Everyone Becomes Pulled Into “The Dance,” but the Key Question Is: “How Are You Dancing?” Part Three

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

During her teen years, my daughter once asked out of frustration after a series of challenging events happened one after another, “What the heck is this all about anyway?” At the time, I offered words which tried to console but would share the actual answer with her another day. 

So what the heck is this all about? The Advaitin poet William Shakespeare made clear that - in the end - it really is all “much ado about nothing.” But until the nothingness is understood and relished, there are all of the daily "somethings" to be dealt with. So what the heck is this all about, if the relative existence is being marked and marred by "one something after another"? 

It is about finding some way to get into the flow, to get into some kind of rhythm beyond an arrhythmic home and and irregular city and a chaotic state and nation and the unbalanced people living on an erratic planet in a tiny parcel of an erratic universe marked not by synchronous patterns but by the most changeable and variable and inconsistent events and happenings imaginable. 

One man years ago tried to convince me to believe in his concept of god. He explained: "If I’m walking down the road and find a rock, a scientist might be able to explain how that rock just ended up being there, but if I’m walking down the road and find a watch, he cannot tell me that something as orderly and fine-tuned as a watch 'just happened to be there.’ This universe is orderly and fine-tuned, so there has to be something / Someone who created it and set up its order.” 

F.: “Nonsense. Time for you to enroll in a fourth grade science class and to listen this time around so you will understand the true nature of this planet and the universe it is in. There is no order at all.” 

The planet is marked by disharmony, not harmony, ravaged daily by floods, flash floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes and typhoons, earthquakes, heat waves, cold waves, thunderstorms, hail, waterspouts, blizzards, ice storms, avalanches, dust storms, landslides, mudslides, wildfires, firestorms, lightning strikes, ad infinitum. And all of that is insignificant when compared to what is happening overall in this universe. 

Yes, some might identify what they call “orderly patterns,” but those too will all eventually be interrupted by chaos. The Second Law of Thermodynamics makes clear that everything which comes together will eventually come apart.

That involves all of the man-made, mind-generated chaos which comes as humans build pipelines which explode or crack open and spew out their contaminating contents at the rate of one each day in the U.S.; which comes as humans build nuclear weapons which can incinerate cities and their occupants; which comes as humans start families that often end with the killing of mates or children or each other; which comes as humans rob, steal, beat, attack, and shoot other humans; which comes as humans engage in mass murders; which comes as humans invade nations and murder thousands and hundreds of thousands and even millions of humans; which comes as humans engage in genocide; etc., etc., etc. 

Orderly? Harmonious? In accord? Congruous? Well-balanced? Hardly. This universe started with an explosion and has been exploding and expanding ever since and has seen trillions and trillions of things come together and come apart constantly. 

So what is this all about . . . this existence and these non-dual teachings and the invitation to enter into the dance but to dance lightly when you do so? 

If you own a car and have driven along an interstate highway system or along the autobahn or along an autoroute, then you have likely at some point come upon an accident which is blocking the road. Sometimes on those byways, one can zip along at 70 miles per hour or faster, but at others times, traffic slows or comes to a stop. 

There is usually an ebb and flow - on highways as well as throughout the relative existence - and what this is all about is blending in, going with the flow, moving along at a pace that is sane, being willing to move at the only pace which is possible at times, and being willing to forfeit the desire to move at a pace which is different from what circumstances allow. 

That is, to find the beat, to move along harmoniously to that beat, to enjoy whatever rhythm might be set at any given moment, even though it is not the rhythm you would like to set and although the only rhythm available at a given moment may well differ from the rhythm you might like to set and might not be the exact rhythm at which you might like to move. 

A man shared this story when I asked what the heck had happened to his face which had a huge knot above his right eye (which was swollen shut): 

He said, “I crossed paths with a total asshole is what happened.” He explained: “I was traveling in Houston on Westheimer Road which, as you know, has center medians with breaks all along the street.” 

“I needed to turn to the left by using one of the openings in the median which can accommodate one car at a time. When I reached the median where I needed to turn, a car was already there. I turned on my signal and slowed to move into the median as soon as he made his turn, but the jerk sat there time and again without going when he had one chance after another. 

"I was blocking one lane of the road and the cars behind me began to honk their horns at me. I pulled up closer to the guy’s rear bumper but I could not get out of the way of the cars behind me. They started honking their horns even more. The guy in the median continued to sit there, ignoring every chance he had to move on, so finally, I snapped. 

"I was so angry at him and so frustrated by the drivers behind me and in such a panic over the stress that I started easing forward and touched my front bumper against his back bumper and began trying to push him out of the way. He hit his brakes and also panicked. Then I honked at him and shot him the finger and motioned for him to move on. 

"He put his car in park and opened the door and began walking back toward me. I rolled my window down and stuck my head out of my car and yelled, “What the hell is wrong with you, asshole?! Get your damn car out of our way!” By then he was at my window. He drew back his fist and knocked the hell out me. Then, he turned and walked away, yelling, “I’m the asshole? No! You’re the asshole!” And then the asshole got in his car and drove away.” 

I explained to the man that he did not have a knot on his forehead and an eye which he could not see out of because he had an encounter with an asshole. I said, “You have a knot on your head and a swollen eye because you brought an asshole to an encounter.” I also explained to the man sitting across from me that he was definitely not in harmony with his environment, but more to the point, he was not in harmony with himself. 

Whether persons understand it or not, all with any remaining modicum of “normalcy” are seeking harmony, equilibrium, balance, and symmetry. What of those who have no modicum of normalcy remaining? At some level, there can still be a subliminal urge for stability, yet some have been so bizarrely conditioned and programmed and have become so bored that they actually seek chaos. 

Others who are racing about rather than going with the flow, such as those who perceive their morning commute as a “me vs. them” war, are also being driven by an internal but subconscious desire for harmony, equilibrium, balance, and symmetry. What’s the problem? 

Their minds are racing a hundred miles an hour, so they try to push their body to that same speed in an attempt to generate a sense of body-mind equilibrium. That, of course, is impossible, yet it does not stop - or even slow down - those who are in a go-do-zoom mode. 

In his play entitled The Merchant of Venice, the Advaitin Shakespeare has Lorenzo say to his wife:

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! 

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music 

Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night 

Become the touches of sweet harmony. 

Lorenzo then discusses the stars, each in its separate orb or sphere with each sphere contributing to the heavenly music – contributing to what Shakespeare referred to as “the music of the spheres – which, Lorenzo says, ordinary humans (clothed as they are in their earthly, decaying bodies) cannot hear. 

So what other evidence is there that many persons really want subconsciously to be at one with the music of the spheres, that is, want to be able to enjoy the peace which come with the sense of being in harmony with all? What evidence is there of humanity’s innate attraction to rhythm and music and dance which can sometimes align their pulse with the surrounding pulsations all about them? This:

Persons on planet earth spend $130 billion annually on music. They spend billions more going to dances and concerts where they can join with others and move as one or where they can feel at one with the performers on stage and move to the beat of the music being produced. How in tune with all they feel when they align with the same throbbing and thumping and drumming and strumming and pounding sounds around them!

So what is this all about? 

It is not about mirroring the insanity all around one, but it is about being in tune with one's environment; about being in touch with the music of the spheres; about allowing yourself to feel the beat and to move along with the flow rather than constantly trying to fight the seemingly-overwhelming vicissitudes of this existence (though that does not imply that one should accept the unacceptable or align with the widespread ignorance and pervasive insanity); 

about enjoying the comfort of moving in sync with nature's rhythm; about being in harmony (not with the masses but with oneself); about not missing out on the dance; and about dancing lightly when you do enter into the dance. 

One professor said in a lecture that understanding the rhythm of things could allow the rhythm to serve “as a master-key to innumerable locks.” He said that understanding could allow persons to “bridge the rhythm of marching feet and cross the span to the rhythm of the universe.” 

Now the rhythm of the universe is never guaranteed to be smooth and consistent; rather, it is guaranteed to be violent and inconsistent at times because all things which come together will inevitably come apart; yet on the universal scale, the periods between any instances of violent happenings and peace, and between things coming together and coming apart, are not measured in earth time involving seconds and minutes and hours and days and months and years. 

Instead, the time in the universe is measured in epochs and eons and ages and in millions and billions of years. (Not 6000 years total, as some preach? Nope. Not even close. We’re talking epochs and eons and billions of years.) 

If one is moving in tune with the music of the spheres, then there will be no rush. There will be calmness. There will be no panic or anxiety. There will be plenty of time for dancing plenty of slow dances. There will be time to dance lightly. 

And that is what this is all about.

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.] 

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.

Everyone Becomes Pulled Into “The Dance,” but the Key Question Is: “How Are You Dancing?” Part Two

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

 On the cover of the book Dancing Lightly, this picture is used to illustrate the evolution of humankind as shifts from (1) the most base and barbaric kinds of thinking and behaving have (2) occasionally evolved into a manner of abidance which is characterized by lightness and joy and Love:

Yet that fashion of living has never been a widespread “norm” among humanity, and it seems nowadays that this would be a more accurate representation of the direction in which humanity has turned: 

Rather than "tip-toeing through the tulips" so as to be surrounded by beauty without damaging that which is beautiful, it seems that far-too-many are tramping about in the heaviest fashion imaginable, grinding all in their paths to smithereens, stomping all that is beautiful into the ground, and - as one woman warned recently – “crushing all into the dirt.” 

In early 1945, ships carrying my father and thousands of others in the U.S. military left the harbor in San Francisco and sailed toward Okinawa. The greatest fear of those on board was not the battle to come on Okinawa but the threat of an attack by kamikaze pilots along the way (kamikaze meaning “divine wind”). 

Dad and the men on board the ship wondered, “How can we possibly come up with an efficient means of protecting ourselves from those who are actually willing to die for an Emperor whom they believe is ‘divine’?” In many cases, those pilots setting out on their suicide missions flew around what they believed to be "a holy mountain” and dropped flowers from their airplanes on its peak. To the sailors on board the ships sailing from San Francisco, to Okinawa - and along many other routes - the kamikaze pilots were seen as “the worst kind of religious fanatics.” 

The indigenous peoples in “the Americas” might have a different view about who could provide the best example of religious fanaticism; those involved in the Crusades pitting Christians against Muslims might have a different view; those involved in the wars in Great Britain between Protestants and Catholics might have a different view; 

those involved in the Thirty Years War in Germany between Protestants and Catholics or in other "European Wars of Religion" from about 1524 to 1648 might have a different view; and the people in any of the current encounters in which Christian and Jewish and Muslim fanatics continue their 600-year-long battles with each other might have a different view. 

What they should all agree on, though, is the results which come when persons move about the planet with the heavy burden of hate and anger and xenophobia and racism and misogyny and chauvinism which are being carried about in their ignorantly-and-insanely-programmed-and-conditioned minds. 

During World War II, about 3,860 kamikaze pilots died, and nearly one out of five kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship, so the present day notion that there is something unique about fanatics who are willing to kill and / or die for their religious or spiritual or divine causes is nothing new at all. Some are awakening to an awareness of the actual causes involved with the planet wide violence which is happening as well as to the increase in the number of leaders or would-be leaders who are inciting violence. 

This was received this morning from someone who visits and supports this site regularly: 

Hey Floyd, I just read the concluding post on your excellent Lightness series. In my endless searching days my most difficult masks and ego identifications were those around the great spiritual seeker. In light of the bombings in Istanbul, it is clear just how insane religious masks and identities can be. I, too, as you have noted, was indoctrinated into the silly belief that the world could be better if it just had more religion and spirituality. Wow! bill 

Of course that was a view held here at one point but eventually abandoned. It was a view held by Maharaj early on but which he eventually abandoned. 

All chaos and hate and anger and xenophobia and racism and misogyny and chauvinism are the products of the hidden agendas of personalities which are stored in programmed and conditioned and domesticated and indoctrinated and acculturated and brainwashed minds. 

Yet persons with programmed and conditioned and domesticated and indoctrinated and acculturated and brainwashed minds have no clue that they have been programmed and conditioned and domesticated and indoctrinated and acculturated and brainwashed and are now operating under the influence of an ignorant and insane auto-pilot. Nevertheless, they have been rendered as self-destructive and as self-defeating as the kamikaze pilots who were trying to target the ship carrying my dad across the Pacific in early 1945. 

There are Sunnis and Shias of the same religion but different sects who have been fighting for nearly 1400 years; the Christians who answered the call of the Pope more than 800 years ago marched off to fight Muslims for the cause; there were those who fought with members of the same religion but different denominations in Europe for the cause more than 500 years ago; and the battles among all of those types continue to this day. 

For people who claim that they have found in their holy texts the way to peace, there certainly seems to be far more heaviness and angst and misery on display. 

In recent years, there have been pictures released of persons smiling right before they headed out on a suicide mission, inspiring some to say that “we are fighting a totally new and unique kind of enemy.” 

That is not the case. Some have noted how seventy-five years ago, the kamikaze pilots were quite joyous before a mission during which they were going to die for the emperor and for the cause. They might not have believed that they were only hours away from being admitted to a celestial brothel and would be living for eternity in a heavenly pleasure palace, but they were elated nonetheless, elated by their belief that they were about to die for a “divine” cause: 

26 May 1945. Corporal Yukio Araki (shown below holding a puppy) alongside four other smiling kamikaze pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron at Bansei, Kagoshima. Araki died the following day, at the age of 17, in a suicide attack on ships near Okinawa. 

How much clearer can the difference in (1) insanity-based joy and (2) lightness-inspired peace be? How much clearer can the difference be in (A) joy inspired by tramping about in the heaviest fashion imaginable, grinding all in one’s paths to smithereens, stomping all that is beautiful into ground, and “crushing all into the dirt” as opposed to (B) joy inspired by dancing lightly? 

In Dancing Lightly, the following definitions are shared: 

Dancing: "To move one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps." 

Dancing: "To leap and skip, as from excitement"; "to move nimbly or quickly"; "to dance with joy". 

Dancing to "another tune": "To forfeit one's behavior, attitudes, beliefs." 

Dancing: "To move merrily"; "to express pleasure by motion." 

Yet some are dancing like fools, but their supposed joy is not real, smiles on their faces notwithstanding. Some are dancing like beasts, but their supposed joy is not real, smiles on their faces notwithstanding. Some are dancing like mad men, and their supposed joy is not real, smiles on their faces notwithstanding. 

These pointers are offered in that book: 

Dancing can involve a fluid, even, natural motion which, at its core, exudes joy and pleasure and lightness. It can also involve no movement at all when the dance takes place within and provides a sense of fullness and unchecked joy. Either way, there is never a "roller-coaster" type of jerkiness with “post-Realization dancing.” 

There is smoothness and gracefulness and agility. Moving through the relative existence post-Realization is like moving smoothly across a dance floor (not in some helter-skelter fashion and not in some roller coaster fashion with excessive up's and down's but in a slow, deliberate, even, level, steady, flexible, and effortless manner.) The “end game” with Advaita is not to be able to eat, drink, breathe, talk, dissect, and analyze Advaita; nor is the “end game” to spend all of one's waking hours pontificating about Advaita. 

The “end game” is to reach an understanding which results in a love of silence and solitude; which allows Reality to be overlaid upon the relative so that a nisarga (natural) manner of abidance happens; which allows all to happen spontaneously while, ironically, also happening deliberately"; 

and which allows whatever happens - or whatever does not happen - to be enjoyed fully. With the sense of limitlessness that manifests post-Realization, then all can be relished: the working required to assure independence, the walking, the eating, the looking at what nature has to offer, the sitting, the sharing, and, yes, the dancing. 

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.] 

 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.

Everyone Gets Pulled Into “The Dance,” But the Key Question Is: “How Are You Dancing?” Part One

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Once a child has been exposed to several years of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing, and once a child has been the center of attention for that same period of time, the child begins to enjoy being “on stage.” (And that will continue throughout adulthood for most.)

Many are raised in a home in which a child soon learns how to be “center stage” and "in the spotlight” and “the focus of attention.” If music is available via a sound system or an always-turned-on-television, the child soon learns that it has another means available which will guaranteed that everyone will watch as the child performs, namely, dancing. 

Initially, children respond naturally to the sound of rhythm, and the more they receive “positive” responses and reinforcement, the more they will perform. (By way of illustration, you might watch a few of the children in this video):

But as is the case with all human activity, programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing have the ability to strip away the natural elements and natural joy associated with rhythmic movements as some adults begin assigning to dance both unnatural and supernatural "meaning" and "purpose"; thus, dance eventually came to be used not only for its entertainment value but also as a part of pagan rites and myth telling and even mating rituals. (In one song, the Greek god Apollo was referred to as “The Dancer”); later, dance would become a tool to be used in “spiritual” ceremonies and in religious ceremonies as well. 

Some Hindus have long believed that the entire universe was brought into existence as the manifestation of the dance of the “Supreme Dancer”; some religious persons danced before human sacrifices were offered to their gods; and nowadays, some Pentecostals sing praises and dance about before rolling on the floor and supposedly talking in “unknown tongues."

One journalist “went underground” to observe first-hand what happens at some of the retreats conducted by certain “Big Name Preachers” on the circuit nowadays. He heard one of them discussing his mastery of "crowd control" and how he "uses music to work up his crowd into an emotionally-vulnerable state."

Throughout history, a common pattern of human behavior is to take something natural and then warp it into something totally unnatural and / or supernatural (spiritual, religious) as a result of leaders’ various agendas, always ultimately involving their desire to gain control and power over people. Such has been the case with dance. 

Dance is referenced throughout the Jewish Torah and Psalms, and Yeshu’a (Jesus) was said to have used dance as a metaphor, having been quoted as saying, “We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep” or, in another translation, “'We sang to you, and you did not dance, and we cried for you, and you were not sad.” 

See, Yeshu’a became “a non-dual teacher” who “sang” for those who would listen, inviting them to enter into the dance of lightness with him. Later, another non-dualist named Thoreau spoke of “marching to the beat of a different drummer.”

Similarly, Maharaj sang his songs of non-duality to those who would sit in a Bombay / Mumbai loft and listen; so, too, are the rhythms of non-duality pounded out on a keyboard here, punching out a tap-tap-tapping rhythm and inviting all who come this way to cast off the heaviness which “they” imposed on your relative existence and to join me in dancing lightly. 

Consider: 

Maharaj: “In my light they come and go as the specks of dust dancing in the sunbeam. The light illumines the specks, but does not depend on them.” 

William Shakespeare (an Advaitin poet): “This above all: to thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” 

FH: “Of course, there is no true self beyond the present manifestation, that term referring to nothing more than pure witnessing. More to the point, if one is not attached to any false self identifications, then a sense of heaviness can end and a sense of lightness can begin.” 

FH: “Any ‘Advaitin understanding’ is, in the end, useless. The only thing of concern during the present manifestation is ‘applied advaita’ – that is, overlaying Reality on reality, displacing learned ignorance with wisdom, and abiding sanely rather than insanely in order to enjoy the unconditional happiness which comes when a sense of lightness displaces a sense of heaviness, allowing one to dance lightly for the remainder of the manifestation.” 

Edward Thomas: “Heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance.” 

FH: “All are dancing, one way or the other. If one accepts death - specifically, the death of ego - then such ‘dead’ can dance lightly.” 

Relatedly, Andy Gugar, Jr. reflected on his first visit here for a non-dual retreat: 

“I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to ‘go ahead and die now.’ 

“Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must ‘die.’ 

“I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants. 

“As I entered, I shouted, ‘Knock knock . . . anybody home?’ He yelled back, ‘No.’ And I got it . . . I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body . . . nobody.” 

How is the dance going for you? Are you dancing to a slow depressing dirge? Is the case that, though I am singing for you, you remain uninterested in dancing lightly to the calm beat of my non-dual tunes? Might you be swaying back and forth, out of touch with reality, dissociated, and lost into full-escapism mode so that even if I were “to cry for you,” you “would not be sad at all”? Consider the many different ways that some are dancing through the manifestation: 

 Some are dancing like maniacs: 

Some are dancing calmly: 

 Some are dancing like fools: 

 Some are dancing with joy:

 Some are dancing with love:

 Some are dancing through a "hell-like" existence and don’t even know it:

 Some have retreated into isolation and are not dancing at all:

Some are in misery because they think they cannot enjoy the existence if they have to dance alone, but others in similar circumstances have a different perspective:

[Maharaj, when asked, “Why have you not remarried since your wife died?” replied: “I am married. I am married to peace.” He felt quite fine dancing alone.]

And some few are dancing lightly:

How about you? All humans are moving through the relative existence. How are you moving? How are you dancing, if you are dancing at all? Are you enjoying the dance? Are you able to dance lightly?

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.]

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.

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “SSSS," THE CONCLUSION

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS

Maharaj once said that, someday, science would advance to the point where it would substantiate the accuracy of the teachings which "the realized" have understood intuitively throughout the ages. That has happened in terms of pointers that deal with such science-supported teachings as those regarding the beginninglessness, the creation-less-ness, the creator-less-ness, beingness, non-beingness and that which is beyond; 

including consciousness and cycling (vs. timelines); and including limitlessness and infinite cause and all of the other related pointers. Maharaj could have also said that psychology - based in the scientific method - would also advance to the point where it would substantiate the accuracy of the teachings which "the realized" have shared throughout the ages regarding "the mind" and "personality"; 

including the warping effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and indoctrination and brainwashing; including the link between personality-assumption and the manifestation of baseless fears and abnormal desires; including the acceptance of distortions and illusions as reality; and including the roots of personality disorders and ignorance and insanity as well as the many other pointers offered for thousands of years in regards to the debilitating results of "mind-and-personality-identification." 

To emphasize why sages have long recommended to seekers that they "go back" and "return by the same path by which you came, only in reverse," the effects of not returning to "the Child Ignorance Stage" or "the Child no-Knowing State" will be reviewed:

To remain trapped in personality - in accepting false ego-states as identifications - is to inspire the subconscious use of ego-defense mechanisms. The results of the use of ego-defense mechanisms include: egotism, narcissism, self-centeredness, selfishness, and self-absorption; insensitive and pathological behavior; and putting a "spin" on one's behavior or the behavior of another in order to justify and to distort reality; 

 a preoccupation with knowledge-gathering and knowledge-sharing and intellectualization which can reinforce egotism and which can block one from feeling or which can inspire the displacement of feelings; the refusal to accept reality or facts; losing track of time, daydreaming, and finding another representation of self in order to avoid facing reality; projecting one's own negative traits or flaws and assigning them to someone else; 

and reverting to an earlier stage of development in the face of uncomfortable thoughts or impulses; repression which results in unconsciously blocking thoughts, feelings, and impulses; compensating and over-compensating in order to try to counter-balance perceived weaknesses by exaggerating perceived "strengths"; 

manipulation, excessive assertiveness and aggressiveness; trying to redirect or channel impulses or emotions or feeling or behaviors deemed unacceptable by one's culture rather than addressing their cause and seeking treatment; and constantly upgrading and downgrading persons and self. 

Furthermore, to remain trapped in personality - in accepting false ego-states as identifications - is to set the stage for the development of personality disorders, neuroses, and even psychoses. The results of personality disorders can include: the normalization of the abnormal; self-deception; an obsession with self-image; an inflated sense of self-worth; self-defeating behavior and self-destructive behavior; 

anxiety; fear, obsessive thinking; compulsive behaviors; depression, feelings of dejection, and joylessness; a sense of inadequacy and worthlessness; brooding or worry and a sense of remorse and / or guilt; neediness; a low tolerance for frustration or challenges; weak coping skills; self-infliction of wounds and self-mutilation and even self-destruction; passive-aggressive behaviors; 

procrastination; avoidance and isolation; hoarding; hyper-vigilance; rigidity; judgmentalism; mood swings alternating from major depression or clinical depression to mania or extreme elation; sleeplessness; hallucinating; delusions; paranoia; raging; 

and an inability to function in work or social or familial situations; sociopathic or pathological and criminal conduct; dissociation from reality; dependence and co-dependence; masochistic and / or sadistic thoughts and behaviors; addictions; emotional intoxication; instability; and an attachment to chaos. 

And that is only the beginning of the list of "negative effects" (relatively speaking) of attachment to personality / personalities and the resultant disorders that manifest. In so many cases, all of that could disappear with the completion of only about 60% of the steps on the non-duality "path," substantiating the earlier pointer that completion of even four of the seven steps is worthwhile, relatively speaking. Again, to review, consider: 

1. How different would your relative existence have been if you had never fallen under the influence of those persons who are versed in the assumption and maintenance of false identities? 

2. How different would your relative existence have been if you had never been fooled by those who have made an art form of using pretense, cover-up, deception, disguise, posing, impersonating, pretending, concealing, scheming, plotting and masquerading in order to manipulate and control and fulfill the desires of their egos and satisfy their egotism? 

3. More significantly (because you cross paths with those types on occasion but are with "yourself" 24 / 7), how different would your relative existence have been if you had never fallen under the influence of assumed but false identities? 

4. Even more significantly (because you cross paths with those types on occasion but are with "yourself" 24 / 7), how different would your relative existence have been if "they" had never fooled you and if you had never been driven to fool yourself and / or others by making use (often unconsciously and sometimes consciously) of pretense, cover-up, deception, disguise, posing, impersonating, pretending, concealing, scheming, plotting and masquerading in order to manipulate and control and in order to fulfill the desires of your assumed egos and to satisfy the egotism that always accompanies ego-state assumption? 

The Realized poet / songwriter John Lennon invited the masses to "imagine." The focus here is to witness Reality - to witness what actually IS and to see all exactly as it IS; however, for the sake of possibly expanding the understanding of the relative effects of reaching the Child No-Knowing Stage, why not try to imagine . . . if only for a moment . . . 

a. how different the relative existence would have been for you and 

b. how different it could be for you starting right now and 

c. how different it could be for all on the entire planet, if the correct answers to questions 1-4 above provided a new level of clarity, of perceiving accurately, of logic, of rationality, of reason, of genuineness, of authenticity, of non-duality, of Loving. 

The fact is, as Maharaj stated, few will ever "Realize Fully," but imagine how different your relative existence could be - starting right now - if you commit to transitioning beyond all role-playing (including any and all of the so-called "good" roles you've been assigned or have assumed and including all such false identities in that "good identity group" such as . . . "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Most Earnest Seeker of All," 

"The Truly Realized One," "The Knower," "The Wise One," "The Super Advaitin," "The Super Buddhist," "The Super Christian," "The Super Jew," "The Super Muslim," "The Super Ideologue," "The Super Taoist," "The Super Native American," "The Member of the Super Race," "The Citizen of the Number One Town," or "The Citizen of the Best State" or "The Citizen of the Greatest Nation," ad infinitum, ad nauseum.) 

So what will the relative existence be like if one does return to the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"? 

1. The abidance for the remainder of the relative existence can unfold in a nisarga (natural) fashion. 

2. The abidance - unfolding in an ego-less fashion - can happen without the use of ego-defense mechanisms. 

3. The abidance - unfolding in a personality-less and no-false self identifications - can happen without the chaos and insanity of being driven subconsciously by the agendas of personality disorders. 

4. And if you only reach the fourth of seven steps, you will nevertheless be free of foolish notions such as "I am this" or "I am that"; then, you can relax in "the cool blue shade" of "I AM" only . . . in the lightness of being only instead of constantly embroiled in the heavy work of trying to "be this" or "be that." Best regards on your "journey," even if you only complete a part of it . . . even if you complete only four of the seven steps on the "path" to Full Realization. 

In the words of Maharaj, "That would be enough."

For now, to you:

Peace, Unity, Love,  Light, and Lightness

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.] 

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.

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “RRRR”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS

 In the “coming in” leg of the “journey” from the Absolute to manifestation, much is “picked up” along the way as . . . 

A. the awareness which was not aware of moves from it free-ranging, not-manifested mode to its 

B. manifested and conscious-of mode and then, in the case of humans, is 

C. blocked from being accurately conscious-of to being 

D. prevented from seeing anything clearly and sanely and wisely as a result of those blockages which were 

E. set in place by way of ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination. 

During the days when I owned and operated a European tour company, the advice given to travelers prior to departure was, “Pack your bags with everything you think you’ll need, then remove 75% of that and bring along only 25% of what you initially intended to carry with you throughout your journey. The rationale: The streets we’ll be walking are, in many cases, ancient and - therefore - uneven, narrow, and far less easy to negotiate if heavy bags are in tow. Many of the buildings and hotels we’ll enter were built when humans were much shorter and smaller, so they will not be as easy to navigate if you’re trying to move about with multiple carry-on bags and luggage. Make the 'journey' easy on yourself.” 

Nowadays, the invitation here is the same to all seekers: "make the journey easy on yourself.” How? By discarding all of that which has been added on along the way; by discarding all of what you are carrying but need not carry; and by shifting from a heavy mode to a light mode. But such is exactly the way that humans try to conduct their journey through the relative existence, loaded down as they are with the heavy burden of all of the warped perspectives and thoughts and impressions and theories and plans and aims and intentions and concepts and ideas and notions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) which have been picked up and added on and handed down and accumulated along the way. 

The non-dual “path” offers a means by which one can be free of all of that extra and unnecessary baggage. It provides a means for unloading your burden and discarding that which makes for a heavy load and results in cumbersome, restricted movement through life. It comes when body and mind and personality identifications are all discarded by the end of the third of seven steps and one moves to the fourth step where they were previously during childhood. 

Reaching the third step where religious and spiritual and seeker roles are still being played is only about 40% of the way to reaching an understanding of one's original, pre-manifestation nature when there was no load at all. Reaching the fourth step where all warped perspectives and thoughts and impressions and theories and plans and aims and intentions and concepts and ideas and notions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) and all identifications are discarded makes for a light existence. 

In CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled “40% Offers No Freedom - 60% Offers Tremendous Freedom,” this is offered: 

All of the heaviness can disappear with the completion of only about 60% of the steps on the "path," substantiating the earlier pointer that completion of even four of the seven steps is worthwhile, relatively speaking. Consider:

1. How different would your relative existence have been if you had never fallen under the influence of those persons who are versed in the assumption and maintenance of false identities? 

2. How different would your relative existence have been if you had never been fooled by those who have made an art form of using pretense, cover-up, deception, disguise, posing, impersonating, pretending, concealing, scheming, plotting and masquerading in order to manipulate and control and fulfill the desires of their egos and satisfy their egotism? 

3. More significantly (because you cross paths with those types on occasion but are with "yourself" 24 / 7), how different would your relative existence have been if you had never fallen under the influence of assumed but false identities? 

4. More significantly (because you cross paths with those types on occasion but are with "yourself" 24 / 7), how different would your relative existence have been if "they" had never fooled you and if you had never been driven to fool yourself and / or others by making use (often unconsciously and sometimes consciously) of pretense, cover-up, deception, disguise, posing, impersonating, pretending, concealing, scheming, plotting and masquerading in order to manipulate and control and in order to fulfill the desires of your assumed egos and to satisfy the egotism that always accompanies ego-state assumption? 

The Realized poet / songwriter John Lennon invited the masses to "imagine." The focus here is to witness Reality - to witness what actually IS and to see all exactly as it IS; however, for the sake of possibly expanding the understanding of the relative effects of reaching the Child No-Knowing Stage, why not try to imagine - if only for a moment -

a. how different the relative existence would have been for you and 

b. how different it could be for you starting right now and 

c. how different it could be for all on the entire planet, if the correct answers to 1-4 above provided a new level of clarity, of perceiving accurately, of logic, of rationality, of reason, of genuineness, of authenticity, of non-duality, of Loving. 

The fact is, as Maharaj stated, few will ever "Realize Fully," but imagine how different your relative existence could be - starting right now - if you commit to transitioning beyond all role-playing (including any and all "good" roles you've been assigned or have assumed and including all such false identities in that "good identity group" such as . . . 

"The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Most Earnest Seeker of All," "The Truly Realized One," "The Knower," "The Wise One," "The Super Advaitin," "The Super Buddhist," "The Super Christian," "The Super Jew," "The Super Muslim," "The Super Ideologue," "The Super Taoist," "The Super Native American," "The Member of the Super Race," "The Citizen of the Number One Town or the Citizen of the Best State or the Citizen of the Greatest Nation," ad infinitum, ad nauseum.) 

Belief in those roles, and scores more, manifest and remain if only 40% of "the journey" is completed because persons fixate in their religious and / or spiritual and / or seeking roles and their role-playing. While the third step must be completed, it is not - as so many believe - the end of the "path." 

So what will the relative existence be like if one does return to the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"? 

1. The abidance for the remainder of the relative existence can unfold in a nisarga, natural fashion (as opposed to trying to live in a supernatural fashion (which is an unnatural manner).

2. The abidance - unfolding in an ego-less fashion, can happen without the use of ego-defense mechanisms.

3. The abidance - unfolding in a personality-less and no-false self identifications - can happen without the chaos and insanity of being driven subconsciously by the agendas of personality disorders. 

4. And if you only reach the fourth of seven steps, you will nevertheless be free of foolish notions such as "I am this" or "I am that"; then, you can relax in the cool blue shade of "I AM" only . . . in the lightness of being only instead of constantly embroiled in the heavy work of trying to "be this" or "be that." 

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.] 

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.

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “QQQQ”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

The term used most often to refer to each non-dual insight shared by Maharaj is “a pointer”; another word with a somewhat “negative connotation” could be used: “warnings.” Either way, most of his observations which - if heeded, could make for a far-lighter experience throughout the relative existence of humans - are instead ignored. 

Whether they are called “pointers” or “suggestions” or “considerations” or “warnings” which are based in fact, most humans will ignore them, reject them, or attack them. Why? Because of the current prevalence of warped minds among the masses. Such was not always the case among humans.

The key change which came about in humans after their brains evolved from a one-cup-size to a three-and-a-half-cup-size was the development of “a mind” within the brain. “The mind” refers to the sections of the brain where information is stored and where a small portion of it is recalled. As noted here, the brain was originally an asset for humanity when it was filled with facts, such as when Thor witnessed Rickback fall off a cliff and break into pieces on the rocks below and then stored in the mind-part of his brain the intuitive message, “Take caution around the edges of cliffs. The potential is an event which will not contribute to the survival of the species.” 

Now, the mind - as Maharaj make clear in multiple warnings - is a liability. He warned: 

 " . . . The mind obscures and distorts" 

and 

"It is the mind that creates illusion" 

and 

"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind." 

Eventually, he came to see that it is the mind (as opposed to humans believing in too little dogma and as opposed to humans not being spiritual enough) which generates humanity’s problems and chaos and self-destructive tendencies as a result of the ignorant and insane beliefs which are taught and stored therein. Why? 

Because a mind filled with nonsense does not operate in ways which perpetuate the survival of the species but operates in ways which assure self-defeating, self-destructive, self-frustrating, self-thwarting behaviors, thereby sabotaging the very objective or purpose which the mind was originally designed by nature to serve. 

In fact, the mind has disintegrated into a filtering system nowadays, allowing information which reinforces beliefs to enter and remain while filtering out information which contradicts one’s beliefs, no matter how insane or how irrational or how inaccurate their learned ignorance (that is, their beliefs) are. 

Take for example the use of cigarettes which are used by persons to treat stress (for about a fifteen-minute interval) rather than their seeking and finding a non-destructive means to use to address stress with a method which can provide results which last for an entire lifetime rather than for fifteen minutes. 

Those who are familiar with the pain Maharaj experienced in his final days have first-hand evidence of the effects of using nicotine, but Maharaj did not have the advantage of warnings which some governments now require those products to offer: 

Though persons have to actually touch one of those warning each time they withdraw a cigarette from a pack, they filter out the warning, any future consequences being ingored when fifteen minutes of relaxation is available NOW! 

Another warning Maharaj offered seekers was this: “Beware of Big Name Teachers.” Why? 

To be a "Big Name," teachers have to be popular, and to be popular, they can never offer the true non-dual message which is often “unpopular” because it offers truth and insight into the personality defects and ignorant beliefs which persons hold dear. 

Evidence of the validity of what happens when Maharaj's warnings are ignored occur on a daily basis, the most recent happening in the U.S. at a Tony Robbins event Thursday night. 

The happenings were described in this news report: 

Approximately forty participants attending a Tony Robbins seminar downtown suffered burn injuries to their feet and legs last Thursday after walking barefoot across hot coals in what is being described as a regular part of a Tony Robbins motivational event. 

Trainers for Robbins' motivational seminars told News 8 that walking on coals is 'a very emotional experience' for people, and that participants were doing something they didn’t think was possible. But we saw just how painful a reality that exercise was for a large group of people attending the “Unleash the Power Within” seminar in Dallas Thursday night. 

Several ambulances were staged outside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center by organizers who knew that some participants were going to have to be rushed to emergency rooms for treatment of their injuries. Paramedics treated dozens of people from the sold-out program for burn injuries to their feet and legs. Other participants were taken to the hospital. 

Conference volunteers said walking on hot coals has become a regular activity at Tony Robbins seminars around the world.

Consider the difference between one teacher who was not especially popular because he shared sometimes uncomfortable considerations and one who is now quite popular instead: Maharaj in the end had no measurable “financial net worth.” Tony Robbins’ net worth is approaching 500 million dollars. Obviously quite popular, yes? 

Consider also the statement, “Participants were doing something they didn’t think was possible.” But they were motivated to do that anyway by someone whom they admired because he has a “Big Name.” How insane is it to think something is not possible and to do it anyway at the urging of a guru? According to Tony Robbins, not insane at all. 

His theory: if you don’t think you can walk on hot coals but do it anyway, then maybe if you think you can’t start up a successful business, you’ll do that anyway, too. Yet how many so-called “successful” businesses were begun by persons who first  physically injured themselves by some means? Must those who would found a successful business first be driven by the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity")? 

As a second example, James Arthur Ray was also a Big Name Teacher and a “New Age Guru” who also identified himself as “a Self-Help Teacher.” On October 8, 2009, at a New Age "Spiritual Warrior" retreat conceived and hosted by Ray at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Yavapai County near Sedona, Arizona, three participants who had paid $10,000 each to attend his seminar died as a result of participating in the non-traditional sweat lodge exercise designed by Ray. 

Eighteen others were hospitalized for everything from burns to kidney failure after he raised the temperatures in his sweat lodge above 200 degrees Fahrenheit (or 93 degree Celsius). Ray had encouraged people who were passing out, hallucinating, and vomiting—symptoms of extreme heat stroke—to fight the discomfort and to stay in the lodge as long as possible. 

Maharaj: “The proper role of a Guru is to dispel ignorance.” Not to dispel logic? No. Not to dispel sanity? No. Not to dispel reason? No. Not to convince persons to do something which can cause them physical pain and injury? No. Not to harm seekers and subject them to pain and suffering and even death? No. Not to encourage seekers to engage in self-defeating, self-destructive acts? No.

No one who is sane encourages others to do things which are insane. No one who is not stupid encourages others to do things that are stupid. No one who is not a con will con persons into engaging in stupid activities.

Similarly, it is the undertaking of every con to make fools of persons, to convince them to filter out truth and to accept as fact the false image being presented by the con and to accept the con’s message of hate and greed and fear and separation and duality as the truth. 

After the Treaty of Versailles subjected the German people to severe penalties and hardships as punishment for their role in WWI, most Germans experienced financial deprivation and saw parts of their land turned over to settlers / immigrants. An Austrian named Hitler showed up to explain how unfairly the people were being treated and how their suffering was being caused by the foreigners - specifically, Jews - who were controlling the banks and the wealth, leaving many Germans unemployed and broke. 

He played on their belief that they had been treated unfairly, ignoring the roles they played in causing much of the discomfort which they hated and encouraging them to blame others (outsiders) instead.

The results: (1) anger, fear, hatred, greed, and a dualistic sense of “them vs. us” alongside (2) the identification of a specific target for their anger and hatred. Similar circumstances exist in Europe and in the U.S. nowadays. Certain leaders or would-be leaders are sharing a message based in duality, fostering a “them vs. us” mentality, and fomenting anger and fear and greed and offering bogus solutions and false hope. 

There was no lightness in Europe in those post-WWI days once fascists began conning the masses. There is little lightness in the U.S. today as the same is happening. And there was little lightness in Great Britain recently before citizens there went to the polls and voted for separation, for leaving the EU. 

There is little lightness this morning in Britain either, after those voting for separation are seeing the consequences which they were warned of but which they filtered out and ignored. Their filtering minds led them to believe that they could best be served by separation, not unity . . . at least until this morning as hundreds of thousands who had voted for breaking relationship with the Union are now petitioning for a second vote to be held so that they can vote for unity instead. 

Hundreds of thousands are seeing in less than twenty-four hours that they took an action which was inspired by economic fear and xenophobia and anger and hatred and greed and emotional intoxication and an anti-immigration sentiment as well as by a complete ignorance of the actual facts and the predictable consequences which they now see and regret. Such is the case when persons are duped, made fools of, and conned. 

In the non-duality-based fictional novel, The Board of Directors of Wars, the point / warning is offered that, historically, there have been three institutions which have most fostered dualistic thinking and which have most inspired separation and which have most fostered wars and which have done so by passing on self-destructive, self-defeating beliefs which drive self-destructive, self-defeating behaviors. Those are: big religion, big business, and big government, especially governments which are cursed by the influence of demagogues and would-be dictators and outright cons who are seeking power and control in order to serve themselves and no one else.

The human mind which has devolved from an asset into a liability generates magical thinking. Magical thinking inspires persons to believe in easy solutions and singular causes for humankind's ignorance-and-insanity-based, multi-faceted problems. Maharaj made clear that the cause of all is all and that assigning singular cause to any event or circumstance is also an act of ignorance. 

Today, there are many would-be leaders who are similar to the Pied Piper of Hamlin. He came to a town which was infested with rats and convinced the city leaders that he had magical powers and could use his flute to rid their town of its huge rat population. Eventually, he used the magic pipe to lead the children of the village into waters where they drowned. 

Around the globe this morning, there are billions of adults who are behaving like the childish persons in that story, willing to be led to the water to be drowned; willing to be lead to walk on burning coals to injure themselves physically; willing to blindly accept nonsense as truth; and willing to have their anger and hatred and fear verbalized and reinforced from a podium.

Such a simple story is the tale of the pied piper, yet it offers a quite astute pointer / warning: only the ignorant and insane who are trapped in their magical thinking will buy into a con’s lies and false-hope solutions and over-simplified explanations for their quite complicated and complex problems. 

For the non-dualist, the message is that only chaos and heaviness can result when persons buy into magical thinking and dualistic beliefs being offered by those who endorse separation over unity, hatred over love, anger over peace, and fear over a sense of well-being. 

A poem which was popular years ago in the U.S. dealt with a local hero named “Casey” who played for a baseball team in the town of Mudville. The team's supporters feared defeat as the game was not going their way, but their hopes were raised when Casey approached the batter’s box. They began betting ever cent they had on Casey, assured that he was going to solve their problem and bring success and fulfill their wishes and hopes and dreams. But in the end, their sad truth was described thusly: “There is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.” 

Similarly, there is no joy now in the places where fear and anger and greed and hatred and a sense of separation fester. And where exactly is that festering taking place? In the minds of the masses whose warped perspectives and flawed thinking is being tapped into by cons who adumbrate and magnify and give full-throated expression to the fear and anger and greed and hatred and sense of separation among the masses. 

For the masses to have no ability to see that a wolf in sheep's clothing is a wolf is proof of their having been handicapped by the blindness which is generated when the consciousness is blocked from seeing clearly as a result of a buildup of vast quantities of bogus beliefs which are presently stored in the minds of the masses.

And while duality is at the core of humanity's anger and fear and hatred-based problems, non-duality will never be the cure for what ails those suffering all around the globe from the Ultimate Sickness. The non-dual understanding can, however, offer a cure for one suffering person at a time or for one delusional person at a time. 

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.] 

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.

MAHARAJ: “Lightment” vs. Enlightenment, Part “PPPP”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

"The very idea 'I am Self-Realised' is a mistake. There is no 'I am this', 'I am that' in the Natural State." -  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Any unchecked sense of lightness experienced by humans usually happens early on, prior to having been strapped with the heaviness which is guaranteed to manifest after having been programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed. Those processes develop a mind filled with ignorant beliefs and develop a false belief in multiple personalities which will set the stage for the development of personality disorders which will subsequently trigger the development of neuroses and psychoses. 

In CHAPTER THIRTY of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled "The Relative Freedom of Reaching the Fourth of Seven Steps,” this is offered:

To return to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "the Child No-Knowing State" is to be free of the roots of all relative misery and suffering and wasted energy and preoccupation and going and doing and zooming. 

Those roots include: constantly searching for something that seems to be missing; constantly using ego-defense mechanisms to defend false identities / ego-states; constantly suffering from the debilitating effects of personality disorders; making life into a second job by constantly engaging in all sorts of "metaphysical exercises" and supposedly "religious and / or spiritual work" and going to services and meetings and studying constantly and working on "self"-improvement and being engaged in the unnatural and the supernatural rather than enjoying the bliss of abiding naturally; 

working constantly to become better, to become something other than what one thinks he or she has been, to be something more than - or something in addition to - what one is; and working to be something other than that which has always been, is, and shall forever be (though none among "the non-Realized" have a clue what that refers to). 

Most who come this way say, "I just want to be happy" or "All I want for my children is that they be happy." They are asked, "When were you last happy, in a totally unconditional manner?" Eventually, the discussion leads them back to "the Child No-Knowing State." 

At that point, happiness happened as long as the basics of food and (dry) clothing and shelter had been met. At that stage, unconditional happiness happened because at that stage there was no wasted energy, no preoccupations, no being driven to go-do-zoom. 

There was no nagging sense that something is missing, so there was no constant drive to search for something; there was no use of ego-defense mechanisms to defend false identities / ego-states; there was no suffering from the debilitating effects of personality disorders; 

there was no making a job out of merely living; there was no engagement in "metaphysical exercises" and supposedly "religious and / or spiritual work"; there was no going to services and meetings and studying constantly and working on "self"-improvement and being engaged in the unnatural and the supernatural rather than enjoying the bliss of abiding naturally; 

there was no working constantly to become better, to become something else; and there was no working to be something more than - or something in addition to - what actually is. No wonder that short period of time is the only time that most on the planet will ever enjoy unconditional happiness. 

TO REVIEW THAT WHICH ONE MUST BE RID OF IN ORDER TO RETURN TO "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STAGE" AND THEN EXPERIENCE ONCE AGAIN UNCONDITIONAL HAPPINESS: IDEAS, CONCEPTS, BELIEFS AND PERSONALITY 

Some ask why so much attention is paid to personality by Advaitins and why the enneagram personality test and analysis are offered here. A simple understanding of the results of being driven by the unconscious and hidden motivators rooted in personality should make clear the answer. 

Genetic influences notwithstanding, the multiple personalities which humans are assigned or assume are not innate. They develop in response to (1) the abnormal and unnatural influences of the dysfunctionalism that children are exposed to and try to "adjust" to in their families of origin; and, later, to (2) the influences of ignorance-disseminating institutions and cultural "-ism's" and the effects of exposure to a plethora of the entities in all cultures which reinforce the abnormal and unnatural (to which dysfunctional families of "non-realized persons" expose children). 

That which is rooted in a response to the abnormal and unnatural (and which involves no alternative options for making any independent choices or choosing an alternative environment) will also be abnormal and unnatural. And that is what personality is: abnormal and unnatural. What is innate in all humans is an inner sense of that which is authentic and natural.. Because personality develops early on, a sense of self (and, eventually, selves) blocks the awareness of the essence, of what is real, and a sense of the unicity. 

As noted earlier, there is initially a sense of Oneness, though it is not The Sense of Oneness: it happens for the first two years of a child's existence when it identifies with the mother and has no notions about "two-ness" or "duality," assuming that mother-child is "not two" but is "one" instead. Around the age of two, the child has "discovered" its hands and feet and, eventually, its own body that is separate from the body of the mom. 

At that point, another source of a false sense of separation and different-from-ment develops, setting the stage for the child to "find its own identity." Over the next years, the child will be assigned many false identities (will be assigned many false personas / personalities) and will eventually begin to assume many more false identities (false personas / personalities) on its own. [Note: "persona" (Lt.) = "mask," "character," "guise," "role," "facade," "front."] 

Each personality which develops or is assumed separates the child even farther from that initial sense of what is authentic and natural. Eventually, personality will block all awareness of reality as more and more false selves are believed (erroneously) to define "who one is." 

If Advaita pointers are to lead to a "re-Realization" (to a "re-membering") of the real and the authentic, then persons must first eliminate that which blocks the "path" and blocks the awareness of that innate sense of the real and the authentic namely, "a sense of self and selves" . . . a sense that personality / personalities are real . . . a sense that personas are of some benefit rather than one of the forces that generate chaos (and / or desires to control) throughout the relative existence. 

Per the Direct Path Method offered here, the final personality-purging-process happens after completion of the third of seven steps on the "journey" from the false "I" or "I's" to realization of the essence, the real, the authentic, the Oneness. It is there that all false identities must be eliminated - including the roles of "The Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Knower," "The Supreme," and even "The Seeker" itself. 

"Liberation" refers to the end result of completing the process by which persons are freed from the effects of the assigning or the assumption of false personas which, simultaneously, will liberate them from the desires and fears that are rooted in personality and that produce so much relative chaos and so much longing to control and so much desire for power (and for "a Power" / "God" or "Powers" / "Gods and Goddesses") to help them control: 

Maharaj: "First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you." 

Have you ever investigated which personality types have been driving you? And to what degree? Do you even know? Are you aware of which specific desire and fear of each type is most adversely impacting your relative existence and contributing to your misery and suffering? Do you know what personality disorders are manifesting alongside the personality types that are driving you? Because personality sets the stage for the manifestation of personality disorders, if personality disorders are not recognized and diagnosed, then more relative instability and chaos are assured. 

So why is this message so alien to the masses, so easily rejected without even the slightest consideration? 

1. Direct Path pointers invite persons to unlearn, not to learn more, and persons are most proud of what they think they know. 

2. Nisarga yoga invites persons to stop trying to live supernaturally / magically / unnaturally and to abide naturally. Who that is proud of his or her supernatural living will even consider that the trapping involved with that process are unnatural and rooted in magical thinking? 

 3. Personality / Persona assumption: Because 97% claim to be affiliated with some religion, they will most assuredly reject Direct Path, Nisargan pointers. 

4. More persona assumption: Add to the 6.79 billion who claim to be religious the millions who claim that they are "not religious" but are "something beyond religious" and "are something that is even better than being religious," namely, "being spiritual." They will reject any talk about non-identification and about living naturally rather than supernaturally. 

5. And because those billions of persons - and also most among those who claim to be seekers of Realization - are proud of their identities or identity or new-found "Identity." Because they are proud, they too will reject any notions that they consider "non-identification" as the actual stepping stone to understanding Truth and understanding the functioning of the totality. 

What pointers did Maharaj offer regarding how to be free of personality and what did he share about how the relative existence will unfold if one merely abandons personality and the desire to live supernaturally rather than naturally (that is, in a nisarga fashion)? 

"All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define your self." 

 "All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly." 

"The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused." 

"The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-I-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only', beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being." 

 "The 'person' is a shell imprisoning you. Break the shell." 

"Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part." 

"Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way . . . ." 

"By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly." 

"What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way." 

"All happens as it happens. Calamities, whether natural or man-made, happen." 

"In being, all happens naturally'." 

"In the natural state, silence happens 'spontaneously'"

and

"every experience happens against the background of silence." 

"All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being." 

"Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create and you are at once in your natural state." 

"Non-identification, when natural and spontaneous, is liberation." 

"You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not." 

"What you are you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer. The unknown has no limits." 

"Go beyond, back to your normal, natural, 'supreme' state." 

"What it means to be natural or normal you do not know; nor do you know that you do not know." 

Again, the very idea 'I am Self-Realised' is a mistake. There is no 'I am this', 'I am that' in the Natural State." 

You are invited to review those pointers one at a time, to enter into quiet contemplation, and to consider what each of those pointers might mean for you. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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