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.
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