TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Presently, there are "superbugs" which are antibiotic-resistant. Such bacteria are resistant to most of the antibiotics which were used effectively in the past to treat them, making some commonplace infections difficult to treat. The overuse or misuse of antibiotics contributes to the formation of these superbugs.
The same is now happening with the Ultimate Sickness.
"SUPER" EGO-STATES
There are "super ego-states" which are resistant to the Ultimate Medicine. The overuse and misuse of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination for thousands of years has led to an unquestioning, blind faith acceptance of nonsense simply because it has been spread around so much the lie is believed to be truth and the abnormal has been normalized.
As noted here many times, all that "A Spouse" needs to "exist" is a co-dependent partner willing to play the counterpart role needed to sustain that - and any - ego-state; however, once "The Spouse" upgrades himself or herself to the status of "The Super Spouse," then what is required for that ego-state to continue to seem real is "A Super Spouse." At that point, a divorce lawyer's phone number is stored in the memory of a phone's auto-dial function. The end of another marriage may not be near, but it is coming.
"THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA" BUT THE EGO-STATE WEARS CAMOUFLAGE
Crazy has reached a whole new level not only of insanity but also of normalization as well as an ability to camouflage itself.
Ego-states (false identities, roles, personalities, etc.) can now disguise themselves in ways that make them appear to be normal or even "wonderful." Who could challenge the parents who self-elevate their status by upgrading their facade from "The Parent" to "The Super Parent" (until the effects of the assumption of that role begin to show up in their overly-indulged children who become a blight to themselves and their society)?
THE USE OF EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISMS HAS REACHED THE STATE OF AN ART FORM
The expression "bless you" after a sneeze dates back to the ignorant belief that a sneeze is the body's way of casting out demons and evil spirits, but casting them out - it was believed - did not destroy them. They were believed to immediately take up residence in the person nearest to the one sneezing. Thus. the one near the sneezer would say, "Bless you" because, heck, everyone knows that demons and evil forces cannot tolerate hearing a call for God's protective presence.
Similarly, when an ego-state is assigned or assumed, very shortly after an army of ego-defense mechanisms become activated in order to protect that false identity. For example:
An ego will use PROJECTION to relieve that personality of its liabilities by mentally casting them out and sending them to other nearby persons. A woman whose words and actions reveal the presence of The Borderline Personality Disorder, the Narcissist Personality Disorder, The Sociopathic Personality Disorder, and an Attachment Disorder, berates her husband to one and all for having "unstable, unpredictable feelings"; for "being arrogant"; for "ignoring social norms, never apologizing when he is wrong"; and for "not getting close enough to the children" (whom she has ignored from day one in both cases).
Whether or not all that she says about her husband may be true, all of what she is identifying in him is certainly a part of her warped psyche.
An ego can also use DENIAL to relieve that personality of its liabilities. When the fiancé of the sister of that same woman told her she was the most vain and delusional woman he'd ever met, the woman told her sister she could not marry that man, that he could never be accepted into their family. She totally denied the truth of what he told her and, in her reaction, exhibited exactly what he claimed.
VICTIMIZATION, BLAME, RATIONALIZATION, AND JUSTIFICATION are among the many other ego-defense mechanisms which minds use to shield the false identities stored therein, but the mechanism used most often to defend egos may be EGOTISM.
THE "CATCH-22" WITH THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS TRYING TO BE RID OF EGO-STATES / FALSE IDENTITIES / ASSIGNED ASSUMED PERSONALITIES IS THIS: THERE MUST BE AN ABSENCE OF EGOTISM, BUT EGOTISM IS THE LAST THING THAT AN EGO-STATE IS WILLING TO GIVE UP
People living in an apartment or flat or home have a front door entranceway with a lock on that door. How many want to give away the key and leave the door open at all times? Because the #1desire of the manifest consciousness is continuity, then most do not want to give up anything which gives them a sense of security and protection.
The same applies with an ego-state.
Next, to continue looking at the causes of the Ultimate Sickness in order to understand what is required to treat it effectively, in the book INSTABILITY / INSANITY: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address
this is offered in a chapter entitled "Instability / Insanity: Psychic Disintegration and the Acculturation Connection."
It has been shown that the root of much that persons find problematic in their efforts to navigate the relative existence is this: their programmers and conditioners and domesticators and acculturators overlaid the relative on Reality.
In that process, any chance to see Reality was foiled and a propensity to take "the not real" as the Real was established; the invitation here is to follow the process offered by the teacher and to reverse and un-do what those persons did to you.
That can allow you - post-realization - to overlay reality upon the relative.
This series is offering:
1. a discussion of the potential physical, mental and emotional impediments to being stable and peaceful and
2. a recognition of what the non-dual teachings can address, as well as what they cannot address, while
3. offering for consideration information on some of the obstacles which block the seeing of Truth, which contribute to the Ultimate Sickness that has infected almost all persons on the planet, and which result in persons being unstable.
That said, the next topic for discussion is:
INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY A FAILURE TO PSYCHICALLY INTEGRATE AND INSTEAD THE TENDENCY TO PSYCHICALLY DISINTEGRATE
In some cases where instability and certain degrees of insanity have been induced by psychic disintegration, the Advaita teachings can address this personality-based condition, depending on the degree to which disintegration has occurred.
Psychic disintegration cannot occur in the absence of personality / personalities, revealing why "realized teachers" for thousands of years have tried to lead their protégés beyond the debilitating effects of personality;
yet in far too many cases observed here, such disintegration is not driven by personality alone.
In many cases, the deeper cause is that which is also being discussed here, namely, the negative effects of acculturation in those cultures where persons are more rigid and more distant and more aloof and more detached than in many other cultures (but do not know it).
One eighteen-year-old male (who could as easily symbolize - and, in too many instances, could speak for - Everyman and Everywoman) described what he called his "psychic disintegration."
As you read this teen's words, please consider what has already been revealed about acculturation in this series and consider the connection between acculturation and psychic disintegration.
Consider especially the effects of acculturation as it is applied in some specific cultures that have been alluded to as the ones that are more prone to produce children (and therefore adults) who are cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof.
As this teen bemoans the fact that his father is cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof, consider too that the same can as easily apply to mothers who were raised as children in those particularly cold and aloof cultures as well:
My cheery facade has fallen apart. All I tried to do, every forced laugh, every painted smile has finally cracked me. I am lonely. And I want my father. Not a man who raises you financially. I want a father who will finally hold me and tell me I'm worthy. I can't even remember the last time I actually sat down and TALKED to my father. It's always a curt hello and goodbye. This terrible pain I carry inside tears at me every day.
My fears, the secret fear that I am somehow inadequate. Unfit for love, even from a father. I've been withdrawing. Wait, scratch that. I HAVE withdrawn. I try my best to hide each tear shed from the world. But my pain is clearly written on my soul, a painful brand that sears with every breath, each new morning. I do my best to help others. But I'm helpless to help myself. Each day sees a little bit more of me dying. I prayed for an angel, full of goodness and light. But I forgot to pray that he would stay by my side, always.
I'm just so tired. I have three houses. But no home. Home denotes / implies warmth and kindness, care and love. Who in my family actually sees me for who I am? I've tried. And in the end, I wind up shutting everyone out. No one sees the pain. 18 years I tried. Tried as hard as I could. But I can never feel safe. Not until my father hugs me and tells me, "You're my son. I love you no matter what happens." Does that make me ungrateful? To want reassurance of a fatherly love I can never feel, never see? To want normalcy in my twisted world?
I've lost everything and everyone I've ever cared about. That has made me cold and uncaring. I want to stop hurting, stop yearning. Most importantly, I want to stop hoping.
Can you relate to that teen? Can you fathers relate to that parent? Can you mothers relate to that parent? Obviously, there's plenty of money available in his family, so how clearly do this teen's confessions support the adage that "money cannot buy happiness"?
Obviously the parent is wealthy, having the money to accumulate "three homes" and to "raise the son financially."
Is the family now throwing money at the problems that have resulted in what an eighteen-year-old is calling his "psychic disintegration" rather than changing their modus operandi so that they can also throw love and affection his way?
Counselors or therapists or psychiatrists can point out the disintegration, but this obviously intelligent teen already knows that the disintegration is there.
Yet who can detect the root of the problem and address that, the root problem being acculturation?
How many generations of cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof parents
(with the main legacy to their children having been to make them into cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof children and, eventually, adults and parents in that same mold)
were required in order for this teen's "emotionally-unavailable" parent(s) to create the environment in which that teen reached the point that, more than anything else - more than "ending his hurting" and more than "ending his yearning" - he wants "most importantly" to "stop hoping"?
Tomorrow, a fuller explanation of psychic disintegration will be offered, but on the heels of the earlier discussions about the horrendous effects of the acculturation that persons are subjected to when raised in one of those especially cold and aloof cultures, it is to be seen that the roots of psychic disintegration can be connected directly to acculturation.
And as sad as the teen writer above is, is it not as sad - or maybe even sadder, relatively speaking - that persons raised in those cultures normalize their traits and therefore seldom see how truly cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof that they actually are?
Is it not as sad - relatively speaking - that
a. the Wisdom which can bring an understanding of the Oneness, and that
b. the understanding of the Oneness which can bring an awareness of Real Love,
is so rare?
And if you did not cry when you read that teen's words, as happened here, is there something you need to see regarding what happened to you as a child and what has happened to you over the years since?
Would you be willing to ask objectively, "What the hell did they do to me?"
and
"What am I allowing to continue to happen that needs to stop . . . right now?"
It was not my responsibility that I went through in my childhood home much of what that teen has gone through in his home; however, it was my responsibility - relatively speaking - to see the effects, to address them, and to become available, to become caring, to know Love and to be able to feel It and share It, to hug my daughter every time she comes and goes, and to say "I love you" regularly while she is here.
It only takes one generation to break the chain of generations of coldness and unavailability and an inability to love unconditionally and then to show affection and kindness and warmth - consistently - instead.
The message to all from that teen should be clear:
it is Real Love - not wealth - that is one of the key components in the compounded "Medicine" that can help address the Ultimate Sickness and that can bring happiness and peace and stability.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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