Today's Considerations
Visitor: "I've been in a twelve step group for 3 years, 2 months, and 11 days as of today, and I want to say that we may not be perfect and we may not have the same rate of success as our founders did, but that's the way it is when there is no cure for the disease or illness you're dealing with but we're still helping people with the problem one day at a time and people who come here do stop drinking even if for a while and that's progress and that's our goal not perfection."
Reply: "Jean Sharon Abbott's doctors told her the same thing for thirty-three years: 'We're helping you. We're giving you the best treatment available for your disease. It's not curable, but if you stick with us, we'll at least keep you alive.' The problem with that: they did not know her real problem so they were treating symptoms instead of cause. And by buying into a treatment plan that was totally inappropriate and by listening to the doctors who were failing to treat her real problem, she was blocked from leaving that group and going somewhere else and finding the real cause and the real solution. That said, you'll continue to do what you do, trying to treat mental illness with spirituality. Been there, tried that. Did not work. Maharaj also, been there, tried that. Did not work. Yet those whom you convince that you know what they need will, as a result of believing you, likely never find the proper treatment for their actual problem which is mental and which involves personality disorders and neuroses and even psychoses. The craziest thing they did was not done while under the influence. The craziest thing they did was - even after their insane, multi-year history with alcohol - they begin drinking again . . . when stone-cold sober. See? There's no truth to your assumption that 'drunk equals crazy but not drunk equals sane.' Simply being 'not drunk' does not equate at all with being 'restored to sanity.' The booze was not the problem. Booze was what your members were using to try to treat their real problems which were totally mental. Treating symptoms rather than cause never helps anyone and cannot be consider real 'progress' by any stretch of the imagination. There is something worst than being the way people were when they were drunk. It is: still being that way but not drunk. Drunkenness might end, but craziness continues without proper treatment."]
To continue:
Though Maharaj came to understand that the main problems of
humanity center in the mind - not in “a bad heart” or in “a sick soul” or in a
“malady-plagued spirit” – he did not ignore the role played by assigned and /
or assumed personality identifications in generating fighting and conflict and
chaos (whether in a home, in an office, or on a global scale).
Why? For this simple reason: there can be no acceptance of personalities
as actual identifications if there is no mind. If there is a mind, it will
accept personalities as identifications. The two go hand-in-hand, so to speak.
Some excerpts from the book “There’s No Such Thing As Peace of Mind” (There Is Only Peace If You Are Out Of Your Mind) have been shared.
In CHAPTER NINE (entitled “MIND” and PERSONALITY: What
Cultures Consider “Assets” Are Actually “Liabilities,” Part Two) the mind-personality
conundrum is discussed:
The results of a study of global mental illness by the World
Health Organization and Harvard Medical School, as reported in The Journal of
the American Medical Association, reveal that from 1% to 5% percent of the
populations of most of the countries surveyed were suffering from serious mental illness. By contrast, estimates are that over 99% of the humans on
earth suffer from one or more personality disorders.
[When seekers take the personality inventory test offered here in order for them to finally discover exactly what has really been unconsciously driving their thoughts and words and actions all of their lives, we go over the results via Skype or telephone. After that process, they come to understand that all
nine of the basic personality types are showing up to one degree or another; then, they find which of the nine basic types specifically are exerting the greatest influence in their case.
More relevant is the fact that all
nine of the basic personality types - which all people have to one degree or another - have the potential to generate a variety of personality disorders. With
most humans being highly-influenced by the subconscious agendas of at least five of those nine types,
then most people have at least five disorders which they need to be aware of,
need to acknowledge the presence and power of, need to discuss, and then need to be freed of by taking the proper steps to find the proper treatment. Sometimes that freedom can come by being guided through all seven steps which Maharaj used and which are now being used here; sometimes, other guidance might be needed.]
Thus, as Advaitin sages have taught for centuries, the
relative existence problems of the planet are rooted in the coupling of mind / personality. Realization offers the opportunity to eliminate most of the
problems of the planet since, statistically; they are rooted more in
personality than in mental illness.
[That said, be aware of the fact that the only difference in
personality disorders and insanity - which Maharaj said is a symptom of
the Ultimate Sickness which almost all humans are suffering from – is only a matter
of degree. All neuroses and psychoses begin as personality disorders which, when
ignored, can result in persons disintegrating psychically and then developing grave
mental disorders which can eventually disintegrate further into full-blown mental illness / insanity.]
When diagnosable mental health problems reach a level of
seriousness that is labeled “clinical,” then a mental illness exists and
professional intervention and treatment are indicated. Advaita cannot treat
such conditions; however, those mental illnesses are very different from
personality disorders, and personality disorders can be addressed and
eliminated via the understanding that is attainable by way of the Advaita
teachings. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists attempt to treat personality disorders as well as mental
illnesses. Realization offers treatment only for personality disorders, serious though they may be.
Since personality disorders are far more common on planet
earth than are mental illnesses, then a logical approach would involve this:
when insane-type behavior is being observed, look first to determine if
personality is inspiring the conduct in an effort to sustain an illusory self.
Again, while the effects of personality on behavior often appear to involve
some degree of mental illness—with persons certainly seeming to be totally
insane at times—mental illness and personality disorders are different (by degree).
Consider: 59% of all women and 41% of all men who are killed in the
U.S. annually will die during a "relationship breakup." Some speak of
“temporary insanity” as a persona (such as “husband” or “wife” or “lover”)
strikes out when a false identity feels threatened. Those crimes appear to be
evidence of a mental illness, yet the stage for those murders is always set
long before the murders happen. The murders happen as a result of acculturation
whereby persons accept a culturally-assigned persona as a true identity, take
it to define who they truly are, and are then willing to kill in an effort to
protect a fictitious role assigned within their societies whenever that role / persona feels threatened.
That which is labeled “insanity” or “temporary insanity” in
such cases is not actually a mental illness at all. The astronomical murder
rate across the planet is more often a result of personality, not a result of clinical
mental illness. Yet most people on the planet dismiss such conduct as “insane”
or caused by "evil forces" while never being aware of the actual role that personality is playing.
Another reason that personality defects and mental illnesses
are mistaken (one for the other) is because the same type of destructive or
self-destructive tendencies can be triggered by either. It is true that mental
illnesses and personality disorders both call for “treatment,” and the call should
be an urgent one, but the effective treatments for those two conditions are
quite different. Again, psychiatrists and psychotherapists attempt to treat
both personality disorders and the mental illnesses which they can disintegrate into. Realization offers a treatment plan for personality disorders which, when serious enough, can generate insane thoughts and words and actions.
All but the truly insane, the too young, or the
brain-damaged can Realize, though the power of faulty programming and
conditioning etc. will prevent most persons from ever doing so. Most will remain
trapped in personality for the entire period of manifestation.
If Realization
is to happen, some questions to be asked include, “What personas have you
adopted and how powerful is their influence upon your behavior?" "When angry or
hurt, WHO is feeling the anger or hurt?" "What persona is causing you to be
miserable or to suffer or to generate conflict?" And "How is ego, and your assumption
of ego-states as identities, driving you throughout each and every day, all day
long?”
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.]
