TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
To review:
That which is natural is rooted in non-duality; all which involves unnatural thinking and / or supernatural thinking is rooted in duality.
Whether speaking of Maharaj's lesser focus on the Nisarga Yoga in the beginning or discussing his near-total focus on abiding naturally in the end (as opposed to trying to live supernaturally and / or unnaturally), it is granted that all of that is relevant only to the AM-ness, but presently, what happens in the AM-ness impacts every person far more than anything to do with the THAT-ness.
So, to continue with excerpts from the book Why NISARGA YOGA in addition to the Advaita Teachings? as considerations about the nisarga (natural) fashion of abidance are offered:
A RADICAL CONSIDERATION:
What If This "Journey" Is Not Really So Much About THAT at All?
Most die-hard fans of the content of the so-called "spiritual classic" entitled I AM THAT and die-hard fans of the man who spoke the words therein fall into one of several categories:
1. Many are unaware of the shifts that led him to try three different versions of the Ultimate Medicine, only one of which involved "spirituality" and "interest in The Self," and that version was abandoned.
2. Some, aware of his shift away from the spiritual approach, turned on him, attacking him and ignoring all of his later talks.
3. And some few are aware of the shifts and understand what the shifts were and why they happened.
[Never during Maharaj's "Phase One" period (when he blended in dogma and religious rituals with his teachings) and only occasionally during his "Phase Two" period (when he was influenced by the hoards of Spiritual Giants who began visiting from the West and when he allowed them to influence him to give them the talks they wanted to hear, namely, those steeped in a heavy dose of spirituality), did he hint that maybe neither "the path" nor "the journey" was really so much about THAT at all.
Had he done so, the offering of that consideration at those earlier points in his "teaching career" would have cleared the loft and he would have been forced to return it to its original purpose: a place where he could sit alone in the quiet.
During those two "phases," he behaved more like the few Christian preachers who have been exposed to non-duality and who have known what Yeshu'a (Jesus) was talking about when he offered such pointers as "No one will ever see the kingdom of heaven for it is within" or "When you speak of Me, speak of Me as I AM" or "Before Abraham was, I AM" or "No one shall ever see the kingdom of heaven - it is within" or
"Heaven and earth shall fade away" or "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" or "I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" and "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."
I challenged one preacher after he made clear to me that he understood non-duality and Christ's later non-dual message by asking, "Then why the hell don't you stand before your congregation starting next Sunday and tell them the damn truth?" His reply: "Because it would be my last sermon!" I said, "And, more importantly, your last check, right?" And he said, "YES. My. Last. Check!"
A little more than seventy years and eight months ago, an act of friction allowed an egg and a sperm cell to unite and set into motion a chain of happenings which resulted in my being pushed along a canal and being popped out into a hospital room on 7 September 1947. In the seventy years since that event, I have only met two Christian ministers who truly understand the non-dual message;
who understand that the one called "The Christ" left organized religion and "the faith he was born into" and - during the final years of the manifestation of that speck of consciousness - shared a version of the non-dual message that had nothing to do with any religion and nothing to do with any dogma and nothing to do with anything supposedly "spiritual."
One of those ministers is the man above who continues to hide the truth from his congregants because - as with almost all Christians - they cannot handle the truth. (An ex-wife who was on the payroll in his church, upon hearing me point only slightly toward the truth Jesus was sharing at the end, assigned me a new identity, claiming that I was "A New Age Agent of Satan." Most of the other congregants would have likely agreed with that descriptor.)
As for the second Christian minister that understands the link between Christ's message and the non-dual message and who shares each Sunday with his congregants the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he has attracted enough progressives during the decades that he has been pointing toward the truth to sustain a viable ministry of truth.
He has not wavered, even as the attacks have come in one wave after another over the decades. He has stuck to telling the truth without fear of the consequences, you know, kinda like Christ did in the end? In "floyd's" seventy years, that second minister is the only one I have met who is considered to be "A Christian" or "A Christ Follower" who actually is, so to speak. As for the others I have met who are among the 2.2 billion claiming to be "Christians" or "Christ Followers"? Not so much.
(For more on that second minister, use the search feature on this site to find "Rigby.")
Maharaj was more like the first minister during his early phases; eventually, he evolved and became more like the second minister and pointed only to the truth, consequences and reactions be damned.
"The Real Non-Dual, Nisargan Maverick" had finally come completely out of hiding during his "Third Phase" when he began allowing the universal consciousness to speak through that composite unity called "Maharaj"; thereafter, he shared a pure, non-religious, non-spiritual, Nisargan message.
Earlier hints about the fact that neither "the path" nor "the journey" was really so much about THAT at all evolved into a full frontal assault on the belief systems of his religious and / or spiritual visitors, replacing his earlier approach with a full-blown, in-your-face approach that pointed to truth without any reservation.
He had reached a point where an empty loft and sitting alone on its floor would have been just fine rather than abandon again his commitment to offering an authenticity-only based message about abiding naturally.]
So, to continue with the discussion of this consideration: "What if this 'journey' is not really so much about THAT at all?"
Two earlier points will now be offered for review and emphasis:
First, the pointer was offered at the beginning of this series that a little un-learning is as dangerous as Pope's observation regarding "a little learning."
After twenty-eight years of being involved with "this thing of ours," and
after visiting with people around the globe; and
after hearing from other people around the globe,
this scenario which was addressed by Maharaj has been witnessed far too often:
Maharaj said, "There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full realisation, and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride."
It has not mattered if one sought (and claims to have found) via the Direct Path Method, the Traditional Method, the Neo-Vedanta Method, or the Neo-Advaita Method or via one of the spinoffs of bastardizations of those, the case has been too often that . . .
1. many seekers have fallen into a quagmire while believing that they are standing on the most solid of all ground;
and
2. many seekers have become pain-in-the-rear spiritual giants, and many have chosen to try to dwarf "floyd" with their advice about "this wrong view" or "that wrong take on a subject" or advising that "your site should tout sexual abstinence" or "you need to promote tantric sex," or "you should tell people to eat only vegetables, never meat," etc., etc., etc.
(Little do they know that morally and piously dwarfing "floyd" can be accomplished effortlessly for "he" is also - as Maharaj admitted - a spiritual pygmy at best when compared to those types);
and
3. many seekers have thus become, as described earlier, boring individuals who are attached to their new and improved personas and who are no fun at all to be around because they are wrapped up in their philosophy or religion or ideology or spiritual program, living with their heads in the clouds and strutting about in a lofty, superior, detached, aloof manner.
[Any first-hand experience here to share? You bet. Been there, done that; have gotten into all of that along the way at one time or another.]
Which brings the discussion to the next pointer offered earlier:
In the end, this deal of ours is not about THAT at all. It is all about "this," right NOW, because later, "THAT Which Is" cannot and will not even be known to be.
That pointer will only make complete sense if viewed through the Nisarga Yoga understanding. To expand upon that pointer, try this analogy:
Consider that you are in a wilderness (which the relative existence is) and that you have only a quart jar of water to assure survival; unfortunately, someone traveling with you during the early leg of your journey contaminated your jar of water before you left them to go it on your own. (Take those to be your programmers, conditioners, domesticators, and acculturators.)
Now, consider that your jar of water (take that to be the parts of your brain other than "the mind") has some very hard clumps of salty soil lying on the bottom of the glass; imagine that they are leeching brown contaminates that are floating about in the jar and turning the entire contents into a coffee-colored, brackish mess. Take the contaminates to be the ideas, concepts, attitudes, etc. (a.k.a., "beliefs") which are stored in "the mind."
Imagine next that you have a long-handled spoon that you have used to remove the clumps from the bottom of the jar but notice that you must still deal with the remainder of the pollutants if you are to survive.
Recall the four or more methods of teaching non-duality or Advaita or Vedanta or Advaita Vedanta which were mentioned earlier and take them to be a long-handled spoon. Any of them can remove some of the larger clumps of contaminants, but a "fine-filtering sieve" is still required if the water is to be available to ensure survival.
Here, that additional implement that is required for total purification and absolute cleansing and full filtration and ultimate distillation and unreserved decontamination and full-blown sanitation and complete refinement is . . . the Nisarga Yoga.
It is the Nisarga understanding which makes this pointer clear:
In the end, THAT is not about THAT at all. It is all about "this," right NOW, because later, "THAT Which Is" will not even be known to be.
It is the Nisarga understanding which ends unnatural living.
It is the Nisarga understanding which ends efforts to live supernaturally, to be super religious, to be gigantically spiritual, and to be trapped, thereby, in magical thinking.
It is the Nisarga understanding which allows the relative existence to unfold in a happy and joyous and free manner.
It is the Nisarga understanding which allow the Advaita understanding to be "applied" to the relative, even in the absence of any belief in "An Applier."
It is the Nisarga understanding which answers the question, "Why should I live and do what has to be done in this relative existence when suicide could be my means to ultimate freedom?"
It is the Nisarga understanding which can address every nihilistic question such as that one and allow Reality to be overlaid on the reality without developing a detached attitude toward "life" and "this existence."
It is the Nisarga understanding which will preempt any devaluation of the remaining post-Realization beingness and AM-ness.
It is the Nisarga understanding which will prevent the manifesting of any teaching-only-but-no-yoga-inspired, only-a-little-un-learning-motivated pessimism, gloominess, dullness, murkiness and any nihilistic and darkness-mistaken-for-lightness self-delusion;
and
it is the Nisarga understanding which will instead allow for the manifestation of the vivacity, the excitement, the sparkle, and the verve that come when the Truth of THAT and the truth of the AM-ness are seen so clearly that they become the decontaminated water which allows not only survival but provides a life worth continuing. THAT is the "H" to the beingness's "2-0," resulting in the life-producing, life-giving H20 that is at the root on all Is-ness on this planet.
As so many attached to THAT only miss out on the bliss which can only be known NOW during the relative existence, it is the Nisarga understanding that can answer:
"Why should I care ever again about anything relative, now that I have grasped the understanding on THAT?"
"Why should any of this matter if I'm THAT and not 'this' anyway?"
and
"Why should I want to live out this relative existence, now that I understand THAT?"
Only the additional filtration that comes after the long-handled spoon has removed the larger chucks of contamination from the jar of water can allow what seem to be sensible questions to be clarified and seen as nonsense.
Based in the teachings alone, those questions might be valid. Use the additional tool of the Nisarga Yoga for filtration and their insanity is made clear.
Thus, tomorrow, the discussion will address the question that has been heard scores of times over the years: "Once realized, why even go on living? What would it matter if I kill myself?"
Or, "If I shoot myself, I'd just be releasing a speck of conscious-energy and allowing the air to return to the universal pool of air and the elements to return to the universal pool of elements. So . . . ?"
Or, as two young teens who were practicing "cutting" put it to me years ago: "Life sucks. How cruel are you to try to talk us into being exposed to any more of this crap?"
By the way, both are now, years later, women who - though not exempt from the kind of suffering which the relative can often toss our way - are quite happy much of the time and quite content most of the rest of the time.
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 3,100+ posts for any topics of interest to you.
