TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
So, it has been seen that the sources of all relative problems involve fanaticism (which is linked to the agendas of personality identifications); higher-than-ever levels of the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (which is linked to chemical imbalances in the elemental plant food body as well as to personality); and humanity’s tendency to take what could be simple and make it complex and complicated.
Selecting the topics to discuss which can help address the root causes of humanity’s relative problems, the first dealt with the requirement for abiding in a Nisarga (natural) fashion:
“It’s All Very Simple So Keep It That Way.”
Next, “Seek What You Are If You Like, But It Would Be Enough To Simply Find Out What You Are Not.”
That can only be accomplished if you . . .
“Question Everything and Everyone.”
[That calls on seekers to understand that (A) it is the nonsensical content of the mind that drives all nonsensical thoughts (which involves the accumulation of learned ignorance which is usually accepted with blind faith and without any questioning at all); to understand that (B) nonsensical thoughts - in turn - determine what nonsensical words will be spoken; and to understand that (C) nonsensical thoughts and words inspire all nonsensical actions.]
The next topic offered for consideration is excerpted from the book WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks of Floyd Henderson):
The Relative Existence Will Never Be Stable, But You Are
When Maharaj knew that the taking of mahasamadhi was approaching, his sharings became pithy, terse, concise and succinct. Too, if it became clear that here only three hours of manifestation remained for sharing, then only the most central and most essential non-duality pointers would be offered in a condensed version, compressed into what could be delivered in that limited period.
So far, the following pointers have been offered for consideration:
1. Find the simplest version of these teachings. Do not complicate the process.
2. Abide naturally. That is, filter your "ultimate objective" by sifting out all unnatural aims and all supernatural ambitions, allowing only that which leads to the ability to abide naturally and spontaneously and unaffectedly and effortlessly to pass through the nisargan sieve of realization which can strain out anything and everything that is not normal and ordinary and instinctive and innate. Then see how simple the relative existence can become via realization and natural abidance.
3. End all efforts to replace former "bad" labels and roles with "new and improved and upgraded and noble labels and roles." Then, being label-free and identity-free, the remainder of the abidance can happen naturally, simply, sanely, and rationally. Meaning?
4. Do not reject one set of labels and roles and false identities for another set of the same. (Yes, that is Advaita Vedantin heresy. So be it.) Labels are the cancer on the relative existence. If you have a cancer-ridden lung and the doctor recommends a transplant using a lung that is also infected with cancer cells, would you think that sane?
Maharaj advised: “Wisdom is knowing that I am nothing; Love is knowing that I am everything.”
The invitation here has long been to transcend the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness - including "ignorance and insanity," per Maharaj - by being rid of all beliefs (which are exactly what always block the opportunity to be wise).
Regarding Maharaj's advice to be wise enough to understand that you are nothing, this can be asked:
Why reject labels and roles to only replace them with other labels or roles? Why go through all the hassle and debate and philosophical work of finding out if you are . . .
an infinite self, An Infinite Self, the essence, the Absolute Reality, Divinity, Atman, Consciousness, Awareness, a Supreme Self, The Most Superior Self, The One Who Is at One with God, or - in some cases - even God . . .
if in the end you are to see the nothingness?
The point is offered here often that everything in the relative is much ado about nothing. So is "the path" and "the journey" and "Realization" as well if they lead to anything other than a means by which the relative existence can unfold in a sane and logical and natural manner after following the "path" to its end, after completing the "journey," after “realizing.” (More Advaitin heresy, right? But that is another of the "final" points that you are invited to take away from all of the talks and writings.)
And “realizing” is also simple if it is understood what that word really refers to. Maharaj explained that “realization” actually involves nothing more than being free of learned ignorance.
5. Next, understand that the relative existence will never be stable but that . . .
a. not only can you be stable
but
b. you already are that which can only be stable.
Consider as an example one of the near-infinite number of dualistic aspects of the relative existence - such as "healthiness" or "an absence of healthiness" - and see that the relative will always be marked by duality:
This speck, called "floyd" by some, was enjoying his health which allowed him to operate a European tour company, to climb the hills of Tuscany, to hike to the peaks of several Swiss Alps, and to walk the streets of all of the major cities - and many of the smaller villages - of The Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, the U.K. and Italy. Then certain symptoms appeared which indicated that an unhealthy condition had manifested. The doctor's word: "cancer."
Time was spent in treatment and healing, at which point it was determined that the message which the inner resource had been sending for years should finally be acknowledged.
As a result came retirement from "secure" employment in order to share these teachings / unteachings and to write about the non-dual understanding which had come.
Within ten years, dozens of books had been written - and scores of rejection slips had been received - with only three books having been published in that first decade of writing.
As always, the writings happened in the early morning hours, and the state of health which had returned allowed many hours each day to be enjoyed on the lake, allowed for motorcycle rides through forested areas, and allowed long periods of time to be passed camping out in and walking through the national forests in many states throughout the U.S.
Then came the day at the end of October in 2005 when a deer ran in front of the motorcycle that was clipping along at 70 m.p.h. (or over 112 k.p.h.)
The crash resulted in a concussion; in seventeen bones being broken (including both the fibula and tibia which were broken in half); in both shoulders being dislocated; and in the hips being dislocated. It took nearly a year for whatever healing was going to happen, but there would never be "full recovery."
In spite of that, the next five years of the relative existence passed with considerable enjoyment, traveling again throughout Europe but this time for pleasure only, accompanied by a friend from college with whom I had been reunited.
Then in March of 2010, as mentioned earlier, the health declined again.
The diagnosis was that neither the heart nor the lungs were functioning in a normal fashion. As is the case with all things relative, there were "good" days and "bad" days until October of 2011 when the crash came. The diagnosis: there was a 95% blockage of the LAD; there was internal hemorrhaging which dropped the red blood cell count from 15 to 7;
angioplasty opened some arteries and the placement of a stent addressed the major blockage; but then the use of blood thinners aggravated the internal hemorrhaging, resulting in a hemoglobin count of 4.7 by the time that readmission to the hospital was required; and there was also, as a result of anemia, the deterioration of a valve that has been generating a murmur since the age of fifteen. Now, the state of the stent and the blood either clotting or not clotting much unfold as it will since thinners cannot be used. So it is.
The point is, if you review what happened in terms of that one aspect of the relative existence alone - namely, the fluctuations that happened in terms of "healthiness" and "an absence of healthiness" - it should be clear that nothing in the relative will be stable. All is in flux. The only constant is change.
Moreover, the similar relative events will cycle as well. Doubt that? Consider the global chaos that began in 2007 and 2008 when banks and financial institutions began crashing. Then consider what Maharaj shared in this exchange nearly four decades ago:
Questioner: "I may not want to change. My life is good enough as it is."
Maharaj: "You say so because you have not seen how painful is the life you live. You are like a child sleeping with a lollypop in its mouth. You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centered, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering. 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."
But as far as persons are concerned, what happen in terms of instability is that most will be blocked (via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination) from knowing the fact that they are that which can only be stable and that can never be unstable; however, in more cases than not among the “non-realized” masses, persons reach a point where their relative existence seems as if it is taking place on a runaway train, and often it seems that the result is one train wreck after another.
The remedy offered here?
Reach the destination at the end of the "path" and be done with it all. Reaching the end of the "path" is not about staying "there." The invitation is to leave the train and to abide naturally and calmly, enjoying whatever the relative might offer that you can enjoy. For those who have seemingly completed the "journey" and now believe that they are "there" is evidence of either distortion, delusion, or dissociation. While manifested, you are "here." Enjoy here. Enjoy now. It is all there will be for you.
Maharaj said: "Like a traveller nearing his destination and collecting his luggage, he leaves the train without regret."
The invitation is to leave the speeding, unstable train on which most are presently riding. Then, the remainder of the manifestation can unfold as if you are standing on a hill next to the railroad track. You will merely watch the trains race by, and you observe that sometimes a train passes by safely and that sometimes it crashes and burns.
Either way, you are no longer aboard. As both the witness and as Pure Witnessing, You are stable as all that is variable and shifting and unstable happens as if you are viewing it all from a platform where Reality has been overlaid on the relative. Effort and travel and "journeying" are no longer required.
Maharaj: "The jnani is already dead to name and shape. How can their loss affect him? The man in the train travels from place to place, but the man off the train goes nowhere, for he is not bound for a destination. He has nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to become."
Understand all of the above and then you will know that, though the relative existence will never be stable, you are that which is stable. You will know that (during the remainder of the post-realization existence), you can observe the relative instability from an unaffected and totally stable position of neutrality.
That is what the deer do here, and the deer can serve as a model to humans to return as much as possible to the mode of nisargan – natural – abidance which they model.
Yesterday, during one of the morning walks which take place daily, a deer was seen to be crossing the road, headed to an open field to graze. The deer paused for a moment to observe me, then moved on into the field and began grazing. As I moved along the road adjacent to that field, the deer paused again, as recommended above, and merely “observed me from an unaffected and totally stable position of neutrality.”
When it was clear that I was moving on and would be no threat, the deer returned to grazing.
The invitation is for you to reflect on events throughout your relative existence when you did not merely witness but were driven instead to jump into action and to, let’s say, try to rescue a damsel or fellow in distress, only to have those efforts blow up in your face;
were driven to try to take charge and try to control a situation which ultimately ended in total chaos rather than control;
were driven to try to reform people or places or relationships, only to be slapped down for your intrusive efforts;
were driven to try to find a caretaker, only to find that there is also a high price to be paid when selling yourself to the highest bidder;
were driven to avoid confronting challenges, only to find that they became more aggravated when ignored, etc. etc. etc.
How different might your relative existence have been if, sometimes, you merely “observed certain happenings from an unaffected and totally stable position of neutrality”?
One man trapped in the Personality Type Two Helper / Rescuer / Savior role came to a startling awareness when he completed the personality inventory offered here and then sat through the follow-up session which provided an analysis of the way that personality identification had driven him all his life.
He came to understand that when one is subconsciously driven by the hidden agenda of the Rescuer Personality Type, then that identity cannot be believed to “exist” unless one constantly searches for persons who need to be healed. That is, for that personality identification to continue to "exist" in one’s mind, then that type must always seek and find and end up with . . . sick people.
He had spent his entire life - and almost all of his money - seeking out “broken-wing birds” to nurse back to health, only to find that, usually, after his having rescued a long line of sick birds to heal, the only result was that his efforts allowed each one that he had supposedly “helped so much” to be able to fly solo once more; to fly up into his face and peck his eyes out and then fly off with all his stuff; and to leave him so blind that he would immediately begin a new search for another sick person who would always prove to be even sicker than all of the sick ones who had come and gone before.
F.: "And how many times did you subconsciously repeat that pattern?"
[Softly, he said] “More times than I can count.”
I asked: “How about trying something different for awhile? Until you understand how your false personal identifications have sabotaged you time and again, until you can see the agenda of your ego-states when they begin to drive your words and actions, until you can then develop the skill to turn away from their influence, and until you can eventually be free of those false identities completely and no longer have to be on guard against their influence, how about you develop the habit of stop-pause-turn?
“That is, how about any time your ego-states start telling you to enter a go-do-zoom mode, you stop; then, how about you pause long enough to observe from an unaffected and totally stable position of neutrality; and then, how about you turn and walk away from what your false identities in the past always drove you to do? Of course that’s just a suggestion for your consideration.”
Maharaj: “To stabilise the 'I am' we do all sorts of things - all in vain - for the 'I am' is being rebuilt from moment to moment. It is unceasing work, and the only radical solution is to dissolve the separative sense of 'I
am such-and-such person' once and for good. Being remains, but not self-being.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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