TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
[From yesterday]
Maharaj originally offered a version of the Ultimate Medicine which was a combination that was heavy with Hinduism (in order to attract locals) and some non-dual pointers squeezed in (per the advice of Maharaj's guru).
Eventually, the book I AM THAT reached the West and attracted seekers from those countries who were interested in "spirituality rather than religion." With that new audience, Maharaj's talks shifted and he began offering a version of the Ultimate Medicine which was heavy with the "spirituality" which Westerners were seeking.
After many years, though, Maharaj looked objectively at the results, guessing first that "only one in one hundred thousand will get this," later changing that to '"only one in one million will get this," and eventually guesstimating that "only one in one in ten million will get this."
He also saw that the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness were "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" (see half of the U.S. electorate for the best, current example of that); saw that those are all centered in the mind; and came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental sickness.
When that realization came, he offered a version of the Ultimate Medicine which focused on the psychological roots of the Sickness.
The point in this series is that the non-dual understanding can treat some of the most extreme examples of "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" but that in some cases "ignorance and stupidity" will never be addressed by any means and that some cases of "insanity" have advanced to levels where professional help is indicated.
To continue:
I was university-trained to diagnose mental illnesses in their various forms and manifestations and degrees, and I am certified to teach 100 level and 200 level psychology courses in universities in all fifty states in the U.S.
What I was not trained or certified to do was to teach 300 and 400 levels courses and graduate level courses or to open a mental health office and treat mentally-ill patients professionally.
Yet it does not take university training to see that persons all around the globe are now being driven by the agendas of a host of personality disorders which in many cases have deteriorated into varying levels of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, impulse control / addictive disorders, and varying levels of neuroses and full-blown psychoses.
The sages have long known that personality is at the root of much of the chaos generated and experienced by humans, but what they have not always diagnosed accurately are all of the root causes of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, impulse control / addictive disorders, and varying levels of neuroses and psychoses.
The result?
Millions of persons who have not been properly trained to diagnosis the specifics involved with other persons' mental instability and insanity and who have not been properly trained to treat the specifics involved with persons'' mental instability and insanity are trying their hand at it anyway.
The real problem associated with that?
Their lack of training has not stopped millions from diagnosing (actually misdiagnosing) the causes of persons' mental instability and insanity anyway, and it has not stopped millions from offering ineffective (as well as relatively harmful) treatment plans which are based in nonsense and myth and superstition and an arrogance-based assurance that they know what people all around the globe need to do to be healed mentally.
Because of that fact, mental illness is spreading and is increasing on a daily basis as persons are believing that the treatment plan they've come across is "the right one for them" and are, therefore, ending their search for the real solution to what ails them. They are fixating in their false solutions and are, therefore, fixating in their instability and their insanity (and mentally and emotionally deteriorating even further as a result).
Where are they finding the false teachings about what ails them and about what the proper treatment or cure is for what ails them?
* In sky cults / religious venues.
* In sky cults / spiritual venues.
* In other similar cults.
* In spiritually-based "recovery programs."
* In seminars and gatherings organized by those referred to by Maharaj as "The Big Name Teachers" (whom Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from).
* In the multi-million-seller books of those same Big Name Teachers.
* In room with gurus.
And yes, even
* in so-called "non-duality retreats and satsangs."
Can the non-dual understanding in some cases facilitate a shift away from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"?
Absolutely. I report that only because I experienced it.
But are there instances of instability and insanity on which the non-dual understanding cannot have any effect at all? Also, absolutely. Same with step groups. Same with spiritual movement. Same with any cult. And the same with religion:
I had a spouse who had been carefree and fun to be around during the early years together.
Along the way, however, she eventually fell under the influence of a Big Name preacher in our city whose sermons were being televised nationally. He was the local leader in the anti-gay, love-the-sinner-but-hate-the-sin movement and he invited her to join what was at the time the fledgling "Pray Away the Gay Movement" in his ministry's and congregation's effort to stamp out homosexuality.
Then she was offered a job at a Methodist sky cult and later changed her employment when she was offered more money to work at a Presbyterian sky cult. The only thing which will facilitate the assumption and maintenance of an ego-state more than warped beliefs, arrogance, programming, and conditioning are warped beliefs, arrogance, programming, and conditioning combined with financial reward.
The role of "The Super Religious, Judgmental One" replaced the role of "The Carefree and Fun One" when the belief that "the world is going to hell in a handbag and much of it is because of progressive, liberal views and the acceptance of the unacceptable, starting with homosexuality."
When informed that she was going to play an active role in the preacher's "Pray Away the Gay" Movement, I asked, "Do you think I could have prayed away the cancerous polyps which my trained medical professional removed via surgery?"
The reply: "Yes, if you had prayed with enough faith."
F.: "Okay. Bad example for someone with the religious beliefs which were passed down to you as a child. Let's try this. Suppose gays decided that they should begin a 'Pray Away the Heterosexuality Movement.' Do you think that there is any way that their prayers could ever cause you to change your sexual orientation and thereafter never be attracted to males again and force you instead to always be attracted to females only?"
Initially, there was no reply, only a long look of disgust. Finally, an answer: "My sexual orientation is normal. Their orientation is totally unnatural."
F.: "Do you not know that homosexuality has been observed, naturally, in every species on the planet? There were eleven homosexual penguins in the zoo we visited during our trip to New York City."
She: "So we were told. I don't believe it."
F.: "We saw the evidence with our own eyes!"
She: "Can you tell the difference in a male and a female penguin just by looking at them?"
End of conversation.
[I wondered in silence, "How in the hell did I end up in a relationship where such an exchange could even happen?" Then I recalled: "Ah, of course. (1) I was driven, and when driven, one has no choice"; and (2), "I believed in an image which was presented and thought that image was real and would last forever. I was both foolish . . . and fooled."]
The point. If your mind has been subjected to the warped programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination which are prevalent in so many homes and in so many institutions and which lead persons to believe that they have the power to control the sexual orientation of other persons, then you can also be led to believe that persons do not need professional assistance to receive effective treatment for their mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, impulse control / addictive disorders, and varying levels of neuroses and psychoses but can simply pray them away or have them removed if they only accumulate more dogma or if they only have enough faith and if they complete their daily spiritual exercises which can heal both body and mind. That is, you can be both foolish . . . and fooled.
How effective can hand-me-down beliefs be in setting people up to accept false-prophet-cures or nonsensical-treatment-plans?
Snake oil salesmen made small fortunes peddling their BS wares in the Old West in the U.S.
Politicians become millionaires peddling their BS wares.
Businesswomen and businessmen make fortunes using the most effective marketing tools available to peddle their BS wares.
Members of recovery groups gain status as they tout their spirituality-based treatment plan which, in fact, provides no real treatment for their Addictive Personality Disorder and no effective treatment for the other grave mental and emotional disorders being suffered by those who turn over their will and care not as much to a "God" as to the Big Name members of those groups.
Members all around the globe listen worshipfully to taped recordings of some of the Big Name Teachers whom they adore, even though I became well acquainted with many of the Big Name speakers who persons listen to and came to see (a) how totally insane they behaved from Sunday through Friday before cutting another inspirational tape at a Saturday meeting and (b) how far removed their actual existence was from the false, lovely picture they were presenting.
How widespread is the use of misdirected, nonsensical treatment plans? So widespread that, as noted above, Maharaj offered such plans. The same happened here. The difference is . . . ?
At some point with us, there was an awakening based in objective and informed observations which led to seeing that those approaches were not working and which led to the abandonment of the use of those bogus, religion-based and spirituality-based methods, followed by a shift to addressing the actual, psychologically-based roots of humanity's "ignorance and stupidity and insanity."
And only by witnessing the results objectively was it seen that there are some things which the Advaita teaching can affect and some other things which that they cannot affect at all. Hence, the content of the book Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address)
and the sharing of excerpts from that book along with other observations made along the way.
If you understand the accuracy of a statement made 2000 years ago, that "a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways," then there is the opportunity for you to understand the actual roots of humankind's problems and to find an effective treatment option which is available (and which might need to be holistic in its approach).
In the end, sometimes the non-dual understanding can be enough. In other cases, much more is called for.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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