TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
The blight of humanity is rooted in identification (and “Identification”); the light of humanity involves freedom from identification (and “Identification”).
In CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE of The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" entitled Non-Identification, this is offered:
It should be noted that the "liberation via non-identification" which Maharaj spoke of can be attained by reaching the fourth of seven steps on the seven-step "path" to “Full Realization.” If a seeker reaches the end of the third step and shifts into the "Child No-Knowing State," then all phenomenal identities will have been abandoned because the seeker will have seen all that one is not. As Maharaj said, "that is enough."
Yet a state of total "non-identification" will not have been reached even after all phenomenal identities are cast aside because the noumenal identity that so many believe is their "lofty or elevated or noble or special" identity can still be sought, can supposedly be found, and can then remain.
Granted, after the fourth step, the so-called "True Self" or "Real Self" can come into awareness as Pure Witnessing happens. (That is, it can be seen that the terms "True Self" or "Real Self" do not even point to the Pure Witness and actually amount to nothing more than the Pure Witnessing.)
Some seekers will be led by certain gurus to accept as a new identity such labels as "The Absolute," "Brahman," "God," "energy," "energy-matter," "Consciousness," "Awareness," "Something," "SOMETHING!" "the Infinite Self," "The Supreme Self," "The Superlative," "THAT," etc. Yet all of those are still man-made labels generated by persons, labels which can be (a) useful for the sake of discussion only by some but which can be (b) taken as "Ultimate Identities" by others.
In the book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS though, it is made clear that prior to all that can be thought to be "something" or "Something," there was . . . nothing.
In the "Quotations" book on this site, this is offered:
The ultimate Advaita understanding is that there need not be any understanding. So relax. When a “state” of zero concepts is reached, it is understood that there is no “identity” at all.
Where this present universe is, there was a void, so . . .
"Nothing from nothing leaves . . . nothing, not “SOMETHING.”
To reach the fourth step is to know that all man-made labels generated over the millennia by “non-Realized persons” (or by persons and teachers and gurus claiming to be “Realized”) are false. Yes, labels and terms can be used as thorns for the sake of removing other thorns, but in the end, all identification ends if the “Full Understanding” manifests.
All seeking of "my true identity" ends with that understanding, for it is then understood why Maharaj said: "You need not know 'What You Are'. Enough to know what you are not."
Even more freeing though is his pointer that
"What You Are you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer. The unknown has no limits."
Seekers who go beyond all phenomenal identifications can move farther along the "path" and trace their roots to the Absolute, yes, but before that Absolute field of energy manifested in "this universe," that Absolute was not present because "this universe" was not present. So where does the avid, super-motivated seeker who cannot stop there look next to find her or his antecedent state?
Other universes. And then? Beyond those. Yet the search for the original root, the original state, is endless (and futile) because there is no beginning to energy-matter, to universes, to anything. The most they could find is . . . the beginninglessness.
That understanding allowed Maharaj to note that he had been present when all universes came into being and when all universes which have come to an end actually ended.
All which is real is infinite and has forever been, though it has not forever been "here," in this particular universe. Again, Maharaj: "What You Are you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer. The unknown has no limits."
If that is understood, then it becomes clear why the premise of this book is valid:
if the seeker never goes beyond the end of the third step and the transitioning into "the Child No-Knowing State," it is enough. It will be understood why Maharaj said "You need not know 'What You Are'. Enough to know what you are not."
If persons could be free of all body-mind-personality identification, then it would be enough, "enough" being able to abide naturally without the use of ego-defense mechanisms to defend and support illusory and false identities, be they the "bad" ones or the "good" ones or the "Supreme" ones.
If persons could be free of all body-mind-personality identification, then it would also be enough to abide naturally without being driven by the personality disorders discussed herein and enough being free of the relative defects and liabilities and insanity which manifest with personality disorders.
To be free of personal identities, one could then abide as naturally and peacefully and freely as the deer that know they are but, beyond that, have no assumed identities;
that have no need to purge their brains of the fiction-filled section that humans call "the mind"; that have no personality and therefore have no personality defects that need to be eliminated; that have no assumed ego-states and therefore use no ego-defense mechanisms; and that cannot be taught ignorance and cannot learn ignorance the way that humans do, leading to the call for the un-teaching that is offered here and the un-learning which “the non-Realized” so desperately require if ignorance is to go and wisdom is to come.
To stop at the point of
(1) knowing what you are not
and
(2) realizing that "What You Are you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer"
can bring to a halt the tendency of "The Super Seekers" and "The Spiritual Giants" to work forever to find some "lofty" identity and then spend the remainder of the relative trying to convince others that that is their "lofty or elevated or noble or special" identity (which then supposedly makes them "Lofty or Elevated or Noble or Special").
While claiming at that point to know the Oneness and Love, they are (as a result of assuming some Noumenal Identity) more separated from "others" than ever because, in their own "minds," they are different from and better than the masses who do not know what "Lofty or Elevated or Noble or Special" persons think they know.
The fact is, the one that is free of all ego-state assumption (and therefore egotism) makes far better relative company than "The Super Religious Ones" and "The Spiritual Giants" who believe that they are something and they are Really Something. Better to be beyond all relative identification than to be "beyond" and totally out of touch. It is one thing to be in touch with Reality, but if that leaves one out of touch with the reality of the relative existence, then wherefore any actual "benefit"?
Note again that it was those types whom Maharaj was addressing when he advised:
First, "All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being."
The understanding of that pointer will coincide with the shift from the third of seven steps on the "path" and into the freedom of "the Child No-Knowing State." Yet those pointers are far too radical for some and far too simple for others.
Moreover, that understanding will be far too freeing for those who want to live in a fashion that is not natural but who want to try to live in a style that they think is supernatural (i.e., in a super-spiritual mode or in a mode involving magical, metaphysical thinking . . . ignoring the fact that it has always been their thinking which has been the source of all of their relative problems to begin with.)
Once the consciousness has been "blocked" or "warped" or "contaminated," then
the invitation to relax;
the invitation to take it easy;
the invitation to be quiet;
and
the invitation to be as calm as the deer that is resting in "the cool, blue shade"
are all taken to be invitations
which are . . . insane;
which are being offered by one who appears to be out of touch;
which are being offered by one who appears to be naive;
which are being offered by one who seems not to understand what persons are up against;
and
which are being offered by one who seems not to have realized as much as others have realized.
The fact: the one who knows not knows not that he knows not, and the one who is totally sure that he knows it all is actually one who knows nothing at all.
So it is, but so it need not be.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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