TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Persons (the "non-realized") are also willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, and willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, and 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.
Key among the elements which block persons from attaining the understanding and reaching realization is that most paths and journeys and treatment plans which claim to be able to address whatever ails humanity is their focus on something noumenal as opposed to something phenomenal.
"Phenomenal" refers to anything which can be apprehended by, or that is an object of, the senses whereas "the noumenal" points to objects or events which are deemed to be beyond the tangible, which cannot be known via the senses or via normal perceptions, and which involve "other-worldly" things (such as "the soul" or "the spirit" in some belief systems).
Now Maharaj said that attaining the understanding and reaching realization is "simple," but the very complicated and not-at-all-simple causes which block persons from attaining the understanding and reaching realization are complex indeed, especially because
56. most seekers think they must focus only on things noumenal
and because
57. most of the persons teaching the various types of "paths" and "journeys" and "treatment plans" are instructing seekers to focus on the noumenal in order to find a solution to humanity's problems by being godly, religious, spiritual, etc.
and because
58. the steps on those "paths" or "journeys" or "plans" call for the playing of certain "noumenal-based roles" such as "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Supreme Self," "The Super Seeker," etc.
and because
59. the end goal of those "paths" or "journeys" or "plans" is to lead persons to the assumption of those roles and to inspire them to work thereafter - for the remainder of the seekers' or devotees' or believers' or followers' or disciples' lifetimes - in order to maintain those roles. ("Good role" assumption, therefore, is their end game.)
What differs about the "path" here?
While it is acknowledged that most seekers must play for a while the roles mentioned in #58, those "third-step roles" are most certainly not what lies at the end of the "path" here or at the end of the "path" which was discussed by Maharaj; that third, role-playing step is actually not even the midway point in the seven steps which Maharaj alluded to in his talks (without ever actually numbering them as "1 through 7").
It is at the third step on that "path" where any roles previously thought to be "bad" roles or "lesser" roles are replaced with the assumption of "new and improved" roles which are thought at the third step to be "good" or "greater" roles.
Per #59, most "paths" or "journeys" or "plans" stop at that third step and most direct seekers to never move beyond that step; instead, the false pride which those roles engender inspires non-realized persons (who only think that they are realized) to cling to their "good" or "greater" roles of "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Supreme Self," "The Super Seeker," etc. and to never transition beyond those or beyond the third step.
It was those types Maharaj was referring to when he spoke of persons who have reached the third step and have fixated there and who are now functioning under the delusion that they "are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when, in fact, they are actually only standing in the dull light of dawn."
The "path" Maharaj recommended and the "path" which is shared here both recommend that seekers reduce to a minimum the time that seekers loiter about and linger and dawdle around at the third step.
The invitation offered both by Maharaj and here is to transition beyond all personality identifications - including the so-called "bad" or "lesser" ones as well as the supposedly "good" or "greater" ones - and to move along to the fourth step and return to the no-personal-identification, no-role, no-false identity state known as "The Child Ignorance Stage" (pointed to here with the term, "The Child No-Knowing State").
To those stuck at the third step and who are fixated in their "good" or "greater" (but totally false) personality identifications, Maharaj's message was:
“Give up spirituality”
and
“Follow your normal inclinations"
and
"Forget spirituality"
and
"Just give up spirituality and abide naturally"
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 have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false”
and
“Stop reading I AM THAT and listen to my later talks" (specifically, the later talks dealing with the problems with and the solutions for the warped, human mind rather than the earlier talks dealing with dogma and / or spirituality). He said that those talks in I AM THAT were "for that time only and not applicable now."
If anyone has ever tried living with a full-blown narcissist (or the narcissists' companions who have full-blown cases of malignant narcissism, namely sociopaths and psychopaths) then that one exposed to such narcissists can understand precisely what it is like to have to try to negotiate one's way through - or one's way out of - the miserable life which comes when living with someone who constantly displays the narcissist's unchecked levels of arrogance, conceit, condescension, self-importance, false pride, sense of superiority, and egotism.
Yet it just so happens that those who have assumed the roles of "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Supreme Self," or "The Super Seeker," etc. exhibit those exact same narcissism-based traits on the list in the preceding paragraph.
So disgusting are the behaviors of persons presently attached to those - or similar - roles that some of the mates or children of those who have adopted those "good" or "greater" roles now - by comparison - prefer "The Major Ass" they had been living with over "The Superior Saint" that has now appeared.
For those that have come here for retreats or who have made arrangements to go through the seven steps by Skype or telephone, the invitation since 1989 has been:
"Get to step three, but consider it to be a place which is so toxic that you will linger there no longer than you would in a bath with too-hot-and-scalding-water because what you'll be like at the third step may not chap you, but what comes out of the games you'll play while there are going to chap the heck out of any around you unless they are also caught up with the playing of the same roles.
And if that is the case, your movement toward the end of the "path" or "journey" or "plan" will likely never be completed because the two of you will merely reinforce each other's false identities and will encourage fixation in those false, narcissism-generating false identities.
Additionally, when that happens, then you will both be willing to enter onto a "path" and then end up staying on it, and be willing to begin a "journey" which never reaches the destination but continue on that "journey" anyway, and be willing to accept a treatment plan which you are told offers no cure for what ails you but which you will normalize and stay with that ineffective plan, anyway.
Then both of you will remain trapped in your use of the ego-defense mechanism of egotism to convince your ego-states that your endless "path" or "journey" or ineffective treatment plan is absolutely wonderful. Why? Because false identities love nothing more than the distortions and delusions and illusions which support those false identities.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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