TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Maharaj: “It is the dance of the conscious presence.”
To review:
Historians have used a variety of labels to describe the “ages” of humanity, the shifting periods between lightness and darkness which humanity has moved through constantly:
There was The Age of Advancement” as some humans acquired certain agricultural and science-based skills which allowed them to abandon a previously nomadic lifestyle and settle into communities.
That was followed by “The Medieval Ages” or “The Dark Ages” when humans abandoned science and returned to humankind’s earlier superstition-and-myth-based magical thinking and “turned to God” for guidance and direction.
With that came an "Age of Religious Fanaticism" which ushered in an "Age of Religious Wars" (which continue to this day).
Then came a swing in the opposite direction with “The Age of the Renaissance” and a renewed interest in science, in the arts, in medicine, in reviewing the ancient philosophies of Plato over Aristotle, and the humanistic movement as well.
(The pattern was set: during periods when humans have been interested in science, in the arts, in medicine, etc., there has been peace; when humans have been more interested in dogma and religion and on forcing their beliefs on others, there has been war. So with Girolamo Savonarola and others of his ilk, there came an “Age of Theology and Theocracies (Religious Governments)" and another "Age of Religious Wars.")
A later shift brought “The Age of Enlightenment” and - later during that period - “The Age of Reason” (named for the subject matter in a pamphlet written the English and American activist Thomas Paine which he entitled “The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology”). In that, he highlighted what he saw as the corruption of the Christian Church and criticized its efforts to acquire political power. Paine advocated reason in the place of “revelation,” rejected the belief in “miracles,” and viewed the Bible as "an ordinary piece of literature rather than as a divinely inspired text.”
[His deistic (non-Christian) views were also held by other so-called “founders” of the U.S. – men such as John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington and others – who were (contrary to the belief of many persons nowadays) not Christians and who had no desire to form a Christian nation or any other kind of theocratic government at all. They advocated complete separation of church and state, a line which has now all but disappeared in the U.S. and in many other nations around the globe.]
By the time Maharaj came along, the shift was back to another “Age of Darkness” which – to use his words – was an “Age of ‘Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity’.” He could have called it, “The Age of the Ultimate Sickness,” and that is the age in which the persons of planet earth are still trapped.
Persons cannot go to a dancehall and dance lightly and joyously in the dark. The lights in the hall must be turned on in order for dancers to see what they are doing, where they are going, and how to avoid running into and harming each other.
That is the quandary facing humanity at the present: in this present “Age of Darkness” or “Age of ‘Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity’” or “The Age of the Ultimate Sickness”: fewer and fewer are able to see what they are doing, where they are going, and how to avoid running into and harming each other.
To the contrary, fear and anger generate frustration, and frustration generates more anger, and levels of anger as high as those presently being witnessed all around the globe will not inspire persons to avoid running into and harming each other but will inspire them to do exactly that.
Maharaj also shifted through several “stages” or “ages” of his own, trying initially to treat the Ultimate Sickness with a Hindu / non-duality version of the Ultimate Medicine; later, trying a spiritual / non-duality version of the Ultimate Medicine; and – in the end – recommending that seekers “give up religion” and “give up spirituality” and focus on the psychological, mind roots of the Ultimate Sickness with its symptoms of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
As a pre-teen and teenager visiting an uncle at his place of employment – the Rusk State Hospital, which is an inpatient facility providing psychiatric treatment for the severely mentally ill – I watched men dancing about alright, but they were not dancing lightly and they were not dancing peacefully. They were locked away because their personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses had driven them to harm themselves and others.
Such is what happens when persons are being driven by the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
Maharaj said that realization involves nothing more than being freed of “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” Only if that happens, can true peace manifest; only if that happens, can unconditional happiness be enjoyed; only if that happens, can chaos end; and only if that happens, can true and unwavering stability manifest.
One called “Jesus” who abandoned organized religion and came to the non-dual understanding said some 2000 years ago, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Who that is unstable can dance lightly? No one.
Moreover, no one’s dance can be interrupted unless one is being driven by the hidden agendas of one – and almost always many more – false, personal identifications.
The details of a discussion with a man who was trapped in several ego-states wrote when he felt that his dance had been interrupted are shared in Chapter Five of the book Dancing Lightly, a chapter entitled “Interrupting the Dance”:
The man said, "I was sent by a friend who told me to read your article on death and Mumbai"[referencing the 2008 attacks in that city by a group of Muslim extremists who killed over 164 people and injured more than 300].
He continued: "I started reading that and wondered why he told me about it but when I got further into it I understood. I started feeling suicidal at Thanksgiving and with Christmas coming up because those were the first holidays since my wife left me. I read what you wrote and I am seeing that you are right."
“The end or ‘death’ of my relationship with my wife seems more painful than the actual deaths of people I’ve loved. I haven’t cared about anybody else since she left except me. It’s all been about me. What you write about is pretty foreign to me but somehow I am getting out of myself at least a little bit, but I need more help. Anyway, thank you for what you wrote. It seems like maybe it has helped even if it is not the total solution."
The reply:
“Earlier, the pointer was offered that when those seeking realization come here for a retreat or satsang, it is actually for entertainment . . . just a chance for pure consciousness to dance with pure consciousness . . . to dance with ItSelf.’ To the suicidal writer above (who reported later that he is ‘doing better now’) and who currently has no ‘partner’ with which to dance, this consideration was offered: peace and happiness and even bliss can happen with the realization that one can dance the dance of joy, with or without ‘A Partner’."
“If you do not come to understand the ‘not-two’ dance, then any pleasure derived from the ‘two-dance’ will be inconsistent or fleeting. If you cannot enjoy the dance without any ‘Partner,’ then you will not enjoy the limitations that will eventually manifest during the dance with ‘The Partner’.”
“In fact, never has such joy and bliss been witnessed at a dance as when an elderly woman in a corner at a wedding reception was observed while dancing slowly—without a partner—a picture of perfect contentment as she swayed slowly to the rhythms. On the floor were those persons who appeared to be dancing with ‘others’; in fact, much of their dancing appeared to be only about ‘self’ rather than about being with ‘The Partner’ or about being ‘together’.”
“That is a metaphor for so many ‘relationships.’ On the main dance floor, there was a show of egos and egotism under way. ‘Individualized’ and personal image-creating and image-sustaining moves were being conducted. Such has nothing to do with being ‘A Couple.’ It has nothing to do with ‘togetherness.’ Almost all of that acting had everything to do with self. So much for the illusory, dualistic concept of ‘a couple’ and ‘being together’.”
“Unencumbered peace and happiness, by contrast, was being experienced by that one who appeared to be ‘alone in the corner,’ enjoying the temporary manifestation . . . exhibiting that incredible lightness when involved only with the beingness.”
“In the movie Zorba the Greek, the lead character Alexis Zorba is what some would call ‘a non-attached loner,’ described in the novel on which the movie was based as ‘a living heart, a large voracious mouth, a great brute soul, not yet severed from mother earth’ (a.k.a., abiding in a nisargan or ‘natural’ fashion)."
“Zorba, with his joyous, spontaneous manner and self-abandoned happiness which find expression through his dancing (even sans ‘Partner’), provides a sharp contrast to his rigid, uptight boss who knows no joy. Exposed to Zorba’s zest, elements of the boss’s rigidity begin to fade even as ‘losses’ happen. By the end, the boss’s severity collapses entirely after extended exposure to Zorba’s joyous nature. He finally asks Zorba, ‘Teach me to dance, will you?’”
“Sometimes Zorba dances with a ‘partner’ and sometimes he dances without. In the case with the ‘ex-husband’ above, his ‘mind’ cannot consider such a possibility as continuing to enjoy the dance even without a partner. Either way with Zorba, the joy is there. With a ‘partner’ or without, happiness happens. In the case of that speck called ‘zorba’—’not yet severed from’ the natural—Wisdom Is, Joy Is, Happiness Is, Love Is.
"The one assuming the role of ‘The Ex-Husband’ was invited to the dance via these teachings. It is I—the Pure Consciousness—that extends the invitation to the dance.”
“He was told, ‘You danced with what you took to be a 'partner.' Now, during this period when you mistakenly believe that you are 'alone,' you are invited to continue the dance. Merely because the one you took to be 'Your Partner' has chosen to dance with you no more is no reason at all for you to stop the dance. So dance.”
"If you realize, you will come to know that I can be your Zorba. I can teach you to dance even without 'The Partner,' and by enjoying the dance even without a 'partner,' you will find that you have never been 'alone,' that you cannot be 'alone,' that you shall never be 'separated' or 'alone,' and that the dance can go on . . . with joy."
"The concepts of 'with' or 'without' be damned. You can find that happiness and peace can manifest NOW and that freedom and joy can manifest whether dancing with a 'partner' or not. Just come to the dance.”
"Then, you can know that you are Zorba and that even without a relative 'partner,' the dance can go on . . . with spontaneity, with joy, with happiness, with peace, with freedom. Dance, won’t you?”
The invitation to all site visitors is the same.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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