TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
How can one constrained or imprisoned ever enjoy a true sense of lightness? One cannot. Maharaj would eventually shift from (a) suggesting that not being “spiritual” is a key contributor to feeling constrained or imprisoned to (b) pointing out that it is the mind and its content - and the psychological problems which are generated by the content of the mind - which cause persons to become constrained and imprisoned.
John Milton said in the 1600’s: "The mind . . . in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven”
and
Richard Lovelace said, also in the 1600’s, “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” What does? The mind, he said.
Maharaj said in the 1980’s: " . . . 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."
In CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX of the book The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled The Constraints of "Somethingness" vs. the Freedom of "Nothingness," this is offered:
Two final points are being offered for especial consideration:
A. The entire notion that you have become better, that you have become something really "good" or super religious or super spiritual, that you have really become SOMETHING (and "Something Special"), differs not at all from the same kind of deception and self-deception which plagues the totally "non-realized masses" and which triggers use of the same ego-defense mechanisms (such as egotism and arrogance) which are employed by anyone assuming an ego-state as an identity.
B. Completion of the entire "journey" to "Full Realization" does not result in egotism and arrogance and narcissism being replaced by (always-false) "humility" or (always-false) "modesty" for those are nothing more than the opposite extreme of the "egotistical vs. humble" duality.
The full discussion of "the Reality of 'no concept,' of 'no duality,' of 'no something,' and even of 'no nothing' is provided in the book "From the ABSOLUTE to the NOTHINGNESS," but a few pointers from that work are relevant to these final pointers so they will be shared here for your consideration.
First, one pointer from that book explains why persons who will stumble across this site and see the topic will usually leave the site posthaste:
"Some will feel that their 'true identity' is being minimized and not recognized for the glorious post-manifestation 'SOMETHING' that it is . . . all 'heavenly' and 'celestial' and 'splendid' . . . maybe even 'saintly' or 'godly' or 'cherubic' or 'spiritual' or 'divine' or 'holy' or 'something' which they believe will be 'even above and beyond' all of that."
Though Maharaj made clear that he had reached a state of "zero concepts" and "no beliefs" and then invited his visitors to do the same, few ever accepted the invitation and completed the entire "journey" required to reach that state. The reason why it is addressed in "Nothingness":
"Whether your identity is of a phenomenal nature or a noumenal nature in your ‘mind,’ your preoccupation with it is evidence of the fact that you hold in esteem either that which you currently believe you are, or that SOMETHING which you think you shall be forever, or both. In fact, when a ‘state’ of zero concepts is reached, it is understood that there is no ‘identity’ at all. It is also realized from that ‘state’ that there is nothing deserving any esteem at all, contrary to the tendency among the non-Realized to demand that they be shown ‘the honor they deserve’."
Then, for those seekers who would reach the “final level” of understanding and who are capable of reaching the zero concepts “state,” this is offered: " 'Absolute,' 'THAT,' 'Brahman,' 'God,' 'energy,' 'energy-matter,' 'Consciousness,' 'Awareness,' and 'SOMETHING' are still man-made labels generated by persons; however, since Awareness is not even aware of awareness (or anything else) what justification can be offered for being 'concerned' with any of those labels, if 'Fully Realized'?"
Here, the invitation is to abandon unnatural living and to abandon attempts to abide in a "supernatural" fashion (which is always rooted in magical thinking and which always generates even more magical, delusional thinking) and to then abide in a nisarga (natural) fashion. The deer and birds and fish that abide naturally assume no identity, work to maintain no images and no false identities, and care not a whit about "finding out 'Who or What They Truly Are'."
Only programmed persons need undertake that quest.
To abandon the ego and egotism-based preoccupation with both self-focus and Self-focus can allow natural abidance to happen. And such natural abidance happens - and works quite well - for all of the trillions and trillions of life-forms on this planet with only one exception: the seven-billion persons who have been programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, and taught what is thought to be "knowledge" but which is really nothing more than learned ignorance.
Once all of those non-facts are assumed to be facts, then the condition of "non-Realized persons / personas" is exactly as described by Sara Gruen in "Water for Elephants": "Then you believe them, and before you know it, they're a part of your history, and if someone challenges you on them and says they're not true -- why, then you get offended."
Once offended, as happens when a series such as this is read by those who are sure that they are "something" and "Something" and "Something Spiritual," and "Something Different and Special," the "love" they speak of disappears and what is revealed is their capacity to hate, as explained in "Nothingness":
"They hate hearing that their entire existence is all much ado about nothing. They despise being told that they have been fooled. They hate pointers dealing with purposelessness and meaninglessness. They hate pointers which suggest that all of those times when they made mountains out of molehills were rooted in pure foolishness.
"They hate the notion of 'nothingness' and thrive on all their concepts that deal with 'somethingness.' They hate hearing that their beliefs and their concepts are fiction. They hate when their dualistic belief in their own eternal reward is exposed as a fraud or when their belief in an eternal punishment for their enemies is debunked.
"They bristle when it is pointed out that their 'life-long' attempts to defend their various concepts have amounted to nothing more than a waste of breath. They hate to hear that the energy spent in trying to make their views understood and accepted was for naught. They can become livid when it is noted that their actions (which earned applause from the masses who considered those actions to be 'accomplishments') were for nil.
"They despise the pointer that no one has ever 'made the world a better place' as a result of any action. They are offended when it is suggested that the naming of streets after them, that the building of statues in their honor, and that the construction of libraries built to house evidence of their 'achievements' amounts to just so much rubbish. They reject any suggestion that the desire to extend in perpetuity the memory of them and their 'identity' is mere tripe."
So it is, but so it need not be.
Nothing said by "floyd" or by Floyd can offend you. Nothing said by anyone can offend You. The only thing that can believe that it has been offended is the false-you . . . the not-You . . . the false-you's. Which part of the composite unity triad of air / earth elements / temporarily-manifested-conscious-energy could any words possibly offend? No part.
What can erroneously perceive what seems to be offensive? Only the false identities which are housed in the fiction-filled "mind."
The antidote to offense and hatred? A complete purging of all of the false beliefs and bogus concepts that have been accumulated, followed by abidance as the no-concept, no-idea, zero beliefs, no-programming, no-conditioning, no-identity, nothingness-understanding, non-dual Reality.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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