TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Pointers to review from yesterday:
1. 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 no heed is given to the opinions of those in darkness.
2. Here, as was the case with Maharaj, there has never been any “one” who willingly followed orders from those “in charge” in any culture, be it a local culture, an educational culture, a religious culture, a spiritual culture, a business culture, etc.
3. Those followers who blindly and unquestioningly follow orders and who march through life in a rigid, uptight, inflexible, stiff, severe, and lock-step manner are never 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.
So why seek the lightment, the lightness, above “enlightenment”? Maharaj said, “The burden is heavy enough.” So why add more? Why take on a second job each day when relaxed, unburdened living should be enjoyed after having completed the daily work required to meet the basic requirements of the relative existence? Why add on the additional heavy burden imposed on you by the loads of work which are prescribed by religious leaders and spiritual leaders and far-too-controlling gurus?
And why dare suggest that seeking the lightment, the lightness, is enough and that a lifetime of seeking and holding onto “enlightenment” is not required? Why did Maharaj shift away from prescribing the long-term process of Self-Inquiry and shift to recommending the far less tiresome and burdensome and one-time task of realizing this: “It is enough to know who you are not”?
Because that understanding of who one is not will allow one to shift to The Child No-Knowing State and to be free of all identities (and "Identities" as well, Maharaj saying, “Don't burden yourself with names, just be.") He said: "Any name [even the supposedly "Good" or "Supreme" Identities] obscures your real nature.”
He understood what makes for the heavy loads which generate extra but unnecessary work for seekers and non-seekers alike:
Maharaj: “Your burden is of false self-identifications - abandon them all.” Yet that can only happen if one returns fully to The Child No-Knowing State; to that end, he said: “Leave it all behind you. Forget it. Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs.”
Additionally, that understanding of who one is not will allow one to abide naturally rather than unnaturally or supernaturally (religiously and / or spiritually), and to once more have the opportunity to enjoy the unconditional happiness which was last experienced during the early days of childhood before having been programmed, conditioned, etc. It is that shift which sets the stage for the original lightness to return, and that is why Maharaj said:
“The dissolution of personality is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off.” WHO (what ego-state) could possible want more than "relief" and having "a heavy burden fall off”?
Non-duality discourages accumulation, so that must include the refusal to accumulate more identities (and more "Identities") and to refuse to accumulate more “Noumenal knowledge” to replace all “phenomenal knowledge.”
Total freedom will require that you reject all of the beliefs which were accumulated as a result of parents’ religion and will require that you reject all beliefs accumulated via your "spiritual work" or from a guru or from a series of gurus.
Maharaj adhered to his guru’s dictates long after admitting that what his guru had ordered him to do was not really even necessary. Eventually, he ignored his guru’s instructions to use Hindu rituals to draw the crowd and then do a "bait-and-switch" and give them the non-dual message.
(Ignoring that game plan facilitated Maharaj’s shift because when Westerners began visiting in larger numbers than locals, Maharaj was able to shift away from dogma and move deeper into spiritual messaging. The latter he would also eventually abandon once he came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is solely a mental, psychological sickness which cannot be addressed with dogma or with spiritual talks and exercises.)
Now, does that return to The Child No-Knowing State guarantee that no relative challenges will have to be faced and dealt with? Of course not. As long as there is consciousness, there will be challenges.
But if the consciousness is unblocked, and if awareness of one’s Original Nature comes, and if abidance happens in that fashion, then that which had caused ego-states to become trapped in emotional intoxication will give way to feeling instead of emoting and will allow an ability to witness all objectively to manifest.
Of the consciousness, Maharaj said: “It is a burden. Body means burden. Sensations, desires, thoughts - these are all burdens. All consciousness is of conflict.”
Of course he understood that the most significant toll taken on humans by the consciousness comes after the consciousness has been blocked from seeing purely and clearly as a result of programming, conditioning, etc.
In order to enjoy the lightness, the obstacles and blockages must all be cast aside.
That requires moving beyond any attachment to the consciousness, becoming aware of the original awareness, allowing awareness to be aware of itself, and thereafter abiding under the auspices of awareness rather than under the blind influence of the blocked consciousness.
Maharaj: “This is the great work of awareness: it removes obstacles.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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