TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION
[Continued from yesterday]
One person who likely wrote more about alcoholism than any other saw it as a two-fold illness:
The first aspect he identified involved a body allergy (which is actually a sugar allergy). Nowadays, a sugar allergy is more commonplace than ever before. Among children with the allergy, the eating of food containing sugar will trigger a desire for more sugar which doubles the desire for sugar and then leads to excessive eating of sugar and carbs. The same happens with alcoholics who also have that allergy.
[Now that George Carlin has taken mahasamadhi, I turn to Louis C.K. for some current expressions of wisdom with a touch of humor. Regarding overeating, he said that people don't stop eating when they're full. The meal is not over when they're full. It's over when they hate themselves. The same applies to children with a sugar allergy who have parents who enable their weight gain by continuing to provide that which they are allergic to. The same applies to alcoholics with a sugar allergy who have enablers in their lives.]
The second aspect of alcoholism which the author identified is an obsession of the mind. (Much has been shared on this site about the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder which leads to fanaticism around excessive drinking or fanaticism around recovery from excessive drinking or to religious fanaticism or spiritual fanaticism or political fanaticism or fanaticism around accumulating wealth or fanaticism around shopping or fanaticism around sex, ad infinitum).
The man writing about alcoholism wanted his first book to make him millions of dollars (which it would do and continued to do, on an annual basis, throughout his existence), but it was originally a far too short of a volume in his view. When he saw that he could only come up with around 164 pages, he requested persons to write their "personal success stories about their recovery" which he would include in the back of his book in order to beef up its length.
They agreed except they wanted him to modify his "two-fold" explanation and report that - while those two factors were involved - alcoholism is actually rooted in a "spiritual malady" and that only God could provide any hope at all to those with that physical / mental illness. They pledged to withhold their stories if he did not acquiesce to their demand and change his claim that alcoholism is a body-mind issue and report that it is a not-spiritual-enough issue. He fought their demand for a while, but because he wanted his book to be a big book, he eventually acquiesced.
That man was interested in Eastern teachings, so his first volume was laced with certain gems from Eastern philosophies and religions as well as some non-dual pointers. He used one of the Eastern pointers he had heard, indirectly touched on in yesterday's post, dealing with the way that the realized function throughout the remainder of a post-realization existence. Specifically, he suggested - as some versions of non-duality suggest - that one can function from "a position of neutrality."
Thus, the point offered yesterday that "Love" is a noun, not a verb; that no part of realization (which is simply the process of "being freed from learned ignorance," per Maharaj) calls on the realized to "love" (verb) everyone and everything; and that the understanding means that . . .
(A) . . . one need not love the neighbor who lets his hunting dogs run free and attack and sometimes maim or kill other smaller dogs and cats in the neighborhood
and that
(B) . . . one need not hate that neighbor, either.
However, a position of neutrality - involving neither loving nor hating - nevertheless allows residents to work with law enforcement and community leaders to require that neighbor to restrain his pets and adhere to the existing leash laws.
Among the realized, there is a position of neutrality which (1) does not require any love / hate duality but which (2) still allows for sane and sound and logical steps to be taken to address the actions of those around them who are trapped in assholism.
To continue now with other different perspectives which came via the vision:
Maharaj pointed out that you were not even born once, so how could you possibly be born again?
The vision made clear Maharaj's pointer that "all will be annihilated" (with the exception of the energy-matter).
The clarity came: it is whatever is involved in the cycling of things that come together and that will always eventually come apart is what will be "annihilated."
That includes human bodies, it includes the human "mind," and it includes the roles played by bodies with minds which assume that false identities are real.
The vision showed all of that will come to end, for nothing in the mind is true and nothing about assumed roles is real, and certainly the body is forever cycling air and consciousness and cells until - at some point - that too shall stop for one reason or another.
Yet who is ready to accept that fact willingly? What has been witnessed her leads to the answer: "Only those that have completed the second leg of the 'journey' to Reality, allowing them to 'go ahead and die now'."
For the masses, that nagging fear of "death" shall remain, for they have not completed "a practice run at 'dying'."
So whenever earth elements and air and specks of conscious-energy come together to form a composite unity - be that composite labeled a bird, a fish, a deer, a human, etc. - that manifestation knows that it is, knows the beingness, and desires that the beingness never end.
That is why non-realized (still ignorant) persons want to live as long as they can.
[Again, Louis C.K. said, "It's not 'your life.' It's life. Life isn't something that you possess. It's something that you take part in and you witness."]
That personal desire for the consciousness to be continuous forever is why some report that (a) right now, heaven is available; that (b) it is the most wonderful thing imaginable, yet (c) they do not want to go there now. Go figure.
Maharaj pointed out that there is something to be said for facing relative obstacles and enduring, but he did not stop there. He said: " . . . disease and suffering are not natural. There is noble virtue in unshakable endurance of whatever comes, but there is also dignity in the refusal of meaningless torture and humiliation."
I had been asked, "But what is wrong with wanting to live? It seems wanting to live would be natural and that wanting to die or to commit suicide would be unnatural."
The vision would eventually provide the answer: "Do not try to apply absolute rules to relative situations. Yes it is natural to want to live, but the point is that it is insane - and therefore unnatural - to find torture and humiliation and the indignity of various forms of endless suffering to be acceptable"
and
"Also, there are even other consequences as well: If you want to live forever, then you will believe the words of false prophets who tell you that you will live forever and that you will either be punished forever or rewarded forever. They will inspire you to try to live supernaturally, that is, unnaturally"
and
"They will ask you to give them large portions of your money for as long as you live. They will tell you that you must meet with them regularly so that they can tell you over and over and over again exactly how you should live and think and talk and behave"
and
"They will tell you that ancient myths and superstitions are fact, trapping you in ignorance and thereafter controlling you (a) by generating fear and (b) by dangling the carrot of the conscious-energy's desire for continuity and thereby controlling you via your desires"
and
"They will tell you that if you are 'good' - per their definition of 'good' - that 'you will then be blessed, now and forevermore'."
The ego loves to believe it is 'good'; then, egotism promotes each ego-state to the rank of "better than," so it will be programmed to brag constantly that it is being blessed in order to demonstrate to all just how very good the bragger is (and how much better than others the bragger is, as evidenced by all of the blessings that he / she is receiving which they are not).
Yet the vision made this clear: There is no one who has ever been blessed because there is no "one" to be blessed and because there is no "Blesser" to bless. Why is that so?
Because elements cannot be blessed, air cannot be blessed, and energy cannot be blessed. And because energy / matter cannot be created or destroyed, there is no "creator" or "Creator," and since there is no "Creator," there is no "Blesser."
Consciousness - as a form of energy - will be forever; yet it will not know forever. It will know nothing after it is released into the universal field of energy.
That is more of what the vision made clear.
After days and weeks of reading and re-reading the vision and garnering one additional understanding after another from its content, I took a break. One day, I was lying on the couch listening to music when I was tossed up into a sitting position. I stood and raced to the room where the latest, most expanded, version of the vision sat on a desk and I began reading it again.
At the end of that re-reading came the moment when the seven steps on the "path" became clear. At one time or another, Maharaj had discussed every element of the "journey" which the vision depicted, but he never once explained exactly how the seekers who came his way were to " . . . go back, reverse, to the source" or how they were to "follow the same path by which you came."
It was clear that his teaching method was to point the seekers' focus in a certain direction and then he would send them away to sit in the quiet, tap into the inner guru, and realize - to bring into full consciousness - that which they had known originally but which had been blocked off via programming, conditioning, etc.
Re-reading the vision again with the focus on understanding the exact, step-wise manner for " . . . going back, reversing, to the source" and "following the same path by which you came," it all became perfectly clear. To this day, the means by which seekers can find the steps are laid out here before them; however, in the fashion of my teacher, the final awareness of the steps is left for them to find. The steps are clear. They are laid out here for you. Merely follow the invitation that has ended the thousands of postings offered on this site: just "enter into the silence of contemplation." See. See clearly. See all.
Then, several revelations that were emanating from the inner resource (that is, via the pure consciousness . . . the inner guru) came:
Even as a young child whose age was measured in a single digit, you questioned the nonsensical dogma you heard in the religious venues you were forced to visit. As soon as you left home, you swore never to enter the doors of such institutions again. But then, in later years, just as happened with Maharaj during the early days of his marriage, you allowed a woman to pull you back. You compromised. You cratered. You focused on accumulating and you tried to share the message of non-duality along religion's message of duality. You turned from authenticity and, per her demands, you played with her the role of "The Super Religious One." And that phony role-playing continued until you became totally repulsed by the fraud that you had become and until you became completely sickened by the forfeiture of your inner peace, thoroughly disgusted with "self" - with the phony role.
So that phase ended once and for all, but the remaining restlessness propelled you deeper into the role of "The Seeker."
During that phase, you did it all. You made a second job of merely living. You assumed the role of "The Spiritual Giant"; you studied with those who had become millionaires off the non-dual teachings, specifically, those Maharaj would later warn you to stay away from, namely, "The Big Name Teachers."
Like the millions of so-called "spiritual people" on the planet, you thought you had finally "arrived" at the end of "the path," believing that you had completed a "journey" that had, actually, not even reached the midway point. It was as if you had left Los Angeles to journey to New York, had reached Kansas, and has suddenly stopped traveling along the path to New York, delusionally convinced that you had already arrive in New York when you were hardly halfway there. You were mistakingly believing that Kansas was the end of the journey and that you had arrived in New York. How delusional. How deceived. How completely fooled you were as "they" who said you had arrived had fooled you once and then as you fooled yourself time and again afterwards by believing "them."
You joined those that Maharaj spoke of who were playing their "kindergarten spirituality" games. You delusionally thought that you were enlightened, standing in the brightness of the noonday sun when, in fact, you had not so much as left the dimness of the dull dawn.
Then, this came:
The vision should have made clear by now that if you believe that there is some version or element of "Floyd's Self" that is going to exist after this manifestation, you have not actually realized anything in fact. You have not been liberated - that is - freed from the subconscious influence of personality that drives your thoughts and words and actions.
The revelations continued: The vision should have made clear by now that if you believe that there is some "Supreme Self" that is going to exist after this manifestation and that you will find that you are That Supreme Self as well, then you have not actually realized anything.
Look at the end of the vision. What remains? Energy remains. Nothing that bears even the slightest comparison to what seemed to be "floyd" (or "Floyd" for that matter) remains.
No god or gods were met. No judgment happened. There was nothing like the process when Nazis unloaded Jewish people from cattle cars at Auschwitz whereupon they were instructed with the pointing of a commander's finger to go left or to go right (meaning, "go to the work camp and live for a time" or "go to the gas chamber and die now").
There was no Commander / God / Supreme Being at the end of the vision that was pointing left toward a heaven or a higher reincarnation, and there was no Commander / God / Supreme Being at the end of the vision that was pointing to the right toward a hell or a lower incarnation. There was no Great Conductor orchestrating all of the events and happenings on earth and throughout the universe, and that realization explained why so many sour notes were being hit constantly all around the planet. Then, indeed, if that's the best the Great Conductor can come up with, should anyone be impressed? Should anyone continue believing in "Greatness" when the planet-wide results are consistently falling so very far short of anything "great"?
Looking back at the vision, it became clear that, rather than all of the things that had been promised (or threatened), there was instead . . . nothing. To paraphrase Krishna, those who know that I - the Absolute (energy) - am beyond both beingness and non-beingness are wise. All others are fools.
Then, Yes . . . the Nothingness . . . the Void. Next, "Wisdom is knowing that I am nothing." Yes . . . that's it! Nothing. Nothing now. Nothing later.
Then this came:
"Now, take that back to the relative and overlay that understanding on the remainder of the manifestation. Be nothing. Abide spontaneously. Abide in a nisarga, all-natural fashion. Forget trying to live in a supernatural / spiritual / religious fashion. Forget living in that unnatural fashion where you made a second job of mere living, where you engaged into all kinds of "spiritual exercises" and did your so-called "spiritual work." Stop it! Just live simply and naturally, as does everything else on the planet except role-playing humans who are strutting about on the stage of the Theater of the Lie, totally lost in the dream of the planet and playing their roles for so long that they take them to be real. Stop it! Just BE!
Whoa!
Continued study of the messages available via the vision made clear a distinction between "ego," "ego-states," and egotism.
The word "ego comes from Latin and means “I.” Specifically, it is the pronoun used by those who believe any false identity to be real.
The wise see that the concept of ego becomes the source of perceived separation and the source of fighting to preserve image.
An ego-state is that “state” in which a persona "exists," taking itself and false assigned or assumed roles to be true identities. An ego-state is always identified by placing a word after "I am" (such as, "I am a spouse"; "I am a lover"; "I am an employee," "I am a teacher," "I am spiritual," "I am religious," "I am an alcoholic," etc.)
Egotism is one of the many ego-defense mechanisms used to defend an assumed ego (or false self).
When an identity is assumed, that is, when an ego is taken to be a real identity by a person, that person will enter into an ego-state; when functioning from within an ego-state, egotism triggers and defends the false identity.
Soon, with egotism at play, the ego - the false assigned or assumed identity - self-promotes itself to a "Super "role.
In that process of egotism upgrading self, it automatically downgrades "others," so while the ego-state of "The Wife" only needs the codependent, counterpart player of "The Husband" for her to supposedly "exist," after being upgraded to "The Super Wife," she must have "A Super Husband" to fulfill the illusion of her upgraded role. The same happens when "The Husband" engages in a self-upgrading that is followed by a downgrading of his spouse.
Any wonder that the divorce rate is so high when duality and role-assumption and upgrading and downgrading are at play?
Any wonder that there is such widespread sense of separation and fighting and chaos on the planet when duality and role-assumption and upgrading and downgrading are at play?
NEW SERIES BEGINS ON MONDAY:
EVERYONE IS ON A PATH. DO YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY STEPS ARE ON THE PATH YOU'RE ON?
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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