TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
From yesterday: Again, nothing is more frustrating and disappointing than loving something that is not real and / or loving something that proves to be something quite different from what it appears to be. Endless misery and suffering come when the fake and the phony and the bogus are mistaken for the authentic.
Additionally, the fake and the phony and the bogus vs. the authentic cannot be compartmentalized and apply only to some philosophical-style discussion involving non-duality. It permeates every aspect of existence whenever humans are involved.
1. For example, have you ever read about or heard about a job that seemed so wonderful that you immediately updated your resume; sent it via overnight express to the potential employer; waited anxiously for a call to schedule an interview; felt ecstatic when the call came and the interview day and time were set;
felt the sense of ecstasy dulled by a heightened sense of anxiety and tension in anticipation; then went for the interview; met a boss whose most-businesslike demeanor seemed to be a perfect indicator of his competence and the potential success of the company, nurturing the belief that “this could lead to a long-term career and financial stability and my own success"; and then rejoiced when the job offer was extended?
Then how did it feel when that dream job turned into a nightmare after seeing very soon that the boss was actually a full-blown sociopath, a Bezos-type head of a company where, for example (according to one study)
“his workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings; toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered); and held to standards that the company boasts are ‘unreasonably high’”; where the company is conducting experiments to test “how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable”;
and where temperatures in some of their warehouses in hot regions exceed 100-degrees Fahrenheit because the company refuses to spend money to install and operate air conditioning and where the company - rather than spend the money to do so – hires paramedics and has ambulances on standby on days when they know that employees will be passing out and falling onto the concrete floor and will need to be rushed to an emergency room in the nearest community (where local citizens pay via their taxes the cost of providing care for that company’s low-wage workers); and where workers like Jeff Lockhart Jr. have died on the job from heat exhaustion?
(And that system is not unique. It pervades the U.S. retail supply chain both here and in U.S.-owned companies abroad. It is replicated in many companies around the globe with Western owners and is now manifesting in companies owned by Easterners as well. So much for what at first appears to be "the ideal job.")
What often appears at first glance to be “the perfect employment opportunity” can prove later on to have been a totally fake and phony and bogus appearance.
2. And what of “relationships”? Does the fake and the phony and the bogus rather than the authentic rarely apply when humans first meet each other and take what is nothing more than an appearance to be the real, or is that almost always the exact case instead?
Where, other than in “relationships,” is the expression “I don’t even know who you are!!” shouted?
And when is that shouted? When the veil falls, and that does not refer to a bridal veil worn during a wedding ceremony. It refers to the veil that was being worn during those heady days when the “relationship” moved (as Maharaj described) from stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to spouse (and later from “loved one” to “the greatest enemy ever”).
Thus, “I don’t even know who you are!!” is shouted when one can seemingly no longer recognize her or his partner.
Of course that is not the reality at all. The reality is that one is no longer seeing the image which was presented early on by the partner because the truth will eventually out, always. At some point, the play-acting and the role-playing will become so exhausting that the game-playing and masking will end; then, all of the personality defects and liabilities and disorders which had been hidden earlier will be witnessed in all of their psychological ugliness.
Then, all sorts of borderline-type assessments will follow as things thought to be “attractive and lovable and endearing” become “hated and repulsive and disgusting.”
For example, originally, a confidante might have been told, “He is the greater lover I’ve ever been with”; when the veil falls, the confidante hears the complaint that “He’s nothing but a damn sex addict!”
Originally, a confidante might have been told, “I feel I'll have financial security now and in the future with him because he has a great work ethic”; when the veil falls, the confidante hears the complaint that “He’s never here for us. He’s a damn workaholic who could not care less about his wife and children!”
Originally, a confidante might have been told, “He's a wonderful Christian man”; when the veil falls, the spouse or partner complains, “You’re not a Christian at all. You know what you are!? You’re a . . . you’re a . . . new age agent of Satan!”
3. In the U.S., politicians are again dominating the news cycles, and what clearer example could there be of a near-endless stream of fake and phony persons who are perceived by their followers to be (A) authentic and honest and genuine, only to find later after their votes cannot be withdrawn and after the election results cannot be reversed that their favorite politician is the epitome of the false, the counterfeit, the bogus, the sham?
4. In fact, though, there may well be one even clearer example of those presenting a false image but who are as far removed from authenticity as possible. In the sixty-eight years that this composite unity has been moving about on planet earth, one group has been witnessed to be highly adept at covering their corruption with a veneer of respectability and virtue and honor while lacking all three.
Those would be (a) the people among the clergy who sexually molest children and mislead their followers and (b) the leaders in so-called “spiritual groups” who take sexual advantage of their most vulnerable followers and also mislead their members.
So, the conclusion that there is no compartmentalization of the fake and the phony and the bogus vs. the authentic stands because the fake and the phony and the bogus can be found throughout all cultures and societies and institutions.
That is the key point in the non-dual adventure novel entitled THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS: the fake and the phony and the bogus as well as widespread corruption especially dominate those who are associated with three groups:
1. big business,
2. big religion (or big spirituality) and
3. big government.
Moreover, ever since all three of those institutions came to co-exist, they have historically always functioned as one, each supporting and defending and benefiting the others.
Are you seeing the relevance of the earlier pointer in regards to every aspect of human existence as it unfolds among the masses who are always being fooled and who are forever fooling themselves?
Thus, indeed . . . nothing is more frustrating and disappointing than loving something that is not real and / or loving something that proves to be something quite different from what it appears to be. Endless misery and suffering come when the fake and the phony and the bogus are mistaken for the authentic.
The fake and phony will prove to be a heavy load to carry throughout a relative existence; authenticity ends up being very light as long as one gives no credence to the opinions of those in darkness.
Here, as was the case with Maharaj, there has never been any “one” who willingly followed orders issued by those “in charge” in any culture, be it a local culture, an educational culture, a religious culture, a spiritual culture, a business culture, etc.
Those types who blindly and unquestioningly follow orders and who march through life in a rigid, uptight, inflexible, stiff, severe, and lock-step manner will never be able to enjoy the freedom and the lightness of being tolerant and accepting and relaxed and able to take it easy and able to heed Maharaj’s advice to “lie down and relax in the cool blue shade” every now and then.
Heavy? Or light? The choice would seem to be both simple and obvious; however, no choosing (or not choosing) can happen unless one moves beyond the restrictions imposed by programming, conditioning, etc. and determined and controlled by the hidden, subconscious agendas of personality identifications rather than by conscious choice.
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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