Monday, February 13, 2017

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, TREATMENT, Part Fifty-Nine

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

So what other different perspectives exist among the masses in general which are not held by "the realized"? 

For years, the pointer has been offered that (1) there is no one here who is special or Special and that (2) contrary to widespread opinion, there is no one anywhere who is special or Special. "Contrary" applies because most are convinced that they are special, superior, and moral. Again, to the contrary, 

Maharaj said: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end." See? No duality. Not moral. Not immoral. There is no universal standard by which either of those could be defined with total agreement and without any debate anyway.

In an article entitled "Most People Think They’re Morally Superior To Everyone Else," a key point offered is that most think they are "so high and mighty" that they "can feel entitled to commit immoral acts." 

The article continued: "In the privacy of your own mind, do you believe you’re a better person than everyone else? Well, that’s pretty much what the rest of us think, too."

A recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science shows that people strongly believe that they are just, virtuous and moral, and uniformly see others as inferior. People also tend to rate themselves more highly than others in modesty. The study, first published in October and resurfaced this week in Scientific American, showed that most people fail to use reason when evaluating character traits in themselves and others. 

“The individuals in our sample consistently judged themselves to be superior to the average person,” Ben Tappin, a psychologist at the University of London and the study’s lead author, told The Huffington Post. 

For the study, participants were asked to rate the extent to which 30 different personality traits were present in themselves, the average person, and a “socially desirable” ideal. This included traits involved in morality (like sincerity and honesty), sociability (like friendliness), and personal agency (like competence and creativity). Then, the researchers conducted a test to determine how rational the participants were in their reasoning. 

Here’s what rational thinking on the matter would look like: 

Most of the time, most people are in the majority. In order to make accurate judgments about others, it would be reasonable to project what we know about ourselves. Therefore, we’re rational when we acknowledge how similar we are to other people. But there’s a caveat in this for people who are truly unusual. If a person rates themselves in an atypical way, then they are objectively unusual. So, in that case, it would make sense for them to rate themselves differently from others. 

 “Those individuals who were highly atypical had more ‘room’ for rational self-enhancement because their own traits provided a poor guide as to what the average person was like,” Tappin said. People were most likely to be irrational when it came to traits that they considered desirable ― especially moral traits, the researchers found. This can be explained in part by what psychologists call the “self-enhancement effect.” 

“Self-enhancement has been studied for decades, and refers to the phenomenon whereby people perceive themselves to be superior to the average person,” Tappin said. “The classic case was documented . . . back in 1981 in the case of driving ability. As we discuss in the paper, the effect has since been observed in many other domains including personality traits, and intelligence.” 

One possible explanation for how these positive illusions came to be is the idea that they confer psychological benefits, like increased confidence and self-esteem, Tappin said. 

But the researchers found no evidence of this. Instead, they observed that feelings of moral superiority were not associated with high self-esteem. Falsely imagining ourselves to be morally superior also can result in “moral licensing” ― the tendency for people to feel justified in doing something immoral because they generally feel they behave morally. One study, for instance, showed that people who committed a moral act were more likely to commit an immoral act later the4 same day(perhaps because they felt entitled to do so). 

It’s a good reminder for all of us that thinking you’re a “moral person” and actually behaving morally aren’t the same thing. Moreover, the realized do not believe that either they or anyone else is moral and do not believe that they or others are immoral. 

Again, "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end." Anything belief contrary to that understanding is based in the claptrap and gobbledygook of dualistic thinking. 

The different perspective of those who have received the proper treatment for the Ultimate Sickness results in their having lost all beliefs, including the belief in personhood, specialness and Specialness, too. 

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.

Recent Posts and Archives

Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

Five Free eBooks

Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

II.
"THE VISION"

Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

“‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

III.
"Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

IV.
Seeking

In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

V.
"THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page