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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Yesterday: The invitation was to address the issue of The Perfectionism Personality Disorder and its always accompanying Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. 

How does those relate to two of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as “ignorance and insanity”? 

How ignorant is it to believe that one is perfect? 

How ignorant is it to believe the leaders of congregations or sects or programs who believe their leaders when they say that their dogma or exercises or teachings can purify or even make persons perfect? 

How insane is it to be driven by the machinations of an ever-churning mind which constantly recycles thoughts over and over and over again when those thoughts are themselves rooted in insanity? 

How insane it is to let insane thoughts drive one to behave in compulsive (that is, in habitual, neurotic, uncontrollable, and irrational) ways? 

How wise or sane is it to be driven by fanaticism and to charge full speed ahead with eyes totally shut while being driven by emotional intoxication and to do that throughout an entire relative existence? Not at all.

And how ignorant and insane is it to be driven by subconscious forces, put in place from early childhood on, and to be totally unaware of those forces which are actually and unconsciously determining your every thought and word and action? Would that not be totally ignorant and insane? 

Yet most persons dismiss the effects of all the past programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination to which they have been exposed and dismiss the lingering effects of everything that has happened in the past by saying, “Floyd that was then . . . this is now.” 

What Maharaj made clear when he warned against personality identification and the everlasting effects of conditioning is that “then” is still “now” unless the ignorant and insane drivers which were set in place via psychological conditioning are recognized and eliminated. 

Most people don't have a clue that they spend their entire lives fighting the patterns witnessed during their childhood, modeled by the authorities in their lives, stored in their minds, and now causing them to be driven by a repetition compulsion which assures that the earliest patterns they saw and are now copying will be repeated by them, no matter how ignorant and / or insane those early patterns were. 

Hence Maharaj eventually said that the problems of humanity are not a result of being exposed to too little dogma; are not a result of “a spiritual malady” or “a sick soul”; but instead are centered in the minds which began to form as soon as children were exposed to programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination. Do persons "outgrow" the concepts which are planted in their minds? Never. 

Those concepts will be there forever. How often does an awareness of those concepts come into consciousness? Almost never. Those who have spent their careers studying the mind know that persons never forget anything. Once a memory, concept, belief etc. is stored in the mind, it is forever stored in the mind. How much of what was put into a child’s mind will come into consciousness during adulthood? Less than 1%. 

Nevertheless, it is there, determining what thoughts are thought, what words are spoken, and what actions are taken. Would anyone who is not ignorant and not sane accept a ticket for a ride on a train with no engineer to drive it and with no working brakes? Of course not, if they are sane enough to make a conscious choice. 

Yet persons are deprived of the ability to make conscious choices when they are being driven by subconscious forces instead. Thus, children are programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated to think certain ways, to talk certain ways, and to behave certain ways, and then they will think and talk and behave in those ways for a lifetime if realization does not happen (realization, per Maharaj, simply being “freed from ignorance”). 

The result? Humans' bodies are like runaway trains without any brakes. They have no ability to make choices that are wise because they are being driven by subconscious forces which are steeped in ignorance and insanity. 

A sense of perfectionism leads to a sense of being different from others, and a sense of being different from others can occasionally lead to low self-esteem, but more often, it leads to a sense of excessively high self-esteem and the belief that one is better than others. That sense of separation fosters a sense of duality, and all duality is a lie. To be trapped in personality is to be trapped in personality and disorders and is to live a lie.

Among the results of certain disorders are a sense of being perfect along with obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviors, all of which lead to fanaticism. Seldom will fanatics find others who are as fanatical about what they are fanatical about, but if they do find those types, they will become a member of their religion or a member of their program or a member of their spiritual movement or a member of their political party, etc.

Then any other persons around those fanatics will be exposed to the ignorance and insanity of persons who are being driven by their fanatical, fervent, zealous, and besotted belief systems. And that is no fun to be around at all, just as it is no fun to be that way at all.

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee. 

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

LANGUAGE 

 The first language that a child hears and the first vocabulary that a child is introduced to will be the one which prevails. 

BELIEFS
Similarly, the first ideas and concepts and perspectives and perceptions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) which a child is taught as it is shifted out of “The Child Ignorance Stage” or “The Child No-Knowing State” will be the beliefs that the child is likely to cling to for its entire relative existence. 

THE GOD BELIEF
With ninety-seven percent of all persons on the planet reporting an affiliation with one religion or another, 97% of all children will be introduced to a god or to a host of gods and goddesses and will believe in that god or those gods and goddesses. With that being the first belief, it is likely to prevail. 

THE WAY THE GOD BELIEF USUALLY CONTROLS PERSONS FOR A LIFETIME 

For someone to come along and say, as Maharaj did, that “There is no god - you invented the concept of God,” such a statement which contradicts one's primary, fundamental belief might inspire the child to argue, debate, or through a fit. If, as an adult, that same statement is heard, it might lead to a fight, to a divorce, to a beheading, or to a war. 

THE LIFE-LONG EFFECTS OF THE GOD BELIEF 

Through an entire lifespan, that belief can control thoughts and words and actions; can generate a sense of guilt or shame; can provide a placebo-type, temporary but unfounded and thus short-lived sense of peace or escape or security; can provide a false sense of having power and a false belief that one has constant access to power; and can provide a sense of knowing it all which shuts person’s off from awareness and acceptance of any facts which contradict their belief systems. 

THE EFFECTS OF PARENTS WHO DEMAND PERFECTION
This is the symbol of the Methodist Church:

It points to the belief that God sacrificed his son to free persons of sin.

[The religious concept of the need to sacrifice is a 5,000+-year-old piece of dogma which began with human sacrifice, moved to the sacrifice of animals and other possessions, and returned via Christianity to human sacrifice once more with their worship of their Christ as they ennobled his crucifixion. That was deemed to be “the Perfect Sacrifice” and it added their dogma the notion of “Christian Perfectionism” . . . the notion that one is “born in sin but can be made pure and perfect through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s 'Lord and Savior'.”

Yet before that, the concept of Hindu Perfectionism was touted for thousands of years, and the belief  is still held among many of that religion's adherents who are led to believe that cyclings through multiple relative existences occur and that one can only escape the cyclings if one works to be pure and perfect enough to enter into another realm. And Jewish Perfectionism has long been touted by those seeing themselves as "God's Chosen People." Now, the concept of Muslim Perfectionism exists. In all cases, those who have had religious beliefs passed down to them are sure - with no question at all - that their way is the only totally-right way. The notions of "being religious" and "having a chance to become perfect" - or having the belief by many that they have already been made perfect - have long existed side by side.]

Flame and fire are symbols which have long been used by religions and spiritual movements, suggesting that fire (representing their dogma, there rules regarding “right living,” etc.) can burn away humanity’s impurities as well as the impurities of metals and foods. All dogma purports to offer detailed prescriptions of the way persons should behave in order to be deemed “good” and to receive eternal rewards or an ultimate reward or to avoid a series of punishing existences which can be escaped when one becomes good enough and earns escape from the relative existence and receives that final, Ultimate Reward. 

The belief among such persons is that there is a perfect way to live and there are many flawed ways to live. Perfectionism is touted, and either by statement or implication or modeling, the notion that one is expected to be perfect is near-universal. While some will claim that only their prophet was perfect, even those report in the next breath that all should strive to model their prophet in all ways. Hence, a continuing sense of perfection. 

PERSONALITY ASSIGNMENT AND ASSUMPTION
With the introduction of the Personality Type One identification of “The Perfectionist” or “The Perfect One,” and with 97% claiming to be religious and millions more claiming to be spiritual, the notion of perfectionism takes hold, and shortly after a belief that one is perfect comes the determination to change everyone to be like the perfect one. Reforming everyone or even the world becomes a monomania. Maharaj: “One who has realized the truth is not required to do anything special ‘for the benefit of the world’.” In every human, to one degree or another, the traits of the psychically-unhealthy Type One Perfectionist will manifest. 

PERSONALITY ASSUMPTION AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS 

Being driven by perfectionism leads to the ennobling of precision, exactness, and fastidiousness as well as adoption of the traits of rigidity, being judgmental, critical, punishing, inflexible, overly-serious, jealous, controlling, and angry. The most common personality disorder associated with perfectionists is the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Being OCD about anything will leave a person being one-dimensional. 

Spouses have been heard here for decades as they have spoken of the misery of living with a mate who became obsessed along the way with religion or spirituality or with trying to reform the world or with one “recovery program” or another or with one or more of the hundreds of things persons become addicted to and singularly-focused upon, be it work, porn, shopping, alcohol, drugs, Eastern philosophy, non-duality, or – among the bored – even addiction to chaos. 

As for belief systems, whatever beliefs were the first ones taught via programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination will usually be the most influential for an entire lifetime. There are no beliefs which are true. Maharaj made clear that truth can be pointed to and can be known – that is, one can become capable of differentiating the true and the false after that ability was stripped away by programming, conditioning, etc. - but "this is what is true" can never be a truthful statement.

Thus, if one reads something or hears something that challenges or contradicts the earliest beliefs which one was taught, they are almost always going to reject that; yet, here, the case was that freedom only came after reading and hearing pointers which did just that . . . which contradicted the beliefs which were set in place in “floyd’s mind.” Freedom only came after . . .

an initial reaction to reject the pointers; to reject one pointing to truth; And a willing to least consider the points being read or heard; and after a willingness eventually to set aside all beliefs which has been taught. Only then could there come to an end the persona of “Floyd the One Who Had Been Fooled” and therefore an end as well to “Floyd the Complete Fool”; afterwards, what also came to an end was “Floyd the Highly-Obsessive, Highly Compulsive One.” 

Maharaj warned seekers early on to guard against being obsessive. That can include being obsessive about one’s religion, spirituality, recovery, non-duality, pot, booze, other drugs, sports, TV shows, reforming, helping, entertaining, seeking love, seeking admiration, escaping, accumulating knowledge, finding the right man or woman, controlling, and anything and everything else which person obsess about. 

THE FOOL / FOOLED / FOOLISH / “PERFECT” / OCD LINK 

There is a direct connection between being fooled to believe this or that, to being fooled into believing that one knows more than all others, to believing that others should think and talk and behave as the fooled one behaves, to criticize others who do not do so, to contact non-dual teachers and tell them where they are wrong and what they should change about their message, and to reform spouses and children and the world. The considerations for those foolish, arrogant, OCD-types are these: 

“Might it be possible that what you are so sure about and what you are obsessing about and what is driving you throughout every day of your existence and what you just have to tell others about and what you are so worked up about and what you are so embroiled in and what you are so keyed up about and so wound up about and so uptight about, might it just be possible that the teacher you are trying to change or the spouse or mate you are trying to change 

or the children you are trying to change or your neighbors that you are trying to change or those in another religion whom you want to change or the people you are obsessing about became they still have the same habits you used to have or anyone else that you are trying to change or alter or transform or convert or reform . . . might it just be possible that they do not give a rat’s ass about your opinions and views and ideas and beliefs? 

 Must you reject certain radical suggestions instantly without any consideration at all, such radical suggestions as . . . 

“Why don’t you mind your own business?” 

“Why don’t you take your own personal inventory rather than that of everyone else?” 

“Why don’t you seek some means to become calm and quiet and relax and keep your beliefs to yourself if you cannot be free of them entirely?” 

Now don‘t let some ego-state feel offended by those. They are just suggestions, just alternative possibilities, just submissions for your consideration, just some question to ask of yourself which likely seem way too far out to you at first glance but which might have the potential to bring more peace, if not to you then at least to those being exposed to you. 

An example shared on occasion applies here as well: A wife described the experience that she and her children had after they, at first, rejoiced when their alcoholic husband / father entered “a spiritual program” to address his alcohol abuse. She said that he soon assumed the role of "what you call a Spiritual Giant” after he became absorbed in a whole new level of obsessive behavior inspired by the group he joined. She said it was not long thereafter that he self-upgraded to the role of “A Super Spiritual Giant.” She reported that, after witnessing and dealing with “an obsessive ass” for years and then witnessing and dealing with “the obsessive saint” for a little over a year – she and the children all agreed that “the obsessive saint” was even more intolerable and unbearable than was “the obsessive ass.” 

He came on her advice to speak with me. After a brief talk, it was clear how much he had being driven by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder from childhood and was still being driven by the disorder to this day. Certain considerations were offered, all of which were found by him to be quite offense and even threatening. Within weeks, his wife left and filed for divorce. The children rejoiced. 

That is what it can look like when one is driven by a sense of perfectionism and by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and by the beliefs which were passed on and which set a person up to be a fool. 

So it often is. So it need not be. 

The invitation is to address the issue, probably by use of a holistic approach which addresses the chemical imbalances in the body which also contribute - along with the personality and mind issues - to the O-CD Disorder. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

Also:

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings.

Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee.

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

(First, to review a pointer from yesterday): 

Parents want to control their children. Politicians want to control the masses. Megalomaniacs want to control all people and things on the planet. 

[To that could have been added, “And those who think that they are especially knowledgeable when it comes to non-duality or who think that they have realized far more than others or who are trapped in the highest levels of the type of arrogance which comes with the assumption of such ego-states as 'The Spiritual Giant' or 'The Super Religious One' or 'The Very Wise One' or 'The One Who Knows More Than Others,' those persons will want to control others who are sharing non-dual pointers and will want to tell others what they should say and what they should not say."

For one to believe that he is entitled, as a result of his superior level of understanding, to tell a non-dual teacher which examples or passages or parts of the teacher’s books or postings should be removed or how certain sections of the teacher’s books or postings should be re-written to “include this and exclude that” is evidence of massive levels of arrogance and is evidence of the very desire to control which seekers are being invited to abandon in this discussion. First, most have no clue about what the five basic methods of teaching non-duality are, no clue about which one they are following, and no clue about which is being used here. 

Thus, the response to those types during the first seven or eight of the twenty-seven years that non-duality pointers have been shared here via satsang, retreats, tapes, videos, books and postings was, “Since you appear to be so wise, why are you reading my writings or listening to my talks rather than writing your own books and offering your own talks? WHO (what ego-state) wants to control the content of the books and postings here when he could have his own blog and control the content of that blog?"

During the last two decades or so, however, there has been no response at all. Why? It was seen that sometimes you might swat at a gnat to try to shoo it away. Often you might miss completely when taking a swipe at a gnat to be rid of it, but usually, if you just ignore the gnats that come your way, they’ll eventually go away on their own. Human gnats thrive on getting attention. The suggestion is, do not feed their desire for attention and ignore their desire to control.] 

Yesterday, some pointers by Laura Cococcia, including observations by Michael Shermer, were shared during the discussion of the way that persons are fooled from early on and then eventually fool themselves and other persons. Today, more of a piece written here years ago (entitled “SKEPTICISM AND QUESTIONING IT ALL: The Prerequisites for Clarity, Freedom, Peace and Happiness”) will be offered for your consideration:

Skepticism and questioning were originally two of humankind's most-regularly-employed tools for survival. Now that the brain has been bastardized with a programmed and conditioned "mind," the original survival tools have been abandoned. Consider two examples of the way it was: 

1. Grandmother - a "Cherokee Medicine Woman" - was the epitome of skeptical awareness. When we walked through the forest surrounding her cabin, she took the most gentle steps, modeling the way that she and generations before her could walk in total silence, moving through the woods without breaking so much as a small twig. On a few occasions, she was observed as she walked right up next to a grazing deer, completely undetected, almost close enough to reach out and touch it. She could approach hawks that were sitting on limbs just overhead without frightening them away. She could anticipate a copperhead lying across a trail in a spot of sun before we ever got near it, and she awakened that ability in my cousins and me. The trademark of Grandmother and her ancestors was awareness - quiet awareness - bursting with complete alertness. But they were also skeptical as they moved through the forest, ever aware of any potential threats that might be lurking in a bush. 

2. Last week, during a Skype session with a man in Australia, today's topic arose and he shared what he had witnessed when he spent some time in what he called "The Bush" with "bushmen." The term "bushmen" is used by whites in Australia to refer to the indigenous peoples (the "Aborigines") who live and travel in the wilderness, especially in "the outback." Those indigenous peoples have defied the odds against surviving in Australia's harshest lands - despite whatever obstacles nature may have put in their way - for 40,000 years (or possibly far more). 

Aboriginal people learn about their environment early on and first-hand, as was the case with Grandmother, so children are soon able to identify the characteristics of animals, plants, sources of food and water, weather patterns, and the relative dangers of The Bush. They are inherently vigilant but also are taught in ways that hone those innate skills of vigilance, awareness, attentiveness, alertness, watchfulness, and, yes, caution without being fearful or hyper-vigilant. They are not among the masses that now walk about in their sleep without ever questioning anything that they have been taught or anything in their environment that might represent a danger. 

A lack of those skills was the main reason that many early Europeans and explorers died when they first came to Australia. The wise Aborigine was never unaware of what was going on around her or him. If a noise was heard in the bush, it was not ignored. Immediately, the brain would process and determine if the sound could be ignored or if it required further investigation, questioning, inquiring into, and examining. Should there be any reservations about accepting such noise as meaningless? 

Some sense of "wishing" might rise into the consciousness, something that said, "I do not want anything dangerous to be there," but that did not stop the inquiry. What had to be determined was this: "I might wish for that, but will it assist survival to accept on faith alone the belief that there is nothing to investigate? Would it be wise to believe whatever makes me feel safer or more comfortable or more reassured without investigating?" 

Relatedly, author Laura Cococcia shared her observations as well as some provided by Shermer when she wrote the following: 

"To describe why humans are evolutionarily programmed to believe unquestioningly in what [Shermer] calls 'active agents' even when we cannot see them, he asks us to imagine a distant human ancestor walking a plain in Africa. Perhaps she's enjoying a blue sky and a sunny day, until she hears a suspicious noise in a bush but can't see its source. Now, she must choose a course of action based on the question, is the noise just the passive wind, or is it a dangerous predator, an active agent with the intention to attack? What she chooses to believe might very well save her life, or end it. 

"This decision, Shermer says, is a crucial one. Should the ancestor believe it's only the wind when really a lion is lurking nearby, the potential for disaster is high. However, if she believes it is a lion and proceeds more cautiously when in fact it is only the wind, the only cost to her well-being is, perhaps, a little self-deception - cautious self-deception that, when practiced, may actually save her life under similar circumstances in the future." 

Again, the wise - who are moving through the relative existence with the clarity that comes with being fully awake - use inquiry to determine if what is being witnessed is "a-'snake'-in-a-rope" or, as dangerously, "a-'rope'-in-a-snake." So, to the pointer offered earlier: skepticism and questioning were originally two of humankind's most-regularly-employed tools for survival. Now that the brain has been bastardized with a programmed and conditioned "mind," the original survival tools have been abandoned. 

Now, around the globe - where 97% of persons polled claim to be affiliated with one religion or another - children for the most part are not taught to be skeptical or to question ("the stay-away-from-strangers" admonition being an exception rather than the rule). 

In most cases, they are programmed to have blind faith over skepticism. Rather than being encouraged to doubt what they are told without proof or evidence, they are punished if they question so-called "authorities" (be the authority a person or a supposedly "holy" book). 

Cococcia said, "It takes almost no effort to make a child believe in Santa Claus. Step one? Put some presents under a Christmas tree every year. Step two? Tell the child that Santa Claus put them there. Result? You've got a Santa-believer on your hands." She notes, "Shermer asserts that belief is the natural human state, and that it is science and reason that seem unnatural to us" and she notes that the skeptic "pulls away the curtain that divides us from our understanding of why we are prone to believe ultimately illogical, at times fantastical, things. 

"Santa Claus, and his mystical compatriots the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, are cultural as well as psychological phenomena that serve as apt examples of our propensity for self-deception. Of course, 'self-deception' might seem like a fairly heavy-handed term to use in describing the average 5-year-old's belief in Santa Claus."

[Right. Initially, they are being deceived by others; they will later deceive themselves and other persons.] 

Cococcia continues: "So let's extend the metaphor, as Shermer does, back to our ancestors. As a little girl, the ancestor likely learns about the dangers of the savannah as her consciousness develops, as her brain makes connections that help to make logical sense of the world. She begins to understand that 'thought processes,' or lapses thereof, can lead to survival or extinction. Beliefs born of patterned thought take hold, and eventually leave a legacy in her 21st century progeny that states, 'It is more prudent to believe wrongly than not to believe and be wrong'." 

And that is the subconscious mantra of the sleepwalking, unquestioning persons who are trapped in ignorance: "It is more prudent to believe wrongly than not to believe and be wrong." And it is the conscious mantra of some as well, such as the man who warned, "Floyd, I'd rather believe in God and die and find out that I was wrong than to not believe in God and then die and find out I was wrong and then spend eternity in hell. But that's the course you're on, Mister." 

Such is the state of the consciousness when blocked or when bastardized via programming, domestication, conditioning, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination. 

Such is the state of the blocked consciousness when the threat of immediate punishment looms if one questions authority. Such is the state of the blocked consciousness when the threat of future punishment looms if one questions dogma or spiritual teachings or "holy" writings. 

Such is the state of the blocked consciousness if one has a fear of questioning the obvious incompetency and failure of a supposedly all-knowing and all-powerful god (or gods and goddesses) who cannot or will not use His (Their) power to make available a war-free, torture-free, disease-free, corruption-free, hate-free, murder-free, genocide-free, insanity-free, ignorance-free planet. 

So chaos and misery and suffering are now the abnormal "norm" on the planet since the survival tools of skepticism and questioning have been eliminated and replaced with duality-based beliefs that now generate widespread war, torture, disease, corruption, hate, murder, genocide, insanity, ignorance, and a planetful of persons who are walking about in their sleep rather than being vigilant, awake, aware, attentive, alert, watchful, cautious at times, and willing to question the nonsense they have been taught rather than accepting - on blind faith - all of that nonsense as fact. 

To be continued. 

 Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

 [NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee. 

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

To review: Maharaj: "All illness begins in the mind" and "Your confusion is . . . in your mind" and "It is the mind that creates illusion." 

Parents want to control their children. Politicians want to control the masses. Megalomaniacs want to control all people and things on the planet. 

All control begins and ends with mind control, and all mind control involves duality. Psychopaths are willing to kill to intimidate other persons to think and behave as the psychopaths prefer; the shrewd ones who would control persons to follow willingly use programming, conditioning, etc. in order to control the minds of the masses and bend them to the would-be controller's will. 

Parents typically do not want to kill their children – they just want them to think and talk and behave in a certain way. Politicians do not want to kill the masses; they want them alive but also thinking and talking and behaving in the ways which politicians prefer. 

To that end, the most effective mind-control involves using dualistic concepts (right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, and reward vs. punishment) in order to control. Of course some form of punishment short of death must be used by parents with their children and by politicians with the masses in order to bend those whom they would control to their will; thus, some of the more effective tools which would-be controllers have available are: surveillance and fear and “the dangling of carrots” as well as constant reminders regarding the possibility of being punished. 

Those who would be controllers must lead the ones they want to control to believe that they are being watched and judged at every turn. They must believe that their watchers know when they are being good and when they are being bad. Above all, persons who would be controlled must be challenged and brow-beaten if skepticism or questioning begins to manifest. Those must be squelched immediately, either by threat or by overt punishment. As important, those who would control must fool those whom they want to control. 

Consider the roots of such desire to control and such willingness to be fooled and controlled. All modern religions have evolved from ancient pagan religions, and modern religions still cling to many of the ancient beliefs and practices of their pagan forerunners. 

Their beliefs included such concepts as unseen but all-knowing, all-powerful authorities who could be made mad or glad by persons on earth; unseen but all-knowing, all-powerful authorities watching from some remote location and keeping records of good actions vs. bad actions; and unseen but all-knowing, all-powerful authorities that plan and execute punishments for all those guilty of bad actions. 

In the West, children are usually introduced early on to those concepts by way of lies told to them about Santa Claus (or Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel, etc.) Also, in the Far East, many children are taught that there is Agni, a god who supposedly knows all and who gives gifts to assure that the gods are happy and that followers will be blessed. 

In Hinduism, the concept of sacrificing to gods to receive blessings is central. In Christianity, Jesus Christ was deemed to be a gift, sacrificed by his father to all humanity in order to remove their sins. All of that evolved from several pagan religions in which virgins were sacrificed to an angry god – usually a Rain God early on – in order to please the god and bring crop-saving rain. 

The priest would have sex with the virgin (being god’s representative on earth and knowing that nothing soothes an angry male like sex); afterwards, he would bring the naked virgin out of the holy chamber where he had engaged in sex with her and would then - before the gathered worshippers - cut from her chest her beating heart. Lastly, he would eat the body and drink the blood and then pass the human organ among the crowd to do the same, thus “entering into communion with god.” 

Yesterday, all around the globe, over two billions Christians reenacted that brutal practice using bread and wine, symbolic of "the blood of Christ and the body of Christ" (or believed to be actual blood and actual body by believers in the concept of "transubstantiation"); yet the roots of the service which they entered into yesterday date back to the days when the blood and body of virgins were consumed during a worship service. 

See? All of those worshippers in ancient days were being fooled, and now modern-day worshippers are being fooled. They believe in a God of punishment and they believe in a God of rewards if they are willing to believe and to sacrifice and to behave in the manner which they have been taught is "good." 

Fooled. All fooled. All fooled big time. 

Annually, children in the West are fooled into believing in Santa Claus in order that the same message can be conveyed to children: "There is a power in another realm and He knows if you’ve been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake” and “If you are good all year, you will receive gifts at the end of the year; but if you are not good, you will be punished by not receiving any gifts." See? It’s all about fooling the masses in order to control them. 

And when the children begin to suspect or become skeptical or begin to question whether or not Santa is real, the fooling goes on a bit longer. Eventually, those who fooled the children will confess that, “Yes it was all a story, just a wonderful tale, but one that is rooted in the truth because, though there is no Santa Claus, there is a God that Santa represents in the story and God knows if you’ve been good or bad and, if you’re good, He will reward you. So we told you about Santa Claus, but the story is really about God, and it is God that you must now believe in unquestioningly.” 

See? Fooling persons happens the same way, over and over: "Just believe whatever we tell you and do it with blind faith, because if you do not, that too will displease God and you will not be blessed.” And the child that was fooled by the Santa story does not usually say, “You've already lied to me once about this subject, so why should I believe you this time?” 

But if asked, the answer is, “Because this time, I really am telling you the truth.” 

A woman yesterday told the story of leaving the man whom she had lived with for eight months and whom she had supported financially because he could not keep a job, supposedly "because he stayed drunk constantly," and a man who beat her often. Each time, he told her he was going to change, and each time that promise turned out to be a lie, followed by a new promise accompanied by the statement, "This time, I really am telling you the truth.” 

After each subsequent beating escalated in intensity, she finally left. In the past months, he has told her that he is getting help, that he has joined AA, that he is sober, and that he realizes that alcohol was his problem and that it was just the alcohol which caused him to beat her but that he has changed and wants her (her money?) back. 

His mother has warned her that he was diagnosed by two different counselors as being a full-blown sociopath and psychopath, but he contacts her daily by email and she is becoming convinced that he has really changed, that AA does indeed bring about miracles, and that they "just might be able to have a good relationship now.” He fooled her many times in the past; now it seems that he is about to succeed in fooling her again. 

Tomorrow, observations by Laura Cococcia on this topic, including pointers by Michael Shermer as well, will be shared. Here’s a preview: 

Cococcia said, "It takes almost no effort to make a child believe in Santa Claus. Step one? Put some presents under a Christmas tree every year. Step two? Tell the child that Santa Claus put them there. Result? You've got a Santa-believer on your hands." 

She notes, "Shermer asserts that belief is the natural human state, and that it is science and reason that seem unnatural to us" and she notes that the skeptic "pulls away the curtain that divides us from our understanding of why we are prone to believe ultimately illogical, at times fantastical, things. 

"Santa Claus, and his mystical compatriots the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, are cultural as well as psychological phenomena that serve as apt examples of our propensity for self-deception. Of course, 'self-deception' might seem like a fairly heavy-handed term to use in describing the average 5-year-old's belief in Santa Claus.” 

Indeed, children do not start off deceiving themselves. They are deceived by the adults around them. See? Initially, persons are being deceived by others; later, they will deceive themselves . . . and will then deceive other persons who listen to them as well. 

Why take the steps to return to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"? 

Because those were the only "pre-fooled days" of your existence. Because all "post-fooled days" are marked by heaviness.

And because only "pre-fooled days" and "no-longer-fooled days" can provide any chance of enjoying the sense of lightness which comes when free of the consequences of learned ignorance and insane beliefs.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee.

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

So what else is a part of the rationale for returning to “The Child Ignorance Stage” or to "The Child No-Knowing State” as its called here? In order to be free of craziness, ignorance, and abnormalities. Yet a guide is required to move beyond all of that. Why? Because crazy cannot spot crazy. Ignorance cannot spot ignorance. Abnormal cannot spot abnormal; moreover, abnormal cannot spot normal, either. Similarly, neither unnatural nor supernatural (spiritual) can spot natural. 

What blocks any chance for one to be freed from the craziness, the ignorant, and the abnormal?  Personal identification assignment and assumption, which will always soon be accompanied by the development of personality disorders. Of the disorders plaguing most seekers, the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is one of the most prominent. 

Maharaj: “Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly.” 

Similarly, obsession with the mind will block access to the natural state, and obsession with personas / personality identifications / roles / stage characters / false selves will block access to the natural. 

So, once the obsession with the mind (and all of its content) goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly, and once the obsession with the agendas of personal (or "Personal") identifications go, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. Thus, from what Maharaj said, what conclusion can be drawn about what blocks persons from abiding naturally? 

Their obsessions. Their constant obsessing, be it about the body or the mind or their personas or their dogma or their “program” or their spiritual exercises or their “spiritual development” or their SELF-Inquiry” or their philosophy or their ideology or their efforts to avoid eternal punishment or their efforts to gain eternal rewards or their efforts to reform the world or their desire to be loved or their desire to be admired or their desire to avoid or their desire to be taken care of or their desire to escape or their desire to control or their desire to never be bothered in any way by anyone or anything.

As for those obsessed with, and therefore trapped in, their unnatural tendencies or their supernatural / spiritual interests and preoccupations, he said: “The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. We differ only in appearance.” 

He said: “The moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru: to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.” And what are most seekers not aware of? 

The way that their “needing to seek” was brought about by a lifetime of obsessive-compulsive thinking and behavior; the way that their seeking is now being driven by obsession and by the compulsive behavior which obsessing generates; and the way that their obsession continues to feed on itself, similar to a cancerous cell. 

A. In the end, Maharaj stripped away from his message all of the non-essential, mystical, mythic, dogmatic, spiritual elements (which all inspire magical, unrealistic thinking) and offered instead a message of practically, making clear that humankind’s problems center in the mind: 

"All illness begins in the mind." 

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

"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." 

B. Here, the same happened as occurred with Maharaj: it was seen that the Ultimate Sickness is a mind-sickness, a mental sickness; thus, as happened with Maharaj, all use of a religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine has been cast aside after seeing its ineffectiveness in treating the Ultimate Sickness; all use of a spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine ended after seeing its ineffectiveness in treating the Ultimate Sickness; 

then, a stripped down, simplified version of the Medicine began to be offered. It was seen that trillions of life forms have come and gone, that trillions of life forms are coming and going, and that of all of those, not a single one except for humans ever felt the need to find god, the need to worship a god or gods and goddesses, the need to seek mental health, the need to be restored to sanity, or the need to cast off nonsense which was taught and which became the learned ignorance which drives ignorant thoughts and words and actions among humans.

C. Another with the non-dual understanding who offers a practical, sensible, realistic, no-nonsense, matter-of-fact, and functional version of the teachings put it this way: “The point is to wake up, not to earn a Ph.D. in waking up.” 

Yet how many behave as if they have a Ph.D. in dogma? (According to research, 97%, or approximately 6,980,400,000 persons, who claim to have an affiliation with one organized religion or another.)

And how many behave as if they have a Ph.D. in spirituality? (According to some research, up to 37%, or 2,664,000,000 persons, claim to be spiritual. NOTE: That number includes some self-identified “religious” persons who also claim to be “spiritual.”) 

Add in those who claim to be members of one or more of the 75+ Twelve Step groups which are spinoffs of “AA” with hundreds of thousands of chapters and with millions of members all around the globe and almost all persons on the planet are claiming to be religious and / or spiritual. And how many of those are obsessive about their religion or spiritual program or group? The closest to an accurate guesstimate would be . . . all. Based in what? 

Consider what Douwe Tiemersma offered: “There are various religions and systems of philosophy which claim to endow human life with meaning. But they suffer from certain inherent limitations. They couch into fine-sounding words their traditional beliefs and ideologies, theological or philosophical. Believers, however, discover the limited range of meaning and applicability of these words, sooner or later. They get disillusioned and tend to abandon the systems, in the same way as scientific theories are abandoned, when they are called in question by too much contradictory empirical data.” 

So, based in what? “Empirical evidence,” that is, “experience,” “observation,” and “objective witnessing,” not only seeing the way that persons behave nowadays but also seeing the historical evidence and the way that humans have behaved for the last 5,000 years since dogma and spirituality became so popular. And what of Tiemersma’s observation about believers “abandoning such systems”? 

Might it be more accurate to suggest that nowadays, when believers become disillusioned with their system, they merely change systems, moving from one system to another during their often life-long seeking? 

Either way, his comments deal accurately with beliefs and believers, and beliefs are about the mind. They are the content of the mind. In fact, everything stored in the mind ultimately involves and supports one belief or another. 

So when did the troublesome mind begin? With humankind, when the brain expanded from its original 1-cup size and evolved into its present 3-1/2 cup size and developed areas for the storing and recalling of information. When does each individual mind begin nowadays? When programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination begin. When nonsense is taught from early on and accepted ans stored in the mind unquestioningly . . . with blind faith. 

And what else is a part of the rationale for returning to “The Child Ignorance Stage” or "The Child No-Knowing State”? To reach a state of lightness by returning to the condition which allowed a sense of lightness to exist in the first place. The farther a person moves away from the originally-light, originally-no-knowing state, the greater the heaviness of burdens during the relative existence will be. 

Maharaj spoke of “the burden which is [already] heavy enough.” That burden is rooted in the nonsense which accompanies personal identifications, none of which had been assigned or assumed during the no-knowing state. To be free again, more need not be learned. The call is for less. The call is for de-accumulation. The call is to allow all of the content of the mind to dissolve. The call is to un-learn it all, to be un-taught all.

Maharaj: “The dissolution of personality is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off.” 

He could also have said, “The dissolution of mind is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off" and “The dissolution of belief in identities (and Identities) is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off."

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

 and 

 "Distrust your mind, and go beyond." 

and 

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering." 

and 

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

As for Maharaj’s pointer that "we differ only in appearance," the invitation is always to strip away any external perceived differences and to understand that which is common to all. This illustration was received yesterday and points toward the unicity and away from the supposed multiplicity beyond the actual unity: 

 Okay, even then there might be some slight difference which can be detected:

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

 [NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.]

Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

 Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee. 

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Though Maharaj never enumerated the steps on the “path”which he endorsed and though he never outlined the specific sequence in which the steps must be taken in order for seekers to follow his directions to “go back, reverse to the source” and to “follow the same path by which you came” and to "go to zero concepts," the fact remains that awakened witnesses can read or listen to his talks and can find the seven specific steps and the specific order of those steps on the “path” he discussed.

Originally, he touted a SELF-Inquiry approach which required that all seven steps be completed. Later, he endorsed a “self”-inquiry approach (that is, a false-self inventory) which required that seekers move beyond the first three steps and settle into the fourth step (“The Child Ignorance Stage” or “The Child No-Knowing State”) where all identifications and ideas and concepts and notions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) are abandoned. 

He would eventually say that completion of the first three steps and arriving at the fourth step and abiding once more as a pre-programmed, pre-conditioned child is enough. How much clearer could he have made that point than the way he did by saying, “You do not need to find the answer to 'Who am I?' You need but find the answer to 'Who am I not?' That would be enough.” 

Yet there are relative consequences and "traps" when seekers fixate at the third step (which so many do) as a result of refusing to move beyond their “good” identities and their “Supreme” Identity or Identities. 

In CHAPTER TWENTY of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled “The Results of Ending 'The Journey' at the Third of Seven Steps,” this is offered:

When excerpts from the book FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS were being shared, inquiries were received regarding comments about "one's head being in the clouds" and about "transcending spiritual and / or religious roles" and about "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge." 

Visitors over the years have challenged the point that it is either ignorance or insane beliefs or a combination of both which drive some seekers to "abandon a phenomenal dream state, only to reside thereafter in a supposedly 'noumenal' dream state" where they have their heads "in the clouds without having their feet planted firmly on the ground." 

Also challenged by some was the pointer that "those persons fail to understand that they are actually seeing no more of The Light with their heads in the clouds than the persons planted on the ground who also cannot see the sun because of the clouds." Challenges come from persons who believe many false beliefs, including the false belief that they "have become spiritual." They do not know that they cannot "become spiritual," cannot "become better," and, actually, cannot "become" anything. 

"To become" is "to change or grow or develop into something specific and different; to enhance or improve; to be upgraded; to be better than before; to change for the better"; or, conversely, "to worsen or to get worse" or "to be downgraded" or "to deteriorate," as in: 

1. "She became a much better person after she joined that group." 

2. "He became more religious - even spiritual - after he married her and settled down." 

3. "He was raised the right way by good parents, but he sure did deteriorate later one - really went downhill." 

4. "That one lucked out and found a super spouse" or "that one had a streak of bad luck and ended up with three really rotten spouses in a row." 

5. Or, as the defensive visitors who were mentioned above believe, "I have become spiritual and now I see the light; as a result of understanding non-duality, I have become a far better person than I was before" 

and 

6. "If you do not think Advaita Vedanta is all about becoming spiritual, then you do not know what you are talking about." Here, it is made clear that along "the path," "religious and / or spiritual roles" (or "religious-like or spiritual-like" roles) will be assumed and played at the third of seven steps. 

Typically, heads must enter the clouds in an effort to try to see things noumenal, in order to break - to some degree at least - the attachment to phenomenal things only and to be motivated to “seek the light” (that is, freedom from ignorance, which is what Maharaj said “realization” actually is). 

Yet the fact remains, persons cannot see any more light with their heads in the clouds than persons standing on the ground and gazing skyward on a cloudy day and who also have the light blocked from view. 

The problem with the assumption of those "good" or "Special" roles at the third step is that seekers typically fixate at that point - at the level that Maharaj called "kindergarten spirituality." In describing their circumstance, Krishna was not especially "kind" when discussing the ego / ego-state that is assumed at that level, suggesting that “those who do not understand that Reality is beyond both beingness and non-beingness are ‘fools’." 

Thus, such supposed beingness, including "being spiritual," is a trap if one does not eventually "transcend spiritual and / or religious roles" and if one does not transcend "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge."

Maharaj also made clear that those who do not transition their religious and / or spiritual role-assumption and role-playing are also just fooling themselves with their prideful but false belief about having realized and are allowing "others" to fool them as well. As a result, he said, they will never reach the fullness of the light: 

"There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full Realization, and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride." 

Indeed, how foolish one is to believe that he or she “is being bathed in the full light of the noontime sun though actually standing in the dimness of dawn.” And how foolish one is to believe that she or he can "become something different." 

The real does not change and cannot "become different" from what it is: 

Maharaj: “The mistake of students consists in forgetting that all perceivables are transient and, therefore, unreal.” 

He said: “Your world is transient, changeful. My world is perfect, changeless. You can tell me what you like about your world - I shall listen carefully, even with interest, yet not for a moment shall I forget that your world is not . . . that you are dreaming.” 

and 

“Both mind and body are intermittent states. The sum total of these flashes creates the illusion of existence. Enquire what is permanent in the transient, real in the unreal.” 

and 

“We can talk only of the unreal, the illusory, the transient, the conditioned. To go beyond, we must pass through total negation of everything as having independent existence. All things depend.” 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

 [NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

 Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee.

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

In CHAPTER NINETEEN of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," a chapter entitled “The Futility of Seeking Identity,” this is offered: 

Sara Gruen wrote in Water for Elephants, "Sometimes when you get older . . . , things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it, they're a part of your history, and if someone challenges you on them and says they're not true -- why, then you get offended." 

The content of the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" can, in fact, assist seekers who would truly comprehend the reality of "no concept," of "no duality," of "no something," and even of "no nothing." (Those are excerpts taken from the book "From the ABSOLUTE to the NOTHINGNESS") 

In the U.S. where religion is not supposed to be a prerequisite for holding political office but usually is, there is an endless stream of charges hurled back and forth during campaigns: 

With John Kennedy: "He's a Catholic so he'll have to take orders from the pope about how to run the country. We can't have that." 

With Barak Obama: "He says he's a Christian, but he is not." 

or 

“When Obama says he's a Christian, he's lying. He's really a Muslim." 

A wife playing the role of "The Super Christian" explained to her husband why she was ending their marriage: "You are not even a Christian." 

However, when a “realized teacher” says, "You are not a religious person and you are not a spiritual person, there is no such judgment going on as was the case with the examples above. The point here is that YOU ARE NOT ANY KIND OF PERSON because YOU ARE NOT A PERSON AT ALL. 

That is not a judgment about "the quality of one's religious or spiritual state." It is a statement of fact. To emphasis the earlier point, you are presently a composite unity of elements, air, and temporarily-manifested energy with the ability to be conscious-of, and not some "one" or "person." 

Again, the elements cannot be religious or spiritual, the air cannot be religious or spiritual, and the conscious-energy cannot be religious or spiritual. 

If that is understood, then it can also be understood that there is no one to be offended by reading the words of "the maverick Maharaj" when he said, 

“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false" 

 or 

"When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved" 

or 

“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas." 

And if all of that is understood, then it can also be understood that the only thing which can supposedly "feel offense" is also an ego-state, a false assumed identity. Only a false self can feel any offense when hearing Maharaj report that 

"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left." 

and

"Forget spirituality." 

and

"Just give up spirituality." 

If a sense of feeling offended occurs, the suggestion is to find WHO - to find what ego-state - is feeling offense. Again, neither earth elements nor air nor conscious-energy can register offense, but false, personality identifications most certainly can.

The only "thing" that can ever feel interfered with or threatened or hurt is an identity, and all identities (including the ones that cultures call "the good ones" and the ones that cultures call "the bad ones") are still man-made identities. That is why Maharaj said: 

"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud." 

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.]

Also:

 In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings.

 Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee.

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5:

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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Yesterday, this was shared: 

Every child will be shifted out of the no-knowing state, and the shifting results greater and greater distortion. The pattern goes like this: From no-knowing to knowing (that is, knowing the ignorance which has been taught and learned) to (by the teen years) supposedly knowing it all, and then, to (throughout adult years) keeping that mindset for the remainder of the manifestation. Eventually, most adults wattle in to an attachment to whatever they believe will most assure that they remain know-it-alls. For example, those who think they are perfect will attach to their parents, assured that their perfect parents made them perfect as well. In fact, billions of adults are trapped in one form or another of the Monomania Personality Disorder, focused on one thing only, obsessive about one thing only, and acting compulsive around one thing above all else. 

Some become obsessive around sex; some are obsessive with their pets (often giving pets more affection and attention than they give their own children); some obsess about their food plans and / or their culture’s food laws; some obsess over their work; some obsess over clothes and being "fashionable"; some obsess over medical care and attention; some obsess about being perfect; some obsess about “reforming the world”; some obsess over their mission to “save everyone”; some obsess over their looks and their public image; 

some obsess over knowledge-gathering; some obsess over finding someone to take care of them and their expenses; some obsess over being in control; some obsess over the hidden, subconscious effects of trauma as a result of early abuse and now obsess over their subconscious anger and being abusive; some obsess over avoiding reality; some obsess over virtue and principles and maintaining what they take to be their “high moral standards”; some obsess over being stimulated and excited and can even become addicted to chaos to relieve their boredom. And then what about these: 

Obsessed with one’s “recovery program”? That will become the new social and supposedly "spiritual" center around which one’s life revolves. Their obsession of the mind drove their addictive behaviors; now, their obsession of the mind drives every aspect of their new lifestyle. The core disorder remains.

Obsessed with Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, etc.? That will become the new center around which one’s life revolves. 

Obsessed with Eastern philosophy, with Eastern teachings and literature, with worshipping thousands of gods and goddesses, with non-duality, with “Realizing,” etc.? That will become the new center around which one’s life revolves. 

Rather than functioning as a “multi-dimensional being” and enjoying not only being alone in the solitude but also enjoying company, being in the quiet but also enjoying music, or being in urban areas at times but enjoying natural settings as well at other times, those trapped in their Monomania Personality Disorder become shallow, under-developed, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-regarding, self-centered, narcissistic, egocentric, egoistic, and selfish. 

Certain French doctors used a medical term around 1812 in connection with monomania and spoke of an “idée fixe,” that is, "a preoccupation of mind believed to be firmly resistant to any attempt to modify it” or “being fixated.” Psychologists and philosophers began to study the “mind-linkage” involving the idée fixe and that mental illness’s connection with the mental illness called "monomania."

H. S. Versnel wrote about how some psychologists have disclosed “the well-nigh unlimited capabilities and eagerness of human beings to close their eyes to data that are at variance with their assumptions” and about persons who buy into baseless stereotypes and “who are forever coming up with evidence to support their idée fixe and seem unable to notice any information which might disturb their belief.” Moreover, such obsessiveness with an idée fixe can reach pathological levels. 

Jack Seaward wrote this of a woman in Japan: “Although her husband did not reproach her, she became like a woman possessed, continually begging for his forgiveness. This he readily gave, but her guilt - and his imagined umbrage - had become for her an idée fixe. Unable to stomach food, she went into a decline and died soon thereafter.” 

Susan Bordo has studied the eating disorder anorexia nervosa and shared the following: “The idée fixe - staying thin - becomes at its furthest extreme so powerful as to render any other ideas or life projects meaningless. One woman said, ‘I felt all inner development was ceasing, that all becoming and growing were being choked, because a single idea was filling my entire soul’.” 

Of course, all of this ultimately has everything to do with what Maharaj eventually identified as the root of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the mind. 

The idée fixe spoken of in the past resembles today's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in that afflicted persons can think and talk and act like other people, yet they are unable to stop a particular train of thought or action. 

Maharaj warned against developing an “obsession with the body”; he spoke of being “obsessed with desires and fears”; and he cautioned against “allowing memories to obsess you.” All obsession, in the end, involves the mind and its machinations which can become uncontrollable and near-uninterrupted.

He said: “Once you have understood that ‘the world’ is but a mistaken view of reality, and is not what it appears to be, you are free of its obsessions.” So obsessing is also about the warped perspectives which have been discussed here in detail and which Maharaj discussed in detail as well. 

Furthermore, he saw that one of the most pervasive bogus beliefs among persons is rooted in dogma and / or spiritual giantism. To bring that bogus belief and its consequences to an end, he offered this consideration: 

“'I am' is an ever-present fact, while 'I am created' is an idea. Neither God nor the universe have come to tell you that they have created you. The mind obsessed by the idea of causality invents creation and then wonders, 'Who is the creator?' The mind itself is the creator. Even this is not quite true, for the created and its creator are one. The mind and 'the world' are not separate. Do understand that what you think to be 'the world' is your own mind.” 

He also noted that no god created humankind and that, to the contrary, humankind “created” gods and goddesses first and then later a supposedly “one and true god.”

[Mention was made of the thousands of persons left homeless by the recent floods in Houston, Texas. Many being interviewed on camera are saying things like, "God has a reason for everything that happens" and "God knows that what does not kill us will make us stronger," ignoring those who drowned in the floods this week. Another said, "All is God's will and God is all good so this is all good." To the contrary, the non-dual understanding is about being freed from distorted thinking. Note that since distortion cannot be compartmentalized, that is, cannot allow persons to see some things clearly but other things not clearly at all, then the belief in the dreamed up "Creator" who Maharaj spoke of will generate other amazingly-distorted thoughts and beliefs. Bottom line: Who would be impressed with and devoted to any supposedly all-powerful "God" who could have averted such widespread misery and suffering but chose to allow it to happen anyway?]

Maharaj also advised seekers to “go beyond the personality, with its addictions and obsessions.” 

See? He linked the presence of the belief in personality identifications with the presence of addictions and obsessions. 

His view on personality: “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.” The understanding of the validity of his “no identity” pointer can be the beginning of freedom from addictions and obsessions. How can that be? 

It can be because  that understanding can facilitate a return to the pre-concepts, pre-programmed, pre-conditioned, pre-acculturated, pres-domesticated, pre-indoctrinated, pre-brainwashed, pre-beliefs, pre-heaviness, no-mind state” known as the “Child Ignorance Stage” or referred to here as the “Child No-Knowing State.” 

To return to a lighter state, one must first see that she or he is abiding in a heavy state. Then one must take the necessary steps to return to that pre-heaviness state when lightness prevailed and when unconditional happiness was a possibility. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts will 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.] 

Also: 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you. Use the search feature at the top and then click “Open Menu” in the upper right hand corner and use the “Find” feature to locate your search term in the postings. 

 Finally, if anything on the site has been of use to you, you may use the donate button at the top of this page to donate any amount you choose or you may use the following button to make a $5 donation. All donations help defray expenses and allow us to continue to offer access to all of the free books and content without any membership fee. 

Thank you for your support. You may click the button below to donate $5: