TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
Maharaj: “It is the dance of the conscious presence.”
The dance which site visitors are being invited to participate in here is not the dance of the consciousness being conscious of concepts, ideas, notions, thoughts, impressions, theories, views (a.k.a., “beliefs” which amount to nothing more than learned ignorance). It is not a dance of being conscious of anything except the joy of being in conscious harmony with self and all.
Feeling harmony and joy inspires movement and being active, while depression inspires paralysis and inactivity. The children in the video are anything but paralyzed by depression. They are made active by a sense of unconditional happiness which is inspiring them to tune in to the beat and to be singularly conscious of nothing else other than their presence as they focus only on the sound of joyous rhythms and then dance the dance of total freedom.
That dance is a dance of the conscious presence, simply being aware of being, aware of the AM-ness, aware of the IS-ness, and free of the busy-ness of accumulating or trying to reform or trying to get love from a mass of people or trying to receive applause or trying to escape or trying to know it all or trying to find co-dependent caretakers or trying to fill every waking hour with constant play in order to generate adrenaline overload or trying to control or trying to avoid.
The invitation here is also about coming to the dance without settling for being a “wallflower” and without being unable to participate in the dance.
Maharaj said that you will be “present at your death.” So the invitation here is, “Why not, therefore, be present at your life?”
He said: “There is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it different from the past and future. For a moment the past was actual and the future will become so. What makes the present so different? Obviously, my presence. I am real for I am always now, in the present, and what is with me now shares in my reality. The past is in memory, the future - in imagination.”
The children in the video posted here on 28 June were totally engaged in the dance because they were totally “in the now," totally "in the present.” They were not trapped in the past and “longing for the good ole days.” They were not embroiled in a movement to “take our country back” because they hate the way it is now (that is, with some degrees of tolerance for those who appear to be "different from" them and therefore not deemed to be "as good as" them). That is the way things appear to be to those trapped in the past who view all through the lenses of their warped perspectives.
Nor were they paralyzed by a future “in imagination” which is marked by dread and fear and anxiety.
They had no illusion about being “The Coolest Baby Ever”; they had no illusion about being too burdened with relative issues to feel like dancing; they had no plan to "dance later, once everything in my life is in place, just the way I've always dreamed it should be”;
they were not obsessing about the dogma which they will be inundated with later on; they were not subsumed in spiritual exercises as many of them will be later on; they were not preoccupied and about some ideology or philosophy; and they were not behaving compulsively because of an obsession with an imaginary god or with power or with Powers or even with non-duality.
In the “Introduction” to the book Dancing Lightly, a very different perspective was offered for consideration, noting that one need not spend a lifetime following a long and arduous path; that one need not spend a lifetime studying dogma; that one need not spend a lifetime embroiled in the drudgery of spiritual exercises; that one need not seek knowledge for an entire lifetime; and that one need not try to perfect and hone an understanding for an entire relative existence.
Rad, huh?!
Instead, this consideration was shared in the introduction to book:
For billions of religious monomaniacs around the globe, their dogma and agendas have become their single focus. For millions more, the same is the case with their philosophies or ideologies or programs.
For some interested in Advaita Vedanta, that interest can also become an obsession, constantly dominating their every waking moment.
Don't all types who are obsessive or compulsive about anything - including their dogma, their ideology, their philosophy, their program or anything else - eventually prove to be rather boring company? Realization results in lightness, not heaviness . . . in enthusiasm, not monotony. A sure sign of realization is evidenced by a lack of excessive seriousness and the presence of frequent laughter. Post-realization, any further involvement with the teachings is just for entertainment, is just part of the dance.
Sure, when persons visit here for retreats, non-duality is the primary topic. When visits are paid to seekers in other cities, other countries, or on other continents, of course they want to talk about Advaita. That is all fine and is as it should be at that point.
Yet none of that is a part of the daily routine or happenings here.
Here, posts are posted on the Advaita website in the morning, and once that is done, Advaita is also done for the day (some non-duality writing projects or Skype sessions or retreats or email responses notwithstanding). After that, there is just the enjoyment of the freedom that has come via the understanding.
Do some among "the realized" call here to discuss some element of the teachings that brought a new awareness? Yes. Do some read the latest books released here? Yes. But it is all for entertainment. With realization, the seeker dissolved, so seeking is not going on. Only entertainment is going on. Some "realized" teach, some do not, but even with those that are teaching, it is - in the end - just entertainment.
If someone visits or calls and they are "Realized Advaitins," what more needs to be said or shared or discussed? Nothing, really, yet totally for the fun of it, totally for entertainment alone, there can be a dance that is entered into or shared. It is a dance which does not interrupt the lightness but which can be a fleeting part of the lightness when DANCING LIGHTLY happens. Again, post-realization, any further involvement with the teachings is just for entertainment . . . is just part of the dance.
Relatedly, from the book
"There is no need to wait. There is no need to believe that the end of suffering must involve "future" opportunities. The only opportunity is here and now"
and
"Bliss and freedom and happiness and compatibility with nature in the nisarga fashion can only happen NOW."
And from the book
"THE MYTH OF DEATH":
"Now there is no post-manifestation dancing going on, but all of this now is the dance for those 'returning' . . . returning to their natural state and abiding as that / THAT. And indeed those who have 'died the death' of ego and egotism are the only ones currently 'dancing lightly'."
Understand, if you would dance lightly, that there is an ever-present, oh-so-sweet, melodic tune being played by the Presence as it strums gently on the strings of the heart. It cannot be heard if the strings on which it is played have been rendered dissonant by programming;
if they have been made cacophonous by conditioning; if they have been reduced to something quite jarring by acculturation; and if they have been left inharmonious by domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination. Only a peace-robbing, peace-ending harshness will register. The call is to clear away all that blocks the heart, to allow yourself to hear the joyous tune of realization, to come to the dance, and to dance the dance of freedom and unconditional happiness."
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.
