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, for these two additional reasons as well:
62. Human's primary addiction to control (see reason 29) and their secondary addiction to power / a Power / Powers (see reason 23) in order to be able to control
and
63. The presence of widespread gullibility, especially among humans who suffer what Maharaj identified as three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (namely, "ignorance, stupidity and insanity").
When
(1) humankind's addiction to control
and
(2) humankind's addiction to power in order to be able to control drives them to support persons whom they see as powerful and to attack persons whom they perceive to be weak
and then when those two agendas
(3) are combined with the fact that most persons on the planet are suffering from the Ultimate Sickness (and are, therefore, also being driven by "ignorance, stupidity and insanity")
then it is assured that all of those factor will combine to
(4) deactivate their use of logic, their use of reason, and the use of their internal BS detector
and all of that will then result in
(5) their being driven by levels of gullibility which are so high that they will
(a) believe lies
and will
and will
(b) abhor truth
and will
and will
(c) applaud ignorance
while
while
(d) rejecting any and all words of wisdom.
It has been noted here that "The truth will set you free, but it's going to piss you off first." So it is with humans.
BELIEVING MAGICAL THINKERS
Thus, the masses will be drawn to magical thinkers who talk about the Power or Powers in other worlds who are controlling everything that happens in "this world" (including whether it rains or not or whether a hurricane follows one track or another, and whether or not "a sparrow falls, or not").
Along with assigning some supposedly supernatural cause to happenings that are actually nothing more than natural events, most among the non-realized masses will also believe that some other-worldly Power or Powers are using relative, devastation-causing weather events to "send a message to humanity" that a God or the gods are displeased.
BELIEVING POLITICIANS WHO LIE
If supporters think that their favorite politician is going to use his or her power to control things the way that those supporters would control things if they had the power to do so, then they will believe everything that politician says, even when his or her comments are the 180-degree opposite of the facts. And the more that leaders shows absolute confidence in whatever they're really just making up and in their totally false beliefs, the more the support among their followers will be strengthened.
Cambridge University alumni Stephen Fry in the U.K. explains that there is a psychology lesson which can help explain the phenomena associated with today's discussion of ignorance, gullibility, the blinding effects of arrogance, etc., and how research has found a connection with non-duality's focus on awareness . . . on being conscious and awake.
For example, researchers found that students who were the least proficient were often the ones to most overestimate their own abilities.
“The skills they lacked were the same skills required to recognize their incompetence,” Fry said. In fact, he said, “The incompetent are often 'blessed' with an inappropriate confidence buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.”
In fact, that condition has now been recognized in the psychology-psychiatric community and given a name for the sake of discussion (the Dunning-Kruger Effect), and Fry makes a point which Maharaj would not have likely disagreed with:
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.”
THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT and THE NON-DUAL MESSAGE
Nowhere in any of the purest versions of the non-dual message is there any endorsement of being smart or being intelligent or being proud of having accumulated more and more "knowledge"; nor is there any criticism if one is not knowledgeable or if one is driven by ignorance. The message is simply this, per Maharaj:
"Realization is nothing more than being liberated from learned ignorance."
Thus, there is nothing to be proud of, ashamed of, or arrogant about. This is not unlike the non-dual message with its invitation to (a) be free of learned ignorance and the insanity which is passed down from one generation to the next and then (b) to wake up . . . to be awake, aware, and conscious.
In that regard, in 1999 David Dunning and Justin Kruger (at Cornell University's Department of Psychology at the time) published a paper in which they shared the findings of their research. That paper was entitled, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Impotence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments."
In a series of four studies, they showed that frequently "the people who are very bad at something think they are actually pretty good at it." They showed that to assess one's own expertise at something, one needs to have a certain amount of expertise already.
Even prior to their publication, most were aware of the fact that the tendency among humans is this:
"Seemingly everyone evaluates themselves as above average in everything."
Those same types were the ones who were booted out of Maharaj's loft. Maharaj welcomed those exhibiting the Ultimate Sickness symptoms of "ignorance, stupidity and insanity" if they had come to recognize the presence of those and if they were there to understand how to be free of those. In fact, the "well" need not visit. It was the types who were seeking to be free of the Sickness who had to be allowed inside in order to receive Maharaj's treatment for the Sickness.
(And, yes, his plan was modified over the years. He was wise enough to abandon what did not work and then continue to seek a viable treatment. Once he found that the main problem with humanity is psychological, he stayed with that plan - which addressed the real issue - until the end.)
Adumbrating the pointer offered earlier, that there is nothing involved in this discussion that one should be either proud of or ashamed of, Fry points out that . . .
"Unfortunately, in those places ruled by the smug and complacent, a classic paper has become a weapon. The findings of Dunning and Kruger are being reduced to 'Stupid people are so stupid that they don't know they are stupid.' Dunning himself said, 'The presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as it’s been come to be called, is that one should pause to worry about one’s own certainty, not the certainty of others'. "
Non-duality invites those operating from a position of blind faith to question everything, and that includes . . . one's own self.
In that regard, Fry notes: "A large pile of research on various groups of people, covering various skill sets, indicates that in the face of all evidence, humans are irredeemably optimistic about their own abilities. That is, by itself, not such a bad thing. The ugly side shows up when we also realize that the norm must be maintained. Studies show that we do this by considering that everyone else is much worse. Being clueless about your own abilities is one thing. Misjudging other's abilities is relatively more serious."
For example, if one were to look objectively at, and listen objectively to, those who are deemed to be "titans of business" and "the true economic powerhouses in one's culture," then one might well hear from them all sorts of narcissism-based bragging going on. Often, to use an analogy from baseball, the case is that "those who were born on third base nevertheless seem to believe, delusionally, that they got there became they hit a triple."
Fry: "The point being that it is not just self-evaluation that is difficult. Evaluation of a skill set is, quite simply, very difficult to get right."
Yet how often is one likely to hear those titans and powerhouses say, "Hell's bells. I might as well be honest. I've never accomplished a damn thing on my own. My daddy and mommy left me millions." Maybe . . . never?
Fry: "What this study outlines most starkly is what happens when someone is not just bad at something, but they are bad and do not possess the tools to assess their own performance. These are two different skills: action and self-assessment. Sometimes the two skill sets overlap so well that you have to be good at something to accurately know that you are good at it. In other cases, the two skill sets don't overlap."
NON-DUALITY: ONE MEANS FOR TREATING NARCISSISM
The Nisarga Yoga which Maharaj used along with his direct path approach, can treat the Narcissistic Personality Disorder when listeners grasp his message that There is no one to be proud of anything and that You are nothing special and nothing Special and that This "you" is nothing more than a composite unity of an elemental plant food body that is temporarily circulating air and conscious-energy. So wherefore all this false "pride"?
Fry: "Another study examined the relationship between people's estimate of their ability to 'read people' and their actual ability to read people. In this case, once again, those who consistently fail to read people actually thought they were pretty good at it, while those who could accurately read people underestimated their performance.
"In searching for the source of the subject's poor estimation, the researchers zeroed in on narcissism as one of the primary correlates. The higher people ranked on a narcissism test, the more likely they were to estimate their abilities to read people highly.
"Although narcissism correlated to self-evaluation, it did not correlate to actual performance. In other words, narcissists think they are brilliant. Who knew? In addition, the researchers found that extroverts were also more likely to overestimate their abilities, while self-esteem and gender were not correlated. And, importantly, none of these seemed to be correlated to actual performance."
CULTURAL VARIABLES
Fry: "In the US, extroverts are loved. I would say that in Europe, extroverts are not as highly valued, but you do have to have a certain degree of self-confidence in your abilities to get by. This is not universally true. Although we in the West admire students who exhibit self-confidence, in parts of Asia, humility and hard work are more highly regarded. It is expected that a student will be incompetent, but it is also expected that a student will work hard to become competent. This is not a comment on which should be regarded as 'better' but a comment on the cultural environment in which we operate."
"The results of research tell us something that every one of us has expressed at some time or another: The incompetent are readily able to escape detection by those who count."
And who might be included among "those who count"?
** Uninformed and under-informed voters.
** Naive congregants.
** Parents and other ancestors.
** And all who have been fooled and are now passing along their foolishness.
Maharaj offered a means by which that chain can be broken, and he gave away the gifts of his time and energy to offer that means (even as he understood full well that most would never "get it").
Fry: "In spite of this, I remain optimistic. Why?
"Because the Dunning-Kruger paper shows that, with training, self-evaluation accuracy improves. If you teach people logical reasoning, they become better able to evaluate their own performance in logical reasoning."
Maharaj endorsed replacing nonsense and foolishness and warped thinking with the same kind of "reason and logic" which typify the existence of all living things on the planet except for humans. And "reason and logic" are "elemental brain things," not "non-elemental mind things." Both reason and logic happen spontaneously and, ironically, do not require "thought." They merely require abiding naturally as opposed to abiding unnaturally or trying to abide supernaturally / spiritually / magically, etc.
Fry: Also, "perhaps we should give people experience with their overconfidence."
Is that not what Maharaj did with the arrogance-controlled persons who arrived in the loft with their "showboat" mentality, going there not to understand anything they did not yet understand but to try to take advantage of a captive audience - Maharaj's audience - to put on display their own "spiritual giantism"?
Maharaj did, indeed, give those types an "experience with their overconfidence."
It is the task of the independent, non-dual "teacher" to take expressions which are heard and which are based in total distortion and to offer an alternate perspective based in fact and truth.
A friend who is a cardiologist has reached a point in his career where he is functioning in a most Maharaj-like manner in terms of sharing truth. When he discussed the potential effects of a patient's excessive weight gain since her last office visit, she replied:
"Yeah, I'm sure that's because my damn thyroid is underactive again."
His response: "Well, in that case, until you get that damn underactive thyroid issue under control, you might want to pay attention to getting an overactive mouth at the table under control. Ha."
She: "Yeah, 'ha'."
He's not anymore likely to see her again than Maharaj was likely to see those he cast out of the loft. So it is.
Both Doc and Maharaj understood and accepted the fact that, "The Truth will set you free, but it's going to piss you off first." Yet most persons prefer to surround themselves with "Yes men" and "Yes women" and people who will say what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
"Should I find someone who will tell me what I need to hear?" some ask?
The first suggestion here is not that you seek out someone who is willing to tell you the truth. It is that you first become willing to hear the truth; otherwise, even if you find a "Truth-Teller," you will not heed words which are rooted in the universal consciousness. Then only find someone courageous enough and wise enough to offer the truth which frees.
Finally, "those who lack the skills required to recognize their own incompetence" will obviously lack the skills required to recognize
(A) the incompetence of those whom they want to give them indirect access to the political power to control their nation and others nations
and will obviously lack the skills required to recognize
(B) the incompetence of those who have set them on a particular "path" or "journey" which are endless or the incompetence of those who have gotten them hooked into a totally nonviable treatment plan which will never address what really ails them.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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