Today's Considerations
[Continuing with "The Medicine Place," et. al. vs. "Your Original Nature"]
12. Richard eventually came to understand that there was no Maharaj who was shouting at him or at anyone else; no Maharaj who was angry with him or with anyone else; no Maharaj who hated "richard's" meditation practices or his meditation teacher; and no Maharaj who hated the "Big Names Teachers" whom Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from.
There was no Maharaj who was overly-exuberant, overly-passionate, or riled up and angry. What there was, however, was a speck of consciousness, and when that consciousness spoke, it spoke with a style of presentation which shared pointers with exuberance, with passion, and with a voice level that often rose in direct proportion to the level of asleep-ness which visitors to the loft had been lulled into. Then, the elevated voice volume was employed in an effort to try to wake up those who were sleeping through the session . . . and through life; or, to stun into silence those who were talking in their sleep in order that they might finally be able to hear.
Why did Maharaj try to dissuade richard immediately, from day one in the loft, from continuing with his meditation practices and his meditation teaching (which richard was trying to use in his effort to move along "the path" or even along the "pathless path")? Because Maharaj knew that meditation is a stopgap measure and because he knew that stopgap measures make one . . . stop.
Yes, there are masses of persons who are playing the role of "The Super Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" and who are willing to offer their heart-felt and emotion-based testimonials about the efficacy of their "practices." Here, some retreats begin with the question, "What have you done so far on your 'journey'"? What happens next?
As happened when a Cherokee chief in Santa Fe asked "floyd" that same question, mouths have been seen to run nonstop for a half hour or more, if not forced to stop. After that, (as happened when that Cherokee chief in Santa Fe asked "floyd") "And what do you intend to do from this point forward?" another half hour of mouth running often follows.
And what that type of nonstop monologue always turns into (as in the case in Santa Fe and as in so many cases in the loft and as in far too many cases here) is a talkathon which catalogues all of the ceaseless and exhausting doingness which had been undertaken by - and which is likely to be continued by - one who is mistaking herself or himself for "a doer": a doer of religious exercises; a doer of spiritual practices; a doer of meditation for 15 minutes every morning; a doer of meditation all throughout the day; a doer of samadhi sessions; a taker of spiritual journeys; a regular visitor to his or her Medicine Place, ad infinitum.
Yet ironically, there "floyd" sat in a home in Santa Fe, there persons sat in a loft, and ironically, here they sit in this house, proudly explaining all that they have done without any ability to answer truthfully the question, "Then why have you traveled halfway around the globe to sit here in this loft?" or "Then why have you traveled so far to reach this house in the community of Walden on the Lake? Why are you presently sitting here next to me after doing all of that stuff that you are so proud about having done? Do you not see that all of your doership and doingness have availed you nothing at all, or is that too much for your egotism-supported ego-states to admit?" (as was the case for many years with "richard" and with "floyd" and with millions of other seekers right now all around the globe).
More to the point, "What, in addition to ego and egotism, prevents persons from seeing that what they are doing is not working and that they need to cast it all aside and try something totally different?" The answer: Because programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination do not manifest only in their phenomenal, familial, societal, political, hierarchical and xenophobic versions alone. Also at play are religious and spiritual and supposedly-"Noumenal" versions of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination as well.
Thus, there are all sorts of stopgap measures which are deemed to be "special" or "holy" and which are believed to be able to make a person "special" or "holy," too. Those stopgap measures (which inspire persons to stop their movement along the complete "path" to its actual end) involve meditating and organized quiet time sessions and samadhi.
[Maharaj explained that once he became fixed in his Original State, there was no more "going into and coming out of samadhi."]
Also included in the list of stopgap measures are a host of noise-making and silence-breaking measures, including chanting; humming; Om-ing; Ah-ing; bell-ringing; singing; preaching; swooning; talking and talking and talking around special tables in special groups; placing special bowls on special pillows and then striking them with special sticks; and shaking gourds full of seeds and dancing about in a circle while mumbling, "Hey yah, hey yah . . . hey yah, hey yah."
Maharaj knew that richard was trapped in one of the many stopgap measures which cause persons to stop at the third step of what is actually a seven-step "path." It is at the third step where they become stuck in what Maharaj called their "kindergarten-level spirituality." He knew that the third step of a seven-step "path" could not put one at even the halfway point of what the complete "path" involves and what is required for Full Realization to happen; thus his pointer that "You think you are now being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun, but actually you are still standing in the dull light of dawn."
Grandmother, too, knew that not only religious activities (which drove her Baptist husband to the church five times a week) but also all spiritual doingness (which often ends up being a second job for life) both involve a step which, indeed, has to taken while moving along the "path," but by the time I began spending more than a third of every year with her, she had already traveled the entire "path" and was already abiding naturally, calmly, peacefully, quietly and . . . simply.
There were no remaining "special exercises" or "spiritual practices" required; there was no religious or spiritual doingness required; nothing was required except for those basic, relative activities which were necessary to sustain the composite unity for whatever time it was to remain.
She was that which was functioning in the fashion of THAT, of that Original Nature. She understood that her Cherokee friends and relatives had lost the Original Message and were focusing only on what they saw as "that state of 'nature' in this world" while missing out on an awareness of the Original Nature State which existed before "this world" and before "all worlds."
Abiding as the Original Nature, Grandmother functioned in the style of the original awareness-that-was-not-aware-of which was originally (unlike the bastardized conscious-energy after having been programmed, conditioned, etc.) an uncontaminated, unconditioned, unconditional, unlimited, unqualified, unadulterated, and unambiguous form of energy-with-the-potential-to-be-aware-of if manifested as a speck of conscious-energy which has not been blocked by learned ignorance or which has finally been freed from the consequences of the consciousness having been blocked by learned ignorance.
Want to be free? Then one must first understand what it is that is blocking freedom: what blocks freedom is learned ignorance; personality identification; the neuroses and psychoses and insanity which follow personality assumption which always leads to a host of personality disorders; and the nonsense-filled mind which results after years of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The Medicine Place is about "here" and about the "temporary now"; the Original Nature is about "then" and about "now" and about "later" (meaning, about that which was, is, and shall be . . . eternal).
To be continued.
There was no Maharaj who was overly-exuberant, overly-passionate, or riled up and angry. What there was, however, was a speck of consciousness, and when that consciousness spoke, it spoke with a style of presentation which shared pointers with exuberance, with passion, and with a voice level that often rose in direct proportion to the level of asleep-ness which visitors to the loft had been lulled into. Then, the elevated voice volume was employed in an effort to try to wake up those who were sleeping through the session . . . and through life; or, to stun into silence those who were talking in their sleep in order that they might finally be able to hear.
Why did Maharaj try to dissuade richard immediately, from day one in the loft, from continuing with his meditation practices and his meditation teaching (which richard was trying to use in his effort to move along "the path" or even along the "pathless path")? Because Maharaj knew that meditation is a stopgap measure and because he knew that stopgap measures make one . . . stop.
Yes, there are masses of persons who are playing the role of "The Super Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" and who are willing to offer their heart-felt and emotion-based testimonials about the efficacy of their "practices." Here, some retreats begin with the question, "What have you done so far on your 'journey'"? What happens next?
As happened when a Cherokee chief in Santa Fe asked "floyd" that same question, mouths have been seen to run nonstop for a half hour or more, if not forced to stop. After that, (as happened when that Cherokee chief in Santa Fe asked "floyd") "And what do you intend to do from this point forward?" another half hour of mouth running often follows.
And what that type of nonstop monologue always turns into (as in the case in Santa Fe and as in so many cases in the loft and as in far too many cases here) is a talkathon which catalogues all of the ceaseless and exhausting doingness which had been undertaken by - and which is likely to be continued by - one who is mistaking herself or himself for "a doer": a doer of religious exercises; a doer of spiritual practices; a doer of meditation for 15 minutes every morning; a doer of meditation all throughout the day; a doer of samadhi sessions; a taker of spiritual journeys; a regular visitor to his or her Medicine Place, ad infinitum.
Yet ironically, there "floyd" sat in a home in Santa Fe, there persons sat in a loft, and ironically, here they sit in this house, proudly explaining all that they have done without any ability to answer truthfully the question, "Then why have you traveled halfway around the globe to sit here in this loft?" or "Then why have you traveled so far to reach this house in the community of Walden on the Lake? Why are you presently sitting here next to me after doing all of that stuff that you are so proud about having done? Do you not see that all of your doership and doingness have availed you nothing at all, or is that too much for your egotism-supported ego-states to admit?" (as was the case for many years with "richard" and with "floyd" and with millions of other seekers right now all around the globe).
More to the point, "What, in addition to ego and egotism, prevents persons from seeing that what they are doing is not working and that they need to cast it all aside and try something totally different?" The answer: Because programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination do not manifest only in their phenomenal, familial, societal, political, hierarchical and xenophobic versions alone. Also at play are religious and spiritual and supposedly-"Noumenal" versions of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination as well.
Thus, there are all sorts of stopgap measures which are deemed to be "special" or "holy" and which are believed to be able to make a person "special" or "holy," too. Those stopgap measures (which inspire persons to stop their movement along the complete "path" to its actual end) involve meditating and organized quiet time sessions and samadhi.
[Maharaj explained that once he became fixed in his Original State, there was no more "going into and coming out of samadhi."]
Also included in the list of stopgap measures are a host of noise-making and silence-breaking measures, including chanting; humming; Om-ing; Ah-ing; bell-ringing; singing; preaching; swooning; talking and talking and talking around special tables in special groups; placing special bowls on special pillows and then striking them with special sticks; and shaking gourds full of seeds and dancing about in a circle while mumbling, "Hey yah, hey yah . . . hey yah, hey yah."
Maharaj knew that richard was trapped in one of the many stopgap measures which cause persons to stop at the third step of what is actually a seven-step "path." It is at the third step where they become stuck in what Maharaj called their "kindergarten-level spirituality." He knew that the third step of a seven-step "path" could not put one at even the halfway point of what the complete "path" involves and what is required for Full Realization to happen; thus his pointer that "You think you are now being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun, but actually you are still standing in the dull light of dawn."
Grandmother, too, knew that not only religious activities (which drove her Baptist husband to the church five times a week) but also all spiritual doingness (which often ends up being a second job for life) both involve a step which, indeed, has to taken while moving along the "path," but by the time I began spending more than a third of every year with her, she had already traveled the entire "path" and was already abiding naturally, calmly, peacefully, quietly and . . . simply.
There were no remaining "special exercises" or "spiritual practices" required; there was no religious or spiritual doingness required; nothing was required except for those basic, relative activities which were necessary to sustain the composite unity for whatever time it was to remain.
She was that which was functioning in the fashion of THAT, of that Original Nature. She understood that her Cherokee friends and relatives had lost the Original Message and were focusing only on what they saw as "that state of 'nature' in this world" while missing out on an awareness of the Original Nature State which existed before "this world" and before "all worlds."
Abiding as the Original Nature, Grandmother functioned in the style of the original awareness-that-was-not-aware-of which was originally (unlike the bastardized conscious-energy after having been programmed, conditioned, etc.) an uncontaminated, unconditioned, unconditional, unlimited, unqualified, unadulterated, and unambiguous form of energy-with-the-potential-to-be-aware-of if manifested as a speck of conscious-energy which has not been blocked by learned ignorance or which has finally been freed from the consequences of the consciousness having been blocked by learned ignorance.
Want to be free? Then one must first understand what it is that is blocking freedom: what blocks freedom is learned ignorance; personality identification; the neuroses and psychoses and insanity which follow personality assumption which always leads to a host of personality disorders; and the nonsense-filled mind which results after years of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The Medicine Place is about "here" and about the "temporary now"; the Original Nature is about "then" and about "now" and about "later" (meaning, about that which was, is, and shall be . . . eternal).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
