Today's Considerations
Those that truly understand all of the “phases” or “stages” involved
in "Maharaj’s journey” (or in "Floyd's journey") also understand why some speak accurately of “a long and arduous
journey” when discussing what seekers typically go through during their quest for
whatever it is that they think they are searching for.
Maharaj’s “journey” was certainly a long and arduous one,
but the end result was this: after he found that (A) religion / the mythical method was not the
Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness; and after he found that (B) spirituality
was not the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness; and after he found
that (C) “Self-Inquiry” was not the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness;
and after he found that (D) neither mystical talks nor mystical “work” was the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness;
and
after he realized that the Ultimate Sickness was rooted in -
and aggravated by - what he identified as “ignorance, stupidity and insanity,” then
and then only did he offer a version of the Ultimate Medicine which could replace the long and arduous "journey" which methods “A,” “B,” “C,” and
“D” above always guarantee.
Lao Tzu said that “the journey of a thousand miles begins
with one step,” and that has always been accepted as the marching orders for
those who are totally subsumed in their use of either method “A,” “B,” “C,” or “D": "You must be prepared to take a long 'journey'; following a short and simple 'path' will not do."
Maharaj’s religious / mythical approach and then his spiritual
efforts and then his mystic and supernatural "Self-Inquiry"-instead-of-“self-inquiry”
focus and his “Self-Inventory-rather-than-self-inventory" focus did what methods "A through D" always
do: they normalize a thousand-mile journey (or a multi-thousand-mile-journey
nowadays) although a seven step “path” would take one far more easily to what
should be the actual objective (namely, freedom from the roots and symptoms of
the Ultimate Sickness: “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”).
Though he never enumerated the steps on a "1 through 7" list, Maharaj did discuss the same seven
steps in the process used here. He advised seekers that they “. . . should go
back, reverse, to the source” and to that they should “follow the same path by which you came” in
order to reach the actual objective of “going to zero concepts” (and thereby being restored to sanity) by following a
simple seven-step “path” rather than undergoing a long and arduous “journey.”
The "path" coming in had seven steps which resulted in the Ultimate Sickness, so the reverse "path" also has seven steps as well, each of which must be taken to un-do the bastardizing and consciousness-blocking effects of the "coming in" process which was dominated by faulty and perverted and bizarre programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The "path" coming in had seven steps which resulted in the Ultimate Sickness, so the reverse "path" also has seven steps as well, each of which must be taken to un-do the bastardizing and consciousness-blocking effects of the "coming in" process which was dominated by faulty and perverted and bizarre programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
Here, also, the same seven-step “path,” rather than a long and
arduous “journey,” is recommended (also after having tried both, just as Maharaj did).
Consider the alternative:
If using plan “A” above, religion will be a
birth-canal-to-the-grave-or-funeral-pyre process. You're never finish. You are to worship
deities or a deity daily and you are to support the goals of your (actually, your parents') religion regularly
with your prayers, your presence, your gifts and your service.
If using plan “B” above, you are to perform daily exercises
in order to remain spiritually fit because spirituality only offers a 24-hour reprieve
from whatever ails you.
If using plan “C” above then you are destined to move (mentally)
from accepting lesser identities to adopting the greatest identity of all and
then tout forever the fact that you are something "Supreme.”
If using plan “D” above, then expect a “journey” which moves
you away from being in touch with reality and Reality and relocates you
(mentally) from the AM-ness and shifts you to Foo-Foo Land.
The options became clear to Maharaj:
OPTION 1: a long and arduous and never-ending “journey”; or
OPTION 2: a simple, seven-step “path.”
In fact, he simplified the process even further by saying
that a four-step “path” would be “enough,” transitioning beyond all of the work
of Self-Inquiry and doing a simple “self-inquiry” and finding out who you are
not. It is that process, if completed, which can shift one beyond the third-step
assumption of “good roles” (such as “The Super Religious One” or “The Spiritual
Giant” or “Something “Supreme”) and allow for a fourth-step return to the unconditional
happiness of “The Child Ignorance Stage” / “The Child No-Knowing State” which
was also a “No Concepts and No Beliefs and No Identity State”. See? Four steps on a "path" in contrast to a thousand-mile "journey."
Actually, it is not necessary, Maharaj said, to do all of the spiritual or mythical or mystical work to try to find out “Who
You Are.” Instead, the “self-inquiry” process can make clear that we are
nothing – nothing personal and nothing identifiable. It is the “Self-Inquiry” process
which deludes persons into thinking that they are “Something Special or
Supreme.” It is the “self-inquiry” process which can make clear that we certainly
are “nothing special” so we most certainly are not “Something Special or
Supreme.”
It should be clear, therefore, why Maharaj shifted away from
religion entirely and away from spirituality entirely when he finally realized that the
popular forms of “the journey” lead to life-long entrapment; when he finally
realized that the Ultimate Sickness is a mind sickness; and when he finally
realized that a simple “path” can lead to freedom - once and for all - as
opposed to being involved in a lifetime “journey” which only leads to
. . . the assumption of more supposedly-virtuous (but
totally false) identities, to
. . . the assumption of supposedly noble and honorable and respectable
Identities, and to
. . . the hypocrisy which, Maharaj made clear, always accompanies
the assumption of "virtue" as a personality trait which is assumed by those who
are trapped in beliefs about their “new and improved and good personas” vs.
their "former, bad personas."
The simple “path” is a means by which one can eventually
abide naturally; methods “A” through “D” above guarantee that one will abide in
a very complicated and busy and unnatural (but supposedly “supernatural”)
fashion.
The “path” can be short and easy; the “journey” as laid out by “A” through
“D” will be long and arduous.
Finally, a truly simple and freeing alternative
is available.
But "freed” from what, exactly? That tomorrow.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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