PART “E”: REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”

Today's Considerations

To review two of Maharaj’s key pointers about this subject:

“It is enough to know what you are not”

and

“Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.”  

Novice mountain climbers cannot reach the peak of Mt. Everest without a guide, and even then many still do not. Similarly, neither knowing what you are not nor ending misunderstanding can be accomplished without a guide, and even then, most will not. Why? Because 97% are attached to the dogma which they were taught as a child - teachings which they never questioned at the time - and because they have also never questioned as an "adult" those teachings which they bought into, and have since clung to, based in nothing more than blind, unquestioning faith. Why else? Because millions more have attached to the role of “The Spiritual Giant” and to the status which they think that image provides (which, in many quarters, is the case).

Here visitors have been told for a decade that “on your own, you cannot know what you do not know”

and

an undiagnosed sickness can never be treated in the proper manner.

These pointers have also been offered for years:

There is nothing you need to gain but there is much you need to lose

and

this deal is not about learning more but unlearning all.

Maharaj made clear that "you cannot abandon what you do not know" (or more to the point, maybe, you cannot or will not abandon what you think you know - but which is in error - unless you come to understand that what you think you know is in error).

The points offered here are that you need not learn more but must instead unlearn all if you would be free and that you must be un-taught, not taught, if you would be free. There is no "one" here with any belief, so there most certainty is no "one" here who wants you to believe what "he" believes.

Yet the question Maharaj alluded to is this: How can you abandon that which you do not know is false but which is nevertheless driving you unconsciously and subconsciously without your even realizing that it is a host of unconscious and subconscious factors which are doing the driving?

And what do those factors, those personality-based factors, all bring with them? Fears, desires and hidden agendas which are even hidden from the very persons who are being driven by those agendas.

Must a guide be required in every case? It is true that Maharaj said, "Your own self is your ultimate teacher (sadguru). The outer teacher (Guru) is merely a milestone." Yet for a time, in almost all cases, someone to point to a new and different way is required. Moreover, that “own self” is nothing special, holy, or Noumenal. It is merely the unblocked consciousness – if freed from the effects of programming, conditioning, etc. - which can see clearly via awareness.

Additionally, contrary to the belief of intelligent people, intelligence has nothing to do with this. The super intelligent are as driven just as often by ignorance and insanity as "the not-intelligent" because those in both groups have been subjected to ignorant and insane programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing.

Also, even as the talk is about being free of the belief that mirages are real, a mirage on a certain level is more intelligent that one living as if false identities are real. At least no mirage is thinking "This is what I am, and it is real." At least no mirage is having thoughts and saying words and behaving in a way this is being determined by subconscious agendas. Persons can certainly not make that claim with any validity.

Again, Maharaj’s pointers:

“It is enough to know what you are not”

and

“Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.”  

And again, how?

1. Understand that neither religion nor spirituality nor plans which send you off to the dissociation and escapism of Foo Foo Land can show you what you are not (because they inspire the assumption of more identities which you are not and because they want to teach you more, not un-teach all you have been taught). Also, understand that neither can ever help you understand (because they are the greatest contributors to misunderstanding).

2. Begin waking up to the presence of personality, begin seeing the many personalities which you have been assigned or which you have assumed as identities; see how they control your every thought and word and action and feeling and emotion; see how their agendas function on a subconscious level; and see how they thereby rob you of any and all ability to make conscious choices (your contrary beliefs about choices notwithstanding).

3. For a time, until you are aware of all of the personalities that are driving you and until you are conscious of their agendas and the way that they generate duality-based conflict and chaos, and until you have been freed from their influences, try the stop-pause-turn method of dealing with them when they arise. To review: "Catch yourself" means "catch your false selves at play." When a harmony-interrupting thought comes, stop and ask, "WHO, what persona, is thinking that?" When a harmony-interrupting word comes, stop and ask, "WHO, what persona, inspired that?" When a harmony-interrupting action happens, ask, "WHO, what persona, inspired that?"

Relatedly, this was received last week regarding the process of recognizing personalities and their influence:

“The Advaitin stance is to see or recognise those influences and identify them prior to the emergence of personality.”

The reply: We cannot recognize a person who is not in our presence. The personality must initially be seen as it determines a thought or word or action - hopefully at the very instant it first begins manifesting. Seeing each personality as it activates is often enough to allow for the stop-pause-turn response to activate and then - not shift a person to another personality type or to a different, "better" trait but - to stop allowing that personality's influence to continue to control, subconsciously, one’s thoughts and words and deeds and feelings and emotions.

4. Understand why the sages for ages have encouraged the abandonment of personality identification because of the overwhelming relative toll which they saw personality has taken in terms of the human experience since body and mind and personality identifications took hold. 

[If you followed the last series, you understand both the historical and the ongoing connection between (A) duality and personality and (B) bloodletting and bloodshed.]

5. Next, understand that there is no eternal benefit or reward if freed now from personality identifications. Whatever the results of that freedom might be, they can only happen now, they can only be known now, and they can only be enjoyed now. 

More on that tomorrow.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

PART “D”: REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”

Today's Considerations

The one called “daughter” and “Ashley” returned last Sunday from a two-week honeymoon in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Her health was excellent throughout her travels, but last Tuesday she awoke with the pain and misery of a serious viral infection.

Of course she might have contracted the virus during the last days in Budapest, but a news report noted this: “Scientists already know that smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, seasonal influenza, a host of viruses, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) can be transmitted during commercial flights. Now, in the first study to predict the number of H1N1 flu infections that could occur during a flight, UCLA researchers found that transmission during transatlantic travel can be fairly high.”

Understanding the cause of her sickness, however, was less relevant than understanding that a special medicine was going to be required to cure her sickness. She understood that, to be restored to wellness, she did not need to focus too much on the cause but that she did need to recognize the true nature of her illness and she did need to visit a doctor who could provide the medicine needed:

specifically, in her case, a round of antibiotic, taking two the first day and then one each day for the next four days. Yesterday, the symptoms of the virus had subsided, but the side effects of the medication were manifesting: stomach pain, mild headache, insomnia and restlessness, ringing in the ears, etc.

Obviously, if she is free of the sickness and restored to health, she will take no more of the medicine. She will be done. She will go on with her life and enjoy it now that health is restored, freed from not only the misery-inducing effects of the virus but also freed from the side effects of the medicine. She will not have to devote a lifetime to fearing the next virus that might come along, and she will not take medicine for a lifetime instead of for what should be a brief period and then being done with it.

That approach is not unlike the route which eventually came to be offered by Maharaj, and is not unlike the route which eventually came to be offered here. Consider the parallels with the Ultimate Sickness and the Ultimate Medicine:

** Persons are made sick through no fault of their own (not having asked for the bizarre programming, conditioning, etc. to which they have all been subjected)

** Ashley needed some slight understanding of the cause of her misery and suffering and pain, but only enough to realize that what she was suffering from was not just going to go away on its own; realizing that she could not cure her sickness on her own; realizing that she needed a specialized medicine; realizing that, if she took the proper medicine, her suffering would end; and realizing that if she did not, she would be miserable and would eventually suffer dire consequences – relatively speaking – if her symptoms were not addressed by use of the proper medicine.

** Once well, she will abide naturally and normally; she will not be driven by an Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder to take medication endlessly for what had once ailed her; she will simply go on with her life.

Originally, Maharaj focused on Self-Inquiry. Later, after seeing that neither dogma-medicine, spiritual-medicine, or Self-Inquiry-medicine was working to address the Ultimate Sickness long-term, he began recommending “self”-inquiry only instead: 

“It is enough to know what you are not”

and

“Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.”   

Thus the suggestion here is to begin with realizing what is making you sick and realizing that it will not go away on its own; with realizing that misery and suffering and consequences will be assured unless the proper Medicine is found and used; and with realizing that a specialized Ultimate Medicine is available to address what ails you.  

Then realize what cannot possible work, what cannot possibly heal the Ultimately Sick mind, what has a multi-thousand-year history of failure; then only might you become willing to try a different route; a “non-mythical” route; a non-dogma route; and a non-Foo-Foo-Land, non-supernatural, non-spiritual route; then, you might take a route which provides the proper Medicine for what really ails humankind.

To become both well and free, one need but take the limited dosage which begins with stopping and pausing long enough to observes one’s selves at play and then – seeing how silly it is to react to mirages and illusions – to turn from them.

Then, once healed, you can move on with enjoying the remainder of the manifestation without suffering the side effects of taking more medicine than is needed; without the side effects of restlessness and not being able to sit still and being driven to go and do and zoom to become "super well" or "the most well of all" by becoming a religious or spiritual or mythical workaholic;

without making a second (religious or spiritual or other-worldly) job out of living; and then just living the remainder of your life normally instead, without being attached obsessively to exercises and practices and all sorts of things that are used to create and sustain a phony image of “The Super Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant.” 

Just get well, "know who and what you are not," stop "misunderstanding," be freed of the side effects of taking too much of the Ultimate Medicine, abide naturally and spontaneously, dance lightly for a change, and enjoy some joy along the rest of the way.

Of course that's just a suggestion.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

PART “C”: REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”

Today's Considerations

So first, in order to try “a different route,” one must understand some of the verifiable history regarding the plethora of routes which have been tried and understand what was determined first hand regarding the efficacy - or lack thereof - of those routes. Consider: those who have found cures for physical diseases did so after studying the successes and failures of the work of the scientists and researchers who came before them; by discarding what did not work; by building on what did; and then finally by coming up with the method and medicine for curing the disease being studied. The same applies with any mental illness / Sickness as well.

Maharaj said that science would one day advance to the point where it would confirm the non-dual teachings. “The non-dual teachings” he eventually endorsed were based in the science of psychology, not in religion and not in spirituality. Maharaj gave both of those routes a fair chance; he experimented with those two methods and eventually discarded them after he saw neither was working to address the Ultimate Sickness which he came to see as a mind / mental sickness. Seeing the failure of both of those approaches, he formulated a version of the Ultimate Medicine - and a method for administering it - which had a greater possibility of addressing what was truly at the root of what he came to view as the Ultimate (a.k.a., Mental) Sickness.

So what is revealed by way of the verifiable history of the routes he tried first hand before discarding two routes and settling on a third? In his case, there is a more-than-forty-year history available. After shifting beyond his “Forest Dweller” stage, he returned to Bombay and by 1938 was offering counseling informally. By 1951, he was “initiating” people and would offer two sessions per day in his loft for decades. Moreover, he offered the non-dual message almost right up to the time that mahasamadhi was taken in 1981, so overall he actually had nearly 43 years of first trying one approach / route / version of the Medicine and then another approach / route / version of the Medicine before he eventually settled on a third. 

During those years in his "laboratory" / loft, he was observing what did and did not work. After seeing clearly what was not working, he abandoned the use of religion as the Ultimate Medicine, abandoned the use of spirituality as the Ultimate Medicine, and in the end offered a form of the Ultimate Medicine which was based in psychological principles and methods. That was the route which he recommended for use in the end and which was - and still is - almost totally different from most all other routes.

If one understands the “evolution” of his message and why it happened, then one might find the wherewithal to reject “the dogma route,” to reject any and every supposedly “divine or devout or other-worldly or saintly or holy or spiritual route,” and to reject any “mythical route.” Then at that point, there might come a readiness to seek the understanding by way of a method or route which has nothing to do with anything that is mythical but which points instead toward that which is most assuredly not “mythical” – meaning, that which is not based in myth or superstition and which is not based in what evolved from the ignorance of ancient, dreamed up myths and superstitions and misunderstandings and conjecturing. And what evolved from the ancient myths and superstitions and misunderstandings and conjecturing?

Religions; spiritual movements and groups; ideologies; creeds; faiths; philosophies; and doctrines along with all sorts of other concept-laden, mythical-based belief systems and institutions and organizations and foundations and societies and associations and bodies and traditions and conventions and establishments and cults and sects and factions.

Next, the ability to move along a different “path” or “route” requires one to be aware of these two understandings:

(1) the one who is at least wise enough to know that it is time to undertake a “journey” - that is, to move away from where one is to where one would be - needs also to be wise enough to look first at a map (and that is what is provided here); then,

(2) one must understand everything about “where one is” in order to know “where one would go” in order to lay out the proper route for that "journey."

In the case of a young fellow seeking a “non-mythical route,” he was at least wise enough to understand “where he is.” And "where" is he? Trapped in personality, an understanding that came after careful study of what was revealed when he took the enneagram personality inventory which is offered here. Then this followed:

“When we got to the conversation about the positive attributes to strengthen and the liabilities to reduce, his question was: “It is so much. How can I shift all of those things?”

The reply:

The point about personality assets and personality liabilities is for Westerners. For the rest, that's just more duality. I dealt with a man yesterday who reported that he has suffered from low self-esteem all his life and he wanted me to tell him how to have high self-esteem. Ha. I told him he had definitely come to the wrong place. Maharaj said that those who are truly ready for the message are beyond both sin and virtue, beyond all notions about good and bad, beyond all belief in assets or liabilities. The applicable question, therefore, is not "How can I shift all of those things?" but is "WHO is the 'I' that is asking?"

Then this: “On reflection, I have been asking myself – how do we actually shift personality?”

The reply:  Here is the key, relevant point at this juncture: there is no "shifting" of personality. That would be like saying, "I want to shift from being a mirage to being an optical illusion instead." Rather than shifting in regards to personality / personalities, there is merely a seeing of the personalities at play. “Enough just to know who you are not," Maharaj said.

So the next stop along this “different route" is a stop at “liberation station” ("liberation" simply a term to use to point toward being free of being controlled unconsciously by the hidden agendas of each and every personality that is at play). Therefore, it is enough just for the Real I - the True Self, the Pure Witnessing, whatever - to stand back a bit and see the personalities at play (meaning, to become totally awake, aware and conscious in regards to all of the ways in which one’s assumed identities and their hidden agendas, along with the specific fear and desire of each) is driving a host of thoughts and words and deeds, even as persons erroneously believe that they are choosing what is said and done, (which is a great delusion in itself when they are actually being driven by the subconscious agendas of their false identifications).

 

So next, one must practice stopping, pausing and turning. "Catch yourself" means "catch your false selves at play." When a harmony-interrupting thought comes, stop and ask, "WHO, what persona, is thinking that?" When a harmony-interrupting word comes, stop and ask, "WHO, what persona, inspired that?" When a harmony-interrupting action happens, ask, "WHO, what persona, inspired that?"

So first, to follow a different route, one must see what routes have not worked long-term and what is not likely to work long-term; then, one must become willing to stop, to pause long enough to observe one’s false selves at play, and then – seeing how silly it is to react to mirages and to be driven by the hidden agendas of illusions – to turn from them.

With decades of seeing what worked and what did not, Maharaj came to understand that it is not necessary "to seek the Self," "to know the Self," or "to assume the Self as a new and improved identity" in order to be free of the “ignorance and insanity”-based thoughts and words and actions which assigned and assumed personalities are guaranteed to generate, always.   

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in previous series, and all other posts, by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

PART "B": REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL"

Today's Considerations

Reference was made yesterday to certain seekers (usually few in number) that are ready for a different sort of “Realization process” than all the other sorts they have tried, looking for a method of seeking which might actually be just as simple as Maharaj claimed; which might actually be just as free of any need to learn more dogma or holy concepts as he proposed later on;  

which might actually be just as free of any need to become spiritual and to engage in spiritual practices as he proposed later on; and which might actually be, as he proposed later on, totally devoid of any requirement to be concerned or preoccupied with “THAT” or with things mystically-noumenal or with things supernatural.

How unappealing that will be to most, though, because most seekers are still wanting rather than having been freed from all wanting. In particular, most that have been met here over the last twenty-six years of dealing with non-dual subject matter and with seekers have been wanting a B.A. Degree in Liberation (or should that be “B.S.”?); a Master’s Degree in Enlightenment; and a Doctorate in Realization.

Oh what a toll is taken on so many seekers who are being driven in their various quests by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, whether the quest is for the non-dual understanding, for religion-defined goals, for “spiritual fitness,” for a multi-decade period of sobriety . . . for whatever the quest might be. OCD out the whazoo.

Few understand Maharaj’s pointer that their knowledge amounts to nothing more than “learned ignorance,” so few have been interested in being un-taught and few are interested in un-learning all that they have learned so far on their quest.

Most are attached instead to what they think they have supposedly "gained" from their “religious and / or spiritual workaholism” and from all of their “supernatural” going and doing and zooming, so they only want more of the same.

How many are likely to be prone to abandon that which they believe is holy, consecrated, hallowed, revered, sanctified, sacrosanct, and sacred, that which they believe has provided them with so many benefits, and that which they believe will provide them with so many more benefits, both now and eternally? Few.

Only a few with ever see exactly what Maharaj saw, namely, widespread ignorance and insanity. Oh sure, they might spot it in others, but few will ever spot it in their own case. Yet were they to spot it – not just worldwide but within – and were they then to take the steps to be free of ignorance and insanity, then they will never be able to misperceive again.

Just as one cannot undo the effects on a clay pot which has been feed through a crushing machine, so one cannot undo the effects of finally seeing the true nature of the Ultimate Sickness and seeing the totally unawake, unconscious, and unaware condition of the masses all around this planet, self included.  Most, however, will never see anything other than the craziness that is driving “others.”

However, for those

(1) who are ready to become fully conscious, fully awake, and fully aware, freed from the effects of personality disorders and free of learned ignorance and programming and conditioning but

(2) who are like one woman’s son who has considered and rejected seeking based in “the mythical route” or

(3) who have found that “the Self-Inquiry route” is often warped into an approach that is so “theoretical or philosophical or impractical” that it inspires some to move – as noted here – into Foo Foo Land, or

(4) who found that their religious teachings imposed as much nonsensical programming and conditioning and brainwashing and indoctrination and ignorance as they were exposed to in their homes and schools and communities and

(5) who were convinced that “not being religious but being spiritual instead” was a far more effective route for being free of all of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness but then found that was not the case at all, then

for those seekers there is another option beyond everything which has been tried so far, and which has failed so far, to make a lasting difference in the way that their relative existence is unfolding.

Thus, when the question was asked, “What can be offered to someone like my son who is interested in being free of the pull of personality but is not really interested in the mystical route?" the suggested approach shared with that son – an approach which might also prove to be a more viable method than found so far by many other seekers as well – included the following:

First, consider that, here, there is also no interest in a "mystical route." The first post ten years ago reported that the focus of this blog was going to be on "Applied Advaita" - that is, on the practical use of the understanding in order to be free of all misunderstanding and learned ignorance and then to abide thereafter in a practical, sensible way. 

Yet, because (A) most seekers who show up here have been exposed for years to so many ineffective “plans” and “ways” and “means” and because (B) none who show up will admit that they are actually “novices” or that they have been fooled completely without knowing it, then the first requirement is that they be freed from all of their perceptions / misperceptions about what the “path” and the “journey” and “Enlightenment” and Realization” are truly about . . . and, more to the point, what they are not about.

All the claims by some that “Self-Inquiry is the Ultimate Medicine” notwithstanding, Maharaj said that "it is actually enough to know who you are not." Thus, for one not interested in things mythical or religious or spiritual; and for one not wanting to align with those who are trapped in some philosophical, Foo Foo Land mindset; and for one not interested in spending years in search of the answer to "Who Am I, Really?” then there is another option. 

To move beyond what has already been learned and must be un-learned, and then to be ready for a totally new understanding via a difference approach, certain key pointers in the Oct 10, 2014 must first be grasped fully. For the sake of ease, the relevant portions from that post shall be offered here before moving on with a description of the rest of the suggested “route” which will be offered:

There has been an old and still-ongoing debate about the true cause and the proper treatment (the proper Ultimate Medicine) for the Ultimate Sickness. Religious persons have asserted for thousands of years that the cause of the planet’s ills is rooted in their belief that there are too few religious people. Some continue to make that assertion, but with 97% on the planet reporting an affiliation with one organized religion or another, that assertion should be a moot argument. A more recent belief is that the cause involves an affiliation “with the wrong religion or sect.”

Others, many of whom tried religion but later shifted to “spirituality” (and now proudly announce “I am not religious! I am spiritual!”) often take the stand that the ills of the planet are rooted in “an untreated spiritual malady.” 

That kind of "from religion to spirituality" shift is uncommon, what with the attachment people have to their particular religion, but it does involve millions of persons around the globe who have assumed the false identity of "The Spiritual One" or even "The Spiritual Giant." It even happened with Maharaj and it happened here as well. In the eBook below entitled “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj And His Evolution,” the stages of his “development” or his "shifts in focus" are discussed in detail.

Early on, Maharaj led visitors to his loft in bhajans - religious (Hindu) devotional songs expressing love for “the Divine.” Along with those religious messages, he began to intermingle spiritual pointers in his talks, so his talks evidence a combination of religion and spirituality. 

As his message evolved, especially with the arrival of more and more Westerners, he focused more on spiritual subject matter until he eventually abandoned both religious talks and spiritual talks, having seen that those did not address the Ultimate Sickness at all, long-term. The focus of his talks shifted more to the mental roots and emotional (ego-based) aspects of the Ultimate Sickness. 

Rather than agreeing that “too little religion” is the cause of the ills of persons on the planet, and rather than agreeing that the Ultimate Sickness is “a spiritual malady,” it became clear to him that humanity’s main problem was (and still is) centered in the fiction-filled mind that develops after exposure to perverted and ignorant and insane programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing. 

So, Maharaj did not say that someday religious understandings would reach a point that they would confirm the veracity of the non-duality teachings. 

He did not say that someday spiritual understandings would reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the non-dual teachings. 

Maharaj did eventually say that scientific understandings would someday reach a point where they would confirm the veracity of the teachings. 

And which science, first and foremost, did he turn to after setting aside both religious and spiritual approaches to try to address the Ultimate Sickness? The science of the mind, the science of psychology. His focus in the end turned to the analysis and explication of the role that the mind plays in generating and spreading the Ultimate Sickness, so Maharaj's message changed after he came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a widespread mental illness. Here, it has been explained thusly: 

Maharaj’s loft was actually more of "a laboratory in a loft" in Bombay / Mumbai because he undertook in that loft many experiments in his efforts to find a form of the Ultimate Medicine which could treat the Ultimate Sickness effectively and successfully. In fact, he would run three laboratories over the years: he first ran "a Religion Laboratory," then later “a Spirituality Laboratory,” and eventually “a Psychology Laboratory.” 

Thus, the fact is that he (and “I”) tried religious methods and that he (and “I”) tried spiritual methods and that the use of those approaches continued until the scientific research and experimentation and observation proved that neither of those methods provided an effective treatment, long-term. 

It has been noted here that the third of seven steps (which is the step that includes the playing of religious or spiritual roles on a “path”) must be taken, not skipped. The fact that Maharaj (and “I”) played those roles and tried to use religious and spiritual concepts as the Ultimate Medicine was right in line with what almost always has to be done (as ineffective as that doingness is). 

Therefore, because of conditioning and acculturation, Maharaj’s first laboratory was a “religious laboratory.” He did bhajans five times a day simply because his guru told him to. Even after the alarm on his “BS” detector went off, he still used that approach for a while, saying, “I continue to obey his instructions, even though I know these bhajans are pointless.” 

Later, he would evolve beyond guru-bhakti, so eventually that practice ended; yet in the beginning, the only people among his early audiences were Indians / Hindus, so he followed the advice of his guru which amounted to this: “Draw them in and hook ‘em with religion and then sneak in the non-dual message at the end.” 

Thus, his early sessions included singing, some dancing about, and some narration, all of it only a bit less foolish than the emotionally-intoxicated worship-style of Pentecostals who raise their hands in the air and wave their arms about, who roll about on the floor uncontrollably, who dance wildly, who sing and chant, and who claim to “speak in unknown tongues.” 

Later, Maharaj's “religious laboratory” would be shut down and replaced with a “spiritual laboratory,” and eventually that laboratory would be closed and replaced with a “psychology laboratory.” 

Only then did Maharaj have his full and final “Eureka!” moment. Only then did he find the actual treatment for the Ultimate Sickness. Only then did the Ultimate Medicine contain exactly what is required to eradicate the Ultimate Sickness, not on a global basis but by treating sick personas (“persons”) one at a time.

That eventual understanding about the real root cause of the Ultimate Sickness and about what does not work to treat it and about what can work to treat it led him eventually to say: 

"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud." 

"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end." 

"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding." 

"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved." 

"There is no progress." 

"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."

“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.” 

“From birth, what has made the body grow? It is no power in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the Self, the consciousness … call it what you will.”

“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved,” 

and

“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.” 

So here are the ways that three supposed bases or roots or sources of the Ultimate Sickness differ: 

The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a place where God / gods / goddesses abide that is beyond what is experienced in ‘this world.’ There are places beyond 'this world' where one can experience reward or punishment. If people live in a way that earns an eternal reward, then life in ‘this world’ will improve.” 

The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: "People are spirituality sick, and if they get spiritually well, it will cure whatever physical or mental problems they have as well. Establish conscious contact with God; be quiet and listen; then, you will hear him tell you what you need to hear."

The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “All persons are programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated and brainwashed in the most nonsensical and insane ways imaginable. The Ultimate Medicine to treat the resulting Ultimate Sickness comes by moving through an Enlightenment stage, a Liberation (from personality) stage and a Realization stage, and all of that involves nothing more than using scientific, psychology-based methods in order to be being freed from the effects of taught-and-learned-ignorance and personality disorders and even insanity.

More on that tomorrow.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in previous series, and all other posts, by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

PART "A": REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL"

Today's Considerations

Posts over the last year or so have triggered among some (1) a variety of emotion-driven, mind-rooted, persona-based reactions as some attempt to defend their religious or spiritual or other-worldly identities; conversely, among some others, there have been (2) earnest inquiries which have obviously been well-considered by those searching for a method of seeking which differs from everything else which they have tried and which has all failed them so far.

The latter have come from seekers that are beginning to look objectively - for the first time ever, many admit - at a different sort of "Realization process" . . .

which might actually be just as simple as Maharaj claimed;

which might actually be as free of any need to learn more dogma or holy concepts, just as he suggested later on;

which might actually be as free of any need to become spiritual and to engage in spiritual practices, just as he suggested later on; and

which might actually be, as he proposed later on, totally devoid of any requirement to be concerned with or preoccupied with "THAT" or with things mystically-noumenal or with thing "supernatural."

Usually those that exhibit an actual state of readiness have - as was formerly the case here - already tried dozens and dozens of other methods of teaching and seeking and working and serving and all sorts of "not-dealing-with-this-realm-going-and-doing-and-zooming" along with unbelievable loads of spiritual workaholism. Even inquiring can become a full-time job.

Beginning as early as the age of five or six, inquiries here were made into "the actual nature of God" as there was an effort to try to make sense of what was being taught which would later be seen to be nothing more than a totally senseless set of teachings about a "God the Father" who was so co-dependent and emotionally-unstable that he can be made angry by "his children" on earth when they are bad or can be pleased / appeased by them when they are good.

Later, inquiries were made into something supposedly "beyond religion," namely, "spirituality," the difference only existing in the minds of those who assign a higher status to persons who are "spiritual" as opposed to those who are "only religious."

At some point, the focus turned to an inquiry into the nature of Reality ("Reality" being anything which - if singularly focused on - will render persons completely out of touch with "reality" when they no longer shift away from their monomaniacal preoccupation with said "Reality").

The overall "journey" was described this way in the non-duality-based novel entitled THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS:

In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he's been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he'd been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life's Meaning, he'd been communion'd, Om'd, grape-juiced, wined, ashram'd, accepted, rejected, Mu'd, and yoga'd; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he'd been pulverized, martinized, and frapped; and in the endeavor to attain Life Eternal, he'd been baptized, Buddha'd, new Aged, powwow'd, Far Eastern Indianized, incense'd, sage'd, Tao'd, Peru'd, Tibet'd, washed in the blood, dunked in the water, and purportedly purified. Then in the end, each of the religious or spiritual leaders had always charged him 10% of his total income for their holy / wholly sorry treatment, plus a building-fund-tax and a foreign-missions-surcharge to boot - all in spite of the complete ineffectiveness of their claims that they were going to "redeem and save."

It was only after all of the spiritual workaholism and the supernaturally-based going and doing and zooming finally led to nothing other than complete mental and emotional exhaustion that the seeking slowed to a pace which finally allowed enough imposed stillness and  almost-involuntary quietness to manifest and then allow a vision to come. (You may receive a free copy of the discussion of that vision in the "FREEBIES" section at the top of this page.)

That vision made clear that all learning leads only to learned ignorance; that there was no need to learn more but that there was a call to unlearn all; and that there was no need for more teaching but that there was a clear call for un-teaching instead.

As was the case with the way that Maharaj's version of the Ultimate Medicine evolved, it became clear here exactly what did not work during all those years of seeking and exactly what did work in the end. Only at that point did a simple "plan" come, providing a means by which seekers can move along the "path" to the end of the "journey" which provides, in turn, an end to seeking and inquiring, an end to "path transitioning," an end to "journeying," an end to "religious and spiritual workaholism," and an end to supposedly "supernatural" going and doing and zooming.

Because nature abhors a vacuum, what fills the resulting, newly-emptied "space"? Calm. Peace. Relaxation. A sense of "okay-ness."

Also shared will be a process for moving beyond being trapped by those former go-do-zoom methods and for reaching a calm and peaceful and relaxing state or condition which is devoid of all going and doing and zooming. It will be seen to be direct and truly simple.

Offered too will be a means by which one can stop trying to use methods which any honest and objective observer would admit have provided nothing more than a temporary respite at best from the effects of the Ultimate Sickness.

This process will allow the ready and willing seeker to move along the "path" which has provided, to a few, an effective treatment for what really ails the masses who are acting out their relative existence on the stage of "The Theater of the Lie" in the play called, "The Insanity of Mistaking a Nightmare For a Dream."

More on that tomorrow.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in previous series, and all other posts, by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

BLOODLETTING AND BLOODSHED, Part 12, THE CONCLUSION: Their 7000-Year Bond with Duality and the Ultimate Sickness

Today's Considerations

Maharaj pointed out that at the roots of the Ultimate Sickness and at the root of all of humankind's most trying problems are "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." Those symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness produce a false sense of "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" which generate, in turn, extreme arrogance;

an assumed right to control; a dualistic belief that “the world is just one constant and on-going war between ‘us, the good guys’ and ‘them, the bad guys’”; an assumed right to judge and convict and sentence and punish or kill or destroy any deemed to be among “the bad guys”;

and an assumed right to be entitled to control all others and to abuse authority in order to maintain control or to punish those who do not think and talk and behave exactly as those who have a rigid, dualistic sense of right and wrong and who think they are entitled to control all people and places and things by virtue of their being the ones who are always right while believing that all others who are unlike them are wrong.

One need but review local or national or international headlines to find examples of how widespread the connection is between dualistic thinking and talking and behaving on one hand and the generating of bloodshed on the other:

ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE AND INSANITY

LOCAL HEADLINES

To abide under the influence of arrogance and ignorance and insanity and any of the other key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness is to assume the right to shed the blood of “others” indiscriminately. Consider these recent headlines in Houston, TX., U.S.A.:

One killed in drive-by shooting in NW Houston

Deputies investigating shooting death in northern part of county

Man shot during home invasion in SE Houston

Man beaten to death with tire iron in Splendora

And when the dualistic roles of “The Super Lover,” “The Super Partner,” “The Super Spouse” and “The Super Parent” rear their ugly heads, the results are predictable:

Brick-wielding ex-boyfriend shot, killed by woman’s new beau

Equusearch employees looking for missing mother in Magnolia

Father of boy who was allegedly stabbed by mother speaks out

Man holds ex-wife and daughters hostage – kills wife by shooting her in the back as she tries to run away from him

Woman joins daughter in fight against classmate on school grounds

Man shoots ex-girlfriend, new lover after dispute in SW Houston

REGARDING AUTHORITY AND THE ABUSE THEREOF

NATIONAL HEADLINES

As a Personality Type Four, Maharaj held no authority in respect, much less in esteem.

[Contrast that with Personality Type Sixes who make up 50% of all persons - that is, over 3.5 billion humans - who are going to be blindly devoted to all persons in positions of authority, including government, the military, the police, religion, God, big businesses, societal institutions, etc.]

In the following examples pulled from national headlines in the U.S., what would Maharaj likely offer to the authorities for consideration?

Governor of Indiana signs anti-gay law supported by religious leaders

Municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty and discrimination against blacks

Black Americans killed by police in 2014 outnumbered those who died during the attacks of 9/11

Might Maharaj have shared with them these pointers which he shared with others?

"You are the maker of the world in which you live. You alone can change it or unmake it”

and

"You see yourself in the world, while I see the world in myself. To you, you get born and die, while to me the world appears and disappears. Our world is real, but your view of it is not. There is no wall between us, except the one built by you. There is nothing wrong with the senses; it is your imagination that misleads you. It covers up the world as it is with what you imagine it to be - something existing independently of you and yet closely following your inherited or acquired patterns.”


REGARDING DUALITY-BASED "CONTROL" AND "ARROGANCE" AND TREATING PERSONS AS IF THEY WERE PROPERTY

OTHER HEADLINES

Alabama player charged with domestic violence

Huge increase in number of cases involving National Football League players abusing their partners / wives

Two more women claim they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby - over 40 women have now come forward

In the Cherokee language spoken by Grandmother, there were no words for “possession” or “ownership” or “my” or “mine” or “different from” or “better than” or “control.”

Consider:

Maharaj: "Ultimately, nothing is mine or yours. Everything is ours. Just be one with yourself and you will be one with all, at home in the entire universe.”

By contrast, control freaks and the arrogant are the epitome of dualistic thinking.

THE "BETTER-THAN-MENT," "DIFFERENT-FROM-MENT," AND JUSTIFYING ABUSE CONNECTION WITH BLOODLETTING AND BLOODSHED

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

Twenty-two  killed in attack in National Bardo Museum in Tunis

Bombing of Yemen escalates - threat of ground war

Effects of Netanyahu's opposition to a Palestinian homeland and his accelerated persecution of Palestinians

Chinese military buildup increases in disputed territorial waters they are laying claim to

Somalia ends Al Shabab siege of Mogadishu Hotel, 24 dead

ISIS takes control of more areas in Syria and Iraq - Iraqi Sunnis Are Stuck between ISIS and Shiite Militias

Russia threatens to aim nuclear missles at Denmark, continues its war efforts in Chechnya

What does the Ultimate Medicine for all that planet-wide illness consist of, along with its treatment for the global preponderance of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”?

A NON-DUAL SENSE OF THE UNICITY:

Maharaj: "See things as they are - bubbles in consciousness. These bubbles are appearing, disappearing and reappearing - without having real being. Each bubble is a body and all these bodies are mine”

and

"My self and your self are one. I know it, but you don't. That is all the difference - and it cannot last”

and

All is "your universal body. You are so blinded by what is personal, that you do not see the universal. This blindness will not end by itself - it must be undone skillfully and deliberately. When all illusions are understood and abandoned, you reach the error-free and perfect state in which all distinctions between the personal and the universal are no more" 

and

"Truly, all is in me and by me. There is nothing else. The very idea of “else” is a disaster and a calamity” 

and

"There is absolutely no difference between me and others, except in my knowing myself as I am. I know it for certain and you do not. The difference is only in the mind and temporary.”

To conclude, these questions remain:

What is the likelihood of the masses Realizing and then abandoning their religious attachment to bloodletting and bloodshed? Practically nil.

What is the likelihood of the masses Realizing and then abandoning their religious attachment to re-enacting human sacrifice and cannibalism and vampirism by eating and drinking supposedly real (or supposedly just symbolic) body and blood? Practically nil.

Among those in jobs such as hit men, gangsters, police, guards, members of the armed forces / military, etc., jobs which allow them to bear arms and shoot others, what is the likelihood of their Realizing, becoming free of their massive levels of fear and anxiety and xenophobia and desire for control - all of which attract them to gun-bearing jobs - and then abandoning their willingness to shed blood? Practically nil.

What is the likelihood of the masses Realizing and then abandoning their beliefs that they own their partners and have the right to demand that their partners become mirror images of them or suffer the consequences? Practically nil.

For the few who see the ignorance and insanity and chaos associated with dualistic thinking and talking and behaving and have truly become tired of it all, an option is available. May you find it if you seek it.

Peace, Unity, Light, and Love

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

TOMORROW: The reply to this query: "What can be offered to someone like my son who is interested in being free of the pull of personality but is not really interested in the ‘mystical’ route?"

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in this series, and all other posts, by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

BLOODLETTING AND BLOODSHED, Part 11: Their 7000-Year Bond with Duality and the Ultimate Sickness

Today's Considerations

Reference was made to "Applied Advaita" . . . to taking the non-dual understanding which comes via Full Realization and Full Enlightenment and then overlaying the wisdom and clarity, which come as a result of that understanding, on the remainder of the relative existence.

The application of the understanding - in the absence, by the way, of any belief in "An Applier" - is (according to Maharaj) the rarest of all happenings.

[Recall his final estimate / guesstimate that only one in ten million will Realize.]

Of course, the fact is that there is no "applying" of anything if there is no "applier." Will the naturally-abiding deer that slept in the front yard here last night consciously "apply wisdom" in every situation they face today? No. So, what really happens with humans post-Realization is what will happen with those deer today. Specifically, natural abidance will merely happen spontaneously. If sane and wise, there is no "thinking about how to live" and there is no "deciding what the sane thing to do in any given situation would be." It all happens automatically with no thought about anything at all.

[Too, there is no one post-Realization who is "using his or her intelligence to get through life." As noted in the movie "Forrest Gump," intelligence is meaningless if it is manifesting alongside the "stupidity" which Maharaj identified as both a trait of, and one of the causes of, the Ultimate Sickness:

Forrest: "My momma told me that 'stupid is as stupid does'." If the most intelligent person you know is doing stupid things, then Maharaj's pointer applies: Stupidity, not intelligence, is the key driver involved.]

As with all life forms on the planet except humans, all is merely happening spontaneously, and it's left to Pure Witnessing to see sane living and logical living and wisdom-driven living when it is happening or to see insanity-driven living and illogical living and ignorance-driven living when it is happening.

Whether based in Maharaj's "guesstimate" or in objective observation, it should be clear that the most common occurrence is (1) the exact opposite of "Applied Advaita"; is (2) the exact opposite of "the non-dual understanding having been overlaid on the relative existence"; and is (3) what happens when there is no willingness to take the steps which can lead to Realization and to merely witnessing thereafter what happens and simply functioning spontaneously in a sane and wise fashion.

Next, Maharaj never said that "humanity is ignorant, stupid, and insane." He said that humans suffer almost universally from the Ultimate Sickness and that the symptoms of that Sickness include "ignorance and stupidity and insanity."

Short of Full Realization (which is simply the process by which persons are freed from the "ignorance and stupidity and insanity" which drive most all humans and which is the direct result of "ignorant and stupid and insane" programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination) there will be no possibility of abiding naturally and peacefully and wisely.

To the contrary, the abidance will unfold in a most unnatural manner as persons try to live supernaturally, buying into the long-term fascination which religions have had with bloodletting; buying into the long-standing practices of xenophobic cultures and war-mongering societies which inspire the endorsement of bloodletting and bloodshed; and which lead persons to buy into the hierarchical notion that the best way to solve a problem is not to address the problem but is to kill those who are suffering from the problem (which they neither asked for nor caused). THAT approach is the epitome of ignorance at work.

Thus, the opposite of "Applied Advaita" is "applied duality." From the members of some of the hierarchies referenced earlier, the following duality-based statements have actually been heard here over the years (and even recently). They include comments made by some enjoying the highest places on a hierarchy and statements made by those who are in jobs which pay them to protect those at the top by suppressing or eliminating those at the bottom of any given hierarchy:

"I love chasing bad guys. I really feel good when I go home at night if I put some of the bad guys behind bars that day."

"Guess you heard about the gangbanger the guys caught up with last night and sent straight to Gangster Hell, huh? I was pissed big time that it was my night off and I wasn't there to help send him on his way."

"My sponsor has more years in our group than anybody else so he is definitely the wisest and the best one around to guide me through all of life's rough spots."

"I don't care if you like the way I'm teaching your child or not. I've got 25 years of experience in the classroom so I know what I'm doing."

Said to a teacher: "I'm the principal here and that means I'm in charge, so I'm telling you for the last time: stop making my phone ring."

"I actually feel sorry for the people I see jogging along the road when we're on our way to church on Sundays. They don't have a clue what they're missing out on by not being here with us."

"He's the priest in charge of this church, so you need to support him, not question him and not turn on him when lies are made up about sexual misconduct."

"The Pope is infallible. Stop questioning  his decisions"

or, regarding the recent Pope,

"I'm not sure what happened this time, but it seems to me that the people in the recent College of Cardinals weren't really listening to God when He spoke to them."

"Ours is not to question why. If the captain said to raid their compound and destroy them, then we raid their compound and destroy them."

"I will gladly die for this nation but will kill off as many of our enemies as I can before they get me."

"Hell yeah he's a national hero. He got 160 confirmed kills and probably killed another hundred of 'em if the truth be told."

"America. Love it or leave it, you ass!"

"The Bible says that homosexuals are to be stoned to death. I don't question that because the Bible is the inerrant word of God."

"We are the makers - they are the takers. To hell with 'em."

"It doesn't make a bit of difference that he was unarmed. He didn't follow a direct order given to him by a cop."

"After an officer ran his car off the street and onto a curb at 50 m.p.h. to run over a mentally-ill man who was armed with a rifle: "I had two thoughts that go in my mind [sic]: I need to shoot him or I need to run him over, and I was too far away to shoot him." [His supervisor backed the decision.]

All of those expressed thoughts are based in duality, in a sense of "different-from-ment" which leads to a sense of "better-than-ment." All are outgrowths of a belief in hierarchical rankings involving concepts about "good people" vs. "bad people"; about "the authorities" vs. "those who deserved to be abused or eliminated because they asked for it"; and about "tough-as-nails patriots" vs. "wimps" and "bleeding hearts."

Human actions begin and move along this continuum: from thoughts to words to deeds. The thinking behind the statements above lead to insane levels of acceptance of bloodletting and bloodshed and to the endorsement of bloodletting and bloodshed and even to a culture-wide approval of bloodletting and bloodshed.

When religions and parents and cultures and business leaders and political leaders normalize the abnormal, then the abnormal will prevail, will breed more abnormality, and will generate disharmony and chaos and bloodshed. And all of that is rooted in the dualistic thinking and in the dualistic talking which result in the insane actions of such thinkers and talkers.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in this series, and all other posts, by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]