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

Today's Considerations

Frequent visitors to this site know that my Uncle Brooks held many employment positions at the Rusk State Hospital until he eventually became head of that in-patient psychiatric facility which housed people with varying types of mental illness and which also had a maximum-security unit for the "criminally insane."

On occasion, I would spend a day with him at work, and on those visits I saw a man who thought he was a bird, a man who thought he was a dog, and several men who thought they were reincarnations of famous warriors and generals from days long passed. Violence was commonplace in the hospital, but none of the clashes that occurred in that facility were bloodier than the conflicts among those who thought they were God.

Nowadays, the situation in that facility is the situation all over planet earth which has become the largest mental institution in existence. When George Bernard Shaw was asked if he thought there might be life on other planets, he replied: “I know for a fact there is because they are using earth as their insane asylum.”

Whether the fighting involves a married couple with one who thinks she or he is more religious and godly than a mate; or involves members of a political party who deem themselves to be god-like and who are fighting the ungodly ones in another party; or whether the fights involve members of one sect killing the members of another sect; or whether the fights involve members of one major religion killing the members of another major religion, what was true in that mental institution which I visited as a child is just as true nowadays in homes and communities and points all around the globe: violence is commonplace, and no clashes are bloodier than the conflicts among those who think they are “The Godly Ones.”

The point: those suffering from extreme personality disorders and serious levels of neuroses and full-blown psychoses do not have a clue about what they are and what they are not, and often that condition leads to misery and suffering and violence and killing.

In the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," the Chapter entitled “You Can Be Nothing More Nor Less Than That Which You Are” includes the following:

To believe that one is something that one is not or somebody that one is not is evidence of being ultimately sick, mentally; that is, it is evidence of the presence of the Ultimate Sickness (which is a psychological sickness involving – per Maharaj – “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”)

[Note that “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” are not issues that have even the slightest thing to do with knowing too little dogma and are not issues that even the slightest thing to do with a “spiritual malady” or with "not being spiritual enough." In fact, historical evidence shows that religious and spiritual concepts and beliefs have contributed to the planet’s widespread “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” More to the point, "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" are mental  / psychological issues, and the understanding of that is why Maharaj eventually abandoned the use of religious / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine and spiritual / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine and offered a psychological / non-dual version only.]

If one were to become interested in being freed from ignorance and insanity, then one must understand what one is not:

 The facts:

All is energy / matter.

Energy / matter cannot be created or destroyed.

That means that energy / matter was never created.

That means there is no creator or Creator.

And that means that – contrary to all the things that persons think they are, they are actually nothing more than energy / matter.

Specifically, humans are a combination of three parts, generally speaking, which have come together temporarily: elements and air and energy. Those three in combination can be called a “composite unity” for the sake of discussion, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics assures that “what comes together will eventually come apart.”

Because you are that which is nothing more than a temporary unification of three parts which all involve energy / matter, and because you cannot be or become anything other than what you are and always have been, then to see yourself (and even "Your Self!") as anything other than that is a total misperception.

To think that one is anything other than that which one is is evidence of the presence of either ignorance or insanity. Any time that the phrase "I am" is followed by any word that describes a role or a mood, the result is a total distortion. If one understands the composite unity of elements-air-energy, then one cannot possibly say, “I am a seeker” (role) or “I am enlightened” (role)  or “I am a bird” (role) or “I am godly” (role)  or “I am God” (role) or “I am an Infinite Self” (role) or “I am a Special Self” (role) or "I was hurt by what they said" (mood) or “I am the one that he / she made angry” (mood) or “I am a Buddhist / Jew / Christian / Hindu / Muslim” (role) or “I am one that has been reborn many times” (role), ad infinitum.

Moreover, because any ego-state will be hell-bent on continuity – on being willing to fight to meet its desire for eternal existence – then all ego-states come with a built-in willingness to fight; therefore, ego-states and conflict are inseparable. Ego-states and fighting and blood-letting are inseparable. And ego-states and ignorance are inseparable.

Consider: Is it even remotely possible that words could hurt anything other than an ego-state’s assumed identity and image? Is it even remotely possible that words could hurt a composite unity?

Ask: Can elements be hurt? Can the air be hurt? Can energy be hurt? Or is there the misperception that an assumed but false identity / ego-state which is operating under the influence of the egotism and fears and desires that always accompany the assumption of an ego-state as an identity is believing - is thinking - that its goals and interests and self-image and public image have been interfered with?

As another example, if one understands the reality of the composite unity of elements-air-energy and the lack of reality of any identity (or “Identity”), then one cannot possibly say, "I am a husband" / "a wife" (role). Would the "husband" or "wife" be the elemental part, the air part, or the energy part? The answer: none of the above. Is a "husband" or "wife" an elements-air-energy composite? No.

"Husband" and "wife" are merely terms - just false identities and roles - dreamed up by controlling men during the last several hundred years but not existing prior to that. Human-like types have walked the planet for millions of years, but humans who have said, "I am a husband" or "I am a wife" have only walked the planet for a matter of centuries. Does that mean that persons should not marry? No.

One can claim to have "married," after which "husbanding-like" things can happen and "wifing-like" things can happen (and have, for millennia). So "husbanding" or "wifing" can happen in an AS IF fashion without assuming false identities that will trigger the use of egotism and other mechanisms that will generate duality and misery.

Another way to look at that point, and which might clarify, was offered by Dennis Waite. Consider "wood." Wood might be manipulated to take the form of a table, but the result is not a "wooden table." The result is "tably wood." Take the table to be a concept; take the wood to be the actual, for the sake of discussion; thus, there is no such thing as a wooden cane, a wooden door, a wooden shoe in The Netherlands, or a wooden bat. There are only cases of caney wood, doory wood, shoey wood, and batty wood.

Another example used here to help clarify the understanding is "H2O." At various temperatures, H2O does not become something that it is not. Nothing and no one can become something it is not. H2O merely takes on a different form or appearance, be that called "a lake," "a river," "a stream," "vapor," "ice," "rain," "sleet," "snow," "floods," "water," etc. 

The reason that visitors here are invited to reach at least the fourth of seven steps on the "path" to Realization is to be free of ideas and concepts and beliefs and false identities that are at the root of all misery and suffering on the planet.

If that does not happen, then persons behaving in the way that their cultures tell them to behave will assume identities / ego-states. When that happens, the use of ego-defense mechanisms will be triggered, including:

A. egotism and narcissism (which then generate self-centeredness and selfishness and self-absorption at the least and insensitivity and pathological behavior when they manifest in the extreme).

B. rationalization (which involves putting a "spin" on one's behavior or the behavior of another in order to justify and to distort reality).

C. knowledge-gathering and knowledge-sharing and intellectualization (which can reinforce egotism or which can be used to distance oneself from feelings or emotions).

D. denial (which involves the refusal to accept reality or facts).

E. displacement (which involves redirecting feelings and impulses. Angry with the boss or a friend but too afraid to express that anger? Then the anger might be directed at people in traffic, at a pet, at a child, at a parent, or at a spouse).

F. dissociation (which involves losing track of time or daydreaming and, in the extreme, finding another representation of self in order to avoid facing reality).

G. projection (which involves taking one's own negative traits or flaws and assigning them to someone else. The fact: "If you spot it, you've got it; if you can see it, you can be it," so to speak.)

H. regression (involves reverting to an earlier stage of development in the face of uncomfortable thoughts or impulses).

I. repression (involves unconsciously blocking thoughts, emotions and impulses that are deemed unacceptable or that feel uncomfortable).

J. compensation (involves trying to counter-balance perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strengths in other areas).

K. manipulation at one level and assertiveness and aggressiveness at the extreme level. (If used to protect against abusers, assertiveness can be healthy, but if used to try to control and suppress others, it will be most unhealthy.)

L. sublimation (involves trying to redirect or channel impulses or emotions or feeling or behaviors deemed unacceptable by one's culture into more "acceptable" behaviors).

M. upgrading and downgrading (which involve narcissism and / or distortion and magical thinking).

Note how all of the mechanisms - and many more that are not listed - are triggered when an ego-state is assumed as an identity. Note how they all function to separate persons from reality and from facts and from logic and from reason; see how they inspire even more movement toward phoniness and game-playing and distortion and delusion and illusion.

Who could possibly conclude that the use of even one ego-defense mechanism could be "okay"? If one reaches the Child No-Knowing Stage, then there can be no assumption of an ego-state as an identity; as a result, there can be no use of distorting ego-defense mechanisms, either.

If seekers do not return to the Child No-Knowing Stage, then they have no chance at all of being free, and if they are not free, then they will have no chance of knowing "joy" or "bliss" and they will have no chance of enjoying a relative existence that is rooted in unconditional happiness or even contentment.

Take the example above of the assumption of the role of "husband" and "wife." In 50-60% of all cases, those roles will be played for a time and will then come to an end long before one - or the other or both - prefer.

Misery and suffering will mark and mar the "relationship," and misery and suffering will come in waves when the "relationship" ends. And the misery and suffering and ending will all come as a result of

1. not abiding as a No-Knowing Child and, therefore,

2. assuming false roles as actual identities; and

3. abiding under the influence of psychologically-distorted, "mind"-centered forces that (often unconsciously) inspire bogus beliefs, error-laced words, and some of the most bizarre behavior imaginable; and

4. trying to function while detached from reality and while devoid of the clear seeing and perceiving that are prevented when ego-defense mechanisms are driving persons' thoughts and words and deeds.  

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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