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.]