THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, Treatment, Part Forty-Nine

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

Some of the other key points from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Non-dual Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address and some additional considerations:

TO SUMMARIZE SO FAR 

Instability / insanity induced by duality-based splitting: the non-dual teachings can address this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by psychological splitting: the non-dual teachings can be a part of the process required to address this condition, but cannot address it entirely 

 Instability / insanity induced by cultural influences: if the readiness has manifested within the seeker, then most assuredly the non-dual teachings can assist with addressing this condition. 

Instability / insanity induced by personality disorders: the non-dual teachings can help to address this condition, depending on the their severity 

Instability / insanity induced by a failure to psychically integrate and instead the tendency to psychically disintegrate: the non-dual teachings can help to address this personality-based condition, depending on the degree to which disintegration has occurred 

Instability / insanity induced by adults who model constant mood swings and instability and being temperamental and inconsistent so that they are always unpredictable: the non-dual teachings can only play a small part in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by fixating in "The Parent" role or "The Child" role rather than interacting from the stance of the mature adult: the non-dual teachings can play a part in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by emotional intoxication: the non-dual teachings can only play a small part in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by religious / spiritual intoxication: the non-dual teachings can play a small part in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by inner causes: the non-dual teachings can play a part in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by depression and mania: the first line of treatment in this case should be offered by professionals who are trained and experienced with treating these two conditions 

Instability / insanity induced by a need for full realization: the non-dual teachings can address this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by chemical imbalances, physiological factors, and biological factors (including biorhythmic shifts and both male and female menopause): because there is no disconnect between the body and mind, and because the mind of the seat of personality, and because personality is the seat of discord and misery, the non-dual teachings can play a part - but the smaller part - in addressing this condition 

Instability / insanity induced by a need for full realization: of course the teachings can address this condition 

and 

Instability / insanity induced by seeking someone or something to cause you to be happy, which the teachings can address 

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS 

Not all emotions and feelings and behaviors that some might deem "negative" are caused by the agendas of personality; nor are they a result of non-Realization. As Advaitin Louise Sterling points out, there are times when the cause of certain emotions, feelings or behaviors "may be hormonal – in which case the feelings are not a choice – simply the internal weather." 

Consider these "symptoms" that can be caused by non-Realization and personality but that can also be caused by physiological issues: 

Mood Swings, Sudden Tears 

Person's with mood problems are like human roller coasters. One minute they are up, the next minute they down. They never seems to be able to get off the ride. Their mood swings are intense, sudden and out of control. Chronic and severe mood swings are a psychological disorder, a health problem just as real as a physical ailment. In fact, sometimes they can be the result of a physical problem, like a premenstrual syndrome. And just like a physical problem, they can be treated. Professionals should be sought for advice and treatment. 

Fatigue 

"Fatigue is second only to pain as the most common symptom doctors see in patients," says David S. Bell, M.D., a chronic fatigue researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts. "One-fourth of all Americans will have long episodes of lethargy and tiredness." Particularly common in women undergoing the menopausal transition, chronic fatigue can have a drastic impact on daily life, putting a strain on relationships, work productivity, and quality of life. Fatigue, one of the most common menopause symptoms, is defined as an ongoing and persistent feeling of weakness, tiredness, and lowered energy level. This should be distinguished from drowsiness, which implies an actual urge to sleep. Fatigue involves lack of energy rather than sleepiness. If the fatigue comes on suddenly, it could be a sign of crashing fatigue. Other characteristics may include apathy, irritability, and decreased attention. 

Sleep Disorders 

If you are waking throughout the night, tossing and turning, and generally suffering with insomnia, many problems are potential causes. In many cases, obesity is a contributing factor. In both males and females, the sleep disorder might be connected to the onset of male menopause or female menopause. (Yes, both sexes suffer from menopause and both can benefit from hormonal therapy.) When you begin going through menopause, you may find that your sleep is less and less restful, when you sleep at all. In the past, doctors believed that interrupted sleep was a consequence of night sweats, but recent studies indicate that you can also have problems with sleep that are not connected to hot flashes (such sweating and flashes being related more often to the body being too alkaline). Typically, the frequency of insomnia doubles from the amount you may have had before you entered premature menopause, and research also indicates that people can begin experiencing restless sleep as many as five to seven years before entering menopause. Again, though, in these cases, the problem is determining if the insomnia has its roots in changes in your hormone levels or in some other cause or causes. 

Difficulty Concentrating, Disorientation, Mental Confusion 

During early menopause, both males and females can be troubled to find that they have difficulty remembering things, can experience mental blocks or can have trouble concentrating. Not getting enough sleep, or having sleep disrupted, can contribute to memory and concentration problems. 

Depression 

Feelings of sadness can be normal, appropriate and even necessary during "setbacks" or "losses" throughout the relative existence. Or you may feel blue or unhappy for short periods of time without reason or warning, which also can be normal and ordinary. But if such feelings persist or impair your daily life, you may have a depressive disorder. Severity, duration and the presence of other symptoms are the factors that distinguish ordinary sadness from a depressive disorder. This is called depression or irritability, which is a significant change in mood for an extended period of time associated with loss of interest in usual activities, including sleep and eating disorders, and including withdrawal from family and friends. Depression can happen to anyone of any age. It afflicts millions if not billions around the globe each year, and up to one in five women in so-called "developed countries" will suffer from clinical depression at some point. Women are two to three times more likely than men to suffer from depression, and many women first experience symptoms of depression during their 20s and 30s. 

Anxiety, Feeling Ill at Ease 

Anxiety can be a vague or intense feeling caused by physical or psychological conditions. Anxiety can produce feelings of agitation and loss of emotional control that may be associated with panic attacks and physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and palpitations. The frequency of anxiety can range from a one-time event to recurring episodes. Early diagnosis may aid early recovery, prevent the disorder from becoming worse and possibly prevent the disorder from developing into depression. 

Irritability 

Irritability can result in a significant change in mood for an extended period of time associated with loss of interest in usual activities, with sleep and eating disorders, and with withdrawal from family and friends. "Occasional irritability is a normal part of being human," says Paul Horton, M.D., a psychiatrist in Meriden, Connecticut. "But irritability also can go hand in hand with almost any illness. Very often, people who are falling ill will become irritable but don't know why." If your irritability persists more than a week and is adversely affecting your job performance and relationships with your family, friends and co-workers, it is recommended that you seek professional help. 

Panic Disorder, Feelings of Dread, Apprehension, Doom 

A significant and debilitating emotional state characterized by overwhelming fear and anxiety. These feelings can be vague or intense and can be caused by physical or psychological conditions. The frequency can range from a one-time event to recurring episodes. If your life is totally disrupted by this symptom, professional help should be sought. 

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 Forty-Eight

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

 TO REVIEW 

. . . some of the key points from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address : 

No one can survive childhood and the teen years on this planet and escape the effects of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and indoctrination and brainwashing. Some have asked that those be explained in more detail. Others have asked about the effects of those six techniques. This is an appropriate place for such an explanation: 

Programming effects: 

. . . include a disabling of the sixth sense; an inability to readily access the intuition; the imbedding of self-destructive tendencies; the formation of a fiction-filled "mind" that results in persons storing countless false beliefs, bogus ideas, and nonsensical concepts; a replacement of natural tendencies with a preference for the unnatural and the supernatural; an accumulation of learned ignorance; and what Maharaj called "stupidity, verging on insanity." 

Conditioning effects: 

. . . include a loss of the ability to choose as a result of abusation, the process whereby persons are trained to respond unconsciously in ways that others prefer rather than behaving in whys that would have happened in the absence of conditioning; the loss of both the freedom and the ability to behave naturally; behaving in ways that are senseless and even insane but that are not considered senseless or insane (thus, the resultant condition of the masses, senselessly and insanely sleepwalking and sleep-talking their way through the relative existence). 

Domestication effects: 

. . . include a loss of all that is natural (just as the case is when animals are brought in from the wild and domesticated . . . beaten down . . . made to behave in the unnatural ways that a master prefers and demands); making the uncomfortable feel comfortable; making the unnatural appear to be natural; making the natural appear to be supernatural / magical / spiritual / religious; being "broken" as a result of having been trained in ways that are intended to serve the interests and desires and wishes and agendas of domesticators rather than having the ability to choose one's own agenda; 

being forced to adapt to the desires of others rather than to develop naturally without having had to adapt to the (often perverted and insane) wishes of others; being trained to meet the definition of what is "suitable" to others, especially those in authority; being made far too willing to accommodate others unconsciously and to compromise what would be in one's own normal and natural interests; 

being "broken" to the degree that one becomes easily persuaded or influenced by others or to the degree that one develops a tolerance for acts of abuse by authorities or people assuming an authority figure role in relationships. 

Acculturation effects: 

. . . include developing an acceptance of what would otherwise be seen as cult-like propaganda and nonsense; xenophobia; chauvinism; false pride; and, in certain cultures (to one degree of another) the following: blind loyalty; a sense of separation; a sense of better-than-ment; egotism; and denial. 

Furthermore, acculturation has led to the following as well: 

a. the raising of children by parents who are cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof, producing one generation after another of adults who are cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof (both with their own offspring as well as with all they form relationships with - those traits having been pervertedly normalized and not seen to be a problem at all); 

b. the raising of men in one country in particular to believe that women are chattel, a marketable commodity to be bought and sold; 

c. the raising of men in another country in particular to objectify women and see them as objects that are there for male pleasure; 

d. the raising of males to believe that women are subtypes who are to be covered head-to-toe and beaten if they expose even an ankle and the raising of males to believe that there is an afterlife where women will be provided eternally, the women there only for the purpose of satisfying the sexual desires of men; 

e. the raising of men in one country in particular to believe that women are to be paid less even if they are performing proficiently the same tasks as men; 

f. the raising of children to believe that people of a different religion are the enemy or are infidels that are to be killed; 

g. the raising of children in many countries to believe that their culture and their nation is the greatest on earth, ignoring those nations' histories of having decimated entire populations so that lands could be stolen and nations formed; and the description of such insanity in cultures around the globe could go on and on. 

Indoctrination effects: 

James Miller wrote: 

"Intensive indoctrination in a rigid dogma, doctrine or theory tends to suppress good sense, good judgment. As people become more and more indoctrinated their good sense becomes clouded, confused, obstructed. It becomes dormant. Their dogma and theory starts guiding them instead of their good sense. Their mind starts working in terms of new assumptions, the assumptions of the indoctrination." 

He added that they lose the ability to make conscious decisions, saying, "They just follow. Highly indoctrinated people become like automatons. They spout and parrot doctrinal positions and dogma as if that were all they knew, instead of talking with common sense and understanding of people and life. Their natural sense, understanding and intuition become stymied and suppressed by dogma and doctrine. They accept what they are taught by their indoctrinators without thought or question, as if hypnotized, as if they had no mind of their own; believing all they are told to be correct in every detail."

"The doctrinaire sermons of evangelicals constitute intensive indoctrination. They constitute a kind of brainwashing. People become automatons, slaves to doctrine." 

[Key sources of indoctrination include religion; politics and politicians (on local, state, national, and international levels); friends, lovers, and spouses; schools and home schools; philosophies; ideologies; spiritual movements and groups; advertising; the military forces; police forces; the workplace; and thousands of institutions that push their own agendas.]

Brainwashing effects: 

David Wong shared the following, noting there are six techniques of brainwashing which most are being subjected to nowadays, especially if they followed the recent presidential campaign in the U.S. or if they are following U.S. politics at this point. 

Chanting Slogans 

"Every cult leader, drill sergeant, self-help guru and politician knows that if you want to quiet all of those pesky doubting thoughts in a crowd, get them to chant a repetitive phrase or slogan. Those are referred to as thought-stopping techniques because they do exactly that." 

"Why It Works: The "Analytical' part of your brain and the 'Repetitive Task' part tend to operate in separate rooms. But you didn't need an expert to tell you that. You know you can't solve a complex logic puzzle if I force you to scream the chorus to that "Chumbawanba" song over and over again while you're doing it. Try it." 

Slipping Bullshit Into Your Subconscious 

"The rise of the internet news portal has given birth to a whole new, sly technique of bullshit insertion. What They (and from here on, 'They' with a capital T means anyone who draws a paycheck by manipulating your opinion) have figured out is that most of you don't read the stories, you just browse the headlines. And there's a way to exploit that, based on how the brain stores memories. The Drudge Report lives off this:"

A single anonymous source will report to some news blog that, say, Senator Smith runs a secret gay bordello in New Orleans. Drudge will run the headline: 

NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT SMITH'S SECRET GAY BORDELLO 

Or perhaps there'll just be a question mark on the end: 

SMITH: SECRET GAY BORDELLO ASS MASTER? 

"It doesn't matter that the headline merely involves 'questions' about the bordello. The idea has been planted, and two months later when somebody mentions Senator Smith around the water cooler you'll say, 

'The gay bordello guy, right?' 

"And get this: it happens even if the headline we read was specifically about the rumor being untrue." 

Controlling What You Watch and Read 

"Restriction of reading and/or viewing material is common to pretty much every cult. On the internet, we've all heard horror stories about Scientology, which goes as far as filtering members' internet access. Obviously the idea is to insulate the members from any opposing points of view, to keep them marching in line."

"That technique works just as well outside of the cult world, but They have to be more subtle about it. It just takes a little poison in the well, that's all."

"Why It Works: Studies show the brain is wired to get a quick high from reading things that agree with our point of view. The same studies proved that, strangely, we also get a rush from intentionally dismissing information that disagrees, no matter how well supported it is." 

Keeping You In Line With Shame

"I won several formal debates in college using my patented technique of simply repeating my opponent's argument in a high-pitched, mocking tone while wiggling my fingers in the air. There really is no defense. They call this 'the appeal to ridicule fallacy'." 

"'They' know that if they can paint an idea as ridiculous, the listener usually won't bother examining it any closer to find out if the ridicule is justified." 

"But why does it work? Well, there are these primitive, lower parts of your brain called amygdalae that control those base, emotional reactions. That's where things like contempt and shame come from, and stimulating it can completely shut down the analytical part of your brain." 

Black and White Choices 

"Listen to an argument between your friends. Any argument. Listen to one guy say John McCain is a Fascist, while his opponent says Barack Obama is a Communist. Watch as even fans of the same football team bitterly divide themselves over whether the new quarterback is going to be 'awesome' or 'garbage'." "Never anything in between. Everyone is a friend or enemy, every band either rules or sucks, black and white, nothing in the middle. They (capital T) love this, because They can convince you that you must choose either their way or the most utterly retarded option on the opposite extreme." 

"Why It Works: Because we evolved from creatures who were always in danger of being eaten, our brains were built on a very simple foundation: the "fight or flight" mechanism. This let us make lightning-fast decisions by boiling every situation into two options. Anyone who preferred to stop and mull over the subtleties of the scenario wound up in the digestive system of a saber-tooth tiger. Fast forward thousands of years and you find a humanity with much fancier brains but that still prefers all-or-nothing choices when we're put under stress." 

"So if somebody wants to bypass your critical thinking circuitry, all they need to do is make you scared or anxious, often with a time limit or urgent threat. ('We need to act now, or lose our way of life!')" 

Note the role that duality plays as Wong points out: "Instead of pondering the situation with the analytical neocortex, you're using the primitive limbic system, scanning the landscape for the 'Right' and 'Wrong' move. You'll have no patience for wishy-washy talk about 'a spectrum of options'." 

"Us vs. Them" 

"Sure, we know about the obvious examples, they're written across the history books in blood and bullet holes. Racism, genocide, horrifying caricatures on propaganda posters. But They have figured out that the same technique that works so well for getting people whipped into a murderous apocalyptic frenzy, can be used sell you cars, or hamburgers, or computers." 

"Why It Works: Basically, we're hard-wired by evolution to form tribes."

[One placebo-type "antidote" for personality-driven fear? The belief that "There's safety in numbers."] 

"The more stress we feel, the more we feel love and attachment to those who look and sound the same as us, and the more we feel hatred to those who don't. It's just an old survival mechanism, since the ancient guys who didn't show that kind of blind loyalty were killed off by the fierce tribes formed by the ones who did." 

"So today we get that petty dehumanization of everybody outside of our group ('hippies,' 'rednecks,' 'geeks,' 'douchebags,' 'libs', 'cons,' 'fags,' 'breeders,' 'infidels,' 'towel-heads,' 'honkies,' 'darkies,' 'players', 'haters')." 

"They can play on those old, primal urges for even the most retarded of results. Watch five seconds of an election stump speech. Every side does it. Not only is 'Us vs. Them' the most important one on the list, it's the culmination and end goal of all the others. Drawing you into the right tribe is what They want most, because they can accomplish nothing without tribesmen." 

[Welcome to the U.S. of A. in 2017 as well as parts of Western Europe as well as many other places all around the globe.] 

Programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing contribute to The Ultimate Sickness which plagues the masses. 

Note that the prerequisite for falling for "their techniques" to program, condition, domesticate, acculturate, indoctrinate and brainwash anyone is the removal of the right or ability to question and being forced to accept anything said by the authority figures in one's life with blind faith. In some cases, the non-dual teachings can un-do some of the resulting instability and less severe personality disorders and lower levels of insanity that result from those six in other cases, far more is required. 

For more than twenty-eight years, the effects of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing on the masses have been witnessed and discussed here. 

In some cases, the effects have been undone when persons Realized, were thus restored to sanity, and have thereafter enjoyed the resulting stability and freedom and peace and happiness. In some cases, therefore, this site or the writings or retreats or satsanga sessions have served over the decades as a clearinghouse of instability and less severe personality disorders and even some lesser degrees of insanity as persons have realized. Yet such instances are as rare here as they were in Maharaj's loft. According to his own admission, most who came his way left without ever realizing fully. So it is. 

In other cases, some have reported that what happened here with them could be compared to what happens with their alarm clock each day, that the sharings here became "a new and different kind of alarm clock for them." Maybe; maybe not. Sometimes what happens here is more like what happens with directors of traffic, inviting some to come in and stay for a period of time and consider the teachings; in other cases, pointing some to professionals for intervention; in certain more serious cases, suggesting to some who have been suicidally-desperate that they visit an emergency room; and in other instances, pointing some toward a holistic approach to address all that ails them. 

Some have claimed they came here and found a BS detector and eliminator, though they were not initially grateful for such detection. None of that matters here, for there is no attachment to outcome. 

Here, it is understood exactly what is required for Full Realization; it is understood that there are clear-cut, specific steps on the "path" that must be completed in a precise, step-wise fashion; and it is understood how to guide seekers along that "path." After that, the variable is the seeker and the level of readiness. 

If you are ready, may you find the way to the end of the "path," to the completion of the "journey," and to the freedom and peace and happiness that accompany the no-concept, no-identity, non-dual manner of nisarga functioning that awaits all that would replace their unnatural and supernaturally-oriented lifestyles with a natural mode of being. 

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 Forty-Seven

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Again, the proper treatment for any sickness / Sickness cannot be offered without first making a proper diagnosis of what is ailing the sick / Sick. With 97% of the planet's population subsumed with the dogma of their various religions, the most frequent blame for global chaos and misery and suffering is "People have turned their backs on God and are ignoring His Will. The only hope for humanity is for everyone to turn to God." 

The remainder who brag "I am not religious! I am spiritual!" are nevertheless just as attached as are the religious to one or another supposed source of "Power." 

When "Maharaj" was in his Diet Maharaj phases and when "Floyd" was in his Floyd Lite stages, the same sentiments were held and were blended with certain non-dual pointers and offered as the Ultimate Medicine. During those phases, there was much talk about "Self-Inquiry" and about "finding the True Self" and about "Realization being the process which can elevate one to the status of 'The Supreme Self"'; or about "being unified with the GodHead" or "Ishvara" or "Saguna Brahman" or "Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu" or "The Impersonal Transcendent Brahman"; or about finding and existing as "The Infinite Self." 

But once Maharaj understood that the Ultimate Sickness was not a Sickness rooted in persons having mastered "too-little-dogma" and understood that it was not a Sickness rooted in a "spiritual malady" or "a sick spirit" and was instead a mental illness, centered in the mind, his message shifted away from the religious and the spiritual and to treating the actual psychological sources of the Sickness . . . the actual psychological sources of the Dis-ease. 

At that point, Maharaj stopped recommending Self-Inquiry and recommended "self-inquiry," saying "Enough to know what you are not." 

"Understanding" fell in stature as he realized, "It's enough if you do not misunderstand." Rather than "Realization" being some lofty, surreal, moving, supercilious, towering, soaring, electrifying, grand, exalted, noble, admirable, distinguished and elevating experience, he came to see that "realization is nothing more than being freed from the bondage of learned ignorance." 

See why he said, "It's so simple?" Now the human mind, once warped via programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination, is not simple at all. It is quite complex, convoluted, complicated, and - yes - even tortuous; but the solution to being free of all that is simple. 

 It begins with questioning what one has been taught and what one accepted unquestioningly and with blind faith; it progresses not by taking each concept and idea and notion and investigating each of the hundreds of thousands of concepts which have been accumulated and stored in the mind and checking each one for its validity or lack thereof. That would take a far greater number of years than any human will live. 

No, it progresses by seeing that all concepts, ideas, notions, perceptions, etc. amount to one thing: a "belief system" (that is, an entire set of beliefs or body of "beliefs") and then determining that all beliefs will be discarded. With that purging of the nonsense stored in the unnatural and supernaturally-spiritually-magically-oriented mind, one can then abide under the natural auspices of the natural brain. 

All personality identification is about the self, and all self-ness involves the belief that ego-states are real and truly define who one is. When ego-states manifest, then self / self-ness / identities become trapped in a continuous loop wherein ego-defense mechanisms, including egotism, are triggered and are used to defend assumed ego-states / identities / selves; strengthened ego-states will then generate even greater degrees of egotism and arrogance and conceit and haughtiness and pride. 

The evidence of the presence of the Ultimate Sickness, therefore, include self-importance; vanity; narcissism; pomposity; brashness; and a plant food body posturing and assuming a particular kind of strut and swagger and prance as it moves about. 

Because the "self" is all-important, then further evidence of the presence of the Ultimate Sickness is made obvious by way of stratospherically-high levels of self-aggrandizement, self-centeredness, self-consciousness, self-deception, self-esteem, self-image-fabrication-and-maintenance, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-absorption, self-delusion, self-justification, self-love, self-focus, and - yes - Self-Focus.

[And no greater evidence of the presence of extreme arrogance exists than in the words of those who tell you, "There are things you do not know and that you need to learn, and I am the one who can teach you those things." Here, the message has long been that "You do not need to learn more, you need to un-learn all; you do not need to be taught more, you need to be un-taught all." What does "un-teaching" involve? Merely pointing seekers to what Maharaj called "the zero concept" state; merely pointing seekers to the no-mind state.] 

Is it any wonder that Maharaj eventually said "Enough to know what you are not"? 

Take all who have ever claimed that they have found the Supreme Self and you will have uncovered certain quantities of egotism, but most among the trillions of humans that have ever walked the face of the planet never cared a whit - not a single iota - about finding the "True Self"; therefore, if one could undo the effects which came about as a result of those quantities of Self-inspired egotism, the impact would be negligible. 

However, if one could uncover the extreme quantities of false-self-inspired egotism (along with the resultant sense of separation and different-from-ment and better-than-ment and then endless conflict) and could erase those from the total human experience, then a momentous shift in the history of humankind would be seen.

And that is why Maharaj abandoned all talk about "The Self" and focused on the need to find and eliminate "the self" - all of the false selves which humans assign or assume. 

So, the instability and insanity which come via a need for realization - that is, the need to be free from learned ignorance - shall be discussed by using excerpts 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, the Self 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 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. 

The stable 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; the sane 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 the one that has successfully transitioned personality - and thus the effects of personality disorders - might be misled for a time by one who is skilled at developing and maintaining an image that hides his or her disorders. 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 the dilemma discussed above? Most assuredly. 

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 Forty-Six

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

Another way to insure instability and insanity is to become dependent and / or co-dependent with someone . . .

because very few can be relied on consistently; 

because many have the Borderline Personality Disorder and will "love" you one day and hate you the next . . . will hug you one day and will slug you the next; and

because most, in the end, want to get more from you than they are willing to give you.

Anyone familiar with the non-dual teachings knows that rejection of all personality identification is at the heart of the understanding; some are aware of the many ways that false identifications contribute to instability and insanity; and some also understand that the assumption of false personality identifications cannot happen unless dependency and co-dependency are first in place. 

Just as no addict can practice his or her addiction without someone else being willing to play the part of the addict's enabler, no assigned or assumed persona / role / ego-state / personality can be played without someone else being willing to play the counterpart role which enables a fictional identity to be considered real to its player. 

Consider: in literature, a foil is a character that possesses qualities which are in sharp contrast to those of another character; that is, a foil serves to highlight one or more attributes of another character, often the protagonist, by providing a contrast. 

For example, in the Harry Potter series, Voldemort is a foil to Harry because the former is depicted as being evil while Harry is depicted as being good. 

In the Greek play Antigone, Antigone and her sister Ismene are foils to each other. Antigone attempts to be independent and to direct her own life and to take control of her own fate while Ismene is willing to "sell out" and play the role of the submissive woman who is willing to be dependent on a controlling male caretaker. 

In personality assumption, though, foils may occasionally be brought into play. For the most part, those assuming a false identity must have someone else willing to assume the complementary, dependent and co-dependent counterpart - but "identical" - role. 

[Identical? Meaning? Those playing roles, those assuming ego-states as identities, are so driven by egotism that the only thing that is "good enough" for them is a replicate of their own selves. For example, truth be told, what egotistical heterosexual males want is an opposite sex version of themselves; what egotistical heterosexual females want is an opposite sex version of themselves. Ultimately, egotistical role players are actually only capable of loving themselves. Moreover, their false self image can only tolerate that which mirrors their image: "The Christian Wife" must have a "Christian Husband" for her role to supposedly be real in her mind. Likewise, "The Super Christian Wife" must have a "Super Christian Husband" for her role to supposedly be real in her mind. The same applies in reverse with those type husbands.]

Note that the role of "The Spouse" cannot be played without another person also being willing to play the role of "The Spouse." 

The role of "The Employer" cannot be played without another person also being willing to play the role of "The Employee." 

The role of "The Hate-Filled, Angry, Sociopathic, Psychopathic Political Leader" cannot be played without others having already entered into the role of "A Hate-Filled, Angry, Sociopathic, Psychopathic Member of the Electorate." Such voters "love" the politician who is a mirror image of them - who is "identical" to them - and they literally hate the one who is not like them and, in fact, hate all who are not like them. Such are the workings and machinations of ego and egotsim.

Sometimes, roles which are based in arrogance and egotism must fabricate in their minds a foil which is supposedly playing a related but opposite role. "The One Who Thinks He / She Is Better Than Non-Whites, Hispanics, 'Redskins,' Non-Christians, Anyone "Different," must come up with a foil - a scapegoat - to be assigned the role of "The Ones Who Are Lesser Than Those of Us Who Are Superior / Supremacists." 

The result is that those playing "The Persona Game" are guaranteed to either be (1) dependent / co-dependent on others to make them happy or be (2) forever about the business of trying to find others to blame for their misfortunes or failures. 

More on that will be offered by using excerpts from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address :

INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY SEEKING SOMEONE OR SOMETHING TO CAUSE YOU TO BE HAPPY 

The non-Realized are forever functioning under the influence of the insane belief that "the inside" can only register happiness when "an outside causer" has been found that can cause happiness to come and to stay. 

 Consider the insanity: If you were to be able to find an outside cause / causer of your inner happiness, then imagine how unstable and imprisoned you would be, knowing that you are dependent on something or someone outside of yourself for your happiness. 

Imagine how vulnerable you would be, knowing - if not consciously but at least subconsciously - that your source of happiness could at any moment leave you, could "die," could withdraw whatever gifts or benefits that were being bestowed, or could yank from your grasp whatever that outside source has readily offered (with motives and desires) but could as easily withdraw (if desires are not continuously met). 

How limiting and restrictive and insane is it, really, for persons to be willing to accept an external causer of happiness as the proper means of addressing the unhappiness within? Persons that insane could be provided medicine for a sore throat but instead of swallowing the potion would just lie down and pour the solution on the outside of their throats. 

Both scenarios would be senseless, insane, evidence of instability, proof of the presence of personality disorders, and confirmation of some degree of insanity. Trying to use outside solutions to address internal problems can never work, long-term, and eventual loss of freedom and happiness will be assured. 

Maharaj: "You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable." 

Some might recall a conversation shared in a previous post, a conversation overheard at lunch in a former workplace: 

Woman 1: "You know, I've decided that I'm ready to get married again." 

Woman 2: "You know, so am I! I've been thinking the very same thing lately." 

Floyd: "I didn't think either of you were even dating?" 

Their reply: "We're not," offered in both cases with an accompanying look of disdain for the inquiry that called into question their nonsensical declarations and their actual desires and their hidden motives. 

Bit of a cart-before-the-horse" approach they were using, yes? 

The sequence that "relationships" usually follow as discussed by Maharaj moves from stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to spouse (and then, in more cases than not) to enemy to mortal enemy to former spouse; the sequence followed by those two women was on an even faster track because they decided to skip stranger, acquaintance, friend, and lover and to bull dead ahead into acquiring "a spouse." Senseless? Yes. Very common? Yes. 

But because all in the relative existence moves from thought to word to deed, both women had the thought, both put the thought into words, and so - of course - they were both married within the year. Most will always manifest their thoughts and words, or be vanquished trying.

(FOLLOW-UP: By the way, both women were divorced - each for the second time - within a period of two years . . . financially destitute, seemingly "lost," bitter, angry, resentful, "alone" but not by choice, homeless, and emotionally and mentally bankrupt.) 

Most unstable, most insane, and exhibiting much evidence of being driven subconsciously by the hidden and insane agendas of personality / personalities / and personalities-that-would-be, all of which determined their insane thoughts and insane words and insane deeds and that resulted, therefore, in insane actions and consequences that generated more instability and more insanity. See, in both cases, they had an agenda. They had a cause. 

And they were, therefore, searching for a cause (actually a "causer") who would be able to cause them to be happy; who would cause an improvement in their financial or personal well-being; who would cause a restoration of whatever benefits they thought they had reaped from their first marriages that they were subsequently "missing." 

Note the evidence of their being driven by personality (or would-be-personas), specifically the fact that they had fears and they had desires: they desired pleasure; they desired a "better lifestyle"; they desired that their relative existence would be made "easier" by someone else. And none of those desires had anything to do with legitimate reasons for entering into a "committed relationship." 

What would Maharaj have advised, if they had asked? 

Maharaj: "Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight. Leave alone your desires and fears; give your entire attention to the subject, to [the persona] who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: 'WHO desires?' [that is, which fear and / or desire-driven persona is fearing something or desiring something and therefore subconsciously and unconsciously controlling thoughts and words and actions?]. Let each desire bring you back to your [actual] self." 

In their case, not only was there not Love; there was not even "love" since no "one" was even present to "love" - much less to lead to an understanding of what Real Love is. Real Love is Absolute; the "love" spoken of by the masses is relative, and thus "love" (a.k.a., "false love " a.k.a., "not Real Love") is . . . 

. . . relative 

. . . ever in motion 

. . . always strong at times but weak at other times, always hot at times, cold at other times (thus, generating instability) and 

. . . never lasting unless it happens alongside an overlaying of Reality upon the relative so that - just as I AM and I AM THAT can happen as one - so too can "love" manifest and be enjoyed on the relative plane as long as it is preceded by Real Love. 

And Real Love must be preceded by "full realization" and a total understanding of, and a completely uninterrupted sense of, the Oneness. The agendas of those two women were hidden from them, and they were hidden from the men they married the second time around. 

Those two women did not know that "a man is not a plan," at least, not a viable plan. And yes, the agenda of the men they married was hidden from the women and from themselves as well. Duality is always in consciousness and of consciousness . . . all relative. 

The term "relationship" by its very name should be seen to be relative and thus rooted in duality. But among the masses, nothing is more sought-after, more pleasure-giving, or more pain-producing than duality, and none will experience more dualities than in 

1. relationships and in

2. institutions and organizations which speak in terms of "good and bad" and "reward and punishment" and the hundreds of other dualistic pairs that they dream up and preach about.

[Consider why Maharaj eventually gave up any and every notion that religion or spirituality could serve as forms of the Ultimate Medicine. His estimate was that only a handful of persons at any given time are truly "realized," yet 97% of the population of planet earth have been taught the dogma offered by one or another organized religion or other sky cults. Millions more have been taught the various philosophies which offer spiritual messages and those persons have engaged energetically in the spiritual exercises which they has been assigned. If religion or spirituality were the true antidote to the Ultimate Sickness, then with more than  99% of the people on the planet involved in religion or spirituality, then how could there be so few around the globe who are truly realized and free of all "learned ignorance" and insanity? The proof is in the pudding. Neither works. Why? Because, as Maharaj came to see, the Ultimate Sickness is a mental Sickness, centered in the mind. That which puts more in the mind, instead of purging the mind, cannot heal the mind.]

The consciousness brings with it The Ultimate Sickness. Learning about moralistic dualities is not The Ultimate Medicine and a relationship is not The Ultimate Medicine, contrary to popular belief. 

Consider the implications of these pointers offered in the past: 

What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the Real? 

and

"As for feeling or emotion, if Love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if "love" happens as an emotion—that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state—prepare for war"

and 

"Here, enjoyment certainly happens though nothing is desired. Additionally, nothing is feared since there is nothing to register fear."

The awareness-in-consciousness functions from a position of neutrality, knowing that if persons are trapped in seeking the applause of the village, they must also be prepared to accept the scorn of the town as well. If you are willing to seek and accept pleasure from externals, full speed ahead, but be prepared to accept an exactly equal portion of pain and suffering as well. 

Maharaj: "Pain and pleasure go always together. Freedom from one means freedom from both." 

All on the planet is happening in a theater where role-players are moving about on the stage in The Theater of the Lie - in The Theater of the Consciousness - and in a theater where consciousness-based duality is always the director of all of the thoughts and dialogues and behaviors of the actors. How can there be any freedom when trapped in relative dualities? 

Again . . . 

Maharaj: "You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable." 

 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.

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

The Bi-Polar Personality Disorder was originally referred to as "The Manic-Depressive Personality Disorder" or "manic-depression." For those familiar with the nine basic personality types examined via the Enneagram, it is understood that any of the 9 types can develop the Bi-Polar Personality Disorder. 

However, based in experience and in the findings of research conducted by the Enneagram Institute as well, it has been seen that Personality Type Sevens often have a somewhat greater propensity to exhibit that disorder (along with the Addictive Personality Disorder as well). 

The Bipolar Disorder is a mental disorder which causes unusual shifts in mood, energy levels, activity levels, and the ability - or lack thereof - to carry out day-to-day tasks. In other words, it triggers instability. 

Persons with the disorder can experience swings in mood and temperament, some swings one way or the other lasting for brief periods. In other cases, the phases can last much longer. I worked with a woman years ago who had the Bi-Polar Personality Disorder and her swings usually lasted for six months at a time. For six months, she would be eagle-high; as if a "switch" in her head had been flipped, she would show up at work one morning and the eagle-high mood would be gone, replaced by a whale-caca-low mood which could manifest for six months. 

As for the Addictive Personality Disorder, her addiction was to chaos which she used to relieve herself of a sense of boredom. During the mania phase, she would make extreme decisions about buying or selling her home or about starting a new relationship and making a commitment within a matter of only a few weeks. 

Once during a manic phase, she met an unemployed man, "fell in love," sold her home, cleaned out her retirement account (contrary to the suggestion I offered), and moved from the South to the Midwest with him. They married, she made a down payment on a home, he soon moved his unemployed 25-year-old son in, and while she was at work each day, they were playing and spending her money. The funds were all gone within six months, the marriage ended, and she moved back to the South to her former job, started over from scratch, and - with her retirement account empty - was guaranteed to have to work to the end with no possibility of retirement at all.

During the depressive phase, she was actually "safer" because her sense of feeling depressed did not lead her to suicidal thoughts - as it can in some cases - but it did lead to a deep malaise which rendered her inactive and which prevented her from engaging in the her manic-phase-type conduct which almost always led to financial and personal catastrophes time and again (relatively speaking, of course). 

Meanwhile, she remained trapped in duality, most concerned with image and clothes and cars. With her, a man was the plan, so she continued her search for someone who could provide her with a high lifestyle. Her Bi-Polar Disorder, according to some who have spoken with me, continues to generate mood swings and she stills continues -insanely - to behave in her long-standing self-destructive and self-defeating fashion.

It should be obvious that to suffer from the Bi-Polar Personality Disorder, or to swing continuously between manic phases and depressed phases, will guarantee an existence marked by instability and insanity. 

More on that will be offered by using excerpts from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address and the book entitled From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality:

INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY MANIA AND DEPRESSION 

Consider the instability and insanity of being depressed for periods of varying lengths; and then being overly-enthused for varying periods of time; and then moving back into depression; and thereafter continuing such swings throughout the relative existence. Depression and mania are common mental disorders which present with certain identifiable symptoms. 

(Note: Not everyone who is depressed or manic experiences every symptom listed below. Some people experience a few symptoms, some many. The severity of symptoms also varies with individuals and also varies over time.) 

Depression Symptoms: 

Persistent sadness; anxiety; moodiness; feelings of emptiness; feelings of hopelessness; pessimism; feelings of guilt; feelings of worthlessness; feelings of helplessness; loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex; decreased energy; fatigue; being "slowed down"; difficulty concentrating, remembering, and making decisions; insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping; appetite and / or weight loss or overeating and weight gain; actions that harm the body; thoughts of death or suicide; suicide attempts; restlessness, irritability; and persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain. 

Mania Symptoms: 

Abnormal or excessive elation; unusual irritability; decreased need for sleep; grandiose notions; idealized dreams and schemes; increased talking; racing thoughts; increased sexual desire; markedly increased levels of energy; poor judgment; and inappropriate social behavior.

Note how the relevancy of those two disorders was raised during a part of a satsang session shared below which is extracted from the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE as Floyd answers a Questioner's ("Q's") queries: 

F.: But my question is, ‘What do you think is the source of your misery’?” 

Q.: “My wife leaving me. She said, ‘I don’t even know who I am,’ and she took the children and left. I’m miserable over losing everything . . . wife, family, property. I lost it all.” 

F.: “First, if she said that she doesn’t know who she is, we can believe that is the case. Obviously, you don't know who you are, either." 

Q.: [Frowns] 

F.: "Secondly, if it is truly understood that one does not have a body and therefore cannot ‘lose’ the body, how can one lose the bodies on your list? The world of misery you speak of is imagined. You do not live in the world. More importantly, your freedom will come in knowing that nothing on the list is the source of misery.” 

Q.: “I don’t think you appreciate the hurt involved.” 

F.: “If you truly understood the illusion of the body, you could not have an illusory mind that would speak of a ‘lost wife’ and this lost person called ‘husband.’ To be free is to be in a state of total independence. Each illusion of personality requires two co-dependent bodies as well as two co-dependent minds. It is that illusion of dualities which prevents a person from being free and which blocks a person from continuing on the path to Realization." 

Q.: “Two bodies and two minds?” 

F.: “Two bodies and two minds are required for any role to be taken as an identity. You cannot play the role of ‘husband’ alone. She cannot play the role of ‘wife’ alone. You each must have a body in order to play out those roles, you each must have another body willing to play the counter role, and you each must have a mind that has been programmed to believe that the roles you play actually identify who you are. Two bodies, two minds. Duality squared. 

If you are ‘husband’ and she leaves, you are not ‘husband’ any longer in your variable mind. According to that belief system, What You Truly Are can vary, depending on who is in your physical presence! But the reality is that What You Truly Are can never vary. All personalities (or ‘personas’ or ‘false identities’ or ‘roles’ or ‘states-of-being this’ or ‘states of being that’) are dualities. 

The real is permanent whereas dualities, being illusions, always appear to come and go. In that instability, one lives in the depression around perceived loss or in the manic state of joy around perceived gain. Neither state lasts, so one is constantly in a state of flux and desire, clinging to current dependencies while trying to accumulate new dependencies. 

‘The employee’ cannot exist without ‘the employer’; the ‘lover’ cannot exist without a separate ‘lover’; the ‘father’ cannot exist without ‘a child.’ If ‘wife’ leaves, ‘husband’ thinks he’s dying. How tenuous your existence becomes—how absent of freedom life must be—believing in the illusion that your existence is totally dependent on 'another' or all those ‘others.’ 

How vulnerable and fear-based that life must be … feeling so dependent and needy and incomplete. Do you see that if each assumed personality requires the physical presence of another person, then two co-dependent bodies are required to sustain the illusion of each false personality? Trying to live in that duality, with no freedom at all, is it any wonder that you speak of misery?” 

Can the non-dual understanding address these two disorders? Both disorders usually require treatment by trained professionals.

If depression is rooted only in the misperception of "loss" and if that can be processed via the teachings, then the teachings have been effective on some occasions. 

That said, mental health professionals should usually be the first who are sought out for assistance with depression and / or mania. 

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 Forty-Four

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

It's "flu season" in the U.S. and other areas around the globe. A vital part of getting well from the flu (or from any sickness or Sickness) involves such things as cutting back on activities; not going back to your usual full activity level until your symptoms are gone; staying home as much as possible instead of continuing to go and do and zoom; 

resting in the quiet; avoiding certain crowds, especially avoiding those types of persons whom the wise know are sick and contagious and are definitely passing on the sickness / Sickness; so especially avoiding close contact with people who are sick; and wash your hands often (or, in the case of the Sickness, engage frequently in washing out your mind). 

Of course, in the case of the Ultimate Sickness, prevention can never happen because the transmission of the Sickness begins to take place when one is young and being programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated and brainwashed by adults. 

But the suggestions to "stay home as much as possible instead of continuing to go and do and zoom" and "rest in the quiet" and "avoid certain crowds, especially avoiding those types of persons whom the wise know are sick and contagious and are definitely passing on the sickness / Sickness" can contribute to the "getting-well-process" by at least not being further contaminated while wellness is being sought. 

To that end, what did Maharaj recommend should be avoided? 

Early on, he used a Hindu / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine; later, when Westerners who were interested in spirituality rather than religion came to the loft, he tried a spirituality / non-dual compounded version of the Medicine; when he eventually saw that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental sickness because the Sickness is centered in the mind and because he witnessed that neither of those earlier versions worked, he began offering a psychological / non-dual compounded version of the Medicine. 

So what did he eventually recommend should be avoided? 

1. Religion 

Questioner: "You seem to have little use for religion." 

Maharaj: "What is religion? A cloud in the sky" and "Recorded religions are mere heaps of verbiage." 

2. Those playing the role of "The Super Religious One" 

3. Spirituality (“Give up spirituality” and “follow your normal inclinations" and "forget spirituality," etc.) 

4. Those assuming the role of "A Spiritual Giant" 

5. Big Name Teachers and 

6. Never-ending seeking 

7. Learning more, accumulating more concepts and ideas and beliefs ("Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs.") 

More on that will be offered by using excerpts from the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address and the book entitled From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) regarding . . .

 INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL INTOXICATION

[Transcribed from a satsang session recording] 

Consider the following excerpt from the book "FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE" in a part of the discussion which describes what happens during the "Coming In Journey" as the Child Ignorance stage (a.k.a., the Child No-Knowing stage) is brought to an end when identities and dogma are added. Note that a child, if fed and dry and in a comfortable atmosphere, is perfectly content. Why? 

The child is functioning in a no-concept, no-identity, no-duality manner. Note also that 97% of all persons on the planet claim affiliation with some organized religion, so one of the earlier sources of concepts and beliefs and duality in the lives of 97% of the people on the planet is their religion (which is itself the source of much of the duality believed in by the masses today: 

"good vs. bad"; "right vs. wrong"; "moral vs. immoral"; "heaven vs. hell"; "reward vs. punishment," etc.) The satsang discussion unfolded thusly with a dialogue - already in progress - between a Questioner and Floyd: 

Q.: “I need some help to really process all that.” 

 F.: “Then let’s try this: we’re on a seven-step ‘journey’ to Reality, if you will. Let’s go to the ‘end’ and work 'backwards' for a moment, since all merely cycles. Let’s consider when the consciousness was manifesting in the space in a womb with the non-beingness about to cross the borderline to the beingness. The days of the bliss of the womb were numbered.” 

Q.: “If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have come out.” (Laughter) 

F.: “I’m in charge of humor here. Don’t intrude. Ha. (Laughter) Regarding your leaving or not leaving the womb, as well as all that has happened since then, there has never been any choice on your part. A natural process forced the space to exit a birth canal. An initial act of friction between your parents resulted in this space in which consciousness manifested. Actions began to happen, but they were driven by instinct. No one taught you to protest if hungry; no one taught you to seek a breast to suckle.” 

Q.: “Right.” 

F.: “In a manner of speaking, that’s as ‘close’ to 'the True Self' as you’ve been since that slap on the rear triggered your breathing cycles" (that True Self merely being . . . Pure Witnessing).

Q.: “Why?” 

F.: “Because you were mainly being. They had not yet taught you. A fictional mind had not yet resulted from hearing the lies about who or what you are and had not yet assumed any false role or identity or personality. You wore no masks. All merely happened via natural instinct and body chemistry rather than programming and conditioning. You mainly focused on nothing and were just being. 

You were manifest but still mainly in a void, though becoming increasingly conscious of pain and discomfort. If fed and clothed comfortably, you were fairly free of strife or worry . . . whether sleeping, dreaming, waking, or fully conscious. Not until they taught you would you be forced into the bondage of concepts and the mental and emotional pain of duality. Eventually, you would always be in a sleep state—whether in bed, driving, at work, talking, whatever.” 

Q.: [Nods head in agreement] 

F.: “Next, at some point you began to witness. You saw a mobile spinning in the crib above you. You saw huge faces being shoved into yours. You heard sounds coming from their mouths. You began to witness. Unless they made loud, alarming noises, you witnessed objectively and had no perceived fears. You had no opinions. You had no beliefs or concepts. You had no array of attitudes and judgments about what you were witnessing. 

Since contradictory beliefs had not been introduced, you had no quandaries to weigh, no disparities to consider, no ideas about ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ or about anything else. You were merely witnessing. Do you understand what was happening when I spoke earlier of being like the eagle, soaring above it all and merely watching?” 

Q.: [Head moves in the affirmative] 

F.: "Soon, having sensed a body presence, you would believe yourself the subject and assume that you were witnessing other objects. Do you see why, at its very root, this life becomes a lie . . . setting you up to assume that dualities are the real and feeling apart from?" 

Q.: "Yes. I never considered that aspect." 

F.: "Add to that 'setup' all of the concepts that they would soon begin to teach you and you should understand the source of your future bondage: the assumption of duality. Their teachings, combined with that initial assumption of subject-object, would soon result in a programmed, variable mind. The mind would begin moving constantly. No rest or peace will it ever know again, unless you follow the path from duality 'back' to the unicity. Later, they began labeling you as ‘our child,’ ‘our son,’ ‘our boy,’ ‘our teen,’ ‘our young man,’ and later . . . ‘an adult.’ 

But your true "identity" cannot change; any variable labeling can only name what you are not. As their ‘child,’ they began teaching you concepts, giving you ideas and a personality, ‘whipping you into shape,’ so they claimed. Then, they introduced one of the earliest and most limiting of all dualities—the source of so many nightmares in this culture. They presented their concept of ‘good’ vs. ‘bad.’ That illusion began to dominate your mind and affect your behavior. 

With the ‘good-bad’ concepts feeding your illusory ‘mind,’ you were becoming more and more ignorant, even as they claimed to be making you more and more knowledgeable. All the concepts and ideas and beliefs and dogma they offered became your learned ignorance. They then began assigning roles for you to play and to assume as identities. You probably received their earliest ‘spiritual’ role or persona: ‘a gift from God.’ That fostered egomania and set another destructive ball rolling! [Laughter] 

Self-will became a liability because, the more false ‘selves’ you assumed as identities, the more the agenda of each false self—the desire to be—began to drive you. You were constantly in a fight to preserve those false personalities. The chaos of self-will ends when the self dies—when the false ego-states or false identities dissolve. Until then, you will have much to fight for, as your current body-mind-personality experience shows.” 

Q.: [Nodding] 

F.: “Back to the ‘downward’ journey through the stages that has now left you out-of-touch with reality. Next, they likely took you to a church or temple or synagogue or some other building thought to be "special" and religious roles and identities were assigned there. You took their learned ignorance and began seeing even more “others” and using religious concepts to judge others and to label them and their behaviors as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ 

The next stop was school where teachers programmed you, teaching you their version of what is ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ encouraging you to read the words of ‘experts’ and learn from their knowledge. They told you to listen to newscasts so that you would always be informed. ‘The more you know, the better,’ they claimed. They filled your mind with what they called ‘facts’ and ‘knowledge’ and contributed to your variable mind. 

That mind became dominated by its ‘good-bad’ duality perceptions as that mind tried constantly to process all the contradictions in your false world. Your mind is the chattering of a thousand monkeys, trying to process all their ‘stuff.’ As you became older, you could drive down the road alone and be in group therapy, right?” [Laughter] 

Q.: “That’s still the case!” [Laughter] 

F.: “Of course it is. Every picture ever taken of you is a group photo because you believe yourself to be all those false identities that they assigned to you.” [Laughter] 

Q.: [Smiling] 

F.: “All in positions of influence over you were rewarding you in order to reinforce behaviors they considered ‘good’ or were punishing you for what they thought to be ‘bad.’ You would become confused, though, since what half in the culture labeled ‘good,’ the other half considered ‘bad.’ You did something once and got a kiss. You did it again and got slapped. Contradictory opinions never convey the truth, so you were receiving more and more lies and becoming more and more confused.” 

In a "place of authority" being run by "persons with authority" where children are taught not to question authority, one of the most prevalent sources - and reinforcers - of duality invites persons to adopt a new identity of "The Christian" or "The Jew" or "The Muslim" or "The Buddhist" or "The Advaitin" or "The Hindu" or "The Taoist" or "The Druid" or "The Wiccan" or "The North American Spiritualist" or "The Scientologist" or "The Mormon," etc. 

Counting all of the religions and all subcategories and sects and denominations, there are presently over 500,000 from which to choose, but they all - with few exceptions - have several practices in common: they teach and preach duality; they expect people to learn more and more; they expect people to live by the dictates of a holy text and the holy writings of the authorities in charge; 

they assign new, false identities which dupposedly make their members "better than" others not living according to their precepts; some encourage rolling on the floor; some endorse reaching a state of ecstasy where members faint; most encourage persons to give their money and / or property to the organization; they inspire angst over whether one will be rewarded forever or punished forever; 

most use music and accoutrements and chanting to inspire emotional intoxication; and some inspire members to kill themselves if - in that process - they can kill members of another religion; and almost all reinforce dualistic notions of "better-than-ness" and "different from" and "separate from" or "united with." 

The result: 97% on the planet, programmed to believe the most unbelievable myth-and-superstition-based nonsense, are totally unstable and insane even as their leaders and authorities insure them that they alone are the stable and sane ones. 

Can the non-dual understanding address the issues of instability and insanity which are generated by religious and / or spiritual intoxication? Most assuredly. Are the odds in favor of anything freeing the 97% who are trapped in their dogma and who believe the most outrageous claims set forth in their holy writings and by their holy authorities? No. So it is. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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