“What Would You Say If You Knew For A Fact That Only Three Hours Of The Manifestation Remained?" Part One

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

If one is familiar with the talks of Maharaj and if one is discerning enough, then one can see clearly that each pointer or consideration he offered fell into one of only seven categories or groupings. Eventually, it came to be seen here that the pointers and the considerations he offered aligned with one or the other of the seven steps which were on the “path” which he endorsed. 

That seven-step “path” was designed to allow seekers to follow his two key instructions offered to those that would shift from (a) identification with the body to (b) abiding as their original nature was when in the field of Absolute-energy and prior to the manifestation of the conscious-energy: 

“…You should go back, reverse, to the source” 

 and 

“Follow the same path by which you came.” 

Since he never enumerated those steps as “steps 1 through 7,” most can read Maharaj’s talks for a lifetime and still never see exactly the proper sequence he offered, but his steps can be observed once Maharaj’s teaching method is understood. 

He allowed visitors to speak in order for them to reveal (without knowing they were revealing) exactly where on the “path” they were at that moment. Then his response was intended to move the visitor to the next step on the "path."

[When seekers come here for a retreat, they are taken to dinner the first night specifically for that purpose: to allow them a chance to reveal as much as possible about their overall “journey” so far in order to find “where they are” and to identify exactly “where they need to go next.”] 

For example, if a seeker spoke to Maharaj from the viewpoint of the false identity of “The Spiritual Giant,” then Maharaj understood this: that seeker was fixated at the third of seven steps. After that, Maharaj would offer pointers and considerations which were intended to shift the seeker to the fourth step where there are no assumed or assigned personal identifications (and also no Personal Identifications, which most don’t understand really are nevertheless “Personal”). If a seeker’s words revealed the seeker happened to be at the second step, then Maharaj would offer pointers which were intended to shift the seeker to the third step. 

Here, the seven steps on the “path” have been taught ever since that “Eureka” moment happened, that is, the moment when it became clear exactly what Maharaj was doing, or attempting to do, for each seeker. 

Each piece of advice was targeted for a specific seeker at a specific point, and that is why his pointers have been so confusing to so many. It can seem that he contradicted himself from one talk to the next, but if it is understood that one talk was calculated to be relevant to a seeker at the beginning of the “path” while his next talk was designed for a visitor who was nearing the end of the “path,” then it can also be understood why one particular message might seem to be in conflict with another . . . but was not. 

All of the pointers he offered were custom-designed and custom-fit for the particular seeker sitting before him; thus, all of his pointers were level-appropriate for one seeker at a time. 

Those who come here for a retreat are offered all seven steps on the “path,” even if someone is already at, say, the third step. The two previous steps will be reviewed because they are part of the “path” Maharaj recommended. 

With nearly 700 visitors coming to this site on the same day last week, imagine the variety of experiences and backgrounds which they brought with them. Imagine how diverse they were in terms of "where" each was on the "path."

Here, typically, various topics are discussed, but there is no way that even a majority of the visitors on any given day could be at the same place on the “path” at the specific moment they come to the site and read about any given topic. Here, therefore, the various non-dual topics discussed provide opportunities for an “Aha! moment" for those at the place on the “path” being discussed in order to allow a shift to the next step. 

To that end, on the site, a variety of topics are discussed in order to provide an opportunity to offer a variety of pointers and considerations intended to provide awarenesses which - in their entirety – can eventually assist anyone to move to the next step on the “path.” 

That said, occasionally pointers are gathered and offered in a single “cataloguing” of key considerations which might assist each among the varied groups which show up here on any given day. And that was the impetus for the content gathered into one volume in the book WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson).

There is a "back story" behind the book. In "CHAPTER SIX," the events that inspired these writings are discussed in some detail, so briefly for now, the way that that book came into being will be shared: 

In October of 2011, there was a problem with this elemental plant food body, a problem which involved a combination of (1) a 95%+ blockage in the left anterior descending artery and (2) internal hemorrhaging which had lowered the hemoglobin rate from its preferred range of 12-16 for a male to a rate near 7.0. [The cause: a doctor-recommended aspirin regimen with no cautionary advice regarding the fact that aspirin and other blood thinners often cause internal bleeding in a large percentage of humans.]

After having been sent home following a week in the hospital when doctors completed two exploratory surgeries, the transfusion of many units of plasma, angioplasty, and the placement of a stent in the LAD, it only took four days' use of the blood thinners they prescribed for them to trigger more internal hemorrhaging and to send this elemental plant food body staggering back into the office of the cardiologist. 

A speedy processing of a blood sample revealed that the red blood cell rate had dropped below the preferred 12-16 range, below the earlier 7.0 range, and had fallen to 4.7. (Two nurses explained that it was impossible that I had walked into their office with a 4.7 red blood cell rate, especially after having surgeries and after the placement of a stent that could include complications triggered by the need to stop the use of blood thinners. The reply: "Don't know what to tell you, ladies, except that my best recollection is that I did walk in here on my own.") 

The doctor called for a wheelchair and gave the nurses instructions to bypass the admissions office of the adjacent hospital and to take me directly to ICU and to have a nurse begin an IV and administer what would become a total of seven more units of blood. 

In a discussion with my daughter and friends who had come to check on the body's condition, the doctor's prognosis that night was not positive. It was learned later that the doctor was seemingly very concerned and was also mystified when he was told that he could relax in the fact that "if floyd makes it, that will be okay with him, and if he does not make it, that will be okay with him as well." 

Yes, the doctor was taken aback, but he asserted that his intentions did not parallel that sentiment. The next two days were said by those tending to this plant food body to be "touch-and-go," especially after the doctors diagnosed an additional complication as a result of anemia, namely, damage to the left ventricular valve that has already been generating a heart murmur since the age of fifteen. 

At the time of this writing, some five weeks after completion of the procedures on the heart, the state of the stent - and whether blood clots will form or not in the absence of blood thinners which presently cannot be used - must unfold in whatever way it unfolds. But what do those hospitalizations have to do with this book being written? 

 During that stay, a call came from a man who engaged is certain pleasantries and some inquiries about the condition of the body and the prognosis for what he termed "survival . . . I mean, well-being"; however, it soon became clear that there was more that he wanted to discuss (though he was being sheepish about revealing the actual motive behind his call). 

Recognizing that there was some embarrassment or awkwardness around what he wanted, it was suggested that he say what he wanted to say. He continued to hesitate as he tried to find a way to ask delicately and tactfully what he felt was going to be clumsy at best and possibly insensitive or unfeeling or rude at the worst. 

Finally, with additional encouragement, he said it: "I was wondering if there might be something that you would be willing to say to those who have been following your blog or reading your books or coming to you for satsang or retreats over the years. I don't want you to think I want to profit from the sale of a video or tape recording or book of transcripts of what you might be willing to share, but it seems that maybe there might be some . . . ." 

As his pause seemed as if it might not end, he was asked: "You mean, maybe there might be some 'last words' or some remaining elements of the teachings that have not yet been shared?" That question was followed by boisterous laughter (with which he did not join). Then, “You prompted a recollection of an old cartoon image of vultures circling above a fellow who was crawling across a desert with only minutes to live.” 

His reply was something to this effect: "It's just that - considering all of the talks and writings that have provided so many in-depth explanations and discussions - maybe there might be a call to give 'the short version' . . . a 'one-two punch' to all relative falsehoods, and a succinct pointing to the Real. 

“In other words,” he continued, “what would you say if you knew for a fact that only three hours of the manifestation remained? I mean, what would you say if you knew you were offering your final talks? For those of us that you've invited to continue sharing the non-duality message but who cannot possibly offer the detailed explanations you do, what can we say that will get to the heart of things in a way that we can provide after you're gone?” 

The reply: "So after all of the conversations we're shared about non-duality, the best you can come up with right now is the notion that it has been 'I' - rather than the consciousness - that has been speaking or writing or sharing? And you think that you need to be able to tell any seekers who might come to you something that 'I' said that they need to hear, rather than you sharing your own 'experience' and understanding? The fact is, if only three hours of the manifestation remained, the case here would be the same as the case was with Maharaj at the end of the manifestation of that speck: he entered into the silence, not into more talking." 

He: "What I'm asking for is some sort of condensation. You tell 'this' to a seeker at one point on the 'path,' but you tell 'that' to a different seeker at a different point on the 'path.' All I'm asking for is what you would tell those who have taken all seven steps on the 'path' but who still need to hear something more in order to get the total message. 

The reply: "Maharaj shared at the end many pointers that differed from what he had told seekers all along the way as he shifted from emphasizing one yoga after another." Silence. Then . . .  

"Arrangements have been made with a company in Houston to cremate this body after the manifestation ends. If I walk out of this hospital instead of being transported by an employee of that company, then I'll take your request under advisement." The result of that exchange is this book. 

The word "final" is in quote marks because the discussions herein might not be the actual final talks at all; however, if it were determined that any such final talks should happen, the content of this book would be the subject matter of those talks. 

Some of that content will be shared in coming posts.

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 over 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?” The Conclusion

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

The dance which is spoken of by “non-dualists” is a dance of conscious presence. Those that are awake and aware and conscious dance the dance lightly. Those who are unawake, unaware, and unconscious – walking about as if in a dream, talking in their sleep, driving in their sleep, forming relationships in their sleep, breaking relationships in their sleep – cannot possibly dance lightly. They stomp. They trample. They march about in the most stiff and rigid manner imaginable. 

Every human is in either one or the other of those two groups. A few are awake and aware and conscious. Most are not. Yet they do often share one thing in common: whatever they think or say or do involves a desire to return to experiencing consistently the unconditional happiness which last manifested during their earliest days and months and which was last enjoyed only before exposure to the nonsensical programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination which every child is exposed to as soon as their parents and other adults around them begin to expose children to those processes. 

Once personality develops as a result, then everything that a person thinks and says and does will be determined by the hidden, subconscious agendas of one or more of the nine basic personality types which develop as a result of programming, conditioning, etc., and will be determined later on by one or more of the scores of false personal identities which they are assigned or which they assume. From that point on, everything that they do is driven by a desire for happiness. 

What’s wrong with that? At first glance, nothing, but after the actual effects of being driven become obvious, everything about being driven by hidden and unconscious motives can be seen to have devastating effects on the existence of every human involved (relatively speaking). 

The problem with that subconscious longing to return to the state when happiness was manifesting more often than not is that – actually – even the seemingly-unconditional happiness of a child had certain conditions which had to be met before happiness could follow, and the child had no power to make those conditions happen. 

The child cannot force someone to change its wet or soiled diaper. It can only scream at the top of its lungs to make those around the screamer aware of his or her discomfort or restlessness or discontentment or irritation. Nor can the child prepare a meal to quell its hunger or prepare a drink to quell its thirst. Nor can it adjust the thermostat to warm or to cool a room to a preferred temperature. 

One man who was asked what the problem was with this nation and the planet in general answered, “The problem is this: there are no adults.” Because one’s primary personality type is set in place by the age of five or six, and because one’s basic personality type seldom ever changes, then those of an adult age will continue to be driven by the same fears and desires which were driving them when they were five or six years old. 

That is one of the key problems with personality: it subconsciously determines thoughts and words and actions and subconsciously wants . . . what a five or six year old wants. And since most who are of an adult age will never get everything they want, then the five or six year old lingering within their psyches will scream at the top of their lungs to make those around the screamers aware of their discomfort or restlessness or discontentment or irritation; and will scream about what they want even though what they want is not what they need at all. 

Moreover, what they want will be determined solely by the hidden agendas of things which are nothing more than delusions and illusions to begin with, namely (1) false identities and (2) what they want and think they need in order to be happy (which, for those types, always involves externals). 

Since happiness for “the non-realized” masses depends on externals, then such persons will forever be trying to control others in their quest for happiness; will try to take from others in their quest for happiness; and will try to either control or destroy "others" in one way or another if those “others” are believed to have what those adult-aged children think they need. The result is a planet populated by persons who see “others” as the threat as well as the solution to their problems which are actually rooted in their own fears and desires. 

Again, everything that “non-realized persons” do is driven by a desire for happiness. And again, what’s wrong with that? Everything. Those free of living under the influence of personality and ignorance and insanity can tap into the only true source of happiness (which is internal, not external); thus, those who are wise and sane are not judging others and trying to change them; are not seeking others to love them to make them feel better about themselves; 

are not performing in an effort to get adulation and applause from the masses in order to satisfy their sense of inferiority; are not trying to escape; are not trying to form dependent and co-dependent relationships in order to have others take care of them; are not trying to use addictions to escape; are not behaving in sociopathic and psychopathic ways in order to control others by bullying them; and are not trying to dissociate from reality in order to engage in mental flights of fancy. 

To be driven by a desire for happiness might work fine if everyone happened to be sane and wise and loving, but few are; thus, trying to abide in a society or nation where a majority of persons are being driven by their selfish, self-based desires does not make for a harmonious existence.

What are some of the delusions which drive those seeking happiness? The infirmed say, “If only I had good heath, I’d be happy.” If that were the case, then everyone who has good health would be happy, but such is not the case. Certain personality types say, “If only I had money, I would be happy.” If that were the case, then every millionaire and billionaire would be happy, but such is not the case. 

Certain personality types say, “If only I had fame or youth or beauty or talent, I would be happy.” If that were the case, then every famous or beautiful or talented person would be happy rather than often being self-destructive at a rate that is far higher-than-average. 

What is not understood by most is that the dry and fed child who might seem to be thrilled and ecstatic and overjoyed and blissful because of its unconditional happiness is not as much happy as it is merely content. For whom is contentment not enough? For the "non-realized" masses, that is who.

And there’s the rub of the adult-aged child: she or he has no inner sense of contentment, whether rich or poor, well or sick, famous or unknown, beautiful or not, talented or not.

Happiness (or, more significantly, contentment) comes – not when one if finally freed, once and for all, of all challenges and problems - but when one is sane enough and wise enough and mature enough to understand the actual roots of any challenge or problem and then sane and wise and mature enough to adjust accordingly. 

See? Another name for sane is “well-adjusted.” Children are not likely to be “well-adjusted,” and neither are adult-aged children (a.k.a., “the non-realized” or “the masses in general”). Why? 

Because nothing is more varied and distorted than the beliefs about what being happy is really about. For some, “loving and being loved” might be considered the height of happiness. For some, “helping others and caring for others” might be considered the height of happiness. Yet in the national news nowadays in the U.S., it certainly appears that around 50% or more are talking and behaving in ways that show, for them, they are happiest when blaming others, hating others, and attacking others.

For them, it seems they would be happiest if they could deport others, block others, beat others, and even kill others. So again, what’s wrong with wanting to be happy? Nothing, if “realized.” But if not realized but being driven by ignorance and arrogance and insanity and hatred, well in that case, what’s wrong with wanting to be happy? Everything. 

The old maxim that “My rights end where yours begin” might be modified to offer this consideration: Is it possible that the limit – the furthermost boundary - of what I have the right to in order to be happy must end with me and must never even begin to encroach upon or depend upon you or anyone else.

During this series, various historical epochs of humanity have been discussed, showing how humans are forever unstable, forever shifting from one extreme to another, forever moving from Ages of Darkness to Ages of Enlightenment. What triggers those shifts? 

First, a preponderance of dualistic beliefs, for the case truly is that “a dual-minded person will be unstable in all ways.” The historical shifts have always happened when a tipping point is reached, when a previous balance is lost, when the weight on the scales shift from one side to another, when a turning point comes. 

None of the shifts from one epoch to another happen suddenly. The movement is subtle, but in the end, every instance of such shifts has always involved the degree to which the Ultimate Sickness was manifesting - or not - on a widespread basis.

Using Maharaj’s definition of the key symptoms of the Sickness (“ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”) the last Age of Darkness was entered into when the scales tipped because 50.1%+ turned their back on science and education. The Age of Darkness ended, and there was a shift to the Age of Enlightenment, when 50.1%+ turned back to science and education. 

Hundreds of years ago, Florence, Italy led the way to an Age of Enlightenment when science and the arts and education prevailed in spite of protests from the religious people in that nation-state, and that preference for light over darkness lasted right up until a fanatical, angry, demagogue-of-a-monk came onto the scene and tipped the scales as 50.1%+ among the religious masses joined him to overthrow the government and to burn all secular books and to destroy all examples of humanistic art and to tolerate thereafter only religious art and religious writings. 

In modern history, the last great tipping of the scale came when many were enjoying the prosperity which came to them after WWI ended, even as others during that same period were homeless and economically repressed. Under those circumstances, the economically repressed were vulnerable and therefore attracted to the hate-filled, duality-based messages of certain fascist leaders who came forth, pledging to lead their frustrated and angry and hate-filled audiences to a new promised land, those would-be dictators claiming that they alone could lead the poor to a prosperous future. 

As more and more angry citizens aligned with those fascist leaders who were promoting the dualistic concepts of “different from” and “not as good as” and separation and hate, the scales finally tipped when 50.1%+ blindly followed those leaders and jumped off the cliff into WWII. Earlier, during “The Roaring ‘20’s,” many had been dancing in the streets, but the light-hearted dancers were knocked out of the way by goose-stepping, marching, stomping, rigid troops who took over the streets, and took over the nation, and tried their best to take over all nations.

Now, the stage has been set for some years for the potential for another major shift to come. The planet is once more at a potential turning point and has been flirting for some time with reaching another tipping point, coming closer and closer to the point of losing all balance. Whether the new wave of fascists coming onto the scene around the globe prevail or not will depend on the degree to which the dualistic, separatist, arrogance-based Ultimate Sickness and its symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” manifest. 

Will the masses reach the balance-ending 50.1%, or will the planet experience another of the many recent “close calls”? That is to be seen, and it will be seen in the coming days and months. 

Such is the history of humanity, but the “realized” are never pulled into the wake created as the masses sail the shifting seas which are often wracked by storms. 

It may be that many streets will be closed for dancing, but the internal dance of the “realized” can continue because the "the realized" will keep dancing on the inner streets of their beingness. 

Best regards, knowing that the invitation to dance lightly always remains.

TOMORROW: A new series will begin, answering the question, “What would you share if you knew for a fact that only three hours of the manifestation remained?" 

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 over 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 Twenty-Five

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

It is so easy to relate here to those who are so certain that they either (A) know the answer to all of the questions regarding "this life" and "the after-life" and therefore need not seek or (B) those who think they have some clue about what is to be sought and believe that they are going about the business of seeking and finding in the proper manner. As was the case with Maharaj at certain points and the case here, "Been there; done that."

For those in group "A," most depend of some sort of supposedly-holy text (which most will never read but will depend on religious leaders or spiritual guides to tell them what the texts have to say about any specific thing and also about everything in general as well).

As for those in group "B," most are seeking by way of an ideology or some philosophy or by way of one of the five main methods of teaching non-duality. 

In most every case, though, that which is being sought does not exist. Most adult seekers are like a child seeking an Easter egg underneath a Christmas tree or seeking Christmas presents wrapped inside eggshells and hidden in a field of grass.

Yesterday, 680 visitors from every continent on the planet came to this site seeking something. Some will find pointers that are diametrically opposite of what is offered by many discussing the issues address here. Yet some keep coming back because - they explain - it is the pointers which are offering a totally different perspective which are resonating within them.

Again, as some non-dualists have taught, "You might as well seek an eagle's nest on the floor of the ocean." 

As seek what? 

As seek the number of angels who can fit on the head of a pin; as seek salvation; as seek eternal life; as seek one's eternal soul; as seek an understanding of one's "spiritual malady" and how to treat it with faith and prayer; as seek the best "faith-healing" method; as seek a Supreme Self or an Infinite Self; as seek personal power; as seek God;

as seek "the right way to live so one can be guarded by a loving, caring god or by that god's surrogates (a.k..a, "guardian angels)"; as seek karmic balance; as seek a holy food plan; as seek escape from the cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth; as seek the reason that the Power(s) who supposedly control everything that happens on planet earth "think that it's okay to let bad things happen";

as seek supernatural causes for what are actually all-natural events; as seek the answer to why "bad things happen to good people"; as seek an understanding of how "unconditional love" can co-exist alongside "eternal punishment"; as seek how to mentally dissociate from the Am-ness without being mentally ill.

And right alongside all of those, one might as well seek at the same time "The Will-of-the-Wisp," a sasquatch, a unicorn, a mermaid, a dragon, a fairy, a werewolf, a yeti, a kappa, a centaur, a troll, a ghoul, a leprechaun, a gnome, and pixie.

After abandoning the use of religious versions of the Ultimate Medicine and spiritual versions of the Ultimate Medicine, Maharaj offered seekers a psychology-based version of the Ultimate Medicine and encouraged them to seek freedom from the mental roots of the Sickness (including the symptoms of believing in learned ignorance and being strapped with the relative curse of imposed insanity). 

He made clear at the end that realization is about nothing more than being free of ignorance.

From the book Dancing Lightly:

LIGHT IS USELESS IF IT IS NOT INTENSE ENOUGH TO BURN AWAY THE MIND 

If the light is received, then the lightness can follow. If the lightness manifests, then dancing lightly throughout the manifestation can happen. In terms of the Absolute, all of this—all of this dance, all of the discussions, all of the false identifications—all of it is admittedly meaningless. So why not dismiss it all with the point that “the results of believing that personas are real cannot occur in the Absolute . . . end of story”? 

To one trapped in misery as a result of being fixated with the concept of death, the following was shared: Maharaj pointed out that if one were to realize, then she / he would “have come to the end of personality and there is no more human being. There is only impersonal consciousness.” 

Let the belief in the personal "die" and be done once and for all with all these counterfeit concepts about “birth” and “death.” So the question to consider is, “WHO or WHAT is there to ‘die’?” The answer is “No one . . . no thing.” Maharaj made clear that there is nothing more than a play in consciousness that is going on and that “the play will come to an end.” It is not a “human” that it “dying.” It is a play that is ending. That is all. 

See that all of those fluctuations and changes and all of the unsteadiness and instability are happening as part of the “mind”-flow. Be rid of the “mind” to be rid of the chaos. Light is useless if it is not intense enough to burn away the mind, meaning – more specifically – to burn away the ignorant and insane beliefs stored in the mind. 

Stability can only happen as the Absolute Abide as That now, and be done with “life” and “death” both. Then, dance the dance and merely witness whatever happens, knowing that problems can only come with “life” and that “death” is no problem at all. 

THE MOST DEBILITATING BELIEFS 

To be free of the pain associated with roles and ego-states and false identities requires freedom first from belief in all roles and ego-states and false identities. Thus the dance between the seeker and an Advaitin teacher: as pure awareness leads in the dance, the movement can liberate the consciousness of the seeker from the effects of the programming and conditioning that have prevented persons from enjoying the music and moving spontaneously with the natural rhythms that happen when abiding in the natural state. 

As the dance continues, liberation from the effects of “the mind” can happen. By the end of the dance, there is freedom from “the mind” and even from consciousness itself since it, too, is relative. While the consciousness is an attribute, it is awareness that is beyond all that is relative . . . beyond the beingness . . . beyond the non-beingness.

NISARGA-STYLE, AS IF LIVING 

So what is to happen with “the realized” and these teachings? Something. Or nothing. It was noted at the beginning that the "end game" is not to sit around discussing Advaita all day. Some of the Realized might choose to teach; some might choose not to. Either way, the relative is enjoyed on a daily basis with no preoccupation with Advaita. 

Such preoccupation itself would indicate that the fullness of the understanding has not manifested. These teachings are not to be focused upon in the end. In the end, they are to lead to nisarga (natural) living. They are to lead to a condition whereby all can be relished, whether that "all" includes what some dualistic observers might call "bad things" or "good things." 

To one protégé who was witnessed recently to have Realized Fully, these words instead were offered: “Now You Are done here. No more visits or discussions or questions-and-answers are indicated. Via the unblocked consciousness that You Are, the teachings could happen very easily. They may or they may not. So it is. Now, go.” 

It was understood that AS IF living would now happen, that is, living as if anything to do with this IS-ness is meaningful while knowing full well that it is not. It was also understood that the dance can be danced . . . or not. And that’s that. As for you, you are invited to be free of being controlled by the nonsensical content of then mind so that you, too, can 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 over 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 Twenty-Four

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

The sages have long understood the fact and have long explained the fact that humanity’s problems are centered in the body and in the mind and in personality identification(s).

THE PHYSICAL BODY 

Preoccupation with the body is the most limiting concern of all, removed as far from that which is eternal and that which is real as can be. In the earliest days and years when elements come together to form a body, the height of dependency exists. The body cannot feed itself, cannot shelter itself, cannot clothe itself, cannot protect itself from predators, and cannot do even one single thing to extend its manifestation / existence. 

During the post-child decades of manifestation, the body will develop a preoccupation with trying to make sure it feels good and that all of it basic drives are satisfied, including the drives concerned with thirst and hunger and sex. But, Maharaj said, the decades of such preoccupation are “limited in intensity and duration.” In the later years of the elemental plant food body, it will, Maharaj noted, “get tired and worn out.” Its second “height of dependency” will manifest. And what came together - elements, air and conscious-energy - will eventually come apart (Second Law of Thermodynamics.) 

THE MIND 

Maharaj said that the mind, too, will “get tired and worn out.” Long before that, however, it will become the seat of misery and suffering. It will inspire persons to say, “I just want to have some peace of mind so I can be happy” when in fact - Maharaj explained - “There’s no such thing as peace of mind.” While the body will be the seat of disease, the mind will be the seat of all "dis-ease."

THE PERSONALITY / PERSONALITIES 

And what is stored in the mind, along with all of the learned ignorance which is taught and stockpiled therein? False identifications which each have a hidden agenda rooted in each persona’s basic fears and basic desires, and those agendas will determine what a person thinks and says and does. Talk about powerless! Every thought and word and action that every person thinks and says and does is controlled by an illusion, by something that is not even real and does not even exist except in the imagination of the nonsense-filled minds of humans. 

Prior to manifestation, there was a specialized form of energy called, for the sake of discussion only, "the awareness-energy." The awareness-energy, being non-dual in its nature, was not aware of anything. There was no “A” which could be aware of some “B.” 

Duality can only be perceived by humans post-manifestation when a composite unity of elements and air and conscious-energy manifests and when the always-duality-based conscious-energy functions as an “A” which is conscious of “B” (or, actually, a seemingly-endless set of “B’s”). Only if realization happens (which, according to Maharaj, is the elimination of learned ignorance and hand-me-down insanity) can awareness become aware of awareness. That is, only then can awareness be aware of the pre-manifestation-of-consciousness-form of awareness and its original, non-dual nature. And only if abiding as that can a sense of lightness come. 

From Dancing Lightly: 

YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE AND LIGHTNESS 

If the lightness is not manifest, then persons will experience anxiety, depression or other conditions that will trigger emotional intoxication and self-defeating motion / action. Such sufferers at that point will be driven to shift beyond the no do-er witnessing and to revert to the do-er mode because they think that they must act, must do something - even something rash - to escape, to gain control, or to hand the reins of control over to someone else. 

Having been pulled away from abidance as their original nature by relative fears and desires, feeling as if they are being drawn below the surface of the ocean by one wave after another, seemingly certain that they are drowning and need rescuing, it is at that point that persons allow themselves to be locked into the types of attachment mentioned earlier. 

If they speak of the condition to me, this speck of conscious / awareness will say: "You do not ever have to take a place to the rear of anyone; you do not have to delude yourself into thinking you are taking a place beside when you will actually be taking a place to the rear; you do not ever have to accept the role of being nothing more than the background music to someone else's song. You might play the game for a time, but you cannot last, living the lie that you will be living at that point." 

The talk here is only of freedom from things relative so that the independence of the Absolute can be felt and so that the prerequisites for peace - freedom and independence - can manifest. To attach or not to attach - it's all the "stuff" of the relative; choosing is always confusing, so it will always pull one into the strum und drang of the relative existence by way of the unconscious influence of personality / personalities. 

Personalities, provided free rent inside the "mind," travel about as if on one's shoulders and back - riding along like additional heavy burdens (as if the challenges of the relative existence are not enough) and leaving them in a position where they can forever whisper their lies into your ears. Being bogged down in the relative and being weighed down by the agendas of those personas will insure that there will be no chance at all for a sense of lightness to remain consistently. 

From their positions seemingly on your shoulders and back, it is as if the whisperings of those personalities are forever encouraging you to turn left when the "path" is to the right; encouraging you to go right when independence and freedom and peace are to the left; encouraging you to go the way of chaos that is camouflaged with all sorts of attractive, enticing ribbons and bows. It is those fear-mongering and desire-driven personas (not any relative conditions which are always guaranteed to be temporary) that are the enemies of lightness. 

They will forever bring to the forefront the notions of choice - encouraging you to "decide whether to choose left or right; chose him or her; chose this course or that (even if all of the choices are senseless). Just choose something . . . anything . . . any port in this storm. But above all, do not just stand there and witness what is happening without taking drastic, panic-inspired action. Ignore the captain that is blowing the still and act." 

In the process, the always-self-destructive voices of the self / selves will eliminate any chance to enjoy the ease and sanity of spontaneous living. The antidote to feeling the stress of needing to choose, needing to make attachments, needing to act, and needing, period? 

 1. Understanding this pointer offered to beginners by Maharaj: "All you need is a quiet mind" until, eventually, you have no mind at all.

 2. Again, understanding this pointer offered to seekers that are farther along the "path": "There is no such thing as peace of mind; there is only peace if you are out of your mind." Leave the imaginary world of the mind and come home . . . come back to Your Original Nature, to the only "place" where stability exists. 

3. Returning to the center of the "path" now in order to reach that calm state where you are abiding as your original nature. 

4. Returning to a state of non-action, which can only happen when there is freedom from the pull of personality-driven desires and freedom from the push of personality-driven fears. 

5. Immersing yourself in the kind of spontaneity that can only happen when witnessing prevails. 

The deer make no choices. They move about slowly, they take only as much as is truly needed with no sense that "more" would provide them something that is "missing," and they merely witness humanity's surrounding strum und drang. They never "think" that they must attach to that insane, anxiety-provoking, depression-producing train of events. You are invited to consider the truth behind these sharings from a speck called "Maharaj": 

Questioner: "I am restless. How can I gain peace?" 

Maharaj: "For what do you need peace?" 

Questioner: "To be happy." 

Maharaj: "Are you not happy now?" 

Questioner: "No, I am not." 

Maharaj: "What makes you unhappy?" 

Questioner: "I have what I don’t want, and want what I don’t have." 

Maharaj: "Why don’t you invert it: want what you have and care not for what you don’t have?" 

Questioner: "I want what is pleasant and don’t want what is painful." 

Maharaj: "How do you know what is pleasant and what is not?" 

Questioner: "From past experience, of course." 

Maharaj: "Guided by memory you have been pursuing the pleasant and shunning the unpleasant. Have you succeeded? 

Questioner: "No, I have not. The pleasant does not last. Pain sets in again." 

Maharaj: "Which pain?" 

Questioner: "The desire for pleasure, the fear of pain, both are states of distress. Is there a state of unalloyed pleasure?" 

 Again, Maharaj: "Every pleasure, physical or mental, needs an instrument. Both the physical and mental instruments are material, they get tired and worn out. The pleasure they yield is necessarily limited in intensity and duration. Pain is the background of all your pleasures. You want them because you suffer. On the other hand, the very search for pleasure is the cause of pain. It is a vicious circle." 

What about you? Have you succeeded? After years of taking action and fluctuating between periods of happiness and unhappiness and creating chaos and generating internal disharmony and external disharmony and making hundreds of thousands of decisions to "Try this - okay, now try that - okay, now give this a shot" what is your present condition after all of that? 

Have you succeeded? If you do not see that all of the not-you's combined have never truly brought even one real success - one real result that permanently ended your fears and desires and brought stability - then is it not time to stop? Is it not time to stop taking action and fluctuating and creating chaos and generating internal disharmony and external disharmony and making hundreds of thousands of additional decisions of the type that have always failed to produce what you desire and which in the end always failed to alleviate the fears that rob you of peace? 

Can you not look back and see the consequences that began to accrue at that point? Would you be willing to stop listening to the voices of the false selves long enough to try to hear the voice of Truth and authenticity calling from the shore, beckoning you back home? 

That has consistently been the offer here: come home. Follow the "path" in its exact order to complete the "journey" so that you can come home to Your Original Nature and stay at home. Relax in the Truly Loving Arms of Pure Awareness. Let Pure Awareness wrap its arms around you and hold you. 

Feel the tension leave. Feel the anxiety subside. Feel the depression being lifted. Feel the security of those arms. Feel the relaxation. Feel the lightness return. Feel that touch of lightness and Oneness and Love. Be still and know that in those arms, you can witness the storms that roll in and roll out.

Maharaj spoke of the "storm of desires and fears." If you will find WHO (which false selves) are enticing you into the storm of fears and desires, then you need not ever again be pulled into those relative storms. Be awake enough to see storms as they approach; stand aside as they come and go; do not attach to ships that are already in their own storm; and allow the peace to come and bring with it the everlasting sense of lightness that you deserve. 

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 over 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 Twenty-Three

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

Recently, a few of the epochs of humanity have been discussed, and what was witnessed by reviewing those periods is that the relative existence of humans during the last 5000 years has been – more than anything else – unstable, unbalanced, unhinged, unsound, unsteady, volatile, and erratic when persons are most trapped in mental and emotional states of duality. 

The mental and emotional states of billions of humans around the globe differ not at all from the typical partnership or marriage between two persons as described by Maharaj: “When you meet a man, he is a stranger. When you marry him, he becomes your own self. When you quarrel, he becomes your enemy.” Thus national and international relations are also marked and marred by instability which leaves the entire population of the planet being unstable, unbalanced, unhinged, unsound, unsteady, volatile, erratic. 

The result is that humans are forever shifting between ages of peace and ages of fighting; between ages of enlightenment and ages of darkness; between ages of humanistic interest in the sciences and the arts and education and ages of ignoring education and embracing ignorance; and between ages when a sense of security prevails vs. ages when fear and anxiety and dread and stress and distress and terror reign. 

Duality. Duality. Duality. Shifting. Shifting. Shifting. It is as if the entire population of the planet, with only a few exceptions, suffers from the Borderline Personality Disorder: "I love you . . . no wait, I hate you!" or "I hate you! No wait, don't leave me!"

Consider the shift in global attitudes during the relatively short span of 36 years from 1914 to 1950: 

A. WWI from 1914 to 1918 was deemed to be a war so horrible that it surely had to be "the war to end all wars"; that was followed by 

B. the “Roaring 20’s” marked by an uplifted global attitude of celebration and widespread happiness, followed by 

C. Adolf Hitler’s moving from Austria to Germany and leading the planet into an even more atrocious war, WWII, in which an estimated 55,000,000 to 80,000,000 would die before ridding the planet of the chaos which ultra-right-wing, dictatorial fascists have always brought about; then, that was followed by 

D. the “Happy Days” of the 50’s. 

Swing, swing, swing. The only thing consistent during those 36 years? Persons were continuously searching for a leader - for some external force - who would lead them beyond the heaviness and the darkness and back to safety and happiness. And there's the rub: humans are no longer prone to seek their own solutions for their own problems but are forever looking for some external power (or "Power") to rescue them, putting themselves in the hands of the most power-hungry, control freak, sociopathic, psychopathic types on the planet.

Thus, humanity is forever swinging between period of the light and the dark; between periods of "gains" and "losses" in terms of freedom and independence; between ages of advancement in education vs. ages of regression into ignorance; between ages when persons embrace some degree of awareness and ages when the masses are walking about in their sleep; between ages when persons embrace the “enemy which prefers darkness” and the "friend that brings the light"; and between periods of dancing lightly vs. periods of marching and stomping through the streets and through the territories of other nations. 

We are currently, once more, in "An Age of Fear and Heaviness" (which always means to those who are awake and aware and conscious that the planet has entered "An Age of Ultimate Sickness" or "Another Age of Duality"). Those who are aware will not wallow in an age's fear and heaviness and sickness and duality but will seek a way out of the darkness, which - of course - requires light. Per Maharaj, the number of such seekers will always be small, but they will be out there. 

[For example, 533 visitors came to this site yesterday, including guests from India, Russia, the U.S., Germany, China, France, the U.K., Ukraine, Brazil, Canada, Australia and over 45 other nations. Why? They are awake enough and aware enough and conscious enough to understand where humanity is at this point . . . to understand which age humanity is trapped in at this point. And they are awake and aware and conscious enough to know that a shift away from the prevalent sense of heaviness now and a shift toward a sense of lightness for themselves is being called for. They also understand that the shift can never happen on a planet-wide scale but can only happen with one seeker at a time.]

Using excerpts from the book Dancing Lightly, we have looked at some of the factors referenced in the previous paragraph which are guaranteed to trap person in a sense of heaviness which – short of realizing – will also guaranteed that persons will be blocked from enjoying any sense of lightness. 

Today, the effects of attachments and how they block lightness will be discussed. 

Maharaj: “Attachment is bondage; detachment is freedom. To crave is to slave.” 

and 

“All attachment implies fear, for all things are transient. And fear makes one a slave. This freedom from attachment does not come with practice; it is natural, when one knows one's true being.” 

and 

“Your attachment is your bondage.” 

From Dancing Lightly: 

ATTACHMENTS PREVENT LIGHTNESS 

In the movie entitled "Love and Other Drugs," the word "drugs" is used in the title to reference the part of the film's subject matter that deals with all of the emotion-based motion / actions that persons experience around fear-or-desire-driven attachments, including: making them far-too-hastily; avoiding them; fearing them; running away from them; running to them; and - time after time - forming them only to break them . . . or forming them and suffering the consequences instead of breaking them. 

The pace at which persons form attachments is astonishing as they can shift out of a formerly-peaceful state and enter at break-neck speed the mad race to find something external that they hope will make them happy or bring relief from whatever temporary obstacles they might be presently facing. 

Some see the error of the way that they fell into during a time of fear or desire, so those will quickly break off the attachment after seeing that it is going to take a heavy toll and is going to block their former sense of lightness; others will tolerate for an entire "lifetime" the misery of an attachment that they think is raising them to what they perceive to be the new heights of an elevated lifestyle or the higher high provided by a drug or what they take to be a drug-induced "higher level of consciousness." 

[Nowadays, the number of persons touting the latter is increasing, not unlike those heady days in the 1970's when a variety of drugs were being credited with having "consciousness-elevating properties."] 

In "Love and Other Drugs," a relationship without attachment sailed merrily along; when one party began to attach, the relationship became rocky; when that party began to detach, the other party suddenly processed the fear of attachment and was ready to move forward. Such is the chaos that marks an existence that is caught up in the ever-changing flux of attaching and detaching as a result of personality-driven fear and desire. What is the answer? 

Maharaj: "Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own." 

For that to happen, there must first be an understanding of (a) the perverse functioning of the "mind" and (b) the relative consequences that will manifest in a "mind-driven-life"; also, there must be an understanding of (c) all of the false selves that rule from the "mind" where such emotionally-intoxicating mirages are stored and thought to be real. 

Time and again the teachings remind seekers that they must know the false selves before being able to know the Real Self. Maharaj would eventually say that the former alone would be enough. How can one renounce toll-taking attachments if (1) such attachments are not seen or if (2) the toll of such attachments is being denied or if (3) the toll is seen but justified by use of the many mechanisms that the excuse-making "mind" will employ - often unconsciously - to rationalize what amounts to senseless or even insane decisions? 

Maharaj: "You cannot renounce. You may leave your home and give trouble to your family, but attachments are in the mind and will not leave you until you know your mind in and out. First thing first: know yourself. All else will come with it." 

Maharaj: "Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience." 

Questioner: "How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?" 

Maharaj: "Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognised as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy." 

Questioner: "Since reality is all the time with us, what does self-realisation consist of?" 

Maharaj: "Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are." 

How to reach the non-dual understanding of simultaneously knowing that you are all and that you are nothing, for to be free of the fears and desires of personality, that must be understood? You must understand fully that you are all (a.k.a., Love) and understand that you are nothing (a.k.a., wisdom). 

Maharaj: "Being all, what am I to be afraid of? Water is not afraid of water, nor fire of fire. Also I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear, or can be in danger. I have no shape, nor name. It is attachment to a name and shape that breeds fear. I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is afraid of no thing. On the contrary, everything is afraid of the Nothing, for when a thing touches Nothing, it becomes nothing. It is like a bottomless well, whatever falls into it, disappears." 

Freedom from attachment must happen to be free of peace-robbing fears and desires. Recall the pointer offered earlier: the light is omnipresent. The seeming darkness notwithstanding, there is more light surrounding the moon than is striking its surface. Allow the light to illuminate and to allow you to see how your fears and desires will lead you to race into attachments and entanglements that will always eventually take hostage both your freedom and peace. 

Again, one of Maharaj's key pointers in this regard: 

"There is no darkness in the midst of light." In the darkness, he said, "we are absorbed in other things, in the not-self" which comes "through excess of attachment."

Heavy, lightness-stealing consequences always follow those who race excessively into attachments that at first appear to be lightness-providing opportunities. Caught up in the storm of fear and desire, the selves convince themselves that lies are truth; only the Self can differentiate between the true and the false. Why abandon the only tool available for relative constructiveness and allow one's selves to drive you to self-destructiveness? 

If you find that you were moving along the "path" and took a detour, return to the "path" so that, in the end, you can come home . . . and stay. 

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 over 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 Twenty-Two

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

At its core, "the conscious presence" involves, above all else, freedom: freedom from moving through the relative existence without being asleep, unawake, unaware, and unconscious. To move through the existence in that fashion is to be set up to behave as sheep do, so totally willing to follow the leader wherever it leads that they'll follow along even if their leader runs off the side of a cliff.

By contrast, nothing and no one has even run off a cliff when enjoying the silence, the stillness, the peace, able - as Maharaj recommended - to lie down as the deer do and "rest in the cool, blue shade." But no one has ever enjoyed the silence, the stillness, the peace, or rest if controlled by the learned ignorance which is stored in a mind after it has been programmed, conditioned, etc.

In the book Dancing Lightly, this is offered for consideration:  

REQUIRED FOR LIGHTNESS: FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE 

Next, the invitation is to review some of the key pointers so far and then sit with them in the silence, not seeking a samadhi state but entering instead into a state of focused awareness which will allow for additional understanding. 

** Just as "bliss" is totally misunderstood by most (leaving most desiring "more" even as they claim devotion to this philosophy or that philosophy which touts de-accumulation), the same happens with the search for happiness. 

 ** As long as the ever-in-motion consciousness inspires motion / doing / going / zooming and fluctuation, the stage will be set for emotional intoxication and the lack of stability which always comes with dual-mindedness.

** Freedom - the prerequisite for peace - comes only when one moves off the stage which is located in The Theater of the Lie and witnesses all that happens from the platform of awareness and a clear perspective.

** Since when is lightness not enough? A few of the fawn in this neighborhood - occasionally racing and kicking and jumping their way back and forth across the front yard notwithstanding - few of the trillions of species living naturally on this planet may not appear to be "blissful" or "exceptionally happy," but most of the time their existence does seem to be marked with a sense of lightness. 

** The deer laze about, grazing here, dozing there, doing the work they must to survive but balancing that out by also pausing to lounge in Maharaj's cool blue shade, relaxing, basking in the ecstasy of occasional sexual contact . . . just being and being natural. But human persons (those assuming personas as identifications) believe they must have more than that? Really? 

** An ever-present urge for accumulating more and "getting" more is often set up in childhood. In cultures of accumulation and capitalism, the dualistic vocabulary they hear early on reinforces "getting": 

"Get a good education so you can get a good job and get a good house and get a good spouse" or "Get this or that part of your body augmented and get these clothes and that 'look' and then you'll get a good life because you'll get someone who will provide that." The programming trains persons as children to "get" and then sets them up to believe that the source of bliss or happiness is always external, not internal. 

Yet the lovely house or any other externals - which persons have "gotten" by whatever means - cannot be carried about 24 / 7 and used as a comfort blanket the way that a child drags about its favorite piece of cloth. That which is carried about 24 / 7 is internal, never external, and what is carried about 24 / 7 is what will determine whether a sense of lightness or a sense of heaviness is also being carried about. 

[Also, the belief that only externals can address persons' problems will set them up to believe persons who claim that they are savior-like, to believe the promises of persons who claim that they alone can take care of all of the problems people have, and to believe that persons need not seek their own solutions to their own problems but should put themselves in the hands of some strong and mighty rescuer in "this world" or in "another world beyond" or both.

In that kind of state of ignorance, persons will be set up to avoid taking the actions which they should take; will be set up to seek a God or some person to care of them; and will be set up to try to find some power or Power to turn their troubles over to in order for their problems to be solved (setting up The Dependent Personality Disorder and / or The Co-Dependent Personality Disorder). 

How widespread is that mindset? It is the mindset of Personality Type Sixes, and Personality Type Sixes make up 50% of the planet's population. They are also the type most prone to be fearful and anxious, so if one is running for a political office, then a strategy which appeals to persons' fears will almost always guarantee that a politician tapping into persons' fears will garner 50% of any vote total right from the get-go.]

** Maharaj: "Nothing can make you happier than you are." How the masses hate that pointer. How quickly they react and how quickly they protest about how false that statement is, citing example after example of the things they have and the people they have in their lives as what "makes them happy." What an unnatural and impossible task to be strapped with, to be the one responsible for making someone else happy and then assuring that she or he stays that way. 

A woman about to marry said, "I have promised my husband that I will never make the mistake I see in other marriages where one partner bores the other." The reply: "Ah, so you are going to become his personal entertainer? You are the one who will assure that he will never be bored, even though you are never likely to find his deepest secret which would reveal what he would truly desire from you if he were totally honest? Interesting." 

Talk about co-dependency, yes? Program a child to believe - as 97% on the planet do - that there are gods or a god who is all-powerful - but who can be made sad or glad, be made happy or unhappy, be made proud or disappointed by you - and as an adult - the belief will be accepted without question that, "Well of course all relationships with not-all-powerful persons can surely be co-dependent. If I have the power to make god glad or happy or proud, then surely I can make any person the same." 

And what kind of god can be made glad or sad by humans? A really co-dependent god.

Thus, the agreement becomes in many relationships, "I'll make you happy, but you be sure to make me happy." As some Easterners suggest: "You might as well search for an eagle's nest on the bottom on the ocean floor as search for someone or something external to make you happy." If "A" is enjoying the lightness and "B" is enjoying the lightness, then "A-B" will enjoy the lightness of each other's companionship. If either or both are fixated in the heaviness, head out to the ocean floor. 

** The light - which can allow the false to be exposed as being false - is omnipresent. While the surface of the moon reflects the light of the sun and appears to be surrounded in darkness, the fact is that there is as much light surrounding the surface as there is striking the surface. Persons can close their eyes and fail to see the light or can cover their eyes with their hands and block the light, but the light is there nevertheless, ready to facilitate the seeing of Truth if the love of all things false and the love of all false personality identifications are set aside. 

** Maharaj: " . . . To find the immutable and blissful, you must give up your hold on the mutable and painful. You are concerned with your own happiness and I am telling you that there is no such thing. Happiness is never your own; it is where the ‘I’ is not. I do not say it is beyond your reach; you have only to reach out beyond yourself, and you will find it." 

** To abide in full awareness of the facts surrounding the composite unity, and to transcend all notions that you are "something more" than the elements and air and temporarily-manifested conscious energy, calls for the question: "WHO is happy? Earth elements? The air? A speck of energy? And WHO is sad? Earth elements? The air? A speck of energy?" 

** To transcend all sense of personal, individualized WHO-ness is to abide in the sweet respite of beingness, and when the incredible lightness of just being finally manifests, and when all is merely witnessed from the platform of Your Original Nature, what WHO could be taken seriously when it thinks it needs more in order to be anything, including happy? 

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 over 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 Twenty-One

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

Maharaj: "It is the dance of the conscious presence." 

Not long ago on this site, various historical and modern “ages” were discussed. Two thousand years ago, a fellow named Yeshu'a 

(called “Jesus” nowadays by his so-called followers who do not even know his real name, who do not even know what the real color of his skin was, and who do not know that he was sharing non-dual pointers during his last few years) 

spoke of duality and how being unstable is a by-product of being dual-minded. 

In the 6th century, Europe declined into a period of stagnancy when intelligence and education were deemed to be not only worthless but also “anti-Christian,” a mindset which prevailed until the 1300’s when a shift away from the idolization of ignorance gave way to a new interest in education and in the arts and in the sciences and which has returned nowadays and is once more as prevalent as ever.

However, such an interest never lasts among unstable humans, so the duality of (a) humankind’s preference for being awake and conscious always gives way to (b) periods when there is a preference for the darkness and dogma over the light and awareness. 

During the 1300’s and 1400’s, Florence, Italy led the way in shifting the masses in Europe out of the ignorance of the “Medieval Ages” – the “Dark Ages” – and into an awakening, into an “An Age of Renaissance” and into an “Age of Humanism” as that nation-state became a leader in the arts and sciences and education and things understood to be natural.

Yet half of the population opposed such advances and wanted to cling to the old dogma and its magical thinking which has always taught that there are supernatural / spiritual causes for all that happens on earth, including floods and storms and fires while those free of ignorance understand that the causes of such events are totally natural. Yet once more, in the late 1400’s, another shift would come when a stiff and rigid and fanatical monk named Girolamo Savonarola 

arrived and inspired the 50% of the population - who were the ones trapped in ignorance and who had come to hate art and science and secular education - to reach a new height of religious intoxication and to overthrow the government and to burn (in what came to be known as “The Bonfire of the Vanities”) all works of art in Florence as well as all books except for the Bible (preceding the Nazi book burnings in Germany by over 400 years). 

In the U.S. and in many other places around the globe, a host of “New Girolamos” - of new right-wing, fanatical leaders - have shown up and have used the tools of fear and ignorance to create the same kind of divisions which existed in Florence in the later 1400’s. 

Once more, the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness – identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” – have been used to bring about a near 50-50 split among the planet’s populations. 

As a result, once more, such concepts as “good” vs. “evil” abound alongside beliefs about “the sinful” vs. “the virtuous”; “the right religion” vs. “the wrong religion”; “the right sect” vs. “the wrong sect”: “the right race” vs. “the wrong race”; “the right orientation” vs. “the wrong orientation”; 

who “our good friends are” vs. who “our evil enemies are"; and now, the prevalence of dualistic thinking have led to separation in regards to “the acceptable and approved way to have sex” vs. “the unacceptable and not approved way to have sex” and “the right place to pee” vs. “the wrong place to pee.” 

So while teachings about duality go back not 1200 years but thousands of years, it can be said that the planet is once more trapped in, and subsumed by, a new, widespread “Age of Duality.” Like Florence during the days when their population was split 50-50 along ideological vs. rational lines, such is also the case in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe. 

The primary focus now among many politicians and the citizens who are following them is being directed toward “the enemy.” Billions are being spent around the globe each year by governments which are enhancing their eavesdropping capabilities and their enhanced surveillance techniques and their spying networks in order to seek out "the enemy" and "destroy all of our enemies before they destroy us and our entire nation." In fact, they claim, "we are at the brink of destruction and our days are numbered." (Don't you hate when that happens?)

Dualistic lines of separation are being drawn in the sand around the globe and half of all persons are joining with others of a similar ideological ilk and with others who are similarly trapped in their fear of, and in their anger at, “the enemy.” 

Yet as has always been the case when humans are trapped in dualistic beliefs, they are also trapped in delusions and illusions and misperceptions. Some might remember this cartoon which was shared previously on the site: 

In that regard, Maharaj said: “The mind that projects the world, colours it its own way. When you meet a man, he is a stranger. When you marry him, he becomes your own self. When you quarrel, he becomes your enemy. It is your mind's attitude that determines what he is to you.” 

A visitor to the loft said:  

“The man under investigation hears so many times repeated - that he is an enemy of the State and a traitor to his country - that a day comes when something breaks down in him and he begins to feel with full conviction that he is a traitor, a rebel, altogether despicable and deserving the direst punishment. This process is known as brain-washing. 

“It struck me that the religious and Yogic practices are very similar to 'brain-washing'. The same physical and mental deprivation, solitary confinement, a powerful sense of sin, despair and a desire to escape through expiation and conversion, adoption of a new image of oneself and impersonating that image. The same repetition of set formulas: 'God is good; the Guru (party) knows; faith will save me.' In the so-called Yogic or religious practices the same mechanism operates. The mind is made to concentrate on some particular idea to the exclusion of all other ideas and concentration is powerfully reinforced by rigid discipline and painful austerities. 

"A high price in life and happiness is paid and what one gets in return appears therefore, to be of great importance. This prearranged conversion, obvious or hidden, religious or political, ethical or social, may look genuine and lasting, yet there is a feeling of artificiality about it.” 

Maharaj: “You are quite right. By undergoing so many hardships the mind gets dislocated and immobilised. Its condition becomes precarious; whatever it undertakes ends in a deeper bondage.” 

In fact, the only “enemies” which need be focused on are “the ‘enemies’ of the Light.” 

Without light, the rope can generate needless fear when mistaken for a snake; of more concern should be the fact that - without light - the snake can be mistaken for a rope, and that mistake can bring an entirely new and potentially far more critical misunderstanding. 

In the book Dancing Lightly, this is offered for consideration:

THE "ENEMIES" OF LIGHTNESS 

A global economic meltdown is not the enemy of lightness; "others" are not the enemy of lightness; fate is not the enemy of lightness; relative responsibilities involving work and child-rearing and treating physical illnesses are not the enemies of lightness; nothing external is the enemy of lightness: 

Maharaj: "You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, and happiness but work hard to create pain, hatred and war" 

and 

"Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash or a stomach ulcer." 

Only you - more accurately, the not-you's - are the enemies of lightness. Like a bank heist that requires no breaking and entering, it's all an inside job, this loss of a sense of lightness. The complicating factor is this: the blindness of those not taking advantage of the light is that while they are working hard to satisfy the desires of one or more personas or working hard to avoid the fears of one or more personas, even as they create pain and misery, they actually believe that they are taking actions that will soon lead to happiness. 

How could such a totally backwards view happen? Simple: it is all happening from the standpoint of the "mind": 

John Milton: "The mind . . . in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 

And it will. It is the seat of all duality, and living under its influence will guarantee instability. And when in such dire straits as will be guaranteed when living under the influence of the "mind" rather than abiding as the original nature, there will be a miasma-inducing myopia of such a degree that any actual account of what is really happening (an account that the inner resource is trying to offer) will not be detectable. 

So WHO, ultimately, is the one who thinks he / she is shifting between states of happiness and unhappiness? Only one who is still trapped at the earliest steps on the "path" to Full Realization. Only one who believes she / he was born and is now a personalized and individualized being rather than the impersonal and non-individuated beingness. 

Yet you were not born because you were not even conceived by those called "parents"; instead, you were conceived by artificial hallucination. In that condition, the not-you's will be in charge of every aspect of your relative existence. Those fictional but seemingly real not-you's arise in the emotion-driven, ever-moving consciousness as the result of living under the influence of the hallucinating "mind" rather than abiding as the original nature. 

The blindness of that totally-unnatural and abnormal miasma-inducing myopia will become your abnormal "norm." At that point when the internal account cannot be heard, an outsider's account is indicated. That "outsider's" account is required to serve as the tool that might be able to dig you out of the sand - or the quicksand - that is trying to take you under, relatively speaking. 

Amazingly, though, while anything that is built on sand or quicksand is destined to readily sink and disappear, the case with imaginary personalities that are built on such unstable ground is that they can "survive" until the time that the consciousness unmanifests and re-enters the universal pool of energy. The ability of false identities to continue to be believed in and to be taken as the real is astounding to any that can objectively observe them at play in the "minds" of those who acquiesce to entrapment by such personas that will always eventually generate instability and misery and suffering and pain. 

So I bring an outsider's account of your condition. I come not to "you," to any of the the false selves being identified with. I come to wake you and to set you free from your hallucinations. Your mental mirages want you to walk in your sleep, and they want your walking in your sleep to take you to the edge of the cliff or to the shifting sands or even to one of the many pits of quicksand that dot the landscape of the relative existence.

Your hallucinations want to use the fears and desires of your personalities to render you unable to see so that you can be cast into such sands or over the edge of the cliff. The false selves will always eventually guide you to self-destruction. 

With authenticity always lingering in the shadows, that will always drive the self to self-destruct so that the Real Self can be seen; however, there is an easier way than fighting time and again that instability-producing battle. 

See now that it can be said more accurately that - rather than the light having to precede the lightness - what must happen in order for a consistent sense of lightness to manifest is a willingness to open one's eyes and see by way of the light (which is already there) all of the lies that the "mind" and personalities generate and then use to rob persons of the bliss which can only manifest in Truth. 

Only in Truth will the instability and destructive motions / actions that are inspired by the mind-and-personality-rooted-intoxication of extreme emotions and extreme feelings put to an end the fear and desire that arise from the core of every personality / persona. 

"Is nothing to be feared?" some ask. 

"Is nothing to be wanted?" some ask, as did one visitor to the loft: 

Questioner: " . . . What is worth wanting?" 

Maharaj: "The highest happiness, the greatest freedom. Desirelessness is the highest bliss." 

The Direct Path offered here is a direct path to that bliss. A "mind" will try to pull the sojourner off track; personality will try to entice seekers to take a detour, inspiring the adoption of "better-than" roles; and those who offer enticements like candy to a child will try to convince some that they - the enticers - are the source of happiness. What a setup for misery: 

Maharaj: "Don't you see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable? Try the other way: indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither asking nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which 'I am' is timelessly present. Soon you will realise that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels that disturbs. Avoid the disturbance - that is all. To seek . . . there is no need; you would not seek what you already have" 

and 

"Nothing can make you happier than you are. All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery" 

and 

"Trust my words and remember them. I want your happiness, not mine." 

I want your happiness, not mine. A visitor here recently saw an arrogance-filled piece of e-mail which was being answered, only because there was still a slight chance of waking the miserable writer from his sleep. The visitor had been as involved in such arrogance at one time as well, so the question was asked, "Why do you do this? Why do you even mess with us? Be honest - aren't you really tired of dealing with us?" 

The reply: "Are you speaking of dealing with the not-you's? Then yes. If it is the not-you's, what registers in far beyond being tired. At times it reaches a point of sadness; at other times, it grows to a point of disgust.

"Yet still I stand on the shore of stability, right at the edge where the seas of insanity and ignorance and fear and desire are tossing the you's about and trying with all their force to sink those you's once and for all. And I speak from the shore to guide you home. But I will not shout. Nor will I try to literally force you from a storm that you delusionally believe is a calm sea. 

"There will have to be a lull in the storm that you are caught in if you are to hear me and change course and take the path to me. So . . . tired of you, the real you? No. Tired of the fictional you's and the not-you's? You bet, but sadly, they are a part of the deal until the shiftings go and the stability comes. 

"But once you have felt that stability, I must then ask, 'Why would you ever abandon that? See that it is your false selves alone which can inspire you to forfeit the stability. Stay with the real and let the not-you's go, for it is on the cancer of instability that they feed and thrive'." 

Again, Maharaj: "Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable, because it does not depend on circumstances." 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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