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

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

To assist in assuring that there is a relative existence which is dominated by lightness, humans must acquire an ability to deal with and to cope. To assure that one will suffer from a seemingly heavy existence, don’t deal with and don’t cope. 

Coping skills allow for dealing with. In keeping with Maharaj’s ultimate realization regarding the roots of the Ultimate Sickness (which led him to move away from a religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine and away from a spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine and to offer instead a psychology / non-duality based version of the Ultimate Medicine) a discussion of the need for the masses to understand and develop coping skills to use throughout the relative existence is consistent with his ultimate finding and teachings.

Coping skills are defined thusly: “Coping skills are methods a person uses to deal with stressful situations; the development of effective coping skills leads to mental health wellness.” Yet the “non-realized” masses - rather than “deal with” - will more often “battle with.” 

The residual fear and anger and frustration which have continued to fester after the U.S.-led housing bubble and crash in 2007 and 2008 (which affected millions upon millions of persons directly or indirectly all around the globe) has led to a 20-year low in home ownership and available cash. 

For eight years, since the greedy few screwed the many out of their money and homes; and since their actions were aggravated by the fact that the masses spent and spent and accumulated rather than preparing for hard times by creating a savings account with reserve funds; and because most persons typically blame and resent others rather than accept whatever degree of responsibility is their own; and because the fear and anger and frustration has not being handled or coped with, that fear and anger and frustration has continued to grow for over eight years and has now reached epic proportions. 

Thus, all around the globe, fear is driving many persons and anger is driving even more persons and both of those personality-based factors are driving political preferences and voting patterns in the countries where citizens have the right to vote. 

Too, while those economic problems might certainly be serious in many cases – relatively speaking – the fact is that most persons, rather than carry on in the face of adversity, will carry on about the trivial and make mountains out of minutiae, making for an even heavier existence. The absence of coping skills makes for a heavy existence because it assures that most persons will mismanage rather than manage.

Among psychologists and therapists who work with those suffering from stress and who sometimes assist them with the development of coping skills, one of the first recommendations is to “manage yourself.” 

One non-dualist says in that regard: “What you identify as stress, fear or anger doesn’t happen because of what’s around you, but due to your own faculties not taking instructions from you. If your mind was taking instructions from you, it would create pleasantness, not unpleasantness. It is your inability to manage your own system that causes this problem. Assume control over your own being, and everything will be fine.” 

The first point is accurate. Stress is generated by what is happening within, not by what is happening without. And yes, the “non-realized” are usually incapable of “managing their own system” (that is, their own thoughts and words and actions and, therefore, their lives) because the hidden agendas of their false identities control all of that. 

What is not accurate? The notion that the mind can create pleasantness. Why? Because the content of the mind is the source of all that is perceived to be unpleasant. 

The same person advised that one should make one’s mind happy. Again, that is impossible. While pain is about the body, misery and suffering and unhappiness are about the mind. A child in the no-mind, “No Knowing State” can enjoy unconditional happiness. Once the mind begins to manifest because a child has been exposed to warped programming, conditioning, etc., then any and all opportunities to enjoy unconditional happiness will come to a screeching halt.

Consider the plight of this fish, recently captured on film by an underwater photographer, the photo showing the fish trapped inside a jellyfish:

Those with an ability to feel empathy might be saddened to a tremendous degree upon seeing the plight of that fear-stricken fish; yet how many persons will never develop the same level of empathy for themselves, then seek until they find a way to escape the same kind of entrapment within their own mind? (And by the way, persons are not actually "trapped in their own mind" but are trapped within a hand-me-down mind which is really the mind of their ancient ancestors and more recently the mind of their grandparents and the mind of their parents or guardians.)

See, that's what an existence is like when trapped in a mind that has been filled with the nonsense that comes via nonsensical programming, conditioning, etc. When personality is determining and controlling every thought and word and action, then one will be like that fish: still physically "alive" for a time, but being moved through life by unconscious forces rather than by the ability to make conscious choices which allow one to cope and deal with and handle the vicissitudes of the relative existence.

Additionally, those with no coping skills - rather than looking after themselves - will sabotage and abuse themselves. Such types will always “mishandle” rather than “handle.” 

Maharaj: “Often people come with their bodies, brain and minds so mishandled, perverted, and weak that the state of formless attention is beyond them.” 

Most cannot really pay attention to anything for long and cannot be aware of all that is involved with any given event; 

or, 

conversely, some will pay so much excess attention to one thing or to one person (see the Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder) that they become monomaniacs, driven to focus on one thing only; those types cannot see the forest because they are only paying attention to one particular tree. 

Maharaj said that the sun “may seem obscured by clouds and dust, but only from the point of view of the perceiver. Deal with the causes of obscuration (of things being obscured), not with the sun.” 

Additionally, whining does not address misery and suffering – it prolongs it – so Maharaj gave short shrift to seekers trapped in that mindset: 

Questioner: “All I want to know is how to deal with the world's sorrows."

Maharaj: “You have created them out of your own desires and fears, so you deal with them.” 

An even more effective manner of abiding would be to stop “creating them” – stop creating the misery and suffering and sorrow which afterwards require so much effort to try to address. Take the steps to avoid the emotional intoxication which will always render persons incapable of dealing with or coping. How? 

Emotions are the product of personal identifications. No ego-states? Then no emoting, just feeling and witnessing feelings as they rise and fall rather than allowing them to make one’s peace rise and fall. 

Maharaj: “I don't get flustered. I just do the needful. I do not worry about the future. A right response to every situation is in my nature. I do not stop to think what to do. I act and move on. Results do not affect me. I do not even care whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Whatever they are, they are. If they come back to me, I deal with them afresh. Or, rather, I happen to deal with them afresh. There is no sense of purpose in my doing anything.” 

As for those playing the role of a Personality Type Two (“The Reformer,” “The Savior,” “The Rescuer,” “The One Who Is Determined to Change the World For the Better,” “The One Sacrificing to Take Care of Others in Order to Be Loved") Maharaj offered advice for such types whose personality-based agendas drive them to create a heavy existence for themselves as they end up placing everyone else’s needs ahead of what is in their own AM-ness-involved interests: 

Questioner: “Is there no salvation for the world?” 

Maharaj: “Which world do you want to save? The world of your own projection? Save it yourself. My world? Show me my world and I shall deal with it. I am not aware of any world separate from myself, which I am free to save or not to save. What business have you with saving the world when all the world needs is to be saved from you? Get out of the picture and see whether there is anything left to save.” 

Maharaj: "The causes of perversity are also natural - heredity, environment and so on. You are too quick to condemn. Do not worry about others. Deal with your own mind first.” A related suggestion in Latin dating back thousands of years advised: “Cura te ipsum” (that is, "heal thyself"). 

Maharaj tried to redirect seekers to focus less on gaining knowledge, (their "knowledge" being nothing more than “learned ignorance” anyway, he said) and focus more on being fully authentic: 

Maharaj: “I have told you already that knowledge is most useful in dealing with things. But it does not tell you how to deal with people and yourself, how to live a life. We are not talking. of driving a car, or earning money. For this you need experience. But for being a light unto yourself material knowledge will not help you. You need something much more intimate and deeper than mediate knowledge, to be yourself in the true sense of the word. Your outer life is unimportant. You can become a night watchman and live happily. It is what you are inwardly that matters. Your inner peace and joy you have to earn. It is much more difficult than earning money. No university can teach you to be yourself. The only way to learn is by practice. Right away begin to be yourself. Discard all you are not and go ever deeper. Just as a man digging a well discards what is not water, until he reaches the water-bearing strata, so must you discard what is not your own, till nothing is left which you can disown. You will find that what is left is nothing which the mind can hook on to. You are not even a human being. You just are- a point of awareness, co-extensive with time and space and beyond both, the ultimate cause, itself uncaused. If you ask me: 'Who are you?' My answer would be: 'Nothing in particular. Yet, I am’.” 

Working to be something (or many things or many different things / personas which you are not) is heavy; being authentic makes for an easy and simple and light existence. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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