TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Julie Smith wrote that people do what they do “because things had always been done that way”
and
“because someone else wanted them to . . . not because there was any point in hell in it.”
She is spot on and is adumbrating the message shared by the “Ripened Maharaj,” by the “Mature Maharaj,” by the “Vintage Maharaj” after he transitioned his “Maharaj Lite” message which tried to address the Ultimate Sickness (which he came to understand is a mental sickness) with religion + non-duality pointers and with spirituality + non-duality pointers.
[Some ask why Maharaj was so late in coming to understand that all of the problems of humanity center in the mind. Actually, there were many instances early on when he offered that point, but it was not his central message for decades because he had to grow beyond the influence of his guru, beyond the influence of the Hindu locals who were the first to visit the loft, and beyond the influence of the Westerners who later came to the loft, all of whom were showing high levels of obsessive-compulsive behavior in regards to their Eastern-oriented, spirituality-consumed seeking.]
The Vintage Maharaj message focused on the fact that persons are doing what their ancestors did and are believing what their ancestors believed back during the days when humans first began believing myths and superstitions and the other tales which have long been told – as the Advaitin Shakespeare said – “by idiots.” Harsh? Krishna spoke of the “non-realized” as being “fools.” Harsh? Maharaj said that those trapped in the Ultimate Sickness were displaying symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity and insanity.” Harsh? Maybe so.
But how would you characterized humans who do what they do - not as a result of their own wise deliberations - but “because things had always been done that way”?
How would you characterized humans who unquestioningly believe their cultures and parents and relatives and friends when (a) they tell them that dozens of roles define who they are and when (b) they tell them how each roles should behave?
How would you characterized humans who drink alcohol when they are pregnant or who use nicotine products when the very packages that the products are in have warnings written on them which say, “Caution: this product can cause mouth cancer” and “Smoke from this product contains carbon monoxide” and “This product causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and COPD”?
How would you characterized humans who beat their wives or partners and then say, “I did that because I love you so much that I let you infuriate me”?
How would you characterized humans who believe, “He loves me so much that I can infuriate him and that makes him beat me, so it's really my fault”?
How would you characterized humans who vote for the most ignorant among them to go the seat of their nation's federal government, made a total mess of the way the government functions, say that they are disgusted with their leaders, but then re-elect those same people for an additional 10, 20, 30 or 40 more years?
How would you characterized humans who believe what they are told by authorities without ever questioning any of what they are told?
As a child, it might be difficult for some personality types to challenge authority, but how would you characterized humans who, even as adults, do not question what they were taught as a child or what was modeled for them during their childhood years?
How would you characterized humans who are told by certain people that their lives have been totally unmanageable became they are insane – because they have major mental and emotional disorders - but then believe it when those same people do not suggest that they work with professionals who are trained to help restore people to sanity but are told instead to just pray to be restored to sanity?
How would you characterize humans who accept it when their cultures use meetings, services, television, radio, “local happenings” shows, etc. to broadcast throughout societies what is deemed to be “right,” “preferable,” “decent,” “righteous,” “posh,” “noble,” “superior,” “exclusive,” “desirable” or – on the other hand – what is deemed to be “wrong,” “not preferred,” “indecent,” “wicked,” “lowdown,” “ignoble,” “inferior,” “common,” “undesirable, ad infinitum?
In addition to Smith’s explanation about why people do what they do, therefore, it can be seen that people also do what they do because the elders or authorities in their lives modeled certain thoughts and beliefs and behaviors and because their elders or the authorities in their lives wanted them to model the same thoughts and beliefs and behaviors and either rewarded that mirroring or punished them if the modeled or passed down thoughts and beliefs and behaviors were questioned or challenged or rebelled against.
Of what people tell you, Maharaj said: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
He said: “Those who know only scriptures know nothing. To know is to be. I know what I am talking about; it is not from reading or hearsay.”
and
“You take yourself to be what they suggest; having no direct knowledge of yourself, you have mere ideas . . . all mediocre . . . second-hand . . . by hearsay.”
and
“We believe in so many things on hearsay. We believe in distant lands and people, in heavens and hells, in gods and goddesses, because we were told. Similarly, we were told about ourselves, our parents, name, position, duties and so on. We never cared to verify.
"The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these the idea that you are the body is the worst. With the body comes the world, with the world, God (who is supposed to have created the world).
"Thus it starts - fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems - all to protect and support the child-man, frightened out of his wits by monsters of his own making. Realise that what you are cannot be born nor die and, with the fear gone, all suffering ends.”
So what of you?
Are there things you are doing “because things had always been done that way”?
Are there things you are doing “because someone else wants you to do those things"?
Do you have blind "faith in anything (or everything) which has ever been told?"
Have
you "accepted what they passed on as hearsay?"
Or might you now be "ready
to verify" (or even disprove) everything you have ever been told?
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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