TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Another different perspective which must come in order to be free of the effects of the Ultimate Sickness deals with the originally-Western but now near-universally-adopted concepts involving accumulation and acquiring and owning and gaining and attaining and buying (or taking) and getting one's hands on more and more and more.
Accumulation is also part of the subject matter discussed in the book A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga wherein the point is offered that seekers often end up accumulating even more of their religious or supposedly-spiritual intangibles than "the non-realized" accumulate tangibles:
Many who have been exposed to any of the teachings which have long been more popular in the Far East than in Western nations speak of the process of de-accumulation. Some only give lip-service to the process; some have interpreted it to mean that only material possessions should be discarded;
and others (as illustrated by Bob R.'s earlier sharing of what has happened in his case) begin the process . . .
by being rid of the spiritual materials accumulated;
by then discarding any and all lingering "beliefs, concepts, attitudes, etc."; and then
by discarding things of "a more subtle nature," including what he termed the "imbalance" that resulted when he developed a "preference" for the THAT-ness while ignoring the "this-ness," the Is-ness, the beingness.
Eventually, the following perspective - which differs from that held by some other non-duality seekers or teachers - can result:
If the non-dual understanding comes in tandem with the Nisargan understanding, then no notions about "more-ness" will come at all.
Instead, all that does come will involve "less-ness," including:
concept-less-ness,
duality-less-ness,
belief-less-ness,
mind-less-ness, and
identity-less-ness.
With 97% of the people on the planet claiming an affiliation with one organized religion or another, most believe that the problems of the planet are centered in some sort of religious or spiritual malady. The fact is that, of the 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 years that humans or human-like beings have walked the face of the planet, it has only been during the last 5,000 years or so that religions were developed and organized.
In the most recent times, some humans have been claiming that the problems of the planet are rooted in some sort of "spiritual sickness" or "soul-sickness."
Now, as progress is being made in the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders and mental illness, it is becoming clearer that the problems of persons today - and the problems of the planet as far as humanity is concerned - center in the "mind." And what is the "mind"?
The answer to that provides another perspective that will differ from that held by the masses:
There is no such thing as peace of mind; there is only peace if you are out of your mind. Why?
Because the "mind" is a storehouse of fiction, myths, superstitions, false concepts, bogus beliefs, erroneous ideas, etc. How could such content not cause problems when it subconsciously controls people and their thoughts and their words and their actions?
Charlatans and religious leaders and spiritualists and pseudo-Advaitins and those "on the circuit" whom Maharaj referred to as "the Big Name Teachers" are all accumulating fortunes as they promote and peddle the various plans which they claim will provide "peace of mind."
They may as well be claiming that have "Perpetual Motion Machines" for sale because "Perpetual Motion Machines" and "peace of mind" are both illusions. There is only peace if mind-less.
The typical "mindset" of many seekers (as well as the "mindset" of many of those claiming to be "knowers" or jnanis) can be illustrated via the words and actions of one man who has assumed the role of "The Super Seeker" . . . along with many other roles.
For years, he had been spending millions of the dollars he had inherited engaging in what he deemed to be "spiritual activities" which had taken him around the globe several times. He came here for a retreat, flying into Houston after spending a week in Central America where he paid a man $1,000.00 a day for five days to "teach him to breathe." It was asked,
F.: "You just paid a man $5,000.00 to teach you to breathe?"
Visitor: "Yes."
F.: [Laughing, joking, but in a way that proved to be totally unacceptable to the visitor]: "Who are the others you have paid, the others who took your money to teach you to eat, to swallow, to digest? Did you pay someone as a child to teach you to suckle, or did you simply suckle?"
V.: "Don't get smart. Of course I knew how to breathe before I went, but I did not know the right way to breathe in order to shift into a perfectly peaceful state."
F.: "There was no attempt to 'get smart.' There was a question that arose spontaneously - rooted in the Nisargan understanding - intended to assist you in seeing that nothing which is natural need be taught or learned. Only that which is unnatural or supposedly supernatural is taught or learned. What is required for abiding naturally you already have."
V.: "Regardless of your opinion, his method worked. I have never been so at peace in my sixty-plus years." [That was said in a way which showed that it was anger - not peace - that was beginning to boil to the surface.]
F.: "Then it must be asked, 'Why are you here?'"
V.: [Raising into the air, reverently, his copy of I AM THAT - which he said he now carries with him everywhere he goes - he said]: "I was very impressed with the spiritual message in this book, but I have been living according to the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for decades and am trying to reconcile the two . . . maybe find what both have in common and expand my consciousness to an even higher level."
[He was asked if he would be willing to hear some information and if he would be willing to consider that information objectively. When he said "Certainly," the following was offered . . . with no conviction at all that he was actually and "certainly" ready to consider objectively any pointers that ran contrary to his firmly-fixed, supernatural / spiritual beliefs]:
F.: "First, to that book you're carrying about as if it were your bible or some other type of holy test: how would you feel if you learned that Maharaj eventually discounted the value of that book and its contents and even stated on occasion that his preference would have been that it was his later talks - not the earliest ones in that book - which were being circulated widely?"
V.: "I would not believe that."
F.: "Maharaj said, 'That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period.' He also said, 'I am speaking differently today' and he said, 'I am emphasizing different aspects'."
V.: [The only reaction was a blank stare, not unlike a deer caught at night in the middle of a road in the headlights of an oncoming car.]
F.: "As for 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' you evidently hold in high regard his wisdom and his talent for passing along his wisdom to you and to others?"
V.: "Yes. Of course."
F.: "Yet he does not even have the wisdom to understand why hurricanes form where they form and go where they go. He claimed that Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans because of 'the negative karma of the people there.' Do you really believe that it is evidence of wisdom if someone erroneously assigns a supernatural cause to what is merely a natural event? Or would the actual wisdom be shown by those who explain, scientifically and factually, exactly why Hurricane Katrina formed where it formed, why it followed the path it followed, and why landfall occurred where it occurred? At the end of his teaching career, Maharaj would teach that 'holy' and 'unholy' are just false and dualistic concepts, so he would give no credibility to such a title as 'His Holiness'."
V.: "I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I'm not going to sit here and listen you to defame His Holiness."
[With that, he picked up his copy of I AM THAT and stormed out in anger. No, there was no suggestion that he come back, sit down, and make use of his newly-purchased breathing techniques in order to restore his peace.]
The exchange is offered to illustrate the presence of all of the perspectives and beliefs that the Nisargan understanding can eradicate. The man was exhibiting the typical behaviors that come with the assumption of "new and improved roles" which are used to replace one's former "bad" roles.
Now, he is "The Consummate Seeker," "The Super Spiritual One," but also "The Very Restless One" who is engaged in the search for the sake of the search. To the contrary, the result of realization, combined with the Nisargan (natural) understanding, is this:
At some point, all of the searching can end, all of the playing of "this super role" or "that super role" can end, and natural abidance can happen simply and spontaneously.
The visitor showed the miserable, costly, peace-interrupting alternative:
rather than resting in a state of concept-less-ness, the visitor was so attached to his concepts that he became ready to fight when invited to consider being free of his concepts and the distortions that they were supporting;
rather than enjoying a state of duality-less-ness, he is sure that some persons are holy, that some persons are more holy, and that some persons are unholy;
rather than abiding in a peaceful state of belief-less-ness, he was being driven to roam the globe in search of externals and persons who would pile more beliefs onto his pile of already-accumulated beliefs rather than allowing a guide to direct him to that which is already within;
rather than abiding in a state of mind-less-ness, he was constantly filling his mind with more and more of the beliefs and concepts and ideas that had already proved to be useless, though his clogged "mind" and blocked consciousness would not allow him to see their uselessness;
and rather than functioning in a Nisargan (natural) manner and abiding in the peace of a state of identity-less-ness, he was spending a fortune - a fortune which he did not earn but which had been earned by his father's having engaged in work and accumulation for decades - in the son's current globe-trotting efforts to reinforce his currently-assumed ego-states and to acquire even more personality identifications.
[How thrilled would "dad" be now were he able to see that he had raised, and was now funding, a fool who is willing to pay someone $5000.00 to teach him how to breathe? A son who mentioned to me over the first night's dinner which is included with the retreat here that he had "felt bad" during his Central American trip that he had had to walk by the thin, starving children with their outstretched hands - begging for money to buy food for their family - because "the people conducting the breathing seminar had warned us in advance that if we give some change to even one of them, hoards more will show up and hang around our center and bother you for your entire five day visit."]
Seldom have I seen a manner of living which illustrated so well the fact that some persons would be far better served were they to have inherited nothing and instead had to find a forty-hours-a-week job of their own which would not accommodate their spiritual workaholism and their spiritual going and doing and zooming and their astonishing levels of selfishness and self-centeredness.
Yet his case is not rare. His case is often witnessed. Most reach the third step of the seven-step "journey" which is discussed here and then fixate at that third step - the religious and / or spiritual step.
In the end, Maharaj offered a rarer perspective:
"Give up all your spiritual work and just be."
That requires moving beyond the third step. That requires being free of the partial understanding which paralyzes the masses who are trapped by their beliefs and dogma at the third of seven steps where they practice what Maharaj called "their kindergarten level spirituality" and where "they stand in the dim light of the dawn while thinking that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun."
Those are more of the perspectives here which differ from the perspectives held by the masses.
Moreover, the de-accumulation of "spiritual concepts and personality identifications" is called for as much as the de-accumulation of the material "stuff" which "the non-realized masses" accumulate.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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