as well as a result of the hidden fears and desires of assigned or / and assumed false personality identifications which are also stored in the mind.
He came to see that the main problem of humankind is centered in the mind, not in having too little religion or to little spirituality. Whether one seeks help professionally or gives non-duality pointers a try, Maharaj made clear that the solution to most of the problems of humanity all around the globe calls for a treatment of persons’ mental condition, not the condition of a dreamed up “soul” or “spirit.”
He tried the latter and it did not work. Even as he continued to offer the non-dual teachings, he admitted that only a few would be restored to their original state of pure, unblocked consciousness and only a few would recover their sanity and be freed from ignorance for the remainder of the manifestation. His attitude:
Sure. Come on up the stairs and have a seat. Move in closer together - the available space is small. Then, see if the psychology-based pointers offered here might being some relief to your mind-and-personality-controlled existence. If not, then seek elsewhere for the proper treatment for your mental illness.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
12 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: So what are some of the other ways that the members of three groups of persons differ in their perspectives about the cause of the problems of humanity?
Consider the contrast in the ways that the three look at the concept of “good vs. evil”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a war going on for the souls of mankind. There is a God of Good and a God of Evil, and they are fighting at this very moment to win the hearts of every humans who is alive”; or, “there are karmic forces at work, and your good deeds will assure you the rewards of good karma and your bad deeds will assure you the penalties of bad karma”; or “if you look at the news, surely you cannot deny that there is far more evil in the world than good, and the answer is for people to come to know our God through our prophet; thus, it is incumbent upon those of us who are dedicated to our God and to the words of our prophet and to our religion to spread around the globe our dogma which teaches . . .
“that there is one God and he becomes unbelievably angry and will punish you mentally and physically when you are ‘evil’ and he will bless you and reward you when you are ‘good’ (and to prove it, consider that one time he killed everyone on the planet except for a few members of one family who were ‘good’ and except for all animals and insects and birds and reptiles, etc.; and another time he opened up a hole and caused 5,000 people to fall in it and die; and many other times he allowed us - his chosen people - to kill thousands and thousands of our enemies in battles. Mess not with our God. Be ‘good,’ not ‘evil’)”
or
“that we go to the four corners of the earth and share the teachings of our God and baptize everyone in the name of our prophet" or "you might have to kill some members of other religions by shooting them with a rifle that has the words of a prophet - specifically, Moses or Jesus - etched into the metal" (oh, and by the way, "you must not drink alcohol or dance or gamble or you will be deemed to be ‘evil’ if you do – the exception being one of our denominations which uses alcohol in its worship service, which organizes dances at the church, and which organizes gambling games – like bingo – at the church")
or
“that we invite all to join our religion (and our specific sect of our religion) if you want to be deemed to be ‘good’; otherwise, you will be seen to be an 'evil' infidel who deserves to die" (oh, and by the way, "if female, you must cover your entire body from head to toe or you will not be deemed to be ‘good’ but will be deemed to be ‘bad’ and you will be beaten by any man in our community who sees you so much as flash an ankle; and you cannot drive a car; and you cannot worship with us; and you will someday die and for eternity you will be used to gratify sexually any of our religion’s males who died for God in the act of killing infidels")
or
“that you must live by the holy scriptures of our religion in order to receive proper guidance on the practice of dharma (religious living) and then you will be determined to be ‘good’ or ‘pure’ in order to eventually transition beyond the continuing cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth" (and, oh, yeah, "no matter whether you have one of the two metabolic types that requires protein or a protein / veggie combination food plan, you must follow our food laws and only eat veggies or you will not be seen as being ‘good’)"
or
“that all must accept the Middle Way, all must learn and follow what is revealed via the Four Noble Truths, and all must learn and follow the way revealed via the Noble Eightfold Path (and then you will not be deemed ‘evil’ but will be ‘good’ or ‘pure’)”
or "that you must believe that liberation from the karmic cycle of rebirths occurs in the merging of the human spirit with the all-embracing spirit of God, which will render you freed from ‘evil’ and you will then be ‘good’ or ‘pure’" (oh, and by the way, "if male, you must wear a long beard and a turban)”
or
"that you give up your belief in multiple gods and goddesses and believe in a single, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and continues to govern it" (oh, and "the more you accept suffering now, the greater your reward will be later)"
or
“that there are many prophets - including Adam, the Jewish prophets, Yeshu'a (a.k.a., ‘Jesus’), and Muhammed (a.k.a., Mohammed / Muhammad) - all of whom have shared what you must study and understand and then you must allow their words to guide you through this life if you are to end up being ‘good’ instead of being 'evil'”
or
“that you must become a person of virtue as well as a person of learning and a person of good manners who is willing to make offerings to the dead (all of which combined will render you ‘good’ instead of ‘not good’).
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: "I once was blind but now I can see"; and "I have to continue to work at maintaining my spiritual self to overcome my addiction because my parents are great and they do not deserve to have a son who is a total ass" (Are you sure about that?); or, "I was a horrible, worthless, immoral, wicked, evil, depraved, corrupt, decadent, and debauched worm of a person - a total reprobate of the worst possible degree – but I became a spiritual person and maintain constant contact with God and it has changed me completely – not that I am ‘perfect’ but that I am a helluva lot better than I was" (to which one man was heard to reply: “Oh, come now - no false modesty required. Admit it, you have become “A Spiritual Giant” and all others are “Spiritual Pygmies” by comparison. If there has ever been a true and living personification of ‘good’ and ‘right’ and ‘moral,’ you are it, right?”)
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “There is no validity at all to the dualistic pairing of ‘good’ vs. ‘evil’.” There is what Maharaj saw as a widespread mental illness - called the Ultimate Sickness by some – which has nothing to with “being good” or “being evil” but has everything to do with what he called “ignorance, stupidity and insanity.” After decades of trying - diligently and enthusiastically - to use both religious teachings and spiritual teachings to treat the mental illness / the Ultimate Sickness, he eventually came to realize that neither can address ignorance, stupidity and insanity but realized instead (via his own experiments and experiences) that both religion and spirituality actually magnify the symptoms of the Sickness.
He said: “There there is no good and no evil. In every concrete situation there is only the necessary and the unnecessary. The needful is ‘right,’ the needless is ‘wrong’.”
He said, “This problem of things, good and evil in themselves, does not exist in my ‘world’. The needful is ‘good’ and the needless is ‘evil’. In your world the pleasant is ‘good; and the painful is ‘evil’.”
So what was his final conclusion? That religion is the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness? No. That spirituality is the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness? No.
Nor did he say in the end that “I am only interested in religion” or “I am only interested in spirituality and things that are spiritual.” He said, instead, “I am only interested in ignorance and the freedom from ignorance.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
11 October 2014
Consider the contrast in the ways that the three look at the concept of “good vs. evil”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a war going on for the souls of mankind. There is a God of Good and a God of Evil, and they are fighting at this very moment to win the hearts of every humans who is alive”; or, “there are karmic forces at work, and your good deeds will assure you the rewards of good karma and your bad deeds will assure you the penalties of bad karma”; or “if you look at the news, surely you cannot deny that there is far more evil in the world than good, and the answer is for people to come to know our God through our prophet; thus, it is incumbent upon those of us who are dedicated to our God and to the words of our prophet and to our religion to spread around the globe our dogma which teaches . . .
“that there is one God and he becomes unbelievably angry and will punish you mentally and physically when you are ‘evil’ and he will bless you and reward you when you are ‘good’ (and to prove it, consider that one time he killed everyone on the planet except for a few members of one family who were ‘good’ and except for all animals and insects and birds and reptiles, etc.; and another time he opened up a hole and caused 5,000 people to fall in it and die; and many other times he allowed us - his chosen people - to kill thousands and thousands of our enemies in battles. Mess not with our God. Be ‘good,’ not ‘evil’)”
or
“that we go to the four corners of the earth and share the teachings of our God and baptize everyone in the name of our prophet" or "you might have to kill some members of other religions by shooting them with a rifle that has the words of a prophet - specifically, Moses or Jesus - etched into the metal" (oh, and by the way, "you must not drink alcohol or dance or gamble or you will be deemed to be ‘evil’ if you do – the exception being one of our denominations which uses alcohol in its worship service, which organizes dances at the church, and which organizes gambling games – like bingo – at the church")
or
“that we invite all to join our religion (and our specific sect of our religion) if you want to be deemed to be ‘good’; otherwise, you will be seen to be an 'evil' infidel who deserves to die" (oh, and by the way, "if female, you must cover your entire body from head to toe or you will not be deemed to be ‘good’ but will be deemed to be ‘bad’ and you will be beaten by any man in our community who sees you so much as flash an ankle; and you cannot drive a car; and you cannot worship with us; and you will someday die and for eternity you will be used to gratify sexually any of our religion’s males who died for God in the act of killing infidels")
or
“that you must live by the holy scriptures of our religion in order to receive proper guidance on the practice of dharma (religious living) and then you will be determined to be ‘good’ or ‘pure’ in order to eventually transition beyond the continuing cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth" (and, oh, yeah, "no matter whether you have one of the two metabolic types that requires protein or a protein / veggie combination food plan, you must follow our food laws and only eat veggies or you will not be seen as being ‘good’)"
or
“that all must accept the Middle Way, all must learn and follow what is revealed via the Four Noble Truths, and all must learn and follow the way revealed via the Noble Eightfold Path (and then you will not be deemed ‘evil’ but will be ‘good’ or ‘pure’)”
or "that you must believe that liberation from the karmic cycle of rebirths occurs in the merging of the human spirit with the all-embracing spirit of God, which will render you freed from ‘evil’ and you will then be ‘good’ or ‘pure’" (oh, and by the way, "if male, you must wear a long beard and a turban)”
or
"that you give up your belief in multiple gods and goddesses and believe in a single, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and continues to govern it" (oh, and "the more you accept suffering now, the greater your reward will be later)"
or
“that there are many prophets - including Adam, the Jewish prophets, Yeshu'a (a.k.a., ‘Jesus’), and Muhammed (a.k.a., Mohammed / Muhammad) - all of whom have shared what you must study and understand and then you must allow their words to guide you through this life if you are to end up being ‘good’ instead of being 'evil'”
or
“that you must become a person of virtue as well as a person of learning and a person of good manners who is willing to make offerings to the dead (all of which combined will render you ‘good’ instead of ‘not good’).
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: "I once was blind but now I can see"; and "I have to continue to work at maintaining my spiritual self to overcome my addiction because my parents are great and they do not deserve to have a son who is a total ass" (Are you sure about that?); or, "I was a horrible, worthless, immoral, wicked, evil, depraved, corrupt, decadent, and debauched worm of a person - a total reprobate of the worst possible degree – but I became a spiritual person and maintain constant contact with God and it has changed me completely – not that I am ‘perfect’ but that I am a helluva lot better than I was" (to which one man was heard to reply: “Oh, come now - no false modesty required. Admit it, you have become “A Spiritual Giant” and all others are “Spiritual Pygmies” by comparison. If there has ever been a true and living personification of ‘good’ and ‘right’ and ‘moral,’ you are it, right?”)
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “There is no validity at all to the dualistic pairing of ‘good’ vs. ‘evil’.” There is what Maharaj saw as a widespread mental illness - called the Ultimate Sickness by some – which has nothing to with “being good” or “being evil” but has everything to do with what he called “ignorance, stupidity and insanity.” After decades of trying - diligently and enthusiastically - to use both religious teachings and spiritual teachings to treat the mental illness / the Ultimate Sickness, he eventually came to realize that neither can address ignorance, stupidity and insanity but realized instead (via his own experiments and experiences) that both religion and spirituality actually magnify the symptoms of the Sickness.
He said: “There there is no good and no evil. In every concrete situation there is only the necessary and the unnecessary. The needful is ‘right,’ the needless is ‘wrong’.”
He said, “This problem of things, good and evil in themselves, does not exist in my ‘world’. The needful is ‘good’ and the needless is ‘evil’. In your world the pleasant is ‘good; and the painful is ‘evil’.”
So what was his final conclusion? That religion is the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness? No. That spirituality is the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness? No.
Nor did he say in the end that “I am only interested in religion” or “I am only interested in spirituality and things that are spiritual.” He said, instead, “I am only interested in ignorance and the freedom from ignorance.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
11 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] Based in the MENTAL ILLNESS view, what is happening on planet earth is this:
There is an Ultimate (mind-and-personality-based) Sickness that is transmitted via what Maharaj called "ignorance and stupidity and insanity" . . .
which can inspire a non-questioning acceptance of a belief in gods and goddesses or in a male God
and
which can convince persons that Supreme, Celestial Power(s) live in “another world” from which they control everything that happens in “this world”
and
which can lead persons to further believe that such a Power or Powers control even the most insignificant, self-centered minutiae which occupies the minds of humans
and
which can convince persons that a god or goddess or a God can carry on 7 billion conversations at the same time
and
which convinces persons, egotistically, that a God or gods or goddesses will single them out and talk to them one-and-one.
Thus, this was offered:
“If you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities.”
And where are persons led to believe
that (1) they can talk to entities in “other worlds” and
that (2) they can hear messages intended specifically for them which come from those “other world” Controllers of “this world” or even - as evidence of the most extreme self-will imaginable -
that (3) they can hear messages which “other world” gods are passing along to them as intermediaries and that some Heavenly Power or Celestial Controller wants those persons to pass the message along to one or to many other humans?
(Before the answer, consider how those circumstances in #3 must, most certainly, give a message far more creditability since it is coming from one so close to God and since it is being shared by one who was especially chosen, supposedly, and by one who has been singled out by a god or goddess, supposedly, or by “the one, true God” to serve as a special messenger and a singular representative of god on earth,” supposedly.)
So, where are persons led to believe those beliefs?
They are led to believe those beliefs in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of there being too few religious people or a result of there being too few who belong to the "right" religion or the "right" sect or denomination; or,
in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of too many people having “an untreated spiritual malady” (which is a misdiagnosis that, in turn, prevents persons from continuing the search for a proper diagnosis of what really ails them and which, therefore, prevents them from receiving the actual treatment from trained professionals which is often what is actually needed.)
Again, “if you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help.”
From the eBook below entitled “Spiritual Sobriety”:
In Psyche News International (April, 1996) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler offers professional insight into the connection between religion and mental disorders:
“Psychosis” refers to a way of thinking and speaking. It depicts an apparent failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real. People are labeled psychotic when they refer to mental representations of the world as if they were substantive and real. Another example of confusion is the description of the "voice of conscience" as the literal voice of another being (known as "hearing voices").
The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. There are three ways of using ”psychosis” to refer to people speaking and behaving in certain ways:
(1) Psychosis is used to refer to the state of mind wherein symbolic representations of the world (and metaphors) are confused with the real (literal) things they represent.
(2) Psychosis is an applicable label when one ascribes confused speech (such as talking in tongues?) to something else.
(3) Finally, the term psychosis is also used to describe abnormal speech and behavior.
Blaming a psychosis allows some people to justify doing certain things to certain other people. For example, criminals can be absolved of responsibility for their actions (the insanity defense).
Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially-acceptable self-reported imagining. Another example of self-reported imaginings, i.e., hallucinations, is the popular belief in the existence of angels. This belief is considered normal by supposedly mentally "healthy" people. Belief in the existence of aliens, on the other hand, is considered abnormal and is a sign of mental illness.
Yet, insofar as angels and aliens are both hallucinations (that is, self-reported imaginings), there is no difference between believing in angels and believing in aliens. Moreover, people who believe in angels are just as adamant in claiming the reality of angels as are those who insist on the reality of aliens. The difference between these two hallucinations has to do with the effect of these self-reported imaginings on others. That effect is determined by the values of the culture or context within which the self-report occurs.
When self-reported imaginings conflict with socially-accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered psychotic. When self-reported imaginings are consistent with socially accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered normal, although perhaps eccentric. The 12 / 27 / 93 issue of TIME magazine depicts an angel on its cover with the following caption beneath it: "The new age of angels. Sixty-nine percent of Americans believe they exist (a number that has now risen into the high 80's).
The result: most people in the United States (and many all around the globe) are psychotic. All self-reported imaginings of a religious nature come under the heading of psychosis. The symbolic is mistaken for the real, the metaphorical for the literal. All self-reported imaginings labeled psychosis are essentially religious. To label religious claims as psychotic is no more derogatory than to label psychotic claims as religious. Calling things by the wrong names may be intentional or strategic behavior not only among those who label "psychosis" a mental illness but also among those who are labeled "psychotic" and who are just as likely to behave that way for their own strategic purposes.
Hearing voices in one's head is normal. We generally call it “our conscience.” [Other times, it is just our self-will, our ego, granting itself what it wants in the guise of God.] Psychosis is the belief that the voices in one's head belong to another person. The denial of voices-as-self is an attempt to deny the truth. It is a way of saying "this is not me."
[Consider the self-appointed "Message Carrier from God" mentioned above. Consider how much more impact such a person is trying to give to his or her personal, self-generated, manipulative message when it has tacked onto it "the authority and weight of God."]
Pretending that the self is split or dissociated is a way of avoiding responsibility. The person with accurate perception can clearly differentiate the symbolic from the real and the metaphorical from the literal. Accurate use of the term "psychosis" in effecting public and clinical policies must consider the validity of the distinction between socially-unacceptable forms of psychosis (designated as "mental illness") vs. socially-acceptable ones. That difference is a function of mores, not objective science."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 October 2014
There is an Ultimate (mind-and-personality-based) Sickness that is transmitted via what Maharaj called "ignorance and stupidity and insanity" . . .
which can inspire a non-questioning acceptance of a belief in gods and goddesses or in a male God
and
which can convince persons that Supreme, Celestial Power(s) live in “another world” from which they control everything that happens in “this world”
and
which can lead persons to further believe that such a Power or Powers control even the most insignificant, self-centered minutiae which occupies the minds of humans
and
which can convince persons that a god or goddess or a God can carry on 7 billion conversations at the same time
and
which convinces persons, egotistically, that a God or gods or goddesses will single them out and talk to them one-and-one.
Thus, this was offered:
“If you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities.”
And where are persons led to believe
that (1) they can talk to entities in “other worlds” and
that (2) they can hear messages intended specifically for them which come from those “other world” Controllers of “this world” or even - as evidence of the most extreme self-will imaginable -
that (3) they can hear messages which “other world” gods are passing along to them as intermediaries and that some Heavenly Power or Celestial Controller wants those persons to pass the message along to one or to many other humans?
(Before the answer, consider how those circumstances in #3 must, most certainly, give a message far more creditability since it is coming from one so close to God and since it is being shared by one who was especially chosen, supposedly, and by one who has been singled out by a god or goddess, supposedly, or by “the one, true God” to serve as a special messenger and a singular representative of god on earth,” supposedly.)
So, where are persons led to believe those beliefs?
They are led to believe those beliefs in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of there being too few religious people or a result of there being too few who belong to the "right" religion or the "right" sect or denomination; or,
in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of too many people having “an untreated spiritual malady” (which is a misdiagnosis that, in turn, prevents persons from continuing the search for a proper diagnosis of what really ails them and which, therefore, prevents them from receiving the actual treatment from trained professionals which is often what is actually needed.)
Again, “if you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help.”
From the eBook below entitled “Spiritual Sobriety”:
In Psyche News International (April, 1996) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler offers professional insight into the connection between religion and mental disorders:
“Psychosis” refers to a way of thinking and speaking. It depicts an apparent failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real. People are labeled psychotic when they refer to mental representations of the world as if they were substantive and real. Another example of confusion is the description of the "voice of conscience" as the literal voice of another being (known as "hearing voices").
The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. There are three ways of using ”psychosis” to refer to people speaking and behaving in certain ways:
(1) Psychosis is used to refer to the state of mind wherein symbolic representations of the world (and metaphors) are confused with the real (literal) things they represent.
(2) Psychosis is an applicable label when one ascribes confused speech (such as talking in tongues?) to something else.
(3) Finally, the term psychosis is also used to describe abnormal speech and behavior.
Blaming a psychosis allows some people to justify doing certain things to certain other people. For example, criminals can be absolved of responsibility for their actions (the insanity defense).
Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially-acceptable self-reported imagining. Another example of self-reported imaginings, i.e., hallucinations, is the popular belief in the existence of angels. This belief is considered normal by supposedly mentally "healthy" people. Belief in the existence of aliens, on the other hand, is considered abnormal and is a sign of mental illness.
Yet, insofar as angels and aliens are both hallucinations (that is, self-reported imaginings), there is no difference between believing in angels and believing in aliens. Moreover, people who believe in angels are just as adamant in claiming the reality of angels as are those who insist on the reality of aliens. The difference between these two hallucinations has to do with the effect of these self-reported imaginings on others. That effect is determined by the values of the culture or context within which the self-report occurs.
When self-reported imaginings conflict with socially-accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered psychotic. When self-reported imaginings are consistent with socially accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered normal, although perhaps eccentric. The 12 / 27 / 93 issue of TIME magazine depicts an angel on its cover with the following caption beneath it: "The new age of angels. Sixty-nine percent of Americans believe they exist (a number that has now risen into the high 80's).
The result: most people in the United States (and many all around the globe) are psychotic. All self-reported imaginings of a religious nature come under the heading of psychosis. The symbolic is mistaken for the real, the metaphorical for the literal. All self-reported imaginings labeled psychosis are essentially religious. To label religious claims as psychotic is no more derogatory than to label psychotic claims as religious. Calling things by the wrong names may be intentional or strategic behavior not only among those who label "psychosis" a mental illness but also among those who are labeled "psychotic" and who are just as likely to behave that way for their own strategic purposes.
Hearing voices in one's head is normal. We generally call it “our conscience.” [Other times, it is just our self-will, our ego, granting itself what it wants in the guise of God.] Psychosis is the belief that the voices in one's head belong to another person. The denial of voices-as-self is an attempt to deny the truth. It is a way of saying "this is not me."
[Consider the self-appointed "Message Carrier from God" mentioned above. Consider how much more impact such a person is trying to give to his or her personal, self-generated, manipulative message when it has tacked onto it "the authority and weight of God."]
Pretending that the self is split or dissociated is a way of avoiding responsibility. The person with accurate perception can clearly differentiate the symbolic from the real and the metaphorical from the literal. Accurate use of the term "psychosis" in effecting public and clinical policies must consider the validity of the distinction between socially-unacceptable forms of psychosis (designated as "mental illness") vs. socially-acceptable ones. That difference is a function of mores, not objective science."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
10 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: If one reads all of Maharaj’s talks, it can be seen that he alluded to, at one time or another, each of the seven steps which are taught to those who come this way. He never enumerated the steps or laid them out in their particular order or in their exact, step-wise fashion as is provided here, but one familiar with the seven steps will find them all there at one point or another in his talks.
He did make clear, however, that seekers should “go back, reverse, to the source”
and should
“follow the same path by which you came.”
Included among the steps (around the midpoint position on the seven-step “path”) is a period when religious and / or spiritual roles are played; yet they are to be transitioned.
There has, however, been an old and still-ongoing debate about the true cause and the proper treatment (the proper Ultimate Medicine) for the Ultimate Sickness. Religious persons have asserted for thousands of years that the cause of the planet’s ills is rooted in their belief that there are too few religious people.
Some continue to make that assertion, but with 97% on the planet reporting an affiliation with one organized religion or another, that assertion should be a moot argument. A more recent belief is that the cause involves an affiliation “with the wrong religion or sect.”
Others, many of whom tried religion but later shifted to “spirituality” (and now proudly announce “I am not religious! I am spiritual!”) often take the stand that the ills of the planet are rooted in “an untreated spiritual malady.”
That kind of shift is not uncommon. It even happened with Maharaj and it happened here as well. In the eBook below entitled “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj And His Evolution,” the stages of his “development” or his "shifts in focus" were shown to have moved thusly:
He moved from guru-bhakti and bhakti
to
bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma")
to
jnana and nisarga yoga
and finally to
the Nisargan understanding alone.
[“Bhakti” from the root word “bhaj," means “to belong to, to partake in, or to worship,” so - in the beginning - Maharaj held notions about worshipping one’s guru and about worshipping in general.]
Early on, Maharaj led visitors to the loft in bhajans - religious (Hindu) devotional songs expressing love for “the Divine.”
Along with those religious messages, he began to intermingle spiritual pointers in his talks, so his talks evidence a combination of religion and spirituality. As he evolved, he talked more of spiritual issues until he eventually abandoned both religious talks and spiritual talks, having seen that those did not address the Ultimate Sickness at all. The focus of his talks shifted more to the mental roots and emotional (ego-based) aspects of the Ultimate Sickness.
Rather than agreeing that “too little religion” is the cause of the ills of persons on the planet, and rather than agreeing that the Ultimate Sickness is “a spiritual malady,” it became clear to him that humanity’s main problem was (and still is) centered in the fiction-filled mind that develops after programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing.
So, Maharaj did not say that someday religious understandings would reach a point that they would confirm the veracity of the non-duality teachings.
He did not say that someday spiritual understandings would reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the non-dual teachings.
Maharaj did eventually say that scientific understandings would someday reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the teachings.
And which science, first and foremost, did he turn to after setting aside both religious and spiritual approaches to try to address the Ultimate Sickness? The science of the mind, the science of psychology. His focus in the end turned to the analysis and explication of the role that the mind plays in generating and spreading the Ultimate Sickness.
The science of psychology gets its name from two terms: “psyche” (meaning “mind”) and “-ology,” (meaning “the study of.”) Psychology is the science which involves studying the mind.
So Maharaj's message changed after he came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a widespread mental illness. Here, it has been explained thusly:
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay / Mumbai because he undertook in that loft many experiments in his efforts to find an effective form of the Ultimate Medicine that could treat the Ultimate Sickness effectively and successfully. In fact, he would eventually have three laboratories:
he first ran "a Religion Laboratory," then later “a Spirituality Laboratory” and eventually “a Psychology Laboratory.”
Maharaj understood that the Ultimate Sickness was a problem that needed a cure, so he sought the proper form of the Ultimate Medicine with the vigor and determination of a Pasteur seeking to understand the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization;
with the vigor and determination of a Salk seeking a prevention method for polio; with the vigor and determination of a Curie who pioneered research on radiology; and with the vigor and determination of the early psychologists who pioneered research on the functioning (and dysfunctionalism of) the human mind.
Ground-breaking psychological work and study and advancement has included that by researchers such as Ivan Pavlov (and his groundbreaking work on conditioning); work by Kurt Lewin (who pioneered theories arguing that behavior is caused by both personal characteristics and the environment); and work by Carl Jung (who advanced the understanding of the functioning of archetypes and what he called “the collective unconscious” which is the set of shared concepts, ideas, moral attitudes, etc. and which all form a set of beliefs and which operate as a unifying force within society which also, ironically, becomes the greatest source of duality and duality’s subsequent disharmony and lack of unity). Such is how "psychology" has evolved and continues to evolve.
So how did Maharaj’s "laboratory" work evolve? He worked as all wise scientists and psychologists do, moving from . . .
hypothesis (a tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested)
to
research and experimentation and observation
to
theory (an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can be tested with further research and experimentation and observation)
to
fact (which, in science, is an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as “true”).
However, truth in science is not always necessarily final, and what is accepted as “a fact” today may be modified or even discarded later. Such was the case with Maharaj (and admittedly with “floyd” as well) as Maharaj tested his hypotheses and theories and “facts” about what the Ultimate Medicine might be that could treat the Ultimate Sickness.
The fact is that he (and “I”) tried religious methods and that he (and “I”) tried spiritual methods and that the use of those approaches continued until the research and experimentation and observation proved that neither of those methods provided an effective treatment, long-term.
It has been noted here that the third of seven steps (which is the step that includes the playing of religious or spiritual roles on a “path” which involves the going back out leg of a “journey” or the going back out except in the reverse manner or the going back out the same way you came in manner) must be taken, not skipped.
During the manifesting (that is, "coming in" process), the religious and or spiritual roles were assigned after the 7th, the 6th, the 5th and the 4th steps were completed during the “coming in” steps on the “path” (resulting in 97% of the people on the planet now claiming a religious affiliation while another 2% to 2-1/2% are claiming to be “spiritual”). Those roles were assigned coming in, so they must be played – but eventually discarded – on “the way back out.”
The fact that Maharaj (and “I”) played those roles and tried to use religious and spiritual concepts as the Ultimate Medicine was right in line with what almost always has to be done (as ineffective as that doingness is).
Therefore, because of conditioning and acculturation, Maharaj’s first laboratory was a “religious laboratory.” He did bhajans five times a day simply because his guru told him to. Even after his “BS” detector went off, he continued, saying, “I continue to obey his instructions, even though I know these bhajans are pointless.”
Later, he would evolve beyond guru-bhakti, so eventually that practice ended; yet in the beginning, the only people among his early audiences were Indians / Hindus, so he followed the advice of his guru which amounted to this: “Draw them in and hook ‘em with religion and then sneak in the non-dual message at the end.”
Thus, his early sessions included singing, some dancing about, and some narration, all of it only a bit less foolish than the emotionally-intoxicated worship-style of Pentecostals who raise their hands in the air and wave their arms about, who roll about on the floor uncontrollably, who dance wildly, who sing and chant, and who claim to “speak in unknown tongues.”
Later, Maharaj's “religious laboratory” would be shut down and replaced with a “spiritual laboratory,” and eventually that laboratory would be closed and replaced with a “psychology laboratory.”
Only then did Maharaj have his full and final “Eureka!” moment. Only then did he find the actual treatment for the Ultimate Sickness. Only then did the Ultimate Medicine contain exactly what is required to eradicate the Ultimate Sickness, not on a global basis but by treating sick personas (“persons”) one at a time.
That is why he eventually said:
"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."
"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"There is no progress."
"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you." [Wait. Did he say, "You have invented God"? Yes, he did.]
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
“From birth, what has made the body grow? It is no power in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the Self, the consciousness … call it what you will.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
“If they come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.” [Here, more often, they are stunned into shouting or being angry or walking out if they hear any pointers from Maharaj other than the ones they have read in that "modern spiritual classic" which some report is now "their Bible."] Maharaj also said:
“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 here are the ways that three supposed bases or roots or sources of the Ultimate Sickness differ:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a place where God / gods / goddesses abide that is beyond what is experienced in ‘this world.’ There are places beyond 'this world' where one can experience reward or punishment. If people live in a way that earns an eternal reward, then life in ‘this world’ will improve.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: "People are spirituality sick, and if they get spiritually well, it will cure whatever physical or mental problems they have as well. Establish conscious contact with God; be quiet and listen; then, you will hear him tell you what you need to hear."
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "If you believe you are hearing the voice of a God (or god or goddess) who is speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities."
Maharaj: “You know only what is in your consciousness. What you claim exists outside conscious experience is inferred” – meaning “supposed” or “mere conjecture,” such as in the case where concepts have been dreamed up about
a “second world for all of the good people” and
“a third world for all of the bad people” or
“one life and then reward for holy and pure people” or “multiple, miserable lives for not-holy enough people and for not-pure enough people.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 October 2014
He did make clear, however, that seekers should “go back, reverse, to the source”
and should
“follow the same path by which you came.”
Included among the steps (around the midpoint position on the seven-step “path”) is a period when religious and / or spiritual roles are played; yet they are to be transitioned.
There has, however, been an old and still-ongoing debate about the true cause and the proper treatment (the proper Ultimate Medicine) for the Ultimate Sickness. Religious persons have asserted for thousands of years that the cause of the planet’s ills is rooted in their belief that there are too few religious people.
Some continue to make that assertion, but with 97% on the planet reporting an affiliation with one organized religion or another, that assertion should be a moot argument. A more recent belief is that the cause involves an affiliation “with the wrong religion or sect.”
Others, many of whom tried religion but later shifted to “spirituality” (and now proudly announce “I am not religious! I am spiritual!”) often take the stand that the ills of the planet are rooted in “an untreated spiritual malady.”
That kind of shift is not uncommon. It even happened with Maharaj and it happened here as well. In the eBook below entitled “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj And His Evolution,” the stages of his “development” or his "shifts in focus" were shown to have moved thusly:
He moved from guru-bhakti and bhakti
to
bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma")
to
jnana and nisarga yoga
and finally to
the Nisargan understanding alone.
[“Bhakti” from the root word “bhaj," means “to belong to, to partake in, or to worship,” so - in the beginning - Maharaj held notions about worshipping one’s guru and about worshipping in general.]
Early on, Maharaj led visitors to the loft in bhajans - religious (Hindu) devotional songs expressing love for “the Divine.”
Along with those religious messages, he began to intermingle spiritual pointers in his talks, so his talks evidence a combination of religion and spirituality. As he evolved, he talked more of spiritual issues until he eventually abandoned both religious talks and spiritual talks, having seen that those did not address the Ultimate Sickness at all. The focus of his talks shifted more to the mental roots and emotional (ego-based) aspects of the Ultimate Sickness.
Rather than agreeing that “too little religion” is the cause of the ills of persons on the planet, and rather than agreeing that the Ultimate Sickness is “a spiritual malady,” it became clear to him that humanity’s main problem was (and still is) centered in the fiction-filled mind that develops after programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing.
So, Maharaj did not say that someday religious understandings would reach a point that they would confirm the veracity of the non-duality teachings.
He did not say that someday spiritual understandings would reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the non-dual teachings.
Maharaj did eventually say that scientific understandings would someday reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the teachings.
And which science, first and foremost, did he turn to after setting aside both religious and spiritual approaches to try to address the Ultimate Sickness? The science of the mind, the science of psychology. His focus in the end turned to the analysis and explication of the role that the mind plays in generating and spreading the Ultimate Sickness.
The science of psychology gets its name from two terms: “psyche” (meaning “mind”) and “-ology,” (meaning “the study of.”) Psychology is the science which involves studying the mind.
So Maharaj's message changed after he came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a widespread mental illness. Here, it has been explained thusly:
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay / Mumbai because he undertook in that loft many experiments in his efforts to find an effective form of the Ultimate Medicine that could treat the Ultimate Sickness effectively and successfully. In fact, he would eventually have three laboratories:
he first ran "a Religion Laboratory," then later “a Spirituality Laboratory” and eventually “a Psychology Laboratory.”
Maharaj understood that the Ultimate Sickness was a problem that needed a cure, so he sought the proper form of the Ultimate Medicine with the vigor and determination of a Pasteur seeking to understand the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization;
with the vigor and determination of a Salk seeking a prevention method for polio; with the vigor and determination of a Curie who pioneered research on radiology; and with the vigor and determination of the early psychologists who pioneered research on the functioning (and dysfunctionalism of) the human mind.
Ground-breaking psychological work and study and advancement has included that by researchers such as Ivan Pavlov (and his groundbreaking work on conditioning); work by Kurt Lewin (who pioneered theories arguing that behavior is caused by both personal characteristics and the environment); and work by Carl Jung (who advanced the understanding of the functioning of archetypes and what he called “the collective unconscious” which is the set of shared concepts, ideas, moral attitudes, etc. and which all form a set of beliefs and which operate as a unifying force within society which also, ironically, becomes the greatest source of duality and duality’s subsequent disharmony and lack of unity). Such is how "psychology" has evolved and continues to evolve.
So how did Maharaj’s "laboratory" work evolve? He worked as all wise scientists and psychologists do, moving from . . .
hypothesis (a tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested)
to
research and experimentation and observation
to
theory (an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can be tested with further research and experimentation and observation)
to
fact (which, in science, is an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as “true”).
However, truth in science is not always necessarily final, and what is accepted as “a fact” today may be modified or even discarded later. Such was the case with Maharaj (and admittedly with “floyd” as well) as Maharaj tested his hypotheses and theories and “facts” about what the Ultimate Medicine might be that could treat the Ultimate Sickness.
The fact is that he (and “I”) tried religious methods and that he (and “I”) tried spiritual methods and that the use of those approaches continued until the research and experimentation and observation proved that neither of those methods provided an effective treatment, long-term.
It has been noted here that the third of seven steps (which is the step that includes the playing of religious or spiritual roles on a “path” which involves the going back out leg of a “journey” or the going back out except in the reverse manner or the going back out the same way you came in manner) must be taken, not skipped.
During the manifesting (that is, "coming in" process), the religious and or spiritual roles were assigned after the 7th, the 6th, the 5th and the 4th steps were completed during the “coming in” steps on the “path” (resulting in 97% of the people on the planet now claiming a religious affiliation while another 2% to 2-1/2% are claiming to be “spiritual”). Those roles were assigned coming in, so they must be played – but eventually discarded – on “the way back out.”
The fact that Maharaj (and “I”) played those roles and tried to use religious and spiritual concepts as the Ultimate Medicine was right in line with what almost always has to be done (as ineffective as that doingness is).
Therefore, because of conditioning and acculturation, Maharaj’s first laboratory was a “religious laboratory.” He did bhajans five times a day simply because his guru told him to. Even after his “BS” detector went off, he continued, saying, “I continue to obey his instructions, even though I know these bhajans are pointless.”
Later, he would evolve beyond guru-bhakti, so eventually that practice ended; yet in the beginning, the only people among his early audiences were Indians / Hindus, so he followed the advice of his guru which amounted to this: “Draw them in and hook ‘em with religion and then sneak in the non-dual message at the end.”
Thus, his early sessions included singing, some dancing about, and some narration, all of it only a bit less foolish than the emotionally-intoxicated worship-style of Pentecostals who raise their hands in the air and wave their arms about, who roll about on the floor uncontrollably, who dance wildly, who sing and chant, and who claim to “speak in unknown tongues.”
Later, Maharaj's “religious laboratory” would be shut down and replaced with a “spiritual laboratory,” and eventually that laboratory would be closed and replaced with a “psychology laboratory.”
Only then did Maharaj have his full and final “Eureka!” moment. Only then did he find the actual treatment for the Ultimate Sickness. Only then did the Ultimate Medicine contain exactly what is required to eradicate the Ultimate Sickness, not on a global basis but by treating sick personas (“persons”) one at a time.
That is why he eventually said:
"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."
"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"There is no progress."
"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you." [Wait. Did he say, "You have invented God"? Yes, he did.]
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
“From birth, what has made the body grow? It is no power in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the Self, the consciousness … call it what you will.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
“If they come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.” [Here, more often, they are stunned into shouting or being angry or walking out if they hear any pointers from Maharaj other than the ones they have read in that "modern spiritual classic" which some report is now "their Bible."] Maharaj also said:
“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 here are the ways that three supposed bases or roots or sources of the Ultimate Sickness differ:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a place where God / gods / goddesses abide that is beyond what is experienced in ‘this world.’ There are places beyond 'this world' where one can experience reward or punishment. If people live in a way that earns an eternal reward, then life in ‘this world’ will improve.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: "People are spirituality sick, and if they get spiritually well, it will cure whatever physical or mental problems they have as well. Establish conscious contact with God; be quiet and listen; then, you will hear him tell you what you need to hear."
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "If you believe you are hearing the voice of a God (or god or goddess) who is speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities."
Maharaj: “You know only what is in your consciousness. What you claim exists outside conscious experience is inferred” – meaning “supposed” or “mere conjecture,” such as in the case where concepts have been dreamed up about
a “second world for all of the good people” and
“a third world for all of the bad people” or
“one life and then reward for holy and pure people” or “multiple, miserable lives for not-holy enough people and for not-pure enough people.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] So, what else do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: RATIONALIZATION
Rationalization involves the twisting of facts, “putting a spin on” the way an event or action is viewed, distorting the truth, or trying to cast into a different light the way an event or action is perceived, especially to try to change others’ perceptions about an event or action as well as one's own.
Examples offered in the past to illustrate the use of this ego-defense mechanism included the husband who claimed that he did not have affairs with four women at work because “he only had oral sex with them” and included another man who called here crying about the fact that his employment had just been terminated - for the fourth time - because of sexual misconduct with subordinates at work.
He was crying the evening he called but by the next morning he had mentally restructured the truth, had distorted the reality of his conduct, had reframed his opinions about his circumstances and actions, had minimized the consequences of his behaviors on himself and the other employees involved who were also fired, so he said cheerfully, “What the heck . . . it’s all good!”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: SUBLIMATION
Sublimation is often used by persons with warped psyches who are thus driven by thoughts and emotions and urges that are deemed unacceptable in their culture; to try to avoid the consequences of those thoughts and emotions and urges if acted upon, a person might shift her or his focus – by becoming obsessed with physical exercise or spiritual exercises; by being obsessed with attending meetings or worship services; or by obsessively engaging in other activities rather than addressing the core issues that are generating those thoughts and emotions and urges in the first place. Rather than being free of fanaticism, the fanaticism in one area is substituted with fanaticism in another area.
[Consider those who ignore their families because their obsessive minds are driving them to drink alcohol obsessively but who eventually enter into "a program" that can - supposedly - address their problem(s). The result: they continue to ignore their families but now it is because of their new, substitute obsession, namely, their "program" or their "new friends." That is the result of sublimation as a "bad persona" is replaced by a new "good persona" or - more often - by a "really super, really good person" or even by a "Spiritual Giant."]
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: DISPLACEMENT
Displacement is a process by which a person might be angry with “A” but redirects that anger toward “B” instead. The classic example is the man who gets angry at his wife but rather than seek resolution around whatever their argument might involve, he kicks the dog or whips a child instead.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: UNDOING
Undoing is used to try to gloss over a “negative” comment or action by following it will all sorts of “positive” comments to try to “balance out” or counteract what one said or did. Rather than apologize, the attempt by the ego-state is to try to “save face” and avoid admitting to an error. The insulting of a mate, therefore, might be followed by praising the mate’s looks or intelligence (as if that, rather than an apology, can assuage the way the mate feels).
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: COMPENSATION
Compensation is a process whereby an ego-state tries to psychologically counterbalance perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas. The result is a reinforcement of a person’s self-image without having to address any actual relative “weaknesses.”
The consequences of duality - including personality identification, personality defense, and personality disorders which can lead to neuroses and psychoses - should be clear.
The disharmony that manifests via the use of ego-defense mechanisms to protect ego-states / personas / false identities will end if the steps are taken to be rid of one’s belief in ego-states / personas / false identities in the first place.
Any wonder - looking at all of the disharmony that follows ego-state assumption and ego-state defense and the personality disorders which follow - that sages had long advised persons to be free of all personality identification.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 October 2014
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: RATIONALIZATION
Rationalization involves the twisting of facts, “putting a spin on” the way an event or action is viewed, distorting the truth, or trying to cast into a different light the way an event or action is perceived, especially to try to change others’ perceptions about an event or action as well as one's own.
Examples offered in the past to illustrate the use of this ego-defense mechanism included the husband who claimed that he did not have affairs with four women at work because “he only had oral sex with them” and included another man who called here crying about the fact that his employment had just been terminated - for the fourth time - because of sexual misconduct with subordinates at work.
He was crying the evening he called but by the next morning he had mentally restructured the truth, had distorted the reality of his conduct, had reframed his opinions about his circumstances and actions, had minimized the consequences of his behaviors on himself and the other employees involved who were also fired, so he said cheerfully, “What the heck . . . it’s all good!”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: SUBLIMATION
Sublimation is often used by persons with warped psyches who are thus driven by thoughts and emotions and urges that are deemed unacceptable in their culture; to try to avoid the consequences of those thoughts and emotions and urges if acted upon, a person might shift her or his focus – by becoming obsessed with physical exercise or spiritual exercises; by being obsessed with attending meetings or worship services; or by obsessively engaging in other activities rather than addressing the core issues that are generating those thoughts and emotions and urges in the first place. Rather than being free of fanaticism, the fanaticism in one area is substituted with fanaticism in another area.
[Consider those who ignore their families because their obsessive minds are driving them to drink alcohol obsessively but who eventually enter into "a program" that can - supposedly - address their problem(s). The result: they continue to ignore their families but now it is because of their new, substitute obsession, namely, their "program" or their "new friends." That is the result of sublimation as a "bad persona" is replaced by a new "good persona" or - more often - by a "really super, really good person" or even by a "Spiritual Giant."]
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: DISPLACEMENT
Displacement is a process by which a person might be angry with “A” but redirects that anger toward “B” instead. The classic example is the man who gets angry at his wife but rather than seek resolution around whatever their argument might involve, he kicks the dog or whips a child instead.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: UNDOING
Undoing is used to try to gloss over a “negative” comment or action by following it will all sorts of “positive” comments to try to “balance out” or counteract what one said or did. Rather than apologize, the attempt by the ego-state is to try to “save face” and avoid admitting to an error. The insulting of a mate, therefore, might be followed by praising the mate’s looks or intelligence (as if that, rather than an apology, can assuage the way the mate feels).
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: COMPENSATION
Compensation is a process whereby an ego-state tries to psychologically counterbalance perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas. The result is a reinforcement of a person’s self-image without having to address any actual relative “weaknesses.”
The consequences of duality - including personality identification, personality defense, and personality disorders which can lead to neuroses and psychoses - should be clear.
The disharmony that manifests via the use of ego-defense mechanisms to protect ego-states / personas / false identities will end if the steps are taken to be rid of one’s belief in ego-states / personas / false identities in the first place.
Any wonder - looking at all of the disharmony that follows ego-state assumption and ego-state defense and the personality disorders which follow - that sages had long advised persons to be free of all personality identification.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] So, what else do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
It was seen yesterday that pools and streams are tributaries (or “contributors”) which fill rivers, often to overflowing and often with collections of contaminates and blockages; the rivers, in turn, eventually become distributaries / “distributors” of contaminants that pour into oceans and also fill them with contaminants.
With persons / humans / the non-Realized masses, the analogy is this:
Pools of nonsense and “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” gather and then become streams or tributaries (or “contributors”) which fill rivers (minds) to overflowing with contaminates and blockages (i.e., with concepts, ideas, notions, etc. which all combine to create a set of beliefs) which, in turn, allow the non-Realized to become distributaries (distributors) of those contaminants / blockages / nonsense / ignorance / stupidity / insanity in what is now a constant flow of misinformation and myths and superstitions and dogma and beliefs that are nothing more than total twaddle, drivel, gobbledygook, gibberish, babble, jabber, and garbage.
The contaminating garbage includes personality identifications / ego-states and a host of ego-defense mechanisms which persons use to defend their false selves and which keep them “oblivious to all except themselves.”
And most, in fact, are even oblivious to all those “selves” and are certainly oblivious to the hidden, subconscious agendas of every assigned and / or assumed personality / false identification.
To continue, then, with a discussion of the ego-defense mechanisms which seekers should be familiar with in order to (a) spot them when they arise and to (b) turn from them and thus allow them to seek Truth and the Understanding effectively.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: INTELLECTUALIZATION
Among some seekers, it is the tendency to prefer the use of intellectualization to support false identities which attracts some persons to jnana yoga. Many among those believe that their yoga has led them to wisdom when it has actually only led them to a sense of knowing, to accumulating knowledge, to accumulating (dualistically) the “right knowledge,” to accumulating the “true” knowledge, and / or to seeing one’s self as "The Knower" or "The Wise One" or "The Smartest One."
Personality Type Ones and Fives can be especially drawn to intellectualization because both love to use the phrase “I know” and because both love to accumulate strokes and admiration by sharing from their vast storehouse of knowledge (or - as Maharaj called it after he transitioned beyond his jnana yoga phase - “learned ignorance”).
Intellectualization leads to more and more thinking rather than to the zero-concept / no-mind / no-thinking / no-beliefs state which was endorsed by Maharaj. Thus, intellectualization can be used to defend many ego-states and to generate many others;
moreover, in almost all cases it is also a tool which allows persons to avoid touching the deepest truths about their actual condition and to avoid dealing with hurtful feelings that are rooted in the past, especially those involving past abuses of one type or another, thereby enabling them to distance themselves from events or behaviors (but not from the lingering, subconscious effects which are still driving them). Often, this mechanism works hand-in-hand with dissociation.
Seekers who are using intellectualization and who should be focusing on de-accumulation are often the ones who are prone to build up vast personal libraries which are put on display as an outward sign of their inner wealth of knowledge. They are especially prone to collect books by well-known and popular Big Name Teachers and will, therefore, be exposed not to pure non-dual pointers but to a combination of non-dual pointers and false teachings which have mass appeal in order to attract millions.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: REPRESSION
Just as the fears and desires and agendas of personalities all function at a subconscious level, repression also involves the unconscious action of blocking out what one does not want to admit to or deal with. (The beauty of the EMDR method that some few therapists use effectively is that it can reach the “repressed memories” of their clients, memories which are subconsciously driving them but have been blocked out and which are not being recognized as key motivators and controllers of persons.)
Many sages have long pointed to the totally-bogus nature of memories (or “samskaras” or “samskaras”) which are impressions which many live under the impulse of - or under the influence of - without even having a clue that such is happening.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: PROJECTION
Consider a rock tossed by one person at another or "projected" at another person. When an ego-state feels that it is being interfered with or attacked (an act which is as impossible as attacking a mirage but which is nevertheless deemed to be an actual attack by those subsumed by their false personality identifications), the ego-state will usually go on the offensive.
It will inspire the hurling of words at others, and such verbal attacks involve attributing to others all of one’s own “personality liabilities” or “negative, personal traits.” In fact, it is almost always the one projecting those traits who displays them rather than the one being attacked.
(Yes, on some occasions, both may well have the traits or “liabilities.”)
A woman that has been observed over the years is clearly suffering from the Borderline Personality Disorder (P.D.), from the Narcissistic P.D., from the Sociopathic P.D., from the Histrionic P.D., and from the Schizoid-Avoidant P.D.
Recently, however, she did some online research in order to be able to “understand her husband.” She reported that her research revealed that “he is unpredictable and that sometimes he is close but is distant at other times; that he is an egomaniac; that he can be very mean and cruel; that he can’t control his emotions; and that he prefers to escape and avoid the things that he should be dealing with.”
Those familiar with both understand that he displays none of those traits but that it is she who displays them all regularly. (And yes, he does have issues begging to be dealt with - just not her issues which she has projected onto him.)
That is what projection looks like when at play, and its use usually evidences the fact that the one using projection is the one with no real insight and acknowledgement of one’s own “personality traits and liabilities and flaws.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 October 2014
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
It was seen yesterday that pools and streams are tributaries (or “contributors”) which fill rivers, often to overflowing and often with collections of contaminates and blockages; the rivers, in turn, eventually become distributaries / “distributors” of contaminants that pour into oceans and also fill them with contaminants.
With persons / humans / the non-Realized masses, the analogy is this:
Pools of nonsense and “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” gather and then become streams or tributaries (or “contributors”) which fill rivers (minds) to overflowing with contaminates and blockages (i.e., with concepts, ideas, notions, etc. which all combine to create a set of beliefs) which, in turn, allow the non-Realized to become distributaries (distributors) of those contaminants / blockages / nonsense / ignorance / stupidity / insanity in what is now a constant flow of misinformation and myths and superstitions and dogma and beliefs that are nothing more than total twaddle, drivel, gobbledygook, gibberish, babble, jabber, and garbage.
The contaminating garbage includes personality identifications / ego-states and a host of ego-defense mechanisms which persons use to defend their false selves and which keep them “oblivious to all except themselves.”
And most, in fact, are even oblivious to all those “selves” and are certainly oblivious to the hidden, subconscious agendas of every assigned and / or assumed personality / false identification.
To continue, then, with a discussion of the ego-defense mechanisms which seekers should be familiar with in order to (a) spot them when they arise and to (b) turn from them and thus allow them to seek Truth and the Understanding effectively.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: INTELLECTUALIZATION
Among some seekers, it is the tendency to prefer the use of intellectualization to support false identities which attracts some persons to jnana yoga. Many among those believe that their yoga has led them to wisdom when it has actually only led them to a sense of knowing, to accumulating knowledge, to accumulating (dualistically) the “right knowledge,” to accumulating the “true” knowledge, and / or to seeing one’s self as "The Knower" or "The Wise One" or "The Smartest One."
Personality Type Ones and Fives can be especially drawn to intellectualization because both love to use the phrase “I know” and because both love to accumulate strokes and admiration by sharing from their vast storehouse of knowledge (or - as Maharaj called it after he transitioned beyond his jnana yoga phase - “learned ignorance”).
Intellectualization leads to more and more thinking rather than to the zero-concept / no-mind / no-thinking / no-beliefs state which was endorsed by Maharaj. Thus, intellectualization can be used to defend many ego-states and to generate many others;
moreover, in almost all cases it is also a tool which allows persons to avoid touching the deepest truths about their actual condition and to avoid dealing with hurtful feelings that are rooted in the past, especially those involving past abuses of one type or another, thereby enabling them to distance themselves from events or behaviors (but not from the lingering, subconscious effects which are still driving them). Often, this mechanism works hand-in-hand with dissociation.
Seekers who are using intellectualization and who should be focusing on de-accumulation are often the ones who are prone to build up vast personal libraries which are put on display as an outward sign of their inner wealth of knowledge. They are especially prone to collect books by well-known and popular Big Name Teachers and will, therefore, be exposed not to pure non-dual pointers but to a combination of non-dual pointers and false teachings which have mass appeal in order to attract millions.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: REPRESSION
Just as the fears and desires and agendas of personalities all function at a subconscious level, repression also involves the unconscious action of blocking out what one does not want to admit to or deal with. (The beauty of the EMDR method that some few therapists use effectively is that it can reach the “repressed memories” of their clients, memories which are subconsciously driving them but have been blocked out and which are not being recognized as key motivators and controllers of persons.)
Many sages have long pointed to the totally-bogus nature of memories (or “samskaras” or “samskaras”) which are impressions which many live under the impulse of - or under the influence of - without even having a clue that such is happening.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: PROJECTION
Consider a rock tossed by one person at another or "projected" at another person. When an ego-state feels that it is being interfered with or attacked (an act which is as impossible as attacking a mirage but which is nevertheless deemed to be an actual attack by those subsumed by their false personality identifications), the ego-state will usually go on the offensive.
It will inspire the hurling of words at others, and such verbal attacks involve attributing to others all of one’s own “personality liabilities” or “negative, personal traits.” In fact, it is almost always the one projecting those traits who displays them rather than the one being attacked.
(Yes, on some occasions, both may well have the traits or “liabilities.”)
A woman that has been observed over the years is clearly suffering from the Borderline Personality Disorder (P.D.), from the Narcissistic P.D., from the Sociopathic P.D., from the Histrionic P.D., and from the Schizoid-Avoidant P.D.
Recently, however, she did some online research in order to be able to “understand her husband.” She reported that her research revealed that “he is unpredictable and that sometimes he is close but is distant at other times; that he is an egomaniac; that he can be very mean and cruel; that he can’t control his emotions; and that he prefers to escape and avoid the things that he should be dealing with.”
Those familiar with both understand that he displays none of those traits but that it is she who displays them all regularly. (And yes, he does have issues begging to be dealt with - just not her issues which she has projected onto him.)
That is what projection looks like when at play, and its use usually evidences the fact that the one using projection is the one with no real insight and acknowledgement of one’s own “personality traits and liabilities and flaws.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] So, what else do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
Nothing on earth, nothing in this solar system, and nothing in the universe is static. All is changing, all is moving about; all is coming together; all that comes together will inevitably come apart; all is constantly in motion; all is constantly in chaos (therefore, so much for "there has to be a God . . . look at the perfect, orderly functioning of the universe, working like a fine timepiece"). No. All is in flux; all is constantly flowing.
What some call “the circle of life” is like a flowing river: on earth, it all began with the sunshine and a little spark of energy manifesting via earth elements; plants form with their many cells and some function as consumable plant food; those plant cells became transformed into other type cells, including deer cells, cow cells, human cells, etc.;
via an act of friction, cells can be transferred from one plant food body to another and if a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell, then another composite unity / human can develop as long as the mother with that impregnated egg eats plant food cells for a nine-month period; eventually, all three sets of those cells (a.k.a., "mother," "father," "child") which have come together will eventually come apart, as will everything else;
the conscious-energy that was manifested therein will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy, the earth elements will return to the universal pool of elements, and the air which was circulating throughout the elemental plant food body will be released and will return to the universal pool of air.
It’s all just flowing like a river, forever in motion, cycling through one season after another; through one decade after another; through one millennium after another.
Streams flowing into a river are called "tributaries." Then rivers flow into oceans. At the end, each river “comes apart,” so to speak, resulting in the formation of "distributaries" that flow into river deltas.
The rivers do not cease to exist because nothing can be created and nothing can be destroyed. The waters of the oceans will evaporate and rise, will form clouds which dump water in areas all around the globe, and will become tributaries which freed rivers; the rivers then dump their waters into the oceans and the process cycles, over and over and over.
That’s the way it is with humans when a composite unity comes onto the scene:
The rains fall in the form of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination. Those rains are tantamount to the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” that Maharaj cited as key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
A child’s brain early on will be flooded – will be inundated – as concepts function like tributaries, forming a river of “knowledge” (learned ignorance) that will flow into the child’s brain and is stored in the part called “the mind.” Those concepts are the infectious carriers of “ignorance and stupidity and insanity,” and they will flow through the mind for an entire manifestation if steps are not taken to be rid of them.
As they flow about inside the minds of persons (“persons” being those who have been assigned or who have assumed personas or personalities or ego-states as supposedly real identities), eventually those tributaries that formed the mind will become distributaries and all of the content of the mind will be dumped on other persons and will block the consciousness from seeing clearly, from seeing Truth. Only “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” will be seen, and those then spread like wildfire, like the most contagious and poisonous pandemic imaginable.
The “ignorance and stupidity and insanity”-based concepts will then flow out of the mouths of persons and then those thoughts and words will act in tandem to determine and control and drive behaviors. Chaos will reign.
What are the deltas in that analogy? They are the brains (and the lives) of the billions of persons into which the River of Ignorance flows, into which the River of Stupidity drains, and into which the River of Insanity is dumped. They are the people who have to deal with persons who are walking in their sleep and dumping their contamination into the environments of the people who are coming into contact with sleepwalkers.
How is that? All along the way as they flow forever toward the sea, rivers become more and more contaminated, filled with pollutants . . . made impure . . . become completely tainted. The same happens among the non-Realized masses: they become infected with the germs of the Ultimate Sickness that are carried – unknowingly – by almost every human on the planet and then dumped on the people around them.
Not to minimize the effects on the thousands who will not survive an Ebola infection or the Enterovirus D-68 virus, but while billions who are in fear of sicknesses that kill hundreds or thousands annually, those same billions are oblivious to the most widespread sickness of all - the Ultimate Sickness - which they have already contracted but about which they could care less.
They are ignoring the personality disorders that flow from the assignment and assumption of false identities; they are asleep to their use of ego-defense mechanisms to try to perpetuate their false identities and protect their phony public images; they allow the hidden agendas of their personas / ego-states to drive subconsciously their every thought and word and action which, in turn, generate throughout their relative existence the most destructive behaviors imaginable;
and they could care less about the relative effects on those having to deal with them. Being oblivious to all except themselves (to the desires and fears of their false “selves”) they could care less about the effects generated by their personas and their use of ego-defense mechanisms. That will result in their taking themselves very seriously.
Why not ask, "How much fun am I to be around, really?" Those types also take what I say very seriously (and send threatening emails when I tweak their personas on the nose). And they, like a river that has been contaminated all along the way from its source to the delta where it finally dumps all its contamination, they dump their contamination on the people around them all day long. No fun at all; thus, the wise for ages have suggested to seekers that they discard all personality identification, all of the content of the mind, and all use of ego-defense mechanisms.
If freed of personality identification, one is then freed from the use of egotism, denial, regression, dissociation, compartmentalization, and a host of other ego-defense mechanisms that sustain the high levels of Sickness that are plaguing the relative existence of humanity.
TOMORROW: More of the ego-defense mechanisms which persons use to defend their false selves and which keep them “oblivious to all except themselves.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 October 2014
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
Nothing on earth, nothing in this solar system, and nothing in the universe is static. All is changing, all is moving about; all is coming together; all that comes together will inevitably come apart; all is constantly in motion; all is constantly in chaos (therefore, so much for "there has to be a God . . . look at the perfect, orderly functioning of the universe, working like a fine timepiece"). No. All is in flux; all is constantly flowing.
What some call “the circle of life” is like a flowing river: on earth, it all began with the sunshine and a little spark of energy manifesting via earth elements; plants form with their many cells and some function as consumable plant food; those plant cells became transformed into other type cells, including deer cells, cow cells, human cells, etc.;
via an act of friction, cells can be transferred from one plant food body to another and if a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell, then another composite unity / human can develop as long as the mother with that impregnated egg eats plant food cells for a nine-month period; eventually, all three sets of those cells (a.k.a., "mother," "father," "child") which have come together will eventually come apart, as will everything else;
the conscious-energy that was manifested therein will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy, the earth elements will return to the universal pool of elements, and the air which was circulating throughout the elemental plant food body will be released and will return to the universal pool of air.
It’s all just flowing like a river, forever in motion, cycling through one season after another; through one decade after another; through one millennium after another.
Streams flowing into a river are called "tributaries." Then rivers flow into oceans. At the end, each river “comes apart,” so to speak, resulting in the formation of "distributaries" that flow into river deltas.
The rivers do not cease to exist because nothing can be created and nothing can be destroyed. The waters of the oceans will evaporate and rise, will form clouds which dump water in areas all around the globe, and will become tributaries which freed rivers; the rivers then dump their waters into the oceans and the process cycles, over and over and over.
That’s the way it is with humans when a composite unity comes onto the scene:
The rains fall in the form of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination. Those rains are tantamount to the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” that Maharaj cited as key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
A child’s brain early on will be flooded – will be inundated – as concepts function like tributaries, forming a river of “knowledge” (learned ignorance) that will flow into the child’s brain and is stored in the part called “the mind.” Those concepts are the infectious carriers of “ignorance and stupidity and insanity,” and they will flow through the mind for an entire manifestation if steps are not taken to be rid of them.
As they flow about inside the minds of persons (“persons” being those who have been assigned or who have assumed personas or personalities or ego-states as supposedly real identities), eventually those tributaries that formed the mind will become distributaries and all of the content of the mind will be dumped on other persons and will block the consciousness from seeing clearly, from seeing Truth. Only “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” will be seen, and those then spread like wildfire, like the most contagious and poisonous pandemic imaginable.
The “ignorance and stupidity and insanity”-based concepts will then flow out of the mouths of persons and then those thoughts and words will act in tandem to determine and control and drive behaviors. Chaos will reign.
What are the deltas in that analogy? They are the brains (and the lives) of the billions of persons into which the River of Ignorance flows, into which the River of Stupidity drains, and into which the River of Insanity is dumped. They are the people who have to deal with persons who are walking in their sleep and dumping their contamination into the environments of the people who are coming into contact with sleepwalkers.
How is that? All along the way as they flow forever toward the sea, rivers become more and more contaminated, filled with pollutants . . . made impure . . . become completely tainted. The same happens among the non-Realized masses: they become infected with the germs of the Ultimate Sickness that are carried – unknowingly – by almost every human on the planet and then dumped on the people around them.
Not to minimize the effects on the thousands who will not survive an Ebola infection or the Enterovirus D-68 virus, but while billions who are in fear of sicknesses that kill hundreds or thousands annually, those same billions are oblivious to the most widespread sickness of all - the Ultimate Sickness - which they have already contracted but about which they could care less.
They are ignoring the personality disorders that flow from the assignment and assumption of false identities; they are asleep to their use of ego-defense mechanisms to try to perpetuate their false identities and protect their phony public images; they allow the hidden agendas of their personas / ego-states to drive subconsciously their every thought and word and action which, in turn, generate throughout their relative existence the most destructive behaviors imaginable;
and they could care less about the relative effects on those having to deal with them. Being oblivious to all except themselves (to the desires and fears of their false “selves”) they could care less about the effects generated by their personas and their use of ego-defense mechanisms. That will result in their taking themselves very seriously.
Why not ask, "How much fun am I to be around, really?" Those types also take what I say very seriously (and send threatening emails when I tweak their personas on the nose). And they, like a river that has been contaminated all along the way from its source to the delta where it finally dumps all its contamination, they dump their contamination on the people around them all day long. No fun at all; thus, the wise for ages have suggested to seekers that they discard all personality identification, all of the content of the mind, and all use of ego-defense mechanisms.
If freed of personality identification, one is then freed from the use of egotism, denial, regression, dissociation, compartmentalization, and a host of other ego-defense mechanisms that sustain the high levels of Sickness that are plaguing the relative existence of humanity.
TOMORROW: More of the ego-defense mechanisms which persons use to defend their false selves and which keep them “oblivious to all except themselves.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday] So, what else do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
To review: THE CURSE OF HUMANITY
The wisest of all ages have long recognized that the curse of humanity is arrogance, a sense of entitlement, a sense of rightness in the right vs. wrong debate.
Narcissism and malignant narcissism (that being the kind of narcissism that is often exhibited by psychically unhealthy Personality Types Eights, many of whom exhibit one degree or another of sociopathic behavior) are among the key curses of humanity, and they are preceded by personality assignment and / or assumption and then being driven subsequently by the agendas of the various ego-states that persons assumed as identities.
If there is no ego-state, there will be no use of ego-defense mechanisms,
[Remember, personality forms in childhood, so ego-defense mechanisms are learned during childhood and are used from early on.]
If there were no use of ego-defense mechanisms, there would be no egotism, among others.
No ego = no egotism
It can be seen, therefore, that “being oblivious to all except yourself” continues because of
the use of ego-defense mechanisms
which can only come after
assuming ego-states as supposedly real selves / identities.
So the next questions are:
1. “What other ego-defense mechanisms will ego-states use to try to support and sustain themselves and to try to convince persons to believe that those false identities are actually real?”
and
2. “In addition to perpetuating the condition of ‘being oblivious to all except yourself,’ what are the other consequences of using ego-defense mechanisms?”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES - IN ADDITION TO EGOTISM - IS DENIAL
Denial leads to a refusal to accept the truth and the facts about one’s relative existence and about one’s flaws. A common example of denial that is often cited involves alcoholics / addicts who have major problems but who can deny for years that they have any problem at all and who claim that they would do just fine if everyone else would leave them alone and stop picking on them.
As with all ego-defense mechanisms, certain of the nine basic personality types are at play, coming to the defense of other assumed identities as well. Type Ones, who think they are perfect, are especially prone to the use of denial.
When discussing the result of an enneagram personality inventory, many Enneagram coaches will gloss over liabilities and accent assets in order to keep clients hanging on and to keep the cash flow going. Here, only the facts and the truth will be shared (cash flow be damned); thus, it is quite common for those who are invited . . .
. . . to look at their flaws objectively in order
. . . to be free of those traits
to disappear after one session.
If persons have a high Type One (“The Perfectionist”) score, they are not going to view themselves objectively and they are going to attack or run away as fast as possible from anyone inviting them to consider the actual facts and the actual truth surrounding their words and behaviors.
Personality Type Threes are the kings and queens of denial, forever “putting a spin” on any fact or truth regarding them that does not enhance their image or that might interfere with their receiving applause and admiration from the masses.
Personality Type Sevens, the most prone to develop the Addictive Personality Disorder, are – as mentioned above – also quite prone to the use of denial.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: REGRESSION
An adult facing an uncomfortable truth or fact can “regress,” that is, can "return to one's childhood" and, thus, to childish behaviors. In the previous example where perfectionists are invited to see the error of their thoughts and words and actions, if they use regression to protect themselves (their “selves”) they will – like a child – run away from the facts and the truth.
Regression can also drive some persons to regress to the childish behaviors of going to bed and staying there or sulking or pouting or throwing a tantrum.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: ACTING OUT
Acting out is used by those who have no willingness to sit down and calmly discuss with others any issues that need to be resolved; instead, they turn to physical responses. The NFL player who has abused two sons on two different occasions – most recently beating a four-year old with a stripped tree branch and a belt to the point that the child required medical care – was using this ego-defense mechanism, sustaining the image of “The Disciplinarian,” “The Great Parent,” “The One in Control,” etc.
Personality Types Two are prone to such histrionic conduct, as are Type Eight Bosses, Control Freaks, etc. Consider mates who punch holes in sheetrock when they are arguing with a mate, or who even punch the mate in the face with a fist, or who throw an object at the mate, or who throw a temper tantrum, or who fire four pistol shots through the door of the bathroom where their mate is hiding from them.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: DISSOCIATION
Personality Type Nines are especially prone to using dissociation, comparable in some ways to denial but far more subtle. Here, in the cases of some that have been worked with, Enneagram test results, metabolic body rates, and observation have all combined to expose a very high rate of depression, yet some – when that is shared – either deny the fact or are so dissociated from reality that their actual condition does not register.
Thus, they have been heard to say: "I am NOT depressed!" (sounding like death-on-a-cracker even as they cannot see their own truth which others can readily see). Those playing the role of "The Spiritual Giant" or "The One Who Has Attained Perfect Peace" are very likely to dissociate from their depression or anger or lack of peace.
Those using dissociation can say, “I had a great childhood, a really happy childhood” when all of the facts show that the exact opposite is the case. It has been said that “people who have a history of any kind of childhood abuse (or neglect) often suffer from some form of dissociation. In extreme cases, dissociation can lead to a person believing they have multiple selves” (a.k.a., the Multiple Personality Disorder”).
It has also been said that “people who use dissociation often have a disconnected view of themselves in their world. In this manner, a person who dissociates can 'disconnect' from the real world for a time and live in a different world that is not cluttered with thoughts, feelings or memories that are unbearable.”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: COMPARTMENTALIZATION
It has been said of compartmentalization that it “is a lesser form of dissociation, wherein parts of oneself are separated from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had separate sets of values." An example might be a person who has two totally-different value systems “that are distinct and un-integrated while remaining unconscious of the cognitive dissonance.”
An example might be someone who has built up a positive image in the community - only seen as being kind and caring and loving when in public - but behind closed doors their families only see a tyrant and a bully. (That is a common scenario with Personality Type Twos who also have a high Type Eight score: the Two is seen as a kind and generous helper but, when stressed or “holy,” disintegrates to the worse of a Type Eight and behaves like a sociopath . . . with varying degrees of severity among those types.)
Remember, the typical sociopath is not "a Ted Bundy, serial killer type." The typical sociopath is the controlling spouse, the overly-aggressive boss, the raging mate, or the unpredictable partner who can be kind and charming one moment but angry and hostile the next.
In a discussion fairly recently of what was revealed by a set of Enneagram test results, the Eight score was “through the roof,” but when that (and its implications) were pointed out to the person, she used compartmentalization, denial, and – finally – regression. The result: gone in a flash.
[Interestingly, the full-blown, truly-sociopathic Type Eights I’ve worked with have typically been quite willing to admit to all of the negative traits that manifest with that type, even laughing at how "spot on I nailed them" and their thought and behavior patterns. They just don’t care. But if a high Eight also has a high One score, then the self-concept of being perfect will result in what was just described above: those with that combination who are exposed to their facts and their truth are gone in a flash, driven to preserve the image they hold of themselves, namely, being flawless.]
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 October 2014
Being oblivious to all except yourself (that is, to “your selves” . . . to the desires of your false selves).
To review: THE CURSE OF HUMANITY
The wisest of all ages have long recognized that the curse of humanity is arrogance, a sense of entitlement, a sense of rightness in the right vs. wrong debate.
Narcissism and malignant narcissism (that being the kind of narcissism that is often exhibited by psychically unhealthy Personality Types Eights, many of whom exhibit one degree or another of sociopathic behavior) are among the key curses of humanity, and they are preceded by personality assignment and / or assumption and then being driven subsequently by the agendas of the various ego-states that persons assumed as identities.
If there is no ego-state, there will be no use of ego-defense mechanisms,
[Remember, personality forms in childhood, so ego-defense mechanisms are learned during childhood and are used from early on.]
If there were no use of ego-defense mechanisms, there would be no egotism, among others.
No ego = no egotism
It can be seen, therefore, that “being oblivious to all except yourself” continues because of
the use of ego-defense mechanisms
which can only come after
assuming ego-states as supposedly real selves / identities.
So the next questions are:
1. “What other ego-defense mechanisms will ego-states use to try to support and sustain themselves and to try to convince persons to believe that those false identities are actually real?”
and
2. “In addition to perpetuating the condition of ‘being oblivious to all except yourself,’ what are the other consequences of using ego-defense mechanisms?”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES - IN ADDITION TO EGOTISM - IS DENIAL
Denial leads to a refusal to accept the truth and the facts about one’s relative existence and about one’s flaws. A common example of denial that is often cited involves alcoholics / addicts who have major problems but who can deny for years that they have any problem at all and who claim that they would do just fine if everyone else would leave them alone and stop picking on them.
As with all ego-defense mechanisms, certain of the nine basic personality types are at play, coming to the defense of other assumed identities as well. Type Ones, who think they are perfect, are especially prone to the use of denial.
When discussing the result of an enneagram personality inventory, many Enneagram coaches will gloss over liabilities and accent assets in order to keep clients hanging on and to keep the cash flow going. Here, only the facts and the truth will be shared (cash flow be damned); thus, it is quite common for those who are invited . . .
. . . to look at their flaws objectively in order
. . . to be free of those traits
to disappear after one session.
If persons have a high Type One (“The Perfectionist”) score, they are not going to view themselves objectively and they are going to attack or run away as fast as possible from anyone inviting them to consider the actual facts and the actual truth surrounding their words and behaviors.
Personality Type Threes are the kings and queens of denial, forever “putting a spin” on any fact or truth regarding them that does not enhance their image or that might interfere with their receiving applause and admiration from the masses.
Personality Type Sevens, the most prone to develop the Addictive Personality Disorder, are – as mentioned above – also quite prone to the use of denial.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: REGRESSION
An adult facing an uncomfortable truth or fact can “regress,” that is, can "return to one's childhood" and, thus, to childish behaviors. In the previous example where perfectionists are invited to see the error of their thoughts and words and actions, if they use regression to protect themselves (their “selves”) they will – like a child – run away from the facts and the truth.
Regression can also drive some persons to regress to the childish behaviors of going to bed and staying there or sulking or pouting or throwing a tantrum.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: ACTING OUT
Acting out is used by those who have no willingness to sit down and calmly discuss with others any issues that need to be resolved; instead, they turn to physical responses. The NFL player who has abused two sons on two different occasions – most recently beating a four-year old with a stripped tree branch and a belt to the point that the child required medical care – was using this ego-defense mechanism, sustaining the image of “The Disciplinarian,” “The Great Parent,” “The One in Control,” etc.
Personality Types Two are prone to such histrionic conduct, as are Type Eight Bosses, Control Freaks, etc. Consider mates who punch holes in sheetrock when they are arguing with a mate, or who even punch the mate in the face with a fist, or who throw an object at the mate, or who throw a temper tantrum, or who fire four pistol shots through the door of the bathroom where their mate is hiding from them.
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: DISSOCIATION
Personality Type Nines are especially prone to using dissociation, comparable in some ways to denial but far more subtle. Here, in the cases of some that have been worked with, Enneagram test results, metabolic body rates, and observation have all combined to expose a very high rate of depression, yet some – when that is shared – either deny the fact or are so dissociated from reality that their actual condition does not register.
Thus, they have been heard to say: "I am NOT depressed!" (sounding like death-on-a-cracker even as they cannot see their own truth which others can readily see). Those playing the role of "The Spiritual Giant" or "The One Who Has Attained Perfect Peace" are very likely to dissociate from their depression or anger or lack of peace.
Those using dissociation can say, “I had a great childhood, a really happy childhood” when all of the facts show that the exact opposite is the case. It has been said that “people who have a history of any kind of childhood abuse (or neglect) often suffer from some form of dissociation. In extreme cases, dissociation can lead to a person believing they have multiple selves” (a.k.a., the Multiple Personality Disorder”).
It has also been said that “people who use dissociation often have a disconnected view of themselves in their world. In this manner, a person who dissociates can 'disconnect' from the real world for a time and live in a different world that is not cluttered with thoughts, feelings or memories that are unbearable.”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: COMPARTMENTALIZATION
It has been said of compartmentalization that it “is a lesser form of dissociation, wherein parts of oneself are separated from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had separate sets of values." An example might be a person who has two totally-different value systems “that are distinct and un-integrated while remaining unconscious of the cognitive dissonance.”
An example might be someone who has built up a positive image in the community - only seen as being kind and caring and loving when in public - but behind closed doors their families only see a tyrant and a bully. (That is a common scenario with Personality Type Twos who also have a high Type Eight score: the Two is seen as a kind and generous helper but, when stressed or “holy,” disintegrates to the worse of a Type Eight and behaves like a sociopath . . . with varying degrees of severity among those types.)
Remember, the typical sociopath is not "a Ted Bundy, serial killer type." The typical sociopath is the controlling spouse, the overly-aggressive boss, the raging mate, or the unpredictable partner who can be kind and charming one moment but angry and hostile the next.
In a discussion fairly recently of what was revealed by a set of Enneagram test results, the Eight score was “through the roof,” but when that (and its implications) were pointed out to the person, she used compartmentalization, denial, and – finally – regression. The result: gone in a flash.
[Interestingly, the full-blown, truly-sociopathic Type Eights I’ve worked with have typically been quite willing to admit to all of the negative traits that manifest with that type, even laughing at how "spot on I nailed them" and their thought and behavior patterns. They just don’t care. But if a high Eight also has a high One score, then the self-concept of being perfect will result in what was just described above: those with that combination who are exposed to their facts and their truth are gone in a flash, driven to preserve the image they hold of themselves, namely, being flawless.]
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Continuing with the discussion of the differing effects on humanity of the three perspectives referred in the series title above, 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 do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
They will lose another effect of having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated and, slowly but surely, put to sleep even while believing that they are awake. That additional effect: being oblivious to all except themselves (that is, to “their selves” and to the desires of those selves).
THE CURSE OF HUMANITY
The wisest of all ages have long recognized that the curse of humanity is arrogance, egotism, a sense of entitlement, a sense of rightness in the right vs. wrong debate, a sense of different-from-ment, and a sense of better-than-ment.
The chaos and misery and suffering and pain that are experienced by persons all around the planet are rooted in that curse which has led to a global pandemic as the Ultimate Sickness has now spread to every continent, every nation, every state, every city, and inside the walls of every home.
Persons are panicking over this virus or that virus or this disease or that disease while ignoring the most pervasive and costly illness of all: the Ultimate Sickness which all but a few have already contracted and are now spreading in their willy-nilly fashion.
And it all started thusly:
STEP ONE: First came the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which were rooted in dreams, that is, in dreamed up myths and superstitions and nonsense.
STEP TWO: Dreamed up myths and superstitions and nonsense – passed down generationally - evolved into widespread and widely-held beliefs and belief systems.
STEP THREE: Those set the stages for believing in the additional nonsense of body and mind and personality (ego-state) identifications.
STEP FOUR: The assignment and / or assumption of ego-states as identities led to the use of ego-defense mechanisms – such as egotism - to support and defend and “sustain” persons' beliefs in their personas / ego-states / false identities (which constantly feel as if they are under assault). Thus the concerns: “Are they buying into my image?” and “Are they believing that I am what I am pretending to be?” and “Should I stop being such as damn phony and seek authenticity?” which is a question that comes during a momentary break along the “defend my ego-states and my phoniness at all costs” continuum which is almost instantly repaired with the answer to that question then being, “Naaaawww.”
STEP FIVE: Such egotism led to arrogance, to a sense of entitlement, and to a sense of rightness in duality's right vs. wrong debate.
STEP SIX: That, and all other duality-based beliefs – have now led to global chaos and misery and suffering and pain.
DEFINING “RIGHT” AND “WRONG”: The Standardization, Normalization, and Codification of Duality
The various types of dogma (with 97% of the persons on the planet buying into one set of dogmatic beliefs or another) were originally spread by word of mouth. With the development of printing, the various sets of dogma of various religions were arranged into a systematic code.
That code was then written and published into various supposedly “holy” books and used by the various leaders of the various religions to define exactly “What you should do, what you can do, what you cannot do, and what the consequences will be if you do not do what you should do or if you do what you should not do."
All of the content of the “holy” books was supposedly “the inspired word of gods and goddesses” (or later, “the one, true God”) and the detailed defining of "right" vs. wrong" and "good vs. evil" removed once and for all any “gray” areas as religious commandments and laws and regulations and rules and decrees and edicts and directives and principles and orders and demands and instructions and mandates were set down in black and white.
All that was needed at that point for chaos and misery and suffering and pain and the effects of the Ultimate Sickness to take root all around the globe was for persons to be indoctinated and programmed and conditioned and brainwashed
(A) so they would believe that the content of so-called "holy" books, which were written by men with controlling agendas,
(B) were really written by their gods and goddesses or by their "one, true God" via the hands of "God's chosen representatives on earth."
THE NEW ROLES THAT EVOLVED: “The Judge,” “The Juror,” “God’s Representative on earth,” and “The Executioner”
The earliest religions taught that there are multiple gods and goddesses, each with varying duties. They were divided into three basic groups: “Creator gods and goddesses,” “Sustainer gods and goddesses,” and “Destroyer gods and goddesses.” Later, the first totally schizo God would be dreamed up when Abraham said that “there is only one god and he is a male” and the people said “Okay, but he’ll have to do what all of the other gods and goddesses were doing, so he must be an all-in-one creator / sustainer / destroyer.”
Thus evolved the notion of a creator God who supposedly “loves you unconditionally” but – because of his “Destroyer” persona’s duties - will "kill you and then punish you forever." [Talk about the insanity of duality.]
The message: "Want to avoid destruction and eternal punishment? Then be pleasing in the sight of a schizophrenic, sometimes loving god who is also sometimes cruel and mean" (meaning that their god suffers from a serious case of the Borderline Personality Disorder as well as the Co-Dependent Personality Disorder since people can make him pleased or can make him really angry). "Make him happy and do not make him angry and then you’ll be just fine."
Because most parents - then and now - were and are raised to be “godly,” they now behave just like that imaginary, schizo god and will sometimes play the role of loving parents who will also at other times play their version of the cruel and mean god. (Now that will inspire those parents who give their children the kind of beatings discussed recently, one which resulted in a child having open, bleeding wounds all across his back, his buttocks, his legs and his scrotum. And that often leads to hearing some really schizo comments like, "I did that because I love you.")
[Hummm. Wonder what kind of people the children who are treated in that manner will be attracted to when they reach adulthood? Maybe mates who say "I love you" even as they pile on loads of abuse? See how the ignorance and stupidity and insanity are handed down from one generation to the next?]
Gee, wonder why Christ, after receiving the non-dual message, whipped the money changers in the temple, left behind his priests, left begin their Torah, left organized religion completely, began sharing some non-dual pointers on hillsides and in private homes, and hung out with prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors and thieves?
Here, having spend time around those labeled as "the godly" and those labeled as "the godless," it was nature that was turned to for an example of the way to abide sanely and naturally. Looking at every living thing in nature, it was seen that the deer and the birds and the snakes and the spiders and the fish and all else – as except humans - were godless.
Among all of the millions and billions of life forms that have come and gone and among all that survive today, it was seen that all - except for humans - were godless; that all - except for humans - had no beliefs about any god or goddess or a “One, true God”; that - except for humans - none believed in a god or goddess or God and all were doing just fine. It was then seen that it was humans - who believe in gods and goddesses or in a God - who were also the only ones with hang-ups and fears and desires; that it was humans who were killing each other in the name of God; and then, it became clear that - as with Christ - hanging with the godless would be the only sane way to go.
In a discussion of various “self deceptions” in the eBook below entitled “Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships,” this was offered:
SELF-DECEPTION #5: Four Additional Versions Of "The Switch": The Saint To Scoundrel, The Scoundrel To Saint, The Whore To Nun, The Nun To Whore
"One’s personality type can integrate the best traits of one other personality type or can disintegrate into the worst traits of one other personality type. Ken said, “I don’t get it. I married a woman who was hot as can be. She was dynamite in the bedroom, but then she got religion and turned into a saint. She became picky and judgmental and perfectionistic. Things I had done all along were suddenly no longer acceptable. I married a woman who turned into someone completely different.” Ken was close to being right in his assessment. 'The Hot One; reformed and turned into 'The Nun.'
"In another example, Carole’s husband was the perfect man, a deacon in his church and a pillar of that community. He was saint-like, right up until he sold his SUV and bought a sports car and used it to drive his secretary away from both of their spouses and families. 'The Saint' became 'A Scoundrel.'
"Now, people will talk about how horrible it is when saints like Ken become scoundrels. But fewer are aware of how disgusting whores can also be when they become nuns and how revolting scoundrels can be when they become saints. Enneagram research shows that people disintegrate into the worst of a corresponding personality type under two circumstances: when they become stressed or when they become super holy.
"When people become stressed, a qualified counselor can often help. When people become Religious Giants or Spiritual Giants, there’s little reasoning with them. If you suggest counseling to get some help with the problems coming about as a result of the shift, you’ll likely be dismissed as some kind of “New Age Agent of Satan," as happened here. In war, nations label their enemies in order to 'de-humanize' them and to make destroying them more palatable. Once a Religious or Spiritual Giant starts labeling you, you’ve been 'de-humanized' in their minds. Punishment, or even destruction, will follow."
It plays out like this: “Open wide,” says the godly one. “Time for you to get your medicine.” "God’s Representative on Earth," assuming the schizo God’s “Destroyer” role, is ready to dole out the punishment which you deserve, in their opinion.
Now that will get you judged and critiqued; that will get you some beatings in childhood by "The God-Like Executioner"; that will get you some broken relationships when one’s mate refuses to attend worship services with him or her; and that will get you some public beheadings.
Since religions have developed and codified exactly what is supposedly “right” and what is supposedly “wrong,” it has fed the arrogance and allowed for the playing of the role of “The Judges” who critique others, the playing of the role of “The Jurors” and determining who is believed to be “right” or who is believed to be “wrong,” and then the playing of the role of “God’s Representatives on Earth” and the assumption of the related role of “The Executioners” who begin dispensing, right now, the punishment for all who have been determined to be “wrong” or "bad" or "evil."
Not being content with the notion of “the wrong” being allowed to wait for their eternal punishment to begin later when it is administered by gods / goddesses / a God, persons who assume that they are "godly" or who have assumed the role of “God's Representatives on Earth” will go about their task of doling out punishment now, immediately.
THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN A CO-DEPENDENT GOD WHO CAN BE MADE SAD OR WHO CAN BE MADE GLAD
The original “communion service” began as a process by which an angry Rain God was to be appeased in a process conducted by a priest (acting as “God’s representatives on earth”). The belief: What can result in calming an angry male more quickly than the experiencing of sexual release, which is always followed by a period of being soothed and relaxed?
Thus, the priests in the earliest communion services (acting as “God’s representatives on earth”) raped virgins before cutting out their hearts and eating the body and the blood and then passing it among the crowd for them to do the same.
Thereafter, the formerly sad God, once made glad, should send rain for the crops. Doesn't happen immediately? Select another virginal woman and repeat the process until rain does come.
THE KEY WORD: ACTING
Above, there was reference to those “acting” like “The Judge,” “The Juror,” “God’s Representative on earth,” “The Executioner,” “The Saint,” “The Scoundrel,” “The Nun,” and “The Whore.”
Those all deal with “actors,” with those trapped in false personality identifications. Those all deal with roles being acted out, roles which are rooted in the dualistic notion of “good” vs. “bad.”
Maharaj: “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.” See? Both concepts - “virtue” and “sin” - must be cast aside in order to cast aside the assumption of all of those “good” vs. “evil” roles that are assigned and / or assumed and then played out in ways that bring chaos and misery and suffering and pain to billions.
Again, when "Christ the Advaitin" looked at those role players, which ones did he move away from and which ones did he associate with?
TOMORROW:
Narcissism and malignant narcissism (that being the kind of narcissism that is often exhibited by psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights, many of whom exhibit one degree or another of sociopathic behavior) are among the key curses of humanity, and they are preceded by personality assignment and / or assumption and then followed by persons who are being driven by the agendas of the various ego-states that persons assume as identities.
If there is no ego-state, there will be no use of ego-defense mechanisms.
[Remember, personality forms in childhood, so ego-defense mechanisms are also learned during childhood and are used from early on.]
If there were no use of ego-defense mechanisms, there would be no egotism.
And if there had been no egotism, well, then there would have been no Catholic Inquisition; no American Holocaust perpetuated by Christians; and no European / Jewish Holocaust, also perpetuated by Christians. Heads would stay on shoulders instead of being lopped off every Friday in stadiums from Saudi Arabia to Kabul and all in between or in desert areas which are presently under the control of fanatics.
No ego = no egotism
No egotism = no judging
No judging = no fighting; no condemning; no battles in the home or streets or between parties or states or nations or religions; no summary executions on the streets of the U.S. and all around the globe; no broken relations; no wars; and no lopping off of hands or chopping off of feet or severing of heads from torsos as is happening right now, around the globe.
Such are the results of ego (of a false identification) and the use of egotism to support such ego-states.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 October 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 do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
They will lose another effect of having been bizarrely programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated and, slowly but surely, put to sleep even while believing that they are awake. That additional effect: being oblivious to all except themselves (that is, to “their selves” and to the desires of those selves).
THE CURSE OF HUMANITY
The wisest of all ages have long recognized that the curse of humanity is arrogance, egotism, a sense of entitlement, a sense of rightness in the right vs. wrong debate, a sense of different-from-ment, and a sense of better-than-ment.
The chaos and misery and suffering and pain that are experienced by persons all around the planet are rooted in that curse which has led to a global pandemic as the Ultimate Sickness has now spread to every continent, every nation, every state, every city, and inside the walls of every home.
Persons are panicking over this virus or that virus or this disease or that disease while ignoring the most pervasive and costly illness of all: the Ultimate Sickness which all but a few have already contracted and are now spreading in their willy-nilly fashion.
And it all started thusly:
STEP ONE: First came the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which were rooted in dreams, that is, in dreamed up myths and superstitions and nonsense.
STEP TWO: Dreamed up myths and superstitions and nonsense – passed down generationally - evolved into widespread and widely-held beliefs and belief systems.
STEP THREE: Those set the stages for believing in the additional nonsense of body and mind and personality (ego-state) identifications.
STEP FOUR: The assignment and / or assumption of ego-states as identities led to the use of ego-defense mechanisms – such as egotism - to support and defend and “sustain” persons' beliefs in their personas / ego-states / false identities (which constantly feel as if they are under assault). Thus the concerns: “Are they buying into my image?” and “Are they believing that I am what I am pretending to be?” and “Should I stop being such as damn phony and seek authenticity?” which is a question that comes during a momentary break along the “defend my ego-states and my phoniness at all costs” continuum which is almost instantly repaired with the answer to that question then being, “Naaaawww.”
STEP FIVE: Such egotism led to arrogance, to a sense of entitlement, and to a sense of rightness in duality's right vs. wrong debate.
STEP SIX: That, and all other duality-based beliefs – have now led to global chaos and misery and suffering and pain.
DEFINING “RIGHT” AND “WRONG”: The Standardization, Normalization, and Codification of Duality
The various types of dogma (with 97% of the persons on the planet buying into one set of dogmatic beliefs or another) were originally spread by word of mouth. With the development of printing, the various sets of dogma of various religions were arranged into a systematic code.
That code was then written and published into various supposedly “holy” books and used by the various leaders of the various religions to define exactly “What you should do, what you can do, what you cannot do, and what the consequences will be if you do not do what you should do or if you do what you should not do."
All of the content of the “holy” books was supposedly “the inspired word of gods and goddesses” (or later, “the one, true God”) and the detailed defining of "right" vs. wrong" and "good vs. evil" removed once and for all any “gray” areas as religious commandments and laws and regulations and rules and decrees and edicts and directives and principles and orders and demands and instructions and mandates were set down in black and white.
All that was needed at that point for chaos and misery and suffering and pain and the effects of the Ultimate Sickness to take root all around the globe was for persons to be indoctinated and programmed and conditioned and brainwashed
(A) so they would believe that the content of so-called "holy" books, which were written by men with controlling agendas,
(B) were really written by their gods and goddesses or by their "one, true God" via the hands of "God's chosen representatives on earth."
THE NEW ROLES THAT EVOLVED: “The Judge,” “The Juror,” “God’s Representative on earth,” and “The Executioner”
The earliest religions taught that there are multiple gods and goddesses, each with varying duties. They were divided into three basic groups: “Creator gods and goddesses,” “Sustainer gods and goddesses,” and “Destroyer gods and goddesses.” Later, the first totally schizo God would be dreamed up when Abraham said that “there is only one god and he is a male” and the people said “Okay, but he’ll have to do what all of the other gods and goddesses were doing, so he must be an all-in-one creator / sustainer / destroyer.”
Thus evolved the notion of a creator God who supposedly “loves you unconditionally” but – because of his “Destroyer” persona’s duties - will "kill you and then punish you forever." [Talk about the insanity of duality.]
The message: "Want to avoid destruction and eternal punishment? Then be pleasing in the sight of a schizophrenic, sometimes loving god who is also sometimes cruel and mean" (meaning that their god suffers from a serious case of the Borderline Personality Disorder as well as the Co-Dependent Personality Disorder since people can make him pleased or can make him really angry). "Make him happy and do not make him angry and then you’ll be just fine."
Because most parents - then and now - were and are raised to be “godly,” they now behave just like that imaginary, schizo god and will sometimes play the role of loving parents who will also at other times play their version of the cruel and mean god. (Now that will inspire those parents who give their children the kind of beatings discussed recently, one which resulted in a child having open, bleeding wounds all across his back, his buttocks, his legs and his scrotum. And that often leads to hearing some really schizo comments like, "I did that because I love you.")
[Hummm. Wonder what kind of people the children who are treated in that manner will be attracted to when they reach adulthood? Maybe mates who say "I love you" even as they pile on loads of abuse? See how the ignorance and stupidity and insanity are handed down from one generation to the next?]
Gee, wonder why Christ, after receiving the non-dual message, whipped the money changers in the temple, left behind his priests, left begin their Torah, left organized religion completely, began sharing some non-dual pointers on hillsides and in private homes, and hung out with prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors and thieves?
Here, having spend time around those labeled as "the godly" and those labeled as "the godless," it was nature that was turned to for an example of the way to abide sanely and naturally. Looking at every living thing in nature, it was seen that the deer and the birds and the snakes and the spiders and the fish and all else – as except humans - were godless.
Among all of the millions and billions of life forms that have come and gone and among all that survive today, it was seen that all - except for humans - were godless; that all - except for humans - had no beliefs about any god or goddess or a “One, true God”; that - except for humans - none believed in a god or goddess or God and all were doing just fine. It was then seen that it was humans - who believe in gods and goddesses or in a God - who were also the only ones with hang-ups and fears and desires; that it was humans who were killing each other in the name of God; and then, it became clear that - as with Christ - hanging with the godless would be the only sane way to go.
In a discussion of various “self deceptions” in the eBook below entitled “Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships,” this was offered:
SELF-DECEPTION #5: Four Additional Versions Of "The Switch": The Saint To Scoundrel, The Scoundrel To Saint, The Whore To Nun, The Nun To Whore
"One’s personality type can integrate the best traits of one other personality type or can disintegrate into the worst traits of one other personality type. Ken said, “I don’t get it. I married a woman who was hot as can be. She was dynamite in the bedroom, but then she got religion and turned into a saint. She became picky and judgmental and perfectionistic. Things I had done all along were suddenly no longer acceptable. I married a woman who turned into someone completely different.” Ken was close to being right in his assessment. 'The Hot One; reformed and turned into 'The Nun.'
"In another example, Carole’s husband was the perfect man, a deacon in his church and a pillar of that community. He was saint-like, right up until he sold his SUV and bought a sports car and used it to drive his secretary away from both of their spouses and families. 'The Saint' became 'A Scoundrel.'
"Now, people will talk about how horrible it is when saints like Ken become scoundrels. But fewer are aware of how disgusting whores can also be when they become nuns and how revolting scoundrels can be when they become saints. Enneagram research shows that people disintegrate into the worst of a corresponding personality type under two circumstances: when they become stressed or when they become super holy.
"When people become stressed, a qualified counselor can often help. When people become Religious Giants or Spiritual Giants, there’s little reasoning with them. If you suggest counseling to get some help with the problems coming about as a result of the shift, you’ll likely be dismissed as some kind of “New Age Agent of Satan," as happened here. In war, nations label their enemies in order to 'de-humanize' them and to make destroying them more palatable. Once a Religious or Spiritual Giant starts labeling you, you’ve been 'de-humanized' in their minds. Punishment, or even destruction, will follow."
It plays out like this: “Open wide,” says the godly one. “Time for you to get your medicine.” "God’s Representative on Earth," assuming the schizo God’s “Destroyer” role, is ready to dole out the punishment which you deserve, in their opinion.
Now that will get you judged and critiqued; that will get you some beatings in childhood by "The God-Like Executioner"; that will get you some broken relationships when one’s mate refuses to attend worship services with him or her; and that will get you some public beheadings.
Since religions have developed and codified exactly what is supposedly “right” and what is supposedly “wrong,” it has fed the arrogance and allowed for the playing of the role of “The Judges” who critique others, the playing of the role of “The Jurors” and determining who is believed to be “right” or who is believed to be “wrong,” and then the playing of the role of “God’s Representatives on Earth” and the assumption of the related role of “The Executioners” who begin dispensing, right now, the punishment for all who have been determined to be “wrong” or "bad" or "evil."
Not being content with the notion of “the wrong” being allowed to wait for their eternal punishment to begin later when it is administered by gods / goddesses / a God, persons who assume that they are "godly" or who have assumed the role of “God's Representatives on Earth” will go about their task of doling out punishment now, immediately.
THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN A CO-DEPENDENT GOD WHO CAN BE MADE SAD OR WHO CAN BE MADE GLAD
The original “communion service” began as a process by which an angry Rain God was to be appeased in a process conducted by a priest (acting as “God’s representatives on earth”). The belief: What can result in calming an angry male more quickly than the experiencing of sexual release, which is always followed by a period of being soothed and relaxed?
Thus, the priests in the earliest communion services (acting as “God’s representatives on earth”) raped virgins before cutting out their hearts and eating the body and the blood and then passing it among the crowd for them to do the same.
Thereafter, the formerly sad God, once made glad, should send rain for the crops. Doesn't happen immediately? Select another virginal woman and repeat the process until rain does come.
THE KEY WORD: ACTING
Above, there was reference to those “acting” like “The Judge,” “The Juror,” “God’s Representative on earth,” “The Executioner,” “The Saint,” “The Scoundrel,” “The Nun,” and “The Whore.”
Those all deal with “actors,” with those trapped in false personality identifications. Those all deal with roles being acted out, roles which are rooted in the dualistic notion of “good” vs. “bad.”
Maharaj: “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.” See? Both concepts - “virtue” and “sin” - must be cast aside in order to cast aside the assumption of all of those “good” vs. “evil” roles that are assigned and / or assumed and then played out in ways that bring chaos and misery and suffering and pain to billions.
Again, when "Christ the Advaitin" looked at those role players, which ones did he move away from and which ones did he associate with?
TOMORROW:
Narcissism and malignant narcissism (that being the kind of narcissism that is often exhibited by psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights, many of whom exhibit one degree or another of sociopathic behavior) are among the key curses of humanity, and they are preceded by personality assignment and / or assumption and then followed by persons who are being driven by the agendas of the various ego-states that persons assume as identities.
If there is no ego-state, there will be no use of ego-defense mechanisms.
[Remember, personality forms in childhood, so ego-defense mechanisms are also learned during childhood and are used from early on.]
If there were no use of ego-defense mechanisms, there would be no egotism.
And if there had been no egotism, well, then there would have been no Catholic Inquisition; no American Holocaust perpetuated by Christians; and no European / Jewish Holocaust, also perpetuated by Christians. Heads would stay on shoulders instead of being lopped off every Friday in stadiums from Saudi Arabia to Kabul and all in between or in desert areas which are presently under the control of fanatics.
No ego = no egotism
No egotism = no judging
No judging = no fighting; no condemning; no battles in the home or streets or between parties or states or nations or religions; no summary executions on the streets of the U.S. and all around the globe; no broken relations; no wars; and no lopping off of hands or chopping off of feet or severing of heads from torsos as is happening right now, around the globe.
Such are the results of ego (of a false identification) and the use of egotism to support such ego-states.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from yesterday]
The Realized lose tolerance for - and what is even at times the gluttony for - the burdens of multiples.
When operating a photography business and studio, the burdens which are guaranteed to accompany "multiples" became clear. After having photographed someone, the proofs from the sitting were soon delivered to the studio and there would follow a meeting with the client to view the proofs and to make selections to be enlarged and printed. Packages offered 5x7’s and 8x10’s or even framed portraits that were 18x24, 20x30, 24x36 or larger.
With single-subject proofs, the process was usually simple and easy, seldom took much time, and went smoothly overall.
When sittings were arranged for engagement portraits or couples photographs, the situation usually became a bit more complex: he liked shot “A” but she didn’t care for the angle of her mouth in that one; when she liked shot “B,” he might not have liked the way that his drooping right eye looked in that one. Trying to please two rather than one was more complicated.
When sittings involved a husband, a wife and a child or two, the problems increased exponentially; add in the family’s beloved pet and the situation became even more complicated. If there was a multi-generational portrait with 8 to 10 subjects or more, the difficulties became far more convoluted.
Singles? Easy. Couples? A bit more complex. Multiples? Forget it. And that's exactly what I finally did.
"Are you telling me that you’ll do a sitting for my sister and her boyfriend but you won’t do a sitting for me with my husband and three children?"
F.: "Righto. That’s what I’m telling you."
“Well up yours, you jerk!” [Click]
See, some suggest that, if Realized, one should “accept all.” Some say that “acceptance is the key to happiness.” One Big Name Teacher suggests that you should go beyond acceptance and “love what is”:
“Nazis toss your child into an oven? Don’t just accept it. Love it.” A woman who came here to be de-programmed and freed from the effects of years of listening to that teacher said that the woman told her that “to address your resentment, you should ask your rapist over for dinner . . . prepare a meal for him and serve him.” Really?
No. Do not invite your rapist to your home for dinner unless you are prepared to be raped again. Such advice and “teachings” amount to nothing more than one giant, heaping pile of insane BS, yet persons are paying thousands of dollars to hear that message which basically advises: “Don’t do what is really required to move beyond what happens to you, and don’t seek professional help with processing what has happened to you and is still impacting you; instead, just love it all.”
That comment is not unlike another statement that comes from persons who, like that teacher, are also Personality Type Threes: their favorite statement, used constantly to spin the truth and avoid facing reality, is: “It’s all good.” No. No it’s not. That’s not only more duality, it is more insanity being offered up in the cloak of “non-dual, recovery-related wisdom.”
Maharaj cared enough about the seekers that came his way to warn them about that kind of nonsense that was being spread by Big Name Teachers. Here, that same level of caring exists, so those who might be susceptible to listening to a Big Name Teacher like that have now been duly warned.
The facts are:
1. once Realized, there is no longer any “putting a spin” on the facts involving one’s reality / relative existence which is begging to be altered; and
2. the tolerating of burdens, manipulation, mistreatment, exploitation, battering, and abuse of all kinds (verbal, mental, emotional, physical, sexual, etc.) will no longer be deemed “normal” or “okay” or “acceptable,” much less “loved.”
Only those who have suffered extreme trauma, especially during childhood, will mentally normalize abuse (even into and throughout their adulthood) and will perceive mistreatment as something that is “tolerable” or “acceptable” or “okay” or as “something that will make you stronger or better.”
Once Realized, that which had been normalized is viewed without the filtration of programming, conditioning, etc. and is seen clearly via the light of sanity and is thus avoided, which is natural. The deer, which prefer the quiet, move away from the noisy teens in this area. They do not hate them. They simply move away and return to the silence of the forest.
Nor do the deer work at becoming “acclimated” to noise; nor do they develop relationships with the teens who throw rocks or sticks at them or otherwise try to hurt them. That would evidence insanity.
Similarly, with the Realized, there is a movement away from the burdens of multiples, from abusive types, from user types, from those who would manipulate, and from those who are trapped in ignorance and insanity and chaos and instability but who have no inclination to be free of any of that.
If Realized, one can make choices that are based in wisdom, and a sign that wisdom is at play is that all decisions result in a simplification of the relative existence. When driven by the hidden agendas of personalities - which all desire more and have a propensity for multiples of everything - one is sure to end up with a relative existence that will be marked and marred throughout by complications and complexities and convolutions.
TOMORROW: What else is lost via Realization? The tendency among the non-Realized to be oblivious to all except themselves (that is, to “their selves” and to the desires of those selves).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
3 October 2014
When operating a photography business and studio, the burdens which are guaranteed to accompany "multiples" became clear. After having photographed someone, the proofs from the sitting were soon delivered to the studio and there would follow a meeting with the client to view the proofs and to make selections to be enlarged and printed. Packages offered 5x7’s and 8x10’s or even framed portraits that were 18x24, 20x30, 24x36 or larger.
With single-subject proofs, the process was usually simple and easy, seldom took much time, and went smoothly overall.
When sittings were arranged for engagement portraits or couples photographs, the situation usually became a bit more complex: he liked shot “A” but she didn’t care for the angle of her mouth in that one; when she liked shot “B,” he might not have liked the way that his drooping right eye looked in that one. Trying to please two rather than one was more complicated.
When sittings involved a husband, a wife and a child or two, the problems increased exponentially; add in the family’s beloved pet and the situation became even more complicated. If there was a multi-generational portrait with 8 to 10 subjects or more, the difficulties became far more convoluted.
Singles? Easy. Couples? A bit more complex. Multiples? Forget it. And that's exactly what I finally did.
"Are you telling me that you’ll do a sitting for my sister and her boyfriend but you won’t do a sitting for me with my husband and three children?"
F.: "Righto. That’s what I’m telling you."
“Well up yours, you jerk!” [Click]
See, some suggest that, if Realized, one should “accept all.” Some say that “acceptance is the key to happiness.” One Big Name Teacher suggests that you should go beyond acceptance and “love what is”:
“Nazis toss your child into an oven? Don’t just accept it. Love it.” A woman who came here to be de-programmed and freed from the effects of years of listening to that teacher said that the woman told her that “to address your resentment, you should ask your rapist over for dinner . . . prepare a meal for him and serve him.” Really?
No. Do not invite your rapist to your home for dinner unless you are prepared to be raped again. Such advice and “teachings” amount to nothing more than one giant, heaping pile of insane BS, yet persons are paying thousands of dollars to hear that message which basically advises: “Don’t do what is really required to move beyond what happens to you, and don’t seek professional help with processing what has happened to you and is still impacting you; instead, just love it all.”
That comment is not unlike another statement that comes from persons who, like that teacher, are also Personality Type Threes: their favorite statement, used constantly to spin the truth and avoid facing reality, is: “It’s all good.” No. No it’s not. That’s not only more duality, it is more insanity being offered up in the cloak of “non-dual, recovery-related wisdom.”
Maharaj cared enough about the seekers that came his way to warn them about that kind of nonsense that was being spread by Big Name Teachers. Here, that same level of caring exists, so those who might be susceptible to listening to a Big Name Teacher like that have now been duly warned.
The facts are:
1. once Realized, there is no longer any “putting a spin” on the facts involving one’s reality / relative existence which is begging to be altered; and
2. the tolerating of burdens, manipulation, mistreatment, exploitation, battering, and abuse of all kinds (verbal, mental, emotional, physical, sexual, etc.) will no longer be deemed “normal” or “okay” or “acceptable,” much less “loved.”
Only those who have suffered extreme trauma, especially during childhood, will mentally normalize abuse (even into and throughout their adulthood) and will perceive mistreatment as something that is “tolerable” or “acceptable” or “okay” or as “something that will make you stronger or better.”
Once Realized, that which had been normalized is viewed without the filtration of programming, conditioning, etc. and is seen clearly via the light of sanity and is thus avoided, which is natural. The deer, which prefer the quiet, move away from the noisy teens in this area. They do not hate them. They simply move away and return to the silence of the forest.
Nor do the deer work at becoming “acclimated” to noise; nor do they develop relationships with the teens who throw rocks or sticks at them or otherwise try to hurt them. That would evidence insanity.
Similarly, with the Realized, there is a movement away from the burdens of multiples, from abusive types, from user types, from those who would manipulate, and from those who are trapped in ignorance and insanity and chaos and instability but who have no inclination to be free of any of that.
If Realized, one can make choices that are based in wisdom, and a sign that wisdom is at play is that all decisions result in a simplification of the relative existence. When driven by the hidden agendas of personalities - which all desire more and have a propensity for multiples of everything - one is sure to end up with a relative existence that will be marked and marred throughout by complications and complexities and convolutions.
TOMORROW: What else is lost via Realization? The tendency among the non-Realized to be oblivious to all except themselves (that is, to “their selves” and to the desires of those selves).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
3 October 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 do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Linked to the discontinuation of excessive accumulation, the Realized also lose their tolerance for - and what was even at times their gluttony for - the burdens of multiples.
The non-Realized think that they are most happy when they are able to store up multiples, a propensity which – like all of their propensities – is rooted in personality.
Consider the nine basic personality types: most persons are strongly driven by 3 to 5 types. All are also being influenced to one degree or another by the other 4 to 6 types. (The results of thousands of personality inventories have been seen, but what has never been seen is even one instance in which someone scored a “0” in any given type. All are being influenced, to at least some degree, by all nine types.)
In terms of the linkage involving the “propensity for multiples” and "being rooted in personality," everyone is driven to one degree or another by the hidden agendas of each of the nine basic types that are especially interested in multiples:
Type One Perfectionists want many people to see that they are right and that they all could be reformed for the better if all people would follow their advice.
Two’s want multiple persons to love them in order to compensate for the diminished or absent love that their fathers did not provide to the degree desired.
Three’s want multiple admirers and want the multitudes to applaud them and give them “attagirl’s” or “attaboy’s.”
Fives, like Ones, want multiples in the form of many people recognizing how knowledgeable they are.
Sixes want multiple sources of income or multiple supporters, including individuals as well as institutions.
Sevens want multiples of whatever they eventually become addicted to.
Eights want multiple sources of power, including all of the various instruments of power available in “this world” (and sometimes even “other-worldly” Power / Powers as well).
Nines want multiple sources of caretaking so they do not have to work.
Only Fours, accounting for only ½ of 1% of the entire planet’s population, are wired to be independent and comfortable in the solitude (or, in some less healthy cases, when isolated), so they are prone towards "less-ness" (except when it comes to their seeking which usually ends up involving multiples as well).
The Persona of “The Lover” and the Type Two “Love Addict” can both seek multiples, namely, multiple people who supposedly “love” them or “accept” them in order to try to overcome the subconscious beliefs which those personas share in common and which include the beliefs that “I am not enough” and “I am not good enough” so “I will never have enough.” The subconscious driver: "I need multiples – more and more – to overcome my sense of inferiority and the sense that I need more love."
“The Good Citizen” or “The Good Child” are a bit different, being less likely to co-habitate with one person after another but will usually marry one person after another instead. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Many especially fanatical Muslim men are “willing to die for the cause” so they will receive in paradise not only 72 virgins but also “thousands of virtuous wives” and “thousands of shameless, licentious concubines” as well. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Some religious people want to receive “an eternal reward” so they can have not multiple days to live but an infinite number of days to live, specifically, forever. Others expect to live multiple lives until they finally reach a state of Nirvana. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Other persons have multiple jobs though they could pay their bills with the income from one job if they were financially sane; many have multiple houses; some have multiple wives or husbands, all at the same time; as noted, some have multiples but at different times; and many have more and more children in order to . . .
“have more children to work the fields” (for those living in farming communities);
“to please my religious leaders who oppose the use of birth control (and want us to add to the membership rolls of the church);
“to feel like a real man”;
“to get all kinds of positive attention when people see our large family” (certain families even featured on nationally-broadcast morning shows in the U.S. each time they add another child to the mix);
“to receive additional financial support”;
“to share what I have” (as if sharing must involve only immediate family members?);
“to leave a legacy to the world”;
“to satisfy my tremendous love of babies”;
(and this, which was heard a month ago) “to receive attention and pampering from everyone each time I give birth”;
(and this, which was heard several years ago) "to make sure my husband can never afford to leave now that he’d have to pay alimony AND child support";
“to keep the family name alive” / “to pass down the family name”;
“to have more and more who will be dependent on me and thus love me, unconditionally” (which is called “emotional incest” by professionals who understand the perversity of stockpiling children and using them to try to get the love that one is not getting from a spouse, the love that one did not get from parents, etc.).
[A man recently shared / commiserated: “My wife is emotionally unavailable, and I loved having my son there to run to me and greet me when I came home in the evenings. I thought, ‘If that feels this good, then having a second child to join him and have both of them greet me will be doubly good.’ Now, I walk in to one case after another of sibling rivalry and the ensuing fights they have. Or I walk in and they are in the back room playing games or watching DVD’s and ignore me completely. Didn’t quite turn out the way I imagined. The bills have more than doubled, and the chaos has more than doubled, and my wife has moved farther and farther away from all of us, emotionally.” Then, after a long sigh: “I just don’t know what I was thinking.”
Exactly. Maharaj’s words - which had been shared before but which the man had not grasped - were shared once more. Maharaj noted that the “world” exists only as a dream in one’s consciousness, and dreams are, indeed, nothing more than that . . . mere dreams, never reality and never Reality.]
Maharaj was also into multiples at one point (or, more accurately, bought into the desires of a spouse who was driven by her desires for multiples). What did he later realize about the propensity to multiply in order to fulfill the agenda of one or more personas? “The ultimate in selfishness is to care only for the protection, preservation and multiplication of one's own body.”
He said, “To be selfish means to covet, to acquire, to accumulate . . . .”
Of more interest to non-dualists, though, is humanity's tendency to accumulate multiple personalities, which is itself a major psychological disorder and which might possibly be the most common mental disorder among humans because of the influence of duality and because of the early exposure to dysfunctionalism in childhood environments (which drives the develop of personalities).
That mental illness, once called "the Multiple Personality Disorder," is now called "the Dissociative Identity Disorder," which results in two or more split identities.
Early on, some who attempted to treat those with addictions spoke of the clients with more serious challenges as being “dual addicted.” Some therapists also spoke of clients with “dual personalities.” Two? Hell, two would be a piece of cake. It has already been shown that all persons are driven by the hidden agendas of all nine of the basic personality types to one degree or another and then all are usually assigned, or will adopt, 40 to 80 other identities or roles if they live fifty or sixty years.
Nowadays, some speak of “Dual Diagnosis” or “Dual Diagnosis Addiction” which is a term used to describe people with a mental illness (or with mental illnesses) who also have co-existing problems with drugs and / or alcohol.
That diagnosis of mental illness(es) points more toward the reality of those who come their way, as well as they who never come their way but would still be similarly diagnosed if they did. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Maharaj said: “In name and shape we are different, but there is no separation. At the root of our being we are one.”
Jesus reportedly said, after he was introduced to the non-dual teachings, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
MAHARAJ:
“There is no ‘my self’ and ‘his self’. There is the Self, the only Self of all. Misled by the diversity of names and shapes, minds and bodies, you imagine multiple selves. We both are the self.”
“The one witness reflects itself in the countless bodies as ‘I am’. As long as the bodies, however subtle, last, the ‘I am’ appears as many. Beyond the body there is only the One.”
“I am one, but appear as many.”
“The basic unity operates in spite of all.”
“The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”
“Love is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity.”
The Transcendentalists: “There is a unity beyond the multiplicity” (or, more accurately, beyond the "perceived multiplicity").
Were one to truly understand the pointers offered above, and if one were to truly grasp the truth behind those pointers, then those alone should be enough to inspire one to take whatever steps are necessary in order to lose one’s tolerance for - and what is even at times one’s gluttony for - the burdens of multiples.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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 do persons have to lose to Realize, and what else will they lose if Realized?
Linked to the discontinuation of excessive accumulation, the Realized also lose their tolerance for - and what was even at times their gluttony for - the burdens of multiples.
The non-Realized think that they are most happy when they are able to store up multiples, a propensity which – like all of their propensities – is rooted in personality.
Consider the nine basic personality types: most persons are strongly driven by 3 to 5 types. All are also being influenced to one degree or another by the other 4 to 6 types. (The results of thousands of personality inventories have been seen, but what has never been seen is even one instance in which someone scored a “0” in any given type. All are being influenced, to at least some degree, by all nine types.)
In terms of the linkage involving the “propensity for multiples” and "being rooted in personality," everyone is driven to one degree or another by the hidden agendas of each of the nine basic types that are especially interested in multiples:
Type One Perfectionists want many people to see that they are right and that they all could be reformed for the better if all people would follow their advice.
Two’s want multiple persons to love them in order to compensate for the diminished or absent love that their fathers did not provide to the degree desired.
Three’s want multiple admirers and want the multitudes to applaud them and give them “attagirl’s” or “attaboy’s.”
Fives, like Ones, want multiples in the form of many people recognizing how knowledgeable they are.
Sixes want multiple sources of income or multiple supporters, including individuals as well as institutions.
Sevens want multiples of whatever they eventually become addicted to.
Eights want multiple sources of power, including all of the various instruments of power available in “this world” (and sometimes even “other-worldly” Power / Powers as well).
Nines want multiple sources of caretaking so they do not have to work.
Only Fours, accounting for only ½ of 1% of the entire planet’s population, are wired to be independent and comfortable in the solitude (or, in some less healthy cases, when isolated), so they are prone towards "less-ness" (except when it comes to their seeking which usually ends up involving multiples as well).
The Persona of “The Lover” and the Type Two “Love Addict” can both seek multiples, namely, multiple people who supposedly “love” them or “accept” them in order to try to overcome the subconscious beliefs which those personas share in common and which include the beliefs that “I am not enough” and “I am not good enough” so “I will never have enough.” The subconscious driver: "I need multiples – more and more – to overcome my sense of inferiority and the sense that I need more love."
“The Good Citizen” or “The Good Child” are a bit different, being less likely to co-habitate with one person after another but will usually marry one person after another instead. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Many especially fanatical Muslim men are “willing to die for the cause” so they will receive in paradise not only 72 virgins but also “thousands of virtuous wives” and “thousands of shameless, licentious concubines” as well. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Some religious people want to receive “an eternal reward” so they can have not multiple days to live but an infinite number of days to live, specifically, forever. Others expect to live multiple lives until they finally reach a state of Nirvana. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Other persons have multiple jobs though they could pay their bills with the income from one job if they were financially sane; many have multiple houses; some have multiple wives or husbands, all at the same time; as noted, some have multiples but at different times; and many have more and more children in order to . . .
“have more children to work the fields” (for those living in farming communities);
“to please my religious leaders who oppose the use of birth control (and want us to add to the membership rolls of the church);
“to feel like a real man”;
“to get all kinds of positive attention when people see our large family” (certain families even featured on nationally-broadcast morning shows in the U.S. each time they add another child to the mix);
“to receive additional financial support”;
“to share what I have” (as if sharing must involve only immediate family members?);
“to leave a legacy to the world”;
“to satisfy my tremendous love of babies”;
(and this, which was heard a month ago) “to receive attention and pampering from everyone each time I give birth”;
(and this, which was heard several years ago) "to make sure my husband can never afford to leave now that he’d have to pay alimony AND child support";
“to keep the family name alive” / “to pass down the family name”;
“to have more and more who will be dependent on me and thus love me, unconditionally” (which is called “emotional incest” by professionals who understand the perversity of stockpiling children and using them to try to get the love that one is not getting from a spouse, the love that one did not get from parents, etc.).
[A man recently shared / commiserated: “My wife is emotionally unavailable, and I loved having my son there to run to me and greet me when I came home in the evenings. I thought, ‘If that feels this good, then having a second child to join him and have both of them greet me will be doubly good.’ Now, I walk in to one case after another of sibling rivalry and the ensuing fights they have. Or I walk in and they are in the back room playing games or watching DVD’s and ignore me completely. Didn’t quite turn out the way I imagined. The bills have more than doubled, and the chaos has more than doubled, and my wife has moved farther and farther away from all of us, emotionally.” Then, after a long sigh: “I just don’t know what I was thinking.”
Exactly. Maharaj’s words - which had been shared before but which the man had not grasped - were shared once more. Maharaj noted that the “world” exists only as a dream in one’s consciousness, and dreams are, indeed, nothing more than that . . . mere dreams, never reality and never Reality.]
Maharaj was also into multiples at one point (or, more accurately, bought into the desires of a spouse who was driven by her desires for multiples). What did he later realize about the propensity to multiply in order to fulfill the agenda of one or more personas? “The ultimate in selfishness is to care only for the protection, preservation and multiplication of one's own body.”
He said, “To be selfish means to covet, to acquire, to accumulate . . . .”
Of more interest to non-dualists, though, is humanity's tendency to accumulate multiple personalities, which is itself a major psychological disorder and which might possibly be the most common mental disorder among humans because of the influence of duality and because of the early exposure to dysfunctionalism in childhood environments (which drives the develop of personalities).
That mental illness, once called "the Multiple Personality Disorder," is now called "the Dissociative Identity Disorder," which results in two or more split identities.
Early on, some who attempted to treat those with addictions spoke of the clients with more serious challenges as being “dual addicted.” Some therapists also spoke of clients with “dual personalities.” Two? Hell, two would be a piece of cake. It has already been shown that all persons are driven by the hidden agendas of all nine of the basic personality types to one degree or another and then all are usually assigned, or will adopt, 40 to 80 other identities or roles if they live fifty or sixty years.
Nowadays, some speak of “Dual Diagnosis” or “Dual Diagnosis Addiction” which is a term used to describe people with a mental illness (or with mental illnesses) who also have co-existing problems with drugs and / or alcohol.
That diagnosis of mental illness(es) points more toward the reality of those who come their way, as well as they who never come their way but would still be similarly diagnosed if they did. Multiples. Multiples. Multiples.
Maharaj said: “In name and shape we are different, but there is no separation. At the root of our being we are one.”
Jesus reportedly said, after he was introduced to the non-dual teachings, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
MAHARAJ:
“There is no ‘my self’ and ‘his self’. There is the Self, the only Self of all. Misled by the diversity of names and shapes, minds and bodies, you imagine multiple selves. We both are the self.”
“The one witness reflects itself in the countless bodies as ‘I am’. As long as the bodies, however subtle, last, the ‘I am’ appears as many. Beyond the body there is only the One.”
“I am one, but appear as many.”
“The basic unity operates in spite of all.”
“The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”
“Love is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity.”
The Transcendentalists: “There is a unity beyond the multiplicity” (or, more accurately, beyond the "perceived multiplicity").
Were one to truly understand the pointers offered above, and if one were to truly grasp the truth behind those pointers, then those alone should be enough to inspire one to take whatever steps are necessary in order to lose one’s tolerance for - and what is even at times one’s gluttony for - the burdens of multiples.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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.
"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.
* * * * * * *
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[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.]
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WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
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.
[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)
