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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

There is a sane and sound rationale for understanding the actual nature of the Ultimate Sickness. To function with the misguided notion that it is a sickness which thrives in the absence of dogma or that it flourishes in an impure soul and then manifests as a full-blown "spiritual malady" is also to function with the misguided notion that the Ultimate Medicine called for to treat it must include some really heavy doses of religion and / or spirituality. 

Maharaj certainly operated for decades under that misguided notion. The same happened here as well. It was only when it came to be understood that the Ultimate Sickness is not “soul-ly” in its nature but is solely mental in its nature that the appropriate Medicine was finally offered. 

That proper version of the Ultimate Medicine which Maharaj used in the end was a version which addressed the psychological, mental roots of the Sickness; thus, he advised seekers to “give up spirituality” and to also give up the content of the mind. He understood that the mind – which was once as asset, intended by nature to assist the species in its preservation and perpetuation – eventually became a liability because of nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination which leads persons to adopt multiple personalities which lead to multiple neuroses and even psychoses and which lead to the manifestation of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” 

WHAT HE SAID: 

 "All illness begins in the mind."

"Your confusion is . . . in your mind." 

 "Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited." 

 "Distrust your mind, and go beyond." 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates." 

 " . . . The mind obscures and distorts." 

"It is the mind that creates illusion." 

"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind." 

"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether." 

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering." 

 So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj? 

 "Stop making use of your mind and see what happens." 

"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas." 

"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ." 

"Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . ." 

"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom." 

So what was his state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state: 

"There is no such thing as a mind," period.

"I have no mind . . . ." 

Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised:

"Reach a state of zero-concepts." 

 "As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens." 

"I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too." 

"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably." 

WHAT HE DID NOT SAY AT THE END: 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have accumulated too little knowledge of dogma." 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have a spiritual malady and are not spiritual enough." 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have not completed the entire Self-Inquiry process." 

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END: 

 "There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from having accumulated too little knowledge of dogma.” 

 "There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from people not being spiritual enough." 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from not knowing the Supreme Self." 

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END: 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your ignorance of religion and of your inadequate knowledge of dogma is the dawn of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your sick spirit and your spiritual malady is the dawn of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your insufficient understanding of the Supreme Self is the dawn of wisdom." 

All personal / personality (relative) identifications are rooted in programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination, etc., and all Personal (supposedly Noumenal) Identifications are likewise rooted in programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination. Persons claiming to be identified with "this" or "that" or "This" or "That" beyond the relative will claim that they are no longer being driven by programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination. Rather than having been de-programmed, de-conditioned, etc., they have simply been re-programmed, re-conditioned, etc. 

Maharaj: “All states and conditions are of the mind.” See? Conditioning always involves the conditioning of a mind. 

Maharaj: “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 and to give rise to variety.” 

As for “states,” there are programmed states, domestication-driven states; indoctrination-driven states, brainwashed states, and acculturation-driven states. As for Maharaj, when the mind was purged and a “zero-concept” position was reached, then a “no-mind” position was also reached. Then he could accurately say, “I am beyond the mind and its various states and conditions.” 

 Maharaj: “You have to turn away from the world and go within, until the inner and the outer merge and you can go beyond the conditioned, whether inner or outer.” 

Maharaj: “The awareness of conditions [of one’s conditioning] brings one to the unconditioned.”

These discussions of personality are offered only to bring about an awareness of how personality is a product of having been conditioned in order to return to the original “unconditioned” position. Maharaj spoke of “the light of unconditional awareness.” 

All identifications – personal, religious, spiritual, phenomenal, and Noumenal – are rooted in the darkness / ignorance of conditioned (blocked) consciousness. It is unconditioned awareness which brings the light, and it is only the light which can bring lightness. 

There is, of course, no record of when the earlier instance occurred of a human having sensed the Oneness and been conscious of and awake to and aware of the duality / non-duality distinction. Likely at that point, there was no language, no vocabulary, no writings, and - therefore - no ability to read or write or make a record of anything. As for the acceptance of assigned or assumed personalities as reality, Maharaj said that “there is only a mental condition, a dream-like state, easy to dispel by questioning its reality.” 

To accept personal (or “Personal”) identities is all a result of having been conditioned, and of those who have been conditioned, Maharaj said: “Circumstances and conditions rule the ignorant.” 

He asked: “But whatever be the condition of your mind, in what way does it reflect on you? It is only your self-identification with your mind that makes you happy or unhappy. Rebel against your slavery to your mind, see your bonds as self-created and break the chains of attachment and revulsion.” 

Why are visitors here invited to return to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" which was the last time that there was an opportunity for them to enjoy unconditional happiness? Maharaj: “Look at yourself fearlessly and you will at once realise that your happiness depends on conditions and circumstances, hence it is momentary, not real.” 

As for acculturation / enculturation, Maharaj said: “If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling.” 

It is known that the teachings were systematized and consolidated and set forth as the “doctrine” of Advaita Vedanta in the 8th century; thus, for at least 1200 years or so, certain sages had advised seekers to abandon all personal / personality identifications. 

 The key questions, however, are these: Has it been enough to advise seekers to cast aside all personality? Was it enough for Maharaj to advise seekers to allow the inner Guru to destroy the perverted personality? Obviously not since he initially predicted that “only 1 in 100,000 will ever reach this understanding”; later modified to “only 1 in 1,000,000”; and eventually changed to a final guesstimate of “only 1 in 10,000,000.” 

With such poor odds in place, merely to suggest that persons should be free of the influence of personality / personalities or they should simply stop being driven by the subconscious agendas of personalities which control and govern and affect and ultimately determine unconsciously every thought that is thought and every word that is spoken and every action that is taken of humans can be seen to have most assuredly not been enough. 

Again, if one does not understand the way that personality is never an “asset”; and if one does not understand that personality leads in every case to the manifestation of personality disorders and that personality disorders lead to neuroses and psychoses and insane thoughts and insane talk and insane behaviors; and if one does not understand exactly what the specific consequences are of each personality disorders, then why would one even consider and act on the sages' advice regarding personality or Maharaj’s advice regarding personality? 

Obviously, most have never heard and will never hear such advice, and based in Maharaj’s guesstimates, even those who do hear the advice have not acted upon it in any significant numbers. Here, therefore, more information about personality and its consequences is shared in order to provide facts about why personality must be discarded if realization (simply meaning “being freed form ignorance,” according to Maharaj) is to happen. So, the discussion of personality and its various forms and types and its consequences will continue tomorrow. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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