NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part TTT - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax • and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #61. because humans dualistically develop (a) a preference for that which is familiar and (b) a hatred for that which is unfamiliar or "different" and because humans become (c) "creatures of habit" (which always include among the non-realized an "us" vs. "them" mentality). 

The causes behind reason #61? 

ACCULTURATION, PERSONALITY-DRIVEN FEAR, PERSONALITY-DRIVEN ARROGANCE 

Researchers in Stockholm, Sweden have uncovered many of the ways which cultural identity and prejudice are related. Their research would focus on seeking an answer to the question, "How does prejudice and cultural identity form our 'perceptive predisposition'?" 

Of course "the realized" understand that warped perspectives are at the core of a false sense of separation and that domestication (what is taught in the home) and acculturation (what is taught by the society and its leaders) are key sources and top disseminators of prejudice and a false sense of "the other." 

There is a forty-something-year-old neighbor whose name I do not even know but I have observed that his hatred of African-Americans has reached such a visceral level that he will approach those of us who walk through the neighborhood and he will try to engage us in a conversation about how "those people" are "ruining our nation." 

The only one who will usually engage with him is the man next door who claims, as I have previously shared, that "all of the problems in the U.S. started when Lincoln freed the slaves." 

One morning during a walk when both of those men tried to make a captive audience out of me by sharing their ultra-right wing hatred and trying to encourage me to join in their diatribe, I paused only long enough to say, 

"I'm curious. You both think that blacks are the greatest threat to you and our nation, but tell me this: how many times have you been totally screwed over by any black person versus how many times in your lives you were totally screwed over by the whites in your families, by whites at your job site, by whites you've formed partnerships with, by whites you've lived with or been married to, and by whites who were and are your in-laws?" 

I continued: "I don't know about you guys, but I cannot name even a single black who has ever screwed me over 'personally,' but if you want a list of the people who have done that, my very long list will only have whites on it. And I suspect if you were honest in looking back over your lives and making a thorough and honest inventory, your lists would be just like mine and would be a long-ass list of white people." 

For the first time ever, both ranters were silent, though I'm sure that did not last because hatred inside must break out via hateful words; because arrogance inside will fight its way to the outside; and because ignorance inside will find its way outside via ignorant words which result in ignorant actions. 

At the core of all hostility is the concept of "the other," and at the core of beliefs about "the others" is duality-based, separate-and-therefore-not-equal prejudice and discrimination and intolerance and injustice based in religion (or in a decision to choose not to participate in religion); in gender (with chauvinism in the U.S. reaching heights which have not been seen in decades); 

in sexual orientation and / or identification; in race and color; in country of origin and nationality (with xenophobia and white supremacy and white nationalism in the U.S. reaching heights which have not been seen in decades); in age; in class and economic levels; in terms of ability vs. those with disabilities; in body type; etc. 

When leaders model prejudice and judgmentalism and endorse duality-based separation, and when hatred is normalized via the fury-driven speech of politician or business leaders or via the speech of supposedly-religious leaders, then many among the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do masses will mirror that same kind of speech and it will lead to hostile actions. Why?

Because the progression is always from thought to word to deed, so acts of hatred are assured to follow hearing hate speech and / or the use of hate speech. Then, persons will separate themselves and isolate themselves and segregate themselves and insulate themselves and will take a path that only involves "non-others" and will take journeys which only allow "non-others" to travel with them. 

They will take paths which accept a few but which exclude many more, again, based on religious affiliation; on gender; on chauvinistic beliefs; on sexual orientation and / or identification; on race and color; on country of origin and nationality; on age; on class and economic levels; on terms of ability vs. those with disabilities; on body type; etc. 

None of the above is "new." Such separation and distinctions have historically been commonplace because dual-minded persons have historically been commonplace. 

For example, on the ship named The Titanic, passengers were separated by class: 

First Class

Second / "Standard" Class

and, down in the deepest bowels of the ship,

Third Class or "Steerage." 

A study of those who drowned after the ship hit an iceberg and foundered shows that the "First Class First" rule far outweighed the principle of "Women and Children First." 

The distinction in the way that passengers were treated according to their social and economic class is obvious in these facts:

39% of First Class passengers perished. 

58% of Standard / Second Class passengers perished. 

76% of Third Class / Steerage passengers perished. 

Only 39% of the wealthiest passengers perished while 58% and 76% of "the others" drowned. 

Consider these numbers as well: 

49 - the number of children from Second Class and Steerage who perished. 

1  - the number of children from First Class who perished. 

The impact of dualistic thinking is not theoretical. It has been, and continues to be, quite real in terms of the relative existence.

There is a wealthy man that does much to support this site, that does much to support other charities through foundations he has established, and that does much for those in need in his community and about the globe. He started with nothing and built his business without any hand-me-down funding. 

He evidences both ownership and earnership and is most giving. He practices de-accumulation in many ways. 

There are others whose paths I've crossed who are wealthy because wealth was passed down to them. They have ownership, but no earnership. The result? 

They are selfish and tight-fisted and driven by the belief that "there's never enough - I want more and more." They share nothing. They practice accumulation only. 

Maharaj noted, "You need some food, clothing and shelter for you and yours, but this will not create problems as long as greed is not taken for a need." 

Maharaj addressed the selfishness of one visitor: "To be selfish means to covet, acquire, accumulate on behalf of the part against the whole." 

He said: "All suffering is caused by selfish isolation, by insularity and greed." 

He told one visitor that he "was callous" and added, "If your world is so full of suffering, do something about it; don’t add to it through greed." 

He also exposed the class-based snobbery of another, saying: "You complain that people are abjectly poor, yet you do not share your riches with them. You mind the war next door, but you hardly give it a thought when it is in some far off country. The shifting fortunes of your ego determine your values; ‘I think’, ‘l want’, ‘I must’ are made into absolutes." 

There is little to be said for accumulation by the realized. Maharaj made clear that if accumulation does happen, it is to be shared with those most in need. 

Yet there is much said for accumulation by those born into the upper social and economic classes they are in. Of those types, Maharaj said that many "make the classification more important than life itself." 

The realized care not a whit about any cultures' hierarchies. Those at the top of those hierarchies want those below them to fight and die to preserve their status and the status quo. Those types find truth to be anathema. 

Maharaj explained the reasons thusly: "Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and the freedom from the false." 

He advised one visitor to the loft: "You talk so much of reforms: economic, social, political. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer. What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless?" 

Indeed. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part SSS - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax 

• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

and 

at what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #60: the paths and journeys and programs which persons dedicate themselves to - and which they even make a second, workaholism-plagued job out of - offer supposed perks (especially those involving conscience-clearing for persons who still have a conscience) as well as "soul"-saving, forgiveness-assuring, punishment-escaping and reward receiving "benefits" . . . both now during the relative existence and supposedly forevermore after the relative existence ends. 

The causes behind reason #60? 

PERSONALITY ASSIGNMENT AND ASSUMPTION, CONDITIONING, ACCULTURATION, FEARS, DESIRES, DISTORTION AND DELUSION PERSONALITY ASSIGNMENT, (STARTING WITH "THE GOOD BOY" "THE BAD BOY," "THE GOOD GIRL" "THE BAD GIRL")

CONDITIONING

Most children with an average-functioning brain are at least as smart as Pavlov's dogs, so most children can be conditioned rather easily. It matters not if one is regularly repeating "Good dog!" (with the accompanying smile) and "bad dog!" (with the accompanying scowl) or if one is regularly repeating "Good boy / girl!" (with the accompanying smile) or "bad boy / girl!" (with the accompanying scowl), the effects will be the same: 

the object of duality-based praise and scorn will, if an average-functioning brain is present, become conditioned to do the things which earn rewards / smiles / admiration and will become conditioned to avoid the things which earn punishments / frowns / criticism / condemnation. 

The only thing separating (a) the little boy standing at the edge of a pool yelling "Watch me mommy! Look at me mommy!" while his mother lies on a chaise lounge ignoring him and (b) a male strutting about in a club while prowling for women to look at him and admire him or a man doing all he can to get an "Attaboy!" in one form or another from a mate for bringing home a mammoth / check / present is . . . about twenty-four years in age. 

And the same ego-and-egotism-based games are being played out by females and gays and lesbians and trans and all "non-realized," conditioned persons.

Once conditioned, always conditioned unless realization happens. How insane can conditioning make any living thing? 

Conditioning involves "associating a response with a previously unrelated stimulus" and "repeated use of a specific stimulus in order to create a predictable and controlled response." The Russian Pavlov first noted the way that conditioning worked when a stimulus was controlling responses among his dogs. 

He began his experiments that established the validity of his theories about conditioning that have been described thusly: The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the presence of meat powder, his dogs began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who normally fed them. 

From this observation he predicted that, if a particular stimulus in the dog's surroundings were present when the dog was presented with meat powder, then this stimulus would become associated with food and cause salivation on its own. In his initial experiment, Pavlov used the bell on a metronome to call the dogs to their food and, after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the sound bell. 

Note that conditioning displaces that which is nisarga - natural - with unnatural behaviors. Dogs normally salivate when they smell an edible. Conditioned, Pavlov's dogs abnormally salivated when they heard a particular sound.

(Among persons, conditioning can also replace that which is natural with that which is thought to be supernatural, that is, spiritual or magical or metaphysical, separating them even more from that which is natural and real). It is among persons that conditioning results in misery and suffering for it is conditioning that leads to the ignorance of taking appearance for reality, and such ignorance will always lead - as Maharaj noted - to calamities in the relative existence. Conditioning can lead persons to see the intolerable as tolerable, encouraging a tolerance of pain - which is physical - and / or misery . . . which is mental and emotional.)

ACCULTURATION 

Acculturation is the process of changing psychologically as a result of adopting the ways and beliefs and thinking patterns of the surrounding culture in which one lives. An example used here to illustrate the results of acculturation has been discussed here in the case of Dylann Roof: 

On the evening of June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina, a white 21-year-old male named Dylann Roof entered a church with a mostly black congregation and sat with some members for about an hour during a bible study session. Afterwards, Roof drew a gun and stated that he was going to shot everyone there. 

Twenty-six-year-old Tywanza Sanders asked Roof why he was attacking churchgoers and he responded, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." See? Believing in the duality-based and ego-state and egotism-and-ignorance-driven concepts of eugenics and "different-from and therefore better-than," Roof was going about the business of "making America great / white-dominated again" (at least in his warped, duality-driven mind) long before anyone printed that white supremacist-based slogan on a cap. 

When Roof aimed to shoot Sanders’ aunt, he dove in front of her and became the first to be shot. Roof shouted racial epithets as he shot the others. One image from Roof's Facebook page shows him wearing a jacket decorated with two emblems that are popular among American white supremacists: the flags of the former Rhodesia (Zimbabwe now) and apartheid-era South Africa (which was being run by a white separatist minority government which was supported by U.S. President Ronald Reagan who fought all efforts by Nelson Mandela and others to establish a democracy). 

Roof’s website includes a “manifesto” which includes a racist diatribe about "Blacks," "Jews," "Hispanics" and "East Asians” as well as photos showing an image of Roof posing with a handgun and a Confederate Battle Flag first used 150 years ago by a confederacy of Southern states who were trying to overthrown the U.S. Government in order to preserve the institution of slavery. 

(These are the same Southerners - playing the role of "The Greatest Patriots in the U.S." - who would go to war immediately with anyone displaying an ISIS flag which is flown by another confederacy that also wants to overthrown the U.S. Government). 

The website of the Council of Conservative Citizens was cited by Roof as a source for his radicalization. The group's president, Earl Holt III, stated that the group's website "accurately and honestly report[s] black-on-white violent crime.” The Council of Conservative Citizens, founded in 1988 in Atlanta, Georgia and then relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, is an American political organization which supports a variety of conservative causes as well as white nationalism and white separation and the concept of white supremacy. 

Its "Statement of Principles" says that they "oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind." Several members of the Board of Directors are former leaders of the segregationist Citizens' Councils of America which was commonly referred to as the White Citizens’ Council which was a network of white supremacist organizations first formed in 1954 in the United States and concentrated in the South. 

Their aim was to stop the implementation of a Supreme Court ruling authorizing school desegregation and to fight all efforts at integration and to halt the civil rights movement completely. They have long been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but that has not stopped many right-wing, mostly Republican politicians on the national and state and local levels from aligning with them and taking contributions from the group beginning in 1988 and continuing right up to the present. Their supporters in the U.S. Government even worked to attain tax-exempt status for them, so the group has never had to pay the federal taxes which are due from any partisan group. 

The group is still actively supporting "socially and morally conservative candidates," giving political donations to many of Republican candidates for the office of President of the United States including, among others, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, a host of other right-wing anti-progressives, and, recently, Donald Trump (all of whom have received significant financial support from the group). How do persons shift so drastically from being loving initially to being filled with hate? 

Children arrive with a "blank tablet," that is, with a no-mind brain. The brain provides an example of the way that consciousness functions automatically and spontaneously: it makes certain that the heart is pumping blood, that the lungs are circulating air, that plant cells are being converted into human cells, allowing a child to grow, etc. 

At some point, the children will be taught words and then concepts and beliefs which will be stored in the parts of the brain which form "the mind" and which allow information to be filed away and later retrieved. Prior to programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination, children are race neutral . . . are color impartial . . . are bias-free. 

FEARS AND DESIRES 

All fears and all desires are rooted in the hidden, subconscious agendas of personalities. Each type has a specific fear and a specific desire. Personality Type Three Performers have a desire for applause and mass adulation and "success" and have a fear of being scorned and not looking good in public and being a "failure." Personality Type Six Loyalists / Dependents have a desire to use their loyalty to attract dependent and co-dependent types who will meet their relative needs and a fear of not being taken care of for life by some person or institution.

PERSONALITY ASSIGNMENT AND ASSUMPTION

And persons trapped in their "good personality identities" who are - therefore - obsessive about a path or journey or program which reinforces their "good image" desire an endless stream of rewards now and for eternity and fear being punished both now and forevermore. Thus most of the 97% of the planet's population who report they are affiliated with one religion or another, and the millions more who claim to be spiritual, are in pursuit of conscience-clearing and "soul"-saving and getting forgiveness and benefits and perks and avoiding punishment. 

DISTORTION AND DELUSION 

With millions of distorted and delusional beliefs stored in the minds of persons all over the planet, how to prioritize them from "most to least debilitating"? Yet is there a basic teaching which might help identify one of the key distortions and delusions? The answer is "Yes." 

Maharaj explained that one belief in particular is especially widespread and a key contributor to distortion and delusion, and that is the distorted and delusional belief in an "individual" with a "personal identity" who can experience "eternal continuity."

He asked: "What is an individual"? and then he explained: "There is a body created of elements, and in that body dwells [circulates] the vital breath and the consciousness. It is a composite unity." 

He said: "All living forms contain the vital breath and the consciousness, and although the forms are different, they all contain [are comprised of] the same elements. So I ask again: 'Where is the question of an individual'?" 

And again he answered: "Basically, there is none. And this is my basic teaching which has to be grasped, but very few will ever understand." 

Were the masses to understand that what they take themselves / "their self or selves" to be is really nothing more than an elemental plant food body that is circulating air and that is circulating conscious-energy, and were the masses to understand that upon taking mahasamadhi (a.k.a., "dying" in their belief system) that the elements will return to the universal pool of elements, that the air will return to the universal pool of air, and that the conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy, then hundreds of thousands of distorted and delusional beliefs would instantly vanish. 

In the process, the pride of being affiliated with and associated with all of their supposedly-special paths and journeys and programs (which are inspiring them to engage is all sorts of supposedly "holy or sacred or aloof or divine" types of workaholism) would also vanish. 

Some have asked: "But without the regulating influence of those paths and journeys and programs, wouldn't the masses become disorderly and create chaos and just do whatever they want - beat, rape, steal, kill, whatever?" 

The response, "Have you missed the fact that the masses are already doing all of that? Those 'regulating influences' you've dreamed up have been proven over and over, for thousands of years, to be totally ineffective. So how long should it take to recognize the failure of an approach when its failure is so evident and then seek a different approach?"

Maharaj made clear that neither the concept of "sin" nor the concept of "virtue" are required and, in fact, should both be discarded. 

As Yoko and John invited, "imagine" . . . "nothing to kill or die for." 

With so much fighting and political division and wars and killing having been rooted in the concepts of sin and virtue, maybe their absence could reduce the number of killings and the number of things believed to be worth dying for.

And imagine being free of the belief that a composite unity can last forever and will either be rewarded or punished for eternity. Imagine how much wasted energy and angst would vanish. 

Then . . . 

Imagine there's no heaven. 

It's easy if you try. 

No hell below us, 

Above us only sky. 

Imagine all the people living for today. 

Are you living for today rather than for tomorrow and for "eternity"? 

To live for today is natural. Every living thing on the planet lives for today in a natural way, except for humans. 

To live for a conceptualized "tomorrow" or with a conceptualized "eternity" as one's key driver and motivator is most unnatural and is the product of supernatural (magical) thinking. 

To be preoccupied with all of "that stuff" and with fears and desires and the belief that a composite unity can and will last forever sets one up to drink the Kool-Aid when told to do so. But less dramatically, it sets persons up to sip the Kool-Aid for an entire lifetime, not driving them enough to "kill themselves off" immediately but enough to keep persons really sick for an entire relative existence. 

To let "the self" / false "selves" die off  via realizing the truth would preempt the perceived need to kill oneself to escape the chaos of a personality and mind and distortion and delusion driven existence. 

I once told a fellow named Mark that the reason that people shoot themselves in the head instead of in the foot was to try to stop the incessant chatter of a thousand monkeys between their ears. He got a lot of mileage out of that, but how many truly heard and understood and internalized and acted upon that pointer when he shared it time and again?

The reason that Maharaj stopped using religion and spirituality as a form of the Ultimate Medicine was because he came to understand that the problems of humanity are rooted neither in their knowing too little dogma nor in their having a sick spirit but are, indeed, rooted in the nonsensical beliefs stored in their minds.

And when persons stay on a path or engage in a journey or stay in a program which perpetuates and reinforces the lie that humankind's problems are rooted in knowing too little dogma or in having a sick spirit, then that act will perpetuate and reinforce and add to the vast body of nonsensical beliefs which are stored in their minds and which are actually causing all of their problems and which will assure the continuation of all their problems as well.

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part RRR - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

 Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax 

• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

and 

what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #55: humankind is attached to its "Monkey-See, Monkey-Do" tendencies. 

The causes behind reason #55? 

ACCULTURATION, HIDDEN PERSONALITY AGENDAS (ESPECIALLY INCLUDING THOSE OF PERSONALITY TYPES 2, 3, 6, AND 7) AND INSANITY 

Research by Darren Mays revealed this: "The longer parents smoke, the more likely their kids will, too. Our analysis showed that the longer adolescents are exposed to a parent's smoking when the parent is addicted to nicotine, the more likely they are to begin smoking and to become regular smokers in the future." 

That happens even though in the U.S. and in scores of other countries, the packages which contain the cigarettes being smoked by both parents and their children have written upon them such warnings as: 

"Smoking can kill" 

"Smoking seriously harms you and others around you" 

"Smokers die younger" 

"Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhaging" 

"Smoking causes lung cancer" 

"Smoking during pregnancy harms your baby" and others. Insane? Yes. 

Moreover, many programs designed to treat alcohol and drug addiction ignore the nicotine addiction of its clients, and some even encourage their clients to continue to use nicotine products. Insane? (Their rationale: "You don't want to tackle too many addictions all at once," ignoring the fact that if they effectively treated the personality disorders and the insanity which drive all addictive thinking and behavior, then all of their clients' former "self-destructive" thinking and behavior during the relative existence might end.) 

Yet mirroring may exert a considerable influence over humans' thoughts and words and actions, as with the children who mirror their parents' smoking habits or other addictive behaviors.

Mirroring is defined as "the sometimes subconscious, sometimes conscious imitation of the gestures, speech patterns, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, etc. of other humans and / or animals." 

A British newspaper reported that a team of research psychologists found that humans even "subconsciously mimic other accents," reporting that "people who interact with a person with a different accent subconsciously mimic their twang because they want to 'empathise' with their conversation partner." (My "southern" accent is a product of such mirroring.)

I've always felt that accents might just be a part of humankind's tendency to mirror or mimic, but whatever the case, I was often chastised during the days when I was married to a German woman when I unconsciously mirrored the strong Germanic accent of her relatives while listening to them and talking with them. 

Consider one example when that happened: 

Most of those former in-laws were all amazingly miserly, tight-fisted, and penny-pinching. One of them might receive a $75 gift and in return I would receive a fifty cent penknife. That happened over and over and it was tolerated. Insane on my part to go along with that? Most, except for those in-laws, would likely agree with that assessment. 

On one occasion, the one considered to be "the patriarch" of that family - whose near-blind wife cut his hair with what I guessed must surely have been an electric egg beater - noted that I had recently gotten a haircut.

The last 25 years or more, I too have cut my own hair, sometimes with no better results than the patriarch's wife provided to him, yet that has likely saved me more than $6,000.00. Just prior to the visit to the patrriarch's house, however, I had indeed paid for a pro cut.

In those days, I was still paying a barber / stylist to groom my hair and was paying a very high price for the service which was further evidence of insanity, but the penny-pinching patriarch who had not paid for a haircut in fifty years asked in his strong German accent, "Vell, et looks lack yo got yo self a damn har cut, eh?" 

I replied, "Yes. Sir. I. Did.", speaking very slowly so as not to offend him or the other in-laws by mirroring his accent and having them thinking I was mocking him, a charge which had drawn rebuke on many prior occasions when I had lapsed into a mirroring mode when communicating with those in-laws as I unconsciously used the same Teutonic accents coming out of their mouths.

The old man said, "Soooo, vat are doze damn sumbitches gittin' now for a damn har cut? Probly four bits or so, eh?"

Suddenly, I froze. So busy was I with converting the term "bits" into its modern-day equivalency (twenty-five cents); and with multiplying that to calculate his estimated cost of fifty cents for a haircut from a professional stylist; and then with realizing that if he heard me admit that the haircut, with gratuity, cost forty times more than his guess; 

and then with picturing how disgusting it would be to have to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the old fart if I told him the real cost which would, in turn, cause him to faint, fall, and hit his head on the hardwood floor; and then - with focusing on knowing I had already delayed too long in providing an answer - the result was that my usual focus (of avoiding the mirroring of his accent) became lost; 

thus, I replied unconsciously with a harsh, guttural, Germanic inflection (which was subconsciously intended to reflect the same degree of anger and the same level of disdain that he was showing for professional barbers) and said, 

"Yah, sir, ah tink da har cut probly vas uh-round four bits." 

To that he replied, "Damn robbers!" and walked out of the room. Meanwhile, I looked around to see dozens of pairs of eyes staring at me with hatred for having seemingly mocked the old man . . . and, seemingly, them as well. 

With that, I said, "Yep. Damn robbers they are alright" and then turned and walked outdoors to escape the hatred being visually telegraphed to me inside. Whew! I thought. Thank goodness they no longer bring to their gatherings the Karabiner 98k "Mausers" they used during their former years back in the Fatherland! 

So sometimes humans practice mirroring consciously (dressing like movie stars or famous singers or other well-known performers) and sometime humans practice mirroring subconsciously (as I did on that, and many other occasions, during those years I tried to deal with that family of Huns). 

As for the subject matter of this series, consider how mirroring traps persons on endless paths and endless journeys:

How many are on a religious or ideological or philosophical or cult-like path and are deeply involved in the activities of a church or synagogue or temple or mosque or some compound because, as adults, they studied the religions of the world and made a conscious choice about which religion they were going to dedicate themselves to only after a thorough and independent and objective investigation 

as opposed to 

how many are on a religious or ideological or philosophical or cult-like path and are deeply involved in the activities of a church or synagogue or temple or mosque or some compound because, as children, they were taken to that church or synagogue or temple or mosque or compound by their parents and were set on the path they are now on without any ability to question or decide for themselves what they wanted to do, or not do, in terms of following a path, often now in a fanatical manner . . . a path which they were placed on but never consciously chose to follow? 

And how many are absorbed in some spiritual or treatment program because they studied all of the programs and institutions and other options offering treatment for what ails them and studied the "success rates" as calculated by independent researchers and then made a conscious choice about which program or treatment method they were going to dedicate themselves to only after a thorough and independent and objective investigation 

as opposed to 

how many just blindly staggered into wherever they have ended up, bought into the pitch that was made to them on day one, and have, ever since, been mirroring and parroting how the older members think, what they say, and what they do - or claim to be doing though they are not really doing that at all - while making assertions about the remarkable results which - they claim - have restored them to sanity? 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part QQQ - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

THE RATIONALE FOR UNDERSTANDING "THE REASONS" AND BEING FREED FROM THEIR INFLUENCE, PART SIX 

"As long as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speedily to your goal. This is what I call 'nisarga yoga', 'the Natural yoga'." 

 --Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

Yesterday, it was noted that the indigenous peoples in what is now called "the Americas" had no words in their language for "my," "mine," "ownership," or "possessions."

In that regard, Maharaj said: "For reality to be, the ideas of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ must go. They will go if you let them. Then your normal natural state reappears, in which you are neither the body nor the mind, neither the ‘me’ nor the ‘mine’, but in a different state of being altogether. It is pure awareness of being, without being this or that, without any self-identification with anything in particular, or in general." 

The only three modes of abidance are: 

natural (a.k.a., abiding normally, sanely, wisely) 

unnatural (a.k.a., abiding abnormally, plagued with personality disorders) 

supernatural (a.k.a., abiding religiously, spiritually, magically) 

If abiding in the natural way, there is no identity, nothing personal: "I am nothing." 

Maharaj said, "There is no ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’ in the Natural State." 

If freed of learned ignorance and false identifications, then abiding naturally can begin, but for that to begin, the normalization of abiding unnaturally must be set aside and the desire and effort to try to abide supernaturally must also end. 

Maharaj advised: "Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way"

and

"Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part" 

and then 

"What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way." 

He said: "The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being." 

THE KEY CHALLENGES AND THE COMPLICATING FACTORS WHICH USUALLY PREVENT HUMANS FROM LIVING IN A NATURAL WAY 

Almost every person on the planet is raised in a manner which inundates him or her with the nonsense that is taught via warped programming and faulty conditioning and perverted acculturation and senseless domestication and vile brainwashing and foul indoctrination. The result?

The ability to differentiate true from false is lost. 

Early on, children have fine-tuned BS detectors, but when they are used, the children are whipped (mentally and sometimes even physically) into submission, into accepting the crap they are told by adults as the truth or at least into being intimidated so much that they abandon all questioning. 

Blind faith can then become the key motivating factor unless children are among the few with a propensity to rebel against ignorance and stupidity and insanity, and even then, they will likely at some point be sucked into that darkness for a time. Meanwhile, adults will delight in their offspring having bought into the "faith" part of that term while ignoring the fact that the "blind" part is most detrimental. 

To regain the use of one's vital BS detector, and to be free of living under the influence of key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity and insanity"), one must find someone that has undergone the process of having been rendered ignorant and stupid and insane; that has undergone the process of having been restored to sanity; and that has undergone the process which finally freed them of all three.

Those who have climbed Mt. Everest and reached the peak are lauded, but they did not accomplished that feat without assistance from the often-ignored sherpa or guide. Seekers of the peak seldom not reach their goal alone. 

The next challenge and the next complicating factor: no matter the number of years a guide has lived, there are only a limited number of years when a guide's skill set is at its height and when the readiness of the one seeking the peak is also at its height. Those conditions seldom manifest early on and seldom last for a protracted time.

Maharaj said that humankind "naturally ripens and becomes ready for realization" (that is, ready to cast aside all of the ignorance that has been taught and learned during a lifetime). 

With all of those variables and complicating factors at play, what are the odds of a seeker's readiness being in place, of a guide's "ripeness" being in place, and of their paths converging at the point when that confluence of one's readiness and the other's ripeness have manifested simultaneously? 

See, for those whose paths crossed the paths of "maharaj" or "floyd" or any one of thousands of others too early, before they had yet fully "ripened" and therefore had not fully realized, then seekers were not given the pointers required to activate their BS detector. 

The pointers which flowed from a religious / non-duality version of the Ultimate Medicine or from a spiritual / non-duality version of the Ultimate Medicine were useless in terms of activating the vital BS detector and, in fact, actually caused the detector to remain inactive.

Is it any wonder that the longer Maharaj worked with seekers, the lower became his estimate of how many would ever realize, changing his prediction from 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 1,000,000 to 1 in 10,000,000. 

Comedian Steve Martin suggested that if you really want to screw up your kids, "talk 'wrong' around them when they are little and learning to talk." Then, he said, imagine how funny it will be when your child is in the first grade and raises his hand and says, "Excuse me, teacher, may I mambo dogface to the banana patch?" 

Another comedian shared this during his act: “Here’s a parenting tip for you: if your goal is to really screw up your kids, don’t use corporal punishment. Wounds heal in seven to ten days or so. No, to really screw ‘em up good, don’t screw up their bodies. That’s temporary; instead, screw up their minds. Now that punishment lasts forever!” 

Now those two were conscious of the damage that parents do to their children, but most parents will never realize that. Oh, they will believe that they can see clearly all of the mistakes that "those other parents" are making, but as for seeing their own? Not likely.

A counselor probed into the upbringing of a client and he exposed - unconsciously - the insanity of his parents and their really strange style of child-rearing. She began asking some questions to inspire the client to wake up to the lingering effects of what he had witnessed as a child and what he had been taught as a child. 

His reply: "That was then; this here is now, little lady, so how 'bout we just stick ta dealin' with now." 

See? As often noted here, "The truth will set you free, but it is really going to piss you off first." 

The man soon left counseling, his ego-states and his egotism working to block his realizing that his "childhood then" is his "adulthood now." To admit that what one parent passed down might have been defective leads person to conclude that they might be "half-defective," and egotism will not allow that admission. 

To admit that what both parents passed down might have been defective leads person to conclude that they must be "totally-defective," and egotism will not allow that admission. Such a conclusion would be totally false, but that is the way that the subconscious mind and egotism work when functioning in tandem. 

The client erroneously felt that the counselor was trying to get him to hate the parents whom he was certain he loved dearly, though many of his comments revealed a deep-seated resentment of them which he has never faced. So it is, so for another generation, the chain will not be broken. To his wife's chagrin, he is raising their children in the same warped fashion as he was raised, bragging: "My folks must'a done sumpthin right: I've turned out purty damn good." 

When in my 20's, I had an acquaintance who knew she had the flu but selfishly came around anyway and exposed me to it, claiming "it's just my sinuses acting up." When I contracted the flu, I was not thrilled with her actions that made me sick, but I did not have to hate her to be inspired to take the action to treat the symptoms while my immune system worked on restoring me to health. 

The same is the case when persons during their childhood were exposed to unnatural thinking and behaviors and normalized those and when persons during their childhood were exposed to supernatural thinking and behaviors and normalized those. They need not hate the ones who passed down the Sickness to them in order to see what those persons handed down to them and then to take all of the necessary action to un-do the effects of the Sickness which was handed down to them.

And what is unnatural and supernatural yet is normalized more than anything else? Being placed on an endless path and unquestioningly staying on it; undertaking a never-ending journey which one never chose for herself or himself to take but blindly continuing with it anyway; and / or seeking treatment for an illness from people who admit they cannot help themselves and who admit they have no cure for your sickness but then agreeing to let them try to treat you, nevertheless.

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part PPP - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax 

• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #56: most seekers think they must focus only on things noumenal; and reason #57: most of the persons presenting 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 reason #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 reason #59: because the end goal of those "paths" or "journeys" or "plans" is to the lead persons to the assumption of those roles and to inspires them to work thereafter - for the remainder of the (so-called) seekers' or devotees' or believers' or followers' or disciples' lifetimes - to maintain those roles. 

The causes behind reasons 56, 57, 58, and 59? 

PROGRAMMING, BELIEF SYSTEMS, INCLUDING (A) THE BELIEF IN "LIFE AFTER DEATH" and (B) THE BELIEF IN "ETERNAL REWARDS" (VS. "ETERNAL PUNISHMENT") and (C) THE BELIEF IN THE XENOPHOBIC PROPAGANDA WHICH PERSONS ARE EXPOSED TO as well as THE ASSUMPTION OF EGO-STATES (SUCH AS "THE PATRIOT," "THE HERO," "THE BRAVE ONE") and THE CONDITIONING AND PROGRAMMING TO OPERATE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF BLIND FAITH AND UNQUESTIONING LOYALTY 

I. During the Spanish-American War, the Spanish fleet were hiding in the Santiago de Cuba bay. The Americans decided that they could take one of their coal tankers and intentionally sink it at the mouth of the bay, thereby trapping the Spanish inside the harbor. The U.S. commanders wanted volunteers to do what everyone assumed would be a complete suicide mission. So many sailors volunteered that they had to pull straws to determine who got the privilege of dying for their country, and there were men sobbing in tears for not being picked for the ability to go die on the mission. 

II. On April 1, 1945, Allied forces invaded the island of Okinawa and engaged the Japanese in what would be called "the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War." My dad sailed from the west coast of the U.S. in the second wave of U.S. military personnel to land on that Pacific island and arrived just as the campaign turned its focus on the clearing out of caves and other hiding places by using methods which traumatized the surviving fighters on both sides. 

But, according to dad, even knowing what awaited on Okinawa was less frightening than the fact that the Japanese air force had pilots who were willing to commit suicide for the Emperor's cause. The so-called kamikaze attacks were suicide missions conducted by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the Pacific. 

The suicidal pilots were only given enough fuel to get their planes to the U.S. ships transporting military personnel and equipment and supplies, so they knew that there was no turning back and that their mission was to drop their torpedoes and bombs and then fly their planes into ships, killing themselves and as many others as they could. 

Dad seldom spoke about those events, but he did remark once that "if you're in a fight with a person who wants to win, that's going to be quite a fight, but if you're in a fight with a person willing to die, you're going to be in one helluva fight." 

III. Nowadays, it seems that there is another group which is easily attracting an endless supply of people who are willing to commit suicide for the cause, this time, the cause of Allah and the cause of the caliphate (which will supposedly provide for the reign of a Muslim chief and a new, theocratic world order). 

The 9 / 11 attackers were a modern-day version of the kamikaze pilots, well aware that they were on a suicide mission to die as they flew two of their hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane, which did not reach its target, was possibly intending to strike either the U.S. Capitol or the White House. 

Between 1981 and September 2015, a total of 4,814 suicide attacks occurred in over forty countries.

To look at the often miserable lives of those volunteering for Islamic suicide missions might reveal one factor in their decision to die for the cause, but the promise of - and belief in - an afterlife in a heavenly brothel might be a greater factor. The Islamic suicide bombers not only believe that they are going to be given seventy-two virgins in their paradise but will also receive thousands of wives and thousands of sexually-skilled whores to service them during their supposedly-eternal orgy. 

IV. And others, these from the U.S., are also engaging in suicide missions: they are the members of the U.S. volunteer army. For years, U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been sent on one suicide mission after another, having correctly anticipated that certain deployments they were being sent on would be a setup for them to be killed, yet they followed orders and went nevertheless.

Often, their predictions proved to be correct. While there have been a few isolated instances of mutiny, for the most parts, the U.S. military members have blindly and unquestioningly followed orders. The process is on-going. As recently as last month, a suicide car bomber hit a U.S. convoy in Afghanistan. 

Now, one trait of the manifested consciousness has been discussed, specifically, a desire for continuity. Birds, being sane, fly away from me if I approach them during a walk through the woods. With no thought involved, they want the manifested consciousness within to remain manifested. The same applies to all sane living things which display that same desire for continuity . . . with one exception. The exception? Programmed and conditioned humans who have been robbed of their sanity. 

A man named Mark, who volunteered two times to serve year-long tours in Vietnam was traumatized to such a degree by his experiences that he never fully recovered. He was a self-described "God-fearing, NRA gun-toting, Republican, Iowa farm boy" and "a patriot who loved America" who was "willing to die for his country." 

Eventually, he would idealize his Vietnam experience, so he once asked me why I did all I could to avoid the draft and chose "not to volunteer to serve, as he did." I explained to him, "I'm not willing to live for a country, much less die for it. We had no damn business being over there in the first place." Our relationship never completely recovered from that admission, so fixed was he in his roles of "The Super Patriot," "The Loyal Hero," and "The Great American." 

What do persons have in common if they are prone to dedicate themselves to something, be it a country, a religion, a spiritual program, a God or multiple gods and goddesses, an employer, a political leader, a cult leader, a sky cult leader, an emperor, an inept military commander who sends them out on a suicide mission, a guru who tries to lock them into a lifestyle for a lifetime which demands religious or spiritual workaholism, etc.? 

Warped programming and conditioning. A belief in life after death; a belief that if they suffer and / or sacrifice now they will be given an eternal reward later; a belief that the admiration of their fellow citizens is well-worth being killed or maimed; and a belief that blind faith and unquestioning loyalty do not reveal the presence of "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." Quite the erroneous perspective that is.

The sane bird is the bird that is willing to live, spontaneously and automatically. It is a bird that has not being programmed to believe in nonsense and has not yet been conditioned to behave in insane and self-destructive ways. In other words, it is a no- mind being. 

This morning when I was on the back patio watering some plants, there were birds singing away, seemingly far more content than most humans nowadays. 

Their singing did not result from having given considerable time or thought to deciding what song should be sung. For example, when they sing to alert others birds to a potential threat or to the danger of a lurking predator, that happens spontaneously. 

The only time that birds behave like conditioned humans is after they have been around other birds for a while; then, influenced by the adult birds around them - by their "elders" - they sing less for the joy of singing but instead sing to imitate other birds; or they sing to impress; 

or they sing to stake out and mark their territories; or they sing to try to call attention to themselves to get another bird to join them for sex. Now some of that can result in a fight, but even though they have been conditioned by that point, they do not fight to the death to get and keep a sex partner. 

Again, that's just humans, so 59% of all women killed annually in the U.S. are killed when they try to leave a mate. 

My Cherokee grandmother taught me that the indigenous peoples had no words in their language for "my," "mine," "ownership," or "possessions," so they were merely using the land temporarily rather than believing this is "my land." Furthermore, they held no beliefs about ownership of people which such terms as "my wife" or "my husband" engender. (Consider the long-term ramifications when invaders arrived with their belief system which recognized "ownership" and "possessions.") 

 And consider the long-term ramifications of belief in "my religion," "my church / temple / mosque / etc.," "my spiritual group," "my lifetime path," "my lifetime journey," "my country," "my ideology," "my philosophy," "my faith," "my beliefs," "my job," "my company," "my political party," "my president," "my house," "my land," "my personal library," "my favorite Big Name Teacher," ad infinitum. 

Finally, consider, if interested, the words written on this subject by John Lennon and Yoko Ono:

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part OOO - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves." 

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

[Continued from yesterday] 

These pointers were offered in the previous post: 

I do not have to be gay to advocate for gays who are being bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed. 

I do not have to be Muslim to advocate for Muslims who are being bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed. 

I do not have to have black skin to advocate for the blacks who have historically been (and who continue to be) bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed in the U.S., including by the authorities who are being paid to protect them and their rights.

Additionally, I do not have to be living below the poverty level as defined by the U.S. Government in order to advocate for the poor. 

I do not have to be physically disabled or wheelchair bound or homebound in order to advocate for the physically disabled or wheelchair bound or homebound. 

To "empathize with" means to understand and relate to the feelings of another human, and that can only happen when Real Love manifests (which is the version of love which allows the realized to "know they are everything"). 

Thus, one need not be an animal to empathize with animals being abused. One need but be realized. 

One should not need to be white to empathize with white women being abused in their homes, with white men being abused in their homes, with white men and women being killed during "breakups," or with the millions of whites being killed or imprisoned annually. One need but be realized. 

One should not need to be a drug addict or an alcoholic or any other kind of addict to empathize with those suffering from the effects of the Addictive Personality Disorder. One need but be realized. 

One should not have to be a citizen of the U.S. to empathize with those in the U.S. who have suffered from terrorist attacks or from the far higher number of attacks perpetrated by their fellow U.S. citizens. One need but be realized. 

One need not be a citizen of Great Britain, France, India, or a Middle Eastern country to empathize with humans attacked and / or killed in Great Britain, France, India, or the Middle East or in any other nation. One need but be realized and understand Maharaj's pointer above. 

To continue: 

Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax 

• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #52: most among the masses never do anything that does not have a perceived payoff, and when the masses want to cultivate a positive public image, then that image payoff comes by tapping into the largest audience possible. 

The causes of reason # 52" 

PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION, IMAGE-BUILDING, ARROGANCE, PERSONALITY-BASED FEARS, AND GREED 

All assigned and assumed personalities have hidden agendas and trigger egotism and arrogance and other ego-defense mechanisms to try to protect an image (which is all that personas are). All assigned and assumed personalities also trigger fears, and fears can trigger greed and avarice and covetousness and desires and cravings and accumulation. 

For example, a Personality Type Two Helper / Rescuer will be the first to show up if someone is supposedly in need and will also be the first to spend time and money trying to help others. Yet they have a hidden motive; their supposed kindness is actually a means to an end. They give not charitably but to get a payback . . . a payoff. 

Ultimately, they want everyone to love them in order to make up for their sense that they did not receive enough love as a child (which is quite likely). Deny them the love they want or show too little gratitude for "all they have done for you" and they will shift to a Sociopathic Type Eight and become a ruthless, angry, raging control freak. It's the old "I will be kind or I will be mean, whichever it takes to get what I want" mentality. 

Also, persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #53: billions of non-realized persons on planet earth live their lives as if they were bump and go cars. 

The causes of reason #53: 

INSANITY, PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION, ADDICTION TO CHAOS, A HOST OF PERSONALITY DISORDERS (INCLUDING ADDICTION AND NEUROSES AND PSYCHOSES WHICH ALL TRIGGER INSTABILITY ALONG WITH MANY OTHER MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL ISSUES)

Yeshu's (Jesus) offered this non-dual pointer, among others: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." And how many among the masses are not dual-minded? According to Maharaj, very few; therefore, the masses are unstable . . . mentally and psychologically as well emotionally. 

The masses are, in fact, addicted to chaos and confusion and commotion and noise and turmoil and going and doing and zooming. 

Much of that is used to try to escape boredom. Some of that is used to try to drown out the chatter of a thousand monkeys which is constantly rattling away between their ears. Some of it is to avoid the silence, which most find intolerable. And their "paths" and "journeys" and "meetings" are just more of the "sturm and drang" which are part and parcel of being driven to go and do and zoom and to "do something" instead of sitting still and doing nothing. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,000+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

NO END "PATHS"? A LIFE-LONG "JOURNEY" WHICH NEVER REACHES THE DESTINATION? A LIFETIME OF TREATMENT WITH NO CURE AT ALL? Sensible and Sane? Or Senseless and Insane? Part NNN - A REVIEW OF "THE REASONS"

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

Specific "reasons" cause persons 

• to be obsessive and compulsive 

• and render them unable to relax 

• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling). 

• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest 

• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.

We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence. 

So, to continue: 

Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #50: the bane of humanity, (which happens to include near-limitless levels of arrogance, unchecked egotism, smug haughtiness, a boundless sense of superiority, false pride, and near-infinite degrees of self-importance which support humanity's belief in different-from-ment and in the subsequent belief in better-than-ment); 

and because of reason #51 (which is an additional blight on humanity which is also linked to human arrogance, egotism, etc., namely a propensity for image-building and image-maintenance which is rooted in a preference for inanthenticity). 

The causes of reasons #50 and 51? 

THE WIDESPREAD PERVASIVENESS OF PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION AND THE SUBSEQUENT PERSONALITY DISORDERS WHICH THAT GENERATES, INCLUDING NARCISSISM AND MALIGNANT NARCISSISM (A.K.A., SOCIOPATHY AND PSYCHOPATHY); AN INFLATED - BUT BASELESS - SENSE OF SELF; A DISTORTED BELIEF THAT ONE IS BETTER-THAN (WHICH IS BASED IN NOTHING MORE THAN PERCEIVED BUT SUPERFICIAL AND ARTIFICIAL DIFFERENCES); AND THE EGOTISM WHICH MANIFESTS WHEN EGO-STATES ARE ERRONEOUSLY ASSUMED TO BE ACTUAL IDENTITIES, ALL OF WHICH IS ROOTED IN DISTORTED AND EGOCENTRIC PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, ACCULTURATION, BRAINWASHING, AND DOMESTICATION. 

 Over the years, I have received emails in which persons ask whether or not I eat meat. What silliness.

I know which of the three metabolic body types the plant food body (mistakenly identified by most as "floyd") happens to be, so what I eat is determined by that awareness. 

It is no one's business what I eat, and each wise person will find out what her or his body's metabolic body type is and will follow a food plan which allows that body to function as best as it can during the temporary manifestation. 

In a third of all cases, that will be a vegetarian food plan; among another third, that will require  a protein / vegetable combination plan; for the final third, what is required is a food plan which includes high levels of protein (or, to use that four-letter word which is anathema to so many spiritual giants, "meat").

But even more ignorant are those who have read posts which attempt to demolish any and all duality-based belief systems which generate a false sense of separation by suggesting that straights are not better than gays or trans; that Christians are not better than Muslims; that persons with white skin are not superior to persons with black or brown skin; that those who are wealthy are not better than those who are poor; that those who self-define as "winners" are in error when they describe others as "losers," etc. 

I do not have to be gay to advocate for gays who are being bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed. 

I do not have to be a Muslim to advocate for Muslims who are being bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed. 

I do not have to have black skin to advocate for the blacks who have historically been bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed in the U.S. for over 300 years by persons in positions of authority, and I do not have to have black skin to advocate by the black persons in the U.S. who are being bullied, assaulted, beaten, maimed and / or killed by persons in positions of authority, including some members of the hundreds of thousands of police forces in the U.S.

The misperceptions related to that point: 

"More police are being gunned down than ever before." FALSE (The rate is at a historic low, and that's with the number of police having doubled in the last decades.) 

"More whites than blacks are being killed by the police." FALSE (2-1/2 times more blacks are killed by police than whites.) 

"There really aren't that many people being killed by the police at all." FALSE (The actual number of fatal shooting by the police is not known because the government will not requires that fatal shooting by the police be reported. Neither local, state, nor federal governments are collecting accurate totals.)

One recent study revealed that the FBI's reported total of people shot by the police was actually only one-tenth of the actual number of deaths of persons killed by the police during recent decades. Add in the additional deaths as a result of tasering, collisions with police vehicles, altercations with police, and the deaths in jails and prisons while in police custody and the number would be appalling to anyone with the ability to empathize.

"Black lives matter." FALSE (Look at the related facts in U.S. history, wake up to the facts, and smell the [dead] roses . . . or not.) 

Additionally, I do not have to be living below the poverty levels as defined by the U.S. Government in order to advocate for the poor. 

I do not have to be physically disabled or wheelchair bound or homebound in order to advocate for the physically disabled or wheelchair bound or homebound. 

The misperceptions related to that point: 

The charge is that (a) "too many people - as many as 10% or 6% or 3%, the actual facts are unknown - are scamming the federal system which helps those people and that (b) the wealthy should not be taxed to pay for helping others - who need to help themselves - so we are going to defund those programs completely."

Those charges are made by the same politicians who have scammed citizens out of trillions of dollars for their own benefit, for invading other countries, for the subsequent wars, for nation-building conflicts, for pet projects, and for breaks given to their financial supporters. Any Medicaid scammers in the U.S. who are engaging in scams are functioning at "a child's play level" when compared to the real pros in the government who have taken scamming to astronomical levels. And that is happening on a planet-wide basis.

In the end, in this present economic system, it all boils down to money. Yes, white supremacy and prejudice prevail among the masses here who are driven by their attachment to their duality-based beliefs, but above all, money is at the center of all of the decisions made by those in positions of authority and control. 

So, again, one does not have to be gay or black or brown or poor or disabled or Muslim in order to advocate against the results of so-called "values" which are rooted in duality and arrogance and which drive the levels of hatred which duality-based arrogance and a false sense of better-than-ment always generate. 

Instead, one need but be realized (meaning, per Maharaj, "being freed from living under the influence of the learned ignorance" which the masses have been taught and which now drives their every thought and word and action). 

The result of not having been freed from living under the influence of learned ignorance? Taking a duality-based path and staying on it forever, as did the white supremacist and self-proclaimed Christian Dylann Roof who was acculturated by persons in his anti-black community; who was dedicated to the myth that the best days in South Carolina were during the days of legalized, government-sanctioned and community-sanctioned slavery (a.k.a., their former high-profit, no-wages-paid-for-labor business model, the loss of which they still resent, nearly 160 years after the ending of legalized slavery in the U.S.)

To this day, Dylann Roof and others proudly wave their Confederate battle flags in protest and anger over their resentment of the federal government that adversely-impacted their ancestors' business profits and over their resentment of blacks and anti-slavery whites and "damn liberals" and "damn progressives"; 

who, like Roof, adhere to the white supremacist belief which my next door neighbor also shares, namely, that "the major problems in the U.S. can all be traced back to President Lincoln having freed the slaves"; and are like Roof who - driven by his and their warped beliefs and distortions - walked into a black church, joined the people there for an hour of Bible study, and then stood, took out a gun, and killed nine of the blacks who were there with him. 

The point? The effects of non-duality-based belief systems are not theoretical.

The distortions and deceptions and arrogance and hatred which those beliefs generate produce quite significant effects, relatively speaking. Why should it matter then, if the effects only apply to the AM-ness and not to the THAT-ness? Because the AM-ness is all that humans will ever know.

Thus, there are a variety of distorted, ignorance-and-stupidity-and-insanity-based paths which persons can follow; there are a variety of distorted, ignorance-and-stupidity-and-insanity-based journeys which persons can engage in; and there are a variety of distorted, ignorance-and-stupidity-and-insanity-based programs which persons can join with the intent of staying in those programs forever.

Therefore, among those who claim that they are "fighting for freedom," the only thing they actually need to be freed from is the learned ignorance which they have accumulated via programming-and-conditioning-induced "ignorance and stupidity and insanity" (per Maharaj).

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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