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.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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.]
