The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-Two

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

Next,

From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth: 

Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists 

excerpted from the book

 QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more

Lao-tzu 

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are . . . ." 

"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." 

" . . . The wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions." 

"He who knows himself is enlightened." 

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough." 

"He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know." 

"Nature is not human hearted." 

"Silence is a source of great strength." 

"We turn clay to make a vessel, but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends." 

 “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” 

“When there is no desire, all things are at peace.” 

 “If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.” 

“If you want to be given everything, give everything up.” 

" . . . Realize there is nothing lacking . . . ." 

“In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added." 

"In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.” 

"Empty your mind of all thoughts." 

"Returning to the source is serenity." 

“Stop thinking and end your problems.” 

“At the center of your being, you have the answer: you know who you are." 

"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao." 

"The name that can be named is not the eternal name." 

" . . . The greater whole is undivided." 

Jhian Yang 

"What we mean by Tao is the way or course of Nature. This way has nothing good or bad. It is a mere flowing of things following the development and decline attributes of the moment." 

Richard E. Lingenfelter 

Regarding what is imagined to be seen when all is viewed through blocked consciousness: 

"For it is a land of illusion, a place in the mind, a shimmering mirage of riches and mystery and death. These illusions have distorted its [reality's] landscape and contorted its history." 

Robert Burton 

"Great feelings will often take an aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion." 

Daniel H. Boorstin 

"The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge." 

Gary Zukav 

"The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place." 

Mark Twain 

"The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane, we should run out of building materials." 

"Really, what we want now is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity. That is where the true evil lies." 

"Once, I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane." 

Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson 

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." 

"A man is what he thinks about all day long." 

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." 

"Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff." 

"For every benefit you receive, a tax is levied." 

"As soon as there is life there is danger." 

"Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes." 

"Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified." 

Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau 

"I have a great deal of company in my house, especially in the morning when nobody calls." 

"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" 

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." 

"I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust." 

"To be awake is to be alive." 

"My Aunt Maria asked me to read the life of Dr. Chalmers, which, however, I did not promise to do. Yesterday, Sunday, she was heard through the partition shouting to my Aunt Jane, who is deaf, "Think of it! He stood half an hour today to hear the frogs croak, but he wouldn't read the life of Chalmers." 

"The frontiers are not east or west, north or south but wherever a man 'fronts' a fact." 

"In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line." 

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion." 

"Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores." 

In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated; my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it - dining with the Governor or a member of Congress!! But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane . . . every day." 

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." 

"I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born." 

"The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime." 

"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust." 

"Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe." 

To be continued.

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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 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-One

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

Next,

 From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth: 

Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists 

excerpted from the book

 QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more

Consider when the criticism of Maharaj began: 

it came from among the locals after he abandoned the use of a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine; and it came from international persons after he abandoned the use of a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine (many of which had been transcribed from audio tapes and published in a book entitled I AM THAT); and it came after he shifted the focus of his talks onto the problem-and-chaos-generating human mind and shifted to a Psychology / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine. 

The criticisms increased when he eventually denounced "the business of spirituality" and urged seekers to stop reading the talks in I AM THAT (which were offered when he was still being influenced by his guru's instructions and by religion and spirituality) and to listen instead to his later talks (which were offering psychology-based principles and pointers which were intended to address "the mind issues" which are at the core of the Ultimate Sickness).

His "evolution" - actually, the evolution of his understanding - came about as he saw one religion-or-spirituality-based method after another failing to address the Ultimate Sickness and as he continued to try to find an effective version of the Ultimate Medicine.

The result: he used one yoga after another in combination with the Direct Path Method of Teaching; in the process, he shifted from the use of guru-bhakti and bhakti; to bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma"); to jnana yoga and nisargan yoga; and finally to the nisarga yoga almost exclusively. 

At that point, the criticizing began and included such comments as these: 

"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers. It is also the lack of quality of translation in the level of "I Am That". 

"His direct disciples who later on became notable teachers are of an especially low quality (e.g. Ramesh Balsekar, Wolinsky and others) which makes one to wonder how come" 

"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true." 

"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times." 

Those critics believed that they were telling others something about "a man called Maharaj"; in fact, they were telling anyone (with the wisdom to see it) all about themselves / their selves.

During the years when Maharaj was using a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine and the years when he was using a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine, those who were most satisfied with those approaches were the seekers who were either picking up new and good and better false identities via his talks or who were having their already-assumed good and better false identities reinforced. 

When the evolution of his understanding reached the third stage, he was totally annihilating all of the false identities assumed by seekers (and supposedly knowers) and was devaluing all of their religious and / or spiritual "experiences" and all of their religious and / or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance"). 

His invitation to seekers was 

to abandon all beliefs 

and 

to abide naturally 

and 

to abide in the same manner in which every living thing on planet earth abides (except for humans who are driven unconsciously by the bogus content of their minds and by the hidden agendas of their assumed personalities which are forever preoccupied with selfish desires and unfounded fears). 

You are invited to read the quotes being offered in this series and to consider the conclusion that Maharaj finally reached, namely, that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with knowing too little dogma; that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a so-called "sick spirit" or "spiritual malady"; 

and that the Ultimate Sickness has everything to do with the duality-based, divisiveness-inspiring content of the nonsensical beliefs stored in human minds post-programming, post-conditioning, post-acculturating, post domesticating, post-brainwashing and post-indoctrinating (which are processes to which all persons are being exposed, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout adulthood as well). 

Then the invitation is to sit in the silence and contemplate the pointers quoted which touch on a host on non-dual topics.

To continue:

George Bernard Shaw 

(When asked if he thought there might be life on other planets): His reply was that he was certain that "there had to be life on other planets because people there are obviously using earth as their insane asylum." 

Ian McCallum 

"We need to stop speaking about the earth being in need of healing. The earth does not need healing. We do. Our task is to rediscover ourselves in Nature. How or where do we begin?" 

"We begin exactly where we are right now, when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the authenticity and well-being of others, and that includes the animals, the trees, and the land." 

"To understand wildness is to discover the thread that binds us to all living things." 

"To distance ourselves from, and worse, to deny our wild ancestry, is to witness its return in all manner of savage outbursts." 

and

THE RISING 

One day 

your soul will call to you 

with a holy rage. 

"Rise up!" it will say . . . 

"Stand up inside your own skin." 

 Unmask your unlived life . . . 

Feast on your animal heart. 

Unfasten your fist . . . 

 let loose the medicine 

In your own hand. 

Show me the lines . . . 

I will show you the spoor 

of the ancestors. 

 Show me the creases . . . 

I will show you the way 

to the water. 

Show me the folds . . . 

I will show you the furrows 

for your healing. 

"Look!" it will say . . . 

 The line of life has four paths - 

one with a mirror, 

one with a mask, 

one with a fist, 

one with a heart. 

One day,

your soul will call to you 

with a holy rage. 

And, more recently, this was in the news: 

Jim Carrey 

Recently, Jim Carrey - a Canadian-American actor, comedian, impressionist, screenwriter, and producer - was asked to clarify some non-dual (and yes, only quasi-non-dual pointers) which he had shared in an interview, points which led many to comment on his "weird talk" and led others to suggest that "his state-of-mind is obviously quite unstable nowadays" (which is a typical reaction when the masses hear non-dual pointers). 

When asked, “Are you a Buddhist?” Carrey offered a quasi-non-dual reply: “I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Christian, I’m a Muslim, I’m whatever you want me to be. It all comes down to the same thing. You’re in a loving place or you’re in an unloving place. If you’re with me right now you cannot be unhappy, it’s not possible.” 

“There’s no meaning to any of this. I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join, and here I am. I mean, you’ve got to admit, it’s completely meaningless.” 

“There is no me. There is just things happening. Here’s the thing: It’s not our world. That’s the key. We don’t matter. We don’t matter. There’s the good news.” 

“There’s just a relative manifestation of consciousness appearing, and someone gave 'him' a name, a religion, a nationality, and he clustered those together into something that’s supposed to be a personality, and it doesn’t actually exist. None of that stuff, if you drill down, is real.” 

“I believe I got famous so I could let go of fame, and it’s still happening, but not with me,” he continued. “I’m not a part of it anymore. Dressing happens, doing hair happens, interviewing happens, but it happens without me, without the idea of a ‘me.’ You know what I’m saying? It’s a weird little semantic jump, and it’s not that far, but it’s a universe apart from where most people are.” 

"We’re a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There’s a body and there’s a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it’s no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it’s all one thing. Because we are sentient, there’s a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it. So we say, ‘This is my name and this is my heritage and this is my nationality and here’s my hockey team and these are all of the things that I am.’ That’s the mistake." 

"The only way to it is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don’t allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you’ve suffered. And I’ve done it; I’m through it. I’m sure there will be things that happen again, but I realized that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it’s not to be feared. Death is not to be feared."

[The interviewer added: "We see themes of thinking about who we truly are, and looking at the difference between our egoic identity and the recognition of self as consciousness. Jim also touches on the interconnectedness of us all and that we in essence don’t exist as our individual egoic ideas of “I" 

and 

"The very fact that so many mainstream outlets are covering this from the standpoint of how ‘weird’ his latest statements are shows us how little thought we put into asking big questions in life in the mainstream. Instead we are asked to play into the many distractions and trivial bits of content that don’t challenge us to think deeper, understand who we are, or move beyond suffering — all of which Jim’s latest interviews explore."] 

WHAT ABOUT THE OPPOSITE MESSAGES WHICH PERSONS SHOULD BE LISTENING FOR AND AWAKE TO? 

As for those on the opposite end of the non-duality / duality spectrum who are trapped in duality and who are fomenting hatred and separation and contributing to the ever-expanding body of lies being broadcast into the ether, consider:

All of the wise non-dual teachers and all of the wise non-dual writers and all of the wise conductors of non-duality-based satsanga during the last 1000 years will have a minimal influence when it comes to inspiring persons to look for a means by which they can be freed from the tendency among the masses to accept lies as truth; to accept fiction as fact; and to allow lies and fiction to be accepted as "real" and thereafter drive them to behave in ways which exhibit the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."

The masses have actually normalized all of that.

No, the most effective "argument" for realizing (that is, per Maharaj, being freed of ignorance) is never the one heard as the universal consciousness speaks via some wise sage (whom most among the masses will never encounter) but is the message delivered by the mad rantings and ravings of the narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths who are presently acting out on their international stages. 

Among the angry, non-realized masses, those leaders adumbrating their anger and manipulating them by playing to their fury can seem to those masses to be as desirable and delightful as the sweetest dessert ever consumed; but as the case is with all immature and childish persons, having too much of the sweetest dessert can bring on pain instead of pleasure. 

When the persons in any given nation OD on anger and rage and the always-accompanying "ignorance and stupidity and insanity", then "The Pendulum of Things Desired by a Newly-Formed Majority" will eventually swing in the opposite direction as more and more disappointed followers drag themselves through another day, frustrated and depressed and suffering from a rant-and-rave hangover which leads a different majority to seek a break. 

Why does that pendulum forever swing? Because throughout human history, every promised change ever guaranteed by religious and spiritual and business and political leaders has proved to be a disappointing lie, producing false hope but no real change. That which is being sought for by some, or longed for by many, must come from within, not from without. 

To be continued.

NEW OFFER: 

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.) 

If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video. 

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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 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

If you watched the Lennon / Ono video of Imagine yesterday, you saw a visual metaphor of the shifts which can come if the non-dual understanding manifests. The video and the lyrics can be regarded as being, metaphorically, "representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract" such as: 

moving out of the fog that one has been in; 

entering the darkness but then slowly taking the steps which allow the light to come in; 

shifting from a condition in which one is not able to see clearly because of the darkness to being able to see all as it truly is because of the light; 

leaving "The World of the Miasma" behind and "going home." 

Maharaj was asked, "How does a gnani feel as an old man?" He replied: 

"As he gets older he grows more and more happy and peaceful. After all, he is going home." 

In the video, going home was not enough. The couple had ventured out into "the world," a world in which the masses are driven by the thousands of beliefs which are stored in their fiction-filled minds. 

Away from home, the couple is surrounded in fog, in the same kind of near-universal miasma which blocks almost all humans from being able to see truth clearly, rendering them incapable of differentiating between true and false. 

Out in the fog, one is walking about on a planet where the masses are suffering from the Ultimate Sickness and are trapped in its symptoms (which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity").

Out in the fog, the masses are subsumed in a miasma which drives persons to accept the bogus information passed on via programming, conditioning, etc. and to, therefore, accept unquestioningly the beliefs . . . 

that there's a heaven 

that there's a hell 

that imaginary lines drawn by humans have really created different countries 

that all kinds of flags in supposedly different countries are to be revered

that there are an infinite number of things / people that need to be killed 

that that are an infinite number of things that people should be willing to die for 

that religion actually creates peace and fosters love 

that possessions are to be accumulated and are worth fighting over and dying for 

that greed is normal 

that those who are in poverty and are therefore hungry should just go get a job 

and 

that people who talk about "The Oneness" are failing to see the so-called reality of "the vast multiplicities" and "the obvious differences" and the scarcity of "those who are really better" as opposed to the high incidence of "those who are worse." 

The relative problem with living in a miasma is that an "an oppressive and unpleasant atmosphere will emanate from it" and will then contaminate all that is around it. 

Miasmas will always eventually generate a fetor. Miasmas will always produce a stench. Miasmas will always reek and will always cause everything nearby to reek as well.

Live a life that is marked by being trapped inside the miasma and that life will stink and will reek, and as those with a life that stinks and reeks move about, they spread their stink and their stench and will think and talk and behave in a way that is disgusting, that is most unpleasant, and which passes on their stench to all around them. 

A man who said that he "was raised in the heartland of the U.S." had been so trapped in the "American" brand of xenophobia that he volunteered to go to Vietnam in the 60's to "help in the fight with the communist enemies of America there who wanted to spread their beliefs around the globe and who would eventually take us over the U.S. if we did not defend ourselves."

He said, "I bought into another bit of nonsense that has long been popular with our leaders: 'Better to fight them there now than have to fight them here later'."

The man - who now considers himself to be "progressive" - admitted, "My Iowa upbringing made me love our flag and our country and our military above all else." He said, "I really did buy into the programming that convinced me that we were the greatest country on earth and that we had not only the right but also the obligation to go around the globe and give what we had to others so they would be just like us." 

That led him to abandon his medical practice in the states and to join those who had invaded a land that was 8500 miles away and to use his medical skills "to treat our soldiers and get them back into the fight as soon as possible." He shared the details of his experience which he now sees as a metaphor for his "journey to realization." 

He explained that during two tours of duty, he saw few cases of dry gangrene - which can develop over the course of months - but many cases of  wet gangrene which can develop quickly, sometimes in a few hours. There were cases of young men who were injured but were not transported out of a jungle quickly because U.S. forces were under heavy fire. Helicopters could not land and pick up the wounded and they could not be carried out on foot, either.

In some of those cases, the delay was so long that wet gangrene had set in, followed by gas gangrene. That necessitated the amputation of limbs. Such was the case with one nineteen-year-old whose right arm had been severely damaged. It was days before the young man finally reached the field hospital where the doctor was working, so the infection in the wounded arm and the loss of a supply of oxygen-rich blood led to a progression from wet gangrene to gas gangrene. 

Had the initial trauma destroyed an artery, the fellow would have bled out almost immediately. That did not happen, but the negative effects continued to progress slowly. 

When the doctor cut away the bandages to inspect the wound, he became nauseous from the foul-smelling odor being emitted from the wound. He said that first there was a sweet-sour smell that invaded his nostrils, and then a scent that was not unlike the rotten odor he smelled as a child when his family returned home from a vacation, only to find that the power to the refrigerator / freezer had gone out and that the meat in the freezer had first thawed and then decayed, after which the rotten fluids had seeped out pass the door's gasket and pooled on the kitchen floor. 

The odor that day in the field hospital triggered a gag reflex as it took him back to the stench in the kitchen as a child. Still, to this day, he said that when something triggers a reminder of that day when the wounded lad was brought into the hospital, the doctor can literally smell once more the offensive odor which came from the dead flesh in that soldier's right arm. 

The doctor said he knew immediately that he was going to have remove the entire arm up the shoulder if the fellow was to have any chance of survival, so he performed the amputation.

Later, the patient developed a fever the doctor so the doc said that he had to go back in and clean the wound as well as find a still-bleeding vessel and address that issue. Eventually, after several more procedures, the patient stabilized. 

Now, after having been exposed to non-dual pointers for years, the doctor said he sees not only how futile "American's Vietnam Experience" was but also sees how vile it was and how contemptible the arrogance was which drove U.S. political and business leaders to send this nation's youth off to a place on the other side of the globe to kill others that neither could nor would have ever harmed anyone on the U.S. mainland. 

Then, he shared how his own "non-dual journey" had paralleled the amputating of that arm nearly fifty years ago:

Growing up under the influence of that "heartland programming and conditioning" led him to develop a life-threatening injury which was going to kill him, but the injury had nothing to do with anything physical. His was an injury of the mind. 

Like the flesh that had died on that soldier's arm, the doctor said, "I saw that what they had put into me was rotting me away from the inside and was going to have fatal consequences if it was not removed. I had lost my ability to feel. I was rendered dull and numb. I was living in total darkness while thinking I was in the light and believing that I was smarter, wiser, stronger, and better than most other people. 

I had thought I was better than others merely by having been born in one particular country. And I had thought I was better than most people in the country because I was born in a particular region where the people were more patriotic, where we were more loyal to the country and its values, and where the people there were all morally superior to the liberals living on the coasts in their ivory tower, fantasy world. I had thought I was the one in touch with reality and that others were all a bunch of naive, idealistic, romantic fantasists, and that was my first impression of you, too." 

"Eventually," he continued, "I went ahead and read some of your writings anyway and I began to see that I had been an actor on the stage of the 'Theater of the Lie' that you write about. I came to see I was living a lie and had been doing that since early childhood. I came to see that my life was like that useless arm on the kid who had been brought in and laid out on my operating table decades ago:

It was useless. It was stinking. It was foul." 

He then said, "I finally saw that my entire life was like that arm. There was some things that had become attached to me. I wanted them. I valued them. But they were killing me. They were, as you've pointed out, my beliefs. I did not want to give them up any more than that kid wanted to give up his right arm. But he finally understood that he either had to sacrifice his arm or his life. He understood that he could not go on living in the condition he was in. He finally said, 'Cut it off,' and that's what I had to say about everything that they had attached to me and everything that I had attached to me." 

How to be free of the stench? In the Lennon / Ono video, the invitation is to imagine - or consider - the possibility that everything you have ever been told or heard or read and now believe to be the absolute ("gospel") truth is a lie. 

See the insanity of not being able to differentiate the true from the false. 

See the insanity of walking about in a fog, in the darkness, in the miasma. 

See the insanity of being blind but believing that you can see. 

See the insanity of being in the dark while believing that you are in the light. 

Of those trapped in what he called their "kindergarten-level spirituality," Maharaj said: 

"They are functioning under the delusion that they are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when, in fact, they are actually only standing in the dull light of dawn." 

Lennon and Ono, via Imagine's non-dual lyrics, invite you to walk out of the fog, to go home, to see that even at home you can still be trapped in darkness, and to open the blinds and allow the light to come in and remove the darkness. 

See.

See?

To be continued.

NEW OFFER: 

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.) 

If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video. 

(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.) 

To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button: 

 

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 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Nineteen

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

Next,

 From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:

Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists 

excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more

Throughout the ages, there have been those who have been in conscious contact with the inner guru / the inner resource which provided them direct access to a quasi-intuitive sense of the Oneness and a quasi-instinctive awareness of the non-dual understanding. 

Some that will be quoted in the coming days had heard of non-duality via outer sources; some had never heard of non-duality by name but were in contact with the inner guru which allowed them to be aware. 

You are invited to read the quotes and then sit in the silence and contemplate the pointers which touch on a host on non-dual topics: 

Plato 

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the of the light." 

E. Bayda 

"It is only in our minds we seem trapped - in Reality we are utterly free." 

Edward Thomas

“And heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance.”

St. Francis of Assisi 

"What you are looking for is what is looking." 

Desiderius Erasmus 

"Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself." 

"A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie." 

"A nail is driven out by another nail." 

"Fools are without number." 

"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." 

"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." 

 "It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide." 

"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth." 

"Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another." 

"The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death." 

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." 

"To know nothing is the happiest life." 

"What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?" 

Albert Einstein 

“A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.” 

"A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." 

 John Lennon 

 "Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." 

"There's nothing you can know that isn't known."

"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!"

and lyrics by 

John Lennon and Yoko Ono 

IMAGINE 

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. . . 

Imagine there's no countries 

It isn't hard to do 

Nothing to kill or die for 

And no religion too 

Imagine all the people

 Living life in peace. . . 

Imagine no possessions 

I wonder if you can 

No need for greed or hunger 

A brotherhood of man 

Imagine all the people 

Sharing all the world. . . 

You may say I'm a dreamer 

But I'm not the only one 

I hope someday you'll join us 

And the world will live as one 

For those that would like to relax for a few moments longer, you are invited to listen to Lennon singing the lyrics of their non-duality-based song: 

   

To be continued.

NEW OFFER: 

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.) 

If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video. 

(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.) 

To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button: 

 

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 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Eighteen

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

 "The very idea 'I am self-realised' [or 'I am Self-Realised'] is a mistake. There is no 'I am this,' 'I am that' in the Natural State." 

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more

The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with: 

"ABIDING NATURALLY, IN THE NISARGA FASHION"

"A life lived . . . in full awareness is by itself Nisarga Yoga." 

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

"Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused." 

"There is a state beyond forgetting and not forgetting - the natural state." 

"Go beyond, back to your normal, natural state." 

What You Are, You already Are. By knowing what You are not, You are free of it and remain in Your Own Natural State. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly." 

"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. It is the art of living in peace and harmony, in friendliness and love. The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless." 

"When your attention is off a thing and not yet fixed on another, in the interval you are pure being. When, through the practice of discrimination and detachment (viveka-vairagya), you lose sight of sensory and mental states, pure being emerges as the natural state." 

"The jnani is afraid of nothing, but he pities the man who is afraid. After all, to be born, to live and to die is natural. To be afraid is not. To the event, of course, attention is given." 

“I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware that I am.” 

Questioner: "Then, how do you know you are in the supreme state?" 

Maharaj: "Because I am in it. It is the only natural state." 

Maharaj: "Deal with the consciousness only . . . get to know it thoroughly. That is all that can be done. Later on, everything happens spontaneously; doership goes. Know the inside-out of consciousness and recognize it as useless; it is a fraud." 

Q: "Are you now in the perfect state?" 

M: "Perfection is a state of the mind, when it is pure. I am beyond the mind, whatever its state, pure or impure. Awareness is my nature; ultimately I am beyond being and non-being." 

Live "just as you wake up spontaneously and fall asleep spontaneously. Don't make any effort." 

Q: "Can I avoid this protracted battle with my mind?" 

M: "Yes, you can. Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing -- as life brings. This also is a way." 

" . . . Bliss is more of the nature of a great peace."

"Leave the mind alone. Stand aware and unconcerned and you will realise that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature." 

"All you need is to keep quietly alert, enquiring into the real nature of yourself. This is the only way to peace." 

"No effort is necessary; in fact, effort itself is a hindrance. It is intuitive understanding."

"Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing - as life brings. What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way." 

"Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create . . . ." 

"The state in which no desire arises is the Natural State." 

"You will recognise that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear." 

"All will happen by itself. You need not do anything, only don't prevent it." 

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

"You need not seek anything; all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly." 

"Spontaneity became a way of life, the real became natural, and the natural became real." 

The result of Nisarga / Natural abidance is "infinite affection and Love . . . radiating in all directions, embracing all, making all interesting and beautiful . . . ." 

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

"The self by its nature knows itself only." 

"Love is a state of being. Sex is energy. Love is wise. Sex is blind. Once the true nature of Love and sex is understood, there will be no conflict or confusion." 

"When one is fully matured, realisation is explosive. It takes place spontaneously, or at the slightest hint. The quick is not better than the slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering alternate. Both are natural . . . ." 

"In complete obedience to nature there is no effort." 

"So far your life was dark and restless (tamas and rajas). Attention, alertness, awareness, clarity, liveliness, vitality, are all manifestations of integrity, oneness with your true nature (sattva)." 

"Sattva [basically, truth and peacefulness and balance] is the faithful servant of the self; ever attentive and obedient." 

"Do I want anything from you. I wish you well -- such is my nature."

"As a whole the world does not need saving. Man makes mistakes and creates sorrow; when it enters the field of awareness, the consciousness of a jnani, it is set right. Such is his nature." 

"The obstacles to the clear perception of one's true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises is the natural state." 

"The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking." [Thus, the "True Self" or "Real Self" is nothing more than Pure Witnessing, and that can only be during the manifestation. Pre-manifestation and post-manifestation, there is no self or Self of any kind.]

" . . . Jnanis are not made, they realise themselves as such, when they return to their source, their real nature." 

[The jnani] "is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it." 

" . . . Love and compassion are his very nature." 

"The jnani shows no tendency to proclaim himself to be a jnani. He considers himself to be perfectly normal, true to his real nature." 

"Proclaiming oneself to be an omnipotent and omniscient deity is a clear sign of ignorance." 

"Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature." 

"The very nature of the self is love." 

"Your very nature has the infinite capacity to enjoy." 

"Nature is one - Reality is one." 

"Do nothing. Just be. In being all happens naturally." 

"What you call realisation is a natural thing. When you are ready, your guru will be waiting." 

"The harmonised people may be called natural, ruled by law, while the disintegrated are chaotic and subject to accidents." 

" . . . Realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels, that disturbs." 

"No particular thought can be [the] natural state, only silence." 

"What you take to be the 'I' in the 'I am' is not you. To know that you are is natural, to know what you are is the result of much investigation." 

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

"You need to return to the state in which I am -- your natural state. Anything else you may think of is an illusion and an obstacle." 

Just witnessing is natural . . . ." [There is no deer or bird or fish or any other non-human life-form which is driven to abandon the witnessing-only state. Here in this neighborhood, the deer watch humans who overslept racing off in the morning to earn money to buy things they do not need; they watch humans rear-ending each others' cars because they were texting rather than witnessing what was going on in the traffic around them; they witness some humans ignoring the leash laws and they witness some of those un-leashed dogs attaching other people and other dogs; they watch children crying when one of those un-leashed dogs kills the childrens' pet cats. They witness all of those people involved loading into their cars and leaving the area to go to court to try to settle before a judge the issues with their pets / their dead pets. The deer are not driven by ideologies or xenophobia or racial hatred to march in the streets with tiki torches and with Nazi flags and with white supremacist flags and with rebel flags left over from a war which supposedly ended 150 years ago - but did not - and then drive a car at break-neck speed (literally) and kill someone with different beliefs and injure scores of others with different beliefs. They merely witness, and what they witness without knowing it are (to use Maharaj's words) the members of a species driven by "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" as they go and do and zoom about and generate levels of noise that nature never saw for billions of years. Much chaos and disharmony and misery and suffering could be eliminated among humans via more use of the all-natural process of . . . just witnessing.] So . . . 

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

"Non-identification, when natural and spontaneous, is liberation." 

"Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind." 

"This freedom from attachment does not come with practice; it is natural when one knows one's true being." 

"Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly." 

" . . . What prevents the insight into one's true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind." 

"Play, for example, is natural and man is the most playful animal in existence." 

"The ending of the self with its desires and fears enables you to return to your real nature, the source of all happiness and peace." 

"When more people come to know their real nature, their influence, however subtle, will prevail and the world's emotional atmosphere will sweeten up." 

"Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever present, ever active, until you realise yourself as one with it. It is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition." 

"When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known; and yet you recognise it at once as your own nature." 

"The very idea 'I am self-realised' [or 'I am Self-Realized'] is a mistake. There is no 'I am this'. 'I am that' in the Natural State." 

"The darkness you see is but the shadow of the tiny speck. Get rid of it and come back to your natural state." 

"Take note of the peculiar nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the least trace of self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and you will soon realise that awareness is your true nature and nothing you may be aware of, you can call your own." 

"Your real nature is not like what you appear to be. Give up the idea of being a person, that is all." 

"Self-surrender is the surrender of all self-concern. It cannot be done, it happens when you realise your true nature." 

"Happiness is our real nature and we shall never rest until we find it." 

"To believe that you depend on things and people for happiness is due to ignorance of your true nature; to know that you need nothing to be happy, except self-knowledge, is wisdom." 

"From the awareness of the unreal to the awareness of your real nature there is a chasm which you will easily cross, once you have mastered the art of pure awareness." 

Questioner: "Emptiness and nothingness -- how dreadful!" 

Maharaj: "You face it most cheerfully, when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature." 

"Realise once for all that neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself and stand alone in your true nature beyond consciousness and unconsciousness. No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding."

"Realise that your true nature is that of pure light only, and both the perceived and the perceiver come and go together." 

"For reality to be, the ideas of 'me' and 'mine' must go. [Recall that Grandmother's Cherokee language did not contain either word.] 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 anything in general. In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing. There is only light." 

"There is nothing to practise. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge." 

To be continued.

NEW OFFER: 

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.) 

If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video. 

(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.) 

To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button: 

 

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 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.

The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Seventeen

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] 

Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more

The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with: 

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE ROLE OF EITHER 'THE SPIRITUAL GIANT' OR 'THE SUPER RELIGIOUS ONE'" 

[NOTE TO READERS: 

Previously it was noted that Maharaj advised seekers to 

" . . . go back, reverse, to the source" 

and to

"follow the same path by which you came." 

There are seven steps on that "reverse path," and it is at the third step that religious and or spiritual knowledge is sought and where religious and spiritual identities are assumed. 

(More accurately, in most cases, religious roles are set in place during the earliest years of each child's life; then those are unquestioningly clung to throughout adulthood. According to research, 97% of the persons on the planet are assigned a religious role early on. That false identity is augmented by, or replaced with, another false identity - namely, a spiritual role, which soon self-upgrades itself to the role of "The Spiritual Giant" - which, granted, must be played for a time by most on "the path")

However, that step must be transitioned if seekers are to complete the remainder of the "journey" to what Maharaj called "Full Realization" (i.e., to full freedom from a belief in any and all "learned ignorance"). Such is the requirement if the shift to total freedom from personality and persona-assumption and new-identity-adoption is to happen. 

For those who are willing to consider Maharaj's later teachings on the subject of spirituality, he offered during his last years a reassessment of the bhakti-influenced talks in the book I AM THAT and recommended to seekers that they stop reading those talks and listen instead to his later, psychology-based pointers:

"That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today, emphasizing different aspects." 

What he offered later differed considerably from much of the content of his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the path" but that his final talks point the way to the actual end of "the path." 

As his understanding evolved, his talks evolved; thus, in the end, he stopped talking about dogma and spirituality and offered pointers based in psychological understandings which focused on addressing what he came to see as the key elements of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the programming-and-conditioning-blocked consciousness and the resultant warped mind. 

To look back over his sharings objectively, one can see that his preferred teaching method and his preferred yoga varied over the decades as his focus shifted from an assorted combination of guru-bhakti yoga to bhakti yoga to jnana yoga to nisarga yoga. 

In the end, the earlier shades of nisarga yoga began to blossom fully and singularly, and he became more direct and less concerned with bhakti yoga's religious and spiritual influences and more focused on inviting seekers to abide naturally rather than supernaturally / spiritually. 

His pointers below are likely only for those that are willing to consider what he meant when he said "I am speaking differently today" and are only for seekers that are interested in understanding those "different aspects" as he offered pointers that could free seekers who were fixated at the midpoint of the "journey" and allow them to move on to the end of "the path." 

The following quotes / pointers invited visitors to move beyond the third step of seven steps on his version of "the path"; to abandon all roles, including religious and / or spiritual roles; to complete the "journey" to what he called "full realization"; and then to abide naturally.] 

“From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.” 

Questioner: "The scriptures say that we have our karma and our sins and that is why we are here." 

Maharaj: "That is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized . . . , for him these stories are of no use." 

"Forget spirituality." 

Follow your "normal inclinations." 

"Just give up spirituality." 

"I do not follow the spirituality of the masses." 

"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud." 

"I am not addicted to self-descriptions [such as] 'soham' and [such as] 'brahmasmi'." 

[Note: "Soham" means, "I myself" or "It is I" or "He is I". "Brahmasmi" means, "I am Brahman" or "I am the Supreme" or "I am God" or "I am the Infinite Supreme Soul" or "I am part of the Brahman" - that being an implication of duality in itself.] 

"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking', or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense." 

"I appeal to you with my folded hands: don't get into this spirituality."

"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left." 

“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.” 

“If [persons] come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.” 

"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay." 

“From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness ‘I am’ has appeared—there is no reason, no cause.” 

"There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play." 

"Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others." 

Q.: "I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?" 

M: "Go home; take charge of your father's business; look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you. Be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue. Live silently." 

Q.: "So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world." 

M.: "How could they? Your world is not theirs, nor is theirs yours." 

"I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality, [but] finally I lost that love of 'the Self' also. I have no more love for 'the Self'." 

"Do your normal duties."

"Just give up spirituality."

To the contrary, those spreading all sorts of duality-based beliefs will also be the ones encouraging persons to assume and play a host of false identities to include two in particular which they take to be "The Two Really Good Roles": "The Super Religious One" and "The Spiritual Giant."

To be continued.

NEW OFFER: 

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.) 

If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video. 

(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.) 

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Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

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