Today's Considerations
This morning, the first cup of my daily dose of quad breve was sipped while sitting on the
deck behind the house here, the temperature having dropping to an enjoyably crisp
50-degrees Fahrenheit. Many visitors to this site live in the southern hemisphere with its opposite seasonal patterns, but here, the color of the leaves on the surrounding trees had already begun their beautiful changes as lower temperatures during some previous nights and mornings had already
triggered what they trigger.
Here in the West, there are those who claim that "there is a God who determines the time of death, even for every sparrow" and who is "in charge of the changing of the color of the leaves on trees and everything else," but Maharaj (being an avid supporter of science) attributed nothing to any god’s intervention but understood instead that
every living thing on the planet – except for humans – instinctively and intuitively “knows” what is to happen naturally and spontaneously.
So, during winter, there is not enough light or water for the
process of photosynthesis to happen as it does during the spring
and summer. During the winter, leaves - which are nature's food factories
- will be in short supply because the trees will rest and live off the food which they
stored during the summer. As they begin to shut down their food-making processes, the green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves.
As the bright green fades away, yellow and orange colors
begin to appear. Small amounts of those yellow and orange colors had been in
the leaves all along but could not be seen during the summer because they were
covered up by the green chlorophyll. That’s natural.
In the West, however, something quite unnatural begins to
happen after the fall dissolves into winter, for it is during late December that
religious persons in the West turn their one-day-per-year focus to peace. They become so emotionally-intoxicated around the concept that they even begin singing about “Peace on earth.” They will listen to
choirs sing about peace; they will listen to roving bands of carolers sing about peace; they will listen - whether they want to or not - to the singing coming from loud, external speakers placed in the steeples of churches; and they will listen to recordings of Elvis singing:
“Oh why can't every day be like Christmas?
Why can't that feeling go on endlessly?
For if everyday could be just like Christmas
What a wonderful world this would be.”
Why can't that feeling go on endlessly?
For if everyday could be just like Christmas
What a wonderful world this would be.”
The seeds of programming which religious leaders plant during
that season will last until the same time the next year when lip service will
once again be paid to the value of peace, for one day. During the intervening twelve months, the
masses in the West will carry on with the implanted notion that "only
the belief in, and worship of, a Power beyond this realm can bring about that
longed-for peace on earth."
What they will fail to understand, once more, is the fact
that – as Maharaj explained – “they are not in the world” but that “the world
is in them.” That is, the concept of what “the world” is - and what it is like - is only in
their minds, and the chaotic, peace-less world they perceive is actually a reflection
of their own chaotic and peace-less minds, the content of which drives their every thought
and word and action.
So to review:
Maharaj’s pointed out that “there’s no such thing as peace
of mind”
and
John Milton said that "The mind . . . in itself can
make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven"
and
the poet Richard Lovelace said that “Stone walls do not a
prison make, nor iron bars a cage” and that prisons and cages are made by the
mind (with each belief being one of the bars of each person’s “personal jail and
hell”).
Maharaj, especially in the end, adhered to the points that
(1) realization can provide a means by which freedom can come and that (2) freedom
comes only after having been freed from the concepts, ideas, notions, perceptions, etc. (a.k.a., “beliefs”)
which are stored in the mind.
Therefore he clarified: "Realisation is but the
opposite of ignorance.” That is exactly what he said.
What he did not say in the end is that realisation is but
the opposite of not being religious enough;
what he did not say in the end is
that realisation is but the opposite of not being spiritual enough;
what he did
not say in the end is that realisation is but the opposite of not being intelligent
and knowledgeable enough;
and
and
what he did not say in the end is that realisation is but the opposite
of not seeing yourself as something “Supreme” or as “God.”
What an insane exercise it is in the West to wish for “peace
on earth” one day of the year at Christmas services but then to go 364
days while ignoring the lack of peace between one’s own ears, for it is there
that the chatter of a thousand monkeys will continue for the next twelve months;
it is there where what could be seen via one’s own
experiences will be blocked out, allowing self-destructive and self-defeating behaviors to continue to mark and mar one’s relative existence; it is therein that the roots of
peace-less-ness are stored; and it is therein that conflict is sourced and then outsourced
to all those around each and every person who comes into contact with all of
the seriously peace-less ones with whom they interact.
Recently, there was the witnessing once more of a man in the
neighborhood here who uses raging and verbal abuse to try to control his wife
and children. During a walk last week, I saw him once again absorbed in one his screaming and
yelling tirades, shouting at the three frightened and intimidated members of his
family who stood at attention before him as he dressed them down like a drill sergeant chastising an inept recruit (which happens to have been his previous job).
Then I looked into the woods beyond that scene where another
family was having a totally different experience: there lay a buck and a doe and
a yearling, at rest. The buck was lowering its head, pulling up blades of grass
and chewing them into a cud while looking calmly at the emotionally-intoxicated
man who was ranting and raving some distance away.
The deer was as calm as the man was disturbed, the deer just
witnessing impartially. If the deer had a vocabulary and the ability to think, it may have wondered,
“What the hell!? Geez, take it easy, bud.” What the deer did instead was stand,
turn, and begin walking deeper into the woods . . . deeper into the quiet. The doe
and yearling followed.
Last night, my daughter sent a text, asking if I was going
to watch the first debate of the Democratic Party candidates for the presidency
of the U.S. The reply:
“I’ll likely just catch the highlights on the internet tomorrow.
Having no desire nowadays to watch people arguing, I’ll go 'the lover route' as
opposed to 'the fighter route.' Ha.”
Her reply: “Exactly the same here! Love you!”
See, the deer - and all living things except for humans - function
naturally, and natural functioning is a no-ignorance, no-insanity fashion of functioning.
Humans, for the most part, function either [a] unnaturally or try to function
[b] supernaturally (by adopting “saintly” and “holy” and “divine” and “godly” and "other-worldly" identities).
The latter always leads to an ignorance-and-insanity-based style of functioning.
Again, realization is not about finding some "Supreme
Self” or “Being At One With God" or “Being At One With the Godhead,” much
less about “Being God.” It is about realizing the difference in true and
false, realizing that one has been taught and thus learned ignorance; being
aware of the personality disorders which had come via personality
identifications; and being free of the ignorance and insanity – that is, the
content of the mind – and then being free and thereafter able to be at
peace.
See? "Realisation” really is - as Maharaj said - nothing more than “the
opposite of ignorance.”
“Raging?” Insane.
“Just lying back and impartially watching the insanity of raging?”
Sane.
“Standing by and watching your offspring being abused
mentally and emotionally and maybe even physically?” Insane.
“Rising and moving away from yelling and screaming?” Sane.
“Disturbing the peace and interrupting the quiet?” Insane.
“Moving deeper into the quiet?” Sane.
“Being driven by the content of the mind?” Insane.
“Being free of the content of the mind?” Sane.
“Abiding unnaturally or supernaturally?” Insane.
“Abiding naturally?” Sane.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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