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

Today's Considerations

Just as a child does not exit a birth canal in adult form, so Maharaj did not arrive straight out of the “non-dual chute" in a "Fully Mature-Teacher State" with the skill set required to offer a fully-effective version of the Ultimate Medicine. The version of the Medicine he used in the end had not even the slightest similarity to the versions used earlier.

The only version of the Medicine which he offered for the Ultimate Sickness which most seekers are familiar with is the version of the Medicine which they have found in the book I AM THAT containing talks offered during “His Middle Period of Teaching.”

Most know little about the first version of the Medicine, a version which was actually prescribed by his guru who, essentially, told Maharaj that you must trick them: get them into your flat by offering bhajans throughout the day and then insert some non-dual pointers during the Hindu practices they like. His guru envisioned the coming of no seekers other than Hindus, and he never envisioned the likelihood of seekers coming from outside the Hindu state of Maharashtra or from anywhere other than the environs of Bombay, the Girgoan region, and the Khetwadi neighborhood.

So the original “teaching strategy” during "Maharaj's "Early Period of Teaching” was to seek those interested in religion and to try to free them of their present habit of viewing all in a totally-dualistic manner in which they believed in vast multiplicities of gods and goddesses and to developing a non-dual perspective instead.

Most seekers know little of "that Maharaj" who - during his guru-bhakti-driven days - unquestioningly followed Siddharameshwar’s prescription for treating the Ultimate Sickness.

Only after he moved beyond his guru’s orders and began formulating a teaching methodology based in his own experience (and in his own observations about what was "working" and what was not) did he begin offering a compound version of the Medicine which was made from a Hindu base with non-dual additives and then blending in a peppering of “spiritually-oriented pointers” for flavor. It is that version which most are familiar with because it is the one most-widely circulated with the publication of I AM THAT.

[See at the end of today's post his comments about that book and the talks contained therein, comments which have surprised more than a few seekers who do not understand his evolution and why he evolved as he did.]

But the evolution, the maturing, was not complete at that point in this recounting of his teaching "journey." The "Tea of Maharaj's Final Understanding" had only begun to steep.

Afterwards, the mostly-Hindu audience began to be joined more and more frequently by non-Hindu audience members who were Westerners; then only did Maharaj begin transitioning beyond his guru’s “game plan.”

In some later books, more shifts in the focus of his talks can be traced, but the major shifts were not advertised. They have been revealed over the years in private interviews; in anecdotal accounts of one-on-one comments he shared; in accounts of off-the-record conversations; and in usually-closely-held, formerly-private writings of those who recalled what he had said during “unofficial” or “confidential” talks or in never-professionally-published transcripts of what he had said in the presence of one seeker or in the presence of only a few.

For those familiar with the pointers offered by “the off-the-record Maharaj,” it is obvious that he went through (A) his seeking phase, (B) his guru phase, (C) his “Forest Dweller” phase, and (D) his early teaching / informal sharing phase when visitors began to stop by his bidi shop regularly in order to talk and to listen. Then came (E) his Hindu / religious / non-dual blend phase and (F) his less Hindi / more spiritual / more non-dual phase.

All of that might be compared to a child moving into his teen years and then into his young adult years and then into his adult years and then finally reaching his older / far-more-astute / penetrating / sharp-witted / clear-sighted / wise-old-man / perspicacious / fully awake / fully aware / fully conscious / “elder sage” stage.

Yet would those who criticize Maharaj for “evolving” (for growing) hope that a child of their own would fixate and would never develop and would remain stunted throughout the entire manifestation?

Because of experience and observation and a trial-and-error approach, he reached a point where his own experience lead him to look not only outside the surrounding culture but also outside the realm of anything that any Far Eastern teacher had tried up to that point. He came to see that the problems of humanity are all rooted in the mind, not rooted in a too-little-knowledge-of-dogma issue and not rooted in a too-little-spirituality issue and not rooted in a too little knowledge of Self issue.

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

Thus the teaching periods were marked by trying but then discarding many different versions of the Medicine before he realized that the problems of humanity will never be effectively addressed if the focus is on what some take to be "too-little-dogma issues" or by focusing on what others take to be "spiritual malady issues." He came to understand that the root of the problems will only be addressed by focusing on "the mind issues," the mind being the place from which the self-generated problems of humanity emanate.

That is why he told people in the end to "stop reading I AM THAT" and to "listen to my later talks."

How rich billions of persons would be if they were given a dollar for every time they (yes, accurately) observed, "Look at that - that person is nuts!" or "What a fool!" or "He / She has got to be totally insane!" 

Yet how poor they would be if a dollar were taken away each time they failed to see the true facts surrounding their own mental condition. 

Here, these related points are offered for consideration to those who are focusing on the ignorance and insanity which they are observing in "others":

"If you spot it, you've also got it" 

and

"If you can see it, you can also be it"

and 

"You will never find the truth regarding your own mental condition until you give up this firmly-held belief about what makes 'you' different from - and therefore better than - all of those 'others':

'My poop smelleth not; thy caca, on the other hand, doth much offend'."

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

Today's Considerations

To review why Maharaj abandoned religion and religious / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine; why he abandoned spirituality and spiritual / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine; why he said that self-inquiry – by which one can find who she or he is not – “is enough”; and why he began using a psychological / non-dual / Nisarga Yoga compound version of the Medicine instead:

WHAT HE SAID:

"All illness begins in the mind."

"Your confusion is . . . in your mind."

"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited."

"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."

" . . . The mind obscures and distorts."

"It is the mind that creates illusion."

"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind."

"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether."

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering."

So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj?

"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."

"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas."

"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ."

"Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . ."

"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."

"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom."

So what was his state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state:

"There is no such thing as a mind."

"I have no mind . . . ."

Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised:

"Reach a state of zero-concepts."

"As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."

"I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too."

"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably."

WHAT HE DID NOT SAY AT THE END:

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have accumulated too little knowledge of dogma."

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have a spiritual malady and are not spiritual enough."

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have not completed the entire Self-Inquiry process."

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END:

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from having accumulated too little knowledge of dogma.”

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from people not being spiritual enough."

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from not knowing the Supreme Self."

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END:

"To know that you are a prisoner of your ignorance of religion and of your inadequate knowledge of dogma is the dawn of wisdom."

"To know that you are a prisoner of your sick spiritual, of your spiritual malady, is the dawn of wisdom."

"To know that you are a prisoner of your insufficient understanding of the Supreme Self is the dawn of wisdom."

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

Today's Considerations

The Advaitin poet Shakespeare may have written a play entitled “much ado about nothing” in the late 1500’s1599. Maharaj in the late 1900’s said: that when a person is being driven by the mind, “it exaggerates.” He advised seekers to “live without self-concern.”

Maharaj: “Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself.”

Yet many over the years have protested:

Unimportant? Much ado about nothing? The heck you say! What about my father and others who fought the Germans and Japanese. You think they did not make a difference? They killed Hitler.

The reply” “Actually, Hitler killed himself. But again, the point is this:

Again, Maharaj said: “There have been thousands of avatars and great men, and important personalities. Has a single one of them been able to do anything to change the natural course of events in the world?” Of course, his answer was, “No.”

Did Hitler's demise “change the natural course of events” (or, more accurately, humankind’s most unnatural course of events)?

Absolutely not. Over a quarter of a billion people have been killed since the end of WWII and the number may be higher. Howe many have died in nations with “Hitler-like” leaders seen atrocities within their borders since the death of Hitler? Over a quarter of a billion people have been killed since the end of WWII, and the number may be higher. Consider China and Russia’s actions and U.S. involvement all around the globe. Consider the killings in Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, and all across the African continent.

Consider The Reagan Wars: Reagan's conviction that the Soviet Union lurked behind all the world's evils led him to embrace a series of unsavory allies on the principle that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." In the name of anticommunism, Reagan supported the regimes of brutal authoritarian dictators in Haiti and the Philippines. He supported the white supremacist government of South Africa in its efforts to suppress the country's growing anti-apartheid movement. He funded and armed right-wing "death squads" that rampaged through El Salvador and Nicaragua, massacring leftist foes and innocent civilians alike. He sent lethal weaponry to both the Islamic fundamentalist government of Iran and to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He even invaded Grenada. Only in Afghanistan did one of Reagan's covert foreign interventions inflict real harm upon the Soviet Union, but in hindsight we can see that Reagan's Afghanistan policy ended up inflicting real harm upon the United States as well because he armed a group to fight Russians in that country, a group which would later become known as Al-Qaeda.

The Bush / Cheney War in Iraq: The Iraq War began with the 2003 invasion led by the United States. The invasion toppled the government of a former U.S. ally, Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government set up by the U.S. It is estimated that as many as 600,000 or more estimated Iraqis were killed in the first three to four years of conflict. L. Paul Bremer, Iraq’s American ruler in 2003, along with the U.S. policy he enforced, were key contributors to the original insurgency after the U.S. invaded Iraq on bogus, fabricated charges.. At a stroke  of Bremer’s pen, 400,000 members of the defeated Iraqi army were barred from government employment and denied their pensions but were allowed to keep their guns. Those forces became “The Islamic State” (a.k.a., “The Islamic State of Iraq” and “al-Sham” or ISIS).

Now, consider those banging on their wars drums to attack Iran and consider the way that the Israeli government is treating the Palestinians whose homeland was taken from them in 1947.

So killing Hitler changed the course of events in the world? Hardly.

So the suggestion offered by Maharaj and here as well can be paraphrased in this consideration: “Physician heal thyself.” Might be a difference in the way the rest of your relative existence unfolds as well as in the relative existence of those dealing with you. But overall? Nada.

And post-manifestation when there is no relative existence to affect one way or the other? Even more Nada.

Vietnam ... add in much ado about nothing

Maharaj: “Stop misusing your mind and all will be well with you. You need not set it right -- it will set itself right, as soon as you give up all concern with the past and the future and live entirely in the now.”

Maharaj made clear that there are no half-measures in regards to reaching a sense of unimportance and understanding that all which happens in the relative existence is much ado about nothing: “either you become totally self-concerned, or totally un-self-concerned.”

His invitation: “Give up the bondage of self-concern”

and

“Abandon all self-concern” and “worry not about the material or spiritual.”

Humans concerned with self or with seeking Self or with their identification with Self blow everything all out of proportion. The Obsessive-Compulsive Personality disorder is running rampant, and seekers and non-seekers alike – still trapped in the mind – will obsess (that is, endlessly think about something and think about something and think about something) and then they will act compulsively (that is, driven by the hidden agendas of their personality identifications of the agenda of their Self identification).

All is so magnified and such anal behavior is inspired by their OCD that the invitation offered to some seekers who have come here has been to "throw away your microscope and pick up a telescope and turn it around and view all thorough it to get a proper perspective. Stop magnifying and de-magnify instead”

and

“It has nothing to do with either "high esteem" or "low esteem" to suggest that you stop over-estimating your worth or value and fixate in a sense of unimportance. Besides, “low-self-esteem and high-self-esteem are still about nothing more than the self. As for one with “Self-Esteem,” the view here is that “sometimes, no company is far preferable to certain company that might want to show up.”

In the end, much ado about something and magnifying and obsessing and behaving compulsively and having a sense of importance and self-concern and Self concern and dogma and spiritual workaholism and endless inquiry and Inquiry and bondage and an absence can all be traced to the present of a mind, and any and every mind is filled with nonsense and ignorance and insanity.

To be free, be free of the mind.

To be free of the mind, be free of its content, namely, ideas, concepts, perspectives, perceptions, misperceptions, notions, etc., which can all be encapsulated with the term “beliefs.”

Want to be free of the mind? Believe nothing. Every belief is one more link in  the chains that bind, and all those chains are mental chains

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

Today's Considerations

Though he never enumerated the seven steps which are explained here when seekers come for a retreat, the steps he used and the steps used here are the same. Included in the seven-step process is the religious and / or spiritual role-playing step which happens to be the third step. Among the few who are able to escape the entrapment of their religious and spiritual identities (and can then forfeit what are usually the final three identities of “The Super Religious One,” “The Spiritual Giant,” and “The Super Seeker” which are occasionally abandoned) for them there is an opportunity to return to the stage all persons were in during the last time that unconditional happiness happened, namely, “The Child Ignorance Stage” or - as it’s termed here - “The Child No-Knowing State.”

Thus, there is no effort here to suggest that religion should not be tried or that spirituality should not be tried (or that “Self-Inquiry” should not be tried). The invitation is to hang out for a spell at the third step where those identities are played, but to move on . . . ASAP.

Then the next challenge comes as many seekers simply substitute the last of the phenomenal identities but then assume a “Noumenal Identity” which presents a whole new set of obstacles which reinforce the mind and mind-play and which prevent the “Almost-Fully-Realized” from being fully in touch with both “reality” and “Reality.” Recall from yesterday Maharaj’s pointer about such obstacles:

Yet it has been seen that one cannot (a) leap frog from Step Two - even if there has occurred an abandonment all of the former “bad” roles - and (b) skip out on the third step where the (still-nonsensical) assumption of good roles are played and then (c) jump directly to the step four “Child Ignorance Stage” / “Child No-Knowing State."

So far, there has never been a single case witnessed where a seeker was able to skip the step two mind-entrapment and relative “bad roles” playing and also skip the step three religious and spiritual “good roles” playing.

Maharaj played around with religion. Same here. Maharaj played around with spirituality. Same here. Then, by continuing along the remaining steps on the “path,” he really got into a “Self” Identity and really got into “The Self” role-playing (which, as usual, always leads to Self-upgrading and then believing that one is “A Super Self” or “The Supreme Self” and thereafter engaging in some really mighty role-playing in a “Super and Supreme Self” fashion). Same here.

Yet that belief was not held onto either, for eventually Maharaj realized that the process of transitioning all identification includes not only being free of all personal identifications but also being free of any other Identity as well.

To that end he said: “I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality; finally, I lost that love of Self also. I have no more love for the Self."

For those seekers who want “the whole nine yards” (or all seven steps), that is available. For those who want to transition the third step and be done with all of their former religious or spiritual or even Vedanta-focused workaholism, then a plan for that is also available (allowing one to find all she or he is not and then understanding the wisdom behind Maharaj’s pointer: “that is enough”).

Next, to continue with Andy’s story from yesterday when he described what had happened throughout his relative existence and how he arrived at a point where he was moved to come here for a retreat. He, too, had tried religion. He too had been embroiled in a long and arduous “spiritual journey.” He too had worked at Self-Inquiry for years.

Yet he knew something was still missing. He wrote in the front of the anthology which he made possible:

“Now, I look back and laugh. Before the time spent in Floyd's home, I hated to wake up in the morning. Now, I can't wait to get up and enjoy every day.

“I was raised to believe that Jesus had the answers that people need. At Floyd's retreat, I found out that in many cases, he did, but the answers were not the ones I was taught in church.

“I found that ‘the later Jesus’ who returned to Jerusalem was sharing the non-dual, Advaita teachings - teachings I had heard on occasion when I was younger but that no one in the church could or would explain to me when I asked about those statements.

“I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to ‘go ahead and die now.’

“Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must ‘die.’

“I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.

“As I entered, I shouted, ‘Knock knock . . . anybody home?’ He yelled back, ‘No.’ I got it . . . I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body . . . nobody.

“I came to understood that everything merely cycles and that timelines are a fraud, and Floyd also taught me the meaning of every part of his vision, and I learned by way of the eagle the difference in Subject-Object Witnessing and Pure Witnessing.

“Why am I making this anthology available for all seekers to use now and to be available long after ‘floyd’ and ‘andy’ have taken mahasamadhi and are ‘gone’? First, because the books in this anthology offer the step-by-step process by which Realization can happen and, secondly, because the books helped me in that undertaking.

“I want to preserve Floyd's Vision [see ‘FREEBIES’ at the top of this page] and his writings for all who are seeking. I decided to support the printing of this anthology to make his teachings and methods available - to all that might be interested - because of what happened with me after sitting with Floyd and receiving the message that came by way of his step-by-step method which I realized was exactly what I had been seeking all of my life.”

During the early stage of Maharaj’s “journey,” he too had visions.  As the case with the vision here, it is said of Maharaj at that time that “Something exploded within him, as it were, giving birth to a cosmic consciousness . . . .”

In that regard, though, Maharaj said: “Trances and visions induced by words, or drugs, or any other sensory or mental means are temporary and inconclusive. The truth of what is said here is immovable and everlasting. And the proof of it is in the listener, in the deep and permanent changes in his entire being.”

He also made clear, though, that often “your vision is obstructed by your false ideas about your self.” Later, he would include about "Your Self" as well.

[Again, “I got involved in spirituality but finally lost that love of Self also. I have no more love for the Self."]

Even early on, Maharaj was not impressed with those attached to a sense of Self-ness. Who was run out of the loft? Domineering “Spiritual Giants” and those trying to put their grandiose sense of Self on display for all in the room to see.

To review:

Edgar Wallace: “The trouble with you is that you have no sense of unimportance.”

Maharaj: “Selfishness is the cause of suffering.”

One who studied with Maharaj: “It is not Self-Realisation that is transmitted, but self-importance” (and “Self-Importance” as well?)

Once an awareness of the unimportance of both “floyd” and “Floyd” came, it was seen that everything ever involved with either of those amounted to – as the advaita poet Shakespeare said – “Much ado about nothing.”

Once that sense of unimportance manifested and then fixated, it was possible to share the following review of some of the "supposedly key" events in the relative existence of ‘floyd’s parents” and in the relative existence of “floyd” and to offer the following perspective (which was the 180-degree opposite of the perspective held at the time the events were happening):

[From the series first offered nearly seven years ago entitled “SIXTY YEARS OF MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: See Why Bliss Can Come Only If It Is All Seen to Mean Nothing”]

Ultimately, peace and happiness during the relative existence cannot happen unless it is first understood that all happenings are “Much ado about nothing.” Meaning?
 
Meaning that if you observe all events with a clear perspective, you'll see how the trivial is elevated to the status of “significant” by persons. Then, seeing how trivial it all really is, you might be able to assume a position of neutrality around all happenings. Then, you might at least attain a sense of contentment before pursuing joy and bliss.
 
If it is understood that the entire manifestation of consciousness is much ado about nothing, then those obstacles which interrupt peace cannot materialize . . . obstacles such as belief in dualistic concepts, attachment, caring, judging, involvement, emotional intoxication, desiring, fearing, needing, etc.
 
What does much ado about nothing look like? It looks as if important happenings are occurring, happenings that require a dualistic stance, either for or against. But those happenings are really just the various parts of a fable; however, the elements of a fictional story can only be reviewed objectively if one functions as a non-attached witness.
 
Then, by reviewing the elements of the fiction from a “distance,” one can see clearly how it all amounted to nothing. Here are the elements in one tale that covered a 60-year span. It will show how much ado can be made about nothing when persons think the events in their relative existence amount to something important. This particular fictional tale included such elements as:
 
A young girl abandoned after her mother died in childbirth; that girl later kidnapped by a relative; a young man watching his brother fall onto railroad tracks and being cut in half by a train; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; Germany and Japan are declared “the enemy”; war declared; separation as a result of a war; two bombs dropped; returning home; prosperity; pregnancy; birth; another pregnancy; another birth (and thus "floyd's" arrival);
 
parents were pleased; parents were angry; teachers were pleased; teachers were angry; children were whipped with paddles; palms were beaten with rulers; national crime rates went down; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
 
Germany and Japan are then declared “our friends” and communists are declared “the enemy”; bomb shelters were built; drills happened in schools, along with crawling under desks and putting books over heads; making friends at school; fighting with friends at school; Cuba was declared “an enemy”; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing;
 
then, a lack of prosperity; crime went up; a tonsillectomy; an appendectomy; a toe severed by a lawn mower; a rare Southern snow; intense heat; punishment for not being “good”; exposure to religious Occidentals and their nonsensical beliefs; fear when the promise of eternal fire and damnation were introduced; accepting “salvation” in order to please, but knowing it was hogwash (so there is a glimpse of "floyd's" early exposure to fear-generating dogma);
 
dating; championships won; graduation; college; another graduation; employment; bosses were pleased; bosses were displeased; Vietnam was declared “an enemy”; another war; being drafted; another war ended; graduate school; a Master’s Degree and another graduation; low-paying employment; a meeting; “love”; a marriage; Vietnam was then declared “a friend” and “trading partner”; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
 
Then, too many lovers but not any Love; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; high-paying employment; a Bush declares an Ortega “a friend”; plaques and certificates of achievement and paid vacations awarded at annual banquets; pregnancy; birth; a healthy child; a sick child; swings in the economy; low income; high income; a Rumsfeld meets a Saddam and declares him “our friend”; an apartment in Tuscany; months at a time in Europe (so "floyd" had made it into the early 80's);
 
dream jobs that became nightmares; fortunes lost; fortunes earned again; huge homes purchased and filled with “stuff”; friendships with neighbors; fights with neighbors; pets bought; pets buried; pipes broke; repairmen scheduled; pipes OK; pipes burst; again more contractors dealt with; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
 
Next came vast accumulations; wealth; hurricanes came, trees fell, property “destroyed”; property rebuilt; property taxes increased; evaluations protested; fortunes lost; dream relationships became nightmares; hearing the words “colon cancer”; a spouse who got into her car and drove away the day before the scheduled surgery for cancer, never to return; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
 
Then arranging a funeral for a parent who preferred burial; Republican rule; nations to the south of the U.S. were declared “the enemy”; glasnost; Communists are then declared “a friend” and “a trading partner”; a parent’s stroke; more invasions and war; a declaration that “We must fight them in Central America or we’ll fight them here”; secret U.S. death squads; meeting a U.S. sniper using drugs to try to suppress the guilt of assassinating 46 innocent civilians in Central America (including a teacher and a priest) who were declared “the enemy” by the U.S. for making anti-U.S. speeches;
 
illegal arms deals; Democratic rule; huge surplus in national treasury; Republican rule; a Bush declares an Ortega is now “an enemy”; two poorly-designed towers fall; a Rumsfeld and others who had declared a Saddam to be “a friend” said he is “an enemy”; another war; national treasury surplus gone, replaced by huge national debt; a declaration that “We must fight them in the Middle East or we’ll fight them here”; nations to the south again declared “the enemy”; now, the health care providers no longer say “cancer,” but last week one said for the first time, “diabetes”; but ultimately, it’s all much ado about nothing.
 
Then friends came; friends went; seekers came; some stayed; some fired Floyd as their guru or teacher or guide; fifteen months ago, one doctor said "angina ... six to twenty-four months to live"; another said, "major pulmonary problems, combined with the angina, call for immediate surgery"; rejection of their suggestions; days of strength, days of weakness; and as with the events of the other 63 years, it is all being witnessed without any emotional intoxication or angst or fear. The peace here is unwavering via the no-drama stability of abiding as the Awareness and the Nothingness beyond.
 
To review those happenings from the perspective of the objective witness is to see the insanity of all of the duality that robbed the players in that “Drama of the Lie” of peace and happiness: good and bad, satisfied and dissatisfied, pleased and displeased, reward and punishment, war and peace, enemy and friend, friend and enemy, rich and poor, sick and well, marriage and divorce, good times and bad times, chaos and stability, knowing who “the enemy” was, then not knowing who “the enemy” was.
 
Everything thought to be bad would eventually be thought to be good and everything thought to be good would eventually be thought to be bad. In fact, it was all dualistic fiction, all dualistic nonsense, all ego-based silliness, all ego-driven BS. How did the shift from all of that duality happen?
 
Somewhere along the way, searching began; seeking; doing; going; zooming; next, finding; understanding; awareness; and relaxing; and ultimately, it was Realized that it was, indeed, all much ado about nothing . . . all nothing more than a lot of sound and fury. Only when the addiction to chaos - to the sound and the fury - ends can the joy and bliss of the silence begin.
 
Those who believe in time lines would say those events covered “six decades in the life of one man.” 

The unblocked consciousness sees nothing more than the elements of a fable . . . a series of happenings all based in idiocy. Again, the words of the Advaitin William Shakespeare apply: “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
 
Signifying . . . nothing. The invitation is to look at all of the elements in that fictional fable and see that they cover only 60 years of happenings on one planet that is spinning away in a universe that has a 14-billion year history. The invitation is too look at all those happenings and to note how “very important” they were all considered to be when they were happening. The invitation is also to see that the happenings amounted only to so much sound and fury . . . with no importance or truth or reality involved at all.
 
To understand that whatever persons take to be “something” or “something really important” is actually just much ado about nothing will allow the nothingness to be understood. When the nothingness is understood, then That Which Truly Is Everything can be understood. When the functioning of the totality is understood, all things false are abandoned and peace just happens.
 
Relatedly, the Advaitin poet Shakespeare also wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts,” and “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage.” And then? "Out, out, brief candle."
 
Enjoy the play, but know that the play is a play.

Indeed, if there manifests an ability to see that a play really is nothing more than a play and is not real, and if there manifests an ability to see that all characters really are nothing more than characters and are not real, that is a sign that ignorance is being eliminated and that sanity is being restored.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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