TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
THE ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION
It was also made clear that the problems that seekers experience in their efforts to realize are not rooted in the natural, elemental brain. The problem, the vision showed, is rooted in the unnatural mind, which has evolved into something that is now, among the non-realized masses, most unnatural and abnormal.
It was made completely clear that, while the brain and its capacity to understand are required, the mind is not required at all for nisarga, natural abidance, and is - in fact - a hindrance to natural living.
The difference in the two became clear when this came: So the brain - and all of the parts of the body - are rooted in the elements; the consciousness is rooted in the Absolute; and the mind is rooted in conditioning, programming, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing.
The vision made these salient points clear:
a. This present "you" is just a composite unity consisting of an elemental plant food body, air that is circulating in and out of the elemental body, and conscious-energy that is temporarily manifested in the plant food body and also circulating as well.
b. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so what remains post-manifestation is distributed thusly:
. . . the elements return to the universal pool of elements;
. . . the air returns to the universal pool of air; and
. . . the conscious-energy returns to the universal pool of energy (a.k.a., "the Absolute").
c. That energy, when originally in the pure, Absolute field of energy, was called "Awareness."
d. Manifested, it is called "Consciousness" and soon loses its originally "pure" property as a result of programming, conditioning, etc.
e. Upon returning to the Absolute, to the vast pool of Absolute energy, it can again be called "Awareness" for the sake of discussion.
f. Awareness unmanifested is not "aware of" because it is not manifested in a body as consciousness and in a body with a brain that allows for conscious-of-ness.
g. Once manifested as consciousness (which soon becomes blocked by programming, conditioning, etc.), consciousness becomes conscious of perceived dualities rather than the unicity, the Oneness, and its Original Nature; if Realization happens, then the unblocked consciousness can become conscious of its Original, Pre-Manifestation Nature as awareness, at which point awareness becomes aware of ItSelf for the remainder of the manifestation, eliminating any and all conscious-of-ness-based duality wherein an "a" is conscious of a "b" or wherein a "subject" is aware of some "other object."
The vision made clear that one who would abide naturally and sanely and in a chaos-and-insanity-free manner must (a) abide under the auspices of the brain and (b) must be free from being driven blindly by the content of "the mind" (which is nothing more than a storehouse of all of the ideas and concepts and falsehoods and myths and superstitions - a.k.a., "beliefs" - that "they" have dreamed up over the millennia and that the masses in any given culture think are true, though they are not, and that "they" passed down to you and that "they" - the ignorant and insane - are repeating all around you every day).
With additional consideration, contemplating the way that false identities are assigned (by parents, teachers, religion, culture, etc.) and adopted (assumed by persons as additional false identities beyond the ones assigned by others) it became clear why most persons have no desire to be truly independent, believing in their co-dependent concepts of "love" and "need" but knowing nothing of "Love." (Per the true non-dual understanding, "Love" is not a verb; it a noun.)
The vision, therefore, made clear the actual roots of "co-dependencies" which are fostered when roles are assumed (because no role can stand alone).
It became clear via the vision that an "employee" needs an "employer" to supposedly "exist"; that a "spouse" needs a "spouse" to "exist"; and that all neediness and dependency and co-dependency is rooted in duality.
The vision made clear via the shift beyond the third of seven steps that all role-assumption is accompanied by co-dependencies because no role can "stand alone" but must have another person assuming a counter-role in order to sustain the delusion that both roles are real.
There had been so much confusion during the futile parts of what had been assumed to be "the journey." (There had been the realization early on that religion was offering nothing but myth-and-superstition-based nonsense, but it was assumed that surely the "spiritual path" had to be the right path to follow in order to complete the entire "journey." Wow! Did the vision clear up that misperception!)
The reading of I AM THAT, touted as "a modern spiritual classic," contained what seemed to be some contradictions about "Religion? Yes!" vs. "Religion? No!" and "Spirituality? Yes!" vs. "Spirituality? No!"
So the question came, "Has the 'proper path' been entered onto, or not?"
Then after reading all of the talks available by Maharaj, there were other comments about spirituality that seemed to offer even more contradictions regarding this matter:
He said,
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false”
and
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world — everything — is disproved”
and
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience"
and
"Whatever you think of as 'spiritual knowledge' was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery. It is nothing more than spiritual jargon"
and
"There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play"
and
"Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall a prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others"
and
"Forget spirituality"
and
"Follow your "normal inclinations"
and
"Just give up spirituality"
and
"Spiritual knowledge should not be studied."
Suddenly, all of the confusion ended when his comments were viewed in light of what the vision showed, namely, that all religious and spiritual role-assumption and role-playing must end at the third step in order to complete the four remaining steps on the "journey" to Full Realization. Then, these other pointers from Maharaj regarding the transitioning of all spiritual-and-religious-role-playing at the third step made perfect sense:
"Whatever you think of as spiritual knowledge was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery. It is nothing more than spiritual jargon. All your spiritual studies are conducted with your identification with the body-mind"
and
"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking', or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense"
and
"I appeal to you with my folded hands: don't get into this spirituality"
and
"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left"
and
"Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing - as life brings. What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way"
and
To another he pointed out: "In the course of your study of spirituality, you have acquired many concepts and you call that 'knowledge'."
He advised that visitor to "throw out your concepts."
It became clear why so many playing religious roles or assuming spiritual roles can becomes OCD still suffer what Maharaj called their "misery" and how they take "just living" and make a second job out of that with all of their "spiritual exercises" and "spiritual work" (which is what happened here prior to receiving the vision's message regarding "the good" third step roles that must be transitioned).
It was seen why Maharaj eventually called for the abandonment of all spiritual role-playing and encouraged natural-nisarga-only-living instead, what with "spirituality" being another source of dependency which assures that persons cannot be independent and free. (And who that is not totally free can truly be content . . . can truly and consistently avoid the "misery" Maharaj referenced?)
And the vision made clear that all - even including the intellect - is annihilated eventually. It became clear why Maharaj said, "This is the place where the intellect gets annihilated." That is, by the end of the "path," the intellect (the purpose of which was to provide "the capacity to understand") is also forfeited . . . no longer needed. So much for "jnana yoga" and the role of "The Knower" (who eventually takes himself / herself to be "The Super Knower"). Here, it is the Nisarga Yoga that is used in conjunction with the Direct Path Teaching Method in order to allow seekers to Realize and then abide naturally and simply without making a second job out of just living.
The vision made clear that nothing known or learned is given any value post-realization; instead, all happens naturally, as is the case with the deer which, like the realized, have no need for learned knowledge or for intellect. They, like the realized Nisargan, abide naturally (which also means, in a mindless, mind-free manner . . . abiding naturally and spontaneously).
Next, the vision made clear the delusion involved with a belief in continuity. One property of consciousness when it manifests is that it automatically desires continuity. As Andy Gugar, Jr. pointed out yesterday, the old saying is that "everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die").
Consider the confusion, then, among the masses who are plagued with a desire to live forever that is coupled with a fear of "death" while at the same time working for an eternal reward that might guarantee the consciousness-based desire to exist forever while simultaneously strapped with the potential of eternal punishment rather than reward.
"Will it be heaven forever, or hell forever?" or "Will it be reincarnation, but in a lesser, lower form?" or "Which way will I be evolving through a series of births and rebirths - up or down?"
The desire for continuity leads to bogus concepts such as "eternal life" and "heaven" and "hell" and "eternal rewards vs. eternal punishments" and "multiple births and rebirths."
MORE ON THE UPCOMING SERIES:
Every time I've been involved with the purchase of a house, I've gone to a title company for the signing of all of the necessary documents and the closing of the deal. They have always provided me with an amortization schedule listing every payment amount that I will be required to send to the lender for either 180 months or for 360 months; the date each payment will be due;
how much of each monthly payment will be applied to reducing the principal owed and how much will be applied to the interest being charged on the loan; and what the ending balance will be on my account after each of those payments is made.
They are very clear and forthright when identifying the steps I must take for the next 15 or 30 years in order to purchase the home being financed. In short, they tell me all of the steps up front that the process will require before I even begin.
Likewise, before beginning a trip along a route I've never traveled, I can visit a website and put in my current location and my intended destination and they will provide a printable, step-by-step guide for my journey, identifying and numbering each step on the journey, town by town and mile by mile, which the journey will entail.
Yet who that is a religious leader or guide will tell you in advance how many steps are going to be required on the journey they are endorsing? Hardly any, but their steps (depending on how long a follower lives) can number in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions.
The main point: their plan for your journey is never intended to end during your lifetime. You will always be required, per their plans, to do this each day - or even five times per day - and do that several times a week and also do this each week and do this annually and do that throughout all of the days and weeks and months and years of your life.
Or who that is a spiritual leader or guide or guru or sponsor will tell you in advance exactly how many steps are going to be required on the journey which they are endorsing? Few, but depending on the method being used by any given leader / guide / guru and depending on how long a follower lives, the actual number of steps required will be in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions, but never really just "12".
Their plan for your journey is never intended to end until the relative existence ends.
As is the case with a terminal illness, their various treatment plans for the Ultimate Sickness offer no effective and finale healing (or restoration to sanity and freedom from learned ignorance) but are merely stopgap processes instead. Their plans include no cures at all for what truly ails you, and some even admit that the most they can provide for anyone is "a daily reprieve."
Daily reprieves do not address the core causes of anyone's problems, and like addictive opiates, they only mask the symptoms (humans' pain and suffering) rather than eliminating the actual causes of humanity's misery and suffering.
Some of you know that I told a doctor a few years ago who was passing on a not-especially-pleasant diagnosis that
"My perspective is this: quality of life is key, and if that can't be, then I'm prepared to bid farewell to the remainder of an existence which can't offer that." He was shocked and said that "not giving up" and "being willing to fight for my life" and "staying positive" were vital to recovery. I chuckled and then smiled and said, "We'll see what happens, Doc. We'll see."
That discussion was about physical, elemental plant food body issues, but on the journey when freedom and peace and unconditional happiness were being sought, similar circumstances prevailed in every venue I visited and with all the person I visited who were offering one method or another which they said would take care of what ailed me. They all lied.
I reached a point where I refused to associate with any who were offering hollow promises and daily reprieves and more concepts and ineffective treatment plans which were being touted as "the best means" or "the only way" available for addressing the kinds of boredom or depression or joylessness or chaos or misery and suffering which are commonplace among the masses.
I saw that some among the self-identified "non-dual teachers" (or Advaitin or Advaita Vedantin or Neo-Advaitin or Neo-Vedantin or Pseudo-Advaitin teachers) were claiming that their teaching method only required one step.
I saw that Maharaj originally discussed seven different, sequential steps when using the Direct Path, SELF-Enquiry Method he initially recommended
but that - later on -
he made clear that taking only four steps using the Direct Path, (false) self-Enquiry Method would be "enough."
No matter what way is being presented, you deserve to understand upfront - just as when one buys a house - what the entire process is going to entail; however, most seekers - religious, spiritual, or otherwise - are most likely to find someone offering a process which is, again, never intended to end. Most, instead, will endorse a method which only promises (but does not actually deliver) a 24-hour break from symptoms and which calls for daily work and daily reading and daily this and daily that for what ails persons; yet they never offer a complete cure.
Many plans are also steeped in amazing levels of irony, so if one is suffering from the effects of a Dependent Personality Disorder, rather than addressing that mental disorder, their treatment for dependency is to recommend that you find . . . a new dependency! "Be dependent on the group or on a particular person or on God." What?
How about being independent? How about being free, once and for all? How about then just being? "No! That won't work. No way," they say. "The way you are wired, you will always be dependent on something, so find something good to be dependent on instead of something bad."
Were that plan recommended in the case of a physical sickness - "Just accept that we treat symptoms rather than causes and that you'll never be cured and that we don't have a viable treatment plan and that all you'll ever have is a short respite" - the wise would seek a second opinion, or a third, or a fourth.
But with the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, most seekers go along with the "as-long-as-you-live-method" being offered by most preachers and priests and rabbis and ayatollahs and imams and sponsors and gurus and a host of other cult and sky-cult and cult-like leaders.
Having tried most of the religious approaches and a variety of spiritual methodologies and a variety of supposedly "non-dual" methods, I came to a point where the seeking shifted and the search became one for something outside any and all of the established venues and beyond what was generally being offered. A vision also came which redirected the search to the inner resource and another level of clarity came.
Here, that had to be the case. All else had failed.
Having tried their methods of accumulating and learning more and more of what they were teaching, but receiving no relief from the Sickness, I was prepared for a different perspective, a perspective which offered for consideration the notion that - rather than learning more - maybe I needed to know a helluva lot less.
Then the turning point came with the realization that "In fact, maybe I need to un-learn everything that I have ever been taught"
and that
"Maybe I need to see that it was all nonsense, all BS, and that - for a real change - I did not need someone who (like all the others) wanted to teach me more when an 'un-teaching process' was what was actually being called for."
Eventually, I found that, and all seeking ended.
Nowadays, I share what I found with the few that are interested in a similar, simpler, finite treatment plan for the Sickness so that the treatment can be received and so that the remainder of the existence can then be spent in mere beingness rather than in being entrapped in religious or spiritual workaholism and in all sorts of dogmatic and / or spiritual going and doing and zooming and toiling.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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