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:
Body Pain vs. Mind-Induced Misery and Suffering, Part Two
The examples shared earlier are but a few of the many instances seen over the last 28 years of persons having been driven so insane that they either (a) assault the bodies of others and / or (b) assault their own bodies and / or (c) destroy their own bodies in order to bring a miserable manifestation to an end in their misdirected effort to address what is really just a "mind problem" which has nothing to do with the body at all.
Sudhakar S. Dikshit put it this way: "The teacher does not evaluate; his sole concern is with ‘suffering and the ending of suffering’. He knows from his abiding experience that the roots of sorrow are in the mind and it is the mind that must be freed from its distorting and destructive habits. Of these, the identification of the self with its projections is most fatal. By precept and example Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj shows a short-cut, a-logical but empirically sound. It operates, when understood."
[Maharaj agreed, having said that this thing of ours involves going about the business of ending the suffering of those who come our way seeking relief.
How is that to be accomplished? According to Maharaj, by putting an end to the belief in - and attachment to - learned ignorance, which generates all misery and suffering.
How can the guru facilitate that? Per Maharaj, By letting persons "see the madness of their daily living."
Why is that required? In order to inspires them to take the steps which are necessary for them to be freed from living under the influence of a nonsense-filled mind so that, once free, they can begin abiding naturally rather than living unnaturally and rather than trying to living supernaturally.
See? That's all this deal is about. It is not about taking care of THAT; THAT cannot be helped or changed or affected in any way; moreover, THAT will not take care of you - a presently, temporarily-manifested, composite unity.
So what this deal is really about is changing the only thing that can be changed: the way that persons - composite unities - are presently moving through this temporary manifestation (marked too often by suffering and misery) and change that so that they will be able to enjoy the only thing that they will ever be able to enjoy (namely, happenings during the AM-ness) at the only time they will ever be able to enjoy anything (namely, NOW).
The rub? Almost all humans are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness ("ignorance, stupidity and insanity," per Maharaj) and from the emotional intoxication its symptoms produce.
When "ignorance, stupidity and insanity" are combined with intoxication of any kind (be it the physical intoxication, the mental intoxication, the emotional intoxication, or the spiritual intoxication which Bill W. warned about), then that combination forms a toxic mix which more often than not triggers a desire to lash out and destroy rather than work to repair.
That applies to those who blame others for their problems and, in anger, prefer to destroy a relationship than work to repair it; who prefer to destroy their nation and rebuild it in their image and per their beliefs rather than work to repair it;
who prefer to wipe out "the other" who is trapped in a cycle of ignorance and poverty and more ignorance and more poverty rather than work at ways to end that cycle; who prefer to see all in an ignorance-based dualistic manner which pits "us" vs. them";
who fail to see that the empowerment of a dictator or would-be dictator who says he is
willing to attack the perceived enemies of those empowering him are
simultaneously giving him the power to attack them some day); and it
applies to all who are functioning with that same kind of duality-based
ignorance and insanity being displayed by their leaders;
thus, it applies to those who are willing to empower dictators and / or ruthless, sociopathic and psychopathic leaders who promise to wipe out their fellow citizens or "the foreigners" whom they hate (without recalling that some of the people who were handing out to the indigenous peoples of the Americas free blankets - blankets which were brought from Europe and which were contaminated with the germs of the plague and which were intended to kill off the indigenous peoples - those same would-be killers were also killed when they transported and distributed the blankets." How often during the relative existence insanity-inspired, destructive behaviors backfire and harm the one who is trying to harm "others."
See, the same persons who think that WWII kamikaze pilots who engaged in suicide missions were crazy, or the same persons who think that terrorists who blow up themselves in order to kill their perceived enemies are crazy, well, those are the same persons who do not have even the slightest awareness of their own insanity when they become willing to "self-destruct" - to harm themselves in the act of trying to punish and harm and even "destroy" others (in one way or another, either literally or emotionally or financially, etc.) and harm themselves in the act of trying to harm those who have offended them or those whom they think have taken something from them or those who disagree with them or those who do not behave in the way they want "others" to behave.
The irony: those in touch with a false self can eventually become willing to destroy that self if they erroneously believe that their self is under attack:
"You're going to leave me? Oh, hell no! I'll kill you and then I'll kill myself before I let that happen" or "I think you're harming our country, so my destructive leader and I will destroy you - and the whole damn country too if we much - to be rid of you."]
Consider each of the main points thoroughly:
a. these teachings are about the ending of suffering;
b. the roots of suffering are in the mind;
c. for a person to be free, the mind must be freed of its habit of distorting;
d. for a person to be free, the mind must be freed of its destructive habits; and
e. to identity with the false self / selves can be fatal.
As noted earlier, Maharaj said that one's "attitude to suffering must change," (an "attitude" being a "belief.") The non-Realized masses suffer, and their attitude / belief is that suffering must be escaped, avoided, evaded, circumvented, dodged, sidestepped, eluded, or averted; if those do not "work," then the belief can become this: that the body housing the consciousness which is able to register suffering must be eliminated.
None of those approaches actually address the non-body, mind-only problem of suffering; furthermore, certain personality types are especially reluctant to undergo an honest, objective, guided, and thorough self-examination in order to find and address the real cause(s) of their suffering.
(For those familiar with the nine basis personality types discussed here, the Personality Type Three will put a spin on her or his suffering and will distort it and will ignore addressing it by minimizing it and by constantly using the trite expression that "It's all good" or by minimizing the causes of suffering and advising persons instead to "Love What Is";
Psychically unhealthy Type Fours will try to escape their suffering, by whatever means, including mental flights of fancy, giving credibility to fantasies, or merely "dropping out" mentally and emotionally; Type Fives are experts at avoidance;
and Type Nines are the kings and queens of avoidance; are the kings and queens of being "The Accommodating One," which includes accommodating suffering; and are especially prone to seeking someone else to address what they take to be the cause[s] of their suffering, thus avoiding having to address the roots of their suffering directly and on their own.)
Maharaj said: " . . . It is in the nature of Truth or Love, cosmic consciousness, whatever you want to call it, to express itself, to affirm itself, to overcome difficulties. Once you've understood that the world is Love in action, consciousness or Love in action, you will look at it quite differently. But first your attitude to suffering must change. Suffering is primarily a call for attention, which itself is a movement of Love. More than happiness, Love wants growth, the widening and deepening of awareness and consciousness and being. Whatever prevents that becomes a cause of pain [suffering actually], and Love does not shirk from pain [from suffering, actually]."
One visitor to the loft offered this perspective in clarifying the "your-body-is-not-the-problem, your-mind-is-the-problem" point:
" . . . There is nothing wrong with my body nor with my real being. Both are not of my making and need not be improved upon. What has gone wrong is the ‘inner body’, call it mind, consciousness, antahkarana, whatever the name."
The "realized Nisargan teacher" (that also experienced suffering prior to full realization, and often a great deal of suffering, in fact) offers to introduce the sufferer to the natural state, to the Nisarga state, in order to abide in a suffering-free manner.
NOTE: The teachings alone can produce a philosophical giant; a detached rather than non-attached individual; a person who becomes even more fatalistic or nihilistic than prior to exposure to the teachings; and a person in touch with THAT but totally out of touch with "this." It has been seen that the Nisarga Yoga, used in combination with the teachings, can avert those out-of-touch conditions.
To that end, of assisting sufferers to become free of their misery by introducing them to what is natural, a follower explained what Maharaj offered: "Maharaj most lucidly describes this natural, spontaneous state, but as the man born blind cannot visualize light and colors, so is the unenlightened mind unable to give meaning to such descriptions.
"Expressions like dispassionate happiness, affectionate detachment, timelessness and causelessness of things and being—they all sound strange and cause no response. Intuitively we feel they have deep meaning, and they even create in us a strange longing for the ineffable, a forerunner of things to come, but that is all.
"As Maharaj puts it, 'Words are pointers; they show the direction but they will not come along with us. Truth is the fruit of earnest action, words merely point the way'."
The "mind" is the seat of all non-Truth, of all non-truths, of all distortions, and of all destructiveness; it is the root of suffering; it is the storehouse and protector of the false self / selves, the agendas of which can be fatal.
Suffering? You need not, if you are willing to accept the invitation to address the true source of your misery and suffering, namely, the mind.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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