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.
So, to continue:
Persons also 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 #13: because they believed it when they were told that humanity's problems are caused by the fact that people are not religious enough, not devoted enough, not faithful enough, and don't study the dogma and the content in their so-called "holy" scriptures enough.
The causes of reason #13:
EGO-STATE ASSIGNMENT AND ASSUMPTION and EGOTISM and ARROGANCE
The most powerful ego-states - and some of the most prevalent during the last 3500 to 5000 years or so - are the personality identifications which have grown out of the religions which humans have dreamed up.
The result over the last five millennia or so: massive levels of egotism and arrogance which always manifest in conjunction with the assignment or assumption of ego-states and which especially come when persons believe that their roles align them with gods and goddesses or with "the one true god" or which supposedly rank them evenly with those Powers or which - per some belief systems - actually make them into gods.
In the U.S. nowadays, there is much hate talk about Muslims and "those murderous Islamic extremist terrorists," and much fear is being stirred up about non-whites in general who are supposedly the greatest threat to the U.S. citizenry.
(Fact check: From 2005 to 2015, there were 71 incidents which were linked to "extremists"; on the other hand, the majority of attacks were carried out by white, homegrown extremists. Maharaj pointed out how often ignorance drives persons to assign blame and cause to factors which have nothing at all to do with the actual cause.)
By contrast, in that same 2005 to 2015 period, there were 5,370 domestic incidents reported with serious harm, most involving males attacking females. Fifty-nine percent of all women killed in the U.S. annually are not killed by foreign extremists but are killed by U.S. citizens during a breakup with a person whom they had been living with or were married to.)
So the statistics show that persons who listen to politicians spouting their non-fact-based nonsense can be whipped up into a frenzy of fear about people from "over there" who are intent on harming them while they are actually sharing a roof with a far greater source of potential harm and are far more likely to be attacked by someone "from here."
As for which religion has supplied the highest number of terrorists to invade what is now called "the Americas," that goes to Christianity with Christian invaders from Europe having killed over 150,000,000 of the indigenous peoples, starting with Columbus whose forces alone killed 15,000,000 people.
My grandmother and her Cherokee kin had some first-hand accounts to share about what it was like to deal with those Christians who showed up and killed 98% of all indigenous peoples and herded the remaining survivors onto "reservations," taking 99% of the land which they had occupied and selling it to Europeans for $1.00 to $1.49 per acre.
Others who are aware might have some similar views about such Christians and their beliefs as shown by Luther and Calvin who both said that that "those who believe what Copernicus said about the earth’s circling the sun should be killed."
How arrogant would persons have to be to exhibit such levels of entitlement that they believe they had the right to confiscate land and to kill all non-Christians or to kill Christians who don't believe exactly what they believe?
What is being said in the U.S. about Muslims applies far more to Christians.Yes, Muslims with similar beliefs are convinced that it is their right to kill other Muslims in different sects or persons in different religions, but they have a long way to go to catch up with the numbers slaughtered by Christians during the American Holocaust.
But the religious arrogance of persons involved with those two religions throughout history is slight when compared to the belief held by those among another religion that was based in the Middle East, a belief that they have held for nearly 3,400 years: that is the belief among the Jews that they are "God's chosen people." Wow. Now there's some ego-state based arrogance.
The reason that Maharaj eventually turned his back on religion and spirituality and walked away from both was because, again, he too saw that the most powerful ego-states - and some of the most prevalent during the last 3500 to 5000 years or so - are the personality identifications which have grown out of the religions and spiritual movements which humans have dreamed up.
Persons also 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 #14: because they believed it when they were told that humans have a "spirit"; they believed it when they were told that "a spirit can become sick"; they believed it when they were told that they have a "sick spirit" and that only conscious contact with God and God's mercy can heal that;
or because they believed it when persons told them that their problems are all caused by a "spiritual malady"; and because all of their seeking becomes focused on getting into a relationship with a conceptualized "Being" and thereby finding healing for something which has been dreamed up by persons and which does not exist (a "sick spirit" or "dark soul") and finding a treatment for a dreamed up malady that is making sick something that was also just dreamed up.
The causes of reason #14:
PROGRAMMING and RE-PROGRAMMING and DISTORTION and WARPED BELIEFS
"Psychological or cognitive distortions refer to biased ways of thinking about 'oneself' and 'others' and 'the world.' Such distortions are always based in irrational concepts, idea, notions, thoughts (a.k.a., 'beliefs')."
Often, they involve magical thinking which comes as persons are separated from that which is natural and are taught to believe in supernatural things or Selves or Powers. Supernatural things, being the opposite of natural, are a part of the body of unnatural things which humans have dreamed up; thus, they are part and parcel of the body of warped beliefs which humans have popularized throughout human history.
Some of the key prerequisites for being free is realizing that one is not free; becoming dedicated to being free at all costs; finding all that is currently imprisoning one; and then breaking free of those beliefs which are behind one's imprisonment.
The point here is that each belief which persons have stored is the mind is one of the bars which form the prison in which they are trapped. to break out of one's prison, one must remove the bars which are forming the prison.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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