THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty-Five

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

To review: the seat of the Ultimate Sickness is the mind; thus, it is that mind which must be the focus of the treatment. If persons' minds are split or torn as a result of being filled with dualistic, separatist beliefs, then the Ultimate Medicine which is an antidote for that mindset can address the problem; if minds are sick because of psychological splitting, then a different treatment is called for. 

 In the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address the following is shared:

NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING (Continued) 

Even a partially-versed non-dual seeker could not look at the examples and traits of unstable persons that were provided earlier and fail to see how those beliefs and traits are steeped in duality; however, such instability might also be rooted in psychological problems that are so serious that Advaita's Ultimate Medicine cannot even begin to address the issues that are driving some persons. 

Moreover, instability / insanity is usually multi-dimensional in its causes - rooted in numerous sources - so a holistic method of treatment (rather than any one single approach) is most often indicated. That inspires this disclaimer: there are some highly arrogant and highly dangerous persons (relatively speaking) who believe that whatever they are attached to can address anything and everything that can arise during the relative existence. 

Some will claim that their religion has all the answers; some will claim that their "program" has all the answers; some will claim that their philosophy or ideology has all the answers; some will claim that their analyst or psychologist or psychiatrist or doctor or pharmacist / chemist or some other drug dealer has all the answers; however, it is rare that any one single approach can address all of the facets at play when instability / insanity reaches a full-blown stage. 

People familiar with the approach here over the years know that persons who write to report that they are contemplating suicide are referred to the emergency room of the nearest hospital and know that it has been pointed out that the three body types all require totally different food plans if - as Maharaj noted - the body is to function optimally, allowing the functioning to happen in an optimal manner as well. 

So a variety of sources of instability / insanity will be discussed. Never, though, is the Ultimate Medicine offered when it is clear that far more is required to address certain grave mental and emotional issues and disorders. In some cases, yes, the Ultimate Medicine may go a long way in addressing the problem. In some cases, professional treatment by psychologists or psychiatrists will be indicated. In some other cases, physical and dietary needs should be addressed. In still other cases, major personality disorders are driving the instability. Some cases are rooted in the perversities of acculturation and domestication that are especially typical in some specific societies and countries. 

And as mentioned earlier, many cases nowadays are rooted in "psychological splitting." If instability and insanity are rooted in duality-based splitting, then these teachings can assist in addressing the issues; if actual psychological splitting is the cause of such instability, then the teachings will have little chance of treating that mental and emotional sickness. 

Psychological splitting occurs especially among those persons referenced earlier who - for a variety of reasons - have no ability to process and integrate whatever they are feeling. They can emote on occasion, but they seldom feel. Eventually, they can dissociate and will feel nothing and will care nothing about the way their words and actions affect the feelings of others. 

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. 

When they encounter someone who grew up in a family or culture that was just the opposite, such cold and detached adults will erect barriers, feeling threatened by those who come too close. A friend in Amsterdam who was known worldwide as one of the most giving and caring and loving people stiffened and balked on one occasion when I put an arm around her shoulder, and that was after years of being "friends." For her, loving and caring could be handled at a distance, but never up close, and she eventually explained that "people in our culture do not hug like that. We all keep our distance. We are more formal than people in your country." \

Persons from one culture to the next have spheres about them that are of varying radiuses, and to move inside one's sphere is unacceptable among those raised in such cold and often "northern" cultures. In addition to childhood experiences, certain traumatic events throughout one's adult years can inspire the wearing of a shield by those who may have once had an ability to integrate difficult feelings but who later mobilized certain defenses to avoid what those individuals now perceive as intolerable or unbearable situations. 

The dualistic instability / insanity is that they long for closeness while hating closeness. They are doomed to misery, trapped as they are in such insane duality. Consider the level of insanity when one has been robbed of those things that mark the nisarga (natural) mode of functioning that animals display when in their natural habitat. The deer here touch, nestle against each other, display affection and closeness, and yes, even care. 

Among persons who are trapped in psychological splitting, hugging becomes anathema, saying "I love you" is never even considered, an inability to trust on even the slightest level is absent, and paranoia sets in when persons feel sure that everyone wants only to use or abuse them. If persons suffer from what is called here a "broken picker" or from a sense of entitlement or from a desire to use others, then they will attract - time and time again - the types who DO want to use them and / or abuse them; in their backwards world of splitting, they are often attracted to abusive, possessive, jealous, controlling (a.k.a., "strong" and "protective") types; thus, after they have been driven blindly to enter into one such senseless entanglement after another, the conclusion that they must keep their distance and must wear armor to protect themselves can become entrenched. 

INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY DUALITY-DRIVEN SPLITTING 

As another defense, persons suffering from this disorder initially view all people as being either totally good or totally bad. Persons suffering from splitting, when in the mode of seeing only "the good," use the ego-defense mechanism called "idealization." 

[See the pointer offered earlier regarding those who idealize another and, egotistically, idealize self: such persons will "look at a potential partner and write a 'pro / con' list of that potential partner's traits but will have no "con's" on the list." Those same types are likely to idealize themselves and arrogantly "do the same with their own 'pro / con' list of traits": all "pro's" . . . no "con's," which is a complete impossibility when dealing with persons in relationships which are always relative.] 

Why do the majority of marriages and relationships and love affairs end in disaster? Is it because, as some say, that "love is blind?" No. It is because love, when viewed through the lenses of idealizing and romanticizing, is color blind: red flags cannot be seen. The ego-defense mechanism of idealization is triggered when one desires to accumulate a new set of ego-states: lover, companion, spouse, the homeowner to be, the one being cared for financially, ad infinitum. 

At that point, one will assign exceedingly positive qualities to self and to another. Because all of that is dualistic and thus relative, that positive view will not last. Eventually, the use of idealization will be replaced with the use of "devaluation"; then, the earlier romanticizer / idealizer will assign exceedingly negative qualities to another. 

Here, the terms used in the Advaita teachings are "upgrading" and "downgrading": "The Spouse" soon becomes "The Super Spouse," and where originally only "The Husband" was required to satisfy the role of "The Wife," once the upgrading takes place, then "The Super Wife" must have "A Super Husband" to "survive" in her mind. The same is true for the one assuming the role of "The Husband" and then later egotistically upgrading that false self to the status of "The Super Husband." 

Early on, idealization will play along with those super labels, but soon, "devaluation" will always manifest as long as persons are being tossed about in the storms of relativity; then, broken relationships or breakups or divorces will follow, along with chaos (and often along with even more instability and insanity). 

Of the two types of splitting discussed earlier, the more complicated is the deep-seated, psychological version. Narcissism and arrogance were mentioned in connection with the mental illness of splitting and the use of "idealization." It was Sigmund Freud who first mentioned "idealization" when discussing narcissism. 

[Consider: How narcissistic is it to judge others - often in an instant - and conclude that they are all good or all bad?] 

He taught that narcissism first manifests in infants who come to believe that they are the be-all and end-all, often as a result of over-indulgent parents who egotistically see the perfect child as being an extension - and even literal manifestation - of their own perfection. Yet the child still wants the parents' love, so children internalize the traits and values modeled by the parents. 

As noted earlier, 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. 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. 

At some point, even a child senses that "the Authentic Self" is being choked into submission; yet in the search for love and acceptance, the child (already identified with many false ego-states) will move ahead anyway with the agenda of the ego ideal, and in that torn state of duality, children can and often do develop pathologies. The pathologies can manifest and result in the examples of instability listed earlier, and eventually insanity of varying degrees can manifest alongside the meanness and coldness that is often exhibited by those trapped in psychological splitting. 

[Note that most who are driven by splitting are functioning adults and will not appear to be "crazy"; quite to the contrary, they will appear "normal" and even "charming" part of the time.] 

So the child was split first, after which the child will likely use splitting for the remainder of the manifestation. When awareness of the Authentic Self is driven out of awareness, then Freud called that situation "secondary narcissism." In the case of secondary narcissism, the ego - the false self - is idealized. It is a short step from that action to idealizing "another" who has something that the child wants (and in later years, to idealizing another who has something that "the Adult-Child" wants.) 

In many cases, the splitting can become so severe that persons exhibit the behaviors mentioned earlier: harshness with their words, coldness with their unavailability, meanness in their interactions, cruelty with their judging, and / or near-sociopathic levels of mercilessness while ignoring the impact of their words and deeds on the feelings of those around them. 

While this dualistic, psychological splitting garners little attention and is thus often minimized when it is discussed, some therapists suggest that it can actually develop into a borderline pathology. How else could one describe persons who are comfortable with being "harsh, cold, mean, cruel, and judgmental" and who are "able to ignore the impact of their words and deeds on the feelings of those around them"? 

In the process of taking to the next step the idealizing of "another" who has something that the child wants (and later idealizing "another" who has something that "the Adult-Child" wants), it becomes easy for the Adult-Child to link desires, narcissism, and idealization to the libidinal drive in order to use the tools in one's "sexual kit" to control, attain, and gain. Freud said that in those cases, the idealization of other people is a "flowing-over" of narcissistic libido onto the object; from the viewpoint of self-object relations, the object representations (like that of the caregivers) are made more beautiful than they really were. How does that look in practice? 

A woman in a neighboring state explained that a man approached her (after he had discovered that she had earned millions of dollars by operating a successful chain of businesses in several states). He was and is a charming Type Three who is quite adept at presenting a most desirable image. So sure that he was ideal, she moved him into her house promptly after allowing a "flowing-over" of narcissistic libido onto the object. 

She reported early on that "He is charming and a great lover and brings so much to our relationship and to what has been missing in my empty life." It was so easy to move him in, but now that the facade has fallen, she is overwrought with trying to find a way to move him out. As in all cases of splitting, "All good" became "all bad." 

Both the male and the female in this couple were made to appear "more beautiful" than they really were in their initial appearances that were maintained during the dating process, and now that pain of "the libidinal energy hook" that was used to catch what was sought is generating intolerable pain and misery. Rare? Hardly. 

The use of idealization, followed by the use of devaluation, is so commonplace that most can relate directly to the chaos that the illness of splitting can generate. Since relationships are relative (note relationship) and dualistic, then at some point, persons need to make the admittedly dualistic "pro / con list" referenced earlier if they are to find all of the relevant facts about a potential mate prior to rather than after the fact. 

As noted earlier, that list in the early going almost always ends up with only "pro's" as idealization typically drives both parties during the early, heady days of dating. (If a "negative" is seen, the belief is, "I can address that and change this person, but all of the pro's are so overwhelming, I will move on and pursue this relationship and lock it in.") 

Eventually, the initial facades and images will be exposed to the light. The actually-obvious negative traits that could have been seen early on (or that were seen and denied because of a selfish agenda) begin to surface, and the former "all-pro list" becomes an "all-con list" in the pervasive realm of "splitters." 

As for the Advaitin seeker, as well as for those feeling the misery generated by having dealt with "splitters" or for those still dealing with a splitter, a far deeper understanding of the potential roots of duality should be obvious as well as another root of the misery and suffering that often comes when one "love" calamity after another manifests in the absence of understanding and enjoying "Real Love." 

Where does the "flowing-over" of narcissistic libido that triggers the sexual act come into play in regards to "love" vs. "Love"? The perverse mind and the warped psyche can inspire hundreds if not thousands of insane beliefs about sex, including not only the "flowing-over" of narcissistic libido onto the object but also including engaging in the act for nothing more than prurient pleasure, for financial gain, for attaining a higher lifestyle, for establishing and maintaining new ego-states, etc. Since the narcissistic libido and "love" vs. Real Love have been raised in this discussion, let a related pointer be shared. 

Upon returning from South Africa, two emails from Far Easterners were in the mailbox. One explained that I should teach tantric sex; another said that I should encourage "abstinence, in order to move seekers to the highest level of purity." To the first, the reply was that he needed to start his own teaching career, and to the second the reply was, "I don't know who you've been dating, but if her purity is such an issue you might want to change partners." 😄

Here, where nisarga / natural functioning is the end game, people still advise that natural acts should be abandoned. To the contrary, natural acts are encouraged, yet the encouragement is offered alongside the invitation to stop the phoniness that marks and mars all of the "love games" that people play and to bring True Love into play instead. 

As for the letters from those talking tantric sex and abstinence, they inspired this sharing in May of this year: But do not be misled by the comment yesterday that "REAL LOVE brings nothing that is relative and takes nothing that is relative (though its awareness of Oneness is expressed in the relative act of sex when Reality is overlaid on the relative)." 

When the relative act of sex happens alongside the manifestation of Real Love, the phenomenal act coincides with a noumenal awareness and results in levels of bliss that no one can ever experience unless both of those elements manifest, coincide, intersect, and merge simultaneously. 

"Full Realization" will never rob you of bliss; to the contrary, only Full Realization will guarantee bliss. What it might rob you of is the selfish use of sex as a tool to gain what your personas desire, usually out of fear. 

Moreover, only Full Realization will allow the true bliss and the relative bliss to manifest, coincide, intersect, and merge, taking you to a level that you have never imagined if it has not yet happened with you. 

To be continued. 

 Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty-Four

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

Because the seat of the Ultimate Sickness is the mind, it is that mind which must be the focus of the treatment. Yet not all of the problems of the mind can be addressed by the antidote for duality - the Ultimate Medicine - even when a mind is split or torn.. Why? Because sometimes the splitting is rooted in dualistic belief systems and sometimes the splitting results from other factors but, in both cases, the mind can appear to be the same.

Therefore, to find the proper treatment, the exact nature of the problem must be properly diagnosed. Thus, when seeking "the proper treatment," it will behoove seekers to understand (a) if their mind-centered problems are rooted in duality - which the non-dual Medicine can address - or (b) if their mind-centered problems are rooted in other causes. 

If persons' minds are split or torn as a result of having been filled with dualistic, separatist beliefs, then the Ultimate Medicine which is the antidote for that mindset can address the problem; if minds are sick because of psychological splitting, then a different treatment is called for. 

In the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address this is offered to help make the proper distinction:

NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING 

Most of the problems of this planet are centered in the mind, including . . . 

 . . . the belief that man has been given dominion over plants, animals and the resources of the planet and has the right to use all of that as he chooses - thus negatively impacting the environment - is a mental problem; 

. . . the arrogance and sense of separation which lead to conflict on all levels is a mental problem; 

 . . . the anxiety and stress and preoccupation with efforts to live according to the dreamed up rules and regulations and laws and commandments of someone else's dogma in order to spend eternity in an upgraded version of "this world" as opposed to a downgraded version of "this world" is a mental problem; 

. . . the fact that Real Love is mistaken for what the masses call "love" is a mental problem (a mental illness accompanied always by a lack of Wisdom, a failure to understand Oneness, and an excess of ignorance), as is the chaos that follows when their version of "love" is seen to have been false; 

 . . . the instability of persons' thoughts and words and actions is a mental problem (the Advaitin called "Jesus Christ" purportedly having said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways"); 

and 

. . . being unstable is one surefire sign of the presence of a mental problem. 

 Each example and others shall be discussed, beginning first with instability being evidence of a mental problem. 

Persons normalize the abnormal, so the depressed will often deny or just fail to see that they are depressed; the narcissistic can spot that trait in others but seldom see it in themselves; and those who exhibit harshness with their words, coldness with their unavailability, meanness in their interactions, cruelty with their judging, and / or near-sociopathic levels of mercilessness while ignoring the impact of their words and deeds on the feelings of those around them are sometimes quite capable of tuning into their own feelings (or emotions), though they can eventually dissociate and feel nothing; however, they are often totally out of touch with the way others feel as a result of dealing with them (giving lip service only to their ability to empathize). 

Such volatile persons, having normalized their instability, either are not aware that flux and unsteadiness and their ever-in-motion fluctuations are abnormal . . . or, they simply do not care. Many of those are actually addicted to chaos, so bored and /or depressed that they subconsciously require the adrenaline rush that comes with chaos in order to "feel alive." 

Their problems are rooted in the instability generated by their dual-mindedness, so they accept, seek, or ignore their unstable condition and the fact that it is a mental problem, a form of insanity itself. 

The Advaitin Shakespeare referred to such types in relationships as those with "inconstant affections" and called them "inconstant lovers." 

Consider some of the definitions of "unstable": 

1. inconstant and variable; that is, likely to change frequently without apparent or cogent reason; 

2. unsteady, forever subject to change, highly or violently reactive;

3. unable to afford a sense of ease or reassurance to those who are around them, preferring consciously or subconsciously to manipulate others with covert methods of controlling in order to make them "walk on eggshells" or to keep them at a distance; 

4. overly-sensitive to self while being insensitive with others; 

5. of unsound mind; suffering from severe mental illness; insane; deranged; 

6. disposed to psychological variability; irresolute; moody; 

and

7. exhibiting such personality traits as: - changeable -unpredictable -unsteady -inconstant -unsettled -irrational -erratic -inconsistent -unreliable -untrustworthy and -vacillating All of the above describes those who are trapped in the Ultimate Sickness of a dualistic mind (and, thus, mental illness) and who are swept back and forth by the tides of emotional intoxication. 

Consider waves crashing into rock formations along the shores of the planet's oceans: the rocks are there, steady, unmoved by the actions of the ever-changing waves that are crashing into them. Take the rocks (as in "she / he is steady as a rock") to be the relative existence when insanity is absent and when reality is overlaid upon it; take the waves to be the ever-in-motion consciousness, the unstable mind, and the existence that many encounter everyday because they are unstable in all ways. 

The mind is the seat of duality, and duality is that which drives persons into constantly-fluctuating states of happiness and unhappiness; of shifting from loving to hate; of moving from idealizing and romanticizing to degrading and debasing; of upgrading and downgrading; of moving from "you light up my life" to "you drive me crazy"; of looking at a potential partner and writing a "pro / con" list of that potential partner's traits but having no "con's" on the list; and of arrogantly doing the same with one's own "pro / con" list of traits. 

Sometimes, the Ultimate Medicine can shed its healing light on unstable thoughts and words and actions and ignorance and allow persons to escape the drama and chaos of their instability; more often, the masses will remain unstable throughout the manifestation. 

As the deer in this neighborhood spontaneously move away from the chaos and noise generated by some in the community, so the sane will often finally tire of the insanity generated by the unstable persons in their lives and move on; 

others, driven by their own selfish agendas, will stay to receive "Perk A" while tolerating "Examples of Total Insanity A through Z" (all of which are often rooted in duality but may be rooted in the insanity of "Psychological Splitting"). 

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.] 

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THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty-Three

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

So the seat of the Ultimate Sickness is the mind; thus, it is that mind which must be the focus of the treatment.

In the book 

this is offered:

Most of the problems of this planet are centered in the mind. The planet-wide instability and insanity of persons' thoughts and words and actions are evidence of the fact that The Ultimate Sickness of duality and its effects (which is calling out for The Ultimate Medicine) is in most ways a mental problem. 

The Advaitin called "Jesus Christ" purportedly said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." In some cases, instability and low-level personality disorders and even mild cases of insanity have been addressed by the non-duality teachings if the result was Full Realization. 

The following are often observable among those who are trapped in the Ultimate Sickness of a dualistic mind (and, thus, mental illness) and who are swept back and forth by the tides of emotional intoxication: changeable, unpredictable, unsteady, inconstant, unsettled, irrational, erratic, inconsistent, unreliable, untrustworthy and vacillating. 

The content of this book distinguishes between (1) the causes of instability and insanity which the non-dual teachings can address and (2) other causes which require far more than the teachings if they are to be effectively addressed. 

[What are some of the methods available to treat type 2? 

Medication / Natural Food Supplements 

Psychotherapy / Group therapy 

Day treatment or partial hospital treatment 

Specific therapies, such as cognitive-behavior therapy and behavior modification 

EMDR to treat unresolved trauma 

and 

Holistic approaches which treat the physiological issues which result from improper food plans for a body's specific metabolic type, resulting in imbalances and deficiencies which can generate mental problems.] 

To continue with pointers from that book which includes discussions of: 

instability and / or insanity induced by duality-based splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by psychological splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by cultural influences; instability and / or insanity induced by personality disorders; 

instability and / or insanity induced by a failure to psychically integrate and instead the tendency to psychically disintegrate instability and / or insanity induced by adults who model constant mood swings and instability and being temperamental and inconsistent so that they are always unpredictable; 

instability and / or insanity induced by fixating in "the parent" role or "the child" role rather than interacting from the stance of the mature adult; instability and / or insanity induced by emotional intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by religious / spiritual intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by inner causes; 

instability and / or insanity induced by depression and mania; instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; instability and / or insanity induced by chemical imbalances, physiological factors, and biological factors; instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; and instability and / or insanity induced by seeking someone or something to cause you to be happy. 

For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English. 

 Again, "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways," so the problems generated by duality are all generated via the mind. To be free of the influences of duality, one must be free of the influences of the mind. coming to understand that, Maharaj made clear in his later talks that the Ultimate Medicine is not a religion-based medicine and is not a spirituality-based medicine. 

It is a psychological medicine which addresses the real root of the Ultimate Sickness at its very seat, and the seat of the problems of humanity lie in the programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed mind.

Remember Grandmother's well discussed earlier? 

 Remember the knots that had been placed in its rope?

When I was trying to repair that damaged rope in order to make it effectively usable again, the last thing that rope needed was the addition of more knots. And the last thing a mind needs, after having been twisted into knots, is the addition of more blockages. What are the blockages which prevent the consciousness from seeing clearly? Ideas, concepts, learned ignorance, perceptions, misperceptions, notions, (A.K.A., "beliefs").

Any effective version of the Ultimate Medicine must be able to remove the blockages, not add even more to the nonsensical mix within a knotted mind.

All which has been taught and learned was deemed by Maharaj to be nothing more than "learned ignorance." The Sick mind does not need more added to it. It needs less. It does not need to be taught more. It needs to be un-taught all. It does not need to learned more. It needs to un-learn all.

That is the nature of the effective version of the Ultimate Medicine. It involves de-accumulation, not more accumulation.

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.]

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THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty-Two

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

It has been shown that "The Causes of the Ultimate Sickness" become "The Symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness" to the degree that "The Causes" (distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing") result in the passing down from one generation to the next the symptoms of the Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." Then, once the symptoms manifest in one generation, then those symptoms become the cause of the Sickness being passed down to the next generation. 

So the transmission of the Ultimate Sickness  now involves entrapment in a cycle of nonsense and what Maharaj called "learned ignorance."

You may have heard someone report something like this: "Well, my son brought home the crud from school, he passed it on the sickness to his brother and sister, they passed the illness to me, and I passed it on to my husband. We're all sick as can be." (Never have persons shared anything that is more accurate without actually knowing just how sick they are and without knowing what the most serious Sickness is which they have contracted.) 

Yes, the scenario the mother described above is the very pattern by which the Ultimate Sickness is transmitted. Because no one can give away anything other than what one has, then entrapment in "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" will lead to those persons passing down the "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" they have to the next generation, those in that generation pass down the "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" they have to another generation, ad infinitum. 

And what do distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing generate? A mind. Now this is a key point in understanding what the Sickness is about and how it is to be treated:

Humans originally had no mind! 

It was not until the human brain evolved from its original one cup size to its present 3-1/2 cup size that any human ever had a mind, that is, ever had areas of the brain where information could be stored and from which information could be retrieved. 

The earliest version of "the mind" was originally "an asset" for humanity when it was filled with facts, such as when Thor witnessed Rickback fall off a cliff and break into pieces on the rocks below and then stored in the mind-part of his brain the intuitive message, “Take caution around the edges of cliffs. The potential is an event which will not contribute to the survival of the species.” 

Now, however, as a result of distorted and nonsensical programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing, the mind - as Maharaj made clear in multiple warnings - is "a liability." 

Thus, Maharaj’s eventual focus was on what he came to see as the root source of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the mind. He had already tried and abandoned a religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine and a spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine; he had modified his stance regarding SELF-Inquiry and said: 

“You do not need to find the answer to the question, ‘Who Am I?’” 

and that 

“It is enough to know who you are not”; 

he advised seekers to stop reading the talks in the so-called "spiritual classic" I AM THAT and to listen to his later talks 

and 

to “just give up spirituality” 

and 

to abide “normally and naturally” instead. 

Seeing that the problems of humanity are all centered in the mind, he said: 

"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind." 

“Don’t rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether.” 

"Distrust your mind, and go beyond." 

“The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.” 

"All illness begins in the mind." 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates." 

 " . . . The mind obscures and distorts." 

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering.” 

[Note the distinction between “pain” on one hand and "misery and suffering" on the other: pain is rooted in the body; misery and suffering are rooted in the mind.] 

His advice: "Stop making use of your mind and see what happens." 

"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ." 

[Here the point is that ideas, concepts, notions, perceptions, values, etc. can all be clustered into one single group or classification: beliefs; thus, it would be said here that “There is no such thing as mind. There is only a conglomeration of beliefs; moreover, those are not 'your beliefs' but are actually just 'their beliefs' which have been accepted on blind faith without any logical or reasonable or objective questioning at all.”] 

Maharaj: "To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom." 

So what was the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state: 

"There is no such thing as a mind." 

"I have no mind . . . ." 

"Reach a state of zero-concepts." 

"As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens." 

"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably." 

Want to address the Ultimate Sickness properly? Then one must address the issue of the mind. 

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty-One

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

The causes, symptoms, effects, and aspects of the Ultimate Sickness have been discussed. Next, the treatment will be discussed. 

As has been noted, the proper treatment for any sickness cannot be administered unless the sickness is first diagnosed properly. 

Some regular visitors to this site know that I spent as many of my early days as possible away from the inner city, slum-like environment in my hometown in Louisiana and with my Cherokee grandmother in her isolated cabin situated in the piney woods of East Texas. 

One of my chores each day was to go to the well behind the house and lower the bucket into the cool water below by using a pulley.

It was the morning after I had chased two tomato-stealing fellows out of Grandmother's garden that my water-drawing chore faced an obstacle: someone (and my guess was that it was most likely the tomato thieves) had come during the night and tied knots every twelve inches or so in the rope between the pulley and the end of the rope, rendering the rope useless since the knots prevented the rope from moving through the pulley.

I spent a considerable amount of time removing all of the knots which had been tied very tightly into the rope. 

Compare the knotted rope to a mind after a person has been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed, and consider that those with knotted mind might be deemed to be "knot heads."

The Urban Dictionary defines "knot head" as 

(A) Any person that is unwilling to listen to, learn from and heed the counsel and the wisdom of someone who has gone before them and foresees the pain, consequences and heartache that lie ahead in the path the person has chosen; or, 

(B) someone who only learns by suffering and / or sad experience; or, 

(C) a person who has trouble thinking in a logical progression, usually caused by a profound amount of circular reasoning tying their brain into a knot; or, 

(D) a dumb ass. 

The "knot" which Maharaj spoke of - saying that it needed to be "cut" was "the knot of self-identification": "What makes you come here is your being dis-pleased with your life as you know it, the life of your body and mind. You may try to improve them, through controlling and bending them to an ideal, or you may cut the knot of self-identification altogether and look at your body and mind as something that happens without committing you in any way." 

If you consider and understand the continuum along which the unmanifested (un-trapped) awareness-energy can manifest as conscious-energy within a confined (trapped) human space, you could see the seven steps which Maharaj spoke of but which he never enumerated 1 though 7. The only step farther removed from the previously-unadulterated awareness / consciousness than mind identification is body identification. 

Add in personality identification and the stage is set for the Ultimate Sickness to settle into the part of the human brain which can store and recall information - that is, "the mind" - which is the seat of the Sickness . . . the seat of the knots which bind. 

See, a piece of rope can be used to assist humanity during the manifestation, the way that the rope holding the bucket above Grandmother's well allowed me to retrieve each day the life-sustaining water from below. 

That rope facilitated in freeing us from thirst, and even worse, relatively speaking. But that same piece of rope was useless when cursed with knots; furthermore, that same piece of rope could be used to bind persons if wrapped about them and tied off with knots. 

That is exactly what happens when a mind becomes knotted up with ideas, concepts, perceptions / misperceptions, warped perspectives, distortions, and delusions (a.k.a., "beliefs") and turns programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed persons into "knot heads." A person with the Ultimate Sickness will behave as a knot head, or - as Maharaj put it - will be completely driven by "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." 

The person or persons who knotted up Grandmother's rope had obviously placed each knot in the rope and then pulled the rope in opposite directions to insure that the knot was tightened to such a degree that undoing it would be no easy task. The treatment for Grandmother's knotted rope involved forcing two screwdrivers into the knot and twisting them in opposite directions in order to painstakingly un-do each knot. 

The treatment for the Ultimate Sickness is similar in that it is no easy task to un-do the knots which have been twisted so tightly into the minds of the masses via twisted programming, conditioning, etc. Those knots include Maharaj's "knots of self-identification" and his knots of "ignorance and stupidity and insanity"; moreover, the greatest obstacles to undoing the knotted mess of the minds of those with the Ultimate Sickness is that knotted minds see all in a way that is the 180-degree opposite of reality. 

A twisted, knotted mind rejects all invitations to partake of the Ultimate Medicine because such a mind cannot look at itself and see the "ignorance and stupidity and insanity" stored therein; instead, it thinks it sees "wisdom, intelligence, and sanity." 

That is why Maharaj at first said that only "1 in 100,000" will receive the Ultimate Medicine and be healed. Later, amended that guesstimate to only "1 in a million"; and even later he amended that to "1 in 10 million." Why? Because he who knows not that he is sick / Sick will not seek a cure.

But consider: if one were diagnosed with a fatal disease and told that the odds were "1 in 10 million" that she or he could be cured but that "some have been cured by a little-known method we have available," such a person would likely say, "Well, Doc, let's give it a try." That is the invitation from the "realized teacher" that knows a way that worked for the teacher and that worked for some Sick persons whose paths crossed with that of the teacher. 

Now even the wisest seeker of a cure might have looked in other venues and might have been convinced to try the plan(s) of certain practitioners who claim to know an effective treatment. 

Maybe some of those practitioners are charlatans who know they are selling a scam; others might truly believe they have found a cure. Note that "maharaj" was among the latter for years; so was "floyd." Both had been led to believe that religion could offer some sort of cure; both witnessed what seemed to be some "improvement"; but both found eventually that religion did not work to cure the Ultimate Sickness. 

Next, both came to believe that spirituality could address the symptoms of the Sickness; both witnessed what seemed to be some "improvement"; but both found eventually that spirituality did not work to cure the Ultimate Sickness. 

In the end, both came to see that the Ultimate Sickness is not a too-little dogma sickness; both came to see that the Ultimate Sickness is not a sickness rooted in a "spiritual malady"; and both came to see that the Ultimate Sickness is a mind sickness and that the treatment must include removal of all of the knots in the minds of the person suffering from the Sickness. 

Just as the mind does not need more knots added in an effort to untangle the mess that the programmed and conditioned mind is, so too is the case here: it was finally understood that all of those charlatans and practitioners were adding more and more ideas, concepts, perceptions / misperceptions, warped perspectives, distortions, and delusions (a.k.a., "beliefs") to the minds of their followers who were suffering specifically because of the ideas, concepts, perceptions / misperceptions, warped perspectives, distortions, and delusions (a.k.a., "beliefs") which had been placed into their minds. 

At that point it became clear that the Medicine would have to be something which removed the knots, not something which added more knots. It became clear that those with the Sickness did not need more teaching but actually needed to be un-taught and that those with the Sickness did not need to learn more and more and more but actually needed to un-learn all. The last thing Grandmother's roped needed was more knots.

Since that understanding came, the consideration offered to seekers has been: 

"Is it possible that everything that you have ever been told or taught or now believe is false?" 

If so, then one can reject all that is false, setting the stage to understand truth and to see reality (and "Reality") and thereafter be free. And only if free can one be happy. Only an "ignorant or stupid or insane" prisoner would be happy while being imprisoned. 

Maharaj said at one point that "realization is simply about being freed of ignorance." The seat of ignorance is the mind - the "knotted mind." That being the case, then the effective treatment for the Sickness must focus on freeing the mind of all of the knots into which it has been twisted. 

Maharaj said that "the ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain are all in the mind," in the knotted mind. The knotted mind will prevent the one dying of thirst to refuse to drink the water of life. 

Maharaj said: "Just as the taste of salt pervades the great ocean and every single drop of sea-water carries the same flavour, so every experience gives me the touch of reality, the ever fresh realization of my own being." 

Want to taste the water of life, which is the water that is free of impurities, the kind of impurities which have contaminated the mind as a result of having been filled with nonsense via programming, conditioning, etc.? Maharaj advised: "The same water is in all the wells. You just draw from the nearest. In my case the water is within me and I am the water." 

Want that pure water? 

At Grandmother's house one morning, I had to un-knot the rope first before I could lower the bucket and draw up the pure water which sustained us. The same applies to the knotted mind.

Additionally, only the pure water can offer that sustenance. Only the pure truth, the unblocked consciousness, can cure the Ultimate Sickness. 

Maharaj: "From a pure source only pure water will flow. I am not concerned with people’s desires and fears. I am in tune with facts, not with opinions." 

The treatment relies on facts, not opinions; on truth, not untruths; on un-learning, not learning more.

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Twenty

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

THE FOUR STAGES AS TAUGHT HERE: 

Stage I: Programming to accumulate 

Stage II: Accumulating 

and, eventually, either . . .

a. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring even more accumulation

or 

b. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring seeking outside the popular venues 

Stage III: Forest Dweller - the prerequisite and facilitator of the "inner journey"

Stage IV: De-Accumulation (via completion of the Four Stages and the Seven Steps to Realization, followed by abidance in the solitude of a relative existence that has been overlaid with the Absolute, then by abidance as the Nothingness, then by simple abidance, period, until the end of the manifestation). 

The discussion of the Four Stages will end with an excerpt from "Chapter Fifteen" of THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE in which the following is shared regarding the fourth stage: 

Stage IV: The De-Accumulation / Actual "Journey" Stage 

Something interesting begins to happen after movement into the Fourth Stage and as the Ultimate Medicine is then delivered and received in the exact, seven-step manner that is required to address the Ultimate Sickness. 

First, recall the Traditional Stages that have been followed by some seekers in the East for hundreds if not thousands of years: 

THE FOUR STAGES - Eastern Traditional 

Stage I: Celibate Disciple 

Stage II: Householder and Family Person 

Stage III: Forest Dweller / Hermit (teaching as a recluse) 

Stage IV: Wandering Monk / Renunciant (traditionally ends all contact with people) 

What is interesting is that, while the Four Stages here and the stages of Maharaj's "journey" both differ from the Traditional Stages, some of those Traditional Stage components do manifest in the Four Stages as presented here: 

Post-realization, teaching may happen or not, but if teaching does happen, it often happens in the manner that is similar to the way it happens in the original, Traditional Stages. 

Meaning? 

Meaning that something not unlike the traditional "hermit" mode happens in that the teachings might be shared for a part of the day but the teacher still reserves larger portions of the day in order to be "cloistered," guaranteeing that the solitude and the quiet which the realized enjoy is assured. Understand, however, that such is not necessary. 

(Yet whatever happens post-realization will happen spontaneously and with attachment6, so the one continuing to work in a crowded office can enjoy peace as much as another "realized one" sitting alone in the woods and listening to a babbling brook as the waters flow by.)

However, in the stages here, there will be no assumption of any new persona, including neither "The Hermit" nor "The Recluse." (You would not call the deer lying in the afternoon shade "A Hermit Deer" or "A Recluse Deer." The deer is just behaving naturally, enjoying the solitude and the quiet. The solitude or "cloistering" just happens spontaneously.) 

So the "cloistering" among "the realized" can even happen in a crowd, though the solitude becomes the "norm" no matter what externals might surround the realized. The same pattern came to pass with Maharaj: he generally received visitors for a period in the morning and again later in the day, but the rest of the day he enjoyed rides into the countryside, in natural settings, away from the masses; 

or, on other occasions, he followed the advice he gave to some visitors: he walked to the river and sat on the bank and enjoyed the natural setting as he watched the waters flow by. That sometimes happened alone and sometimes happened with a realized companion. 

Another comparison is this: in the Traditional Stage Four, "The Renunciant" appears. In the Four Stages here, something like "The Renunciant" also manifests at the end of the third of seven steps. Since "The Renunciant" is also an ego-state, that cannot happen until the end of the third of seven steps but cannot continue into the fourth of seven steps. Why? 

By the fourth of seven steps, all identification ends. "The Renunciant" still involves identification and movement in the not-yet-totally-pure-consciousness that will eventually only witness, post-realization; therefore, unlike with the Traditional Stages, the case with the Four Stages here is this: "The Renunciant" cannot continue after realization - all identity and ego-states having ended. 

By continuing to complete the seven-step "journey" which occurs in Stage Four, the pure consciousness level (that is, the pure witnessing level) manifests, as illustrated by the naturally-abiding deer. At that point, nothing is "accepted" and nothing is "renounced": anyone thought to have been "The Accepter" is gone and the same applies to "The Renunciant." 

Yet all must be renounced before the fourth and fifth steps can happen. What is renounced as the third of seven steps is transcended? The societal mores of any and every culture; anything considered by any society to be its norms and customs; 

anything and everything that is deemed virtuous or valuable by any culture, or deemed "bad" or worthless by any culture; any and all beliefs and ideas and concepts, including but certainly not limited to patriotism, nationalism, pride, ambition, ownership, good, bad, best, special, personal, different, better than; 

including anything and everything held sacred by any and all cultures or anything deemed to be a "sacred cow" to persons, that is, anything held onto and considered to be valuable in spite of all the evidence to the contrary; 

including all belief in hierarchies, whether the hierarchies include those that are established in recovery groups, the military, organized religion, spiritual groups, corporate offices, police forces and fire departments, or those involving economic strata as well as in local, state, national or international organizations; 

including forms of government and economic systems; including any and all beliefs held about "relationships" and about what most take "love" to be; also renounced are all forms of dogma, all ideologies, all philosophies, and all spiritual movements (and, yes, that includes Advaita Vedanta, in the end); 

including all identification; including all that is thought to be "personal"; all personality; and all other content of the "mind." Also renounced eventually are any and all teachings, including those here that deal along the way with self vs. non-self, self Vs. Self, beingness vs. non-beingness. 

Eventually, after all is renounced, then the remainder of the manifestation unfolds in a non-dual, no-concept, no-belief, no-identity fashion, and that is why the consciousness can speak and factually assert that . . . 

"Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated to believe so that you can be free, period." 

In the Fourth Stage here, de-accumulation must be complete as far as beliefs and identities are concerned. To move through all seven steps and into a state of "Full Realization," renunciation must be completed along the way as well. 

With de-accumulation and the completion of all seven steps on the "journey," ignorance goes and logic comes; then, too, come the simplicity, the peace of the silence, and the pleasures that can be enjoyed after the Absolute has been overlaid onto the relative. 

Only if seekers de-accumulate totally and renounce totally can total freedom manifest, and only if total freedom and total independence manifest can total bliss manifest. Best regards on your "journey." 

Coming Next: The Causes, Symptoms, Effects, and Aspects of the Ultimate Sickness have been discussed. Next, the Treatment.

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Nineteen

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

THE FOUR STAGES AS TAUGHT HERE:

Stage I: Programming to accumulate

Stage II: Accumulating

a. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring even more accumulation or

b. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring seeking outside the popular venues

Stage III: Forest Dweller - the prerequisite and facilitator of the "inner journey"

Stage IV: De-Accumulation (via completion of the Four Stages and the Seven Steps to Realization, followed by abidance in the solitude of a relative existence that has been overlaid with the Absolute, then by abidance as the Nothingness, then by abidance, period, until the end of the manifestation).

In "Chapter Fourteen" of THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE

 the following is shared regarding the fourth stage:

It is during the fourth of four stages that the Ultimate Medicine is administered in seven specific steps to address the Ultimate Sickness. Before discussing the administration of the Ultimate Medicine, review the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness:

The Ultimate Sickness, like most sicknesses, is passed on when persons interact; it is contracted when a previously-well person is exposed to another person or persons who have the sickness.

The Sickness is primarily a mental and emotional sickness that is contracted during Stage I when exposed to the ignorance and insanity which have already spread throughout every culture on the planet. Exposure to the carriers also results in personality disorders that can include but are not limited to:

the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder; the Depressive Personality Disorder; the Histrionic Personality Disorder; the Factitious Personality Disorder; the Narcissistic Personality Disorder; the Avoidant or Schizoid Avoidant or Schizotypal Personality Disorder;

the Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder; the Paranoid Personality Disorder; the Manic-Depressive Personality Disorder; the Antisocial or Sociopathic or Pathological Personality Disorder; and the Dependent Personality Disorder.

Some of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness include an inability to distinguish true from false and, therefore, the propensity to believe lies; to distort perceptions; to believe that images are real; to have no clue who you are; to talk in one's sleep; to work and drive and walk while asleep;

to accept as true, without questioning to even the slightest degree, the concepts and beliefs that are taught by authority figures and to believe the most unbelievable tales that those figures dream up; to accumulate the various forms of the sickness and then to pass them along to family members and friends and associates with pride in having done so; to accept with faith beliefs that have no basis in fact and that cannot possibly be proved; to be so delusional that one is believed to be two;

to believe that learned ignorance is wisdom; to suffer willingly and repeatedly the consequences of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance, insanity, and stupidity"; to lose all ability to detect nonsense when it is heard;

to allow subconscious motivators (a.k.a., personality / personalities) to determine every thought and word and action while believing that one is consciously choosing to think what is thought, to say what is said, and to do what is done; to be asleep but to believe that one is awake;

to be self-destructive; to exhibit impaired judgment; to be unreasonable and illogical; to display unstable and inappropriate emotions (that is, being emotional intoxicated); to be religiously or spiritually intoxicated; to have hallucinations (such as believing that you can hear a supernatural being from another world and to believe that such a being is actually talking to you);

to believe that the not-special is special; to believe that absolutes can be applied to things relative; to be disorganized and confused while thinking that you are organized and thinking clearly; to develop extreme dependencies on people and groups and leaders and powers living in unseen worlds; to be unable to cope; to be in a state of unwarranted fear; to constantly desire more and more of what is already making one sick;

to feel guilt and self-blame that have no basis in fact; to behave like a six-year old child for an entire manifestation; to be preoccupied with "self" (with the false selves or false identities that are assumed and thought to be real); to play a role on a stage and believe the character is real;

to believe that a physical, plant food body can disintegrate, re-integrate, and last for eternity and can feel pain or ecstasy for eternity; to suffer and then still believe that suffering is good; ad infinitum.

Imagine: if persons knew of an Ultimate Medicine that could cure all of the above, they would call that a "miracle drug." Not only does such a medicine exist, and not only does it address all of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which are catalogued above, but it is available at a fraction of the cost that any sane and sound person would estimate its true value to be.

Yet few will ever know it even exists because few will ever know that they are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness and because, therefore, few will ever understand they need to be cured from the sickness contracted during the first of the four stages being discussed in this series, namely, the Accumulation Stage.

And even for the few that finally realize how sick they are and that the Ultimate Medicine is available, they will whine about the time required for administering the full dosage;

or will want it in one quick shot so they can go about doing what they have been going about doing; or will whine about the fact that the pharmacist that is paying his bills by dispensing the "life-changing," restorative potion does not give it away for free, his overhead be damned:

"Why should we have to give him a mango to receive the medicine from him?" or "Why should he accept donations for his ashram and that temple built over his mother's remains instead of giving the medicine away without accepting anything?" or "Why should he want a house when so many empty caves are available if he would just make that sacrifice for me?" or "How dare my pharmacist accept anything for dispensing the medicine that I need!"

And in addition to those, there are so many other obstacles to being "fully well, fully realized, and fully free": not seeing that one is sick; not finding the one medicine that is required to address the illness; not finding one that can dispense the medicine in the seven very clear-cut steps as required;

not being ready to take the medicine that might not always taste as good as some might like; not being willing to sacrifice what must be sacrificed in order to receive the medicine and be made whole and well; and not being willing to follow the doctor's orders exactly as prescribed.

Yet so it is. For those that can move beyond those obstacles, the seven-step administration of the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness awaits in the Fourth Stage where all of the components of the sickness and where all of the symptoms can be subjected to the process of de-accumulation that purges seekers of the toxins that are presently stored in "their minds."

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.