NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "P"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Yesterday, there was offered another reason why most persons are willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or why most persons are willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, and why most persons are willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway: 

#43: Humans are easily fooled, and most have been totally fooled. 

Whether there is a list of 33 gods in Hinduism (or a list of 330 million goddesses and gods in Hinduism if all deities are viewed as "emanations or manifestation of that gender-less principle called 'Brahman' that represents 'the many facets of Ultimate Reality"), the fact is that billions of persons in the Far East have been convinced over a 5,000-year period that there really are a lot of gods and goddesses. 

In ancient times, the Romans had a host of "major gods and goddesses" and scores upon scores of "minor male and female deities," as did the Greeks. Between those two, billions and billions of persons were led to believe that there really are a lot of gods and goddesses. 

After Abraham came along and convinced many to believe that there is only "One True God, the God of Abraham," the number of persons who continued to believe that "there really are a lot of gods and goddesses" has begun to diminish while the number of persons who do not believe in any gods or goddesses or "God" is increasing. 

But nowadays, of the 97% who claim to be believers and who claim to be affiliated with one organized religion or another and who account for more than 97% of the 7.5 billion persons on the planet, 50% of that 7.5 billion are worshipping the God of Abraham as Christians (2.2 billion), as Muslims (1.6 billion), and as Jews (14 million or so) and no longer believe in multiple gods and goddesses. (Of the 1.3 billion living in India, 1 billion self-report as Hindus.) 

So for thousands of years, believing in various gods and goddesses has come and gone, no one giving any credibility at all to the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses, for example. Now, for several thousand years, half on the planet believe in the one god associated with Abraham. 

Interestingly, though, was the former belief among the ancients that their multiple gods did not multitask; instead, each god or goddess supposedly specialized in controlling a single aspect only (e.g., a god of rain, a god of fertility, a god of war, etc.). That was not the case with Abraham's god.

When Abraham's conceptualized god caught on, the believers combined in him all of the responsibilities of thousands and thousands of previously-believed-in gods and goddesses, so nowadays nearly 4 billion Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in a Creator God, A Sustainer God, and A Destroyer / Punisher God who is in charge of it all, in charge of whether it rains or not; in charge of where storms go and do not go;

in charge of who gets pregnant and who does not; in charge of who miscarries and who goes full-term; in charge of who defeats whom in wars; in charge of who heals and who doesn't; in charge of who lives and who dies and in charge of when anyone and everyone dies; in charge of who finds a "good" man or a "good" woman to share their lives with, both now and for eternity (except for the 55% who will divorce); 

in charge of which infants die because "God needed another little angel in heaven" and which infants live long enough to reach adulthood; in charge of deciding who was good and who was bad and therefore who does or does not receive gifts throughout the year; in short, a god that is supposedly in charge of everything and everyone. 

Whereas the multiple gods and goddesses of the past shared their vast responsibilities, reducing the workload of each as the god of rain only had to deal with those around the globe whose crops needed rain or whose vineyards did not want rain, the new, single god of Abraham supposedly has to deal all alone with the requests of 7.275 billion persons every day (the 97% claiming to be religious) as well as the requests of the millions more who claim to be spiritual. 

That god of Abraham was busy enough as it was for 2,500 years or so with only Jews bugging him for "this" or "that;" next, for 2000+ years, Christians joined in and added to his workload with their requests, asking for "this" and begging to get "that" and wanting him to make sure they avoid "that other thing." 

Then, a little over 1400 years ago, Muslims came along and now their 1.6 billion members are praying at least five times a day (adding another 8 billion prayers per day which an already way-too-busy-god has to listen to and then decide if he'll give each and every one the answer "Yes" or "No" or "Maybe later . . . we'll see"). 

Then, the Christians came up with their infernal "Prayer Chains" where the admission of a member to a hospital triggers a call to the church office which makes 10 calls to the captains of each prayer team and then the 10 under them call 10 and then those 10 call 10 others until all of the members are aware that they need to pray for one of their members to heal. Add in the members who have accidents, who are having "relationship problems," who have been laid off at work, etc., etc., etc.; 

then consider the fact that the 7.42 billion who claim to be religious and the millions more who claim to be spiritual are sending up multiple prayers each day; then add in the 8 billion prayers coming from Muslims, and this new and improved One God may well be handling - all alone - something in the neighborhood of 50 billion prayers a day, at least. 

(Praying is free, so more humans will try it, which means the number could be 100 billion of 150 billion a day, but let's stick to the conservative guesstimate). 

So each day (in which there are 86,400 seconds) the god of Abraham may well be listening to, processing, making a yes-no-later determination, and then setting into effect his decisions to the tune of 578,703 requests and processings per second. 

Makes one wonder how he has any time at all to provide a personal audience to his constituents who want to heap onto him on a daily basis their adulation, glorification, adoration, veneration, exaltation, and praise (which happens to be the exact same thing that every narcissist on earth expects).

Now what is all of the above really about? It's about this: 

Just as vaccines introduce into the plant food body small doses of certain diseases in order to allow the body to become immune to and to avoid full-blown cases of those diseases, so the discussion of absurdities might allow seekers to recognize their own absurd beliefs and then be freed from being driven by those beliefs. 

Maharaj addressed what might well be the greatest absurdity of all: humankind's long-running propensity for inventing gods and goddesses and / or a "One True God":

"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."

Is that not quite absurd?

This was shared recently: 

Some conclude that what is to be seen via the postings here is the absurdity of humanity, but there is no such objective. Were there an objective, it would be for you to see your own absurdity, past and present. The only thing more absurd than the content which has been placed in the mind of each human are the thoughts and words and actions which evolve out of that content. 

So consider: 

"Nonsense" has been defined as “language, conduct, or an idea that is absurd or contrary to good sense" or as that which “leads to instances of absurd action” or as that which “gives supposed value to things of no importance.” 

Maharaj made clear that the only task of a "realized, non-dual teacher" is to relieve seekers of their belief in nonsense, of what he called their "learned ignorance." 

Next, this was also shared recently: 

Maharaj: "Break the mind from within by investigation and exposure of its contradictions and absurdities." 

In short, Maharaj's penultimate message was, "Hey, stop being absurd, dammit!" 

His ultimate message / Ultimate Medicine was to understand this: "You can only stop being absurd if you cut absurdity off at its source" (that "source being the programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated mind). 

To look objectively at the numbers and percentages above should be enough to relieve those who have been fooled of their belief in the foolishness which has been passed down among humans for thousands of years and which has also been passed down to almost all humans who are presently on the planet.

And if seekers look objectively at those numbers and percentages and conclude, "Wait a minute! No damn way!" then they can be freed from their willingness to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or from their willingness to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, and from their willingness to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway. 

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "O"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

"The disease is simple and the remedy equally simple. It is your mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy." 

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

Yesterday, this was shared: 

All complexities among humans are linked in one way or another to body identification, to mind identification, and to personality identification. Those are the assassins which target and kill off simplicity. 

OF THE MIND 

Maharaj: "What I teach is the ancient and simple way of liberation through understanding. Understand your own mind and its hold on you will snap" 

OF THE PERSONALITY 

Again, Maharaj: "It is all very simple; it is the presence of 'the person' that complicates." 

["The body" and giving excessive attention to "the outside" rather than to "the inside" will be discussed tomorrow.] 

And that leads to the next reason why most persons are willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or why most persons are willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, and why most persons are willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway: 

OF THE BODY

42. Body identification and the resultant idealization of form over substance, of appearance over reality, of the inauthentic over the authentic, of dishonesty over honesty, and of masquerading rather than discarding all masks leads to the masses being occupied and preoccupied primarily with the look of "the outside" facade over any concern with what is on "the inside." 

The roots of the problems which humans experience around dating and forming "relationships" are highly complex because (a) so many physical, mental, and emotional aspects are all involved and because (b) body identification is usually the prevailing driver among persons and because (c) body identification is always in the forefront among "the non-realized" and, therefore, determines whether or not an attraction will be triggered.

Part of the physical component, in additional to body attraction, is the way that humans' limbic / reptilian brains operate. 

One anonymous blog writer explained its functioning this way: 

The limbic / reptilian brain "causes very strong emotions in the brains of people. Logic is 'put aside,' so to speak, leaving only the reptilian brain to function." Why? 

Because the limbic brain is the oldest part of the human brain while "the mind" - the areas where data / memories are stored and from which they are retrieved - is the newest part (in evolutionary terms).

Thus, humans now face a "triple whammy" when it comes to setting themselves up for problems, or when it comes to being set up for problems, when it comes to "relationships": 

Whammy 1. The limbic brain runs the show. 

If two doe are watching a buck strut about during mating season, one might say to the other, "Wow! Will you look at the rack on that guy!" The biggest and baddest among the bucks will vie for what it finds to be the most attractive and most appealing doe, and that doe will strut her stuff and the two are likely to breed. 

Originally, when the human brain was the size of a single cup, there was no mind. The mind was formed over the millennia as the brain evolved into a 3-1/2 cup size. Prior to that evolution, humans functioned in relationship as the deer do in this neighborhood, driven by the limbic brain without any input from a warped mind.

Whammy 2. The minds of humans have been bastardized via bastardized programming, conditioning, etc., so now there are all sorts of beliefs about who looks good, what looks good, and what the many personas stored in the mind expect out of a "good" mate and what they will find to be totally unacceptable in a "bad" mate. 

In the long haul, expectations will never be met consistently, and eventually both spouses will upgrade their false-self concept from "The Spouse" to "The Super Spouse," after which expectations will increase geometrically and will most assuredly not be met. Either misery begins and then continues as a result of a host of motives, or a separation or divorce follows. 

Whammy 3. The limbic brain cares not a whit about wisdom or logic or reason, and since it is the initial driver of attraction, it is going to go for what looks appealing on "the outside" while ignoring all of the warning signs about what "the inside" might be like. 

(Some try to explain that by saying, "Love is blind." The actual case might be that "Love is not blind - it is color blind. It cannot see red flags even when they are being waved all over the place.") 

How many times have you seen someone hooking up with a person whose words and deeds should be setting off alarms but the person ignores those and races full speed ahead in the relationship?

The blogger put it this way: "How long would it take for our logical brain to figure out what’s going on and feel manipulated? It would be only a matter of time before it fights back," 

but . . .

"that rarely happens. People love positive emotions. They’d sit with you all day long to tell them how successful they MIGHT be, but they won’t hear for a second how miserable they CURRENTLY ARE." 

Then, this pointer was offered:

"Humans are weird creatures, aren’t they? You’d figure they’d want to hear the truth so they can act accordingly and pull themselves out of their misery. But they prefer to be seduced, even though the picture you paint for them is highly unlikely to become reality." 

So the third whammy leads to reasons #43 and #44 regarding why humans will stay on a "path" (or in a relationship) which is leaving them miserable: 

43. Humans are easily fooled, and most humans are being totally fooled. 

44. Some humans are pre-wired (via the agendas of the nine basic personality types) to be dependent and co-dependent and to have a sense of entitlement which convinces them that they deserve to be taken care of by someone else. The arrogant can reach that conclusion on their own; in other instances, some are programmed to think that way. 

For example:

A father in South Texas had a son and two daughters. He adhered to the ancient "Law of Primogeniture," popular among the British and others, which asserts that "the right of succession belongs to the firstborn child, rooted in the feudal rule by which all of the real estate of a deceased landowner passes to the eldest son.")

Because the "Law of Primogeniture" was brought to North American when the Brits joined other Europeans in invading the territory, and because that law is still influencing many persons (especially, but not limited to, farmers) it led to the belief held by the Texas farmer that the son - though he was "third-born" - would get the farm because he was "the first-born son." As for the daughters / sisters, the message was that their best hope was to find other farmers' sons and marry them and be taken care of by a man.

Thus, the father sent the son to college to learn the newest agricultural techniques which might make the farm even more profitable. 

(The son flunked out and dropped out after the first semester. Later, after destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of farming equipment by repeatedly operating tractors and cotton pickers without oil, he was kicked off the farm.) 

As for the daughters, no farmers' sons were available in their sparsely-populated part of the state, so they asked to go to college, too. They were told, "No. That would be a waste of money. You're both good looking . . . blonde, blue-eyed, great figures, real beauties. Use your looks (your bodies) to find men to take care of you." (So his career recommendation for those two: "Prostitute yourself. There's plenty of men out there who'll be willing to pay the bills of good-looking women.") 

Both of those sisters are now in their 60's, and both have a 40-year history of following their father's advice, moving from one male money source to the next. One therapist tells her clients who have been similarly programmed by their parents, "Don't buy into that nonsense. A man in not a plan!"

Some time back, I crossed paths with the latest husband of one of those sisters, and knowing that I knew her well, he bemoaned the fact that "what is inside that attractive package is not nearly as lovely as the outside appearance which hooked him."

Every day, millions of women are fooled and millions of men are fooled. Such are the results when being driven by the limbic brain rather than by logic and reason and awareness.

I refused to be drawn into a discussion with him about his current misery because I knew that what he was really "in love with" - from the very beginning to the present - was having on his arm one who can still play the role of "The Trophy Wife" and who can supposedly enhance the husband's own public image. Why waste one's breath when nothing that anyone could possibly say will ever inspire his limbic-brain-driven self to "cut his losses short," to stop being manipulated, and to stop being used.

So all I said was, "Hummm. Well I'll be damned," the implication being, "I had long ago seen all which you were - and still are - blind to, but don't come to me now with your complaints. The wiser ones usually seek counsel before they end up making bone-headed decisions, not after.") 

[Related to that husband's behavior which is all-too-common among humans of both sexes, the Greeks were so aware of that propensity among humans that they incorporated warnings into their myths: 

In Greek mythology, "the Sirens" were creatures who were lovely on "the outside" and who used their naked bodies and enchanting music and lovely voices to lure sailors on passing ships to change course and head toward the Sirens, only to shipwreck themselves on the rocky coast of the Sirens' island and lose their ships and their goods and often their lives. After destroying their ships and sometimes killing the sailors, the Sirens could then gather up all of the sailors' possessions and have them for themselves. Ah, the curse of that damn limbic brain.]

 A "Siren" on the Rocks

John Lennon in 1971 released an album entitled IMAGINE, named for "Imagine," a song on the album which could be called "the modern-day anthem of non-duality." Less known from that album, though, is another track entitled "Crippled Inside" - a song which Lennon wrote in a C&W style. 

The song is delivered in a light and upbeat fashion which is in sharp contrast to its dark content which provides a frontal assault on image and phoniness and hypocrisy and the excessive attention which humans pay to "the good-looking outside" while ignoring "the dreadful and hideous inside" (which visitors to this site understand is the result of dreadful and hideous programming, conditioning, etc.) 

The lyrics include several non-dual pointers which address the magnitude of the toll associated with humanity's tendency to idealize form over substance, appearance over reality, the inauthentic over the authentic, dishonesty over honesty, masquerading over discarding all masks, and the masses' regard and concern with the look of "the outside" facade without giving any regard up front to what is on "the inside": 

"Crippled Inside" 

You can shine your shoes and wear a suit. 

 You can comb your hair and look quite cute. 

 You can hide your face behind a smile. 

 One thing you can't hide 

Is when you're crippled inside. 

You can wear a mask and paint your face. 

 You can call yourself the human race. 

 You can wear a collar and a tie. 

 One thing you can't hide 

Is when you're crippled inside. 

[chorus] 

Well now you know that your Cat has nine lives -- 

 Nine lives to itself. 

 But you only got one, 

 And a dog's life ain't fun. 

Momma take a look outside. 

You can go to church and sing a hymn. 

 You can judge me by the color of my skin. 

 You can live a lie until you die. 

 One thing you can't hide 

Is when you're crippled inside. 

[chorus]

One thing you can't hide 

Is when you're crippled inside. 

One thing you can't hide 

Is when you're crippled inside. 

Of the seven-step "coming in" process whereby conscious-energy ends up manifested within a composite unity (that is, temporary-manifested in an elemental plant food body which circulates air and circulates conscious-energy for a while), nothing is farther-removed from reality than the state of psychic disintegration which leads to body identification.

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "N"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

"What I teach is the ancient and simple way of liberation through understanding. Understand your own mind and its hold on you will snap." 

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

Who else are among the persons who are willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or who are willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway? 

Remember this? "You have been given a simple life; your complex problems are of your own making.” 

The way that Maharaj put it: "It is all very simple; it is the presence of 'the person' that complicates." 

Similarly, Confucius said: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” 

The implication of "You have been given a simple life; your complex problems are of your own making” was that there was some "god" who gave you a simple life. The facts:

(a) Life is not given by anyone or Anyone.

(b) There is no Creator or creator - all is merely cycling . . . merely coming together and coming apart.

But, indeed . . .

(c) All life has been far simpler at certain points.

and

(d) Life could be simple once more if the input from humans with the Ultimate Sickness were to be recognized, discarded, and then ignored completely throughout the remainder of the manifestation.

Nothing should be simpler for a child than . . . being a child. But that is not the case, is it? 

Mentally sick adults have given to the planet such contributions as:

Shaken Baby Syndrome;

babies addicted to crack / cocaine / meth, etc. at birth; 

and 

babies killed by an angry adult who is overreacting to a child's totally-natural act of complaining about hunger, or the discomfort of a soiled diaper, or being too hot or too cold. 

Whereas the case in the past has been that adults' "complex problems have been of their own making," now the complex problems of children are of adults' making. 

So reason #39 for the willingness among the masses to forever be on a "path" or on a "journey" and to settle for no-cure treatment plans for what ails them is . . .

39. For whatever reason, adults have now normalized and embraced the complex while deserting the simple. 

Maharaj: "Somehow, people do not trust the simple, the easy, the always available." 

Consider the message in this exchange: 

Questioner: "Well, it is deep mystery to me. I am a simple man." 

Maharaj: "It is you who are deep, complex, mysterious, hard to understand. I am simplicity itself, compared to you." 

Maharaj explained: " We are complex beings, at war within and without. We contradict ourselves all the time, undoing today the work of yesterday. No wonder we are stuck" 

and 

"Your desires are so complex and contradictory — no wonder the society you create is also complex and contradictory" 

and 

"Truth is simple and open to all: Why do you complicate?" 

Indeed. Why? Because identification with personalities drives persons and thereby removes any and all ability to make conscious choices. The method offered in the past to clarify what it means to be driven is this:

See yourself in an automobile in which you are being driven. In that scenario, there are three places in the car you can be, and there is one place you cannot be:

If you are being driven, then you might be in the passenger seat; you might be in the back seat; or you might be locked away in the truck (a.k.a., the boot). Where you absolutely cannot be is in the driver's seat behind the steering wheel. That is what it is like to be driven:

You have no ability to determine where you go, when you go, how you go, whether you will go fast or slow, whether your trip will be calm and enjoyable or conducted at a breakneck speed, or whether you stay in the proper lane or run off the road and crash.

That's exactly the way persons live if abiding under the influence of personalities because each personality and every false role has a primary fear, a primary desire, and a hidden agenda that is driven by subconscious motives which are intended to perpetuate the myth that the false identities are real.

When abiding under the influence of personalities - when being driven by the fears and desires of personalities - there is no ability to make any conscious choices because the hidden, subconscious agendas of the personalities determine every thought which is thought which leads to every word that is spoken which leads to every action taken. So . . . ,

40. The masses are identified with false roles, three of the most popular being "The Super Religious One" (played, by the 97% on the planet who claim a religious affiliation with one religion or another); and / or "The Spiritual Giant" (played by the millions who brag, "I am not religious! I am spiritual!") and "The Super Seeker" (played by those whose programming, conditioning, etc. drives them to remain on a "path" or "journey" for their entire lifetime). 

As is the case with all those playing false roles (and being driven by their fears and desires and hidden agendas), there can be no conscious choice among the masses. Subconscious motives prevail, so the lives of those among the "non-realized masses" are one big game of bumper cars - racing about, running into this, hitting that, and normalizing the chaos they generate and which prevails all around them.

And all the while, persons are convinced that their lives are fine and that they're really having a lot of fun.

In their quest to avoid boredom, in fact, they eventually become addicted to chaos rather than being wise enough to prevent and / or avoid chaos. As a result, duality generates a "me vs. them" mindset; thus, instability also prevails:

The non-dualist Christ: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."

Which brings the discussion to this:

41. Persons raised in environments which are chaotic and unstable and involve going and doing and zooming do not have to be taught that that kind of lifestyle is "normal"; they merely assume it is normal; then they internalize that belief; and then they normalize chaos and instability and going and doing and zooming; and then later on, they model that same kind of lifestyle for their offspring.

Because the imagined agendas of imagined ego-states determine all thoughts and words and actions, then the belief in "conscious choice" can only be imaginary as well.

The primary difference between pre-realization "floyd" and post-realization "floyd" is . . . complexity was the abnormal "norm" then whereas simplicity is the normal norm now. What does that include? 

A simple manner of abidance overall and, specifically, a simple way of moving through traffic; a simple way of conducting "relationships"; a simple way of eating; a simple way of shopping for the basic necessities; a simple way of working to pay the bills; a simple way of witnessing all as it really is;

a simple way of interacting with my daughter, her husband, and their child; a simple way - like that of the deer - of moving away from the noise and ignorance and all things obnoxious or absurd; a simple way of handing medical processes for the composite unity; and a simple way of maintaining a "position of neutrality" rather than being pulled into the masses' most prevalent condition of being emotionally intoxicated.

All complexities among humans are linked in one way or another to body identification, to mind identification, and to personality identification. Those are the assassins which target and kill off simplicity.

OF THE MIND
 

Maharaj: "What I teach is the ancient and simple way of liberation through understanding. Understand your own mind and its hold on you will snap"

OF THE PERSONALITY

Again, Maharaj: "It is all very simple; it is the presence of 'the person' that complicates."

["The body" and giving excessive attention to "the outside" rather than to "the inside" will be discussed tomorrow.]

The wise come to understand how complexities imprison. "Liberation" simply refers to having been freed once and for all from the condition of being driven unconsciously by the agendas of those three types of false identifications identified above.

Maharaj: "All ideas and distinctions exist in 'your world'; in mine, there is nothing of the kind. My 'world' is single and very simple" 

and 

"Be simple, be humble."

Finally, of the Ultimate Sickness he said:

"The disease is simple and the remedy equally simple. It is your mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy." 

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "M"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Who else can be counted among those willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or those willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or those willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize the following of that ineffective plan, anyway? 

38. Those who through no conscious decision of their own have been programmed, conditioned, etc. to believe that they can be most comfortable by sticking with the banal, the commonplace, the trite, the hackneyed, the clichéd, and the superficial. They are the ones who might, by the rarest chance, hear the precious details about "True Love" but mistake that for selfish, Subject-Object "love"; 

who might, by the rarest chance, hear the precious details about authenticity and, nevertheless, cling to form over substance and to image and appearance over genuineness; who might, by the rarest chance, hear precious details of relative significance but ignore those and gravitate to the shallow and the superficial instead;

who might, by the rarest chance, hear the precious details about how to become free and independent but who are unconsciously driven into a condition in which they are willing to tolerate their present imprisonment even as they deny the fact that they are, indeed, shackled . . .  to work, to their "stuff," to some person or persons, to some organization, to some institution, to some incompetent leader, to their "good" personas, to the captive audiences who are willing to listen to them drone on and on about all of their "progress" and all of their "improvements," ad infinitum.

Of course "Jesus (the non-dualist) wept"; of course, Maharaj wept; of course I weep. 

When Maharaj was asked, "Be honest. Do you really care about us at all?" he replied: 

"More than you will ever know." 

Humankind, having been nonsensically programmed and conditioned, etc., cares not about the precious pointers toward truth if the truth reveals relative treasures of a formless nature; programmed and conditioned persons prefers the shiny, the golden, the big, the grand, the grandiose, the ostentatious, the pretentious, the extravagant, the flamboyant, and the pompous - preferred, at least, until they have to put up with it for awhile. 

And even after having put up with it, some who have a sense of entitlement and dependency and long for a "lifestyle of privilege" will continue to put up with it if the "payoff" involves being coddled, pampered, taken care of, supported, indulged, spoiled, or - yes - even used. 

Were the non-realized - that is, "the persons who are still trapped in ignorance" - to hear and grasp and understand the precious invitations which have been set forth over the centuries by sages and the wise, they would instantly turn away from all that is phony, from all that is fake, from all that is counterfeit, 

from all that is false, from all that is nothing more than a giant hoax, from all imposters, from all that is a sham as well as from all cons, all frauds, all pretenders, all play-actors, all charlatans, all swindlers, all users, all quacks and all who posture and pose and present a facade and who are subsumed in the masquerade. 

They would abide naturally and stop begging gods and goddesses or God to give them what they want and to prevent from happening what they do not want. They would stop making demands of people and of "A Power" or "Powers." 

They would desire nothing while enjoying whatever might come. They would have no expectations of others to reward them, to save them, to take total care of them, and to meet co-dependently their every need. 

They would find a "path" or a "journey" or a treatment plan which is viable, then they would get to the end of the "path" or "journey" by being freed of learned ignorance and by being restored to sanity, and then they would abide naturally and simply, as does every living thing on the planet except for programmed and conditioned humans. 

Then and then only can that which is truly precious during a relative existence - freedom, wisdom, sanity, clarity, peace, and unconditional happiness - actually manifest.

Moreover, that "Supreme State" - marked by freedom, wisdom, sanity, clarity, peace, and unconditional happiness - can only be experienced now, never later, and can only happen if preceded by (1) a discarding of the content of the programmed and conditioned mind and by (2) never again overvaluing tangibles and the material and the shiny to the exclusion of giving any regard at all to the precious pointers to truth which are generally ignored entirely by the masses. 

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "M"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Other reasons also leave persons willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but they normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway.

34. The global prevalence of the manifestation of the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. 

To "obsess" is to be focused on something over and over. 

To be "compulsive" is to act on whatever one is obsessing about. 

One result of obsessing, in additional to putting up with the constant chatter of a thousand monkeys in your head, is excessive anxiety and fear. 

Common obsessive thoughts in OCD include: 

• Fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt or contaminating others 

• Fear of losing control and harming yourself or others • Intrusive sexually explicit or violent thoughts and images 

• Excessive focus on religious or moral ideas 

• Fear of losing or not having things you might need 

• Order and symmetry: the idea that everything must line up “just right” 

• Superstitions; excessive attention to something considered lucky or unlucky 

Common compulsive behaviors in OCD include:

• Excessive double-checking of things, such as locks, appliances, and switches 

• Repeatedly checking in on loved ones to make sure they’re safe 

• Counting, tapping, repeating certain words, or doing other senseless things to reduce anxiety 

• Spending a lot of time washing or cleaning 

• Ordering or arranging things “just so” 

• Praying excessively or engaging in rituals triggered by religious fear 

• Accumulating “junk” such as old newspapers or empty food containers 

Of course, those might include some of the more extreme examples of the sickness. Understand that they can manifest in varying degrees and one can still be suffering from the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. 

35. The global prevalence of the manifestation of fanaticism. 

I have actually been asked, "So what's the problem with being fanatical about something?" If one has witnessed the presence of fanaticism in a person and has then observed that person long enough, it will be seen exactly what the problem with fanaticism is, as explained by Denis Diderot: 

“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.” 

The words of Zakir Naik (the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation) evidence the accuracy of Diderot's assertion when Naik said: “People who change their religion should face the death penalty.” (Uhhh, but don't you want 'the infidels' to all change from their religion to yours? Hummm.)

Flannery O'Conner noted, “You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.” 

Winston Churchill said, “A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.” 

Mercedes Lackey: “Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.” 

Daniel C. Dennett adumbrated Maharaj's pointer that "knowledge is merely 'learned ignorance'" when Dennett said: “In the long run I certainly hope information is the cure for fanaticism, but I am afraid information is more the cause than the cure.” 

36. The global prevalence of the manifestation of monomania. 

Monomania is defined as "an exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for, or preoccupation with, one thing" and "a psychosis characterized by thoughts confined to one idea or group of ideas."

Here, non-duality pointers are shared many mornings via this blog, and then that's the end of it for the day. No one living near my house knows why seekers show up here on occasion; no one in the grocery store has a clue that non-duality pointers played a role in my realization;

I do not discuss non-duality at any time during the day except sometimes in passing with a few acquaintances who call for the sake of entering into and sharing "the dance." Non-duality-related emails are often ignored, and those dealt with usually receive only the briefest reply (to their often far-to-windy epistles). Here, there is no need to talk, much less a need to talk all day about non-duality. However, that is most assuredly not the way that monomaniacs operate. 

As an example: 

During those days while abiding with a woman who suffered from both the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder as well as a religious monomania, her mental illnesses became so severe that - eventually - every word spoken had to also involve some linkage to God. Monomaniacs must forever think and talk and behave in a fashion which puts on display, for all to see, the object of their single-issue mania. 

Some visitors to this site know that there was a time some 35 or so years ago when she found a house she wanted; some also know that several ego-states assumed by "floyd" drove him to answer the call. Fanatically, I was working 70 and 80 hours a week to meet the financial needs required for the maintenance and enabling of a monomaniac. 

So the house was purchased and the long hours were worked in order to pay for the home desired by another. Soon, the relatives and friends came to gawk, and when the "oouh's" and "ahhh's" came, so did the oft-repeated, monomania-inspired response: "Yes, God had truly blessed me." Really? 

The comments were ignored for months, but eventually a response came (because I was still delusional and willing to waste my breath): 

"Got a question for you." 

"Okay." 

"If I decide to quit working and the mortgage company foreclosures on this house, would I be the cause of that, or would God be the cause of that?" 

"Are you feeling okay?" 

"No, not really. So please answer the question." 

[Dramatic sigh. Eye roll.] "Okay, I'll play along. Of course it would be your fault." 

"Exactly. So if you lost this house but it was not God that caused it but it was me who caused it instead, then how is it that God is one who got this house for you?" 

She, turning back to a song she was working on at the piano, said: "I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about." 

F.: "The point is, I don't need any credit or thanks or regular acknowledgements, but I am tired of constantly hearing your misplaced gratitude and giving your God all the credit for your having this home to live in."

[A dismissive shaking of the head followed.] 

Of course, none of those comments by "floyd" could happen nowadays because there is nothing driving me to behave as a people pleaser, or to try to get "love" by buying it from the type of people who are selling it to the highest bidder, or to talk to persons who are not interested in the least in replacing their distortions and delusions and bogus beliefs with realistic perspectives. 

37. To justify actions. 

When "Jihadi John" beheaded "infidels," he wore a mask. Likely, there were several motives involved with that, but if he truly believed that what he was doing was "okay and, actually, just fine," then he would have been proud enough and courageous enough for all to see who he was and how he was serving God and Islam and what he was doing, supposedly at his God's command. But he knew, on some level, that his behavior was not "justifiable," so as he hid behind his mask, he had to find a way to justify his psychopathic conduct. He used his fanaticism-and-monomania-inspiring religion for that justification.

Voltaire, as far back as the late 1700's, asked: “What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men and that, as a result, he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?” 

Salman Rushdie: “From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.” 

Margaret Atwood: “There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy; they justify almost anything.” 

Obsessive? Compulsive? Fanatical?  Monomaniacal? 

Any of those will set the stage for one to be willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but then normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan.

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "M"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Yesterday, Bill added some additional reasons that some persons are willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or are willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or are willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan, all dealing with humankind's addiction to control and power / Power. 

For some, those reasons include these:

26. Guilt is preferred over the feeling of helplessness. At least if I am guilty of something, I can repent and thus, have some control. 

27. If I repent, my chosen but non-existent deity may feel kindly toward me and do what I want him / her / them to do, and that takes away my perceived hopelessness and helplessness. 

28. I have someone to pray to that way, someone who will part the heavens and enter and change the path of the storm to kill someone other than me. 

29. Thus religion makes perfect sense to one who desperately desires to control his world. 

And #29 leads to an understanding of other reasons why persons unquestioningly follow whatever "paths" that their parents (or their other programmers and domesticators) set them on and that is why they unconsciously undertake endless "journeys" which someone else told them to take: 

30. Post-programming, post-conditioning, post-domestication, post-acculturation, post-brainwashing, and post-indoctrination, the case among the masses is that, to them, the senseless seems to make "perfect sense." Their perceptions and perspectives are the 180-degree  opposite of reality and truth.

The next reason that persons don't stop with all their long and arduous "paths" and "journeys" is . . . 

31. They believe in "the other." 

Because of ego-states and body identification, seemingly real but actually baseless fears are learned which lead to a mindset which says that which is familiar is "good" and "right" while the unfamiliar is "bad" and "wrong." 

But Maharaj made clear why he was free of the duality-based pain and suffering and problems which were so commonplace among the masses, saying,

"There is nothing which is different from me. There is no duality and, therefore, no pain. There are no problems."

Indeed, if there are no ego-state-based beliefs about "the other" and no ego-state-driven fears about "the other," there can be no problems. 

The non-dualist called "Jesus" made clear how instability (and thus problems and disharmony and chaos) are outgrowths of the duality which plague all human minds, saying, "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." 

Unstable when parenting? Yes. Unstable in the workplace? Yes. (Seen what's happening lately with employees and their associates in the U.S. airline industry?) Unstable in traffic? Yes. Unstable in all of their "relationships"? Yes, be it in the home, with neighbors, with the persons driving around who are on the receiving end of their road rages? Yes. 

Unstable when their religious fanaticism drives them to try to destroy verbally those who do not believe what they believe or try to destroy literally all who do not believe what they believe by way of beheadings and suicide missions and suicide bomb vests.

And involved in all those cases and any others, is duality and the resultant belief in "the other." 

Again, Maharaj: "There is nothing [and, therefore, no one] which is different from me."

Post-realization, Maharaj could not accept as true any concepts / beliefs, much less accept a belief in  two of the most commonly-held concepts among the masses, namely, "different-from-ment" and the always-accompanying "better-than-ment." 

Since the U.S. election for president last year, the pundits have continued to set forth their theories about why the outcome was as it was, and news pundit Danielle Moodie-Mills set forth what she saw as the underlying factor: 

“This is so much bigger than that, this is about . . . this is literally white supremacy’s last stand in America,” Moodie-Mills explained. "This is hatred on a level that we have not seen since Jim Crow. We underestimated as Americans how deep our hatred was of the ‘other,’ how deep white, uneducated Americans felt about the demographic shift. We underestimated that level of insidious hatred.” 

When seeking "cause" (which Maharaj says always involves an infinite chain of causes, the "cause of all being . . . all"), if the topic is finding "voter motive," then it must be understood that 50% of voters in the U.S. are single-issue voters and will explain that the cause of their way of voting is always linked to their "moral values." They have assumed the false identity of "The Super-Values Voter." 

(In all other issues, the rule of thumb for finding hidden motives and agendas is that persons leave a Hansel-and-Gretel-type trail of bread crumbs - that is, of money - which can allow their motives to be traced; that is, "Follow the money.") 

So Maharaj made clear that the problems of humankind ultimately always involve the dualistic sense of being "different from the other" . . . that is, that there are many who are "different from me"  (and, therefore, "not nearly as good as me").

Recall the observations of Zeba Blay who wrote about duality and "the other" when she shared her take on the presidential election outcome: 

And so, the so-called “unthinkable” has happened. Donald Trump, the racist, sexist, xenophobic candidate of the Republican alt-right, has been elected President of the United States. Across social media, white anti-Trumpers are expressing shock and disbelief, unable to recognize the America they thought they knew. Well, wake up. This is the America that people of color have always known. This is the America that has always existed. 

Want a "second opinion" about "America having always being that way"? Look at the fate of the indigenous peoples of what is now called "the Americas." Look at the fate of the blacks who were rounded up in Africa and sold as human chattel to whites in the U.S. Look at the fate of the Vietnamese and Cambodians in the 60's and 70's; the Grenadians in 1983; the Nicaraguans and the Falkland Islanders and the Afghanis during the Reagan years; and the fate of millions of Iraqis during the Cheney-Bush years. 

Always - among the masses - the majority (trapped in their dualistic thinking patterns as they are) will accept unquestioningly the way that their religious and spiritual and political leaders define "the other," define "the enemy," and define "the ones who want to kill you, and will, if you do not attack those I say we should attack." 

An acquaintance who received a communication from the IRS about his tax returns said: "Nothing pleasant has ever come to anyone who has had dealings with the U.S. government." There are millions - and maybe billions - all around the globe who would agree.

32. Being asleep while dreaming that one is awake.

Being asleep even as they are certain that they are awake and making conscious choices though they are not, most among the masses will never find the actual cause of their problems, will never - as a result - find a solution, and will, therefore, never  abide naturally, will never abide calmly, and will never be free of being driven by obsessions, compulsions, and fanaticism.

Consider: 

In 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea (Nicaea) men gathered to revise the original version of the bible and produced the version used nowadays by Christians. Along with removing over 1000 chapters containing content which ran counter to their agenda (such as chapters with passages referring to the humanity of Christ, his marriage, etc.), they also invented a concept which codified the religion’s attachment to dualistic beliefs and dualistic thinking. 

The concept: there exists a god of evil as well as a god of good. They capitalized the old Hebrew word for “enemy” (which was “sa-tan” and which also often referred metaphorically to egotism and pride) and then used that name as a personal identifier of "The Adversary of God." (The same crowd took the name of the pagan "Lord of the Flies" or "The God of Insects" - specifically, "Beelzebub" - and made that synonymous with "Satan" as well.) 

Next, they inserted passages which identified that rebellious former angel as the current source of temptation and wickedness and thus the source of humanity’s troubles (thereby blaming something outside persons as the cause of their problems). Then, trouble came to the council in the person of a well-read cleric who pointed out to the bible revisionists that one verse in "Ecclesiastes" seemed to challenge their The-Devil-Makes-Us-Do-It claim. 

The verse: “You have been given a simple life; your complex problems are of your own making.” 

Oops. Obviously that could not be true if they wanted to cling to their new claim that Satan is actually the cause of humankind’s problems, so the council faced a dilemma. Eventually, they determined by vote that the verse obviously failed the-test-of-being-divinely-inspired. On the other hand, their vision of a devil incarnate passed the-test-of-being-divinely-inspired, so they removed that verse from their final version. 

[That verse still appears in the old Jerusalem Edition, but not in the versions which have evolved out the council’s altered text.] 

Of that belief, Maharaj said: "It is you who are deeply complex, mysterious, hard to understand. I am simplicity itself." 

The result of the actions of those meeting in Nicea: an arrangement of laws, rules, and principles which organized duality into a complicated system of rights and wrongs and “do’s” and “don’t’s” which would pass down to trillions of persons a codification of dualistic thinking and dualistic beliefs which continue to be held to this day and which continue to inspire some two billion or so persons nowadays to believe that their problems are not rooted in the mind – as Maharaj would eventually point out – but are caused by their spiritual sickness which prevents them from being able to fight off the influence of a god of evil. 

Maharaj explained that the belief in a concept of “God” (and therefore “Satan” as well) were dreamed up by men and that the concept of gods and goddesses for 5000 years - or the concept of a single God for many thousands of years – is just one more concept which blocks humans from understanding why they think the way they think, why they say what they say, and why they do what they do: 

Again, 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." 

33. The refusal to face the facts and admit that all gods and goddesses and "The One True God" were "invented" by humans.  

There was a time when almost all Greeks believed in and worshiped a god named Zeus and when almost all Romans believed in and worshiped a god named Jupiter. They came to see that those were nothing more than myths, but they did not discard their beliefs in multiple gods and goddesses until they were introduced to a replacement God as a substitute.

Now, Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in and worship the same "God" . . . "the God of Abraham." Nevertheless, the followers of those three religions, even though they share a belief in the same God, have been about the business of killing each other throughout their existence.

Now, it is asked, "Who will reject outright all non-dual pointers and cling to their duality-based sense of 'the other'?"

The same ones who function from the position of blind faith. The same ones who never question what they have been told, what they supposedly see, or what they read.

And those are the same ones who are willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it. The same ones who or are willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway. And the same ones who are willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but normalize that and stay with that ineffective plan anyway.

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 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part "L"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Next is another reason - another subconscious motive - which renders persons willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, or willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, or willing to accept a treatment plan which they are told offers no cure for what ails them but stay with that ineffective plan anyway:

25. To please others. 

a. The first "other" which many children try to please is one or both parents. From the beginning, children are typically raised by parents who want to make their own lives easier by teaching their children what they expect of them so the parents can thereafter be freed of having to deal with the children constantly and can get back to whatever it might be that the parents prefer to do. 

While "time spent with children" studies have shown considerable increases in the last fifty years or so, the times are still low: In 1965, mothers spent a daily average of 54 minutes on child care activities while moms in 2012 averaged almost twice that at 104 minutes per day. Fathers’ time with children nearly quadrupled: 1965 dads spent a daily average of just 16 minutes with their kids, while today’s fathers spend about 59 minutes a day caring for them. Among those in poverty, the times are obviously much less. 

In the 50's, the most frequent words heard from our parents were "You kids get out of here. We'll call you when dinner is ready" or "All of you kids go outside and play until we call you." 

Nowadays, much of that same attitude prevails, but it is being driven by some specific personality disorders which are becoming more and more prevalent: the Attachment Personality Disorder, the Dissociation Personality Disorder, the Escapism Personality Disorder, the Avoidant Personality Disorder and / or the Schizoid Avoidant Personality Disorder. 

In addition to trying to meet parental expectations and receive an "attagirl" or an "attaboy" - further instilling duality-based thinking - there is the outright labeling of what is "good" and what is "bad" and how doing "good" can make one "a good child" and how doing "bad" can make a child "a bad person." 

b. The next "other" which children will soon want to please is "the teacher." Some students in my elementary school classes had gold star stickers placed on a chart next to their names at the end of the day when their behavior was "good." A few other classmates joined me in receiving not a single gold star but instead in having our names added to the list of students who were in "The Goof Group" for the day and who would have to stay after school and work math problems for a half hour. 

Many times I stayed alone in the punishment room because rebellious Type Fours only make up 1/2 of 1% of the earth's population whereas the Loyal to Authority Type Sixes and their mates make up a huge majority (50% and more being devoted to God, country, and authority figures including parents and teachers and "elders" and business owners and police and members of the armed forces.)

Programmed and conditioned to please people - or punished when not pleasing people (especially those in authority) - the course is set for most to be especially tuned in to what their relatives and friends and cultures deem to be "good" and deem to be "bad." 

c. When children raised in that fashion reach adulthood, they are so subconsciously attached to getting rewards (acceptance) and avoiding punishment (abandonment) that they become susceptible to trying to please a mate. 

Males of that ilk often submit to the psycho-surgical removal of spines, backbones, guts, testicles, gumption and courage, submitting themselves in any and every instance to the will of a mate. Similarly, I have seen far too many females of that ilk trying to please an angry, controlling, brutal mate by tolerating mental torture and even physical assaults. 

Or what about the fellow who was abused by religious leaders as a child but who caves to a mate's demand that "he will attend church and will raise their children in the church if he wants to stay married to that mate"? Many persons - out of an ego-state's fear of coming to an end - will acquiesce, will forfeit authenticity, and will do things which they have no desire at all to do. 

For them, there is still a child within who was conditioned to want rewards and to be seen as a "good boy" or as a "good girl" and who now is still a child manifested in an adult body.

There is not one iota of normalcy to things which have become commonplace nowadays, such as: 

Normalizing societies where parents are encouraged to be "in absentia"; living in cultures where abnormal duality-based thinking and abnormal duality-based talking and abnormal duality-based behaviors are all normalized; submitting oneself entirely to the will of another / others; and abandoning one's self in the search for acceptance and praise.

In the 1960's in the U.S., an advocate for the use of LSD, Timothy Leary, offered this advice: "Turn on, tune in, drop out." 

Today, no one has to offer the masses that invitation because the majority - while not necessarily using acid - are using other substances to assist them in their subconscious drive to avoid, escape, dissociate, dodge, evade, and elude. 

Some have likely heard the story about the lad who carried a butterfly net into a meadow one spring morning and began racing about, wanting to catch more butterflies than anyone had ever caught before. 

At the end of the day, after racing about for hours and hours, he had not caught a single butterfly. He finally collapsed and sat with his head between his legs - tired, dejected, disappointed, dissatisfied, disenchanted, saddened, frustrated, and exhausted by the lack of results of his hunt, his seeking, his searching. And it was at that moment, the moment - when he ended all of his going and doing and zooming and racing about and seeking - that this happened: 

It is rare but it has been seen that some persons whose seeking allowed our paths to cross have "gotten it." A few have seen that their multitudinous "paths" and arduous "journeys" left them tired enough to hear and to grasp the message shared here. 

They said that they were seeking "peace" and an ability "to live naturally" and "to relax and take it easy." (Of course, they had fooled themselves. They were actually seeking the reinforcement of a host of assumed ego-states and a better image in their community and among friends or relatives or leaders.) 

Yet the philosophical or religious or spiritual doingness which they were engaged in generated such high levels of philosophical or religious or spiritual workaholism that a "Catch 22" had manifested: they were caught in the trap - in the conundrum - where the beliefs which had been passed on to them led them to seek and seek and seek but to never find that which they had been told to seek. 

As with most humans, there was no time for peace because they were too busy searching for peace. 

(Ever see a dog chasing its own  tail? What's it going to do in that process except end up biting itself? Ever see a dog wasting its energy by chasing a car? Will it ever be able to actually catch a car? And then what would it do with it, if it could catch a car? More to the point, how like that dog the masses are, constantly going and doing and zooming about on this "path" or that "journey" but never finishing the chase and never giving up the chase entirely after finally seeing the silliness of it all. I had a dog that spent years chasing cars until he got much older and much more tired of the chase and . . .  maybe even wiser? At that point, when he began passing his days lying down in the front yard and relaxing, his eyes sometimes shifted to one side or the other and then tracked the movement of passing cars, left to right or right to left, without ever lifting his head. It sure looked a lot like Pure Witnessing.)

One such formerly-fanatical seeker who came this way is called "Bill" who, at his peak, would have given me a real run for my money when it came to fanaticism and super-seeking and spiritual workaholism. As was the case here, Bill was finally freed of all of that. 

He came to understand and appreciate the message shared on this blog in the past, a message offered by way of the lyrics of a song written by a Native American who sang about "winds of life are blowing across the reservation" and about his coming to the understanding that . . . "It's time to live." 

This morning he shared some of the understandings which have come since we first meet:  

Hey Floyd, I am enjoying you new series. Seems right on. In the world that most create, guilt is preferred over the feeling of helplessness. At least if I am guilty of something, I can repent and thus, have some control. If I repent, my chosen but non-existent deity may feel kindly toward me and do what I want him / her / them to do, and that takes away my perceived hopelessness and helplessness. I have someone to pray to that way, someone who will part the heavens and enter and change the path of the storm to kill someone other than me. Thus religion makes perfect sense to one who desperately desires to control his world. 

Thanks again for the series, Bro 

bill 

As mentioned yesterday, it is 

(1) humankind's addiction to control 

and 

(2) humankind's addiction to power / Power in order to be able to control 

which will keep people on a "path" even though neither their "path" nor any other path has ever truly given anyone control or power. 

The invitation of the Nisarga Yoga offered here, and the invitation for today is, to allow a butterfly-chasing child to offer an understanding which is required for freedom and independence and relaxation to manifest.

The invitation rests in the example of a child who 

(a) tired of going and doing and zooming and working his butt off to try to find that which he was seeking 

but who came to understand that 

(b) that which he was seeking is only available when all going and doing and zooming and working comes to an end. 

What an irony. What a Catch-22. What a conundrum for the programmed and conditioned masses.

The Nisarga Yoga invites seekers to abandon the unnatural and the supernatural (i.e., the "spiritual") and to abide naturally, as modeled by the deer: 

The deer that live around me work only as much as needed to provide the basics. They forage for a while each day, then play some or enjoy some sex occasionally, calmly move away from crazy, noisy humans, and then, as Maharaj said, "Relax in the cool blue shade."

Of course, that manner of living is just a suggestion for "super busy, really earnest seekers."

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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