MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “D”

Today's Considerations

In Chapter Two (Understanding "The Child Ignorance State" or "the Child No-Knowing Stage") of the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"

this is shared:

There comes with each form or space a seed of consciousness.  One property of that seed and the manifested consciousness is conscious-of-ness, that is, the ability to be conscious of consciousness. The property of that seed allows the form to be conscious of itself, that is, of its beingness . . . its present existence . . . its Is-ness . . . its AM-ness. Another property of the seeds of consciousness and the manifested consciousness (if the mess generated by programming, conditioning, etc. is undone) is to be aware of the unicity, the Oneness; thus, over a period of approximately twenty-four months, a child senses

that it is its mother 

and senses

that its mother is it. 

As the child enters into the age bracket of 2-3 (an age span that is known in some cultures as "the Terrible Two's") a shift occurs. The shift is discussed in detail in the author's book on Programming, Conditioning, Domestication and Acculturation (The Sources of the Ultimate Sickness & The Non-Duality Treatment)

but the short version is this: during the early "zero concepts," no-mind phase referred to herein as "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," the child is merely witnessing, and the child witnesses by using both types of witnessing:

1. As its vision improves, it witnesses on a Subject-Object basis;

2. yet the child is also - for the first two years - witnessing in something very similar to the Pure Witnessing manner as well (which is all that the term “True Self” refers to: not to "The Pure Witness" and not to some "post-manifestation Self" but simply to the Pure Witnessing which happens via use of the universal consciousness as opposed to the blocked consciousness).

In other words, even though the child engages in S-O witnessing, it still senses the Oneness, as is the case with “the Realized” that come to know the Oneness and come to see the unicity while still moving through the relative and while still witnessing objects but knowing that they are not as they appear to be. (Take that as an example of the way the relative existence can happen when one uses eyesight to avoid running into objects but also knows the unity beyond the supposed multiplicity: the I AM goes on, but the I AM THAT is understood, so this is the result: Realization - which is simply a return to the former condition of being free of the effects of learned ignorance and imposed insanity - is then overlaid upon the "relative reality." That is, Reality is overlaid on reality).

So, during its first 20-24 months, a child is as close to "Pure Witnessing" as will ever happen for the entirety of the manifestation (except for the few that "Realize" – that is, that become free of learned ignorance - later on). Why? Because the child until about the age of 2 identifies with the mother, which is as close to an actual sense of Oneness as will happen with most persons. The child takes that familiar voice that was heard while the child was in the womb - and then takes the source of that voice that the child finally sees during the post-womb days - to be . . . the child itself, its self.

(The womb is anything but a quiet place, and by the end of the second trimester, a child can hear. In addition to the sounds generated by the internal organs of the mother, the child also hears the mother and others speaking, and research shows that a child - even in the womb - prefers the mother's voice to that of anyone else.) That preference for the mother's voice, and that identification with the mother, continues for the first 20+ months or so. Then, the child begins to take notice of its own body and begins to notice that its body is separate from the mother's body.A sense of ME-ness replaces the earlier sense of AM-ness, of mere Being-ness.

As a result, the child begins automatically to develop a sense of self without ever having chosen to do so. Only Subject-Object Witnessing remains because the use of the earlier form of "Pure Witnessing" (which sensed the Oneness) comes to an end. Ironically, therefore, it is that which is a natural, developmental process which sets the stage for all of the unnatural thinking and modes of living - and all of the supernatural / magical thinking and modes of living - which are to come.

Thus, a sense of duality begins - spontaneously - at that point, and everything that the child will be taught from that point on will reinforce a sense of duality and separation and distance while pushing the individual - the developing persona / personas - farther and farther away from that original sense of the Oneness.

Soon, the desires of that individuated self take preference over the wishes of the mother, and what was labeled as "mommie's little angel" turns into what will be labeled as a "Terrible Two" or a "little devil." Then an onslaught of programming and conditioning - along with heavy doses of domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination - begins as efforts are made to try to control the child; to try to teach the child what is right and wrong; to try to teach the child what is okay and what is not okay; and to try to teach the child what it must stop doing and what it should always do instead.

Among parents who are available and who are willing to exert the effort that wisdom-based child-rearing requires, all of the available parental energy and effort and attention will be geared toward trying to turn the "Terrible Two" or "little devil" back into "mommie's little angel." (Ha. Good luck. By then, the cows will have already left the barn, so to speak, and closing the door at that after-the-fact point will be an exercise in futility.)

With the masses, that game will often be played out constantly from childhood on, all the way into the child's adult years, with parents continuing to try to exert control and influence and with the child / adult seeking approval and "love" and positive feedback and affirmation (all actually the "stuff" of ego and egotism and the "stuff" which causes adult-aged humans to live in a childish mode). Yet how many ever reach that "Full Understanding"? Few. 

A visitor asked, "If Maharaj was right and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?" The reply: "In terms of that (and THAT) which is beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'." 

What was the man who asked “Why even try?” referring to? As noted, Maharaj said at one point that only 1 out of 100,000 will ever fully understand what he was offering. After years of dealing with seekers and being presented with more and more evidence of the fact that those who seemed to "get it" did not really "get it" at all, he modified his estimate and said that only one in a million would "get it." Near the end of the manifestation of that speck of conscious-energy, after even more years of witnessing how few truly understood what he was sharing, he revised his estimate and said that only one in ten million might ever Realize Fully.

Of course his numbers had no factual, research-based support; he was sharing an estimate based in the intuitive sense that came after decades of working with seekers and seeing that even the most ardent and intelligent could not genuinely grasp even the simplest non-dual understanding. And his estimates included those who came to the loft after having visited and studied with many of Maharaj's contemporaries, so the final estimate that only one in ten million would ever Realize included not only the seekers who sat with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj; the estimates also included seekers who had studied with Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, who had been taught by Sri Ranjit Maharaj, who sat with Sri Kadsiddheshwar Maharaj, who heard the teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi as well as seekers who had visited with hundreds of other sages, only to have their statements and questions heard in Maharaj's loft reveal that they did not even understand the basic, simple, foundational elements of non-duality.

(The same applies today among those seekers who are trying to use non-duality to escape, to avoid, and to dissociate from all things relative and to move mentally (and psychotically) into some FooFoo Land in the sky; moreover, that is also why sky cults (religions) as well as spiritual movements have been so popular among so many for so long: they seem to offer an escape, a way to avoid, a way to dissociate from the vicissitudes of the relative existence.

Maharaj saw that even the wisdom of those sages that was shared with seekers first-hand by him and by his contemporaries was falling on deaf ears. (Of course, Maharaj was the only one that came to see that the religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine was having no effect on the Ultimate Sickness; that came to see that the spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine was having no effect on the Sickness; and that came to understand that it is the psychological, mental roots of the Sickness which need to be addressed.)

[Occasionally, seekers will make contact here and indicate that they want to enroll in the online non-duality course or attend a non-dual retreat, but they add that they will only enroll if a "guarantee" will be given, "assuring" them that they will "get" this understanding via that course. They do not understand the laughter that follows such statements.]

Here, evidence supporting the accuracy of Maharaj's estimate manifests daily, especially when contact is made by those who are sure that they "have it," who want to show how much they know, but who then make comments or ask questions which reveal that there is no understanding at all. In so many cases that Maharaj spoke of, and in so many cases now happening here, it is as if one might report:

"I have mastered the content of the courses I have taken, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, differential equations, calculus, and statistics, and I am sure that my accumulated knowledge is beyond a master's degree level and is at the doctorate level for certain," only to have them ask the next day if 3 minus 2 really equals 1 or to report that they are certain that twenty minus ten equals twelve and that I am so wrong when I claim that it equals ten.

Maharaj saw what is being seen here more and more often, namely that

a. those assuming the role of "The Knower" are convinced that they really know

but that the actual facts are these:

b. persons cannot possibly know what they do not yet know, and

c. most persons know / understand far less than they assume that they know / understand.

More and more, the evidence suggests that most seekers who believe "they have found" are as unaware as those among “the non-Realized” masses who have never even sought. Most do not even know which of the five teachings methods - if any - their favorite teacher or favorite writer is using; and most have no clue at all about what yoga - if any - their favorite writer or teacher is offering. Yet they are sure that anything that differs from what they have heard or read and accepted must be false or "wrong."

And when the most basic pointers are not grasped, then what chance is there that the other realizations which come at the end of seeking can possibly be understood, including an understanding of:

** the beginning-less-ness

** the myth of "creation"

** manifesting

** consciousness

** unmanifesting

** awareness

** the myth of "supernatural living"

** de-accumulating

** the illusion of the "mind"

** the Reality and reality of abiding naturally

** desirelessness

** the fact that "bliss" can only be known now, not "later"

** the non-beingness

** identity-less-ness

**lightness / lightment vs. enlightenment

and

** the nothingness / the void.

So if Maharaj's estimates were spot on, then you, too, might ask: "If Maharaj was correct and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?"

To those who raise that question, the reply, again, is the same to all: "In terms of that / THAT beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. What happens post-mahasamadhi to the three parts of the earth elements-air-consciousness-triad will happen spontaneously and naturally, and there will be neither a "you" nor a "You" nor a "Special You" afterwards. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'."

Coming up:  a discussion of . . .

why the invitation to begin the "journey" along the seven-step "path" to Full Realization is extended, even if the chances of completing that "journey" are slim,

and

2. why completion of even four of the seven steps can make the effort amazingly worthwhile, relatively speaking.

To be continued

Please enter into 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.]

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “C”

Today's Considerations

To the right are three videos which include discussions of the rationale for completing the “journey,” but in the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"

there is a discussion of “The Rationale for Completing Even 60% of ‘The Journey’."

Without numbering the steps, Maharaj offered a seven-step plan for those seekers that would heed his advice when he said:

“…You should go back, reverse, to the source”

and

“Follow the same path by which you came.”

Some call that the “Self-Inquiry” process, moving one step at time away from body identification, then from mind identification, then from personality identification and then completing the additional four steps to arrive at that non-place "place" from which the conscious-energy manifested within the space of a composite unity.

“The Rationale for Completing Even 60% of ‘The Journey’" is based not in a "Self-Inquiry" process but in a “self-inquiry” process (actually a “false-self-inquiry”) which involves an amended plan that Maharaj alluded to when he said:

“You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not. What you are you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer. The unknown has no limits.”

What irony that after a seeker is told for years that one should not follow the words “I am” with anything – either adjective or noun – the one playing the role of “The Spiritual Giant” will at some point violate that admonition, will ignore all cautions offered along the way in that regard, and assume some new role as something even greater and then insert that label in a sentence after the words “I am”:

“I am My Supreme Self” or “I am the Supreme Self” or “I am a God” or "I am God” or “I am . . . _____" (whatever or Whatever . . . fill in the blank).

Problematic enough is the case when one follows the words “I am” with a label and says “I am a Husband” or “I am a Wife”; more problematic is the fact that once persons assume a false identity, they soon upgrade it; at that point, the problematic becomes the totally obnoxious when the new, self-ungraded identity becomes “I am a Super Husband” or “I am a Super Wife.”

Yet even higher levels of obnoxiousness can be reached when “The Special One,” “The Holy One,” “The Supreme One” etc. start showing up in the home or workplace (or on the streets, whatever the case might be).

Recall the woman years ago who reached out, seeking suggestions about how she and her two children could deal with the man who was her husband and the father of those children. After years of dealing with his alcoholism and the chaos that generated for the family, she and the kiddos rejoiced when he joined a 12-Step group and reported that he would never drink again. Finally, she said, it seemed “the ass” would be no more. She made contact here a year later after his group celebrated his having gone 365 days without a drink and his having turned into a “Spiritual Giant.”

Her take, as she described it, was this: she thought a year earlier that it was going to be wonderful to be free of his drinking and raging and passing out, but after a year of living with “The Spiritual Giant,” she said that she and the children came to see that “The New Spiritual Giant” was far more obnoxious than “the former ass.” She wondered if there was any chance of “undoing” the effects. He was absent even more after joining a group then when he was hitting the bars between work and home, and he was just as irritable but refused to admit it. 

I said: “The only thing worse than being the way an alcoholic is when he is totally drunk is for him to be that same way . . . not drunk.” And that was the case with him. To address one symptom of a problem rather than all of the root causes of the problem is a useless exercise, but that can – nevertheless - stroke the heck out of an ego. And to think that one has been restored to sanity, simply by not drinking, will assure that one will remain insane.”

Word came later that she and the children finally gave up and left. The point: any assumed ego-state will become intolerable, including the “bad” ones and including the “good” ones and including the “really great” ones and including the “Supreme” ones as well.

Maharaj offered two key pointers in this regard:

It is “enough to know what you are not”

and

“Reach a state of zero concepts.”

If seekers move beyond the third step where religious and spiritual and Noumenal roles are played, it is because they came to understand all that they are not; and if seekers give up every idea, concept, notion, perception, thought, scheme, impression, opinion, view, theory, etc. (a.k.a., every “belief”) then they will reach the “zero concept” and “no mind” state that Maharaj endorsed.

At that point, they will have gone back about 60% of the way of the “entire path” or of the “entire journey,” and - per Maharaj - that would be “enough.” They will have returned to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" which is where they were the last time that experienced unconditional peace. Why?

Because it was there that they were abiding as “I am” only, prior to being assigned false identities; prior to being taught dualistic beliefs which would lead to a sense of being “apart from” rather than “as part of” and a sense of being "different-from" and "better-than"; prior to having the part of the brain called “the mind” pumped full of what Maharaj called “learned ignorance” and “insanity” by way of programming, conditioning, etc.

Maharaj: “You have to go beyond the conditioned.”

The requirement to do so? Being aware.

“The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned.”

Persons cannot be free unless they understand what is trapping them, and what is trapping them is the ignorance and insanity which are rooted in their past programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and indoctrination and brainwashing.

If one does not see the way that she or he was conditioned and does not understand what conditioning is and how it robs persons of freedom and the ability to make conscious choices (as opposed to being driven by the subconscious forces which determine and control their every thought and word and action), then they can never return to "the unconditioned state" - or be “brought to the unconditioned” state, as Maharaj put it - when they last enjoyed unconditional peace because they were concept free, belief free, and free of being unstable because of being dual-minded.

Thus Maharaj said:

“Self-realisation is primarily the knowledge of one's conditioning and the awareness that the infinite variety of conditions depends on our infinite ability to be conditioned.”

At one point, the mind was an “asset,” assisting members of the human species by providing the drive to survive and thrive. Now, the mind has become a “liability,” filled as it is with nonsense and ignorance and insanity, and in that condition, it has given the masses - not a drive to thrive - but a drive to self-defeat, to self-destruct, to self-sabotage, and to lose even the most basis will of the consciousness: to survive.

The universal consciousness was at one point mankind’s best friend. While humans slept, the pure, unblocked consciousness watched over them, making sure that the heart circulated blood, making sure that the lungs circulated air, etc.

What irony that now persons are so attached to and proud of the destructive concepts and nonsensical beliefs that have been passed down to them that this is the case nowadays: when they place their nonsense-filled heads on a pillow at night, they are now sleeping with the enemy (that is, with their thoughts, their beliefs, their learned ignorance, and their insanity).

Reach "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" and you will “sleep like a baby,” as the saying goes, because the enemy that came to haunt you day and night – filling the space between your ears with the chatter of a thousand monkeys – will be gone. The quiet will come, and when the quiet comes, the earlier peace can come back as well. 

That's what it can be like if one moves along at least 60% of  the "path" and discards the heavy load that was added along the way and then returns to a state of "lightment," of feeling light, and of being able to engage in dancing lightly throughout the remainder of the manifestation.

To be continued

Please enter into 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.]

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “B”

Today's Considerations

In the eBook entitled The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," “the Relative Results” points not only to what eventually became the most significant understanding that Maharaj finally reached, and not only to the most significant understanding that was finally reached here as well, but also to the most controversial understanding that was reached by both:

There are only "relative results." There are no "post-relative existence results" of any kind.

As far as "the past" or any supposed "future," those are only mental, dreamed up delusions. There is only NOW (meaning, there is no future that requires so much as a single moment of consideration or concern from anyone); thus, the invitation here is this: Sweat not eternal punishment. Seek not eternal reward. Relax in the NOW, in this and each moment of the manifestation, and do that right up until the final moment when this manifestation comes to an end.

Maharaj said: “I am real for I am always now, in the present, and what is with me now shares in my reality. The past is in memory, the future - in imagination.”

He said: “Time is endless, though limited; eternity is in the split moment of the now. We miss it because the mind is ever shuttling between the past and the future. It will not stop to focus the now. It can be done with comparative ease, if interest is aroused.”

“WE MISS IT BECAUSE THE MIND IS EVER SHUTTLING BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE”.

The masses are into dodging and escapism and avoidance and evasion, so they will try to ignore and escape reality by looking back on what they take to be “the good ole days” which were not the way they are being remembered at all. If one’s perspectives were distorted “then” (when their perceptions - their mind images - were first stored in the mind), then those same memories if recalled now are still . . . distortions.

Similarly, persons who focus on “the future” are also trying to escape the realities of the present: “This life is tough, it’s hard, but I’m going to live in a way that assures I’ll receive my eternal reward and the bliss of living eternally with God the Father and Christ the Savior and worshiping them and singing their praises every second forever.” (If you want to know what that lifestyle would really be like for eternity, talk to the wife of any arrogant, serf-absorbed, egomaniacal, narcissistic, controlling male who expects his wife and children and everyone else to honor him and praise him and adore him and glorify him for every second of his life and then you might understand why hoping for an eternal life like that is totally insane.)

or

“I am a male who is going to make sure that I die in the service of Allah so that I can spend eternity with a lot of women, including seventy-two virgins; including thousands of wives, each with her hymen still intact; and also including thousands of well-experienced concubines who will forever be at my beck and call. Yahoo! Brothel heaven!” (Talk about body identification only.)

or

“I’m presently living as THAT, so I do not have to be concerned with reality because I am abiding as Reality. The AM-ness is not for me. The THAT-ness is what I’m all about. And being My Supreme Self is what it's all about. In fact, being God is what I'm all about.”

Maharaj: “Abstraction is mental and verbal and disappears in sleep, or swoon; it reappears in time; I am in my own state, timelessly in the now. Past and future are in mind only - I am now.”

Yet so many deny themselves pleasure and happiness and bliss now as a result of their magical, distorted thinking because they have bought into the nonsensical teachings which convinced them to believe that the forfeiture of “earthly pleasure and happiness and bliss now” is worth the sacrifice because - if those are avoided now - then I will be assured to have “heavenly pleasure and happiness and bliss in the future, forever.”

After Yeshu’a (Jesus) was exposed to the non-dual teachings, he said: “No one shall ever see the kingdom of heaven. It is within” . . . now. So there it is, right from the horse's mouth for his two billion non-followers who take themselves to be his "followers": 

There is no heaven, so there is no god waiting "there" to judge you; therefore, there is no eternal life to work for; there is no eternal punishment to avoid; in fact, because there is no death (because there was no birth . . . only a cycling of elements), then there most assuredly will be no "re-birth"; there is nothing post-manifestation to worry about or hope for; therefore, you might as well enjoy the existence now because it is the only opportunity that exists for you to enjoy anything.

Of the trillions of life forms that have come and gone on planet earth or that are currently present today, none - other than humans - have ever had a belief, so none most assuredly have ever had the belief that they need to worry about the future or about salvation. None - other than humans - have ever worked constantly to learn more dogma or to complete more spiritual exercises. None - other than humans - have worked to try to assure peace now or eternal life later. None - other than humans - have had any fears are desires about either the past or the future. None - other than humans - have ever killed so-called “infidels” in order to cover the price of admission into a dreamed up "Celestial Cathouse for Eternity."

Can you even imagine the level of freedom that could come if persons were to truly grasp what unfettered liberation and unchecked independence could come if only persons were to comprehend fully these two pointers alone?

1. There are only “relative results.” There are no "post-relative existence results" of any kind.

2. As far as the present and any supposed “future,” there is only NOW; thus, the invitation here is to sweat not eternal punishment. Seek not eternal reward. Relax in the NOW, in this and each moment of the manifestation, and do that right up until the final moment when this manifestation comes to an end.

 

To be continued

Please enter into 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.]

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part "A"

Today's Considerations

Most seekers fixate at the third of seven steps on “the path” that is offered here (and which Maharaj offered, just without the enumeration). It is at that step where religious and spiritual roles are assumed and played, which is usually a necessary step. The rub? Most never move beyond that step, quite pleased with themselves (with their new and improved false selves) such as “The Super Religious One,” “The Spiritual Giant,” “The Super Seekers,” “The Something Really Special and Beyond,” etc.

Yet Maharaj, in detailing the process for being free of learned ignorance and imposed insanity (which come via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination) did not advise seekers to “go back about halfway, reverse about halfway, to the source.”

Nor did he advise, “Follow the same path by which you came, and when you reach what is close to the halfway point, stop there and play the roles you have assumed at that point.”

Instead, he advised:

“…You should go back, reverse, to the source”

and

“Follow the same path by which you came.”

What must happen in order to transition the third step and continue along the way to “full realization,” to “full clarity,” and to “total freedom from learned ignorance and believing insane beliefs”?

There must be an understanding of the facts surrounding third-step religious or spiritual role-playing. Maharaj said:

"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud"

and

“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false”

and

"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding"

and

"There is no progress"

and

"Go to zero concepts."

If that happens, then one will transition beyond the fixation step - the third step on the "path" where most seekers stop their (therefore incomplete) "journey" - and can then be free of all phony, false identities. Thus Maharaj said: “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”

How to reach the “zero concepts,” no-mind state? Continue “going back, reversing, to the source”; continue “following the same path by which you came.” If that happens, then the third step will be transitioned; all false identities will be set aside (including the so-called "bad" ones as well as the so-called "good" ones); and one can then return to the fourth step known as “The Child Ignorance Stage,” which is pointed to here with the term, “The Child No-Knowing State.” 

A “no-knowing state” is a state of “zero concepts." Per Maharaj, that "would be enough."

And when was the last time in anyone's case that true peace was experienced, which was lost after programming, conditioning, etc.? It was prior to your being robbed of peace as a result of the development of a mind by way of programming, conditioning, etc. As Maharaj noted: “There is no such thing as peace of mind,” amended here to point out that “There is no such thing as peace of mind because there is only peace if you are out of your mind" (that is, out from under the influence of the nonsensical content stored in the mind).

It was at that prior-to-mind point when you were mindless because (1) you were at that point an un-programmed, un-conditioned, un-domesticated, un-acculturated, un-indoctrinated, and un-brainwashed composite unity and because (2) you had not yet been taught any peace-robbing concepts, ideas, misperceptions, warped perspectives, notions, theories, views, etc. (a.k.a., “false beliefs”).

That earliest version of the manifested composite unity (which you still presently are) enjoyed a condition of “lightment,” of being light, of being unburdened. To complete the entire "path" back as Maharaj recommended, a seeker must reach the fourth step of a seven-step "journey" where the seeker "returns" to that previously "light," previously unadulterated, previously uncontaminated, previously pure, previously unconditional, previously unconditioned, previously unqualified, previously unambiguous, previously clean and previously clear tabula rasa state that existed during the early years of the manifestation.

[The suffix "-ment" refers to "a condition" or "a state," so the term "lightment" is coined to refer to a condition or state of being light, of feeling light as opposed to being in a condition or state that is dark and heavy and weighted down and burdened.]

Therefore, the way of humans is this: a composite unity manifests (that unity being a composite of earth elements which allow air and conscious-energy to cycle). Within a few years, it is weighted down with all sorts of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance" (that being an accumulation of nonsensical concepts and ideas and notions, etc., a.k.a., "beliefs" which become stored in a section of the brain called "the mind").

The belief in nonsense will assure that one's existence will be marked by a sense of heaviness. (Far too many persons, including seekers, take themselves far too seriously - and take whatever their personas are interested in far too seriously - to ever feel truly light and unburdened.  That is a key point discussed in the eBook Dancing Lightly).

If persons come to understand what they are not, then they can have an opportunity to become freed from the hidden, subconscious agendas of their false personalities (which are driven by fears and desires and self-ishness). Should "enlightenment" come, that is, should they see that they have been driven by two key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (namely, "ignorance and insanity"), then there is the chance to be free of those symptoms.

So the way that things go for most humans is this:

“Lightment” > Weighted > Heaviness, lasting for an entire relative existence.

 

The way that things can go - for those that reach the understanding and freedom from being driven by learned ignorance and insanity - is this:

“Lightment” > Weighted > Heaviness > Enlightenment > Lightened / Lightment

This is the way it is explained in Part One of “THE RATIONALE FOR COMPLETING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY”:

It has been said, accurately, that "The main problem [of humanity] centers in the mind." How did that come to be the case?

The original nature of the Consciousness prior to manifestation (a.k.a., "Awareness" that was not yet aware of ) was this: it was unbound, limitless, expansive, spacious, roomy, sprawling, vast, unfettered, unrestrained, and, therefore, moving about freely.

When that energy manifested in plants and was transferred to bodies-cum-consciousness, it was robbed of its original nature. It became bound up, limited, confined, cramped, overcrowded, restricted, fettered, restrained, and thus no longer able to move about freely. Later, it would be robbed even more of its originally-pure and unconditional and unconditioned nature via nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing.

In that condition, it longed to be free once more, (comparable to a child's supposedly subconscious "desire-to-return-to-the-more-familiar-and-more-comfortable-womb-notion" that some psychologists discuss).

Whether "trapped" within the confines of a plant, an acorn, a tree, a dog, a roach, a cat, a rat, a bird, a deer, or a human, the confined conscious-energy would "escape" and return to its one, true, original nature and once again be unbound, limitless, expansive, spacious, roomy, sprawling, vast, unfettered, unrestrained and, therefore, moving about freely. (It does, as Maharaj said, want to reverse, to go back.)

The "non-Realized" masses . . .

. . . who claim to desire "peace of mind" 

and

. . . who long for some way to end the chatter of a thousand monkeys that is going on endlessly inside their heads

are guaranteed to suffer (1) the misery of their trapped consciousness (which is never at rest) and are guaranteed to suffer (2) the added "burden" of the consciousness being subjected to the restrictive condition of being in a compressed "cell" as opposed to its prior-to-manifestation-and-entrapment condition when it had been able to "run free."

Imagine how a deer would feel if it had roamed an entire forest for two years but was subsequently trapped in a net and then locked inside a cage that was so small that it could not even turn around freely.

How can there possibly be any "peace" when the consciousness - like that deer - has been removed from its natural environment and been robbed of the opportunity to abide naturally?

And how can there possibly be any peace when a person - with the consciousness manifested within the confined space of an elemental plant food body - has been robbed of its natural, free state and subjected to an unnatural state instead?

And how can there possibly be any peace when a person - with the consciousness manifested within the confined space of an elemental plant food body - has been robbed of its natural, free state and subjected to what is said to be a "supernatural" state instead?

Every "living" thing on earth has one job (namely, some moderate amount of "work" to survive and then relax and play and enjoy sex and entertainment) except for "non-Realized" humans.

Yet humans that have undergone programming, conditioning, etc., will assume a second, theoretical need of an extra job (in order to accumulate and then maintain accumulations) and, additionally, will assume a third, theoretical need for an extra job (namely, an extra job that involves learning dogma and / or conducting "spiritual exercises" which are thought to be required for peace to manifest now; thought to be required for rewards to be received now; thought to be required for eternal rewards to be earned; and thought to be required in order to avoid eternal punishment).

Awareness can relieve persons of all theory-based, learned ignorance and allow them to be as "smart" as the deer and to have only one job, namely, meeting the basic requirements for survival (without the added burden of excessive accumulations) and then being able to relax and play and enjoy pleasure and entertainment - all of which, combined, contribute to a state of "bliss," NOW.

The Original Nature of the Awareness is available - NOW - when (A) "Full Realization," i.e., full "freedom from ignorance," per Maharaj happens and when (B) the Awareness that is typically and historically not aware of suddenly becomes aware of itself - and of its original nature - and abides in that fashion for the remainder of the manifestation.

The result: a sense of boundlessness, of limitlessness, of expansiveness, of spaciousness, of roominess, of vastness, of suddenly being unfettered, unrestrained and, therefore, able to move about freely.

The invitation is to complete all seven steps on the "path" to Full Realization, to understand Your Original Nature, and then to abide as THAT for the remainder of the manifestation. Option Two, per Maharaj, is simply to find out who you are not; to discard all content of the mind; to reach a state of "zero concepts" which will shift you back to the earlier "Child Ignorance Stage" or "Child No-Knowing State"; and to allow you afterwards to return to that earlier condition of enjoying an unconditional version of peace.

Here’s further explanation in regards to "the rationale for completing the 'journey'" for those that might be interested:

To be continued

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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