TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
THE FOUR STAGES
Stage I: Being Programmed to Accumulate (Ages 1-20)
Stage II. Accumulating (Ages 20-40)
[By the age of 40, some reach a "crossroads," see that the path they've been on for 40 years is not working, and begin making some "lifestyle changes" - changing their priorities - in order to have time to begin seeking something else. Most, however, will never admit that what they've done for 40 years has been quite senseless for the most part and that they should consider a different path. The unawake, the unaware, and the unconscious will continue accumulating and continue doing whatever they always done, full speed ahead; for the few who do seek a change, they enter Stage III.]
Stage III. The Forest Dweller Stage (completion)
[Excerpted from THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS - THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE]
[From yesterday]
A seeker wrote: "You witness feelings rise and fall. How long can your feelings last, for example, if you lose a friend? Would the feelings simply rise for a minute, a day, a week, etc.? Where do you draw the line?"
The response: The procedure which is called “psychological processing” by therapists is termed “seeing the actual facts” or “seeing reality” by Advaitins. The need for either (a) processing or (b) seeing truth only follows “mind”-generated mis-perceptions that are distortions. Among persons, it is an on-going requirement; among the Realized, it is not required at all.
Such distortions result in (1) the inability among persons during the relative existence to distinguish between natural threats and unnatural threats and even from supernatural threats and in (2) actions and reactions that are far from natural and that are most unnatural instead.
A relative existence example from “floyd’s Sick, pre-realization days” involves perceptions around a bear in case #1 and around a "wife" / "ex-wife" in case #2:
While walking through a field at the end of a two-week period of hiking and camping in Arizona, (a part of the silliness which marked the twenty-five-month-long Forest Dweller Stage here) my path crossed that of a brown bear that was guarding her cubs. She first stood, then roared, and then charged.
[Silliness? Yes. Not unlike Maharaj's silliness during his Forest Dweller Period when he left his family; left his businesses, which all closed before he returned, save one; got himself a walking stick; headed out into the forests and mountains; and wandered about aimlessly until he ran across a man who knew Maharaj's guru and who told Maharaj that his guru would never have endorsed Maharaj's actions / doingness; and told Maharaj to get the heck out of the forests and to get his ass home.
It would be impossible for me to total up the huge number of seekers who have been witnessed doing the same, namely, become totally lost in the woods - seeking, seeking, seeking - while thinking that "The Great Peripetia" can only come if they just isolate and wander about for long enough. Note that sometimes their version of "lost in the woods" can involve attending retreats all around the globe; going to seminars conducted by Big Name Teachers; visiting so-called "holy places" or "special energy places" all around the planet; etc., etc., etc.]
What immediately flashed into awareness was the advice given to me by Tom Brown (author of several field guides as well as The Tracker, The Vision, The Quest, Awakening Spirits, and other books). A few weeks before that trip, I had visited Tom at his home in New Jersey and he had advised:
“This time of year, the bears will be moving about with their cubs and can be especially reactive if they feel you’re threatening their young. If you’re charged by a bear on your trip, fall to the ground and curl into a protective ball. The charge will likely be just that—a warning charge to drive you away—rather than an attack. If it turns out that you are attacked, shift to an offensive mode. Fight for your life . . . go for her eyes, hit her in the nose, fight with all your might.”
Tom then pointed to redirect my attention to a friend of his sitting across the room and drinking a cup of coffee. I saw a man who was scarred by several parallel lines which had been left by a mama bear's claws. Tom said, "Punching the bear repeatedly in the nose when it attacked worked for him." The fellow nodded in agreement.
Back to the brown bear that was guarding her cubs in that Arizona field:
As I approached, the chest high grass I walking through blocked them from sight. (Talk about ignorance, stupidity, and insanity on my part, walking blindly through a field of chest high grass, preventing me from seeing. What an exact parallel to the way that "non-realized sleepwalkers" live.)
As I neared them, she first stood, then roared, and then charged. A bear’s standing up, growling and then charging could be considered a truly threatening posture in nature, relatively speaking. I felt threatened, and the sensation of feeling threatened by that female was a natural response.
In the second case, when “floyd’s wife” said, “I’m leaving you” and then got into a car and drove away, the "not-yet-fully-realized Floyd” also felt threatened by a female. Contrast the facts of the second case with the first.
"Floyd" felt threatened by two different females. In one case, the posture of a cub-guarding bear was a truly threatening posture, relatively speaking, and feeling threatened by that female was a natural response. In the second case, the posture of a departing "wife" was a truly non-threatening posture which was perceived / misperceived to be even more threatening than being charged by an angry bear, and the sensation of feeling threatened by that female was a totally unnatural response.
That bear’s standing up, growling, and then charging could be considered a truly threatening posture in nature, relatively speaking. I felt threatened, and the sensation of feeling threatened by that female was a natural response.
In the second case, when “floyd’s wife” said, “I’m leaving you” and then got into a car and drove away, the not-yet-fully Realized “floyd” also felt threatened by a female. So contrast the facts of the second case with the first:
in the first instance, a female was running toward me. She outweighed me by about 800 pounds; she was three or four feet taller; and where I could run ten miles an hour in a short burst, she could run 35 miles per hour over a longer distance.
Those among her species have been known to kill humans easily and readily. That is a case where a female was a real, natural threat as far as the relative existence is concerned, and the fear—and the reactions that the fear inspired—were quite natural.
In the second case, a female was walking away from me. She weighed about fifty pounds less; she was five inches shorter; and she could not run nearly as fast as I could. Yet in the second case, I felt even more threatened by the actions of that female than I did by the actions of the female in case #1. Talk about how humans can allow the agendas of the false ego-states to determine how they feel! Talk about how a warped perspective can generate misery (and even long-term misery and suffering)!
When a shorter, lighter-weight female is walking away from a larger male, that is one of the most non-threatening postures in nature, yet how many millions of persons have felt threatened under those same circumstances and have reacted to a non-threat as if it were a real threat?
The fact that I felt threatened by what was a non-threatening posture in nature was a totally unnatural reaction. To have felt threatened in that case could be seen to have been an insane act with no possible explanation at all unless one understands the effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation which lead to the assumption of false identities.
WHAT CAN HAPPEN WITH A SHIFT INTO THE FOREST DWELLER STAGE
Notice the way that entrance into the
Forest Dweller Stage can give the search an inward rather than an outward
focus, shifting the seeker's focus away from the subject matter of dogma
and myth.
There
is also a shift away from the contemporary big name authors and
lecturers, including their books that focus on relative desires and
issues such as "ambition and meaning"; "changing your life by changing
your thoughts"; "finding your ultimate calling or finding the incredible
you or finding inspiration"; "learning the secrets to success" or "how
to gain power through intentions" or "how to advance your spirit or find
your purpose";
and
including talks about "an infinite Self" or "gaining power now" or
"finding the way to love" or "attaining an ageless body and timeless
mind" or "fulfilling desires" or "learning spiritual laws" or
"fulfilling dreams" or "knowing god" or "loving everything that is" (no
matter how perverted or warped it might be);
or
"changing bad thinking patterns to good thinking patterns," all of
which Maharaj classified as nonsense. See that all of that deals only
with the relative exclusively and that, if truly immersed in the Forest
Dweller Stage, then none of that will be paid even the slightest
attention to any longer.
Immersed
thusly, there are none of the relative and unnatural and supernatural
distractions that previously blocked the ability to see that which is
natural. The often life-long preoccupation with that which is unnatural
and supernatural and phony gives way to focusing upon that which is
natural and authentic.
Notice
how the shift to the Forest Dweller Stage can allow
a seeker to focus on the way that consciousness drives persons to seek
eternal continuity of body and mind and personality; on the way that
personality controls behavior unconsciously;
how
the differentiation in actual vs. perceived threats can happen; how one
can distinguish between the perversion of abnormal and supernatural
living and come to understand natural abidance instead; and how the
seeker can focus on that which is within rather than that which is
without.
The non-dual process is similar to “psychological processing” if the latter results in seeing the false as false. It was seen that, in Case #2, there was no threat to me / Me. That which was perceiving (imagining) a supposed threat was the not-me, the not-Me, namely:
the ego-states of “The Husband” and “The Lover” and “The Father” and “The Family Man” and “The House Owner” and “The Finance Man” and “The Man With Retirement Accounts” and “The Owner of Rental Property” and “The Owner of Land” and “The Person With Savings Accounts.” The sensation of threat was all about self, self, self, ad infinitum.
Is it seen that the threat in the second case only seemed real because a person ("Floyd") was trapped in the false identities of many ego-states which, when they thought they were being threatened, triggered all sorts of ego-defense mechanisms and mis-perceptions and unfounded fears?
Peace comes when any lie which was taken to be the truth is seen for what it truly is. Peace can come if the anger or misery experienced around a perceived “loss” comes to an end because it is seen that one never "had" in the first place what an ego-state is thinking it “lost.”
The processing of “the lie of a non-threat”—of an illusory mis-perception being generated by a false identity—can take weeks or months or years among "the non-realized." Among "the realized," abiding as the natural state and merely witnessing all, there is no "one" to be pulled into the sturm und drang of relativistic non-threats such as those which are perceived by the non-realized to be actual threats.
Consider: in the second case involving a "wife" and being lost in the “Dream of the Planet,” the fact was that nearly twenty years of marriage had been spent on a stage, playing multiple phony roles in “The Drama of the Lie.” For most, when the curtain falls abruptly and the play is brought to an unwanted end, the need for processing is indicated. The lie had been taken to be the truth; the truth had never before been seen. Only "Full Realization" brought to an end the need to process anything as the “one” who was processing disappeared.
[When any and all sense of "WHO-ness" ends, peace begins.]
In the first case with the bear, little processing was required. After the danger faded and the bear moved away with her two cubs, the adrenals once again began functioning naturally; the brain determined that the threat had ended; blood pressure returned to a normal range, as did the heart rate.
That is the way the relative existence can unfold if realized: relative, natural threats can be witnessed; if a natural action is indicated, it can happen; and feelings can rise and fall and be witnessed without triggering emotional intoxication or unnatural reactions.
Non-threats (which only ego-states can “experience”) are no longer taken to be real. When exposed to a lie, differentiation between true and false happens automatically and instantly. Further, those supernatural threats mentioned earlier, which can generate untold delusions and fears, are never a factor.
There is no fear based in threats about “eternal damnation,” about “the never-ending pain and torture of fire to which a physical body will be subjected,” and there is no fear of “being punished and deprived now and forevermore.”
Among the realized, abiding as THAT Which is body-less, mind-less, and persona-less, natural actions and reactions can happen around an event like the one described in Case #1 above, but what will not happen ever again—post-realization—are the unnatural actions and reactions and emotions that persons experience if dealing with a happening like that described in Case #2.
Until realized, understand that processing will be required. It might happen, yet it might never happen. Post-realization, you are not subject to the pain and misery of dealing with relativistic happening which are erroneously taken to be real, so no processing is required.
Understand, however, that this stage is merely transitional, only preparatory. It is not the actual "journey"; it does not involve moving along the actual "path." At this point, there is still no "going back" or returning "to the source" in the exact but reverse order of the coming in, as Maharaj prescribed.
Nor is there any following of "the same path by which you came."
[NOTE: Maharaj went to the forest after meeting his guru and after some said that he had become fully aware. Yet after his return from the forest, he was still seeking, still visiting temples, still involved in long discussions well into the night. A study of what he said and did after returning from the forest, along with a careful reading of his teachings in the order in which they would eventually be delivered, reveal that additional understandings came later and support the validity of the four stages as discussed here.]
"Full Realization" is rarely followed by the Forest Dweller Stage. Full Realization usually follows the Forest Dweller Stage if it happens. Maharaj came to see that realization did not require the abandonment of such relative activities as "householding," as "husbanding," as "fathering," etc. It was after his period in the forest and mountains that he returned home and engaged in those activities, which is the reverse of the order of the Four Stages that are typically taught in the East.
The Forest Dweller Stage can never lead to "Full Realization" and is but a vehicle at best that can move one closer to the mouth of the real "path" where the actual "journey" begins.
[Again, study Maharaj's history and you will see that even after his return from the forest, Maharaj continued to seek . . . continued on the "spiritual hunt" . . . continued to be driven by spiritual workaholism. He was still seeking via some of the old venues.]
The pointer here is that the Forest Dweller Stage is preparatory. It can be a means to an end but it can never be the end itself because there are actually three levels of seeking:
1. The Outwardly-Focused Level of Seeking
2. The Forest Dweller Level of Seeking
3. The Inward (but Directed) Level of Seeking
Most who seek, which will never include more than a small percentage of the planet's population, will fixate in the outwardly-focused level of seeking . . . seeking via the big names . . . seeking in religious or spiritual venues . . . seeking outward power or Power(s) . . . seeking without direction and never really seeking within singularly.
The second level is the type of seeking which happens if one shifts into the Forest Dweller Stage. There is a respite from the outward seeking via persons, but this level also seems to deal with "learning" (though it is actually about un-learning while being un-taught by a source that is different from all of the sources which have been sought out in the past). This level of seeking deals with the natural and involves moving away from the unnatural and supernatural sources used earlier;
it deals with searching somewhere outside the established venues of dogma and kindergarten-level spirituality; it deals with no longer seeking answers from the teachers and authors and lecturers who appeal to the desires and / or fears of the masses;
it deals with shifting seekers from "the group search methods" used in the past to entering into "a solitary search"; yet it still deals with desire and discovering and learning, though via a more natural source. "Full Realization" only comes, however, when the established, popular teachers and venues are abandoned and one returns from the forest (whether the trip there was literal or not);
when the programmed willingness to seek in venues where nothing of the actual "path" is known have all been discarded as a result of the visit to the forest; and when there is at least enough "contact" with the inner resource / inner guru to be able to differentiate between the words of a famous talker as opposed to the universal consciousness which speaks via a realized teacher.
In that state, seekers might be willing to enter into the third level of seeking and might be ready to take pointers offered by a realized teacher into quiet consideration. At that point also, a seeker might be "courageously ready" to start casting aside "the old" even though there is not the slightest clue regarding what "the new" might entail (if anything!)
The "ready seeker" at the third level of seeking will be uninterested in religious or spiritual doingness and will take level-appropriate pointers, offered one-on-one, into quiet consideration. At this point, if the readiness is there, the seeker will be ready to abandon a life-long effort to learn more and more and will see that it is unlearning that is required.
The readiness is all, and what happens during the third stage - The Forest Dweller Stage - is what often leads to the readiness. If the readiness is there, then a seeker can move into the fourth stage and actually begin the guided, seven-step "journey" to "Full Realization" (which, according to Maharaj, amounts to nothing more than being free of the ignorance which was taught and accepted as truth unquestioningly).
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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