TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
THE NEXT MAJOR SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE WHICH COMES WHILE MOVING TOWARD REALIZATION OR AFTER REALIZATION, "B"
This point was offered yesterday:
The surest indicator of the presence of the Ultimate Sickness and a call for the Ultimate Medicine is this: magical thinking (a.k.a., "delusional thinking," "illusion-based thinking, distorted thinking, religion-and-cult-based thinking, "all-spirituality-based thinking," "unclear thinking," "emotional-intoxication-driven thinking," "group think" (defined as "a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome); in other words, "thinking, period."
Illusion-based thinking pervades every aspect of the relative existence among the "non-realized" (that is, among the not-free-of-"learned-ignorance") masses, and the reason that so much conflict exists nowadays is that no two specific individuals (except for one particular type) and no two specific groups (except for the members of one particular type of group) have the exact same illusions at any given time.
Those particular types include, among others, religious types, spiritual types, philosophical types, ideological types, etc.
Persons have illusion-based thoughts about how their partners should treat them and how their partners should think and how their partners should talk and how their partners should behave and what their partners should believe and what their partners should do on this holiday and what they should do on that holiday. The odds of two people with the exact same illusions getting together and forming a lasting partnership are almost . . . nil.
Persons also have illusion-based beliefs about how people in traffic around them should drive and about how others should conduct themselves at the jobsite and about how people should shop in stores and about how they should raise their children and about how teachers should treat their particular child and exactly how much latitude their "independent" child is entitled to ("independent" being parent-speak for "totally undisciplined" and "excessively indulged" and "spoiled and pampered and coddled and spoiled").
They have illusion-based beliefs about how people should live and about which religion people should follow or about how what they get from their spiritual program is so much better than what other people get from their religions.
They have illusion-based beliefs about what economic system all nations should use and about which form of government is the best or about which dictator or dictatorial, fascist leader should be in charge.
They have illusion-based beliefs about why some in their culture are "failing" and about which race is the best and about which sexual orientation is acceptable and which is not and about which bathroom certain people should use and about what sex acts are okay and about which sex acts are not okay and about who can marry whom and about who cannot marry whom.
And they have illusion-based beliefs about which religion or spiritual program or philosophy or ideology is the right one and the only acceptable one.
But the fact is that no matter which of those organizations or groups they might be affiliated with and no matter how different from and better than they all claim to be from "the others," there's little difference in any of those groups' belief systems at their core.
Millions of "non-realized" persons proudly boast, "I am spiritual, not religious!" Millions more believe that everything that happens is being guided by some nebulous Force or "Causer" called "The Universe." And ninety-seven percent of the people on the planet claim an affiliation with one religion or another.
As for the latter's thousands of subsets and divisions into sects and denominations and branches, all have their own particular illusion-based beliefs, but all - in the end - share certain illusions and distortions in common.
Yesterday:
What modern sky cults / religious (all having evolved from ancient, superstition-and-ignorance-based pagan religions) and all spiritual movements and all philosophical movements and ideological moments and all other cults have in common is a core misdirection which results from a misunderstanding of Maharaj's pointer that "the cause of all is all."
And the same applies to "non-dual seekers" as well.
and
If you or your guru have decided that your should turn the care of your plant food body over to "Brahman" or to "Parabrahman" or to "Bhagavan" or to "Ishvara," then you are using the same kind of magical thinking which others are using when they advise one to "turn your troubles over to God" or "turn your troubles over to the Over Soul" or "turn your troubles over to the will of the Universe" or "turn your troubles over to the Power of the Universe" or to YHWH /Yahweh / Jehovah / Elohim."
So what "thought patterns" do 99.99% of all persons on the planet share?
1. A belief in a God (or gods and goddesses) or some Power or some Guiding Force and a Creator-Sustainer-Destroyer God or various Creator-Sustainer-Destroyer gods and goddesses that they can call on to help them or save them or protect them or bless them.
Maharaj: "First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."
2. All of those also have in common the desires and fears which are generated by the agendas of their false personality identifications.
3. All believe in single cause rather than understanding that "the cause of all is all" (Maharaj).
The Dalai Lama - who in a recent interview bragged about how intelligent he is, to which the interviewer noted the arrogance behind his comment - said that after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and devastated the city, that happened "because of the negative karma of the people there."
When natural disasters occur, those attached to their religious or spiritual or philosophical or ideological or cult-based beliefs "come out of the woodwork" and claim that "Karma is the cause" or that "People being bad is the cause" or that "People being sinful is the cause and your sins will catch up with you, either now or later."
4. Relatedly, persons who believe in single cause assign a supernatural / spiritual explanation to totally natural events.
Maharaj said that what realization brings is "moksha," that is, "freedom from the bondage of ignorance."
Every idea and notion and concept and thought and impression and view you have - that is, every belief you have - is each one of the many bars which make up the prison which your mind (actually "their" mind) is.
A viable version of the Ultimate Medicine is only intended to provide freedom from what Maharaj called three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness: "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
5. And the thought-pattern most common among humans is the one which leads them to believe that they can control people, places, events, and things if only they can find the proper power / Power / Powers to tap into.
Next, if you
(A) "belong" to one religions or another, one spiritual groups or another, one self-help groups or another, one philosophical group or another, one ideological group or another
but
(B) share in common the same or similar "thought-life" as any of the others,
then . . .
You might call yourself "a Buddhist who is seeking nirvana," but you might as well assume the identity of "a Baptist seeking heaven."
You might call yourself "an Advaitin seeking Brahman / Reality / Oneness / moksha / freedom from bondage," but you might as well assume the identity of "a spiritual person who is a recovering alcoholic and seeking freedom from the bondage of alcohol."
You might call yourself "a Transcendentalist" seeking to unite with the Over Soul, but you might as well assume the identity of "a Catholic seeking to unite with all souls."
or
You might call yourself "The Eastern Philosopher and Faithful One, turning all over to Parabrahman," but you might as well call yourself "a Christian who has so much faith that I turn it all over to God."
If a person looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, one might as well be a duck or at least claim to be a duck.
And if one dons a mask which makes one appear to be a duck, then one might as well believe that one has become a duck and might as well proudly announce to one and all that one is actually and truly a duck.
It matters not if one wears a duck mask, a Buddhist mask, an Advaita mask, a Christian mask, a Hindu mask, a Jewish mask, a Muslim mask, or any of the billions of mask that persons wear. To join those wearing religious masks, spiritual masks, philosophical masks, ideological masks or any other kind of masks is to join them in their illusion-based thinking and their illusion-based beliefs and is to join them in trying to fools others while actually fooling themselves . . . their false selves.
Again, the surest indicator of the presence of the Ultimate Sickness and a call for the Ultimate Medicine is this: magical thinking (a.k.a., "delusional thinking," "illusion-based thinking, distorted thinking, religion-and-cult-based thinking, "all-spirituality-based thinking," "unclear thinking," "emotional-intoxication-driven thinking," "group think" (defined as "a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome); in other words, "thinking, period."
The suggestions:
Try giving up all beliefs.
Try abiding naturally, like every other living thing on the planet - except for humans - abides.
And try abiding as every other living thing on the planet abides except for humans, namely, mindlessly.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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