TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
The reasons shared so far explaining why persons are willing to follow no end "paths," to engage in - and to stay engaged in - a life-long "journey" which never reaches a destination, and to settle for a life-long treatment plan which offers no cure include:
1. Programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing.
2. Parental modeling.
3. Being lulled into a sleep state while thinking they are awake and are choosing to do what they are doing.
4. Being misinformed but loyal to authority.
5. Listening to misguided leaders.
6. Being convinced they have already "found" and only need life-long reinforcement of their beliefs.
7. Their egotism-driven ego-states' desire to be stroked and reinforced and to be regarded by their fellows for living a life with great meaning and great purpose.
8. Personality disorders.
9. Obsession-driven pleasure-seeking and escapism-driven avoidance and dissociation and detachment and evasion.
10. Having adulation heaped upon them for supposedly being "The Super Religious One" or "The Super Seeker" or "The Deep and Wise Philosophical One" or "The Great Ideologue" or "The Spiritual Giant."
Next,
11. The absence of any and all ability to
(a) choose to follow no end "paths," to engage in - and stay engaged in - a life-long "journey" which never reaches the destination, and to settle for a life-long treatment plan which offers no cure; and,
the absence of any and all ability to
(b) choose not to follow no end "paths," engage in - and stay engaged in - a life-long "journey" which never reaches the destination, and settle for a life-long treatment plan which offers no cure.
Of the 97% on the planet who claim to be affiliated with one religion or another, how many chose the religion which they initially become involved with? The answer: None.
Before a child can walk, talk, think, discuss, consider, study related facts, weight options, and consider the relative "pro's" and "con's" involved with any activity, they are taken to religious venues, they hear mention of a God or gods and goddesses, they are introduced to the sights and sounds and smells of worship, and they watch - and eventually model - what their parents and the adults in religious venues are saying and doing, all based in what the adults believe and what they think.
The children are given no choice. They will eventually be told what to believe, how to think in accordance with the dictates of their parents' religions, when to sing or knell or bow or rise or chant, etc., etc., etc.
If they were given all the facts and allowed to choose whether or not they want to do all of the abnormal things which have been normalized for them by their parents and religious leaders and friends and relatives, what might they decide if they were told up front what all they were being set up to do for an entire lifetime?
What if they were told, "The choice is yours and yours alone whether you do the things we're recommending that you do because the life you live should be your own, not ours, so understand that you will not have to do any of these things if you choose not to. Before you look at the list of options regarding what we want you to do with your life, is all of that clear?" (In this scenario, people would be functioning on an "Adult-to-Adult"
level rather than engaged in a life-long "Parent-to-Child" level.)
At that point, persons who are old enough and wise enough to consider facts and to make sense-based decisions about what to do or not do for the rest of their lives might say, "Well, let's go over the list of things you'd like me to do and then I'll consider whether I want to do those things or not and I'll get back to you as soon as I decide."
The parent might then say, "Excellent! So let's get started and go over the list of the practices we are recommending that you engage in for your entire life":
1. You agree to attend worship services regularly or to go to spiritual meetings on a daily basis.
2. If you choose certain religions over others, you will go to church on Sunday mornings or Saturday evenings or Sunday evenings or also Wednesday evenings and you'll go to choir practice on Thursday evenings
and
3. You'll participate in Scripture Studies and prayer groups and you'll pledge to donate money to the cause and you'll promise to support the church with your prayers and your attendance and your gifts and your service and you'll attend Vacation Bible School for a week each summer and you'll go to Revival services during the year;
and
4. You'll give more money during building fund drives and you'll make additional special donations on the especially holy days celebrated throughout the year and you'll share your faith and visit those not attending regularly
and / or
5. You'll speak in unknown tongues and roll about on the floor if you choose one of our neighboring churches,
or
6. You'll go to a mosque five times per day where men and women do not sit together and you'll face one direction in particular and pray and you'll do that 5 times every day . . . 35 times every week . . . 158 times every month, on average . . . and 1,825 times every year.
Also,
7. You'll observe "Special Dietary Restrictions" (so if you go the Hindu route, you'll not eat beef or if you go the Muslim and Jewish route you'll not eat pork and if you go the route of some old-school Catholics, you'll still not eat meat on Fridays but will eat fish instead).
8. Also, if you go the Hindu route, on some paths you'll find out that you will not be following a single lifelong path but may be following a multi-life-long series of paths with multiple incarnations and reincarnations and lives. Meanwhile, for now, you'll engage in your worship rituals, you may engage in singing hymns and chanting and the eating of sacred food and you'll participate in a sacred fire ceremony or in circumambulation and visiting other "holy places" (while hoping you do not end up like the 2,609 who have been killed in recent years or like the 16,467 who have been injured in recent years in the human stampedes that often mark and mar the visits to those sites).
9. But if you go the Jewish route and become really dedicated to that, you might move to Israel so you can be near their special "Wailing Wall" which you'll visit on a daily basis with hundreds or thousands of others to pray, to chant, to wail, and to sway back and forth against the wall and you'll do that very day . . . of every week . . . of every month . . . of every year . . . for an entire lifetime.
10. Or, if you go the route of some Protestants, you'll adhere to their anti-drinking, anti-dancing, and anti-gambling rules.
11. You'll notice that, even if a member of the same religion but a different denomination, there might be some variation as to what is expected of you: with some, you'll never be allowed to dance but with others you can go to church-sponsored dances; with some, you'll never gamble but with others you'll go to bingo games at the church and gamble where some will collect monetary payoffs; and with some, you'll never drink alcohol but with others, you'll drink alcohol in the worship service.
Or, if you go the spiritual program route,
12. You'll seek a spiritual experience and share the details of that experience and you'll get special tokens to mark the number of days you've adhered to their no-drinking rules and you'll go to meetings each day and you'll go to retreats and Book Studies, etc.
13. Or, if you go a more philosophical route, you might enter onto an Eightfold Path and learn the Four Noble Truths.
Next,
14. You're going to have to agree to never question whatever "Power" you're introduced to, and if you are introduced to a personal Supreme Being, you must never question that Being's inconsistencies. That means you cannot ask, "If that Power loves all people unconditionally, how could he drown everyone on earth except for the members of one family?" or "If that Power is all-powerful, why does that Power not end war and pestilence and disease and misery and suffering?" or
"If that Power were mentally and emotionally stable, could humans be able to control how he feels and determine whether that Power feels angry or pleased? Wouldn't that evidence the presence of co-dependency?" or "If that Power wants us to be free of arrogance and narcissism, why would that Power model narcissism by wanting to be worshiped and revered and adored?"
15. "And finally," they'll say, "you'll need to understand one last and very important point: in some cases, you might be called on to die for your beliefs and to show your unquestioning faith; and, in other cases, you might be called on to kill others who have different beliefs from yours."
Then, in this scenario, they would say, "Now that is just a small taste of what you'll promise to do and commit to doing for your entire lifetime, depending on which religion or spiritual movement or philosophy you choose to follow. And remember, if you don't like one religion or spiritual movement or philosophy or ideology or cult, there are thousands of others to choose from. You'll have many options because there are 4,200 different religions nowadays with an estimated 33,000 sects or denominations or subsets."
Then, at that point in this scenario, they'll ask, "So, how long do you think you'll need to consider the items on the list we've outlined for you before you get back to us and let us know which religion or spiritual program or philosophy you've decided to dedicate yourself to for the rest of your life?"
At that point, any sane and sound and logical human would say,
"You know, I don't need any more time at all. I have made a decision, and it is this: Not only 'No' but "Hell no!! None of them. None of that nonsense will I follow. None of those 'paths' will I take. I would never agree to do any of that even once, much less over and over and over for my entire relative existence. Are you people totally nuts?! Wait. Don't answer that because insane people do not know that they are insane, so let me answer for you: you are being driven - as Maharaj says - either by ignorance or stupidity or insanity or all three! I'm out of here!"
Why does that scenario above never happen? (A) Because parents do not give their children such options and (B) because when one is being driven by the hidden, subconscious agendas of assigned and / or assumed personal identifications, then all that they think and say and do will be determined by subconscious factors rather than by making conscious choices based in facts and careful consideration.
Why consider such absurdities? In order to see them for what they are and to stop being driven by absurdities.
Maharaj: "Break the mind from within by investigation and exposure of its contradictions and absurdities."
Maharaj also said that "the realized" will show persons how they take the most absurd statements for holy truth.
Again, to understand why persons are willing to enter onto - and stay on - endless "paths" and to enter onto - and stay absorbed in life-long "journeys" which never reach a destination - is to have an opportunity to stop living in a blind and unconscious manner which is marked and marred by redundancy and by the senseless repetition of nonsensical actions
and then
to find the simple style of living which can mark the IS-ness if one understands and follows the simple, Nisargan (natural) fashion of living which happens with every living thing on the planet except for humans.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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