Today's Considerations
Why did a woman write to ask if there might be some
non-traditional, alternative approach - other than those being used by most
seekers - which her son might try? Because he said that he felt that the
non-dual understanding could possibly lead to some clarity and peace but
because he also said that he has tired of religious and spiritual and mythical
/ Self-Inquiry approaches.
Should there not be such an alternative, say for those who were
abused or molested in a church and cannot seek through that institution? Should
there not be an alternative for those types who can see clearly enough to know
that, often, “spirituality” - as practiced in many venues nowadays - is little
more than another form of religion with a membership who have not been freed from
their false ego-states and their egotism but think that they are actually
better than, or on a higher plane than, religious people?
Also, should there not be an alternative for the practical,
no-nonsense, matter-of-fact types who cannot relate to “deep philosophical talks” and who cannot relate to the enigmatic and mythical language of such
approaches as neo-vedanta (which was structured in a fashion which would allow
its key spokesman to tap into profitable Western audiences by blending religion
and spirituality in order to come up with what would be a popular message among those people)?
And what about current Western seekers? Should something not
be available for those who are reportedly leaving organized religion but
know not where to seek next? During the last few years in the U.S., this is how
the religious landscape has changed: in 2014, seventy-one percent of U.S.
adults claimed to be Christians (which was the lowest percentage to date with a
decline of five million adults and a drop of eight percentage points since a
similar Pew survey in 2007).
More significantly, it has
been determined that, among U.S. adults who claim to be Christian, fewer than 28% of those people are actually “active, regular participants” in their religion.
Many more nowadays are seeming to reach a point where they ask, “Is this all there
is?” and when they find that the truthful answer is “Yes, that’s all we have
to offer,” they are leaving. Yet what if they should reach a point later on where they feel the
urge to seek, to try to find “the rest of the story,” or to try to find what is
be understood that has not been grasped?
Many were exposed to dogma early on with no lasting results
and are now seeking relief or power or reformation via spiritual avenues. How's that working? Some alcoholics
try that approach, but a U.S. Government / major university study spent $22,000,000.00
to study in the U.S. and in many “developed” nations around the globe the
actual results achieved by the most popular organization that is offering “a spirituality-based
treatment plan for addiction.” What they found: the groups only have a “2% to
5% success rate,” and amazingly, they list in the “success” column the members who are able to run up a grand total of . . . “five years of sobriety.” Success? Really?)
For those types as well when some of them ask, “Is this all there
is?” they eventually find out that the answer is “Yes, that’s all we’ve got for
you”; thus, they leave but may well have the urge at some later point to seek via
another avenue. Should there be an alternative for those types?
Maharaj’s conclusion in regards to all of those questions about an alternative was “Yes,” and he acted on that. Seeing
that his religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine was not treating
the Ultimate Sickness effectively, and seeing that his next variety of the
Medicine – a spirituality / non-dual version – was not treating the Ultimate
Sickness effectively, he tried a new version of the Medicine designed to
address the roots of the Sickness, namely, the “mental / mind-based / ignorance /
insanity” problems of humanity.
Why did so few accept his shift, and why do so few try that
approach nowadays? Because it does not promise to provide that which the masses
are addicted to. The primary addiction of humans is to a desire to control, and
the secondary addiction is to the desire for power / Power in order to be able to
control.
Contrary to the popular message being shared by many who
falsely claim that they are “non-dual teachers,” Maharaj’s final version of the
Medicine promises no gaining of power and no merging with a Power whose power can be
tapped into in order to be able to control events and people on planet earth. Maharaj offered instead to take away all
desires, including the desire for control and the desire for power / Power.
So much for those promising that their approach / their
latest book / their seminars etc. can give you “power”; can provide you “power by way of intentions”; can provide “power now”; can lead to your “ambitions
being met now”; can reveal “the secrets of success”; can assure you “an ageless body
and timeless mind”; can lead to “the spontaneous fulfillment of your desires”; can
lead to the “fulfillment of your dreams,” yada . . . yada . . . yada.
For those who want to seek all that, rock and roll. For
those who think they need no longer seek because they have “found it all” by
way of their religious or spiritual organizations, rock and roll. But for those
that would seek, yet have tired of seeking through the traditional approaches
which claim a high success rate - though the facts reveal a very high failure
rate in terms of delivering what is sought - there is an alternative. Does the alternative
promise a high success rate? Hardly.
Yet it is there to be tried by those who have figured out that they do not
need more but need far less than they already have; for those who had
wanted to learn more but have finally realized that they need to un-learn all; and for
those who have already been programmed and conditioned far too much but have
spent decades allowing leader to program them and condition them even more,
for them there is an approach which makes clear that more programming and more
conditioning and re-programming are not the proper treatment for the Ultimate Sickness
and for learned ignorance and for insanity but that de-programming and de-conditioning
are being called for instead.
For those who are tired of working to try to “be somebody” and working to try
to “be something” or who now believe that they really are “some Supreme
Something,” there is an alternative. It is a natural and easily-managed alternative which can allow persons to
give up the second job which they have made out of what should be mere living;
which can allow them to be freed from their religious or spiritual or mythical
workaholism; and which can allow them to unwind and calm down and loosen up and
lighten up and take a break and chill out and take it easy and sit back every
now and then and just relax for a while in what Maharaj called “the cool blue shade.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE:
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