Today's Considerations
While Richard's first-hand account of his visits to the loft offers directly some key insights, many other lessons or understandings or awarenesses can also be gleaned from his and Maharaj's words. First (and possibly foremost) is what happened during and after the first visit. The scenario described is so very typical with most seekers:
1. When seekers are being driven by their totally misguided - but highly valued - concepts and beliefs about "Realization" and "Enlightenment" (and "the rewards of both of those" and "the way to attain bliss"), then finding that which is actually to be sought is not only often delayed but is usually thwarted completely.
It can be seen that "richard's" experience differed not at all from "floyd's" (or, for that matter, from "maharaj's," either): in all three cases, the seeking along the way involved the use of combinations of "ancient pagan and / or more modern dogma" and "Eastern philosophies" and, especially, some very heavy doses of "spiritual principles" as well as the blending of those with non-duality pointers, the latter presented by way of one or more of the four teaching methods of non-duality or by the fifth method which teaches "pseudo non-duality" or by the now-near-innumerable bastardized forms of those four basic methods.
With all three persons, the "paths" being followed passed within sight of the Truth, brushed up against the simplicity of what is to be realized, and offered a chance to question all that was believed at the time and to cast it all aside. Had an awareness of those nearby truths manifested, ignorance could have vanished far sooner; needless work and expense and energy which made a second job out of merely living could have been avoided; and an understanding of what the Ultimate Sickness is really about - and what the Ultimate Medicine is - could have been understood far sooner.
Yet "richard" - attached as he was to his "meditation practices" and attached as he was to "becoming a teacher of meditation" and attached as he was to the belief that he "could help others by getting them attached to the same activities as well" and attached as he was to "wealthy or big name teachers" - could not hear Maharaj's simple message which richard was offered but ignored. Most seekers really only want their present beliefs affirmed, not challenged and - certainly - not destroyed.
That missed message amounted to the spot on declaration by Maharaj that only ego-states - and the egotism that is use to defend them - can lead one to believe that some few can attain such a thing as "pure consciousness" while the masses will forever be plagued by their "impure consciousness."
Of course the terms "pure consciousness" or "impure consciousness" are used on occasion during certain discussions, but the terms preferred here are "blocked consciousness" vs. "unblocked consciousness."
Maharaj had heard (but ignored or rejected) certain Truisms because they contradicted the words of the guru whom he worshiped for a time. Such was the case as well with "richard" and "floyd" who both failed for years to question anything and everything which they had read and heard and been taught.
What was behind that? Blindness. Ego. Egotism. Stubbornness. And learned ignorance (which was being mistaken for innate wisdom).
There is no "pure" or "impure" consciousness. There is consciousness, period. That is what Maharaj was inviting richard to understand during that first visit when Maharaj asked, "WHO thought he was having the experience of pure consciousness?" If richard had grasped that point, that it is ego and egotism which drive persons to think that they are different-from and better-than because they have a "pure" form of consciousness, then richard would not have been back in the loft later after three years of playing around with "meditation."
Similarly, if Maharaj had grasped early on that the only effective version of the Ultimate Medicine is the one which treats the mental illnesses which follow personality assumption (which leads, in turn, to personality disorders which can lead persons, in turn, into neurotic and psychotic states) then he would not have needed to tell seekers later on to stop reading I AM THAT with all its "spiritual" talks and he would actually have addressed far earlier the ignorance and insanity which mark and mar the relative existence of the non-Realized masses.
The "who's" which Maharaj referred to are ego-states, are totally false identities, and are always rooted in egos (the false "i's") which are supported by egotism. What can happen which impedes the consciousness from seeing clearly and which drives it to buy into distortions and delusions and magical thinking and misperceiving? Is it "impurity"? No. What happens is the implantation of blockages which prevent the consciousness from seeing clearly, from seeing Truth, and from seeing reality as well as Reality. Those blockages are set in place via faulty and perverted and ignorant programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
It was the fallacious belief that one can seek and find "pure consciousness" via meditation practices (or any other religious or spiritual or philosophical processes) which Maharaj was trying to help richard see. That is why he told him that - attached to meditation as he was - he was "wasting his time," that he was destined to "travel far and wide," that he would "move from teacher to teacher," and that he "would never understand." Such proved to be the case.
[See, the original purpose of meditation was to take pointers from a teacher into the silence of contemplation, not to try to "still the mind." That is impossible. The answer is to purge the mind of all beliefs and thereby bring it to an end. Maharaj made clear that, with him, there was no more "going into samadhi" and "coming out of samadhi." There was instead the continuous, uninterrupted stillness which comes when a state of "zero concepts" is reached. All around the globe, spiritual and / or religious persons are rising fifteen minutes early to "sit in the quiet and meditate," only to leave the house and behave as raging maniacs later in the day. Maharaj knew that such brief, morning practices were a waste . . . nonsense . . . silliness . . . and insane.]
So what was Maharaj's point that "the consciousness in the loft was the same as the consciousness outside" on the hectic, noisy, chaotic street? Consciousness is consciousness. There is no pure consciousness vs. impure consciousness. There is only blocked or not blocked consciousness. Moreover, WHO wants to think that he or she has "the pure version" while the masses have "the impure version"? And WHO wants to believe that he or she can teach others to become different from and better than those with the impure consciousness by attaining the pure version? And WHO, more to the point, believes that there is a "one" who can attain anything?
The True Self which Maharaj mentioned is nothing more than the Pure Witnessing, not the Pure Consciousness or some lofty Supreme or Infinite or Special Self. That is all the so-called "Self" is. It is a totally impersonal, unblocked form of energy which is capable of witnessing accurately and truthfully. Only ego-states supported by egotism will buy into the notion that their religious or spiritual work had rendered them different from or better than others.
In all spaces on this planet, there has manifested temporarily the consciousness. It is, in fact, conscious-energy, and that energy is energy, period. The conscious-energy manifested in one space differs not at all from the consciousness manifested in any and every other space. And it comes in one variety only. The only difference is whether (a) that speck of conscious-energy has been blocked from seeing accurately via faulty and perverted and ignorant programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination . . . or (b) not.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
So what was Maharaj's point that "the consciousness in the loft was the same as the consciousness outside" on the hectic, noisy, chaotic street? Consciousness is consciousness. There is no pure consciousness vs. impure consciousness. There is only blocked or not blocked consciousness. Moreover, WHO wants to think that he or she has "the pure version" while the masses have "the impure version"? And WHO wants to believe that he or she can teach others to become different from and better than those with the impure consciousness by attaining the pure version? And WHO, more to the point, believes that there is a "one" who can attain anything?
The True Self which Maharaj mentioned is nothing more than the Pure Witnessing, not the Pure Consciousness or some lofty Supreme or Infinite or Special Self. That is all the so-called "Self" is. It is a totally impersonal, unblocked form of energy which is capable of witnessing accurately and truthfully. Only ego-states supported by egotism will buy into the notion that their religious or spiritual work had rendered them different from or better than others.
In all spaces on this planet, there has manifested temporarily the consciousness. It is, in fact, conscious-energy, and that energy is energy, period. The conscious-energy manifested in one space differs not at all from the consciousness manifested in any and every other space. And it comes in one variety only. The only difference is whether (a) that speck of conscious-energy has been blocked from seeing accurately via faulty and perverted and ignorant programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination . . . or (b) not.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
