A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[See, it’s a continuous loop, inescapable in almost every case: the programming, etc. generated the blind faith and then blind faith reinforces one’s attachment to everything which was passed down via programming, conditioning, etc. in the first place.]
All programming, conditioning, etc. is passed down by persons who are asleep, so the messaging that is passed down via the use of programming, conditioning, etc. also puts the one being programmed and conditioned, etc. to sleep. Then the blind faith and the programming and conditioning etc. assure that the one put to sleep will most likely remain that way for the entire relative existence.
Moreover, among those who report with such pride that they live by faith alone, the key operative word in the phrase “blind faith” is “blind.” To speak of “blind faith” is actually a redundancy. To live by faith rather than by fact is automatically to be blind . . . blind to truth, blind to reality, and certainly blind to Reality.
Some have said, “But Floyd, you live by faith all day long. When you drive down the street, you have faith that the drivers in cars approaching from the opposite direction with honor the line down the center of the road and stay on their side of the line rather than swerving over and hitting you head on.”
The reply: “That’s nonsense. Why would I have any faith in drivers whom I have never met? I have no faith in them at all. Several of them over the years have veered into my lane and nearly struck my car head on. It is because I have no faith in them that I am fully awake, aware, conscious, and focused when driving so that the next time someone driving in his or her sleep might allow their car to begin moving into my lane, I have at least some chance of taking an evasive action.
Not a single week goes by when I do not have to take some kind of preventive step to avoid another driver who changes lanes in front of my car and then suddenly stops to turn; when some driver rolls through a stop sign and I have to hit my brakes to avoid him or her; when someone turns in front of my car rather than being willing to wait a few more seconds for me to pass before they turn.
The roads in the U.S. - but also elsewhere - are some of the most dangerous in the world because most among the masses are totally asleep; totally distracted; talking on a cell phone; texting on a cell phone; adjusting the selector on their radios or CD players; looking at a friend beside them or in the back seat rather than looking at the road; or – as happened last week on nearby Highway 105 – trying to change her baby’s diaper while her car was speeding along the road at 65 m.p.h. (or nearly 105 k.p.h.)
And what is the existence like for those walking in their sleep? Here come some of them now:
Sleepwalking is akin to abiding in the "personality trance," the condition in which the masses are trapped. Both terms apply equally to the non-Realized masses. Here come some more of them now.
It is as if (post-programming, post-conditioning, etc.) persons become just like zombies. The masses live out their existence in a "walking dead" fashion, just like those characters above who were featured in a 1968 movie.
How dangerous is it, really, to walk in one’s sleep, to talk in one’s sleep, to drive in one’s sleep? Quite dangerous, relatively speaking, yet that is the case with most among the masses.
A 24-year old British woman, Amy Wigfull, age 24, was placed on life support this past summer after she fell fifty feet from a hotel window. Toxicology tests proved she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol; instead, she had been sleepwalking when she fell from the window of a Malaga, Spain hotel. She suffered a broken back, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and bleeding of the brain.
Some visitor’s know that on West 69th Street – on the opposite side of the street from the house in which “floyd” was raised – lived a fellow named John K. It was, from around the age of six or so, that John began sleepwalking. In the beginning, he might go to the refrigerator and eat something during the night, but he would have no memory of that at all the next morning. Later, his parents might rise in the morning and find John asleep in the bathtub.
The potential danger increased when he began leaving the house at night while sleepwalking: he was found asleep on the front porch on one occasion; in the back seat of the family car on another; and later on he was found several blocks from home, walking in the middle of the street.
These facts were shared earlier in a summer of 2014 post:
Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or that they had fallen asleep at the wheel.
NOTE: Never have I chased down those driving in their sleep and offered to wake them. If one would be awake, that one must come here and make a request. Otherwise, all of the sleepwalkers are merely witnessed as they walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, shop in their sleep, run a cash register at the checkout counter in a store while asleep, say what they say to their mates in their sleep, say what they say to their employer or employees in their sleep, or take a customer’s food order in their sleep.
[Last week while visiting my daughter in Austin, I left her house and went out for breakfast the first morning after she had left for work. I stopped by a nearby restaurant which serves breakfast and placed my order. Within a few minutes, the waitress was back asking, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” Because my daughter had already served coffee earlier, I ordered my second-favorite breakfast beverage, orange juice, so when she asked, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” the response was, “Actually, neither. I asked for a glass of orange juice.” She said, “Oh, that’s right! Sorry!” and left. Of course my being “right” was not the concern, her affirmation of my being correct about my original order notwithstanding. The concern was, would she be anywhere close to "right" with the order. So far, there was little confidence that such would be the case. Sure enough, I saw her returning, empty-handed, and knew another lapse had occurred. She said, “I am SO sorry.” [Then whispering so that the manager would not hear her] “I had a rough night last night. My bad! So you did say you wanted your eggs scrambled, right?” Again, “Actually, I asked that they be cooked ‘over easy’.” She: “Oh damn! I mean, heck! That’s right. Where did I get scrambled? Duh,” and she left for the third time. I did not answer her question, "Where did I get scrambled" for her, though I understood exactly. I did not explain that she – or more accurately, her thoughts and her mind and her brain overall - had been scrambled starting in childhood; nor did I explain that, after leaving home, she has taken over the scrambling-of-her-brain job where her parents left off. See? “Taking a customer’s food order in their sleep.” And that is the way that the relative existence unfolds for the 99%+ who are among the non-Realized masses who have been lulled to sleep without having even the slightest clue at all that such is their circumstance. Additionally, little does she know but - here in Texas, where many wear guns on their hips (readily available to use to shot whomever they want to shoot) - someone may well draw a pistol and shoot her after such insane nonsense has happened with their order. And little does she know that the right-wing, God-fearing, Lone-Star-flag-loving judges in this state, after hearing the shooter’s explanation, will likely dismiss the case as being “justifiable homicide.”]
Research also shows that at least 30% of all people have engaged in sleepwalking at some time in their lives. Non-dualists know better. Non-dualists know that the percentage is actually more than 99%.
and
“To be aware is to be awake. ‘Unaware’ means ‘asleep’.”
That typical - though certainly not "normal" - condition of humanity in general would be funny except for the fact that it is, you know, not funny at all. Instead, it is often dangerous, relatively speaking; in fact, it is the most dangerous condition of all.
And it is rooted in the most dangerous belief of all, namely, the belief that one can traverse the relative existence “much better” if one is blind (that is, totally asleep, totally willing to have faith in everything they have been told) rather than (1) being able to see reality and able to see Reality and rather than (2) being - as the case is now - totally unable to differentiate between what is false and what is true.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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.)
F.: So one person wrote to say that he “admits that blind faith might have some serious, relative drawbacks” but then added, “But the most dangerous belief?”
How else is blind faith the most dangerous belief of all, in addition to the fact that it results from programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination and then supports the programming, conditioning, etc. which guaranteed the belief in – and high regard for – one’s blind faith to begin with.
How else is blind faith the most dangerous belief of all, in addition to the fact that it results from programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination and then supports the programming, conditioning, etc. which guaranteed the belief in – and high regard for – one’s blind faith to begin with.
[See, it’s a continuous loop, inescapable in almost every case: the programming, etc. generated the blind faith and then blind faith reinforces one’s attachment to everything which was passed down via programming, conditioning, etc. in the first place.]
All programming, conditioning, etc. is passed down by persons who are asleep, so the messaging that is passed down via the use of programming, conditioning, etc. also puts the one being programmed and conditioned, etc. to sleep. Then the blind faith and the programming and conditioning etc. assure that the one put to sleep will most likely remain that way for the entire relative existence.
Moreover, among those who report with such pride that they live by faith alone, the key operative word in the phrase “blind faith” is “blind.” To speak of “blind faith” is actually a redundancy. To live by faith rather than by fact is automatically to be blind . . . blind to truth, blind to reality, and certainly blind to Reality.
Some have said, “But Floyd, you live by faith all day long. When you drive down the street, you have faith that the drivers in cars approaching from the opposite direction with honor the line down the center of the road and stay on their side of the line rather than swerving over and hitting you head on.”
The reply: “That’s nonsense. Why would I have any faith in drivers whom I have never met? I have no faith in them at all. Several of them over the years have veered into my lane and nearly struck my car head on. It is because I have no faith in them that I am fully awake, aware, conscious, and focused when driving so that the next time someone driving in his or her sleep might allow their car to begin moving into my lane, I have at least some chance of taking an evasive action.
Not a single week goes by when I do not have to take some kind of preventive step to avoid another driver who changes lanes in front of my car and then suddenly stops to turn; when some driver rolls through a stop sign and I have to hit my brakes to avoid him or her; when someone turns in front of my car rather than being willing to wait a few more seconds for me to pass before they turn.
The roads in the U.S. - but also elsewhere - are some of the most dangerous in the world because most among the masses are totally asleep; totally distracted; talking on a cell phone; texting on a cell phone; adjusting the selector on their radios or CD players; looking at a friend beside them or in the back seat rather than looking at the road; or – as happened last week on nearby Highway 105 – trying to change her baby’s diaper while her car was speeding along the road at 65 m.p.h. (or nearly 105 k.p.h.)
And what is the existence like for those walking in their sleep? Here come some of them now:
Sleepwalking is akin to abiding in the "personality trance," the condition in which the masses are trapped. Both terms apply equally to the non-Realized masses. Here come some more of them now.
It is as if (post-programming, post-conditioning, etc.) persons become just like zombies. The masses live out their existence in a "walking dead" fashion, just like those characters above who were featured in a 1968 movie.
How dangerous is it, really, to walk in one’s sleep, to talk in one’s sleep, to drive in one’s sleep? Quite dangerous, relatively speaking, yet that is the case with most among the masses.
A 24-year old British woman, Amy Wigfull, age 24, was placed on life support this past summer after she fell fifty feet from a hotel window. Toxicology tests proved she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol; instead, she had been sleepwalking when she fell from the window of a Malaga, Spain hotel. She suffered a broken back, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and bleeding of the brain.
Some visitor’s know that on West 69th Street – on the opposite side of the street from the house in which “floyd” was raised – lived a fellow named John K. It was, from around the age of six or so, that John began sleepwalking. In the beginning, he might go to the refrigerator and eat something during the night, but he would have no memory of that at all the next morning. Later, his parents might rise in the morning and find John asleep in the bathtub.
The potential danger increased when he began leaving the house at night while sleepwalking: he was found asleep on the front porch on one occasion; in the back seat of the family car on another; and later on he was found several blocks from home, walking in the middle of the street.
These facts were shared earlier in a summer of 2014 post:
Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or that they had fallen asleep at the wheel.
(That is out of 196,000,000 drivers, which amounts to approximately 86% of all drivers. More than 100,000 wrecks occur annually as a result of driving while sleeping. Those are the ones in which drivers admit that they fell asleep at the wheel. Far more likely occur without the actual cause being revealed.)
Data from Australia, England, Finland, and other European nations indicates that drowsy driving or driving while asleep cause between 10% and up to 30% percent of all crashes annually.
NOTE: Never have I chased down those driving in their sleep and offered to wake them. If one would be awake, that one must come here and make a request. Otherwise, all of the sleepwalkers are merely witnessed as they walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, shop in their sleep, run a cash register at the checkout counter in a store while asleep, say what they say to their mates in their sleep, say what they say to their employer or employees in their sleep, or take a customer’s food order in their sleep.
[Last week while visiting my daughter in Austin, I left her house and went out for breakfast the first morning after she had left for work. I stopped by a nearby restaurant which serves breakfast and placed my order. Within a few minutes, the waitress was back asking, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” Because my daughter had already served coffee earlier, I ordered my second-favorite breakfast beverage, orange juice, so when she asked, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” the response was, “Actually, neither. I asked for a glass of orange juice.” She said, “Oh, that’s right! Sorry!” and left. Of course my being “right” was not the concern, her affirmation of my being correct about my original order notwithstanding. The concern was, would she be anywhere close to "right" with the order. So far, there was little confidence that such would be the case. Sure enough, I saw her returning, empty-handed, and knew another lapse had occurred. She said, “I am SO sorry.” [Then whispering so that the manager would not hear her] “I had a rough night last night. My bad! So you did say you wanted your eggs scrambled, right?” Again, “Actually, I asked that they be cooked ‘over easy’.” She: “Oh damn! I mean, heck! That’s right. Where did I get scrambled? Duh,” and she left for the third time. I did not answer her question, "Where did I get scrambled" for her, though I understood exactly. I did not explain that she – or more accurately, her thoughts and her mind and her brain overall - had been scrambled starting in childhood; nor did I explain that, after leaving home, she has taken over the scrambling-of-her-brain job where her parents left off. See? “Taking a customer’s food order in their sleep.” And that is the way that the relative existence unfolds for the 99%+ who are among the non-Realized masses who have been lulled to sleep without having even the slightest clue at all that such is their circumstance. Additionally, little does she know but - here in Texas, where many wear guns on their hips (readily available to use to shot whomever they want to shoot) - someone may well draw a pistol and shoot her after such insane nonsense has happened with their order. And little does she know that the right-wing, God-fearing, Lone-Star-flag-loving judges in this state, after hearing the shooter’s explanation, will likely dismiss the case as being “justifiable homicide.”]
Research also shows that at least 30% of all people have engaged in sleepwalking at some time in their lives. Non-dualists know better. Non-dualists know that the percentage is actually more than 99%.
Thus Maharaj said: “As I look at you, you all seem asleep, dreaming up words of your own”
and
“To be aware is to be awake. ‘Unaware’ means ‘asleep’.”
That typical - though certainly not "normal" - condition of humanity in general would be funny except for the fact that it is, you know, not funny at all. Instead, it is often dangerous, relatively speaking; in fact, it is the most dangerous condition of all.
And it is rooted in the most dangerous belief of all, namely, the belief that one can traverse the relative existence “much better” if one is blind (that is, totally asleep, totally willing to have faith in everything they have been told) rather than (1) being able to see reality and able to see Reality and rather than (2) being - as the case is now - totally unable to differentiate between what is false and what is true.
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 four 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 Four offers four 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
12 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
Programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination
lead to
no questioning of anything that one is told
leading to
all thoughts and words and actions being driven by blind faith
which leads in turn to
involvement in or membership in all sorts of cults, including religions, spiritual programs, cults promoting political agendas, cults promoting racial / anti-racial agendas (and many others, to be discussed below)
leading to
intolerance and a belief in the concepts of “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “being higher on the hierarchy than you”
which eventually leads to
arguing, fighting, ending relationships, wars, and murder, (including killing literally, killing economically, killing in terms of character assassination, ad infinitum).
So is blind faith a dangerous belief, relative speaking, or not? Might it even be the most dangerous of all, considering the widespread, far-from-constructive effects?
Review the short list of a few examples and see that the relative results have been that religion-based or religion-associated movements and events have led to the murder of billions upon billions in the last several millennia alone. Recall: virgins being killed to appease an angry god; all of the ancient religious wars; the Crusades; the European religious wars; the American Holocaust; witchcraft trials; the European Holocaust; the 9-11 attack and the wars that followed; the current religious wars in the Middle East; ad infinitum.
Then add in the anger and separation that happens when the religious and non-religious in any nation or state turn on each other, as happened in ancient Florence when that city-state was divided 50-50 along religious vs. secular lines; as is happening in the Middle East today with Muslims turning again Christians and Jews and both of those turning against Muslims; Sunnis turned against Shias and Shias turned against Sunnis; and as is happening in the U.S. with approximately half identifying themselves with right-wing religions and a right-wing conservative philosophy and approximately half indentifying with the opposite.
The problem with being led into blind faith as a result of having been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated? Joining cults (whether that involves one religion or another, one spiritual movement or program or another, etc.)
The problem with having joined a cult / religion / spiritual movement? Recall the traits that all cult members share in common: excessively zealous; unquestioning committed to a false identity and leadership; willing to be exploited and manipulated, and willing to exploit and manipulate; willing to harm or be harmed;
intolerance of more rational, open, and benevolent systems; being totalistic and elitist; being inflexible, convinced that they know how all people should think, act, and feel; claiming a special, exalted status; claiming perfectionism; becoming judgmental and narcissistic and egotistical and arrogant; and believing, dualistically, that “our way is right and any other way is wrong.”
While blind faith and cults inspire perfectionism and narcissism and egotism and zealotry and intolerance and arrogance, Full Realization can bring an end to all of that.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are currently 939 known hate groups operating in the U.S., including "neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others."
Among “others” the Center includes Patriot groups, armed militias, the White Aryan Resistance, the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations, the White Patriot Party militia, and some of the more radical or zealous types claiming membership in the so-called “Tea Party” and their associates:
Through the court-action arm of SPLC, they have crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members.
So if the leaders in the SPLC exhibit many of the same understandings as a “Realized non-dualist,” why are they taking action rather than merely witnessing what is going on? And why would any “Realized non-dualist” care?
Indeed, Maharaj did advise one visitor to "care about self rather than changing the world," but as with all of the advice he offered, one must consider the place on “the path” where a seeker is or what the beliefs of the seeker are which are blocking her or him from moving along “the path,” thus inspiring Maharaj to offer such advice.
When he told one visitor, “Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself,” he was answering one who was focusing on “others” and criticizing them for their shortcomings. All must be taken in context.
Some point to the following exchange to argue that Maharaj taught that, once Realized, you don’t care about anything going on in the relative (which is a totally bogus conclusion):
Questioner: “Surely, you care when your child is ill, don't you?”
Maharaj: “I don't get flustered. I just do the needful. I do not worry about the future. A right response to every situation is in my nature. I do not stop to think what to do. I act and move on. Results do not affect me. I do not even care, whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”
[He did not say that he did not care about the suffering of others; in fact, he said that is the work of the teacher of non-duality: to eliminate misery and suffering.]
He continued, explaining that on the many occasions when he “does the needful,” there is still “no sense of purpose in my doing anything.”
So he was forever pointing toward balance:
Too involved with caring and saving and rescuing? Then back off. Too absorbed in self, and too sociopathic to care about anyone else? Shift.
Because of the seeming contradictions in some pointers he offered to various seekers - all of which were level-appropriate for each specific seeker – then some common misperceptions about “the way the Realized are” have come about, including charges that the Realized are “cool to the point of being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or totally “stoic” or “don’t care.” But recall that Maharaj, when asked if he cared about those who came his way to find the means to end their physical pain and their mental misery and suffering, he replied: “More than you will ever know.”
The traits of “being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” and totally “stoic” are personality traits . . .
(which the Realized are almost totally free of – or almost totally free of - some evidence of the Type Four’s concern with authenticity remaining) . . .
and are actually the traits of psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights who can disintegrate into full-blown sociopaths, or of certain other disintegrated types as well, though sometimes to a lesser degree.
The True Self – which is merely Pure Witnessing – is not rendered “cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or “extremely stoic” as a result of Realizing and Witnessing. Pure Witnessing can involve the witnessing of what happens after the Loving, Caring, Pure Witnessing has called for awareness – or even for action - to shift the self and the selves and masses away from hateful, prejudicial, separatist thoughts or words or actions.
To eliminate an act of hatred requires another action, even if that action merely involves the act of sharing a message of Love.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing; Love is knowing I am everything.”
It was not Maharaj but the pure consciousness with an awareness of Love and Oneness that advised seekers: “You have only one thing to do: care for others as much as you care for yourself.”
When one said, “Let others take care of themselves,” Maharaj fired back the following: “You are not separate! The happiness you cannot share is spurious [false, bogus]; only the shareable is truly desirable.”
He said, “He who knows himself has no doubts about it. Nor does he care whether others recognise his state or not. Rare is the Realised man who discloses his Realisation, and fortunate are those who have met him, for he does it for their abiding welfare.”
See, what means nothing to Me – to the Real Floyd – is a certificate that was sent from the SPLC “in recognition of your important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America.” It has never been mentioned in years and will never be mentioned again, but it is an example of Maharaj’s pointer at work.
Nor does it mean anything to Me – to the Real Floyd – that the name assigned to a composite unity by “floyd’s parents” has been added to the Center’s “Wall of Tolerance” along with the names of all others “who have chosen to stand against hatred,” as is noted on the Wall.
[By the way, that is the case with all people that support, in any number of ways, the SPLC’s efforts to address hatred and separation and their effort to “teach tolerance” while expressing appreciation for all that join them in addressing the negative (relative) consequences of the widespread belief in duality and separation and “better-than-ment.”]
Again, the Realized “do not care whether others recognise their state or not,” yet the sense of Oneness here requires of this particular speck of consciousness that the breath be partly employed to share the non-duality message of Love and Unicity – and, therefore, of peace – which can come if one Realizes.
Relative problems only arise if – behind an action taken - there is an assumed WHO that cares. If the unblocked consciousness speaks, it speaks, spontaneously, of Love and Oneness without any agenda or attachment to results.
Thus, a key problem with blind faith is that it inspires cult membership and then drives members to normalize the cult’s excessive zealotry; its willingness to exploit and manipulate; its rigid intolerance of rational understandings that are the opposite of the cult’s beliefs; its sense of elitism; its inflexibly; its desire to control how all people think, act, and feel; its belief in a false, exalted status; its sense of perfectionism; and its unchecked judgmentalism, narcissism, egotism and arrogance.
Have you see the evidence? Has it registered fully? Whether the consequences are global or individualized or between two persons, the effects are never constructive.
[Recently, a relationship was established with a different dermatologist. The doctor that had been used for years has now associated himself with a cult – his being one of the “mainstream religions” – and he has become a zealot. Now, his focus is not on addressing the dermatological issues of his patients but has been redirected to subject the captive audience in his waiting room to dozens of signs which contain messages involving his ultra-conservative religious beliefs and the right-wing Republican views that he has now adopted and wants all others to adopt as well.
After being called forth from the propaganda-filled waiting room and being led to a treatment room where additional waiting would continue, more propagandist signs were observed, all intended to shift his patients’ views to align with his.
When he finally arrived and began addressing the issues dealing with the skin, he also began trying to treat what he assumed was a mind that (if it contained any beliefs that differed from his) would also need to be "doctored."
At the point when his main concern no longer involved my skin but began to focus on my "mind" and "soul," and when he shifted into his zealous proselytizing mode, he was advised
The pace of the treatment accelerated so that he could leave the room, posthaste, without so much as a “may you suffer from liberal causes for the rest of this life and may you afterwards burn in hell forever.”
The assistant was still standing next to the table as I put my shirt back on and walked out, smiling at her as she also had been stunned into silence after hearing her boss’s Type One Perfectionist efforts to convert and reform as they were rejected. After paying the bookkeeper, she wished me “a blessed day,” not yet aware that “a cursed day and a cursed life” were her employer’s actual wish.]
Another key problem rooted in blind faith is that it supports the nonsense-filled mind and thus generates all of the subsequent nonsense on the planet – and all of the results of the subsequently widespread Ultimate Sickness - all generated by the nonsense-filled minds of the non-Realized masses.
Maharaj: “Words . . . come from the mind and hold you there. To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence; silence and peace – this is the way beyond.”
Standing between (a) entrapment via mental nonsense and (b) going beyond? Blind faith, which leads persons into membership in one or more of the variety of available cults and then locks persons into the resultant conflict-generating zealotry and manipulation and rigidity and irrationality and perfectionism and judgmentalism and narcissism and egotism and arrogance and the desire to control the thoughts and words and actions of all people whose paths are crossed.
How might Maharaj have advised the doc:
and
“However great and complete is your world, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory”
and
“There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
Blind faith? Good riddance.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: So one person wrote to say that he “admits that blind faith might have some serious, relative drawbacks” but then added, “But the most dangerous belief of all?”
The response: you might consider this continuum and its effects:
The response: you might consider this continuum and its effects:
Programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination
lead to
no questioning of anything that one is told
leading to
all thoughts and words and actions being driven by blind faith
which leads in turn to
involvement in or membership in all sorts of cults, including religions, spiritual programs, cults promoting political agendas, cults promoting racial / anti-racial agendas (and many others, to be discussed below)
leading to
intolerance and a belief in the concepts of “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “being higher on the hierarchy than you”
which eventually leads to
arguing, fighting, ending relationships, wars, and murder, (including killing literally, killing economically, killing in terms of character assassination, ad infinitum).
So is blind faith a dangerous belief, relative speaking, or not? Might it even be the most dangerous of all, considering the widespread, far-from-constructive effects?
Review the short list of a few examples and see that the relative results have been that religion-based or religion-associated movements and events have led to the murder of billions upon billions in the last several millennia alone. Recall: virgins being killed to appease an angry god; all of the ancient religious wars; the Crusades; the European religious wars; the American Holocaust; witchcraft trials; the European Holocaust; the 9-11 attack and the wars that followed; the current religious wars in the Middle East; ad infinitum.
Then add in the anger and separation that happens when the religious and non-religious in any nation or state turn on each other, as happened in ancient Florence when that city-state was divided 50-50 along religious vs. secular lines; as is happening in the Middle East today with Muslims turning again Christians and Jews and both of those turning against Muslims; Sunnis turned against Shias and Shias turned against Sunnis; and as is happening in the U.S. with approximately half identifying themselves with right-wing religions and a right-wing conservative philosophy and approximately half indentifying with the opposite.
The problem with being led into blind faith as a result of having been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated? Joining cults (whether that involves one religion or another, one spiritual movement or program or another, etc.)
The problem with having joined a cult / religion / spiritual movement? Recall the traits that all cult members share in common: excessively zealous; unquestioning committed to a false identity and leadership; willing to be exploited and manipulated, and willing to exploit and manipulate; willing to harm or be harmed;
intolerance of more rational, open, and benevolent systems; being totalistic and elitist; being inflexible, convinced that they know how all people should think, act, and feel; claiming a special, exalted status; claiming perfectionism; becoming judgmental and narcissistic and egotistical and arrogant; and believing, dualistically, that “our way is right and any other way is wrong.”
While blind faith and cults inspire perfectionism and narcissism and egotism and zealotry and intolerance and arrogance, Full Realization can bring an end to all of that.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are currently 939 known hate groups operating in the U.S., including "neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others."
Among “others” the Center includes Patriot groups, armed militias, the White Aryan Resistance, the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations, the White Patriot Party militia, and some of the more radical or zealous types claiming membership in the so-called “Tea Party” and their associates:
Among their associates are those who are members of the Christian Reconstruction Movement or those adhering to their agenda without knowing who is pushing those agendas. That movement - with many members or adherents in the U.S. Congress - wants to destroy the U.S. Government, set up a Christian
theocracy, use the Old Testament as its constitution, and use ancient
Jewish laws and punishments as "the new law of the land," including "death by stoning in the case of non-believers, adulterers, and homosexuals."
Through the court-action arm of SPLC, they have crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members.
So if the leaders in the SPLC exhibit many of the same understandings as a “Realized non-dualist,” why are they taking action rather than merely witnessing what is going on? And why would any “Realized non-dualist” care?
Indeed, Maharaj did advise one visitor to "care about self rather than changing the world," but as with all of the advice he offered, one must consider the place on “the path” where a seeker is or what the beliefs of the seeker are which are blocking her or him from moving along “the path,” thus inspiring Maharaj to offer such advice.
When he told one visitor, “Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself,” he was answering one who was focusing on “others” and criticizing them for their shortcomings. All must be taken in context.
Some point to the following exchange to argue that Maharaj taught that, once Realized, you don’t care about anything going on in the relative (which is a totally bogus conclusion):
Questioner: “Surely, you care when your child is ill, don't you?”
Maharaj: “I don't get flustered. I just do the needful. I do not worry about the future. A right response to every situation is in my nature. I do not stop to think what to do. I act and move on. Results do not affect me. I do not even care, whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”
[He did not say that he did not care about the suffering of others; in fact, he said that is the work of the teacher of non-duality: to eliminate misery and suffering.]
He continued, explaining that on the many occasions when he “does the needful,” there is still “no sense of purpose in my doing anything.”
So he was forever pointing toward balance:
Too involved with caring and saving and rescuing? Then back off. Too absorbed in self, and too sociopathic to care about anyone else? Shift.
Because of the seeming contradictions in some pointers he offered to various seekers - all of which were level-appropriate for each specific seeker – then some common misperceptions about “the way the Realized are” have come about, including charges that the Realized are “cool to the point of being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or totally “stoic” or “don’t care.” But recall that Maharaj, when asked if he cared about those who came his way to find the means to end their physical pain and their mental misery and suffering, he replied: “More than you will ever know.”
The traits of “being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” and totally “stoic” are personality traits . . .
(which the Realized are almost totally free of – or almost totally free of - some evidence of the Type Four’s concern with authenticity remaining) . . .
and are actually the traits of psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights who can disintegrate into full-blown sociopaths, or of certain other disintegrated types as well, though sometimes to a lesser degree.
The True Self – which is merely Pure Witnessing – is not rendered “cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or “extremely stoic” as a result of Realizing and Witnessing. Pure Witnessing can involve the witnessing of what happens after the Loving, Caring, Pure Witnessing has called for awareness – or even for action - to shift the self and the selves and masses away from hateful, prejudicial, separatist thoughts or words or actions.
To eliminate an act of hatred requires another action, even if that action merely involves the act of sharing a message of Love.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing; Love is knowing I am everything.”
It was not Maharaj but the pure consciousness with an awareness of Love and Oneness that advised seekers: “You have only one thing to do: care for others as much as you care for yourself.”
When one said, “Let others take care of themselves,” Maharaj fired back the following: “You are not separate! The happiness you cannot share is spurious [false, bogus]; only the shareable is truly desirable.”
He said, “He who knows himself has no doubts about it. Nor does he care whether others recognise his state or not. Rare is the Realised man who discloses his Realisation, and fortunate are those who have met him, for he does it for their abiding welfare.”
See, what means nothing to Me – to the Real Floyd – is a certificate that was sent from the SPLC “in recognition of your important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America.” It has never been mentioned in years and will never be mentioned again, but it is an example of Maharaj’s pointer at work.
Nor does it mean anything to Me – to the Real Floyd – that the name assigned to a composite unity by “floyd’s parents” has been added to the Center’s “Wall of Tolerance” along with the names of all others “who have chosen to stand against hatred,” as is noted on the Wall.
[By the way, that is the case with all people that support, in any number of ways, the SPLC’s efforts to address hatred and separation and their effort to “teach tolerance” while expressing appreciation for all that join them in addressing the negative (relative) consequences of the widespread belief in duality and separation and “better-than-ment.”]
So if one day the message is "Here's a certificate, and your name has been placed on the Wall," the take is, "Whatever." If the next day the message is, "Your certificate has been revoked and your named has been removed from the Wall," the take is, "Whatever."
Again, the Realized “do not care whether others recognise their state or not,” yet the sense of Oneness here requires of this particular speck of consciousness that the breath be partly employed to share the non-duality message of Love and Unicity – and, therefore, of peace – which can come if one Realizes.
("If one Realizes" means, if one rejects all of the beliefs regarding “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “higher on the hierarchy than you” which persons have been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated to believe).
And the prerequisite for continuing to be driven by those influencers? The blind faith which they instilled in the first place.
Relative problems only arise if – behind an action taken - there is an assumed WHO that cares. If the unblocked consciousness speaks, it speaks, spontaneously, of Love and Oneness without any agenda or attachment to results.
There is no notion that "the entire world can be set free." There is the understanding that a seeker who has reached a state of full readiness might be set free, but that can only happen on a one-at-a-time basis and will never happen on a global basis.
Yet if one is set free and goes forth, many that were having to deal with that person who was not free – and therefore not at peace and is instead anxious and angry - then those "many" might suddenly experience a new level of freedom themselves when they are freed from being affected by the one who was not previously free.
Thus, a key problem with blind faith is that it inspires cult membership and then drives members to normalize the cult’s excessive zealotry; its willingness to exploit and manipulate; its rigid intolerance of rational understandings that are the opposite of the cult’s beliefs; its sense of elitism; its inflexibly; its desire to control how all people think, act, and feel; its belief in a false, exalted status; its sense of perfectionism; and its unchecked judgmentalism, narcissism, egotism and arrogance.
Have you see the evidence? Has it registered fully? Whether the consequences are global or individualized or between two persons, the effects are never constructive.
[Recently, a relationship was established with a different dermatologist. The doctor that had been used for years has now associated himself with a cult – his being one of the “mainstream religions” – and he has become a zealot. Now, his focus is not on addressing the dermatological issues of his patients but has been redirected to subject the captive audience in his waiting room to dozens of signs which contain messages involving his ultra-conservative religious beliefs and the right-wing Republican views that he has now adopted and wants all others to adopt as well.
After being called forth from the propaganda-filled waiting room and being led to a treatment room where additional waiting would continue, more propagandist signs were observed, all intended to shift his patients’ views to align with his.
When he finally arrived and began addressing the issues dealing with the skin, he also began trying to treat what he assumed was a mind that (if it contained any beliefs that differed from his) would also need to be "doctored."
At the point when his main concern no longer involved my skin but began to focus on my "mind" and "soul," and when he shifted into his zealous proselytizing mode, he was advised
that I had neither a mind nor a soul that needed his attention,
that I did have a skin issue that required his full attention,
that he could save his breath,
that if he really thought he could change anything about the 67-year old body seated on his table other than the condition of its skin then he was sadly mistaken,
and
and
that I could care less about either his religious or political views or his preoccupation with inspiring his patients to mirror his beliefs.
The pace of the treatment accelerated so that he could leave the room, posthaste, without so much as a “may you suffer from liberal causes for the rest of this life and may you afterwards burn in hell forever.”
Nope, the departure was taken with such anger and haste that it happened in silence without so much as a “goodbye and go die.”
The assistant was still standing next to the table as I put my shirt back on and walked out, smiling at her as she also had been stunned into silence after hearing her boss’s Type One Perfectionist efforts to convert and reform as they were rejected. After paying the bookkeeper, she wished me “a blessed day,” not yet aware that “a cursed day and a cursed life” were her employer’s actual wish.]
Another key problem rooted in blind faith is that it supports the nonsense-filled mind and thus generates all of the subsequent nonsense on the planet – and all of the results of the subsequently widespread Ultimate Sickness - all generated by the nonsense-filled minds of the non-Realized masses.
Maharaj: “Words . . . come from the mind and hold you there. To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence; silence and peace – this is the way beyond.”
Standing between (a) entrapment via mental nonsense and (b) going beyond? Blind faith, which leads persons into membership in one or more of the variety of available cults and then locks persons into the resultant conflict-generating zealotry and manipulation and rigidity and irrationality and perfectionism and judgmentalism and narcissism and egotism and arrogance and the desire to control the thoughts and words and actions of all people whose paths are crossed.
How might Maharaj have advised the doc:
“The idea of responsibility is in your mind. You think there must be something or somebody solely responsible for all that happens”
and
“However great and complete is your world, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory”
and
“There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
Blind faith? Good riddance.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[Speaking of which, these posts are being serialized as excerpts from this soon-to-release free eBook:]
Parroting an earlier statement by Jones - that hostile forces were going to be dropped in by parachute and were going to convert their captured children to fascism - one of the more ironic statements ever heard from a cult member was this: “The ones that they take, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies.”
The only alternative they could come up with? “Kill the children first and then kill ourselves” so the children don’t grow up to be “dummies.” Yes. We certainly don't want a bunch of dummies running lose, do we?
According to an audio tape of the event, the children were given the drink first and then families were told to lie down together.
Thus Alder’s pointer: “Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.”
Yet religious-belief-based murders and suicides have, historically, been the rule rather than the exception, all a result of blind faith.
Millions have died or been killed in ancient wars; in the Crusades and in other Muslim vs. Jews or Christian wars that have continued for centuries; in the Inquisitions; in the various European religious wars during the Middle Ages; in the American Holocaust during which 98% of the population of the indigenous peoples were slaughtered by European invaders; during witchcraft trials; during the European Holocaust; during the 9-11 attack; and during the current wars in the Mideast. All of that happened - and continues to happen - as a result of persons accepting with blind faith what they were told or what they are presently being told.
Five thousand years ago, during the first-ever communion service, virgins were being killed in order to try to appease an angry Rain God. Such sacrifices and killings continue to this day because of one factor: blind faith.
(And every week over two billion Christians participate in “Holy Communion services – also called “the Lord’s Supper” by some denominations. That service is the modern version of the first bloody Communion services, participated in nowadays by billions who are driven by blind faith, never making the connection at all that they are acting out an event from many millennia ago during which "the body" that was being eaten by the crowd was actually the heart of a virgin and during which "the blood" that they were drinking together was her blood.)
Now persons say, “Floyd. I have faith but I would never be so stupid as the kill myself because a religious leader said so.”
The reply: “Okay, but you will kill yourself slowly by using a product with a warning label which says 'Smoking kills' and 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you' and 'Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attack and cerebral hemorrhaging' and 'smoking during pregnancy harms your baby'?"
He: “Go to hell.”
The reply: “Okay, so let’s try it this way then: how about if you are invited to see not what you would or would not do but to see clearly exactly what you are doing as a result of blind faith and because of the agenda of religious or spiritual or xenophobic or political or left-wing or right-wing personas that you were assigned without any conscious choice on your part at all? What has your mind been pumped full of? What toll has mind-full-ness taken on you over the years?
"And what behaviors have you engaged in that were the result of being blind (to your hidden agendas and subconscious motives) rather than seeing clearly (without being driven by your assigned and assumed personas and false identities)?"
Recall Blount’s pointer: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”
Indeed.
So your parents likely did not conclude that they should “Kill you so you don’t grow up to be a “dummy,” but did they conclude . . .
“Let’s tell the children that there is a God who loves them unconditionally but will burn them eternally if they do not please Him”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that the authorities are never wrong”?
“Let’s tell the children that our race is superior to that other race”?
“Let’s tell the children that only those members of our religion can go to heaven”?
“Let’s tell the children that this is the greatest country on earth”?
“Let’s tell the children that some land is ‘holy’ and some is not”?
“Let’s tell the children that every word in our ‘holy book’ must be accepted without question”?
“Let’s tell the children that they are bad if they _____ (insert one of thousands of words in that blank)”?
“Let’s tell the children – by word or example - that it is normal . . .
“to spend all of your life trying to help other or rescue them in order to get them to love you”;
“to stop showing your feelings and toughen up”;
“to realize that big boys / girls don’t cry”;
“to stop crying or I’ll give you something to really cry about”;
“to seek praise and admiration by creating a false, attractive image when in public”;
“to become the most knowledgeable person ever”;
“to be constantly afraid or anxious”;
“to use substances or to behave in certain ways in order to try to escape reality”;
“to be the boss, the one in charge, the one in control, the one with the power,” or to “hit first before you’re hit”;
“to avoid if you want to remain at peace”;
“to ignore red flags and enter into relationship with persons whom you know on some level should be avoided.”
What about . . .
“Let’s tell our Sunni children that they should kill Shias and Jews and Christians”?
“Let’s tell our Shia children that they should kill Sunnis and Jews and Christians”?
or
“to never question anything we tell you, to never ‘talk back,’ and to have blind faith in everything that we teach you”?
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 December 2014
F.: A question came from one of the younger site visitors in India who did not understand the reference in Shannon Alder’s quote on blind faith.
To review four of the quotations shared earlier:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.” – Angela Blount
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
Alder's reference was to one of the more dramatic mass murder-suicide events in the history of modern religious cults and the extremism they foster.
James Warren "Jim" Jones was an American sect leader and community organizer, the founder and leader of what he called “The People’s Temple” (best known for the murders and suicides that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana in November of 1978).
The prerequisite for those persons being willing to kill their children and then commit suicide themselves? Their blind faith in what they were told by their leader. Their beliefs:
Following the murder of five individuals who had flown to Guyana to investigate the cult – including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan – over 900 of the cult members died by drinking cyanide-laced poison in Kool-Aid. That number included nearly 300 children who were given the poisoned drinks by their parents before the parents drank the potion as well. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head, likely self-inflicted.
To review four of the quotations shared earlier:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.” – Angela Blount
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
Alder's reference was to one of the more dramatic mass murder-suicide events in the history of modern religious cults and the extremism they foster.
James Warren "Jim" Jones was an American sect leader and community organizer, the founder and leader of what he called “The People’s Temple” (best known for the murders and suicides that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana in November of 1978).
The prerequisite for those persons being willing to kill their children and then commit suicide themselves? Their blind faith in what they were told by their leader. Their beliefs:
Following the murder of five individuals who had flown to Guyana to investigate the cult – including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan – over 900 of the cult members died by drinking cyanide-laced poison in Kool-Aid. That number included nearly 300 children who were given the poisoned drinks by their parents before the parents drank the potion as well. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head, likely self-inflicted.
[Speaking of which, these posts are being serialized as excerpts from this soon-to-release free eBook:]
Parroting an earlier statement by Jones - that hostile forces were going to be dropped in by parachute and were going to convert their captured children to fascism - one of the more ironic statements ever heard from a cult member was this: “The ones that they take, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies.”
The only alternative they could come up with? “Kill the children first and then kill ourselves” so the children don’t grow up to be “dummies.” Yes. We certainly don't want a bunch of dummies running lose, do we?
According to an audio tape of the event, the children were given the drink first and then families were told to lie down together.
Thus Alder’s pointer: “Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.”
Yet religious-belief-based murders and suicides have, historically, been the rule rather than the exception, all a result of blind faith.
Millions have died or been killed in ancient wars; in the Crusades and in other Muslim vs. Jews or Christian wars that have continued for centuries; in the Inquisitions; in the various European religious wars during the Middle Ages; in the American Holocaust during which 98% of the population of the indigenous peoples were slaughtered by European invaders; during witchcraft trials; during the European Holocaust; during the 9-11 attack; and during the current wars in the Mideast. All of that happened - and continues to happen - as a result of persons accepting with blind faith what they were told or what they are presently being told.
Five thousand years ago, during the first-ever communion service, virgins were being killed in order to try to appease an angry Rain God. Such sacrifices and killings continue to this day because of one factor: blind faith.
(And every week over two billion Christians participate in “Holy Communion services – also called “the Lord’s Supper” by some denominations. That service is the modern version of the first bloody Communion services, participated in nowadays by billions who are driven by blind faith, never making the connection at all that they are acting out an event from many millennia ago during which "the body" that was being eaten by the crowd was actually the heart of a virgin and during which "the blood" that they were drinking together was her blood.)
Now persons say, “Floyd. I have faith but I would never be so stupid as the kill myself because a religious leader said so.”
The reply: “Okay, but you will kill yourself slowly by using a product with a warning label which says 'Smoking kills' and 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you' and 'Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attack and cerebral hemorrhaging' and 'smoking during pregnancy harms your baby'?"
He: “Go to hell.”
The reply: “Okay, so let’s try it this way then: how about if you are invited to see not what you would or would not do but to see clearly exactly what you are doing as a result of blind faith and because of the agenda of religious or spiritual or xenophobic or political or left-wing or right-wing personas that you were assigned without any conscious choice on your part at all? What has your mind been pumped full of? What toll has mind-full-ness taken on you over the years?
"And what behaviors have you engaged in that were the result of being blind (to your hidden agendas and subconscious motives) rather than seeing clearly (without being driven by your assigned and assumed personas and false identities)?"
Recall Blount’s pointer: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”
Indeed.
So your parents likely did not conclude that they should “Kill you so you don’t grow up to be a “dummy,” but did they conclude . . .
“Let’s tell the children that there is a God who loves them unconditionally but will burn them eternally if they do not please Him”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that the authorities are never wrong”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that our race is superior to that other race”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that only those members of our religion can go to heaven”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that this is the greatest country on earth”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that some land is ‘holy’ and some is not”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that every word in our ‘holy book’ must be accepted without question”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that they are bad if they _____ (insert one of thousands of words in that blank)”?
or
“Let’s tell the children – by word or example - that it is normal . . .
“to try to reform the world”;
“to spend all of your life trying to help other or rescue them in order to get them to love you”;
“to stop showing your feelings and toughen up”;
“to realize that big boys / girls don’t cry”;
“to stop crying or I’ll give you something to really cry about”;
“to seek praise and admiration by creating a false, attractive image when in public”;
“to become the most knowledgeable person ever”;
“to be constantly afraid or anxious”;
“to use substances or to behave in certain ways in order to try to escape reality”;
“to be the boss, the one in charge, the one in control, the one with the power,” or to “hit first before you’re hit”;
“to avoid if you want to remain at peace”;
or
“to ignore red flags and enter into relationship with persons whom you know on some level should be avoided.”
What about . . .
“Let’s tell our Sunni children that they should kill Shias and Jews and Christians”?
or
“Let’s tell our Shia children that they should kill Sunnis and Jews and Christians”?
or
“to never question anything we tell you, to never ‘talk back,’ and to have blind faith in everything that we teach you”?
Are there any actions that you are taking which are not a result of being totally awake, totally aware, and totally conscious but are a result of blind faith and a failure to question what you have been told?
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from previous post]
So why abandon blind faith? Why abandon all beliefs that were implanted and that have been deemed, erroneously, to be “noble” and “worthy” and “right”?
Without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing in regards to the effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Benjamin Franklin (“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason”) and Maharaj (“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . .”) would have agreed.
So what is the prerequisite for abandoning blind faith? The ability to be able to choose. Contrary to what persons believe about having an ability to make choices – and which they would argue about to no end if there were any willingness here to enter into such debates – the fact is this:
after programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing (alongside the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities), no non-Realized person has any ability to make any conscious choices.
Instead, all thoughts and words and actions are determined subconsciously, driven by the hidden, fear-and-desire-based agendas of each personality / persona which have been either assigned or assumed.
And the following pointer regarding choice-less-ness (and the resulting blindness it causes) has been shared about persons when they are driven: All beliefs have been accepted via blind faith, never via conscious choice.
[Recall the pointer from Angela Blount: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”]
Blind faith assures that one will be driven blindly throughout the entire relative existence. Moreover, if one is being driven (in a car, for example) the three places where that person can be are in the passenger seat, in the back seat, or locked away in the trunk / the boot. The one place where a person who is being driven cannot be is . . . behind the steering wheel.
If you're being driven (that is, not driving - not making choices choices - but being driven by the influence of personality), then you cannot be in the driver’s seat. You cannot be the one deciding where you go, when you go, or how you go. You cannot keep the car on the road rather than it being run into the ditch if whatever is driving you decides that’s where the car needs to go.
(And if you look at any life that's been a total wreck, you can now understand why that was the case: that person wasn't driving but was being driven.)
Assume all the power and all the ability to make decisions that you want, but if a personality is driving you, then you have no choice and you have no ability to decide anything consciously. Unconscious desires and fears and motives will be driving your every thought and word and action. And for one to think she or he is in the driver’s seat when he or she is actually being driven is a result of either ignorance or insanity.
If the non-duality understanding leads to Realization, then that will put You in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be driven by the subconscious motives and aims and agendas and fears and desires of false identifications.
So, bottom line, to be driven by blind faith is to be blind. Relatedly, many will likely recall a story which illustrates the consequences of being blind and thus believing that false concepts and ideas and perceptions are true and accurate:
In the tale entitled “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” a group of blind men use their hands to touch an elephant in an effort to determine what it is like. Each one feels a different part (but only one part) such as the side or a tusk or a leg or the tail.
They then compare their opinions and perceptions (that is, their erroneous but heartily-believed-in misperceptions) and learn that they are in complete disagreement. In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once and begins to share the truth which he can reveal to them as a result of his not being blind, only then do they (a) learn that they have been blind all along to the way that things really are and (b) begin to "see" (that is, understand) things the way that they really are.
The point: while one's subjective experience might seem true, it will not provide the totality of truth if one does not know all of the facts involved but instead draws uninformed but steadfast and stubborn conclusions which are not based in fact and which are not based in truth and which are not based in clear, objective seeing at all.
Only if one can make choices can one choose something other than continuing to believe in all of the falsehoods and nonsense that are passed down via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing and the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities.
Only then can one choose to allow sight-aided, truth-revealing doubt to replace blind faith; only then can one choose to allow insightful questioning (which leads to actual understanding) to replace blind convictions; only then can one choose to allow illuminating skepticism to replace blind acceptance;
only then can one choose to allow clear, accurate, witnessing-based independence to replace freedom-stealing blind allegiance; only then can one choose to allow intuitive-based awareness to replace the effects of blind programming, conditioning, etc.; and only then can one, finally, choose to allow discerning wisdom to replace blind ignorance.
And only them can one choose to be free of the misery and suffering which comes with mind-full-ness and to be free of the ill effects (relatively speaking) of a mind pumped chock full of blind-faith-based nonsense and ignorance and insanity.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
So why abandon blind faith? Why abandon all beliefs that were implanted and that have been deemed, erroneously, to be “noble” and “worthy” and “right”?
Without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing in regards to the effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Benjamin Franklin (“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason”) and Maharaj (“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . .”) would have agreed.
So what is the prerequisite for abandoning blind faith? The ability to be able to choose. Contrary to what persons believe about having an ability to make choices – and which they would argue about to no end if there were any willingness here to enter into such debates – the fact is this:
after programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing (alongside the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities), no non-Realized person has any ability to make any conscious choices.
Instead, all thoughts and words and actions are determined subconsciously, driven by the hidden, fear-and-desire-based agendas of each personality / persona which have been either assigned or assumed.
And the following pointer regarding choice-less-ness (and the resulting blindness it causes) has been shared about persons when they are driven: All beliefs have been accepted via blind faith, never via conscious choice.
[Recall the pointer from Angela Blount: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”]
Blind faith assures that one will be driven blindly throughout the entire relative existence. Moreover, if one is being driven (in a car, for example) the three places where that person can be are in the passenger seat, in the back seat, or locked away in the trunk / the boot. The one place where a person who is being driven cannot be is . . . behind the steering wheel.
If you're being driven (that is, not driving - not making choices choices - but being driven by the influence of personality), then you cannot be in the driver’s seat. You cannot be the one deciding where you go, when you go, or how you go. You cannot keep the car on the road rather than it being run into the ditch if whatever is driving you decides that’s where the car needs to go.
(And if you look at any life that's been a total wreck, you can now understand why that was the case: that person wasn't driving but was being driven.)
Assume all the power and all the ability to make decisions that you want, but if a personality is driving you, then you have no choice and you have no ability to decide anything consciously. Unconscious desires and fears and motives will be driving your every thought and word and action. And for one to think she or he is in the driver’s seat when he or she is actually being driven is a result of either ignorance or insanity.
If the non-duality understanding leads to Realization, then that will put You in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be driven by the subconscious motives and aims and agendas and fears and desires of false identifications.
So, bottom line, to be driven by blind faith is to be blind. Relatedly, many will likely recall a story which illustrates the consequences of being blind and thus believing that false concepts and ideas and perceptions are true and accurate:
In the tale entitled “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” a group of blind men use their hands to touch an elephant in an effort to determine what it is like. Each one feels a different part (but only one part) such as the side or a tusk or a leg or the tail.
They then compare their opinions and perceptions (that is, their erroneous but heartily-believed-in misperceptions) and learn that they are in complete disagreement. In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once and begins to share the truth which he can reveal to them as a result of his not being blind, only then do they (a) learn that they have been blind all along to the way that things really are and (b) begin to "see" (that is, understand) things the way that they really are.
The point: while one's subjective experience might seem true, it will not provide the totality of truth if one does not know all of the facts involved but instead draws uninformed but steadfast and stubborn conclusions which are not based in fact and which are not based in truth and which are not based in clear, objective seeing at all.
Only if one can make choices can one choose something other than continuing to believe in all of the falsehoods and nonsense that are passed down via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing and the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities.
Only then can one choose to allow sight-aided, truth-revealing doubt to replace blind faith; only then can one choose to allow insightful questioning (which leads to actual understanding) to replace blind convictions; only then can one choose to allow illuminating skepticism to replace blind acceptance;
only then can one choose to allow clear, accurate, witnessing-based independence to replace freedom-stealing blind allegiance; only then can one choose to allow intuitive-based awareness to replace the effects of blind programming, conditioning, etc.; and only then can one, finally, choose to allow discerning wisdom to replace blind ignorance.
And only them can one choose to be free of the misery and suffering which comes with mind-full-ness and to be free of the ill effects (relatively speaking) of a mind pumped chock full of blind-faith-based nonsense and ignorance and insanity.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: In spite of all of the
(a) duality-based notions of “We’re right and you’re wrong” and “I’m okay but you’re not okay” and all of the
(b) duality-based beliefs that lead to a sense of separation and hierarchy-maintenance as well as to
(c) duality-based beliefs that result in disagreements and arguing and fighting and conflicts and wars and bombings and suicide-vest bombings and racially-based murders and divorce-associated murders and money-driven murders, ad infinitum,
there is one belief which 99.9% of all humans share in common.
It is one belief which never leaves the non-Realized masses in disagreement (though, ironically, the collateral damage from that belief has led to more killings and deaths than any other belief held dear by humans).
Ninety-seven percent of all humans claim an affiliation with one religion or another and assert that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all; millions more claim membership in step programs and they also believe that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
And with all of the other cults operating around the globe in addition to those two, millions more persons can be added to the total of non-Realized humans who agree that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
That one belief is the belief in . . . blind faith. It includes a confidence in the nobility of blind faith; complete and total trust in all who have taught them the necessity of blind faith; a certainty regarding what they believe in (which they believe in without any evidence or factual proof at all, other than the so-called "supernatural evidence" which they cite but which is actually evidence of natural occurrences); and an unquestioning acceptance of what any person in authority has told them.
What do the members of those three cults all have in common? Consider the basic traits of cults and see how all three of the groups above are exactly alike:
All cults have members who are excessively zealous;
who are unquestioning committed to the identity and leadership of the group (as opposed to Maharaj’s pointer that “from my angle, you are nothing . . . you have no identity”);
who submit to being exploited and manipulated;
who tolerate – or even welcome - harm or the danger of harm to themselves, their families and / or society;
who have no tolerance for more rational, open, and benevolent systems;
who harden their shells by becoming totalistic, elitist, and isolated;
who allow others to dictate, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel;
who claim a special, exalted status (for example, “occult or spiritual powers” or “a mission to save humanity” or "a mission to reform all people and make the world a better place")
and who eventually intensify their opposition to - and alienation from - society at large.
Contrast all of that with the non-dual teachings when combined with the Nisargan understanding:
That method does not ask anyone to be a member of anything; does not invite anyone to be excessive or zealous; does not ask anyone to be involved with any identity or any “leader” with an assumed identity;
does not seek 10% of seekers’ total income; does not encourage tolerance of relative harms or dangers; does not allow anyone to dictate how anyone should think (since an end to thinking is the final “goal”); does not dictate how anyone should act and feel;
does not claim any special, exalted status; and encourages an end to – rather than intensification of - opposition and a false sense of “separation” and a false sense of “different-from-ment” and a false sense of “better-than-ment.”
Nowadays, on a global basis, the belief in the value of blind faith among 99+ percent of all humans (who are totally and completely non-Realized and therefore totally and completely unawake, unaware, and unconscious) has become foundational, pervasive, inescapable, and near-universally-accepted without question. No matter how insidious and deceptive and dangerous the results of blind faith are (relatively speaking) – more than any other beliefs – that one remains almost totally unchallenged.
Next, consider Maharaj's disputing of the fact that truth and blind faith (in the existence of gods or goddesses or a god) can co-exist: "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."
Recall the woman in St. Louis who offered her response to a similar pointer offered here: "No god created man; it was man who created – that is, who just dreamed up - the concept of ‘god’."
Her reply: “Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong.”
[Consider: Is it possible that the epitome of ignorance is to believe that widespread ignorance is actually proof of widespread wisdom?]
The reply: “You’re right. Millions of people have not been wrong. Billions and trillions have been wrong.”
What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of the existence of gods and goddesses and / or the concept of “The One, True God” or the concept of blind faith? What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of gods and goddesses and / or a “One, True God” who will never show themselves / Himself but prefer instead that persons believe in them / Him based in blind faith alone?
1. Without billions and trillions of persons having been misled, deceived and deluded in regards to the value and efficacy and usefulness of blind faith, there would be no religions because no religion has ever functioned, or ever been sustained for any time at all, without blind faith.
2. No other types of cults could have ever existed without blind faith.
3. Kings and queens (who reigned as a result of convincing the masses that the rulers were ruling as a result of the concept of “the divine right to rule,” that God has chosen them to rule, and that God is empowering them to continue to rule) could not have existed.
4. Crooked politicians could never have existed and functioned - and could not continue to exist and function - without blind faith.
5. No con man could ever have sold any type of "snake oil," be the type liquid, financial, political, medical, nationalistic, mental, emotional, religious, spiritual, etc.
6. The masses could not be occasionally calmed without blind faith.
7. Wall Street could not make billions each day without blind faith.
8. No global economic collapse could have happened without blind faith in what was being told by Wall Street brokers and investment bankers.
9. The belief by billions of persons on the planet that the concept of “doubt” is a sin could not continue without blind faith.
10. The rejection of scientifically-proven facts could not continue without blind faith.
11. No one in history would ever have been fooled without blind faith.
12. People in the U.S. could never have believed that Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Central America, South America, etc., etc., etc. were an actual threat to the U.S. without blind faith.
13. Maybe most significantly, without blind faith, there would be no more fools (or foolishness) on the planet.
14. Thus, without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness and usefulness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing of the actual effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you”
and
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
A few voices have tried to speak into the darkness which has blocked humanity from ‘seeing the light,” including some few sages in the Far East; one in a loft in Bombay, at least during his later talks; a few in the Mideast; and a few scattered elsewhere around the globe, and they all shared messages like these:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
"Most people around here just say they believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it." – Angela Blount
And Sri Nisargadatta 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.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“It is always the false that makes you suffer . . . .”
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"Go to zero concepts."
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 December 2014
(a) duality-based notions of “We’re right and you’re wrong” and “I’m okay but you’re not okay” and all of the
(b) duality-based beliefs that lead to a sense of separation and hierarchy-maintenance as well as to
(c) duality-based beliefs that result in disagreements and arguing and fighting and conflicts and wars and bombings and suicide-vest bombings and racially-based murders and divorce-associated murders and money-driven murders, ad infinitum,
there is one belief which 99.9% of all humans share in common.
It is one belief which never leaves the non-Realized masses in disagreement (though, ironically, the collateral damage from that belief has led to more killings and deaths than any other belief held dear by humans).
Ninety-seven percent of all humans claim an affiliation with one religion or another and assert that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all; millions more claim membership in step programs and they also believe that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
And with all of the other cults operating around the globe in addition to those two, millions more persons can be added to the total of non-Realized humans who agree that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
That one belief is the belief in . . . blind faith. It includes a confidence in the nobility of blind faith; complete and total trust in all who have taught them the necessity of blind faith; a certainty regarding what they believe in (which they believe in without any evidence or factual proof at all, other than the so-called "supernatural evidence" which they cite but which is actually evidence of natural occurrences); and an unquestioning acceptance of what any person in authority has told them.
What do the members of those three cults all have in common? Consider the basic traits of cults and see how all three of the groups above are exactly alike:
All cults have members who are excessively zealous;
who are unquestioning committed to the identity and leadership of the group (as opposed to Maharaj’s pointer that “from my angle, you are nothing . . . you have no identity”);
who submit to being exploited and manipulated;
who tolerate – or even welcome - harm or the danger of harm to themselves, their families and / or society;
who have no tolerance for more rational, open, and benevolent systems;
who harden their shells by becoming totalistic, elitist, and isolated;
who allow others to dictate, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel;
who claim a special, exalted status (for example, “occult or spiritual powers” or “a mission to save humanity” or "a mission to reform all people and make the world a better place")
and who eventually intensify their opposition to - and alienation from - society at large.
Contrast all of that with the non-dual teachings when combined with the Nisargan understanding:
That method does not ask anyone to be a member of anything; does not invite anyone to be excessive or zealous; does not ask anyone to be involved with any identity or any “leader” with an assumed identity;
does not seek 10% of seekers’ total income; does not encourage tolerance of relative harms or dangers; does not allow anyone to dictate how anyone should think (since an end to thinking is the final “goal”); does not dictate how anyone should act and feel;
does not claim any special, exalted status; and encourages an end to – rather than intensification of - opposition and a false sense of “separation” and a false sense of “different-from-ment” and a false sense of “better-than-ment.”
Nowadays, on a global basis, the belief in the value of blind faith among 99+ percent of all humans (who are totally and completely non-Realized and therefore totally and completely unawake, unaware, and unconscious) has become foundational, pervasive, inescapable, and near-universally-accepted without question. No matter how insidious and deceptive and dangerous the results of blind faith are (relatively speaking) – more than any other beliefs – that one remains almost totally unchallenged.
Next, consider Maharaj's disputing of the fact that truth and blind faith (in the existence of gods or goddesses or a god) can co-exist: "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."
Recall the woman in St. Louis who offered her response to a similar pointer offered here: "No god created man; it was man who created – that is, who just dreamed up - the concept of ‘god’."
Her reply: “Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong.”
[Consider: Is it possible that the epitome of ignorance is to believe that widespread ignorance is actually proof of widespread wisdom?]
The reply: “You’re right. Millions of people have not been wrong. Billions and trillions have been wrong.”
What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of the existence of gods and goddesses and / or the concept of “The One, True God” or the concept of blind faith? What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of gods and goddesses and / or a “One, True God” who will never show themselves / Himself but prefer instead that persons believe in them / Him based in blind faith alone?
1. Without billions and trillions of persons having been misled, deceived and deluded in regards to the value and efficacy and usefulness of blind faith, there would be no religions because no religion has ever functioned, or ever been sustained for any time at all, without blind faith.
2. No other types of cults could have ever existed without blind faith.
3. Kings and queens (who reigned as a result of convincing the masses that the rulers were ruling as a result of the concept of “the divine right to rule,” that God has chosen them to rule, and that God is empowering them to continue to rule) could not have existed.
4. Crooked politicians could never have existed and functioned - and could not continue to exist and function - without blind faith.
5. No con man could ever have sold any type of "snake oil," be the type liquid, financial, political, medical, nationalistic, mental, emotional, religious, spiritual, etc.
6. The masses could not be occasionally calmed without blind faith.
7. Wall Street could not make billions each day without blind faith.
8. No global economic collapse could have happened without blind faith in what was being told by Wall Street brokers and investment bankers.
9. The belief by billions of persons on the planet that the concept of “doubt” is a sin could not continue without blind faith.
10. The rejection of scientifically-proven facts could not continue without blind faith.
11. No one in history would ever have been fooled without blind faith.
12. People in the U.S. could never have believed that Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Central America, South America, etc., etc., etc. were an actual threat to the U.S. without blind faith.
13. Maybe most significantly, without blind faith, there would be no more fools (or foolishness) on the planet.
14. Thus, without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness and usefulness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing of the actual effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you”
and
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
A few voices have tried to speak into the darkness which has blocked humanity from ‘seeing the light,” including some few sages in the Far East; one in a loft in Bombay, at least during his later talks; a few in the Mideast; and a few scattered elsewhere around the globe, and they all shared messages like these:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
"Most people around here just say they believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it." – Angela Blount
And Sri Nisargadatta 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.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“It is always the false that makes you suffer . . . .”
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"Go to zero concepts."
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: An eBook below traced the course of “Maharaj’s Evolution” as he tried to find the proper form of the Ultimate Medicine to offer to seekers who came his way and who were suffering from the Ultimate Sickness.
Because of the shifts in his understanding of the roots of the Ultimate Sickness (and, therefore, the proper version of the Ultimate Medicine that is required to try to address it) he had been cast into a state of ill-repute during the earlier and middle years of his teaching career by those who took themselves to be religious persons and in his later years by those who took themselves to be spiritual persons. Such criticisms continue to this day.
What were the shifts which happened? Initially, almost 100% of those visiting the loft were Hindus. Maharaj early on engaged with them in some of the traditional Hindu methods of worship and then tried to sprinkle in some non-dual pointers. By the time Westerners began coming, he was already familiar with the history of religions and with the endlessly-occurring religious conflicts which they generate. By then he had also seen that religion was not healing the Ultimately Sick but was actually aggravating their Sickness.
He knew that Islam had initially entered the largely-Hindu nation of India in the 7th century as Muslim invaders first conquered some of the northern regions through military conquest and sacked many Hindu temples along the way. Mass genocide of Hindus followed, but later those who paid a tax to the Muslims could be spared, for a time.
Thus, Maharaj knew that the history of Hindu-Muslim “relationships” had been marred by violence, the mark of which is seen even today, especially in India's right-wing Hindutva movement as opposed to those in the mostly Islamic State of Pakistan.
The historical evidence, combined with his own experience (which showed that religion does not address the Sickness but actually exacerbates the Sickness) led him to focus on spiritual talks – such as those in I AM THAT – as more and more Westerners came who were willing to listen to "spiritual" talks but were not interested in Hinduism or in any of the other religions which they had tried out during their searching.
Eventually, his own experiments and experience would lead to this shift in focus: he saw that neither religion nor spirituality were addressing the Sickness at all, so he focused more on the cause of the Sickness in an effort to try to find a more effective form of Medicine that might work.
As a result, he came to see that all of the main problems of humanity center in the mind, not in having too little religion and not in having a spiritual malady. His (a) abandonment of Hinduism entirely and his (b) offering of pointers which encouraged visitors to abandon spirituality entirely and (c) his advising seekers to stop reading the "spirituality-based talks" in I AM THAT followed.
He came to understand that it is mind-full-ness which generates misery and suffering and that a state of joy or bliss can only come via mindlessness. He said: “There is no such thing as peace of mind,” that he had reached a state of zero concepts, and that he no longer had a mind at all.
“It's the economy, stupid” is a slight variation of the phrase "The economy, stupid" which was coined by James Carville (who served as one of Bill Clinton’s campaign strategists during his successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush.)
With Maharaj having identified three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness as being “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” he could have as easily said in the end, “It’s the mind, stupid.” He didn't because he never called anyone “ignorant” or “stupid” or “insane.” He said instead that “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” were driving humanity’s thoughts and words and actions. Persons are as much an illusion as a mirage, so there are no “ignorant” or “stupid” or “insane” persons. There is, however, much “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” all of which involve the mind.
Therefore, the Ultimate Sickness is about the mind, so the Ultimate Medicine must be one which addresses the issues of the mind. In the end, his focus shifted to that approach as Maharaj abandoned all talk about religion and all talk about spirituality; thereafter, his talks concentrated solely on psychological issues (on mind issues) which are at the core of the Ultimate Sickness.
The free eBook below which discusses the root cause of humanity’s problems provides a look at the two options: either (1) the right-wing, conservative fundamentalists are right and there are two gods - one god of evil and one god of good - and it really is the god of evil who is causing all of the evil happenings around the globe; or, (2) things deemed by the duality-driven, non-Realized masses to be “evil” are really things rooted not in evil and not in an evil god but are rooted in the mind, in “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Consider, if you will: the United States represents about five percent of the planet's population, but it houses around twenty-five percent of the planet's prisoners. Imprisonment of America's 2.3 million prisoners (many serving time because of multiple infractions involving minor offenses such as pot possession or distribution) costs $24,000 per inmate per year. Add in the $5.1 billion in new prison construction annually and imprisonment consumes $60.3 billion in the nation's budget expenditures. Then there are the additional costs of dealing with the 4,814,200 adults who, as of December 2011, were on probation or on parole.
According to a 2014 report by a group called Human Rights Watch, the Republican Party’s “Tough-on-Crime” and “Mandatory Sentencing” laws which have been adopted since the 1980s have filled U.S. prisons with mostly non-violent offenders.
Among the more violent felons, however, the most conservative estimate is that over 50% of those prisoners have been diagnosed with full-blown mental illness. When fiscal conservatives began dismantling the U.S. mental healthcare sector, the same number of people who had been placed in treatment facilities were shifted to the streets and / or to prisons.
In fact, U.S. prisons have now become the de facto home of the mentally ill. A study in 2012 found that 356,000 mentally ill inmates were being held in state prisons and that as many as ninety-one percent were likely suffering from one or more serious mental illnesses.
Evil? Or Insanity?
A study of such statistics confirms what Maharaj came to understand via his own experiments and experiences: the main problems of humanity are not rooted in "evil" (which “believers” believe can be stamped out with more religious dogma or by treating some nebulous “spiritual malady”) but is, indeed, rooted in mental issues which involve “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” this is, the mind.
Believe that the problems of humanity might involve “the minds of others” but certainly do not involve “your mind?” In fact, actually proud of your mind and what’s in it? Think that it is the beliefs and values which you have been taught and which are now stored in your mind which make you different from and better than those who are not as good as you? Proud of the beliefs that your parents and relatives and religious leaders or spiritual guides have implanted therein? Think that there are no beliefs stored therein that need to be questioned thoroughly and objectively? Really? Hummm.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 December 2014
Because of the shifts in his understanding of the roots of the Ultimate Sickness (and, therefore, the proper version of the Ultimate Medicine that is required to try to address it) he had been cast into a state of ill-repute during the earlier and middle years of his teaching career by those who took themselves to be religious persons and in his later years by those who took themselves to be spiritual persons. Such criticisms continue to this day.
What were the shifts which happened? Initially, almost 100% of those visiting the loft were Hindus. Maharaj early on engaged with them in some of the traditional Hindu methods of worship and then tried to sprinkle in some non-dual pointers. By the time Westerners began coming, he was already familiar with the history of religions and with the endlessly-occurring religious conflicts which they generate. By then he had also seen that religion was not healing the Ultimately Sick but was actually aggravating their Sickness.
He knew that Islam had initially entered the largely-Hindu nation of India in the 7th century as Muslim invaders first conquered some of the northern regions through military conquest and sacked many Hindu temples along the way. Mass genocide of Hindus followed, but later those who paid a tax to the Muslims could be spared, for a time.
Thus, Maharaj knew that the history of Hindu-Muslim “relationships” had been marred by violence, the mark of which is seen even today, especially in India's right-wing Hindutva movement as opposed to those in the mostly Islamic State of Pakistan.
The historical evidence, combined with his own experience (which showed that religion does not address the Sickness but actually exacerbates the Sickness) led him to focus on spiritual talks – such as those in I AM THAT – as more and more Westerners came who were willing to listen to "spiritual" talks but were not interested in Hinduism or in any of the other religions which they had tried out during their searching.
Eventually, his own experiments and experience would lead to this shift in focus: he saw that neither religion nor spirituality were addressing the Sickness at all, so he focused more on the cause of the Sickness in an effort to try to find a more effective form of Medicine that might work.
As a result, he came to see that all of the main problems of humanity center in the mind, not in having too little religion and not in having a spiritual malady. His (a) abandonment of Hinduism entirely and his (b) offering of pointers which encouraged visitors to abandon spirituality entirely and (c) his advising seekers to stop reading the "spirituality-based talks" in I AM THAT followed.
He came to understand that it is mind-full-ness which generates misery and suffering and that a state of joy or bliss can only come via mindlessness. He said: “There is no such thing as peace of mind,” that he had reached a state of zero concepts, and that he no longer had a mind at all.
“It's the economy, stupid” is a slight variation of the phrase "The economy, stupid" which was coined by James Carville (who served as one of Bill Clinton’s campaign strategists during his successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush.)
With Maharaj having identified three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness as being “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” he could have as easily said in the end, “It’s the mind, stupid.” He didn't because he never called anyone “ignorant” or “stupid” or “insane.” He said instead that “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” were driving humanity’s thoughts and words and actions. Persons are as much an illusion as a mirage, so there are no “ignorant” or “stupid” or “insane” persons. There is, however, much “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” all of which involve the mind.
Therefore, the Ultimate Sickness is about the mind, so the Ultimate Medicine must be one which addresses the issues of the mind. In the end, his focus shifted to that approach as Maharaj abandoned all talk about religion and all talk about spirituality; thereafter, his talks concentrated solely on psychological issues (on mind issues) which are at the core of the Ultimate Sickness.
The free eBook below which discusses the root cause of humanity’s problems provides a look at the two options: either (1) the right-wing, conservative fundamentalists are right and there are two gods - one god of evil and one god of good - and it really is the god of evil who is causing all of the evil happenings around the globe; or, (2) things deemed by the duality-driven, non-Realized masses to be “evil” are really things rooted not in evil and not in an evil god but are rooted in the mind, in “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Consider, if you will: the United States represents about five percent of the planet's population, but it houses around twenty-five percent of the planet's prisoners. Imprisonment of America's 2.3 million prisoners (many serving time because of multiple infractions involving minor offenses such as pot possession or distribution) costs $24,000 per inmate per year. Add in the $5.1 billion in new prison construction annually and imprisonment consumes $60.3 billion in the nation's budget expenditures. Then there are the additional costs of dealing with the 4,814,200 adults who, as of December 2011, were on probation or on parole.
According to a 2014 report by a group called Human Rights Watch, the Republican Party’s “Tough-on-Crime” and “Mandatory Sentencing” laws which have been adopted since the 1980s have filled U.S. prisons with mostly non-violent offenders.
Among the more violent felons, however, the most conservative estimate is that over 50% of those prisoners have been diagnosed with full-blown mental illness. When fiscal conservatives began dismantling the U.S. mental healthcare sector, the same number of people who had been placed in treatment facilities were shifted to the streets and / or to prisons.
In fact, U.S. prisons have now become the de facto home of the mentally ill. A study in 2012 found that 356,000 mentally ill inmates were being held in state prisons and that as many as ninety-one percent were likely suffering from one or more serious mental illnesses.
Evil? Or Insanity?
A study of such statistics confirms what Maharaj came to understand via his own experiments and experiences: the main problems of humanity are not rooted in "evil" (which “believers” believe can be stamped out with more religious dogma or by treating some nebulous “spiritual malady”) but is, indeed, rooted in mental issues which involve “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” this is, the mind.
Believe that the problems of humanity might involve “the minds of others” but certainly do not involve “your mind?” In fact, actually proud of your mind and what’s in it? Think that it is the beliefs and values which you have been taught and which are now stored in your mind which make you different from and better than those who are not as good as you? Proud of the beliefs that your parents and relatives and religious leaders or spiritual guides have implanted therein? Think that there are no beliefs stored therein that need to be questioned thoroughly and objectively? Really? Hummm.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
And what does the mind do . . . constantly? It thinks. When persons say that they want “peace of mind,” what they are really longing for is a no-thought state. “Pleasant” thoughts are thoughts about what one desires, but those always eventually lead to disappointment. All other thoughts are "unpleasant" and thus disturbing; they are peace-breakers, not peacemakers.
The various types of noisemakers developed nowadays are near endless in number, but the peaceful silence is most often broken first and foremost by . . . words. To be able to enjoy the peace that comes with the silence (which happens when words are absent) then – as the continuum above illustrates – there must first be an absence of thoughts.
Most, after having been programmed and conditioned, etc., will never experience samadhi (the “still-mind” state). For those who do reach the state, it is usually a temporary event rather than a fixed state. If there is a mind that is present, it will be forever in motion. Only if the mind has been eliminated – by giving up all beliefs – can the peace of a "no-words state" and of a "no-actions state" exist.
Maharaj: “I am fully conscious, but since no desire or fear enters my mind, there is perfect silence.”
He explained that when “all subsides,” then “the mind merges into silence,” saying, “as to my mind, there is no such thing.”
How easy it could be to return to the original no-belief, no-mind condition if one were to come to prefer the natural (nisargan) over the unnatural and / or the supposedly supernatural.
Here is the reality around "the no-peace and no-silence condition" vs. "the peace and the silence condition": both are guaranteed to come someday (when mahasamadhi is taken), so why not welcome peace and silence sooner rather than later?
Maharaj: “When the relative is over, the absolute remains. The silence before the words were spoken, is it different from the silence that comes after? The silence is one, and without it the words could not have been heard. Shift your attention from words to silence and you will hear it.”
And to shift attention from words to silence, the continuum shows that thoughts must go first.
For three summers during the 1960’s while otherwise attending college, I worked as an apprentice to John Warren, who ran the machine shop for a steel fabrication company. He had little formal education, having dropped out of school around the seventh grade, but he was nevertheless most wise. On the wall in front of his desk, he had hung sign which said, “If I am the one talking, I am not the one discovering or understanding that which I have not yet discovered or that which I do not yet understand.”
Something about the sign “grabbed me.” When I ask John about it, he explained, “Steel fabrication companies are the noisiest workplaces in the U.S. Why add to the noise with needless talk?”
Among the realized, that is almost "a motto": Why add to the already-excessive amount and volume of noise with needless talk?
Yet most persons will never sit in the silence (in fact, cannot stand the silence), and that is why most persons cannot sit still rather than being driven to go and do and zoom.
Words which break the silence also inspire action . . . doingness. As an understanding of the continuum above makes clear, as long as there is a mind, there will be thoughts; and as long as there are thoughts, there will surely follow words; and as long as there are words, then actions and going and doing and zooming will surely follow.
To watch a newscast is to see the functioning of humankind’s insane goings and doings and zoomings as their thoughts lead to their words and their words lead to their actions. And because the thoughts among the non-Realized masses are rooted in what Maharaj called “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” then the words (and then the insane actions seen via broadcasts) will also be rooted in insanity.
So what sort of actions does the always-insane mind inspire? As a result of both conscious and subconscious beliefs, and as a result of being driven by the unconscious, hidden agendas of personas which generate totally insane behaviors, persons are willing to:
a. accept unhappiness over loneliness (and thus remain in the most destructive and insane “relationships” imaginable); or to
b. accept chaos over boredom (and thereby be driven to forfeit the peace while abiding in the most disordered, disorganized, confused, and frenzied fashions imaginable); or to
c. accept taking a chance at contracting a fatal STD rather than continuing to feel rejected or “unloved” or simply horny; or to
d. accept a religion’s teachings which suggest that one should “die while killing infidels for God and thereby go to harem heaven where you will be accommodated by virgins and servants in your own personal brothel rather than continuing to live but remaining celibate because no woman who knows you wants to have anything to do with you” (and rather than live and learn how to abandon a culture’s relationship-busting, chauvinistic beliefs about the inferiority of women); or to
e. accept being driven by the beliefs of others and by the hidden agendas of false identities rather than having any real ability at all to consciously choose your own words or to consciously determine your own actions and behaviors; or to
f. accept the notion that misery and suffering in this life are to be tolerated as a result of believing that eternal happiness awaits if you will only live the way that some religious or spiritual person tells you to live; or to
g. accept unquestioningly the beliefs and values and ways of one's parents and thereby perpetuate the ignorance and insanity that has dominated family members for generations.
Yet there is an alternative: find true freedom by being truly free of the content that has been crammed into the mind via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
The Ultimate Sickness is a mind sickness, and the fuller the mind, the more serious the Sickness. The invitation is to seek the Ultimate Medicine which amounts to nothing more than receiving the understanding which can render you fully conscious of what you are actually thinking; fully conscious of what you are actually saying; fully conscious of what you are doing; and thus allowing you
to understand fully WHY you are thinking and talking and doing the things you do; to understand fully WHY you are being controlled by the continuum which unconsciously drives humanity and which preempts any opportunity to enjoy the silence and the non-doingness and the peace; and then finally to understand fully that only if mindless (rather than mind-full) can you return to the peace and silence and non-doingness which once characterized Your Original Nature.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: At the root of what the non-Realized masses say and do are the subconscious, hidden agendas of the many personalities / personas which persons have been assigned (by family, culture, etc.) or which they have adopted on their own.
And where is the belief in those personalities stored? In the mind.
Moreover, it is in the mind where those subconscious agendas first manifest as thoughts; thus, the continuum which determines what persons say and what they do progresses in this fashion:
The Ultimate Sickness is centered in the mind and begins only after a mind has been pumped full of Sickness-inducing contaminates (that is, contaminated or obtuse or perverted or really-sick ideas, concepts, etc.) all of which make up what can be called a non-Realized person’s “belief system.”
And where is the belief in those personalities stored? In the mind.
Moreover, it is in the mind where those subconscious agendas first manifest as thoughts; thus, the continuum which determines what persons say and what they do progresses in this fashion:
The Ultimate Sickness is centered in the mind and begins only after a mind has been pumped full of Sickness-inducing contaminates (that is, contaminated or obtuse or perverted or really-sick ideas, concepts, etc.) all of which make up what can be called a non-Realized person’s “belief system.”
The more content (i.e., nonsense) that is stored in the mind, the greater the Sickness. The fewer beliefs, the less serious the Sickness. If the mind ends, by eliminating all beliefs, then the Sickness also ends.
And what does the mind do . . . constantly? It thinks. When persons say that they want “peace of mind,” what they are really longing for is a no-thought state. “Pleasant” thoughts are thoughts about what one desires, but those always eventually lead to disappointment. All other thoughts are "unpleasant" and thus disturbing; they are peace-breakers, not peacemakers.
The various types of noisemakers developed nowadays are near endless in number, but the peaceful silence is most often broken first and foremost by . . . words. To be able to enjoy the peace that comes with the silence (which happens when words are absent) then – as the continuum above illustrates – there must first be an absence of thoughts.
Most, after having been programmed and conditioned, etc., will never experience samadhi (the “still-mind” state). For those who do reach the state, it is usually a temporary event rather than a fixed state. If there is a mind that is present, it will be forever in motion. Only if the mind has been eliminated – by giving up all beliefs – can the peace of a "no-words state" and of a "no-actions state" exist.
Maharaj: “I am fully conscious, but since no desire or fear enters my mind, there is perfect silence.”
Of course, he would eventually report that when he reached a “zero concepts” state, he simultaneously reached a “no-mind” state.
He explained that when “all subsides,” then “the mind merges into silence,” saying, “as to my mind, there is no such thing.”
How easy it could be to return to the original no-belief, no-mind condition if one were to come to prefer the natural (nisargan) over the unnatural and / or the supposedly supernatural.
Maharaj said, “No particular thought can be mind's natural state, only silence.”
Here is the reality around "the no-peace and no-silence condition" vs. "the peace and the silence condition": both are guaranteed to come someday (when mahasamadhi is taken), so why not welcome peace and silence sooner rather than later?
Maharaj: “When the relative is over, the absolute remains. The silence before the words were spoken, is it different from the silence that comes after? The silence is one, and without it the words could not have been heard. Shift your attention from words to silence and you will hear it.”
And to shift attention from words to silence, the continuum shows that thoughts must go first.
For three summers during the 1960’s while otherwise attending college, I worked as an apprentice to John Warren, who ran the machine shop for a steel fabrication company. He had little formal education, having dropped out of school around the seventh grade, but he was nevertheless most wise. On the wall in front of his desk, he had hung sign which said, “If I am the one talking, I am not the one discovering or understanding that which I have not yet discovered or that which I do not yet understand.”
Something about the sign “grabbed me.” When I ask John about it, he explained, “Steel fabrication companies are the noisiest workplaces in the U.S. Why add to the noise with needless talk?”
Among the realized, that is almost "a motto": Why add to the already-excessive amount and volume of noise with needless talk?
Yet most persons will never sit in the silence (in fact, cannot stand the silence), and that is why most persons cannot sit still rather than being driven to go and do and zoom.
Words which break the silence also inspire action . . . doingness. As an understanding of the continuum above makes clear, as long as there is a mind, there will be thoughts; and as long as there are thoughts, there will surely follow words; and as long as there are words, then actions and going and doing and zooming will surely follow.
To watch a newscast is to see the functioning of humankind’s insane goings and doings and zoomings as their thoughts lead to their words and their words lead to their actions. And because the thoughts among the non-Realized masses are rooted in what Maharaj called “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity,” then the words (and then the insane actions seen via broadcasts) will also be rooted in insanity.
So what sort of actions does the always-insane mind inspire? As a result of both conscious and subconscious beliefs, and as a result of being driven by the unconscious, hidden agendas of personas which generate totally insane behaviors, persons are willing to:
a. accept unhappiness over loneliness (and thus remain in the most destructive and insane “relationships” imaginable); or to
b. accept chaos over boredom (and thereby be driven to forfeit the peace while abiding in the most disordered, disorganized, confused, and frenzied fashions imaginable); or to
c. accept taking a chance at contracting a fatal STD rather than continuing to feel rejected or “unloved” or simply horny; or to
d. accept a religion’s teachings which suggest that one should “die while killing infidels for God and thereby go to harem heaven where you will be accommodated by virgins and servants in your own personal brothel rather than continuing to live but remaining celibate because no woman who knows you wants to have anything to do with you” (and rather than live and learn how to abandon a culture’s relationship-busting, chauvinistic beliefs about the inferiority of women); or to
e. accept being driven by the beliefs of others and by the hidden agendas of false identities rather than having any real ability at all to consciously choose your own words or to consciously determine your own actions and behaviors; or to
f. accept the notion that misery and suffering in this life are to be tolerated as a result of believing that eternal happiness awaits if you will only live the way that some religious or spiritual person tells you to live; or to
g. accept unquestioningly the beliefs and values and ways of one's parents and thereby perpetuate the ignorance and insanity that has dominated family members for generations.
Yet there is an alternative: find true freedom by being truly free of the content that has been crammed into the mind via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
The Ultimate Sickness is a mind sickness, and the fuller the mind, the more serious the Sickness. The invitation is to seek the Ultimate Medicine which amounts to nothing more than receiving the understanding which can render you fully conscious of what you are actually thinking; fully conscious of what you are actually saying; fully conscious of what you are doing; and thus allowing you
to understand fully WHY you are thinking and talking and doing the things you do; to understand fully WHY you are being controlled by the continuum which unconsciously drives humanity and which preempts any opportunity to enjoy the silence and the non-doingness and the peace; and then finally to understand fully that only if mindless (rather than mind-full) can you return to the peace and silence and non-doingness which once characterized Your Original Nature.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
3 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: From yesterday:
Maharaj advised: “Be alert. Question, observe, investigate . . . but, you must not ask idle questions to which you already know the answers.”
For example, it is needless to question whether “2 + 2 really equals 4,” or not. Here, there are no beliefs, but some have asked just that:
“Well surely you believe that 2 + 2 equals 4, right?”
The reply: “No. That only applies if you are speaking of ‘base ten numbers,’ but that is irrelevant. Moreover, there are realities that can be understood intuitively and innately, but those differ from ‘beliefs,’ and the masses are usually blocked from being aware of those understandings which deal with the functioning of the totality.”
The questions to be asked that most persons do not know the answers to are those dealing with the firmly-held beliefs that relegate them to entrapment into the dream state which the masses have been lulled into.
Furthermore, the questions to be asked that most persons do not know the answers to are those dealing with the beliefs of others which they have accepted without “being alert,” without any “questioning,” without any “observation,” and without any “investigation”; instead, those beliefs came to be believed in as a result of having been blinded by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing.
Thus Maharaj said, “When you shall begin to question your dream, awakening will be not far away”
and
thus, his key point on the subject: “You must question everything.”
Yesterday, this was offered: “Everything” includes parents, government, big business, God, religion and religious dogma, spiritual principles, etc.
And what is believed in more than anything by the masses? The dogma to which most have been exposed since a very early age, including the teaching that nothing is more important than blind faith. Without blind faith, the 97% who believe in God and report that they are affiliated with one religion or another would not do so, because their God has never appeared even once to the trillions who have believed in a God or gods or goddesses as a result of blind faith. No willingness to appear even once? Then blind faith must prevail.
If blind faith is missing, religions teach, then all else is lost. That is the key. That is the foremost guiding principle. That is the basic, elemental, central, fundamental, primary, necessary, crucial, critical, essential, indispensable, and chief requirement. It is deemed to be the most important belief above all else. All hail blind faith!
And the masses have bought into that for thousands of years.
Regular site visitors know that a woman from St. Louis, Missouri once said, "Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong." The reply, “Agreed. In truth, billions and trillions have been wrong.”
Millions of Greeks believed in gods and goddesses and let those supposed gods and goddesses rule their lives. Those Greeks even killed and died for their false gods and goddesses, but today, who believes in those mythological gods and goddesses? No one. Millions of Romans believed in gods and goddesses and let those supposed gods and goddesses rule their lives. Those Romans even killed and died for their false gods and goddesses, but today, who believes in those mythological gods and goddesses? No one.
The quintessential fact: if there were gods or goddesses or if there is a God who wants you to play The Blind Faith Game and unquestioningly accept the claim that “He” exists and if "He" wants you to worship “Him” - and you do so - then you are insane because you are worshipping what would have to be one of the most insane things ever (that is, a "god" who would play that game). Why?
In 1984, the one called “floyd’s wife” at the time was said to have “given birth” to “a daughter.” Now, suppose I had been a religious fanatic and agreed – as the masses do all around the globe do - that blind faith is the key and that it should be the guiding principle above all else and that blind faith is the basic, elemental, central, fundamental, primary, necessary, crucial, critical, essential, indispensable, and chief requirement. Suppose, as is the case with 97% of all persons on the planet, I had deemed blind faith to be the most important belief above all else.
And suppose to teach my daughter that, I decided to move into the closet in the master bedroom. Suppose I told my wife:
“I care so much for my daughter and love her so much that I will do anything to teach her that the most important thing in the world is blind faith. So what I am going to do is spend the rest of my life in the closet. Send food in. I’ll send out bags of waste. Never let her see any of that. When she comes to you and asks, ‘Mommy, why don’t I have a daddy like my cousins and friends?’ tell her that she does, but that she just can’t see him. Then tell her, ‘But you must understand that just because you cannot see The Father does not mean that he does not exist. He is just out of sight, yet he loves you from afar. He’ll always be there for you, sort of. Above all else, he wants you to have blind faith in him and to believe in him though you’ll never see him, no matter how long you live.”
Now, there’s a saying, “Out of the mouth of babes.” It refers to the fact that children, not yet TOTALLY programmed and conditioned, etc., are more likely than adults to make statements of truth and to ask questions that point to the truth.
So when my daughter was told that I did exist but would never show myself to her but that I still loved her and – above all else – wanted her to believe in me based on blind faith alone, then in an “out of the mouth of babes” style, she would have likely then said:
Daughter: “Hummm. Mommy, can I ask you another question?”
Mommy: Of course, Darling.”
Daughter: “So is daddy batshit crazy?”
Mommy: “Probably so, Sugar. Probably so. In fact, yes, he is totally crazy. And if we buy into his game and believe that what he is doing is a normal way to behave, then we will be crazy, too.”
See, Maharaj for a time played the role of “The Super Religious One” and the role of “The Spiritual Giant.” Those are the roles played at the third step on the seven-step "path" from identification with the false “I” to Realization. But he transitioned those roles. He became alert. He questioned. He observed. He investigated. And he woke up from the dream of the planet. Then he 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"
and
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
And when that happened, his talks changed. He rejected his earlier blind faith. He addressed the actual root of the Ultimate Sickness: the content in the minds of programmed and conditioned humans.
His guesstimates of how many would ever be Fully Realized at any given time changed over the years from the millions to the thousands to the hundreds. With 97% of the persons on the planet being willing to function is an unquestioning, blind-faith manner, then few will ever Realize.
They will continue to think magically and they will believe that supernatural – spiritual – forces are determining everything that happens on the planet. When asked about a Supreme Being who allows prejudice and separation and war and abuse and disease and poverty and rape and murder and misery and suffering to happen, the answer is that “He works in mysterious ways.” Indeed, like a father hiding in a closet from his child to teach her blind faith. You know, crazy.
From the eBook below entitled THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS PEACE OF MIND:
An understanding of the personality types—and the obstacles to Realization that are generated by each personality—can reveal why so few will ever Realize.
Fifty percent of the earth’s populations are Type Sixes. When Sixes are programmed with dogma, as 97% on the planet are, they will remain loyal to those beliefs, unquestioningly, and will accept what they have been told. Why? Being fear-based, they become trapped by their programmers’ threat: “If you do not have faith in what we say or if you doubt any part of it at all, you will be punished and you will suffer now and forevermore.”
Therefore, the tally of those who will never be enlightened starts with that 50% who most likely will never give up their beliefs in dogma and nonsense. Writer Mark McCloskey had this to say about faith: “Faith is a crutch that humans have used for millennia as a way to explain the unexplainable . . . .”
(The point is offered in satsang here that religious leaders have historically dreamed up “concepts and ideas and teachings and beliefs that were used to convey false and supernatural explanations for events that were totally natural happenings.” Such is the essence of childish, magical thinking. Only if you mistakenly believe that an imagined “world” is real will you also be required to mistakenly believe that an imagined god—who was actually “created” by man in man’s image—is real.)
McCloskey continues, “If you stay with a crutch when you do not need it, you can become lame by reason of the crutch itself. The crutch must be abandoned, thrown away and then you can walk freely again . . . . ” He says, “Faith or any belief system as a whole is the final hurdle to overcome in the human path towards freedom and joy. Let me say it on a very 'personal' level.
"Until you, as a human being, are able to completely abandon what you believe, what you have been told or taught, and what you were told to believe or believe in, you will never experience this moment of reality as it is. You will never be fully free. You will be conditioned to experience present reality through a veil of the past.
" …. This is not a joke, not any agnostic or atheistic principle. I am trying to point you to your own total human freedom to be able to live in this world joyfully . . . ."
McCloskey and Maharaj would be in agreement:
Question everything.
Abandon what you believe and have been told or taught.
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”
and
“You must question everything.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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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:
Maharaj advised: “Be alert. Question, observe, investigate . . . but, you must not ask idle questions to which you already know the answers.”
For example, it is needless to question whether “2 + 2 really equals 4,” or not. Here, there are no beliefs, but some have asked just that:
“Well surely you believe that 2 + 2 equals 4, right?”
The reply: “No. That only applies if you are speaking of ‘base ten numbers,’ but that is irrelevant. Moreover, there are realities that can be understood intuitively and innately, but those differ from ‘beliefs,’ and the masses are usually blocked from being aware of those understandings which deal with the functioning of the totality.”
The questions to be asked that most persons do not know the answers to are those dealing with the firmly-held beliefs that relegate them to entrapment into the dream state which the masses have been lulled into.
Furthermore, the questions to be asked that most persons do not know the answers to are those dealing with the beliefs of others which they have accepted without “being alert,” without any “questioning,” without any “observation,” and without any “investigation”; instead, those beliefs came to be believed in as a result of having been blinded by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing.
Thus Maharaj said, “When you shall begin to question your dream, awakening will be not far away”
and
thus, his key point on the subject: “You must question everything.”
Yesterday, this was offered: “Everything” includes parents, government, big business, God, religion and religious dogma, spiritual principles, etc.
And what is believed in more than anything by the masses? The dogma to which most have been exposed since a very early age, including the teaching that nothing is more important than blind faith. Without blind faith, the 97% who believe in God and report that they are affiliated with one religion or another would not do so, because their God has never appeared even once to the trillions who have believed in a God or gods or goddesses as a result of blind faith. No willingness to appear even once? Then blind faith must prevail.
If blind faith is missing, religions teach, then all else is lost. That is the key. That is the foremost guiding principle. That is the basic, elemental, central, fundamental, primary, necessary, crucial, critical, essential, indispensable, and chief requirement. It is deemed to be the most important belief above all else. All hail blind faith!
And the masses have bought into that for thousands of years.
Regular site visitors know that a woman from St. Louis, Missouri once said, "Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong." The reply, “Agreed. In truth, billions and trillions have been wrong.”
Millions of Greeks believed in gods and goddesses and let those supposed gods and goddesses rule their lives. Those Greeks even killed and died for their false gods and goddesses, but today, who believes in those mythological gods and goddesses? No one. Millions of Romans believed in gods and goddesses and let those supposed gods and goddesses rule their lives. Those Romans even killed and died for their false gods and goddesses, but today, who believes in those mythological gods and goddesses? No one.
The quintessential fact: if there were gods or goddesses or if there is a God who wants you to play The Blind Faith Game and unquestioningly accept the claim that “He” exists and if "He" wants you to worship “Him” - and you do so - then you are insane because you are worshipping what would have to be one of the most insane things ever (that is, a "god" who would play that game). Why?
In 1984, the one called “floyd’s wife” at the time was said to have “given birth” to “a daughter.” Now, suppose I had been a religious fanatic and agreed – as the masses do all around the globe do - that blind faith is the key and that it should be the guiding principle above all else and that blind faith is the basic, elemental, central, fundamental, primary, necessary, crucial, critical, essential, indispensable, and chief requirement. Suppose, as is the case with 97% of all persons on the planet, I had deemed blind faith to be the most important belief above all else.
And suppose to teach my daughter that, I decided to move into the closet in the master bedroom. Suppose I told my wife:
“I care so much for my daughter and love her so much that I will do anything to teach her that the most important thing in the world is blind faith. So what I am going to do is spend the rest of my life in the closet. Send food in. I’ll send out bags of waste. Never let her see any of that. When she comes to you and asks, ‘Mommy, why don’t I have a daddy like my cousins and friends?’ tell her that she does, but that she just can’t see him. Then tell her, ‘But you must understand that just because you cannot see The Father does not mean that he does not exist. He is just out of sight, yet he loves you from afar. He’ll always be there for you, sort of. Above all else, he wants you to have blind faith in him and to believe in him though you’ll never see him, no matter how long you live.”
Now, there’s a saying, “Out of the mouth of babes.” It refers to the fact that children, not yet TOTALLY programmed and conditioned, etc., are more likely than adults to make statements of truth and to ask questions that point to the truth.
So when my daughter was told that I did exist but would never show myself to her but that I still loved her and – above all else – wanted her to believe in me based on blind faith alone, then in an “out of the mouth of babes” style, she would have likely then said:
Daughter: “Hummm. Mommy, can I ask you another question?”
Mommy: Of course, Darling.”
Daughter: “So is daddy batshit crazy?”
Mommy: “Probably so, Sugar. Probably so. In fact, yes, he is totally crazy. And if we buy into his game and believe that what he is doing is a normal way to behave, then we will be crazy, too.”
See, Maharaj for a time played the role of “The Super Religious One” and the role of “The Spiritual Giant.” Those are the roles played at the third step on the seven-step "path" from identification with the false “I” to Realization. But he transitioned those roles. He became alert. He questioned. He observed. He investigated. And he woke up from the dream of the planet. Then he 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"
and
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
And when that happened, his talks changed. He rejected his earlier blind faith. He addressed the actual root of the Ultimate Sickness: the content in the minds of programmed and conditioned humans.
His guesstimates of how many would ever be Fully Realized at any given time changed over the years from the millions to the thousands to the hundreds. With 97% of the persons on the planet being willing to function is an unquestioning, blind-faith manner, then few will ever Realize.
They will continue to think magically and they will believe that supernatural – spiritual – forces are determining everything that happens on the planet. When asked about a Supreme Being who allows prejudice and separation and war and abuse and disease and poverty and rape and murder and misery and suffering to happen, the answer is that “He works in mysterious ways.” Indeed, like a father hiding in a closet from his child to teach her blind faith. You know, crazy.
From the eBook below entitled THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS PEACE OF MIND:
An understanding of the personality types—and the obstacles to Realization that are generated by each personality—can reveal why so few will ever Realize.
Fifty percent of the earth’s populations are Type Sixes. When Sixes are programmed with dogma, as 97% on the planet are, they will remain loyal to those beliefs, unquestioningly, and will accept what they have been told. Why? Being fear-based, they become trapped by their programmers’ threat: “If you do not have faith in what we say or if you doubt any part of it at all, you will be punished and you will suffer now and forevermore.”
Therefore, the tally of those who will never be enlightened starts with that 50% who most likely will never give up their beliefs in dogma and nonsense. Writer Mark McCloskey had this to say about faith: “Faith is a crutch that humans have used for millennia as a way to explain the unexplainable . . . .”
(The point is offered in satsang here that religious leaders have historically dreamed up “concepts and ideas and teachings and beliefs that were used to convey false and supernatural explanations for events that were totally natural happenings.” Such is the essence of childish, magical thinking. Only if you mistakenly believe that an imagined “world” is real will you also be required to mistakenly believe that an imagined god—who was actually “created” by man in man’s image—is real.)
McCloskey continues, “If you stay with a crutch when you do not need it, you can become lame by reason of the crutch itself. The crutch must be abandoned, thrown away and then you can walk freely again . . . . ” He says, “Faith or any belief system as a whole is the final hurdle to overcome in the human path towards freedom and joy. Let me say it on a very 'personal' level.
"Until you, as a human being, are able to completely abandon what you believe, what you have been told or taught, and what you were told to believe or believe in, you will never experience this moment of reality as it is. You will never be fully free. You will be conditioned to experience present reality through a veil of the past.
" …. This is not a joke, not any agnostic or atheistic principle. I am trying to point you to your own total human freedom to be able to live in this world joyfully . . . ."
McCloskey and Maharaj would be in agreement:
Question everything.
Abandon what you believe and have been told or taught.
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”
and
“You must question everything.”
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.
In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:
Often, many do not really know WHY they are seeking. Too, many who are asked WHAT they are seeking often offer no clear-cut answer beyond the standard talk about "Realization" or "Enlightenment." For those who have come this way and have a clear notions about why they are seeking and what they are seeking, many have not yet found anyone that has shown them exactly HOW to go about the process. The content in "Part One" offers some considerations about all three.
In “Part Two” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay (now “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.”
All three will be discussed in detail in "Part Two."
[Sorry - for security reasons, no "clickable" link is provided. You'll need to type the address in to your emailed request manually. Also, the initial response to free eBook offerings is usually significant so it takes some time to process the requests. A new series will begin after those initial responses are taken care of. THX.]
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.
IV.
In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:
Often, many do not really know WHY they are seeking. Too, many who are asked WHAT they are seeking often offer no clear-cut answer beyond the standard talk about "Realization" or "Enlightenment." For those who have come this way and have a clear notions about why they are seeking and what they are seeking, many have not yet found anyone that has shown them exactly HOW to go about the process. The content in "Part One" offers some considerations about all three.
In “Part Two” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay (now “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.”
All three will be discussed in detail in "Part Two."
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 name:
nondualfloyd
@gmail.com
[Sorry - for security reasons, no "clickable" link is provided. You'll need to type the address in to your emailed request manually. Also, the initial response to free eBook offerings is usually significant so it takes some time to process the requests. A new series will begin after those initial responses are taken care of. THX.]
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)
