Today's Considerations
[The last few posts have shared a step-by-step process used
to guide someone to a different perspective. To summarize:]
A visitor arrived with these perspectives about the cause of
his financial and relationship problems which he deemed to be totally accurate
and completely true and spot on perspectives about the way he was viewing things:
“Until my brother-in-law came along, I had an ideal
marriage.”
“My former brother-in-law ruined my marriage and caused my former
wife and me to break up.”
“My expectation that I could . . .
(1) leave my business in the hands of a brother-in-law with
a history of incompetency
and that I could. . .
(2) leave with a known thief a stack of signed, blank checks
that would be needed to pay the company bills during the six weeks I was going
to be gone
. . . was a perfectly reasonable expectation because you should be
able to trust a relative who should be grateful for everything I’d done for
him.”
“I believe that if a wife is unhappy, a man can do things
for her and her family and make her happy and then they can have a happy
marriage (so, of course, the same goes for a wife if her husband is unhappy).”
“And anyone who suggests that my perspectives are warped is
an ass.”
After six fairly-brief sessions, he left with these perspectives:
“It is possible to think that ‘A’ is true even though ‘A’ is
the exact opposite of the truth.”
“It is common for humans to be willing to fight to defend
their beliefs, even though those beliefs are complete and total BS.”
“Not any one, single cause can explain why anything happened
as it happened, including ‘why marriages fail’ or ‘why businesses fail’ or ‘why
persons use escapism or avoidance or denial to preserve self-images and to promote
the hidden agendas of their assigned or assumed false identities'.”
“A marriage or any other kind of relationship can look to
outside observers to be ideal even though it is a complete and miserable sham,
and a person involved in a marriage or any other kind of relationship which is a
complete and miserable sham can be seen to someone in that relationship who has
a totally warped perspective about everything to be 'a pretty darn good
marriage'.”
“Neither warped perspectives nor ignorance nor insanity can be
compartmentalized. To see one thing in a warped fashion is to see all things in a
warped fashion; to allow ignorance to dominate one aspect of one’s existence
is to allow ignorance to infiltrate all aspects of one’s experience; and to be
insane is to be insane (though, granted, there are degrees of personality
disorders, neuroses, and psychoses); nevertheless, insanity when present will eventually
mark and mar all aspects of one’s existence.”
Shifts in perspective can happen, though they are rare. They
come when realization happens, specifically when it is realized that one has warped
perspectives and then takes the steps to be free of them.
No illness (including the Ultimate Sickness) can be
addressed unless it is first admitted that “I am really sick”; unless it is
admitted that "my perspective about everything is skewed and warped"; unless it is
admitted that "my mind is my own worst enemy because it is the source of distortion
and illusion and an endless stream of perverted and confused views";
and unless it is admitted that “all of the programming and
conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination
which I have been exposed to from early childhood and continuing to this very moment has all led to my playing a variety of roles which all have hidden agendas that are
twisted and bent and which are the source of a near-endless chain of misrepresentations of truth.”
And among those who have undertaken a “journey” or who are “following
a path” or who are engaged in some “self-help process” or who have joined a
group of insane people and believed them when they said that they “can’t help themselves
but they can help you," among those, nothing is more insane than when those types claim to
have been restored to sanity by virtue of giving up certain self-destructive behaviors even as they continue to engage in other forms of self-destructive behaviors.
Consider a person that is meeting with a trained, mental healthcare
professional who is being treated for a mental disorder. Does the professional who
has
diagnosed the patient’s illness
and who has
devised a long-term treatment plan to address the client’s mental
disorder
allow the client to decide when he or she is no longer insane
and allow the client to decide when the need for treatment has ended?
Those whose existence is dominated by ignorance have no clue
that their existence is dominated by ignorance. Those among the masses - who are all so
often driven by insanity - haven’t the slightest clue that they are being driven
by insanity. Moreover, written, self-reported claims of having been restored to sanity are
not worth the paper they are written on, and verbalized, self-reported claims of
having been restored to sanity are not worth the air that such words are spewed
into.
When a person has been ordered by a court to be confined in
a psychiatric institution and to receive long-term, professional treatment for insanity,
the court does not release that person when the person self-reports that he or
she has been restored to sanity. That diagnosis can only be determined by someone
other than the insane person.
Similarly, Maharaj made clear that persons who self-report
that they are fully realized are usually in error. He said that many declare that
they are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when they are actually
just standing in the dull light of dawn. What more evidence could there be of the continuing presence of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj said include “ignorance
and insanity”) than to make such a totally erroneous declaration that it is noontime when it is dawn or to believe that one is standing in full light when actually standing in shades of darkness?
Maharaj never accepted the word of a person who was
claiming to be totally realized. He asked questions and then used the answers to verify whether there was factual
evidence of realization . . . or not.
The only thing crazier than a crazy person telling others
that he or she was once crazy but now is not crazy anymore - even as there is
clear evidence to the contrary - is people believing an erroneous self-diagnosis that
no insanity remains.
What is crazier than believing a still-crazy person who claims that he can lead persons to sanity? What is crazier than someone
thinking he can give away something that he does not have, be that “sanity” or
be that “realization”? And what is more self-centered and selfish and arrogant and
ignorant than ignoring the continuing evidence of insane, destructive behaviors and then telling persons that they have been restored to sanity when they have not?
What is more self-centered and selfish and arrogant and
ignorant than
allowing persons to believe that they have been restored to sanity when they
have not, thus shutting down their search for a truly effective means of treating
their mental issues?
At the root of humankind’s problem is the mind because the
mind is the home of humanity's warped perspectives which evolve from the nonsense
and insane beliefs that have been stored away in every mind as a result of exposure
to nonsensical and insane programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication
and brainwashing and indoctrination?
No one makes herself or himself crazy. That is an outside
job, so those who have even the slightest hope of being restored to sanity or realizing
fully require outside intervention and an outside diagnosis in order to find
out their true state. Any perspectives or perceptions - all of which are based in minds which are all plagued by warped perspectives and perceptions - cannot lead to anything other than distortion and illusion.
A court of law does not accept a self-diagnosis from any insane person who is claiming to have
been restored to sanity. No court of law gives any credibility to claims about "having been restored to sanity" when the claims are coming from obviously-still-insane persons who has been confined to a
psychiatric institution and ordered to receive long-term, professional treatment
for insanity. Only reports from mental healthcare professionals will be accepted by the judge as true.
And Maharaj did not accept a self-diagnosis (or supposed “Self”-diagnosis)
from anyone claiming to be fully realized. His own inquiry was used to determine
where on “the path” anyone might – or might not – be.
Presently, the greatest curse of humanity is abiding under the influence of warped perspectives and nonsense and ignorance and insanity while believing erroneously that one is seeing everything clearly; while believing erroneously that one is wise; while believing erroneously that one is brilliant; and while believing erroneously that one is sane.
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.]
