A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: To review: as for WHY people seek, the possibilities are numerous:
1. Because of fear;
2. because of desire;
3. Because of discomfort;
4. because they want freedom;
5. because they have been seen as being “bad” but want to be seen as being “good” (in order to keep what they have or to get what they do not have, or both);
6. because the consciousness automatically wants continuity, so they spend an entire existence being driven by fears and by desires involving the false concept of continuity;
7. because they have been fooled, made to believe – almost since “day one” - a plethora of beliefs that are totally false, totally magical, totally supernatural beliefs about:
a. “gods” and “goddesses” or “a God” or “Sky Deities” or “Sky Kings and Queens” or “a Heavenly Father” or “a Son of Heaven”; and about
b. reincarnation and multiple lives and how to escape the potentially-endless cycles of rebirth-life-death-rebirth; and about
c. “souls” and “spirits” and “eternal life” and “eternal reward” both “now” and “later” or “eternal punishment” both “now” and “later” or “the afterlife”; and about
d. “Heaven” or "Vaikuntha” or “Tian” or "The Upper World of Heavenly Gods" or a "Higher Place" or “a Higher Plane” or a “Better World” or “The Holiest Place” or “Paradise” or “Purgatory” or “Hell” or “an Underworld” or “Another World” or something attained, such as “Nirvana or Moksha” or "a place where endless carnal pleasures await those who die fighting for God, including seventy-two virgins, thousands of wives, and thousands of concubines" or “several heavens with varying levels of pleasure” or “Five Major Types of Heaven” or “many planes beyond the earthly plane” or “The Good Kingdom” or “The Final Communion with Brahman,” etc.; or
8. because of illusions and delusions;
9. because they have been fooled by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination;
10. because they have been fooled by being led to believe that great punishment awaits those who question any aspect of the dogma which they have been taught;
11. because they have unquestioningly succumbed to being manipulated into living a life according to the dictates of those who either (a) dangle a carrot of reward or who (b) make threats about your being punished forever if you does not believe "by blind faith alone" all that you were told;
12. because of belief systems that are based in total delusion:
13. because they are seeking a “good and happy ending”;
14. because all on the planet have been raised in a dysfunctional environment which is the cause of the development of personality;
and
15. because the development of personality removes from persons the ability to be free of a constantly-in-motion train of thoughts which are endlessly churning away in a fiction-filled mind
and
16. because the development of personality is in place by the age of five or six, causing persons to fixate at that level, the result of which is that the hidden agendas of personalities - for the rest of one’s entire life - will determine (subconsciously and unconsciously) every thought that is thought, every word that is spoken, and every action that happens.
As for HOW the seeking unfolds? It unfolds in a way that a child would go about the process.
That has to be the case because personality (which forms during childhood and locks all persons into a "child mode"), results in persons of all ages acting like a child.
So HOW else will the seeking have to unfold?
In a way that a six-year-old in a forty-year-old body would seek.
In a way that is driven by childish fears and childish desires.
In a way that is selfish.
In a way in which an adult male acts more like a little boy than an adult or in a way in which an adult female acts more like a little girl than an adult.
Only the non-dual method combined with the Nisarga Yoga suggests that you do not need to learn more, that you do not need to accumulate more religious or spiritual concepts, that you do not need to acquire more knowledge (a.k.a., learned ignorance) and that, if freed of all that you have been taught and / or learned, you can give up your childish ways and function as a sane and reasonable and mature adult would, and that can happen throughout the remainder of the manifestation.
It was a wise Cherokee chief who made clear that I was conducting “my search” in a way that a child would. The meeting with the chief is recounted in the non-duality-based novel, “The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders” with "floyd’s" fictional name in the novel being “Kirk.” After sharing how much seeking he had done without finding all that he had sought, Kirk was offered some advice:
Now some might say, “Ah, I see what’s missing. Here’s your problem. You’ve never been to the mountaintop and talked to The Wise Man you’ll meet there.” But Kirk would say, “Oh, but I have, O Sayer of the False.”
Yes, Kirk had even been to the mountaintop, or darn close to it, when he traveled from his home to the airport in Houston and into Albuquerque; from there, he rented a car, drove from that city into Santa Fe, New Mexico, and climbed—via his rented auto—up the side of the white-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains, all for the promise of getting the chance to spend one hour with a full-blooded Cherokee Man of Wisdom, a Real, modern-day Soothsayer.
Once there, The Wise Man asked of Kirk, “Tell me what you have done so far on your search.” In his anal way at that time, Kirk took forty minutes to provide for the chief a detailed cataloguing of all of his spiritual work to date, as delightful a dose of divine workaholism as ever heard. Then the chief inquired, “OK. Now tell me all that you have not yet done on your search that you are planning to do.” That took Kirk another twenty minutes, enumerating the elements in his game plan for gaining greater godliness and even more spirituality in the future.
At the end of his one-hour session, which had come at the conclusion of a very long journey, Kirk finally fell quiet and looked at the chief. The chief gazed directly at Kirk, but not into Kirk’s eyes. The stare from the chief pierced to a depth much deeper than the eyes, not unlike an arrow shot with such force that it not only reached its target but breached its way through the objective as well. The look altered into one of those soul-penetrating stares, coming at Kirk from the now-narrowed eyes of a Wise Man, like a hawk’s glare fixed on a soon-to-be slain mouse. Several times, Kirk had to look down to sever this discomforting link, but each time he glanced up, the chief stared him down again.
Finally, the Cherokee rose, using the two canes now required for moving about on his ancient legs. Tottering over Kirk, he fixed his eyes again on this seeker, and Kirk became convinced that the Words of Wisdom he had come so far to hear would emerge within seconds. The words, Kirk trusted, would provide the penultimate key. That penultimate key would then be used in the ultimate act required for the opening of his mind to a new and definitive level of freedom and independence. He waited with bated breath; his pulse quickened; his mind seemed already to be opening more than ever before. Finally, just about to come his way—he felt assured—would be the Secret Knowledge that unravels all mysteries, the key that would allow Full and Final Knowingness to manifest.
Instead, the chief proclaimed in a way-too-matter-of-fact manner, “Well, then. You’re going to be a very busy boy.” And with that, the old man hobbled away, in a way that told Kirk without the least doubt at all that he would hear nothing more, ever, from the chief. Kirk’s breath was not now bated; his pulse quickened even more; his mind snapped shut like a spring-loaded trap. Kirk flashed back over all required to arrive in Santa Fe and to sit in the presence of the chief, all the time, all the money, all the effort, only to hear … that?
Kirk’s pseudo-spirituality dissolved, replaced with fury. He thought suddenly that those two canes might better be used to serve up a brutal pummeling across the back and neck and head of this clearly Not-Wise-Man. Only later would the tremendous value of the chief’s ten words become clear. And later, that wisdom, along with the connection Kirk had with his grandmother, would inspire Kirk to once again seek insight from a different Cherokee chief.
Another reaction came as well with the thought: “And where the hell did he come up with ‘boy’?! Boy!? How dare him. I’m a grown man!" to which any wise and objective witness would have asked:
“Oh? Really?”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
19 October 2014
1. Because of fear;
2. because of desire;
3. Because of discomfort;
4. because they want freedom;
5. because they have been seen as being “bad” but want to be seen as being “good” (in order to keep what they have or to get what they do not have, or both);
6. because the consciousness automatically wants continuity, so they spend an entire existence being driven by fears and by desires involving the false concept of continuity;
7. because they have been fooled, made to believe – almost since “day one” - a plethora of beliefs that are totally false, totally magical, totally supernatural beliefs about:
a. “gods” and “goddesses” or “a God” or “Sky Deities” or “Sky Kings and Queens” or “a Heavenly Father” or “a Son of Heaven”; and about
b. reincarnation and multiple lives and how to escape the potentially-endless cycles of rebirth-life-death-rebirth; and about
c. “souls” and “spirits” and “eternal life” and “eternal reward” both “now” and “later” or “eternal punishment” both “now” and “later” or “the afterlife”; and about
d. “Heaven” or "Vaikuntha” or “Tian” or "The Upper World of Heavenly Gods" or a "Higher Place" or “a Higher Plane” or a “Better World” or “The Holiest Place” or “Paradise” or “Purgatory” or “Hell” or “an Underworld” or “Another World” or something attained, such as “Nirvana or Moksha” or "a place where endless carnal pleasures await those who die fighting for God, including seventy-two virgins, thousands of wives, and thousands of concubines" or “several heavens with varying levels of pleasure” or “Five Major Types of Heaven” or “many planes beyond the earthly plane” or “The Good Kingdom” or “The Final Communion with Brahman,” etc.; or
8. because of illusions and delusions;
9. because they have been fooled by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination;
10. because they have been fooled by being led to believe that great punishment awaits those who question any aspect of the dogma which they have been taught;
11. because they have unquestioningly succumbed to being manipulated into living a life according to the dictates of those who either (a) dangle a carrot of reward or who (b) make threats about your being punished forever if you does not believe "by blind faith alone" all that you were told;
12. because of belief systems that are based in total delusion:
13. because they are seeking a “good and happy ending”;
14. because all on the planet have been raised in a dysfunctional environment which is the cause of the development of personality;
and
15. because the development of personality removes from persons the ability to be free of a constantly-in-motion train of thoughts which are endlessly churning away in a fiction-filled mind
and
16. because the development of personality is in place by the age of five or six, causing persons to fixate at that level, the result of which is that the hidden agendas of personalities - for the rest of one’s entire life - will determine (subconsciously and unconsciously) every thought that is thought, every word that is spoken, and every action that happens.
As for HOW the seeking unfolds? It unfolds in a way that a child would go about the process.
That has to be the case because personality (which forms during childhood and locks all persons into a "child mode"), results in persons of all ages acting like a child.
So HOW else will the seeking have to unfold?
In a way that a six-year-old in a forty-year-old body would seek.
In a way that is driven by childish fears and childish desires.
In a way that is selfish.
In a way in which an adult male acts more like a little boy than an adult or in a way in which an adult female acts more like a little girl than an adult.
Only the non-dual method combined with the Nisarga Yoga suggests that you do not need to learn more, that you do not need to accumulate more religious or spiritual concepts, that you do not need to acquire more knowledge (a.k.a., learned ignorance) and that, if freed of all that you have been taught and / or learned, you can give up your childish ways and function as a sane and reasonable and mature adult would, and that can happen throughout the remainder of the manifestation.
It was a wise Cherokee chief who made clear that I was conducting “my search” in a way that a child would. The meeting with the chief is recounted in the non-duality-based novel, “The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders” with "floyd’s" fictional name in the novel being “Kirk.” After sharing how much seeking he had done without finding all that he had sought, Kirk was offered some advice:
Now some might say, “Ah, I see what’s missing. Here’s your problem. You’ve never been to the mountaintop and talked to The Wise Man you’ll meet there.” But Kirk would say, “Oh, but I have, O Sayer of the False.”
Yes, Kirk had even been to the mountaintop, or darn close to it, when he traveled from his home to the airport in Houston and into Albuquerque; from there, he rented a car, drove from that city into Santa Fe, New Mexico, and climbed—via his rented auto—up the side of the white-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains, all for the promise of getting the chance to spend one hour with a full-blooded Cherokee Man of Wisdom, a Real, modern-day Soothsayer.
Once there, The Wise Man asked of Kirk, “Tell me what you have done so far on your search.” In his anal way at that time, Kirk took forty minutes to provide for the chief a detailed cataloguing of all of his spiritual work to date, as delightful a dose of divine workaholism as ever heard. Then the chief inquired, “OK. Now tell me all that you have not yet done on your search that you are planning to do.” That took Kirk another twenty minutes, enumerating the elements in his game plan for gaining greater godliness and even more spirituality in the future.
At the end of his one-hour session, which had come at the conclusion of a very long journey, Kirk finally fell quiet and looked at the chief. The chief gazed directly at Kirk, but not into Kirk’s eyes. The stare from the chief pierced to a depth much deeper than the eyes, not unlike an arrow shot with such force that it not only reached its target but breached its way through the objective as well. The look altered into one of those soul-penetrating stares, coming at Kirk from the now-narrowed eyes of a Wise Man, like a hawk’s glare fixed on a soon-to-be slain mouse. Several times, Kirk had to look down to sever this discomforting link, but each time he glanced up, the chief stared him down again.
Finally, the Cherokee rose, using the two canes now required for moving about on his ancient legs. Tottering over Kirk, he fixed his eyes again on this seeker, and Kirk became convinced that the Words of Wisdom he had come so far to hear would emerge within seconds. The words, Kirk trusted, would provide the penultimate key. That penultimate key would then be used in the ultimate act required for the opening of his mind to a new and definitive level of freedom and independence. He waited with bated breath; his pulse quickened; his mind seemed already to be opening more than ever before. Finally, just about to come his way—he felt assured—would be the Secret Knowledge that unravels all mysteries, the key that would allow Full and Final Knowingness to manifest.
Instead, the chief proclaimed in a way-too-matter-of-fact manner, “Well, then. You’re going to be a very busy boy.” And with that, the old man hobbled away, in a way that told Kirk without the least doubt at all that he would hear nothing more, ever, from the chief. Kirk’s breath was not now bated; his pulse quickened even more; his mind snapped shut like a spring-loaded trap. Kirk flashed back over all required to arrive in Santa Fe and to sit in the presence of the chief, all the time, all the money, all the effort, only to hear … that?
Kirk’s pseudo-spirituality dissolved, replaced with fury. He thought suddenly that those two canes might better be used to serve up a brutal pummeling across the back and neck and head of this clearly Not-Wise-Man. Only later would the tremendous value of the chief’s ten words become clear. And later, that wisdom, along with the connection Kirk had with his grandmother, would inspire Kirk to once again seek insight from a different Cherokee chief.
Another reaction came as well with the thought: “And where the hell did he come up with ‘boy’?! Boy!? How dare him. I’m a grown man!" to which any wise and objective witness would have asked:
“Oh? Really?”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
NOTE: Sections Two through Six follow:
Section Two offers other recent posts. (All of the nearly 2,400 posts as well as any specific topics which you’re interested in can be accessed by using the search feature at the top of the right column.)
Section Three offers ways that seekers have Realized, tools which some have used, and information on floyd's books.
Section Four offers three free eBooks, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.
Section Five discusses parallels in Maharaj's and Floyd's "journey" and provides a chance for you to see if you've had any such parallels as well.
Section Six offers information on paperbacks that are available through Amazon.com for those who prefer a book in hand.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
Section Two offers other recent posts. (All of the nearly 2,400 posts as well as any specific topics which you’re interested in can be accessed by using the search feature at the top of the right column.)
Section Three offers ways that seekers have Realized, tools which some have used, and information on floyd's books.
Section Four offers three free eBooks, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.
Section Five discusses parallels in Maharaj's and Floyd's "journey" and provides a chance for you to see if you've had any such parallels as well.
Section Six offers information on paperbacks that are available through Amazon.com for those who prefer a book in hand.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
19 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek. Why? Because 97% report an affiliation with (a) one religion or another or an affiliation with (b) one spiritual group or program or movement or another. They think they already know, so they do not believe that there is anything to seek because they have found it all or they have found an associate or associates who know it all. They see no need to seek outside their present religion / spiritual group / cult.
For those few who are seeking or who will seek: in terms of searching, there are three aspects that most seekers who have come this way were not even conscious of until the topic was broached.
Aspect #1: Most do not have a clue about WHY they are seeking, so their seeking will come to involve a “journey” that will include multiple “paths” and numerous divergences and a variety of ineffective methods that lead everywhere . . . except to that which is truly being sought (but being sought as a result of subconscious motives).
Aspect #2: The result referenced in “Aspect #1” is aggravated by the fact that most think they know WHAT they are seeking when, in fact, what they have been told to seek does not exist or they really cannot actually define succinctly exactly what it is which they think they are seeking or should be seeking.
Aspect 3: Moreover, most seekers do not have a clue about HOW they are seeking, and when they are told – as will happen in this series – they become angry or dig deeper into denial. So it is.
Most do not want to be quiet long enough to hear Truth, most do not sincerely want to hear Truth (especially “their own truth”), and most persons - who are dependent and insecure and who want to be liked – do not want to speak Truth and do not have the courage to speak the Truth if they happen to understand it.
(Those who tell people only what they want to hear are still so deeply trapped in personality that their belief - that they “know” and “understand” and “have Realized” - is their greatest distortion and self-delusion of all. When the last "person" is gone, only the pure consciousness can speak, and the pure consciousness can only speak Truth.)
Note also that one cannot hear Truth when one is talking. Maharaj: “Truth is not . . . a prize for passing some tests. You are eligible because you are.” To receive it: “Stand still, be quiet.” To those who claim they want Truth, the fact is that most only give lip service to their willing to find and accept the Truth - especially when it comes to the truth about the facts surrounding their false selves and the actual state of their relative existence:
Maharaj said: “You are asking for truth, but in fact you merely seek comfort, which you want to last forever.” [Thus, few will ever grasp this: “It is always the false that makes you suffer: the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false ‘relationships’ between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain. Truth makes happy, truth liberates.”]
So, what triggers a desire to search? Why do seekers search, really? Most often, that happens as a result of a combination of motives:
Because of fear, usually unrecognized; because of discomfort, usually minimized; because of some degree of a sense of feeling imprisoned; because of a desire to escape that current condition of feeling imprisoned; and because of a longing for freedom, even though most have no clue at all about how imprisoned they really feel.
Maharaj: “You have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires and fears, and you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.”
Some also seek because of a desire to replace “the bad person” (which they think they are or which they think they were or which they have been told they are) and to replace that identity with some “new and good and improved” persona / identity.
Others seek to escape birth-life-death-rebirth cycles. Others seek as a result of a desire for continuity, but not just any continuity. They want a continuity marked by reward, both now and “later,” and a continuity devoid of pain and misery and suffering, both now and “later.”
Such beliefs are totally rooted in delusion:
Maharaj: “Don't talk to me about past and future. They exist only in your mind”
and
“In reality nothing happens. There is no past nor future; all appears and nothing is”
and
“There can be no continuity in existence. Continuity implies identity in past, present and future. No such identity is possible, for the very means of identification fluctuate and change. Continuity, permanency, these are illusions created by memory, mere mental projections of a pattern where no pattern can be.”
And some are seeking because they desire a “good and happy ending,” meaning one that finally ends hundreds or thousands of “births-lives-deaths-and-rebirths” or an ending in which they have earned an eternal life marked by a reward-filled existence forever.
Maharaj: “In your world everything must have a beginning and an end. If it does not, you call it 'eternal'. In my view, there is no such thing as beginning and end - these are all related to time. Timeless being is entirely in the now. Being and not-being alternate and their reality is momentary. The immutable Reality lies beyond space and time.”
If one is not trapped in the all-too-common distortions about “reality” and “Reality,” then one has no concern about the bogus concepts of “eternal reward,” “eternal punishment,” “later,” “a good ending,” “the future,” or “eternal, personal continuity.”
Therefore, the truth be known about “why” most seekers are seeking becomes clear: their searching is really being driven by relative events and happenings based only in the Is-ness, in this AM-ness, and that makes sense (without their even understanding that motive) because "this" is all that anyone shall ever know, shall ever be conscious of, shall ever be aware of. There is only NOW. There is no “one” to survive the manifestation intact and thus available to receive a reward or punishment either one.
Contrary to ideas about “THAT” and about “What is to come” and about “the future” – all of which are nothing more than made up concepts or words used to point to a fact – it is the present beingness and not any post-beingness state which should be the key issue.
This deal is really about (1) what is called here "Applied Advaita" (without any belief in "An Applier") and about (2) accepting the application of the non-dual understanding to the relative existence in order to reach a state of peace and freedom and joy NOW and to enjoy the pleasures that can only be enjoyed NOW via the manifested consciousness.
This deal is not about "supernatural issues." This understanding is about (A) practical, relevant, hands-on, everyday, concrete, "down to earth," pragmatic, reasonable, rational, no-nonsense, viable, functional, and relative issues,
and
is about (B) making this existence a sound one, a sane one, and one that is finally free of the influence of the learned ignorance which was transferred via programming, conditioning, brainwashing, domestication, acculturation, and indoctrination.
TOMORROW: Why – through no fault or blame or choice – the search almost always unfolds in a way that a child would go about the process.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 October 2014
For those few who are seeking or who will seek: in terms of searching, there are three aspects that most seekers who have come this way were not even conscious of until the topic was broached.
Aspect #1: Most do not have a clue about WHY they are seeking, so their seeking will come to involve a “journey” that will include multiple “paths” and numerous divergences and a variety of ineffective methods that lead everywhere . . . except to that which is truly being sought (but being sought as a result of subconscious motives).
Aspect #2: The result referenced in “Aspect #1” is aggravated by the fact that most think they know WHAT they are seeking when, in fact, what they have been told to seek does not exist or they really cannot actually define succinctly exactly what it is which they think they are seeking or should be seeking.
Aspect 3: Moreover, most seekers do not have a clue about HOW they are seeking, and when they are told – as will happen in this series – they become angry or dig deeper into denial. So it is.
Most do not want to be quiet long enough to hear Truth, most do not sincerely want to hear Truth (especially “their own truth”), and most persons - who are dependent and insecure and who want to be liked – do not want to speak Truth and do not have the courage to speak the Truth if they happen to understand it.
(Those who tell people only what they want to hear are still so deeply trapped in personality that their belief - that they “know” and “understand” and “have Realized” - is their greatest distortion and self-delusion of all. When the last "person" is gone, only the pure consciousness can speak, and the pure consciousness can only speak Truth.)
Note also that one cannot hear Truth when one is talking. Maharaj: “Truth is not . . . a prize for passing some tests. You are eligible because you are.” To receive it: “Stand still, be quiet.” To those who claim they want Truth, the fact is that most only give lip service to their willing to find and accept the Truth - especially when it comes to the truth about the facts surrounding their false selves and the actual state of their relative existence:
Maharaj said: “You are asking for truth, but in fact you merely seek comfort, which you want to last forever.” [Thus, few will ever grasp this: “It is always the false that makes you suffer: the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false ‘relationships’ between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain. Truth makes happy, truth liberates.”]
So, what triggers a desire to search? Why do seekers search, really? Most often, that happens as a result of a combination of motives:
Because of fear, usually unrecognized; because of discomfort, usually minimized; because of some degree of a sense of feeling imprisoned; because of a desire to escape that current condition of feeling imprisoned; and because of a longing for freedom, even though most have no clue at all about how imprisoned they really feel.
Maharaj: “You have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires and fears, and you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.”
Some also seek because of a desire to replace “the bad person” (which they think they are or which they think they were or which they have been told they are) and to replace that identity with some “new and good and improved” persona / identity.
Others seek to escape birth-life-death-rebirth cycles. Others seek as a result of a desire for continuity, but not just any continuity. They want a continuity marked by reward, both now and “later,” and a continuity devoid of pain and misery and suffering, both now and “later.”
Such beliefs are totally rooted in delusion:
Maharaj: “Don't talk to me about past and future. They exist only in your mind”
and
“In reality nothing happens. There is no past nor future; all appears and nothing is”
and
“There can be no continuity in existence. Continuity implies identity in past, present and future. No such identity is possible, for the very means of identification fluctuate and change. Continuity, permanency, these are illusions created by memory, mere mental projections of a pattern where no pattern can be.”
And some are seeking because they desire a “good and happy ending,” meaning one that finally ends hundreds or thousands of “births-lives-deaths-and-rebirths” or an ending in which they have earned an eternal life marked by a reward-filled existence forever.
Maharaj: “In your world everything must have a beginning and an end. If it does not, you call it 'eternal'. In my view, there is no such thing as beginning and end - these are all related to time. Timeless being is entirely in the now. Being and not-being alternate and their reality is momentary. The immutable Reality lies beyond space and time.”
If one is not trapped in the all-too-common distortions about “reality” and “Reality,” then one has no concern about the bogus concepts of “eternal reward,” “eternal punishment,” “later,” “a good ending,” “the future,” or “eternal, personal continuity.”
Therefore, the truth be known about “why” most seekers are seeking becomes clear: their searching is really being driven by relative events and happenings based only in the Is-ness, in this AM-ness, and that makes sense (without their even understanding that motive) because "this" is all that anyone shall ever know, shall ever be conscious of, shall ever be aware of. There is only NOW. There is no “one” to survive the manifestation intact and thus available to receive a reward or punishment either one.
Contrary to ideas about “THAT” and about “What is to come” and about “the future” – all of which are nothing more than made up concepts or words used to point to a fact – it is the present beingness and not any post-beingness state which should be the key issue.
This deal is really about (1) what is called here "Applied Advaita" (without any belief in "An Applier") and about (2) accepting the application of the non-dual understanding to the relative existence in order to reach a state of peace and freedom and joy NOW and to enjoy the pleasures that can only be enjoyed NOW via the manifested consciousness.
This deal is not about "supernatural issues." This understanding is about (A) practical, relevant, hands-on, everyday, concrete, "down to earth," pragmatic, reasonable, rational, no-nonsense, viable, functional, and relative issues,
and
is about (B) making this existence a sound one, a sane one, and one that is finally free of the influence of the learned ignorance which was transferred via programming, conditioning, brainwashing, domestication, acculturation, and indoctrination.
TOMORROW: Why – through no fault or blame or choice – the search almost always unfolds in a way that a child would go about the process.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
18 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: So, the penultimate cause of the problems of humanity is believed by some to be the fact that there are “too few religious people.” Others blame the problems on the fact that there are "too many who have an untreated spiritual malady" and claim that if they would become spiritual, then all of their problems will end – be they physical, mental, financial, relational, etc. Then there are those that may well have bought into the beliefs of both those groups for a time, only to find by “experience” that neither of those two effectively addresses the problems of individuals or the masses long-term because the problems are mental problems.
Among those who have tried to address the key problem of humanity (termed “the Ultimate Sickness” by non-dualists) only a few came to realize that the main problem of humanity centers in the mind, not in the notion that “there are too few who are religious” and not the notion that “there are too many who are spiritually sick.”
Maharaj was among “the few.” After trying for years a religious approach and then a spiritual approach, he saw that no long-lasting shifts were happening via those methods. He also saw that the main problem of humanity had nothing to do with persons having too few religious and / or spiritual beliefs but had much to do with having far too many beliefs, including those around religion and spirituality. That came via experience.
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
As a result, he shifted first away from trying to address the Ultimate Sickness by using a religious methodology as the Ultimate Medicine; that proved not to be the proper medicine; thus, he shifted to a spiritual methodology to try to address the Ultimate Sickness but found that spirituality was not the Ultimate Medicine.
Eventually, he took an all-scientific, psychology-based approach after he realized that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness.
If you review the “religious beliefs” and the “spiritual beliefs” shared in the previous posts on this subject, it can be seen that they are characterized by self-contradictory beliefs and impractical notions about “cause and effect” and that they offer theoretical but unfounded bases for humanity’s problems as well as ineffective, long-term solutions. When the best that someone can offer is a twenty-four-hour reprieve from what ails you, should you accept that? Should that plan impress you?
When someone says that the problems of the world would be solved if everyone were religious, does that make any sense when 97% already claim to have an affiliation with one or another of the planet's organized religions?
At the end, what Maharaj offered were talks that were far less abstract and far more practical and which had far less to do with things Noumenal and had far more to do with things phenomenal.
Why? Once the present Is-ness, the current manifestation ends, there will be no "one" to experience any pain or to suffer any misery. THAT takes care of itself and offers no chance at all for any “one” to be conscious of or aware of anything or to experience anything.
Therefore, whatever needs addressing that can be addressed can only be addressed NOW; as for “later,” there will be nothing to address, no one to address anything, and no one to experience anything that could need addressing.
Maharaj: “All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end”
and
“This must be well grasped: the world hangs on the thread of consciousness. No consciousness, no world”
and
“The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness. Continuity as name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel.”
Some prefer things deemed to be lofty; some prefer things deemed to be aloof; some prefer to seek things that are superior; some prefer things supposedly exalted; things supposedly sublime; things supposedly noble; and things supposedly majestic. Among non-dualists, none of those exist. They are just the supposedly “grand” side of a dualist pairings of "things grand" vs. "things not grand."
Who prefers things aloof, superior, exalted, sublime, noble, and majestic? Those who want to be seen as being superior, exalted, sublime, noble, and majestic. Or those who prefer to escape, avoid, and dissociate from things involved with a not-so-happy relative existence. Or those who claim that they want to awaken but who really want to reach an even deeper level of asleep-ness.
If one understands why Maharaj shifted from a religious approach to a spiritual approach and, finally, to a scientific-and-psychology-based approach, then one will understand why he did so, will understand that the critics of his shifts understand nothing, and will understand why the critics who said the following are so far off the mark:
1. “The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
2. “At first when Maharaj was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
3. “Maharaj deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
To abandon contradictory teachings and nonsensical, myth-based messages and lofty but irrelevant pointers has nothing to do with “deterioration” and has everything to do with reaching higher levels of understanding and clarity.
Maharaj’s advice: “You have put so much energy into building a prison for yourself. Now spend as much on demolishing it. In fact, demolition is easy, for the false dissolves when it is discovered.”
Once Maharaj discovered that religion was a snake oil version of the Ultimate Medicine and that spirituality was a snake oil version of the Ultimate Medicine, the false dissolved; then only came forth his understanding of the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness and that the Ultimate Medicine must treat humanity's mental issues rather than add to humanity's mental issues with (a) false doctrine and superstition-based dogma and with (b) lofty but false pointers that evolve from what he called persons' "kindergarten-level spirituality."
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
17 October 2014
Among those who have tried to address the key problem of humanity (termed “the Ultimate Sickness” by non-dualists) only a few came to realize that the main problem of humanity centers in the mind, not in the notion that “there are too few who are religious” and not the notion that “there are too many who are spiritually sick.”
Maharaj was among “the few.” After trying for years a religious approach and then a spiritual approach, he saw that no long-lasting shifts were happening via those methods. He also saw that the main problem of humanity had nothing to do with persons having too few religious and / or spiritual beliefs but had much to do with having far too many beliefs, including those around religion and spirituality. That came via experience.
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
As a result, he shifted first away from trying to address the Ultimate Sickness by using a religious methodology as the Ultimate Medicine; that proved not to be the proper medicine; thus, he shifted to a spiritual methodology to try to address the Ultimate Sickness but found that spirituality was not the Ultimate Medicine.
Eventually, he took an all-scientific, psychology-based approach after he realized that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness.
If you review the “religious beliefs” and the “spiritual beliefs” shared in the previous posts on this subject, it can be seen that they are characterized by self-contradictory beliefs and impractical notions about “cause and effect” and that they offer theoretical but unfounded bases for humanity’s problems as well as ineffective, long-term solutions. When the best that someone can offer is a twenty-four-hour reprieve from what ails you, should you accept that? Should that plan impress you?
When someone says that the problems of the world would be solved if everyone were religious, does that make any sense when 97% already claim to have an affiliation with one or another of the planet's organized religions?
At the end, what Maharaj offered were talks that were far less abstract and far more practical and which had far less to do with things Noumenal and had far more to do with things phenomenal.
Why? Once the present Is-ness, the current manifestation ends, there will be no "one" to experience any pain or to suffer any misery. THAT takes care of itself and offers no chance at all for any “one” to be conscious of or aware of anything or to experience anything.
Therefore, whatever needs addressing that can be addressed can only be addressed NOW; as for “later,” there will be nothing to address, no one to address anything, and no one to experience anything that could need addressing.
Maharaj: “All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end”
and
“This must be well grasped: the world hangs on the thread of consciousness. No consciousness, no world”
and
“The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness. Continuity as name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel.”
Some prefer things deemed to be lofty; some prefer things deemed to be aloof; some prefer to seek things that are superior; some prefer things supposedly exalted; things supposedly sublime; things supposedly noble; and things supposedly majestic. Among non-dualists, none of those exist. They are just the supposedly “grand” side of a dualist pairings of "things grand" vs. "things not grand."
Who prefers things aloof, superior, exalted, sublime, noble, and majestic? Those who want to be seen as being superior, exalted, sublime, noble, and majestic. Or those who prefer to escape, avoid, and dissociate from things involved with a not-so-happy relative existence. Or those who claim that they want to awaken but who really want to reach an even deeper level of asleep-ness.
If one understands why Maharaj shifted from a religious approach to a spiritual approach and, finally, to a scientific-and-psychology-based approach, then one will understand why he did so, will understand that the critics of his shifts understand nothing, and will understand why the critics who said the following are so far off the mark:
1. “The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
2. “At first when Maharaj was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
3. “Maharaj deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
To abandon contradictory teachings and nonsensical, myth-based messages and lofty but irrelevant pointers has nothing to do with “deterioration” and has everything to do with reaching higher levels of understanding and clarity.
Maharaj’s advice: “You have put so much energy into building a prison for yourself. Now spend as much on demolishing it. In fact, demolition is easy, for the false dissolves when it is discovered.”
Once Maharaj discovered that religion was a snake oil version of the Ultimate Medicine and that spirituality was a snake oil version of the Ultimate Medicine, the false dissolved; then only came forth his understanding of the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness and that the Ultimate Medicine must treat humanity's mental issues rather than add to humanity's mental issues with (a) false doctrine and superstition-based dogma and with (b) lofty but false pointers that evolve from what he called persons' "kindergarten-level spirituality."
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
17 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 “murder”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “You shall not kill” and “God decides who is to die and when” and “You shall not commit murder (even though God supposedly killed everyone on the planet with a flood except for the members of one family”) and “All life is precious and should be respected” but “Sometimes killing is justified when our troops have to kill people we are at war with” and “You shall not kill but sometimes we have to use capital punishment to kill some people in order to provide justice to victims and their families and to remove the most evil people from our midst so they cannot ever again do harm to others” and “It is God who determines who gets pregnant and who should not, so no one should ever waste the seed by using contraception because that amounts to murder by omission” but “You should have as many children as you can but you cannot have those children out of wedlock” and “Abortion is murder so it is a damnable sin” and “Only our religion is the right one so we kill people who are of other religions because they are infidels” and “Only our religion is the right one, but within our religion, only our sect is the right sect, so it is okay for us to murder people of the same religion but of a different sect” and “There is no justification for murdering in the name of God but we do sometimes use government-issued weapons with Bible verses etched into the metal to kill people of other religions whom we are at war with.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “Some of us have killed others when we were driving while under the influence but that was not a conscious act of murder and the two should not be compared” and “Some of us killed our mates” and “some of us have done bodily harm to others”; however, since finding a spiritual path, we have asked God for forgiveness and have said we were sorry to those we harmed and we have also now forgiven ourselves and that’s all we can, so we’re moving on and helping others to become spiritual, too” and “Also, the judge saw all the good and positive changes I’ve made in my life since becoming spiritual and saw the improvements that have come to me as a result of doing my spiritual work so he accepted a reduction in my charges from 'vehicular homicide while DWI' to ‘involuntary manslaughter’ so the promise that if we stay around long enough and become spiritual enough that miracles will come our way is true” and “Love what is, so if someone murders your child, love that . . . completely accept that event and love the killer.”
[Note the inconsistencies above, all sure evidence of ignorance and insanity. After Jesus was exposed to the non-dual teachings, he said: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." To contradict oneself is sure evidence of instability and ignorance and insanity. If one looks back over the "too few religious people" views and the "too many spiritually-unfit people" views, you will see a plethora of inconsistencies, contradictions, ignorance, instability, and thus, insanity.]
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “Some who were abused have now become abusers” and “Many are suffering from the Sociopathic Personality Disorder (P.D.) and have no empathy for anyone” and “Those with the Narcissistic P.D. are so self-absorbed and self-centered and so trapped in their God Complex P.D. that they believe they have the right to decide who lives and who dies” and “Some are completely insane and others are insane to varying degrees, so the thinking in both groups is totally distorted.” [Thus Maharaj said, that which is “self-contradictory” is “illusory.”]
Additionally, The MENTAL ILLNESS view holds that “Many cannot see the truth, and if they happen to come face-to-face with the truth about their conduct, they will put a spin on it and distort reality or warp reality or twist reality or misrepresent the facts and truth” and “Some persons have other mental illnesses that drive every thought and word and action and it is as if they are not in the driver’s seat but are being driven by other mental and emotional forces.”
A woman with not only the Schizophrenic P.D. but also the Perfectionist P.D. reported that she was hearing frightening voices in her head; she eventually became so psychotic that she was hospitalized, "stabilized" on medication, and then released back into the community.
Soon after, she stabbed a man repeatedly in a supermarket.
Her reply at a hearing when asked if she was hearing voices at the time: “Yes.”
Questioner: “And what were the voices telling you?”
She: “The voices were telling me not to hurt the man.”
So why did she ignore the voices when they said that? Hearing the voices is evidence of the Schizophrenic P.D. Her answer to why she stabbed him multiple times anyway also provided evidence of the presence of the Perfectionist P.D as well:
She: “He had gotten in the express checkout lane with more than 10 items, and that made me so mad that I couldn’t stop myself.”
In her case, there was what began as a personality disorder that led to psychic disintegration and to a neurotic condition (schizophrenia) and eventually to a psychotic condition; however, there was also a personality disorder (the Perfectionistic P.D.) which was of a level that is all too common among the masses but which is not so obvious that they can be readily diagnosed by the population at large as being mentally ill.
All with the Personality Type One Perfectionist P.D. in all societies act as judges, jurors, and executioners. The ways by which they execute can vary. Sometimes its financial harm (“I’ll make you pay now!” or “I’ll bankrupt you!” or “No spouse of mine is going to treat me that way! I’ll take you for every penny you’ve got!”); or sometimes they apply physical harm, so they beat up or stab repeatedly or shoot or poison the ones they find to be “in the wrong.”
(Meanwhile, the sane but vain and discourteous types who are reading this might want to review your own grocery store checkout etiquette, your driving etiquette, your etiquette with fellow employees, etc. If vain and narcissistic and controlling, there are likely far more who have wanted to stab or murder you than you realize, and you might just cross paths someday with one who is angry enough and insane enough and unrestrained enough to harm you . . . as so many others have likely wanted to do but didn't.)
In the free eBook below, the debate between those who blame murder and other harmful acts on
(a) “the presence of evil in the world and the presence of so many evil people in the world” vs. those such as Maharaj who understood that the real problem is
(b) the prevalence of "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"
is discussed in detail.
Meanwhile, those who tout their godliness by claiming that “the commandments of God should always be followed” while also claiming that “killing others during war is justified” or while also endorsing the use of “capital punishment” are exhibiting a level of distorted thinking that is consistent with varying degrees of ignorance and / or insanity.
And those who proclaim how "spiritually fit" they are while justifying or minimizing the relative harms which they have done are exhibiting a level of distorted thinking that is consistent with varying degrees of ignorance and / or insanity. Moreover, any use of ego-defense mechanisms - such as justification, excuse-making, distortion of facts, minimizing the consequences of one's behaviors, etc. - indicates the presence of ego-states (of false personality identifications), and pretending or assuming that one is what she or he is not is evidence of some level of ignorance or some level of insanity.
And those who claim that they are killing in the name of God are exhibiting a host of mental illnesses and making clear that they are functioning under the influence of the Sociopathic P.D. and are being driven by the malignant narcissism which always manifests alongside that type.
The non-dual approach would suggest that their ego-states are so in control of their thoughts and words and actions that they are driven by unchecked levels of arrogance and narcissism and conceit and self-importance.
And the non-dual approach would also suggest that those who are judging "others" - with no compassion at all and with no real understanding at all - have missed out on the "Oneness" and the "Unicity" and the "True Love" parts of the teachings and are still as trapped as ever in their ego and egotism, convinced that they really are "different from" and "better than" those "others" who are "immoral" and "no good" and "wrong" and "who have no virtue at all."
Maharaj: "To me all are equal. Differences in appearance and expression are there, but they do not matter. Just as the shape of a gold ornament does not affect the gold, so does man's essence remain unaffected."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
16 October 2014
Consider the contrast in the ways that the three look at “murder”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “You shall not kill” and “God decides who is to die and when” and “You shall not commit murder (even though God supposedly killed everyone on the planet with a flood except for the members of one family”) and “All life is precious and should be respected” but “Sometimes killing is justified when our troops have to kill people we are at war with” and “You shall not kill but sometimes we have to use capital punishment to kill some people in order to provide justice to victims and their families and to remove the most evil people from our midst so they cannot ever again do harm to others” and “It is God who determines who gets pregnant and who should not, so no one should ever waste the seed by using contraception because that amounts to murder by omission” but “You should have as many children as you can but you cannot have those children out of wedlock” and “Abortion is murder so it is a damnable sin” and “Only our religion is the right one so we kill people who are of other religions because they are infidels” and “Only our religion is the right one, but within our religion, only our sect is the right sect, so it is okay for us to murder people of the same religion but of a different sect” and “There is no justification for murdering in the name of God but we do sometimes use government-issued weapons with Bible verses etched into the metal to kill people of other religions whom we are at war with.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “Some of us have killed others when we were driving while under the influence but that was not a conscious act of murder and the two should not be compared” and “Some of us killed our mates” and “some of us have done bodily harm to others”; however, since finding a spiritual path, we have asked God for forgiveness and have said we were sorry to those we harmed and we have also now forgiven ourselves and that’s all we can, so we’re moving on and helping others to become spiritual, too” and “Also, the judge saw all the good and positive changes I’ve made in my life since becoming spiritual and saw the improvements that have come to me as a result of doing my spiritual work so he accepted a reduction in my charges from 'vehicular homicide while DWI' to ‘involuntary manslaughter’ so the promise that if we stay around long enough and become spiritual enough that miracles will come our way is true” and “Love what is, so if someone murders your child, love that . . . completely accept that event and love the killer.”
[Note the inconsistencies above, all sure evidence of ignorance and insanity. After Jesus was exposed to the non-dual teachings, he said: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." To contradict oneself is sure evidence of instability and ignorance and insanity. If one looks back over the "too few religious people" views and the "too many spiritually-unfit people" views, you will see a plethora of inconsistencies, contradictions, ignorance, instability, and thus, insanity.]
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “Some who were abused have now become abusers” and “Many are suffering from the Sociopathic Personality Disorder (P.D.) and have no empathy for anyone” and “Those with the Narcissistic P.D. are so self-absorbed and self-centered and so trapped in their God Complex P.D. that they believe they have the right to decide who lives and who dies” and “Some are completely insane and others are insane to varying degrees, so the thinking in both groups is totally distorted.” [Thus Maharaj said, that which is “self-contradictory” is “illusory.”]
Additionally, The MENTAL ILLNESS view holds that “Many cannot see the truth, and if they happen to come face-to-face with the truth about their conduct, they will put a spin on it and distort reality or warp reality or twist reality or misrepresent the facts and truth” and “Some persons have other mental illnesses that drive every thought and word and action and it is as if they are not in the driver’s seat but are being driven by other mental and emotional forces.”
A woman with not only the Schizophrenic P.D. but also the Perfectionist P.D. reported that she was hearing frightening voices in her head; she eventually became so psychotic that she was hospitalized, "stabilized" on medication, and then released back into the community.
Soon after, she stabbed a man repeatedly in a supermarket.
Her reply at a hearing when asked if she was hearing voices at the time: “Yes.”
Questioner: “And what were the voices telling you?”
She: “The voices were telling me not to hurt the man.”
So why did she ignore the voices when they said that? Hearing the voices is evidence of the Schizophrenic P.D. Her answer to why she stabbed him multiple times anyway also provided evidence of the presence of the Perfectionist P.D as well:
She: “He had gotten in the express checkout lane with more than 10 items, and that made me so mad that I couldn’t stop myself.”
In her case, there was what began as a personality disorder that led to psychic disintegration and to a neurotic condition (schizophrenia) and eventually to a psychotic condition; however, there was also a personality disorder (the Perfectionistic P.D.) which was of a level that is all too common among the masses but which is not so obvious that they can be readily diagnosed by the population at large as being mentally ill.
All with the Personality Type One Perfectionist P.D. in all societies act as judges, jurors, and executioners. The ways by which they execute can vary. Sometimes its financial harm (“I’ll make you pay now!” or “I’ll bankrupt you!” or “No spouse of mine is going to treat me that way! I’ll take you for every penny you’ve got!”); or sometimes they apply physical harm, so they beat up or stab repeatedly or shoot or poison the ones they find to be “in the wrong.”
(Meanwhile, the sane but vain and discourteous types who are reading this might want to review your own grocery store checkout etiquette, your driving etiquette, your etiquette with fellow employees, etc. If vain and narcissistic and controlling, there are likely far more who have wanted to stab or murder you than you realize, and you might just cross paths someday with one who is angry enough and insane enough and unrestrained enough to harm you . . . as so many others have likely wanted to do but didn't.)
In the free eBook below, the debate between those who blame murder and other harmful acts on
(a) “the presence of evil in the world and the presence of so many evil people in the world” vs. those such as Maharaj who understood that the real problem is
(b) the prevalence of "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"
is discussed in detail.
Meanwhile, those who tout their godliness by claiming that “the commandments of God should always be followed” while also claiming that “killing others during war is justified” or while also endorsing the use of “capital punishment” are exhibiting a level of distorted thinking that is consistent with varying degrees of ignorance and / or insanity.
And those who proclaim how "spiritually fit" they are while justifying or minimizing the relative harms which they have done are exhibiting a level of distorted thinking that is consistent with varying degrees of ignorance and / or insanity. Moreover, any use of ego-defense mechanisms - such as justification, excuse-making, distortion of facts, minimizing the consequences of one's behaviors, etc. - indicates the presence of ego-states (of false personality identifications), and pretending or assuming that one is what she or he is not is evidence of some level of ignorance or some level of insanity.
And those who claim that they are killing in the name of God are exhibiting a host of mental illnesses and making clear that they are functioning under the influence of the Sociopathic P.D. and are being driven by the malignant narcissism which always manifests alongside that type.
The non-dual approach would suggest that their ego-states are so in control of their thoughts and words and actions that they are driven by unchecked levels of arrogance and narcissism and conceit and self-importance.
And the non-dual approach would also suggest that those who are judging "others" - with no compassion at all and with no real understanding at all - have missed out on the "Oneness" and the "Unicity" and the "True Love" parts of the teachings and are still as trapped as ever in their ego and egotism, convinced that they really are "different from" and "better than" those "others" who are "immoral" and "no good" and "wrong" and "who have no virtue at all."
Maharaj: "To me all are equal. Differences in appearance and expression are there, but they do not matter. Just as the shape of a gold ornament does not affect the gold, so does man's essence remain unaffected."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
16 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 “freedom” and “total independence”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: [For the sake of inclusion, you may substitute “the gods” and “the goddesses” for “God” or any other names used by a variety of organized religions or philosophies] “Trust in God with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” and “Blessed is the man who trusts in God, whose trust is the Lord” and “God will supply every need of yours” and “He Who is mighty has done great things for me” and “Turn your back on all things in this world and depend on God” and “Depend on God only” and “There is no one besides God to help in your battles” and “We grow in our ability to depend completely on God alone” and “It is God who cares for us” and "Be like a child" and “You must be like a child in order to come to Him” and “God will supply your food and clothing” and “We are God’s children” and “God will never treat us as orphans who need to fend for themselves” and “Come to know God as the faithful Father he is” and “We are weak but He is strong.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: [For the sake of inclusion, you may substitute “a Power” or “the Power of the Universe” or “The Spirit of the Universe” or “the Universe” or “a Higher Power” for “God” or any other names used by a variety of organized religions or philosophies] “Our early leaders were convinced in the need for dependence on God” and “I had needed God” and “What seemed a flimsy reed proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God” and “We believe in a Power greater than ourselves” and “There is One who has all power – that One is God” and “We are now on a different basis, the basis of trusting and relying on God” and “We put our dependence on God above everything and everyone” and “Our sole authority is God” and “We turn our lives over to the care of God” and “We let God discipline us” and “If you have trouble turning everything over to God in the beginning, then it is okay to be dependent on our spiritual group” and “God had done for us what we could not do for ourselves” and “We place everything in God’s hands” and “God enables us” and “We receive God’s help in all things” and “We implore God’s help” and “All that we accomplish is with God’s help” and “God watches over us” and “Live only by God’s directions” and “Let your dependency of God replace all other dependencies” and “Really depend on God” and “We decided to let God be our director” and “He is the Father and we are His children” and “We talk to God and then listen to Him and depend on Him; do that and you will hear God give you every answer you need.”
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "Again, if you believe that you are hearing 'a God' or 'a Goddess' or a 'Spirit of the Universe' or 'the Universe' speaking to you, understand that you're experiencing 'auditory hallucinations,' one of the common symptoms of severe mental illness. The suggestion is that you find a professional counselor or therapist who has been trained to treat schizophrenia and to diagnose other potential mental illnesses which often manifest along with that disorder."
The American Psychiatric Association notes that “voice hearing” is often seen as a prime symptom of psychosis and that at least 10% of the population is suffering from that illness. [Some suggest that is a gross underestimate.] Trained psychologists explain that "the Dependent Personality Disorder is characterized by a long-standing need for a person to be taken care of and a fear of being abandoned."
They report that “Individuals with the Dependent Personality Disorder are often characterized by pessimism and self-doubt, tend to belittle their abilities and assets, and may constantly refer to themselves as ‘stupid.’ They take criticism and disapproval as proof of their worthlessness and lose faith in themselves. They may seek over-protection and dominance from others. They may avoid positions of responsibility and become anxious when faced with decisions. Social relations tend to be limited to those few people on whom the individual is dependent.”
They also report that “the Co-Dependent Personality Disorder is rooted in dependency and co-dependency which are learned behaviors that can be passed down from one generation to another. It is an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as ‘relationship addiction’ because people with co-dependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive, and / or abusive. Co-dependent behavior is learned by watching and imitating other family members who display this type of behavior.
"The disorder was first identified as the result of years of studying interpersonal relationships in families of alcoholics, and now, many God-centered treatment programs use their patients' or clients' or members' tendencies toward dependency and co-dependency to treat addiction by creating new and approved dependencies and new and approved co-dependencies rather than by encouraging patients or clients or members to seek treatment for their Dependent Personality Disorders and / or their Co-Dependent Personality Disorders.”
The first two approaches above reinforce and contribute to personality disorders and use persons' vulnerabilities to advance their own agendas. In the end, they actually aggravate already-existing mental illnesses, their teachings and programs reinforce distortion and delusion, and thus they generate even more mental illnesses and neuroses and psychoses.
Maharaj sent persons from the loft is three cases: (1) when they were totally absorbed in ego (personality identification) and egotism or (2) when they were there to show off their supposed spiritual knowledge or status and (3) when he recognized the presence of disorders that could not be addressed by non-dual pointers alone.
The same happens here. As explained in various eBooks, there are cases where non-dual pointers can lead to a restoration of sanity, but there are other more serious cases where professional assistance is required. Those include:
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I.
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24. both made the decision that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the way that has been seen to be the most effective method: not suggesting that there are not enough religious persons; not suggesting that the Ultimate Sickness is caused by being "spiritually-unfit"; but by seeing that the problem centers in the mind (which must come to an end, which it will the moment all beliefs are abandoned)
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.
SECTION SIX:
Consider the contrast in the ways that the three look at “freedom” and “total independence”:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: [For the sake of inclusion, you may substitute “the gods” and “the goddesses” for “God” or any other names used by a variety of organized religions or philosophies] “Trust in God with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” and “Blessed is the man who trusts in God, whose trust is the Lord” and “God will supply every need of yours” and “He Who is mighty has done great things for me” and “Turn your back on all things in this world and depend on God” and “Depend on God only” and “There is no one besides God to help in your battles” and “We grow in our ability to depend completely on God alone” and “It is God who cares for us” and "Be like a child" and “You must be like a child in order to come to Him” and “God will supply your food and clothing” and “We are God’s children” and “God will never treat us as orphans who need to fend for themselves” and “Come to know God as the faithful Father he is” and “We are weak but He is strong.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: [For the sake of inclusion, you may substitute “a Power” or “the Power of the Universe” or “The Spirit of the Universe” or “the Universe” or “a Higher Power” for “God” or any other names used by a variety of organized religions or philosophies] “Our early leaders were convinced in the need for dependence on God” and “I had needed God” and “What seemed a flimsy reed proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God” and “We believe in a Power greater than ourselves” and “There is One who has all power – that One is God” and “We are now on a different basis, the basis of trusting and relying on God” and “We put our dependence on God above everything and everyone” and “Our sole authority is God” and “We turn our lives over to the care of God” and “We let God discipline us” and “If you have trouble turning everything over to God in the beginning, then it is okay to be dependent on our spiritual group” and “God had done for us what we could not do for ourselves” and “We place everything in God’s hands” and “God enables us” and “We receive God’s help in all things” and “We implore God’s help” and “All that we accomplish is with God’s help” and “God watches over us” and “Live only by God’s directions” and “Let your dependency of God replace all other dependencies” and “Really depend on God” and “We decided to let God be our director” and “He is the Father and we are His children” and “We talk to God and then listen to Him and depend on Him; do that and you will hear God give you every answer you need.”
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "Again, if you believe that you are hearing 'a God' or 'a Goddess' or a 'Spirit of the Universe' or 'the Universe' speaking to you, understand that you're experiencing 'auditory hallucinations,' one of the common symptoms of severe mental illness. The suggestion is that you find a professional counselor or therapist who has been trained to treat schizophrenia and to diagnose other potential mental illnesses which often manifest along with that disorder."
The American Psychiatric Association notes that “voice hearing” is often seen as a prime symptom of psychosis and that at least 10% of the population is suffering from that illness. [Some suggest that is a gross underestimate.] Trained psychologists explain that "the Dependent Personality Disorder is characterized by a long-standing need for a person to be taken care of and a fear of being abandoned."
They report that “Individuals with the Dependent Personality Disorder are often characterized by pessimism and self-doubt, tend to belittle their abilities and assets, and may constantly refer to themselves as ‘stupid.’ They take criticism and disapproval as proof of their worthlessness and lose faith in themselves. They may seek over-protection and dominance from others. They may avoid positions of responsibility and become anxious when faced with decisions. Social relations tend to be limited to those few people on whom the individual is dependent.”
They also report that “the Co-Dependent Personality Disorder is rooted in dependency and co-dependency which are learned behaviors that can be passed down from one generation to another. It is an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as ‘relationship addiction’ because people with co-dependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive, and / or abusive. Co-dependent behavior is learned by watching and imitating other family members who display this type of behavior.
"The disorder was first identified as the result of years of studying interpersonal relationships in families of alcoholics, and now, many God-centered treatment programs use their patients' or clients' or members' tendencies toward dependency and co-dependency to treat addiction by creating new and approved dependencies and new and approved co-dependencies rather than by encouraging patients or clients or members to seek treatment for their Dependent Personality Disorders and / or their Co-Dependent Personality Disorders.”
The first two approaches above reinforce and contribute to personality disorders and use persons' vulnerabilities to advance their own agendas. In the end, they actually aggravate already-existing mental illnesses, their teachings and programs reinforce distortion and delusion, and thus they generate even more mental illnesses and neuroses and psychoses.
Maharaj sent persons from the loft is three cases: (1) when they were totally absorbed in ego (personality identification) and egotism or (2) when they were there to show off their supposed spiritual knowledge or status and (3) when he recognized the presence of disorders that could not be addressed by non-dual pointers alone.
The same happens here. As explained in various eBooks, there are cases where non-dual pointers can lead to a restoration of sanity, but there are other more serious cases where professional assistance is required. Those include:
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
15 October 2014
F.: Is it becoming clear why those who criticize Maharaj for “moving away from a religious / spiritual approach” in his efforts to address the Ultimate Sickness do not have even the slightest clue at all about why that shift occurred? The shift is explained in detail in the book below which deals with Maharaj’s Evolution. In that eBook, some of the criticisms leveled at Maharaj are shared, including these three:
1. One man wrote: “"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
[Rather than “losing clarity,” by the end he attained more clarity; rather than “getting complicated,” his message became more simple than ever; finally, his message did not “decline” . . . he merely declined to continue to use the two medicines which he had used early on to try to treat the Ultimate Sickness because both of those medicines - a religious one first and a spiritual one later - proved ineffective; as for his “evolving,” indeed, guilty as charged.]
2. Another said of Maharaj: “At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
[The fact is, when his final teachings eventually were based in the science of psychology and when advances in science - as Maharaj predicted - came to provide concrete evidence which proves that what he understood and shared about the way that the problems of humanity center in the mind rather than in “too little religion” or in an “untreated spiritual malady,” then those final sharings were indeed completely different from what he was sharing when he was still trapped in his early, admittedly-less-informed "guru-bhakti stage."]
3. Another wrote: “"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
[Maharaj would agree completely. He said: You think that you are now spiritual giants. Compared to you, I am a spiritual pygmy. And that's the way he intended it to be, in the end.]
If persons
were to gain even a slight degree of clarity along with even a few shreds of wisdom
and
if they were to use those to look objectively at their beliefs,
and
if they were to attain a modicum of the courage required to challenge and question the beliefs that they think are their own but which all came from “others” (most of whom are / were suffering from their own serious cases of ignorance and insanity),
then
they would see that the religion-based explanations repeated in the last few posts as well as the spirituality-based explanations that were repeated in the recent posts are nothing more than religious “knowledge” with very ancient roots (all of which Maharaj eventually dismissed as “learned ignorance”).
If they were to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage, they would see that religious explanations are myth-based and superstition-based and ignorance-based beliefs that are hand-me-down concepts, handed down starting with persons who lived 5,000 years ago and who were sharing from "the pool of conventional wisdom" which then – as now – is less of a pool and more of a cesspool of ignorance
and
they would see that spiritual explanations are based in the rambling of assumed ego-states and egotism and arrogance; in magical thinking and distortions and delusions; and in dreamed up concepts, all of which are delivered in as stirring and as moving and as inspirational a fashion as possible in order to aggravate the already-existing condition of emotional intoxication that is plaguing those who are trapped in an extreme state of what they take to be a noble and lofty condition but which Maharaj dismissed as “their kindergarten-level spirituality.”
The masses are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which has now reached the point of being a global pandemic. The irony? They are worrying about contracting "this virus" or "that bacteria" without having a clue that there is nothing on earth that could make them sicker than they already are right now.
The additional irony? They are paralyzed with fear over that which they might contract but which they will likely never contract even as they ignore completely that which they have already contracted.
They are already suffering right now from the most debilitating Sickness of all even as they ignore completely the fact that their relative existence - because of the Sickness which they already have - is presently dominated by their self-destructive thinking and their self-destructive behavior; by their dualistic thinking; by chaos; by insanity; by a lack of freedom; by a lack of consistent peace; and by the presence instead of consistent instability.
Are many likely to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage to challenge the ignorance-and-insanity-based beliefs that have been passed along to them in the form of "religious dogma" or "spiritual teachings" or cultural programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination? No.
Are many likely to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage that would allow them to start using factual evidence (rather than mythology and superstition or lofty but baseless concepts that focus only on things “celestial and extraterrestrial”) in order to understand what is truly the more immediate cause of - and the proper treatment for - what ails them? No, not likely.
So it is, but so it need not be.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
14 October 2014
Brittany’s body has developed the deadliest form of brain cancer. After treatment, the average life expectancy is only fourteen months. When doctors told Brittany her death would likely be “slow and painful” as the tumor continued to grow, she "opted to choose her own ending."
The doctors said that they have no medications that will be able to relieve her pain and suffering as the tumor grows but that they can offer to those who choose the “die with dignity” option a medication which “will give her a ‘peaceful and painless’ ending”; certain groups, however, are protesting that she is committing suicide and has no right to do that, and they are sending messages in droves to her that she “will go to hell for eternity.”
Her reply: “This is not a suicide. There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die. I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there’s not. Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.”
How does Brittany’s perspective align with the non-dual view on the issue?
Maharaj said: “In some cases ‘death’ is the best cure. A ‘life’ may be worse than ‘death,’ which is but rarely an unpleasant experience, whatever the appearances; therefore, pity the living, never the dead”
and
“The end is in the beginning" in that "You end where you start — in the Absolute”
and
“The teacher does not evaluate. His sole concern is with suffering and the ending of suffering”
and
“Disease and suffering are not natural. There is noble virtue in unshakable endurance of whatever comes, but there is also dignity in the refusal of meaningless torture and humiliation.”
The Realized understand that no one is born and that no one shall die and so, certainly, no one shall be "born again" and certainly no one will "live forever," so no one will "suffer either eternal punishment or eternal reward."
That is why here there is no concern at all about the taking of mahasamadhi. While that which the masses call “death” is not being sought, it is not being feared either; yet this manifestation would be brought to an end voluntarily if the kind of relative existence that Brittany is experiencing should manifest.
And that is also why here, the legal paperwork has been completed by an attorney and has been filed to make clear that there is nothing noble or virtuous or dignified about meaningless torture and humiliation and that this composite unity called “Floyd” by some will not allow breathing and feeding equipment to be used to extend a "quality-less" existence.
If freed of all delusions and illusions about “death,” there is also freedom from any fear of “death,” and only if freed from the belief in the concept of “death” can one be free to live without fear as well . . . free to abide for whatever remains of the relative existence without any fear at all between the time-frame from the point of Full Realization to the point of taking mahasamadhi.
Now that’s how the Realized spell “relief” (which comes only when relieved of all beliefs).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 October 2014
15 October 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Is it becoming clear why those who criticize Maharaj for “moving away from a religious / spiritual approach” in his efforts to address the Ultimate Sickness do not have even the slightest clue at all about why that shift occurred? The shift is explained in detail in the book below which deals with Maharaj’s Evolution. In that eBook, some of the criticisms leveled at Maharaj are shared, including these three:
1. One man wrote: “"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers.”
[Rather than “losing clarity,” by the end he attained more clarity; rather than “getting complicated,” his message became more simple than ever; finally, his message did not “decline” . . . he merely declined to continue to use the two medicines which he had used early on to try to treat the Ultimate Sickness because both of those medicines - a religious one first and a spiritual one later - proved ineffective; as for his “evolving,” indeed, guilty as charged.]
2. Another said of Maharaj: “At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
[The fact is, when his final teachings eventually were based in the science of psychology and when advances in science - as Maharaj predicted - came to provide concrete evidence which proves that what he understood and shared about the way that the problems of humanity center in the mind rather than in “too little religion” or in an “untreated spiritual malady,” then those final sharings were indeed completely different from what he was sharing when he was still trapped in his early, admittedly-less-informed "guru-bhakti stage."]
3. Another wrote: “"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
[Maharaj would agree completely. He said: You think that you are now spiritual giants. Compared to you, I am a spiritual pygmy. And that's the way he intended it to be, in the end.]
If persons
were to gain even a slight degree of clarity along with even a few shreds of wisdom
and
if they were to use those to look objectively at their beliefs,
and
if they were to attain a modicum of the courage required to challenge and question the beliefs that they think are their own but which all came from “others” (most of whom are / were suffering from their own serious cases of ignorance and insanity),
then
they would see that the religion-based explanations repeated in the last few posts as well as the spirituality-based explanations that were repeated in the recent posts are nothing more than religious “knowledge” with very ancient roots (all of which Maharaj eventually dismissed as “learned ignorance”).
If they were to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage, they would see that religious explanations are myth-based and superstition-based and ignorance-based beliefs that are hand-me-down concepts, handed down starting with persons who lived 5,000 years ago and who were sharing from "the pool of conventional wisdom" which then – as now – is less of a pool and more of a cesspool of ignorance
and
they would see that spiritual explanations are based in the rambling of assumed ego-states and egotism and arrogance; in magical thinking and distortions and delusions; and in dreamed up concepts, all of which are delivered in as stirring and as moving and as inspirational a fashion as possible in order to aggravate the already-existing condition of emotional intoxication that is plaguing those who are trapped in an extreme state of what they take to be a noble and lofty condition but which Maharaj dismissed as “their kindergarten-level spirituality.”
The masses are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which has now reached the point of being a global pandemic. The irony? They are worrying about contracting "this virus" or "that bacteria" without having a clue that there is nothing on earth that could make them sicker than they already are right now.
The additional irony? They are paralyzed with fear over that which they might contract but which they will likely never contract even as they ignore completely that which they have already contracted.
They are already suffering right now from the most debilitating Sickness of all even as they ignore completely the fact that their relative existence - because of the Sickness which they already have - is presently dominated by their self-destructive thinking and their self-destructive behavior; by their dualistic thinking; by chaos; by insanity; by a lack of freedom; by a lack of consistent peace; and by the presence instead of consistent instability.
Are many likely to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage to challenge the ignorance-and-insanity-based beliefs that have been passed along to them in the form of "religious dogma" or "spiritual teachings" or cultural programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination? No.
Are many likely to gain the requisite clarity, wisdom, objectivity, and courage that would allow them to start using factual evidence (rather than mythology and superstition or lofty but baseless concepts that focus only on things “celestial and extraterrestrial”) in order to understand what is truly the more immediate cause of - and the proper treatment for - what ails them? No, not likely.
So it is, but so it need not be.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
14 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 concepts of “death” and “the right to die” and how they believe those concepts should be viewed:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “God opposes suicide because He thinks only He has the right to decide who is to die and when they are to die” and “life is precious so you should not commit suicide” or “only God is to decide when you die so you have no ‘right to die’ when you choose” and “you may be terminally ill and in great pain and suffering mentally and emotionally, but you do not have the right to end your own life” and "as with sex and abortion and masturbation and what food you eat, you do not have the right to decide what to do with your own body" or
“it is okay to commit suicide if you die in the act of killing infidels in the name of our God (and, in fact, you will receive the greatest reward that God offers”) vs. “if you commit suicide, you will receive the greatest punishment that God can assess” or “committing suicide brings with it a social stigma and shames our family because life is precious and you have arrived into this life after scores or hundreds or thousands of births and this life provides an opportunity for you to make a giant leap to higher planes of existence and maybe this is the life that is going to allow you to attain immortality”
or “committing suicide or exercising your right to die will not only hamper your spiritual progress but will also set your progress back by several lives and will bring greater suffering once you are reborn following your suicide, but - all that aside - it can be an honorable act of self-sacrifice if undertaken to protest social injustice” or “to commit suicide is to commit murder for you are murdering your Self or Soul.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “God does not want you to commit suicide because God alone is in charge of all and He alone has the right to decide the timing for all” and “you would only commit suicide if you are not spiritually fit” and “if you are spiritually fit, then you will be at peace with whatever circumstances arise in your life” and “if you are spiritually fit, you will accept everything just the way it is and – in fact – you will love whatever is” and
“if you are spiritually fit then you will know that it’s all good, so it is impossible for truly spiritual people to kill themselves” and “if you become spiritual, you will be able to ‘love what is’ and you’ll have a new, positive attitude and you will know that 'acceptance' is the key to happiness, so just learn to accept your pain and turn everything over to God.”
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "Many of the reasons that persons kill themselves are rooted in their personality disorders which are generating suffering and misery" and “over 90% of the people who die by suicide have been diagnosed with a mental illness” and “some of the mental illnesses commonly associated with suicide include depression, the Borderline Personality Disorder (P.D.), the Schizophrenia P.D., eating disorders, the Bi-Polar P.D., anxiety disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and others” and “addiction and substance abuse are associated with an increased risk of suicide as well.”
In the U.S., there is another perspective which aligns with the non-dual view on the issue, and that is the perspective held in the states of Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont which deem it legal for one to choose when to die and how to die and for one to exercise one’s “right to die” or one’s “right to die with dignity.” (It is required in these states that the patient be “of sound mind” when requesting assisted suicide, as confirmed by a doctor and other witnesses, and that the patient be diagnosed with a terminal illness.)
Right-wing elements in the U.S. dubbed Dr. Jack Kevorkian “Dr. Death” after he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides in instances where terminally ill persons were suffering unbearable pain. Members of conservative and religious groups pressed for him to be arrested and tried for murder, and they eventually got their way: he was arrested and tried and convicted of murder and served eight years in prison for assisting persons who choose to end their pain and suffering (in spite of the fact that other doctors in hospitals in all fifty states remove breathing equipment and feeding tubes in hundreds of thousands of instances on an annual basis . . . and without consequence).
While some of the anti-suicide beliefs of Hinduism were listed above, there are some Hindus who accept “the right to die” for those who are tormented by terminal diseases; their beliefs allow one "to choose a voluntary death through the non-violent practice of fasting to the point of starvation."
The “You-have-no-right-to-choose-when-you-die-because-that’s-up-to-God” groups in the U.S. are protesting again because the media have recently reported that Brittany Maynard,
a terminally-ill 29-year-old woman, has chosen 1 November 2014 as the day she will die.
Consider the contrast in the ways that the three look at the concepts of “death” and “the right to die” and how they believe those concepts should be viewed:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “God opposes suicide because He thinks only He has the right to decide who is to die and when they are to die” and “life is precious so you should not commit suicide” or “only God is to decide when you die so you have no ‘right to die’ when you choose” and “you may be terminally ill and in great pain and suffering mentally and emotionally, but you do not have the right to end your own life” and "as with sex and abortion and masturbation and what food you eat, you do not have the right to decide what to do with your own body" or
“it is okay to commit suicide if you die in the act of killing infidels in the name of our God (and, in fact, you will receive the greatest reward that God offers”) vs. “if you commit suicide, you will receive the greatest punishment that God can assess” or “committing suicide brings with it a social stigma and shames our family because life is precious and you have arrived into this life after scores or hundreds or thousands of births and this life provides an opportunity for you to make a giant leap to higher planes of existence and maybe this is the life that is going to allow you to attain immortality”
or “committing suicide or exercising your right to die will not only hamper your spiritual progress but will also set your progress back by several lives and will bring greater suffering once you are reborn following your suicide, but - all that aside - it can be an honorable act of self-sacrifice if undertaken to protest social injustice” or “to commit suicide is to commit murder for you are murdering your Self or Soul.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “God does not want you to commit suicide because God alone is in charge of all and He alone has the right to decide the timing for all” and “you would only commit suicide if you are not spiritually fit” and “if you are spiritually fit, then you will be at peace with whatever circumstances arise in your life” and “if you are spiritually fit, you will accept everything just the way it is and – in fact – you will love whatever is” and
“if you are spiritually fit then you will know that it’s all good, so it is impossible for truly spiritual people to kill themselves” and “if you become spiritual, you will be able to ‘love what is’ and you’ll have a new, positive attitude and you will know that 'acceptance' is the key to happiness, so just learn to accept your pain and turn everything over to God.”
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: "Many of the reasons that persons kill themselves are rooted in their personality disorders which are generating suffering and misery" and “over 90% of the people who die by suicide have been diagnosed with a mental illness” and “some of the mental illnesses commonly associated with suicide include depression, the Borderline Personality Disorder (P.D.), the Schizophrenia P.D., eating disorders, the Bi-Polar P.D., anxiety disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and others” and “addiction and substance abuse are associated with an increased risk of suicide as well.”
In the U.S., there is another perspective which aligns with the non-dual view on the issue, and that is the perspective held in the states of Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont which deem it legal for one to choose when to die and how to die and for one to exercise one’s “right to die” or one’s “right to die with dignity.” (It is required in these states that the patient be “of sound mind” when requesting assisted suicide, as confirmed by a doctor and other witnesses, and that the patient be diagnosed with a terminal illness.)
Right-wing elements in the U.S. dubbed Dr. Jack Kevorkian “Dr. Death” after he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides in instances where terminally ill persons were suffering unbearable pain. Members of conservative and religious groups pressed for him to be arrested and tried for murder, and they eventually got their way: he was arrested and tried and convicted of murder and served eight years in prison for assisting persons who choose to end their pain and suffering (in spite of the fact that other doctors in hospitals in all fifty states remove breathing equipment and feeding tubes in hundreds of thousands of instances on an annual basis . . . and without consequence).
While some of the anti-suicide beliefs of Hinduism were listed above, there are some Hindus who accept “the right to die” for those who are tormented by terminal diseases; their beliefs allow one "to choose a voluntary death through the non-violent practice of fasting to the point of starvation."
The “You-have-no-right-to-choose-when-you-die-because-that’s-up-to-God” groups in the U.S. are protesting again because the media have recently reported that Brittany Maynard,
a terminally-ill 29-year-old woman, has chosen 1 November 2014 as the day she will die.
Brittany’s body has developed the deadliest form of brain cancer. After treatment, the average life expectancy is only fourteen months. When doctors told Brittany her death would likely be “slow and painful” as the tumor continued to grow, she "opted to choose her own ending."
The doctors said that they have no medications that will be able to relieve her pain and suffering as the tumor grows but that they can offer to those who choose the “die with dignity” option a medication which “will give her a ‘peaceful and painless’ ending”; certain groups, however, are protesting that she is committing suicide and has no right to do that, and they are sending messages in droves to her that she “will go to hell for eternity.”
Her reply: “This is not a suicide. There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die. I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there’s not. Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.”
How does Brittany’s perspective align with the non-dual view on the issue?
Maharaj said: “In some cases ‘death’ is the best cure. A ‘life’ may be worse than ‘death,’ which is but rarely an unpleasant experience, whatever the appearances; therefore, pity the living, never the dead”
and
“The end is in the beginning" in that "You end where you start — in the Absolute”
and
“The teacher does not evaluate. His sole concern is with suffering and the ending of suffering”
and
“Disease and suffering are not natural. There is noble virtue in unshakable endurance of whatever comes, but there is also dignity in the refusal of meaningless torture and humiliation.”
The Realized understand that no one is born and that no one shall die and so, certainly, no one shall be "born again" and certainly no one will "live forever," so no one will "suffer either eternal punishment or eternal reward."
That is why here there is no concern at all about the taking of mahasamadhi. While that which the masses call “death” is not being sought, it is not being feared either; yet this manifestation would be brought to an end voluntarily if the kind of relative existence that Brittany is experiencing should manifest.
And that is also why here, the legal paperwork has been completed by an attorney and has been filed to make clear that there is nothing noble or virtuous or dignified about meaningless torture and humiliation and that this composite unity called “Floyd” by some will not allow breathing and feeding equipment to be used to extend a "quality-less" existence.
If freed of all delusions and illusions about “death,” there is also freedom from any fear of “death,” and only if freed from the belief in the concept of “death” can one be free to live without fear as well . . . free to abide for whatever remains of the relative existence without any fear at all between the time-frame from the point of Full Realization to the point of taking mahasamadhi.
Now that’s how the Realized spell “relief” (which comes only when relieved of all beliefs).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 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 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.
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.
SECTION THREE:
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. BY USING EBOOKS available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or Kindle reader.
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")
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)
SECTION FOUR:
THREE FREE eBOOKS
(Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.)
THREE FREE eBOOKS
(Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.)
The following three eBooks are available without charge 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.
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.
To receive free copies, or to have us send free copies to your friends or
relatives, send the request (or their email addresses) to the following gmail name:
nondualfloyd
SECTION FIVE:
COMPARE YOUR "JOURNEY" AND SEE IF YOU'VE UNDERGONE ANY EVENTS THAT PARALLEL THOSE OF MAHARAJ AND FLOYD
COMPARE YOUR "JOURNEY" AND SEE IF YOU'VE UNDERGONE ANY EVENTS THAT PARALLEL THOSE OF MAHARAJ AND FLOYD
The "experiences" of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd share many parallel. Many visitors have said that they have also shared some of the same parallels. Can you relate to any of these?
1. Both grew up in very poor families
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 initially tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with religious teachings but realized that did not work, so both tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with spirituality, only to see eventually that "being spiritual" did not cure the Ultimate Sickness either
8. both then realized that the main problems of humanity center in the mind so both turned to the sharing of psychology and scientific-and-fact-based pointers to free persons of the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination
9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion
10. both had grown 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 initially tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with religious teachings but realized that did not work, so both tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with spirituality, only to see eventually that "being spiritual" did not cure the Ultimate Sickness either
8. both then realized that the main problems of humanity center in the mind so both turned to the sharing of psychology and scientific-and-fact-based pointers to free persons of the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination
9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion
10. both had grown 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 (and no longer having a husband who brought in huge sums of money)
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 offered satsang
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 (and no longer having a husband who brought in huge sums of money)
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 offered satsang
21. both saw that most who hear the teachings are still not going to understand
22. both, therefore, offered pointers without expectation, without attachment to outcome, and without any concern about the way that persons react to hearing Truth
23. both suggested that seekers focus on the exact, step-wise "path
22. both, therefore, offered pointers without expectation, without attachment to outcome, and without any concern about the way that persons react to hearing Truth
23. both suggested that seekers focus on the exact, step-wise "path
24. both made the decision that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the way that has been seen to be the most effective method: not suggesting that there are not enough religious persons; not suggesting that the Ultimate Sickness is caused by being "spiritually-unfit"; but by seeing that the problem centers in the mind (which must come to an end, which it will the moment all beliefs are abandoned)
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.
SECTION SIX:
FOR THOSE WHO PREFER A BOOK IN HAND TO READING eBOOKS, 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)
