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

Today's Considerations

Possibly, if you’ve read all eleven of the postings so far in this series, it is becoming clear why a child during the early days of "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" has a chance to experience “unconditional happiness” after it have been fed and made dry and warm. The reason: a no-knowing child is 100% exempt from that which robs persons of unconditional happiness (and often happiness, period).

And what is it that robs persons of the opportunity to enjoy unconditional happiness? That which robs persons of peace and freedom. And what is it that robs persons of peace and freedom? The content of the mind, which does not exist during "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State."

Consider: Who that is not free can be at peace or can be happy? No one. Millions seek the promise of being “happy, joyous, and free” but it alludes them. Why? Because that is an impossible sequence. Here's why:

Imagine a man wandering in a desert, hours from dying of thirst. Imagine time and again he thinks that he has found an oasis with life-sustaining water, only to see in the end that each of those was only a mirage. Then, imagine he finally finds an actual oasis and knows that he has found what he needed and what he had been searching for.

What does he feel first? Happy? No. Joyous? Yes, but that is about being emotionally-intoxicated, so that high level of ecstasy cannot last. His next condition? Happy now? No. He cannot be happy until he has quenched his thirst, so free must come next, that is, free of thirst. Only after moving beyond an always-temporary state of being joyous and only after being free can one then finally be happy. See? Joyous, then free, and only then happy. That is the order in which the sequence must unfold.

[So much for seeking "uninterrupted bliss" and desiring to be in an "always-joyous" state. How about simply free and then just happy instead? Might that be enough? But free from what? How about free of the learned ignorance and imposed insanity that was passed down and which now fills every mind on the planet?] 

So a child during the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State” might be screaming at the top of its lungs because of hunger pains. The instant that milk is offered, a flash of joy happens and near-perfect calm returns. But an always-high sense of joy can never last, especially if the milk is suddenly withdrawn. So that flash of joy must be followed by adequate feeding if the child is to be free of its hunger pains. Then, and only then, can the child be happy. Then, if dry and warm, unconditional happiness can manifest.

But what could still rob a child of happiness even if it has been adequately fed (but not overfed) and is dry and is warm and is resting in the quiet? 

The answer: Thoughts. Concepts. Beliefs. 

If the child is still in "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State” because it has not yet been programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed, then it has an opportunity to enjoy unconditional happiness; but if a mind had developed because learned ignorance has been taught and stored and is available for retrieval, then the child will have been robbed of any opportunity to enjoy unconditional happiness. 

[People have described how violated they felt when - as happened here -  thieves came into the home and robbed them. They are totally in touch with their feelings (or, more accurately, their emotions). Yet the most significant and most violent robbers of all humanity are programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, brainwashing, and mind-building. Yet most are out of touch with those actual feelings or emotions and out of touch with their anger and violence and the violations of one's peacefulness which come via those perspective-warping processes. Back to the child:]

Next, even though it was fed after the presence of its hunger pains was made known to its parent, that will no longer be enough if a mind is present. Why? Because the mind – pumped chock full of the dualistic beliefs which plague every programmed and conditioned person in every culture on the planet - will begin to churn out thoughts rooted in separation and judgment and resentment and entitlement and anger and, yes, a concurrent sense of inadequacy manifesting along a sense of arrogance. Then, such contradictory thoughts as these will race about in the mind:

“Damnation, what is wrong with that woman? Why is she not reading my mind and feeding me before pain sets in? I should never have to experience any discomfort."

and

“How dare he treat me this way! Look at that bum-of-a-dad sitting over there on the couch and racing through all of the channels on his television and ignoring me and what I want. Mom’s gone but she left milk for the moron to feed me. But did he get up off his butt and bring it to me right when I wanted it? No! She was so right when she told her girlfriend on the phone this afternoon that he has his head stuck up his . . . what was the word she used? What a jerk!”

and

“You know, if they really loved me, they would meet my every need and fulfill my every desire and never let me leave the joyous, blissful state which I want to be in and deserve to be in. And they dang sure would not be squelching my creativity and independence by setting boundaries for me.”

and  

“How dare they lose their temper and punishment me when I’m yelling and screaming for whatever reason! I’m starting to hate their guts!”

“But wait. Check that. They do give me food. I guess I actually love them. But they don’t give it when they should. I hate them! Oops. I wonder if I’m developing a Borderline Personality Disorder and will drive someone else crazy someday with my love / hate fluctuations. So what! What if I do! I don’t care! I’m pissed! I'm only happy when certain specific and exact conditions are met, and that’s just the way it is and just the way it’s going to be! I deserve to be constantly happy. I hear mom and dead telling people all the time, "We just want our child to grow up and be happy. Dang straight! Glad we finally agree on something!”

“Yet I wonder why they don’t love me enough? Is it possible I am not enough and I’ll never be enough so I’ll never have enough? I really must accumulate more and more to have enough and to then finally feel like I am enough.”

and

“But I wonder if maybe I might actually deserve the bad way that they treat me? You know, I think I really am worthless. Someday, after they are gone, I think I’ll go on a quest to find someone else to take up their cause, someone else who will disappoint me and neglect me and abuse me the way they always do.”

“Hey, wait a minute! Screw that! I’m the greatest kid that has even come along, and they and everyone else better recognize that fact and treat me accordingly. And I will go through my entire life demanding that I be given the respect I deserve!”

Once robbed of the no-mind, non-dual, zero concepts, no-beliefs condition, one will be robbed of any and all opportunity to enjoy unconditional happiness. The beginning of nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing is the end of peace because a mind comes, and afterwards – as Maharaj said – “there is no such thing as peace of mind.”

The pointer here is that “there’s only peace if you are out of your mind.” That could also be stated as, “There was only peace prior to mind, and there can only be peace again if there is, once more, no mind.”

But how to be rid of the mind? The “mind” is nothing more than a storehouse of hand-me-down concepts and ideas and notions and perceptions and misperceptions and warped perspectives and theories and thoughts and impressions and views which can be summarized in one word: beliefs. And while those are taken by every person to be “my beliefs,” they are not. That accumulation is an amassing of “their beliefs,” handed down from the earliest, most ignorant persons alive to the present generation in a very long chain of humans.

The truth is seen when one can say with complete understanding, “So, there is no such thing as peace of mind, and there is no such thing as ‘my mind,’ either. It is theirs, and they now use it to control my every thought and word and action, even if they have not been physically present for years or decades or scores of years or hundreds of years or even thousands of years (all the way back to when some of the craziest beliefs imaginable were first dreamed up.) However, they have remained mentally present, and that's the problem.

So how to be rid of the mind? Learned ignorance is stored in the mind – and now includes concepts and ideas and notions and perceptions and misperceptions and warped perspectives and theories and thoughts and impressions and views – but that all amounts to “beliefs,” so to be free of the mind, one must cast aside all beliefs. See? What seemed so complicated or impossible really is, as Maharaj said - "actually all so simple."

Here, there is no sense of “who” or who-ness,” so there is no “one” who believes anything; therefore, any claim that “Floyd just wants you to believe what he believes” has to be false.

Rather than inviting persons to believe - which is the approach used by the leaders of every religion / sky cult, of every sect or denomination, of every spiritual group, of every system of philosophy, of every ideology, of every faith movement, of every political faction, etc. – the invitation here is to become un-taught, to be un-trained, to un-learn it all.

So, it should be clearer now why conditional happiness is not true happiness at all. For true, unconditional happiness to begin to manifest once more, one must reach the fourth step and function in the same manner as the little child who has no ideas / concepts /  beliefs and who does not believe in "mates or lovers or friends or family members."

[Yeshu’a – “Jesus” - said after he came to understand non-duality to some degree: "I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Did he literally mean that he wants to break up families? No, he means that all roles and role-playing and false identities must end if one is to be in touch with reality and Reality, if one is to be free, and if one is to be at peace.]

Additionally, if true, unconditional happiness is to return, one must reach the fourth step and function in the same manner as the little child who does not believe in employers vs. employees; who does not believe in customers or fellow citizens or the people of "the world" or even "the world"; who does not believe in "good people" vs. "bad people"; and who is beyond all beliefs about "virtue and sin."

Then, the freedom of AS IF abidance can manifest and "husbanding" or "wifing" can happen even in the absence of "The Husband" or "The Wife" and especially in the absence of the soon-upgraded versions that follow, namely, "The Super Husband" and "The Super Wife."

The invitation here is to abandon all identities and ideas and concepts (a.k.a., beliefs) and then all else can happen that must happen in order to end dependency on externals for happiness; then only can the internal condition no longer be controlled and manipulated by an endless count of externals; then only can unconditioned and unconditional happiness manifest and remain.

Then, just "living" will not be thought to require a second full-time job involving needless but all-encompassing religious work or constant spiritual exercising and endless seeking and engaging in an exhausting and non-stop journey along a highly-laborious path.

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.]