Today's Considerations
When egos (that is, false “I’s” or self-identifications or
ego-states) are in play – doing what egos do and being supported by such
ego-defense mechanisms as egotism – then those accepting such egos as actual
identities are said by some to be “un-teachable.” Why? Because any given personality
which is being assumed as a real identity at any given moment is "a great jnani" or "a knower" or "a man or woman of knowledge" or "know-it-all" in regards
to whatever that ego’s agenda and desire might involve. (And what did Maharaj conclude which led to his transitioning beyond jnana-yoga? All knowledge is just "learned ignorance.")
And just as much as ego is persistently and relentlessly in play among the masses, so too can ego be just as much at play among “seekers” and among those thinking they are no longer “seekers” but are now “finders,” having found exactly what needed to be sought and having found that which has now supposedly rendered them “Enlightened” or “Realized” or “Liberated,” resulting in the knowing of a “Clearly-Defined and Identifiable Self.”
Yet for all the devotion to each and every assigned or
assumed (but always false) identity – be it one that is deemed to be "bad” in
typical communities or one that is deemed to be “Supreme” in a community of seekers or knowers – an identity
which may have enjoyed boundless commitment and unlimited affection at some point can be cast aside in an
instant or over a period of time (as happened during the "evolution" of methodologies used by Maharaj.)
Each ego is driven throughout the day by an often-subconscious
set of motives and means of operating, but subconscious or not, the skill set which
egos use to protect and perpetuate their illusory selves contains tools which are amazingly cunning
and calculating and scheming and shrewd and sly and wily.
The arsenal storing an ego’s available materials for warfare is packed to the
brim with highly-destructive offensive weaponry as well as with the most resistant defensive
arms imaginable, including mental walls and emotional shields and belief-reinforced fortresses, all erected
by ego-defense mechanisms in order to protect and guard and defend each and every assigned or assumed
ego-state / personality / identity / role / false self / False Self.
And just as much as ego is persistently and relentlessly in play among the masses, so too can ego be just as much at play among “seekers” and among those thinking they are no longer “seekers” but are now “finders,” having found exactly what needed to be sought and having found that which has now supposedly rendered them “Enlightened” or “Realized” or “Liberated,” resulting in the knowing of a “Clearly-Defined and Identifiable Self.”
And always at play alongside assumed identities is the ego-and-egotism-and-duality-based
process of upgrading vs. downgrading.
Religions and spiritual groups and ideologies and philosophies
and other sky cults and mythical movements have never had a more effective comrade than
the dualistic utensils of upgrading and downgrading. How else could such institutions
and groups survive were it not for their promise to upgrade you; to benefit you; to make you better; to provide you with power (and Power); and to guarantee rewards both now
and forevermore?
And how can they attract anyone to accept their offer to upgrade if
they have not already downgraded each prospect first, making clear to persons that they have been
"wrong, sinful, evil, and bad" but can now be redeemed or saved or purified by whichever
institution or group or cult or ideology or philosophy is touting its upgrading process?
In such cases, a “good” or “grand” or “noble” or “Supreme”
or “other-worldly identity” can be assumed and then used to replace any and all former
“bad” or “worldly” roles which were being played. “An Alcoholic” can
cast aside that former negative identity and replace it with the new, super positive identity of “A Spiritual Giant.”
Others desiring an upgraded identity and a better image can assume
the persona of “The Super Religious One” or “A Child of God” or a “Supreme Self” or “Paramatman” or “The Absolute Atman”
or “The Supreme Soul” or “The Supreme Spirit.” Seekers of all such identities (and Identities) can be just as trapped in their newly-assumed roles and can be just as “un-teachable" as the non-seeking (supposed) "Knowers" among the masses.
Maharaj, on the other hand, made clear to those visiting him in his loft that they would get
nothing from him and that, to the contrary, they would lose everything (if they understand). He made clear that he
was about the business of subtraction, not addition; about the business of
de-accumulating, not accumulating; about the business of un-teaching, not
teaching; and about the business of offering the un-learning of all rather than learning any more.
The irony is that one must be “teachable” in order to be “un-taught.”
For example, let a preacher tell a parishioner more truth than the
parishioner is willing to accept and see what happens. Or tell a preacher more truth than he or she is willing to accept and see what happens.
Take seekers who are adhering strictly to the first method
of non-dual teachings which they were exposed to, ask them to identify by name
which of the five basic methods theirs is (which most cannot do), suggest that they might investigate
the other four and see if another method might provide more clarity and
freedom in a far-less arduous manner than the method which they are presently consumed with, and
you will likely see them exit posthaste.
To invite a person with dogged devotion to a religion or
sect or spiritual movement or ideology or philosophy to look objectively at their
highly-valued belief systems which have never before been questioned will likely trigger the
use of their store of defensive and offensive weaponry; will likely inspire them to batten the hatches; will likely drive them to seal off the fortress which guards their false identity / identities; and
will likely be responded to with verbal - and often physical – attack.
Doubt that? Ask the fellow in charge of ISIS beheadings, "Now, honestly, if you could be objective for even a moment, wouldn't you agree that Shias might just have a really valid point regarding what their sect believes?" Or, tell a Christian that - if it were possible for Christ
to return to earth and enter that person's church on Sunday - that Christ would bring
along the whip he once used on some Jews in a synagogue and would beat the living hell out of him and all his friends calling themselves "Christians" nowadays.
Or tell a Christian that Christ, at the end, was teaching nothing that either Christians or Jews now believe but instead was offering what is called "non-dual pointers." Try that and you may well risk being labeled a “New Agent of
Satan” (as happened here).
To a Buddhist like the one who - for some inexplicable reason - came here for a retreat and decided from the outset that he was going to expose me to all things grand about Buddha, paraphrase Maharaj and say, "Hang Christ, hang Moses, hang Mohammed, hang Buddha, and hang the Dalai Lama, too." Then see what happens. In the case of that very wealthy Buddhist man who had inherited a fortune from his father, the departure which took place after only five minutes of what was to be a three-day retreat led to the willing sacrifice of two days of international air travel, the hotel expenses, the car rental costs, and the enrollment fees, determined by a host of phony ego-states to be well worth the forfeiture of all that money in order to get the heck away from Floyd (a.k.a., "Evil Incarnate That Dare Not Honor His Holiness").
Suggest to an adherent of "the Traditional Method of Teaching Advaita Vedanta" that
one might realize without being able to read Sanskrit and without the use of texts
deemed to be “holy” and expect another fast retreat, at best.
[Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been
told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”]
Mention the use of birth control to persons who believe that
the use of any form of birth control will displease God and cause Him to cast them into the
fires of hell for eternity and see how quickly your consideration is dismissed.
Suggest to someone that the multimillionaire leader of
their religious or spiritual group is behaving like a self-serving, narcissistic, psychopathic megalomaniac
and watch a defensive and / or offensive posture manifest in an instant. (Fine here, but you might want to smell the Kool-Aid before you drink it, or not.)
Suggest to a Jew or Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu
that whatever texts they believe to be “holy” and believe to have been inspired
by God or by gods and goddesses might actually be the sole product of a human
or humans with hidden agendas and see what happens.
Invite someone who thinks she or he is living “spiritually /
supernaturally” to consider abiding naturally instead – just like every living thing on
the planet except for humans -
(a) by giving up all of their religious or spiritual or philosophical or ideological workaholism
which is making a second job out of mere living;
(b) by seeing the effects of faulty
programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and
indoctrination and brainwashing on his or her every thought and word and action;
(c) by taking the steps to be rid of those effects
so one can then be free of the “learned ignorance and insanity” which Maharaj
identified as key contributors to, and sustainers of, the Ultimate Sickness;
(d) by
seeing both reality (the I AM, and what you are not) and maybe Reality (the I
AM THAT as opposed to “this”); and then
expect the same levels of criticism that have been heaped
upon Maharaj because he shifted away from the use of a religious version of the
Ultimate Medicine and away from a spiritual version of the Ultimate Medicine
and began using a psychology-based version of the Ultimate Medicine.
Why did he make those changes? Because he was "teachable" along
the way before he was finally un-taught all. Because he was willing to look wisely and objectively at his words and actions and see what was not working and try a different approach rather than remaining attached to what was not working. In other words, because he was not hindered by the inflexibility of an ego's agenda or by egotism.
Next, Cicero said that one of "the six major mistakes of mankind" is “believing
that personal gain is made by crushing others.” The concept of "personal gain” is supported by the desires of ego-states to (mentally) upgrade themselves. "Crushing others" is inspired
by ego and egotism which are, in turn, driven constantly by the desire of ego-states to
(mentally) upgrade themselves (such as upgrading one’s self image to “A Special
Self” instead) and the tendency of ego-states to downgrade all others.
Among those no longer seeking because they think they have
found but have not, there is still no freedom from identification. There is merely
the assumption of new and improved and upgraded identities which have been
assumed in place of formerly-assumed false identities which were deemed to be
of a lower grade. The fact: all identities are based in delusion and in self-deception
and, yes, even in Self-deception.
Once again, to review, Maharaj's take on these pointers regarding "self" and "Self":
"It is enough to know who you are not"
and
“Whatever I am telling you is not the truth . . .”
"It is enough to know who you are not"
and
“Whatever I am telling you is not the truth . . .”
and
“The ‘discovery of ‘truth’ is in the discernment of the
false”
and
“What the real is cannot be told”
and
“You cannot say truthfully about yourself anything except 'I
am'”
and
“The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet, it
is still a desire”
and
“Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about
yourself anything except ‘I am’ and that nothing can be pointed at - can be
yourself - you are no longer intent on verbalizing ‘What You Are’.”
Realize the falseness of all identification / Identification and then you will no longer be intent on verbalizing ‘What You Are’.”
Realize the falseness of all identification / Identification and then you will no longer be intent on verbalizing ‘What You Are’.”
Once more: In the end, Maharaj advised seekers to stop reading I AM
THAT; to give up all of their spirituality and spiritual doingness
and spiritual
workaholism; to stop talking about "Who You Are"; to focus on reaching a
state of “zero concepts” and zero identity; and to focus on being
totally free
of the mind, and – thereafter – being free, period.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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