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."
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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