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: