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

Today's Considerations

Today, more excerpts from the book "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"

[Continued from yesterday]

“More on Upgrading / Downgrading and More onTitles”

Note how upgrading and downgrading manifest after accepting as real a persona or idea or belief or concept that is false:

1. Once there is the belief that “I am a person,” that identity can eventually be upgraded to “I am a husband / wife” or “I am an employee” or "I am a lover" or "I am a teacher" or "I am a religious person" or "I am a spiritual being." Then, egotism will further upgrade those ego-states and the belief will become “I am a super husband / super wife” or “I am a wonderful employee” or "I am the most fabulous lover you will ever have" or "I am the best teacher in this entire school / university" or "I am a super religious person" or "I am more than a spiritual being . . .  I am a Spiritual Giant, in fact." And those beliefs and ideas and concepts and opinions will be accepted and defended - often to the death - all evidence to the contrary be damned.

Other examples:

2. Buying into the belief in linear timelines, the belief that “This is a day” can be upgraded to “This is a holy day” or upgraded to the belief that “the Christmas holidays / "holy-days" (or Hanukkah or Ramadan) are the most special days of the year.” Conversely, a weather forecaster can tell you today is going to be "a very bad day."

3. Another illustration: “This is land that is owned” can be upgraded to “This is Holy Land that was given specifically to us by God” (an upgraded idea / concept / belief that has resulted in thousands of years of war that continue to this day). The downgrade / converse is that "all other lands are not good enough for us . . . they are not 'the Holy Land' that we are willing to fight for and to die for, if need be."

4. “This world is real” can be upgraded to “A better, heavenly world awaits ‘good’ people” or downgraded to “A horrible world called ‘hell’ awaits ‘bad’ people.”

5. "Power is real, so I can be a powerful person, and I can tap into the good, other-worldly Power I believe in and can then have even more power at my disposal; but there is also a bad, evil Power that is at work in the world and that bad Power makes people do bad things."

6. "I am a person and I have been told that I am a beautiful person by so many people that it must be true, so I can also spot others who are very ugly persons."

Note how the belief that upgrades and downgrades are real and that assigned or assumed titles are real will cause the relative existence to be plagued by the instability of fluctuating between states of happiness and unhappiness, between states of elation and sorrow, between states of mirth and misery. Note how being critical and judgmental and prone to believing in totally erroneous perceptions dominate those who upgrade and downgrade. Consider the other effects of assigning titles: international wars are preceded by the assignment of titles to land masses; religious wars are preceded by titles being assumed by devotees; and “personal” conflicts happen after titles are assigned: “I pronounce you man and wife,” is often followed by . . .

. . . “You are my wife and should do what I expect” or

. . . “I will not tolerate such behavior from my husband.”

In other instances, one might hear:

. . . "You are my employee and you will do what I tell you to do" or

. . . "I am the teacher and you are my student, and as long as I am in charge of this classroom, you will do exactly what I tell you to do," ad infinitum.

Consider that all "The Teacher" needs to "exist" in her / his "mind" are "students," but once "The Teacher" mentally upgrades himself / herself to the status and rank of "The Super Teacher," then that teacher must have "Super Students" to support the assumed - and then upgraded - identity. Anything less will be taken as a threat, as a personal attack, as interfering with that "Super Teacher's" very "existence."

If this result of persona-assumption and persona-upgrading is not understood, then no one will ever understand why a teacher can go so ballistic and rip students apart verbally (that is, "downgrade" them) if the teacher catches one student passing a note to another rather than being thrilled and captivated by what the teacher takes to be a "super lesson" being presented by one truly "Super Teacher."

Thus, this pointer offered earlier: The entire notion that you have become better, that you have become something really "good" or super religious or super spiritual, that you have really become SOMETHING (and "Something Special"), differs not at all from the same kind of deception and self-deception which plagues the totally “non-Realized” masses and which triggers use of the same ego-defense mechanisms (such as egotism and arrogance) employed by anyone assuming an ego-state as an identity.

If the result of persona-assumption and persona-upgrading is not understood, then no one will ever understand why a lover or spouse who seemed so enamored with a partner one moment can turn and become so critical and cruel and vicious (that is, can "downgrade" the lover or spouse) the next moment. In all cases, those who have upgraded a false image will be miserable because even if they receive the so-called "love" or "respect" or "admiration" that is desired as a result of being driven by the use of egotism and other ego-defense mechanisms which are always activated after the assumption of an ego-state as an identity, there will never be enough;

thus, it has noted that the assumption and subsequent upgrading of any ego-state will result in egotism and arrogance and narcissism

and that

completion of the entire "journey to Full Realization” does not result in egotism and arrogance and narcissism being replaced by (always-false) "humility" or (always-false) "modesty" for those are nothing more than the opposite extreme of the "egotistical vs. humble" duality.

Whether there is pride in being "the best pickpocket in town" or pride in being "the most religious member of the church or temple or mosque"

or

whether there is pride in being "someone who can always get what he / she wants from the opposite sex" or pride in being "the most spiritual person in the group"

in every case, pride and egotism and arrogance and narcissism will generate prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic thoughts; prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic words; and prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic-based actions.

Then, those prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic thoughts and words and deeds will always eventually generate relative misery, both for the prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic one as well as for those exposed to prideful and egotistical and arrogant and narcissistic persons.

In every case, the pride and egotism and arrogance and narcissism that manifest after the assumption and upgrading of ego-states will generate a false sense of separation, of different-from-ness, of better-than-ment, all of which will reinforce love of "self" and which will block any opportunity for Real Love to manifest and then understand why "Love is knowing that you are everything," much less for wisdom to manifest so one can understand "I am nothing."

Of course all assigning of titles is rooted in duality as they are thought to be “good” at one point but can have “bad” effects later. Consider that when a “district or institutional or corporate title” is awarded, “positive” thoughts, “positive” words, and “positive” ego-reinforcement will follow:

“I have been promoted. Look at me! Spouse, look at what your mate has done! Daughters and sons, friends and relatives and co-workers and neighbors, look what I have accomplished! All praise and glory be to me!” If the title is eventually lost, “negative” thoughts, “negative” words, and “negative” humiliation follows. The downgrading of an illusion can be accompanied by quieter reactions than an upgrading, but downgradings are often accompanied by violent reactions as well.

Seekers are invited to list the times when being given a title made you happy but eventually made you unhappy when the title did not bring all that was expected or when the title was stripped from you. (For example: “I got the job! I am an employee! I am happy!” can become “This job is the job from hell! I am miserable!” or “They fired me—I am no longer employee.” Or another example might be: “I am officially a spouse! I am overjoyed!” but that can become “This is the marriage from hell! I am miserable!” or “My spouse left me—I am no longer a spouse, so I'm in sorrow.”)

All illusory titles are always subjected to one of these two additional illusions: there will be either an upgrade or a downgrade or both. The upgrading of an illusion is initially accompanied by happiness, elation, and mirth. The downgrading of an illusion is always accompanied by unhappiness, sorrow, or misery. And all along, it was only the false "you" (the not yet re-purified or unblocked consciousness) that believed it had been upgraded or believes that it was downgraded or believes that someone else deserves to be downgraded.

When the bogus title of “fiancé” / “fiancée” is upgraded to “husband” / “wife” by a man in a robe, then happiness, elation, and mirth will accompany the upgrade, initially. Next, complacency will eventually set in. When the bogus title of “husband” / “wife” is downgraded to divorcé / divorcée by a different man in a robe, then unhappiness, sorrow, or misery accompany the downgrade. If you knew that your true state is the same as my true state, then you would not be bound by these relativistic illusions of upgrading and downgrading that are constantly being orchestrated by men in robes or by persons in executive suites.

You would neither be limited by titles nor feel “expanded” if titles come, nor could you feel “diminished” if titles go. You would be stable, abiding as the limitless, unchanging, stable Absolute and abiding as the child in a "No-Knowing State": aware of no titles; accepting no labels or identities or ego-states as actual identities; believing in no dreamed up concepts or ideas or beliefs. You would be free, a result of first being fully aware of nothing . . . of the bliss and lightness of the nothingness. You would not allow men or women in business suits—or men with flowing robes or special gowns or pointy hats or shaved heads—to tell You what you are and what you are not.

Want to be free of being influenced by what you are not by finding “What You Are”? Fine. Complete all seven steps on the seven-step “path.”

Want to be free of being influenced by what you are not by finding that what you have thought yourself to be is not what you are at all? Even finer because that is so much easier.

Just reach the fourth step on the seven-step “path” by returning your brain to the same condition it was in when you were mindless (because you had not yet been taught and had not yet learned your culture’s ignorance and had not yet been programmed, conditioned, etc.)

Just reach the fourth step and enjoy all that results when you return to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State."

 

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.]