TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
So far the discussion has focused on many sources of instability and insanity which the non-dual teachings cannot address alone and on a few sources which the teachings can have an effect. So what dilemmas can the non-dual understandings address and alleviate?
That discussion will continue via the sharing of certain excerpts drawn from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address):
INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY A NEED FOR FULL REALIZATION
Why do "the realized" often prefer and enjoy the solitude throughout much of their existence?
1. When the "mind" goes, the formerly-racing mind also goes, so there is no need for the body to race about trying to match the pace of the "mind";
2. when the "mind" goes silent, the realized find that event to be a contentment-producing circumstance, and when the Realized are content with the silence, the mouth becomes content with the silence and stops disturbing the peace;
3. once there is no longer any perceived need to try to escape, the subconscious "need" to run and go and do and zoom comes to an end;
4. once realized, a sense of authenticity becomes its own wonderful "company";
5. the realized can remain contented and in a state of solitude even when relative responsibilities or activities require that they interact with people for a time (carrying along what my Cherokee grandmother spoke of as "their Medicine Place" everywhere they go);
6. the multiple "selves" - prior to realization - had driven thoughts and words and deeds and were constantly seeking company to support their illusory nature; with their dissolution, there is no need for anyone or anything that had been required previously to reinforce illusions;
and probably more than any other reason
7. the understanding comes that it is far more sane to be alone - but free and independent - than to reside in a prison in order to have company.
How is it that the masses shun the solitude? How is it that the noisiest and the most chaotic and the most unstable and the most disordered and the most disorderly and the most insane end up associating with the most chaotic and the most unstable and the most disordered and the most disorderly and the most insane?
A. Their eyes see only what their hidden agendas want them to see;
B. they will deny all facts to the contrary of what their hidden agendas want to see;
and
C. denial can be triggered not just by existing ego-states as an ego-defense mechanism but can also be triggered by the desire to generate a new ego-state.
(Remember, too, a point offered on other occasions: "love" in not blind; instead, it is color-blind: it cannot see red flags. Those who are unstable cannot see their instability or the instability of one admired, or they do not consider instability to be a liability.)
D. Water seeks its own level. It will keep going lower and lower and lower until it reaches the lowest point possible and then joins with the water at that lowest point and remains there.
Do humans not do the same during the accumulation stage of the relative existence? After twenty years of programming and acculturation inspire persons to seek out other persons - and, finally, one "special" person - they move in the same fashion as the water mentioned above.
As more and more instability and personality disorders and insanity manifest
** as a result of the cumulative effects of domestication and conditioning which are heaped upon the already-existing effects of programming and acculturation,
and
** as a result of seeing instability and disorders and insanity modeled in homes and by relatives and by friends and in "relationships" and in the workplace and in government and in cities and states and nations,
then the result is that persons never pause until they sink to the level where they can find other persons whose level of instability and insanity match their own.
At that point, they stop and thus remain in an environment or in a relationship or relationships where stability and sanity will never be modeled but where, instead, their own instability and insanity will be reinforced.
Therein lies an understanding of how The Dream of the Planet - with the debilitated masses therein moving about in a condition of being unawake, unaware, and unconscious - has disintegrated into what is more common now, namely, The Nightmare of the Planet.
Those moving toward stability might be misled for a time by one who is unstable but who is skilled at covering the fact, so the stable might interact with an unstable one for a time;
and
those moving toward sanity might be misled for a time by one who is insane but who is skilled at covering the fact, so the stable might interact with an unstable one for a time;
and even the one that has successfully transitioned personality - and thus the effects of personality disorders - might still be misled for a time by one who is skilled at developing and maintaining an image that hides his or her disorders.
[Why? Because, as Maharaj explained, even post-realization, some traces of one's primary personality might remain until that too totally disappears. Among some scientists, the term "half-life" is used to point to the time required for a quantity to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly (or not) unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay. The term is also used more generally to characterize any type of exponential or non-exponential decay. For example, the medical sciences refer to the biological half-life of drugs and other chemicals in the body.
Among non-dualists, the term can be used to describe how quickly (or not) personal identities in unstable persons undergo decay. For most, the personality identifications assigned and assumed by those among the "non-realized masses" never decay. If those false identities are lost, they are often lost only via the death or via the literal departure of someone who was playing the co-dependent, counterpart role which was allowing a false identity to be assumed and to continue. For example, the role of "The Husband" might only end with the demise of the one who had been playing the counterpart role of "The Wife" or with the departure of the person who had been playing that role but who has subsequently filed for divorce.]
Yet the stable and the sane will soon detect the instability and insanity that was so well hidden. Then, as a result of being exposed to a type of energy that is so totally opposite from that which the stable and sane are accustomed to, an internal vibration within the stable and sane will be triggered.
That, in turn, will generate such an internal sense of disharmony and discord within the stable and sane that the movement away from unstable and insane persons will happen automatically and spontaneously.
Thus, "the realized" quite often choose the solitude, understanding that one need not be alone to enjoy the solitude but also understanding that the sane will not compromise and stay in a prison (with the unstable and insane or those driven by personality disorders) simply in order to have company or a sense of security or a better lifestyle.
Yet in the absence of realization, that is what will happen. In the absence of full realization, instability and insanity will be normalized, and the insane will congregate together; the insane will find and maintain each other's company; those with personality disorders will interact or even co-habitat with persons who suffer from personality disorders;
and they will all claim that they are fine and that those with whom they are in relationship are just fine.
That's the kind of talk that can be heard in any asylum or mental hospital, which is mainly what this planet is. And their denial will guarantee that persons will remain in the no-Realization darkness of their unstable and insane and personality-disorder-driven existence. So it is.
The result?
Most will never seek - much less find - the means to realize fully; most will continue to abide in their prisons in order to have company, as unstable and as insane as that company is;
most will develop an addiction to chaos and will then normalize that condition;
most will strut about the stage of The Theater of the Lie; most will be handicapped as a result of living in "The Dream of the Planet"; and most will also live within "The Nightmare of the Planet" but will likely never realize that, either. Again, so it is, but so it need not be.
Can the teachings address some of the dilemmas discussed above? Most assuredly.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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