Apologies for the abrupt interruption in postings but was called away to Austin by my daughter so that I could now enjoy grandfathering without assuming the role of “The Super Grandfather.” (Okay, maybe just one quick exception):
Quite enjoyable it was to see an example of what is often discussed here, namely, a newly-manifested speck of concept-free consciousness (though that condition will be temporary).
Now, to continue: In the previous post was a discussion of the ways in which instability / insanity are induced by cultural influences. Today, sharing additional excerpts from Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address),
the focus will shift to
INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY PERSONALITY DISORDERS
First, to review after the break:
In terms of INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY DUALITY-BASED SPLITTING: The Advaita teachings can address this condition
In terms of INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING: The Advaita teachings can be a part of the process required to address this condition, but cannot address it entirely
In terms of INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY CULTURAL INFLUENCES (especially among cultures that are descended from, historically, one of the more separatist, destructive and violent of all races, still disseminating the programming that supports a sense of superiority and "different-from-ness" and "better-than-ness" and aloofness and coldness and rigidity and xenophobia): If the readiness has manifested within the seeker, then most assuredly the Advaita teachings can assist with addressing this condition.
[In the examples offered earlier, it was seen that a Swiss citizen and a German citizen addressed their xenophobic beliefs and became free of those. No shift at all in perception happened with the man from Amsterdam. In the U.S., a few who have completed the online course or attended a retreat or completed a series of Advaita Skype sessions have transitioned beyond their acculturation-and-domestication-based beliefs.]
In terms of INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY CHEMICAL IMBALANCES, PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTORS, AND BIOLOGICAL FACTORS (including biorhythmic shifts and both female and, yes, male menopause).
Because there is no disconnect between the body and mind, and because the mind is the seat of personality, and because personality is the seat of discord and misery, the Advaita teachings can play a part - but the smaller part - in addressing this condition.
Next to be discussed is . . .
INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY PERSONALITY DISORDERS
(Including not only the Splitting Personality Disorder, the Idealization Personality Disorder, the Devaluation Personality Disorder, and the Cyclothymic Personality Disorder but also the entire spectrum of other personality disorders).
Discussed earlier was the Splitting Personality Disorder which is almost always accompanied by the Idealization Personality Disorder and then the Devaluation Personality Disorder. Next, as the sources of instability and insanity are discussed, it can be seen that the Cyclothymic Personality Disorder plays a significant role in generating chaos and instability.
The Cyclothymic Personality Disorder is akin to - but milder than - the Bipolar Personality Disorder (a.k.a., the Manic-Depressive Personality Disorder). Sufferers have mood swings over a period of years that can shift from mild depression to mild elation or exhilaration or even euphoria.
While the cause of the Cyclothymic Personality Disorder is unknown, research has shown that it often appears in families along with major depression and the Bipolar Personality Disorder, at least suggesting that these mood disorders might share similar causes and that the causes might be related to what is referred to here as "domestication" alongside family-and-community-of-origin programming and conditioning and - therefore - acculturation.
The Cyclothymic Personality Disorder has been seen in a significant number of cases to eventually develop into a full-blown Bipolar Personality Disorder. Typically, these mood disorders cannot be addressed by the non-duality teachings alone.
Professional treatment is often indicated, as is the case with any personality disorder that reaches a level of "average to low psychic health" or "unhealthy psychic" levels.
That said, of course the Advaita teachings, if grasped fully, have always addressed personality-induced misery and suffering and instability and even insanity to some degree.
What are the "success rates" among therapists or among Advaitin teachers who attempt to address the ill effects of personality and the various disorders that personality can inspire? Unimpressive, at best.
Maharaj made clear that in all his years of offering the teachings, only a handful who came his way ever Realized Fully.
The same is true with professional therapy. Some are touting the effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a method for treating personality disorders, recognizing that the origins of personality problems lie in part in some of the areas being discussed in this series, including:
1. one's inherent temperament
2. the internal working model of relationships that drives persons
3. one's self-identity / identities
4. one's self-worth
and
5. the emotional availability of a child’s caregiver(s) . . . or the lack thereof.
Regarding #1: The effects of inherent temperament have been seen to shift among those Fully Realized.
Regarding #2: The non-duality teachings do provide insight and understanding of "the internal working model of relationships that drives persons" and invites them to move beyond their limited and limiting Subject-Object perceptions involving relationships and to see the Oneness. Some have broken, via that process, the previously endless chain of relationship disasters that have marked and marred their relative existence.
Regarding #3: As for the fiction of "one's self-identity / identities," the non-duality teachings can most assuredly address problems rooted in such delusions, but how many will ever see all of the false identities that they have assumed, will ever see that those identities are merely false personas, and will ever see that personas all drive persons via their subconscious agendas, imagined fears, and never-totally-satisfied desires.
Regarding #4: One's self-worth: for those who complete the entire "journey" to the Absolute and beyond to the Nothingness, the concept of "self-worth" becomes a moot issue.
Regarding #5: The result of the emotional availability of a child's caregiver(s) has been addressed earlier.
The effects of having been acculturated and domesticated by a caregiver or caregivers who are not truly available, who do know understand the difference in false love and "Love," and who have no ability to care and to love unconditionally were addressed thusly:
Certain cultures are more culpable than others of modeling their cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof manner, and children in such societies and countries are especially love-starved
and
The would-be-pleasing-child, who wants to receive love from such parents who are generally incapable of showing or expressing love, will unconsciously or consciously formulate an "ego ideal" (that is far from "ideal") and will internalize the values of the parents and will display a cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof manner
and
Because of childhood experiences in their cold and uncaring families and cultures where such displays of affection as hugging and saying "I love you" are taboo, the children who are raised by adults who are rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof become adults who are cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof.
How effective can therapy or non-duality teachings be to break those generational patterns and free persons of the effects of coldness and a lack of caring and rigidity and being distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof?
Not very effective at all. Why?
Persons (the "non-realized") are walking about in the Dream of the Planet while believing that they are awake. Persons talk from their sleep-state while being convinced that they are awake.
Persons' thoughts and words and actions are driven by personality and the agendas of each persona that has been adopted as an identity, but such persons believe that they are choosing their thoughts and words and deeds.
Suffering from disorders and insanity to varying degrees, persons believe that they are "normal." The insane do not know that they are insane; furthermore, persons are being driven by what they do not understand while believing that they understand perfectly.
The call is to understand that ego and egotism and personal agendas
. .
. block the ability to hear pointers to Truth,
. . . block any and every invitation to engage in a truly complete self-examination,
and therefore
. . . block most opportunities to become fully conscious, fully awake, and fully aware.
As a result, few will ever even begin the process that allows them to shift away from self-deception and from being deceived by other "non-realized" (that is, per Maharaj, "not freed of learned ignorance") persons.
A person who has been exposed to bacteria that will cause a full-blown infection to manifest within a matter of days does not know at the instant of exposure that that the contact with bacteria has occurred. That person will not hurry off to the doctor to say, "I have a suspicion that I took into my body a few minutes ago a bacteria that is going to cause an infection that requires antibiotics. I'd like to begin treatment now."
The same is the case with the non-realized masses. They do not know that they are not realized. They do not know when they are being played or deceived by someone. They do not deal with the fact that they can play and deceive others in their relationships. They do not know that they are abnormally cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof because such traits are all they have ever seen in their confined culture.
The result of acculturation and domestication is that persons normalize the abnormal; then, the abnormal becomes the familial standard, the community standard, and the national standard.
Therefore, those
. . . who are lost in the Dream of the Planet,
. . . who are living on the stage of the Theater of the Lie,
. . . who are suffering as a result of their assumption of false identities and personas
and
. . . who are offended when they hear someone invite them to investigate the possibility that they are functioning from within a state of delusion, self-deception, denial and even ignorance
are the ones
. . . who will stay in the darkness;
. . . who will be driven by personality;
. . . whose personalities will drive them into deeper levels of psychic disintegration and unhealthiness;
. . . who will trudge along through the relative existence without ever being in the light;
and
. . . who, in almost all cases, will never know that they have been infected and are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
Just as the one who an instant before was infected with bacteria but does not know that has just happened, so those infected with the Ultimate Sickness will almost never awaken to the fact, so why would they even consider seeking the Ultimate Medicine offered by way of the Advaita teachings?
For the few that do seek and that are totally ready, then some among them will find; thus, the case is this: the Advaita teachings can help to address the conditions that result from personality assumption if the seeker is willing to consider that every belief currently held is false.
Thus, the consideration offered here for the last twenty-two years that these teachings have been presented:
Is it possible that everything you have ever been told or taught or now believe is false?
Whatever you are absolutely sure of - about yourself, about others, about significant others, about "the world," about what you think you understand, about what you think you are like, about what you believe others are like, about anything and everything - will be that which blocks you from seeing the Truth that will set you free.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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