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.] 

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