TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
In Chapter Twenty-Two of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled “More Results of Fixating at the Third Step Rather Than at Least Reaching the Fourth Step on ‘The Path’,"
this is offered:
That which you are is what you are, is all that you have ever been, and is all that you can or shall ever be.
To compare, a duck cannot become a squirrel; a deer cannot become a bear; and a bird cannot become a fish; moreover, no duck has ever mistaken itself for a squirrel; no deer has ever mistaken itself for a bear; and no bird has ever mistaken itself for a fish.
In addition, a duck does not think it is a duck; a squirrel has no belief that it is a squirrel;
a deer does not believe that it is a deer; a bear does not believe that it is a bear; a bird does not think it is a bird; and a fish does not think it is a fish. Only humans take what they are to be something else, in fact, many things.
No duck has ever told another duck, "You are a duck," much less "You are a squirrel."
Even if that could happen, it would be insane, yes? But consider what belief-driven persons do every day which is just that insane.
Even more to the point, a duck is not really a duck; a squirrel is not actually a squirrel; a deer is not really a deer; a bear is not truly a bear; a bird is not a bird at all; and a fish is not actually a fish. In each of those cases, it knows IT IS, period, but in none of those cases does it believe that it is what any person has ever said that it is.
And that fact is a fact in every case on the planet, except with persons. Persons do believe that they are what they are not; persons do not stop with the "I AM" and the "I AM" only; no person (personality-assuming being) stops with simply knowing IT IS; to the contrary, persons do believe that they can be something (in fact, many things) which they are not, and they do believe that they can become something which they are not.
And that is the case with almost all “non-realized persons” on the planet.
Few are the instances of Full Realization in which case one realizes (1) all that she / his is not and then realizes (2) that which one truly is; instead, most throughout the course of the relative existence are assigned and / or assume hundreds of personas as actual identities, and each persona which is assumed has its own basic fear and its own basic desire, along with a plethora of accompanying fears and desires.
One study suggests that each persona can be driven by at least seven fears and / or desires, so consider the results of this scenario:
accept as actual identities twenty personas assigned by your family and friends and culture; then, assume another twenty that you adopt on your own.
Those forty persons (x 7) will have 280 "voices" which are forever talking in order to (a) defend themselves against perceived fears and / or in order to (b) try to manipulate "others" or to negotiate with "others" in order to (c) have their desires met and their fears alleviated.
Is it any wonder, then, that persons soon feel as if they are being pulled in a hundred (or two-hundred, or two-hundred-and-eighty) different directions at once? Is it any wonder that persons do not feel a sense of being whole or a sense of oneness as opposed to brokenness?
Is it any wonder that persons feel torn?
Is it any wonder that persons are fractious and cannot focus? Is it any wonder that human psyches are fractured and disintegrated? Is it any wonder that persons can reach a point where they feel that, if anyone puts any more pressure on them at all, they will shatter into a million (or at least 280) pieces?
Next, after having adopted so many ego-states as identities - and after egotism manifests time and again as an ego-defense mechanism which is there to "protect and defend" each of the false egos - is it any wonder that the wisdom shared by sages has long pointed to pride and arrogance and ego and egotism and narcissism as the bane of humanity?
Is it possible to see why Maharaj targeted the adoption of religious and spiritual roles - and targeted religious and spiritual arrogance - right alongside all other personas which are adopted by those among “the non-realized masses?”
Is it any wonder that personality-assumption / persona-adoption has long been the target of pointers which invite persons to stop believing that they are what they are not and to stop believing that they can become something that they cannot become?
In fact, believing that one is what one is not, and believing that one can be or become something that one is not, is all part of the "Dream / Nightmare of the Planet." Consider:
A man can be lying on his back in bed in the middle of the night but dreaming that he is upright and running because he is being chased by another man with a knife. The man who is dreaming will be certain that every part of his dream is real. He can be so convinced that what he is dreaming is real that he can start making throaty sounds that develop into louder moanings and can eventually end up screaming at the top of his voice.
When does peace come? When someone who was also asleep has been awakened and then begins to try to awaken the one in the dream / nightmare state.
When does peace come to the dreamers? Only when they awaken.
The task of the non-duality teacher, who was also asleep for a time, is to try to awaken the one in the dream / nightmare and to allow the earnest seeker to see that what has been disturbing him or her is all just a dream, or nightmare, and nothing more.
The nightmare for some is "I am bad . . . really evil . . . truly worthless . . . so very rotten to the core that I should die." The nightmare for others is, "I am so different and such an outcast, and I am so hopelessly miserable and without any prospects for happiness, that I might as will kill myself." The nightmare for others is "I am being bullied because I cannot fit in. I might as well hang myself" or "I am being bullied, so I might as well kill those people who are harassing me and then maybe even kill myself."
Conversely, the dream for some is "I am now so righteous, so religious or spiritual, so wonderful, so much better than I was, and so much better than most others that everyone should be like me. I am now able to rescue or save them or - if they refuse what I offer - able to judge and condemn them."
The invitation of a truly realized sage? Harken. Awake. Stop believing in the dream. Stop living the nightmare that you are experiencing because you are asleep. Stop believing that you are something that you are not. Stop believing that you can become something other than that which you are. To begin, stop following "I am" with any word at all.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. 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, other tools to assist with the realization process are available:
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ADVAITA RETREAT ON FOUR DVD'S OR AS A DOWNLOADABLE COMPUTER FILE
Regarding tools available to facilitate realizing, the Advaita Four-Day Retreat / Satsang: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality available here as a downloadable file. (See "7 -Steps Video" at top of this page.) The downloadable file is only available to PC users but is not downloadable on Apple computers. For Apple owners and all others as well, there was a period when we had available a four-disk DVD set, but those sold out, until now.
Recently, a counselor who sold those sets to her clients retired and we were able to buy back the last two new sets in existence. Those two sets are available on a first-come / first-serve basis. If interested, you may email our office at
The DVD sets are available for our costs ($80.00) + S and H. Inside the U.S. total = $86.99 (with S and H). Outside the U.S. total = $104.99 (with S and H).
A NEW RELEASE
The book What a Cherokee Grandmother Passed On to a Grandson (100 pages with pictures) contains a discussion of how duality is modeled and copied by children who then become entrapped in dualistic thinking and talking and behaving for their entire relative existence;
how some few are fortunate enough to be exposed to a 180-degree-opposite alternative;
and how some will pursue that opposite mode of functioning and witnessing and seeing which can allow those few to have an opportunity to be freed from the darkness and to abide in the light.
In the book, the contrast is illustrated via the differences between being raised in the darkness of an inner city vs. spending time in the forests with a Cherokee Grandmother and seeing the light.
Above all, Grandmother was what some nowadays call “fully realised.” Was she also “a teacher” of non-duality? Yes and no. She passed on the non-dual understanding not as much by offering non-dual pointers as by modeling non-duality all day, every day, for her entire relative existence.
Everything she taught was consistent with what Maharaj taught, and if ever anyone adhered to the nisarga (natural) lifestyle throughout an entire relative existence, it was Grandmother. She pointed the way to me, and she can also point the way to you as well by way of what she taught, some of which is shared in this book.
(Click to purchase for $2.99)
Thanks, and enjoy. Peace, Unity, Love and Light.
