TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Former tennis pro Arthur Ashe (being just like all other Personality Type Threes) was always into going and doing and zooming, always feared failure, and always loved projecting an image of being a winner and a star. He said: “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” Really?
So when I was suffering the painful effects of colon cancer, if the doctor's colonoscope had "journeyed" to the halfway point but did not reach the polyps which were growing deeper inside the large intestines - that is, did not reach the "destination" - then that could be deemed a "success"? And just "doing" that much would have been "more important than the outcome?" Nuts.
In another case, the internal hemorrhaging mentioned last week (which was caused in the first place by following a doctor's recommendation that I engage in an aspirin regimen combined with the use of Plavix) was happening in the small intestines. The doctor explored the large intestines with his scope and declared that "there is no longer any bleeding. At your age, it is common for people to pass blood on occasion. It comes and goes. I'll discharge you later today."
Five days later, I staggered back into the hospital, suffering from an even more severe case of blood loss than had occurred earlier. The way the doctor put it is that "if a person loses 40% of his or her blood and is not treated, then death is almost certain. You have lost far more than 40%."
My blood count was 4-and-1/2 times lower than when I had shown up in the doctor's office the previous week. The nurse said, "How did you get in here? It is impossible to walk with a count this low." Another false claim by a medical worker.
When my internist re-admitted me to the hospital, he arranged for a transfusion of multiple pints of blood and scheduled me for surgery as soon as those were completed. I made clear that the first gastroenterologist who sent me home while I was still bleeding was not to come anywhere near me.
The second specialist assigned to do the emergency procedure asked, "When he did not find any source of bleeding in the large intestines, did he do an upper procedure and check the small intestines?" The reply: "No." His reply. "Humph. Well, let's look at the upper region." There he found the lesion which was bleeding profusely, catheterized the wound to stop the bleeding, and sent me home two days later.
So, “Success is a journey, not a destination" and "the doing is often more important than the outcome?” Really? Yet that is a belief held by many.
For example, others have been heard to say, "The journey is more important than the destination." One woman even wrote an article entitled "The 3 Reasons That the Journey Is More Important Than the Destination."
Some guy named Tony something-or-other said: "The journey to reach your goals far exceeds the goal itself." Really? So if you're going to college to qualify as a coding engineer, that "journey" of attending classes for four years is more important than your goal of getting a job and being paid to write computer code?
The series of colonoscopy procedures which I underwent years ago to remove the three kinds of polyps growing inside my body, as well as the follow-up colonoscopy procedures conducted to check for re-occurrences, were not pleasant experiences. The series of procedures were "the journey" to healing and freedom. The destination being sought was "freedom from polyps and their effects." Persons who believes that "that journey" was more important or more enjoyable than reaching "the destination" in not as "wise" and "profound" as they think they sound. In fact, those persons are total fools.
So why do persons foolishly accept such nonsense, including many who claim to be "on a non-dual 'path'" or "on a non-dual 'journey'?"
Specifically, what of those suffering from the Ultimate Sickness with its three key traits which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"? If a journey is marked by ignorance, stupidity, and insanity and the goal is (a) to be free of the effects of being driven by learned ignorance, (b) to reach a state of wisdom, and (c) to be truly restored to sanity, does "a journey" marked and marred by ignorance, stupidity, and insanity "exceed the goal" of being free of those three symptoms?
Again, though, that is a commonly-heard-and-accepted belief, especially among religious persons I've heard making that claim and especially among "recovering addicts" in spiritual programs or spiritual groups. That might as well be the belief accepted by those in the latter groups because they are told up front, "We don't really have a cure, and all you'll ever get here is a daily reprieve from what ails you." Really? That's it?
So let's consider that highly-limited offer: In the case of those types who are told on one hand that their problem "centers in the mind," are they going to be sane for a day but guaranteed to be crazy the next day unless they do whatever is supposedly required to get another 24-hour reprieve?
The question then is, "Can someone live, say, seven days in a row and thus have a week during which they can be crazy and then not crazy but potentially-crazy but not crazy and then not crazy but potentially-crazy and then not crazy but potentially-crazy and then not crazy but potentially-crazy and then not crazy but potentially-crazy," seven days in a row and twelve months in a row and for all of the remaining years in their entire lifetime? Their problem which centers in the mind is never going to be addressed? Well, that's actually the truth as far as that treatment plan goes, but to view that as acceptable would be . . . what? Crazy?
But persons in the typical cultures on planet earth where incompetence and mediocrity and ineptitude prevail have been conditioned to accept incompetence and mediocrity and ineptitude as the abnormal norm, so yes, they'll accept the half-measures offered by the same people who are advising them to never settle for half-measures.
Where to seek, then? Maybe seek among the famous, thinking that the famous are famous because they actually know something that everyone else needs to know?
Those assuming ego-states as identities and using ego-defense mechanisms such as egotism in order to defend those states, were warned by Maharaj to stay away from those whom he referred to as "Big Name Teachers." He said that if you hang around those egomaniacs, "You'll get what you deserve." (Here, it is said, "If you seek with them, you will never get what you deserve, relatively speaking.) So why did Maharaj warn seekers to avoid those types?
(1) If Big Name Teachers are popular, it is because they have mass appeal, and since the masses on the whole are never realized, then a message which is popular among the masses is not what you need to hear anyway; (2) your egotism is what drives you to want to hang out with Big Name Teachers, and they will simply reinforce that egotism rather than guide you through an elimination process which can purge your mind of the belief that your ego-states are real; and (3) if your egotism and their massive levels of egotism get together, what truth could possibly be heard? None.
And what of those on a quest looking for Mr. or Ms. Goodbar? Or on a quest to "find love" (usually using a "broken picker" to enter into one disastrous "relationship" after another)? Is the looking more important or more enjoyable than the finding? Of course not, though some claim it is. Talk about a relative existence which is guaranteed to be marked by misery and disappointment when there is endless seeking which is rooted in a dependent and co-dependent urge for a perfectly-performing human (and / or a perfectly-performing God or goddess or Power).
One woman told me that "I like falling in love more than actually being in love." I asked, "Do you happen to have a pen and a piece of paper?" She said, "Right here." "Excellent," I said. "So write down these two terms and then go research them: Attachment Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder."
So (A) why do so many acquiesce and unquestioningly and unconsciously become willing to follow "paths" which have no end which will ever be reached in their lifetime? And (B) why do so many acquiesce and unquestioningly and unconsciously become willing to take part in a life-long "journey" which never reaches a destination?
And (C) why do so many become willing to follow a lifetime treatment plan for whatever ails them when they are told up front by a doctor or a guide or a guru or a counselor or a religious leader or spiritual leader that the plan they use will not provide a cure and that each seeker who comes their way must continue to come back to them for as long as the patient / seeker / worshiper lives?
(D) And why do so many settle for non-viable treatment plans rather than seeking a cure? (E) And why do so many seek for what they do not need but do not seek for that which they should actually be seeking?
Is any of that sensible and sane? Or is it totally senseless and insane?
Tomorrow, the answers to questions A through E above.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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