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

Today's Considerations

Reaching the fourth of the seven steps from (a) identification with the false "I" body to (b) understanding the Absolute / Your Original Nature is a step towards de-accumulation, not towards accumulation.

That means not accumulating more knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance"); not accumulating more religious knowledge; not accumulating more spiritual knowledge; not accumulating "good" and "Special" Noumenal Identities; that means not accumulating more accouterments (such as special pillows on which special bowls can be placed so that they can be struck with special sticks, or such as special sticks covered in special coatings that can be burned, or such as special bells that can rung, or such as special water that can be sprinkled, or such as special crystals which can arranged in special patterns on especially-spiritual days of the year, ad infinitum).

That means as well not accumulating more things, more stuff, or more externals. That means as well not accumulating special robes or special turbans or special beards or special things to hang around one’s neck. That means not accumulating special books that are deemed to be “holy” or special books by special authors who have achieved special fame (including those Maharaj referred to as "The Big Name Teachers" whom he warned seekers to avoid at all costs. That means not accumulating special pyramids to sit beneath.

That means not accumulating the items which some persons have reported that they have “used effectively over the years,” including ritual bags, spell kits, spirit offering bags, skeleton key talisman necklaces, prayer beads and rosaries, conjure bags and medicine bags, divine union kits, love kits, dream pillows, purification kits, tranquility kits, ritual bath kits, astrology mojo bags, and – as the ultimate antithesis to the suggestion to de-accumulate – prosperity and abundance kits.

Consider this observation: "There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase most likely spoken by David Hannum, in criticism of both P.T. Barnum, an American showman of the mid 19th century, and his customers. The phrase is often credited to Barnum himself. It means "People are foolish, and will always be fools."

First, no one is born because all that is actually happening in that regard is that elements are cycling. That aside, though, suckers and fools are not born, either. They are made, and - yes - they are being made every minute, all around the globe.

As mentioned earlier, an elemental plant food body might arrive nine months after conception with one or more of a variety of mutation-generated defects; it might arrive with brain damage; it might arrive with a learning disability; it might arrive with a very low IQ; it might arrive with missing or deformed body parts; and I met a child who arrived with a cleft lip and palate, looking as if someone had used a surgical tool shaped like an ice cream scoop to dip out the center of his face.

While all of those conditions can mark a newly-formed composite unity, no child has ever already been a full-blown “sucker” or “fool” at the moment of arrival. Not one has ever arrived as a neurotic or as a psychotic. Not one has ever arrived with fully-developed personalities, so not one has ever arrived with full-blown personality disorders.

(Yes, research is showing that arrivals can be marked by certain tendencies and propensities, some of which are genetic and some of which involve chemical imbalances set up in the womb because pregnant women abused drugs or used alcohol during their pregnancies or consumed unhealthy, chemical-laden foods, etc. But no child begins its relative existence as a complete and total and all-out “sucker” or “fool").

Being a sucker or a fool involves having a mind filled with foolishness, and while almost every child usually arrives with a brain, no child arrives with a mind at all. (In fact, it was not until the human brain evolved from its original one cup size to its present 3-1/2 cup size that any human ever had a mind, that is, ever had areas of the brain where information could be stored and from which information could be retrieved).

No one can be a sucker or a fool unless one was taught to be a sucker or a fool, and that teaching process is never began with the intent of making a sucker or a fool.

It always begins with the intention of making a child “good”; of making a child “a faithful Christian / Jew / Muslim / Hindu / Buddhist" etc.; and of making a child “virtuous” so as not to be "sinful” (or at least "behaving properly"and being "good" in order to make the life of parents easier).

[Recall what Maharaj said in that regard: “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.” But where did a person’s notions about “virtue” and “sin” begin? While certain archetypal images may come “preloaded genetically,” the specific beliefs about what makes someone virtuous as opposed to being sinful is taught and learned. Being a sucker or a fool never begins when a child is “born.” It begins when ignorant and insane and foolish programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination processes begin.]

Again, Maharaj said "knowledge" comes to each child after its arrival, not before, and that the knowledge which is passed down to a child after its arrival amounts to “learned ignorance.”

Once suckers and fools are made, if they later reach the age of a teen or an adult and procreate, then those suckers and fool are most likely to start making their own suckers and fools.

Regarding his son who had just been arrested for theft and drug use, a man lamented, “I don’t know how that boy turned out the way he did.”

The reply: “Really? You really don’t know? Then I suppose you would not be interested in my explaining exactly how that happened, would you?” (His reply came not with words but with a symbolic gesture made with his middle finger.)

The reason that Maharaj suggested that “ . . . You should go back, reverse, to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came” is because it was during the “coming in leg” when foolishness was added, when each child is relocated early on to the Land of Suckerdom.

The “realization” process, Maharaj said, is about nothing more than taking the steps required to be free of the learned ignorance which was taught. 

On the child's “path” coming in from the source, it was 

after parents who had been taught ignorance 

and 

who accepted without questioning a plethora of falsehoods as fact 

and 

who then passed down the learned ignorance of previous generations to their next generation 

that their child was snatched from the peace of the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State” and was taught volumes of ignorance and was assigned all sorts of false identities.

In 97% of all case (since that is how many persons on the planet claim to be affiliated with one religion or another) the earliest false identities / personalities / personas / roles deal with religious identities.

Then the criteria for being “good” or “bad” were taught; next, the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” daycare attendee were taught or the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” student were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” citizen were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” employee were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” citizen were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” mate or spouse were taught; etc., etc., etc.

And who teaches another what it is that supposedly makes a “good” or “bad” mate or spouse? An expert trained in the development of healthy relationships? Someone who has previously witnessed a healthy relationship being modeled for eighteen years in her or his home? Or someone with a hidden agenda regarding the benefits to be gained from a particular kind of relationship? Or someone who has a particular set of moral values which a mate or spouse should mirror?

Or someone who is the king or queen of manipulation and knows how to have his or her every expectation met? Or someone who was catered to by indulgent parents and who now wants a mate or spouse to continue that same kind of pampering? Or someone who has particular sexual preferences that might or might not be similar to the preferences of the one they are molding or shaping into the kind of mate or spouse that is exactly as desired, without exception? Or someone who feels entitled to nothing but the best and who is so vain that he or she assumes to know what is always best and what is falling short of the best?

The lyrics of a song recorded by The Outsiders Band and made famous by The American Breed Band illustrate the mindset that many adopt in an effort to try to “please others” and to “be loved in return”:

“Bend Me, Shape Me”

You are all the woman I need
And baby you know it
(Know it, know it, know it)
You can make this beggar a king
A clown or a poet
(Poet, poet, poet)
I'll give you all that I own
You got me standing in line
Out in the cold
Pay me some mind

Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power to turn on the light

Everybody tells me I'm wrong
To want you so badly
(Badly, badly, badly)
But there's a force driving me on
I follow it gladly
(Gladly, gladly, gladly)
So let them laugh I don't care
'Cause I got nothing to hide
All that I want is you by my side

Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power
To turn on the light

Yeah, bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power
To turn on the light.

The “force driving persons on” is the force of a mind driven by the subconscious agendas of all of the personalities which have been assigned or assumed; the force of a mind filled with nonsense and foolishness which allows sucker-ness to flourish; and the force driving persons not unlike the two lyricists who wrote the words in that song, including the “Dependent Personality Disorder,” “The Co-Dependent Personality Disorder,” The Avoidant Personality Disorder,” and many other such mental aberrations which are part of the hand-me-down baggage which was owned by generations of persons before and which the most recent members of that line of humanity are now passing along one more time.

It is at the fourth step where one shifts beyond the assumption of any roles as identities and moves back to the Child No-Knowing State after following the same "path" by which the "coming in" happened, but in reverse order. Going back to the same conditions and circumstances that were in place the last time that unconditional happiness was experienced is the only way that it can be experienced again.

Abiding as a child in the No-Knowing, pre-programmed, pre-conditioned, pre-domesticated, pre-acculturated, pre-Ultimately-Sickened state, one can be free of dependence on externals which can only provide conditional and limited intervals of happiness; thus, to reach even the fourth of seven steps on the "path" is worthwhile, relatively speaking. To be free of all false identities and their hidden agendas - which are rooted in personality disorders and in the other corrupt content of the "mind" - would leave one freer than most on the planet will ever be.

Otherwise, one will abide in a totally dependent and / or co-dependent state, never truly free. Because being free is a prerequisite for being happy, then happiness can never come when one believes that she or he is dependent on external things and people and places in order to be happy.

When one's supposed "happiness" is conditional - as is always the case if operating under the influence of the conditioned "mind" - then one cannot be happy if one's child is not happy; if one's mate or lover or friends or family members are not happy; if one's employer is not happy; if one's customers are not happy; if one's fellow citizens are not happy; if the people of "the world" are not happy.

Meanwhile, should you follow Maharaj's advice and head back toward the source and follow the path back in the way by which you came - except in reverse order - and thereby reach the non-dual, no-mind, zero concepts, no-beliefs condition that last existed while in "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State,” then freedom and peace and wisdom and sanity await.

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.]