Today's Considerations
16. Maharaj pointed toward the Truth all along in a variety of ways, but it was only in the end that he stopped trying to flavor his message (in order to make it more palatable for a wider audience) by peppering the Truth with some Hinduism-based dogma or with some Traditional Advaita Vedanta Methods or with a blending of various forms of yoga or with a heavy sprinkling of spirituality as a tasty topping in order to allow seekers to swallow their Ultimate Medicine a little easier.
After he had abandoned all talk about anything other than the totally pure Nisargan message, he made clearer than ever before that there is no reward later, no punishment later, no use to "being religious," no use to "being spiritual," no rebirth(s) later, no life later, and no anything later except complete freedom from all of the peace-robbing personality disorders and mental aberrations and from the chaos which marks the relative existence of the non-Realized masses.
One man 2000 years ago abandoned the Judaism which his parents had introduced him to and - just as was the case with Maharaj - abandoned his earlier religious talks and his spiritual talks in order to share only a non-dual message at the end. He said: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."
To complete "the journey" along the entire seven-step "path" is to complete the treatment which allows one to be freed from the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity") as well as from the dualistic-thinking "mindedness" of the masses which - in turn - generates a disruption of the silence and the peace and which generates widespread instability and chaos instead.
"Wait, the 'goal' is not to be elevated to some higher level or plane?" No. Not to more effectively transition through a series of birth-life-death-rebirth cyclings? No. Not to please a god or gods and goddesses and attain the eternal perk of endless bliss? No. Not to receive a payoff of material rewards now and heavenly or Nirvana-style rewards later? No. Not to avoid unbearable punishments at the hand of an angry god? No. Not to avoid sin and to be virtuous forever after? No.
The only result of understanding all that you are not and to understanding Your Original Nature and to abiding as that / That right now is to be free . . . free of the influence and effects of the ignorance and insanity which have been unwillingly, and sometimes willingly, forced upon you and to be freed from the chaos and instability which always follow after a mind has been pumped full of nonsense.
Whatever is to come as a result of "a journey" or "completing a path to its end" or "enlightenment" or "liberation" or "Realization" or "awakening" can only come NOW. There is no "one" later on for anything to come to.
So what changes NOW if You abide as Your Original Nature . . . if You were to understand that / That and allow the understanding to displace all ignorance and insanity and then allow that understanding to be overlaid on the entire remainder of the manifestation?
[From the eBook Your Original Nature]: "As Your Original, Non-Dual Nature when awareness was but when there was no aware-of-ness, that no-concept / no-belief state assured that You would see Yourself as being neither rich nor poor; ugly nor beautiful; good nor bad; wanted nor unwanted; moral nor immoral; right nor wrong; helping nor hurting; ignorant nor knowledgeable; stupid nor brilliant; totally crazy nor perfectly sane; clever nor foolish; sinful nor righteous; rewarded nor punished."
Now, as the non-dual poet John Lennon invited us to do, "Imagine" for a moment (and just for a moment because that is certainly not an exercise which should become a habit). Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really moral."
Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really, really good" but eventually concluded that you were "really, really bad." Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative existence could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really righteous" and that you were "really sinful."
Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative existence could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really beautiful" and that you were "really ugly" or that she or he was "really wise" and that you were "really dumb."
Okay, you can stop imagining now because there will never be a shift away from dualistic thinking among the masses. (Maharaj said originally that only one out of one hundred thousand will get this; later he revised that to only one out of one million will get this; in the end, his "guesstimate" was that only one out of ten million will get this.)
So, what can change? Only your perspective, which can shift from (A) being a limiting, confining, distorted view to (B) being a liberating view because it is marked by clarity and understanding and wisdom.
To understand Your Original Nature and to abide as that alone rather than as 80 or 90 or 100 false identities is to be restored to sanity and to be able to enjoy an ignorance-free, insanity-free, chaos-free existence.
So, to continue: what else was That Original Nature like, which can serve as a model for the way to abide NOW if you would be free and sane and wise? [Also from the eBook Your Original Nature]:
"As That, You had not yet been made to feel inferior or superior; You suffered from no personality identifications (which always lead to disintegration into the insanity of personality disorders); You had not been made to feel (by those at home, in schools, in the community, or in a "house of worship") that you were not enough and that you were not good enough (so you will never be "blessed" with having enough);
"You were not made to feel as if You were unqualified or under-qualified; You had not been made to feel as if you were over-qualified or entitled; You had not been made to feel acceptable or unacceptable; You had not been made to feel OK or not OK;
"You did not suffer from - and did not subject "others" around you to - narcissism, arrogance, egotism, conceit, feeling over-qualified, haughtiness, or a false sense of superiority and different-from-ment which always leads to a sense of better-than-ment; and You had not been fooled into joining the masses in their constant habit of making much ado about everything when it's all actually just "much ado about nothing."
TOMORROW: More of what can come if abidance as Your Original Nature - rather than as your assigned and assumed ego-states - should happen.
To be continued.
After he had abandoned all talk about anything other than the totally pure Nisargan message, he made clearer than ever before that there is no reward later, no punishment later, no use to "being religious," no use to "being spiritual," no rebirth(s) later, no life later, and no anything later except complete freedom from all of the peace-robbing personality disorders and mental aberrations and from the chaos which marks the relative existence of the non-Realized masses.
One man 2000 years ago abandoned the Judaism which his parents had introduced him to and - just as was the case with Maharaj - abandoned his earlier religious talks and his spiritual talks in order to share only a non-dual message at the end. He said: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."
To complete "the journey" along the entire seven-step "path" is to complete the treatment which allows one to be freed from the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity") as well as from the dualistic-thinking "mindedness" of the masses which - in turn - generates a disruption of the silence and the peace and which generates widespread instability and chaos instead.
"Wait, the 'goal' is not to be elevated to some higher level or plane?" No. Not to more effectively transition through a series of birth-life-death-rebirth cyclings? No. Not to please a god or gods and goddesses and attain the eternal perk of endless bliss? No. Not to receive a payoff of material rewards now and heavenly or Nirvana-style rewards later? No. Not to avoid unbearable punishments at the hand of an angry god? No. Not to avoid sin and to be virtuous forever after? No.
The only result of understanding all that you are not and to understanding Your Original Nature and to abiding as that / That right now is to be free . . . free of the influence and effects of the ignorance and insanity which have been unwillingly, and sometimes willingly, forced upon you and to be freed from the chaos and instability which always follow after a mind has been pumped full of nonsense.
Whatever is to come as a result of "a journey" or "completing a path to its end" or "enlightenment" or "liberation" or "Realization" or "awakening" can only come NOW. There is no "one" later on for anything to come to.
So what changes NOW if You abide as Your Original Nature . . . if You were to understand that / That and allow the understanding to displace all ignorance and insanity and then allow that understanding to be overlaid on the entire remainder of the manifestation?
[From the eBook Your Original Nature]: "As Your Original, Non-Dual Nature when awareness was but when there was no aware-of-ness, that no-concept / no-belief state assured that You would see Yourself as being neither rich nor poor; ugly nor beautiful; good nor bad; wanted nor unwanted; moral nor immoral; right nor wrong; helping nor hurting; ignorant nor knowledgeable; stupid nor brilliant; totally crazy nor perfectly sane; clever nor foolish; sinful nor righteous; rewarded nor punished."
Now, as the non-dual poet John Lennon invited us to do, "Imagine" for a moment (and just for a moment because that is certainly not an exercise which should become a habit). Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really moral."
Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really, really good" but eventually concluded that you were "really, really bad." Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative existence could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really righteous" and that you were "really sinful."
Imagine how much easier and nonsense-free and stress-free your relative existence could have been if you had never crossed paths with any person who believed that he or she was "really beautiful" and that you were "really ugly" or that she or he was "really wise" and that you were "really dumb."
Okay, you can stop imagining now because there will never be a shift away from dualistic thinking among the masses. (Maharaj said originally that only one out of one hundred thousand will get this; later he revised that to only one out of one million will get this; in the end, his "guesstimate" was that only one out of ten million will get this.)
So, what can change? Only your perspective, which can shift from (A) being a limiting, confining, distorted view to (B) being a liberating view because it is marked by clarity and understanding and wisdom.
To understand Your Original Nature and to abide as that alone rather than as 80 or 90 or 100 false identities is to be restored to sanity and to be able to enjoy an ignorance-free, insanity-free, chaos-free existence.
So, to continue: what else was That Original Nature like, which can serve as a model for the way to abide NOW if you would be free and sane and wise? [Also from the eBook Your Original Nature]:
"As That, You had not yet been made to feel inferior or superior; You suffered from no personality identifications (which always lead to disintegration into the insanity of personality disorders); You had not been made to feel (by those at home, in schools, in the community, or in a "house of worship") that you were not enough and that you were not good enough (so you will never be "blessed" with having enough);
"You were not made to feel as if You were unqualified or under-qualified; You had not been made to feel as if you were over-qualified or entitled; You had not been made to feel acceptable or unacceptable; You had not been made to feel OK or not OK;
"You did not suffer from - and did not subject "others" around you to - narcissism, arrogance, egotism, conceit, feeling over-qualified, haughtiness, or a false sense of superiority and different-from-ment which always leads to a sense of better-than-ment; and You had not been fooled into joining the masses in their constant habit of making much ado about everything when it's all actually just "much ado about nothing."
TOMORROW: More of what can come if abidance as Your Original Nature - rather than as your assigned and assumed ego-states - should happen.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
